According to The Christian Science Monitor, George W. Bush has repeatedly cut taxes - for people who are already millionaires.

The Los Angeles Times traces George W. Bush's personal wealth to what Eisenhower called the "military-industrial complex." Enron was Bush's largest lifetime contributor.

In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." According to hyperdictionary.com, 'mammon' translates as wealth and avarice.

II: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

See the First Commandment, above. It seems to me that for all George W. Bush's claims of faith, he truly serves avarice and wealth.

III: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

According to The Guardian, George W. Bush said: "I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen... I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it."

According to Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas, Bush told him: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did." [Source: CommonDreams.org.]

A personal note: In 1995, I was heartbroken when Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, was assassinated. I recall reading at the time that the assassin claimed God had told him to murder the statesman. As those familiar with the Judeo-Christian faith can attest, what God really said was, "Thou shalt not kill." I think the same principle applies here.

Bush later said "I'm also mindful that man should never try to put words in God's mouth." [Source: Slate Magazine]

IV: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

George W. Bush is probably no more guilty of breaking this commandment than is any other person of the 21st century. However, God set aside the sabbath to honor Him and His works.

Following this logic, I would argue that George W. Bush has not honored the works of the United States' founding fathers: the Constitution. See George W. Bush Versus the Bill of Rights.

V: Honour thy father and thy mother.

CBS News interviewed Bob Woodward on his book Plan of Attack. In Woodward's recollection, George W. Bush "said something that really struck me. He said of his father [the former President], 'He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength. . . There's a higher Father that I appeal to.'"

According to MSNBC, Barbara Bush said of her son, "He still doesn't take my advice, that dirty dog."

Humor aside... in his memoirs, A World Transformed, George Bush, senior, wrote the following:

"Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs...

"We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under the circumstances, there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

As President, the senior Bush understood the need for allies when battling Saddam Hussein. He also understood the importance of the Israelis and Palestinians forging peace. Would that George W. Bush possessed his father's wisdom.

VI: Thou shalt not kill.

According to The White House, George W. Bush said in his 2003 State of the Union address: "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way -- they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies."

Let me get this straight. Anyone Bush accuses of terrorism will now be assassinated, without proof, arrest, charge, counsel, trial, judge, or jury. For the love of God, I hope that at least some of those "suspected terrorists" were guilty.

The example of Abu Ghraib does not fill me with confidence: 90% of the Iraqi prisoners tortured there were arrested by mistake.

The Bush Administration doesn't seem to have a good grasp on likely terrorists, either. According to the New York Times, the FBI's counter-terrorism department has wasted considerable time and resources investigating peaceful anti-war protests. Adding insult to injury, Bush's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, said this about the National Education Association:

And then there's the war in Iraq. According to Iraq Coalition Casualties and Ed Stephan, over 4000 American soldiers have died to prevent Saddam Hussein from giving weapons he didn't have to Al-Qaeda terrorists who wanted to kill him. Iraqbodycount.net reports that roughly 80,000 Iraqis have been killed in this unnecessary war; the Lancet study places the total at 100,000.

Finally, there's Bush's tenure as governor of Texas. According to CBS News, when Bush was in office, the state executed a record 152 convicts - more than any other governor in the history of the United States.

VII: Thou shalt not commit adultery.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines "adulterate" as "to make impure, spurious or inferior by adding extraneous or improper ingredients." It traces the term from the Latin verb adulterare, "to pollute".

According to the Environmental News Service, George W. Bush has decided that mercury pollution really isn't a hazard to public health -- thus, it doesn't need to be regulated. Under his plan, a sixth of the babies born in America will be in danger of birth defects. (In 2001, a similar decision regarding arsenic was defeated.)

According to BushGreenWatch.org, the current energy bill allows increases in smog pollution. It also exempts oil and gas producers from having to obey Safe Drinking Water Act regulations on how much they pollute.

According to the Sierra Club, Bush regulations allow mining waste to be dumped in rivers, and he has cancelled regulations requiring water treatment plants to stop raw sewage from entering the water supply.

According to Save the Clean Air Act, Bush's drive to cancel Clean Air Act regulations will increase lung cancer in this country.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Bush has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to stop enforcing anti-pollution laws.

According to the NewsHour, "during Bush's tenure [as Governor], Texas... achieved the dubious distinction... of having the dirtiest air in America, of ranking 47th in water quality, and having the seventh-highest rate of release of toxic industrial byproducts onto its land."

VIII: Thou shalt not steal.

In May 2003, George W. Bush signed an Executive Order granting blanket immunity from prosecution to any American "person" (individual or corporation) that's involved in any way - or becomes involved in any way - with the Iraqi oil industry.

Bush himself used to own an oil company. Vice President Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton, and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice used to sit on the board of Chevron.

Do the math.

IX: Thou shalt not bear false witness.

In 2001-2002, George W. Bush decided to sabotage the fight against the al-Qaeda terrorists to accomplish his longtime goal of conquering Iraq. To effect this, he decided to bear false witness linking Iraq and September 11th, thereby creating a connection in people's minds where none existed in real life. The truth would be the first casualty of war.

First, Bush had to persuade people that Saddam Hussein was an ally of al-Qaeda. So, in his letter to Congress of March 21, 2003, he wrote: "The use of armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."

However, on September 30, 2002, Daniel Benjamin of the Center for Strategic and International Studies had joined dozens of other experts in concluding that Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda were enemies, not allies. Far from damaging al-Qaeda, the war in Iraq has made the terrorist organization more powerful.

The second part of Bush's false witness was to persuade people that Saddam had a huge and lethal arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. So, in the 2003 State of the Union address, Bush said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Bush made this claim even though the CIA had twice warned him that this wasn't true.

Finally, Bush had to scare people into thinking that Saddam would give weapons of mass destruction he didn't have to fanatics who wanted to kill him. So, in his 2003 State of the Union address, George W. Bush said: "Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by Saddam Hussein."

It didn't end there. According to The White House, on May 1, 2003, George W. Bush declared: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding." The 9/11 Commission later determined that Iraq had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda, September 11th, or terrorism.

On May 30, 2003, Bush told Polish television: "But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." [Source: CBS News.] This was more false witness: the Duelfer Report showed conclusively that the supposedly massive stockpiles didn't exist, and Iraq had no capacity to make more.

Bush defended himself on July 16, 2003. "The larger point is and the fundamental question is: Did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is: Absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power..." [Source: The White House.] This wasn't true either. Saddam Hussein had agreed to "let them in" -- allow weapons inspections -- in November 2002.

On March 20, 2006 -- by which time it had become common knowledge that invading Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror -- Bush again bore false witness by claiming he'd never said it had. According to The White House, his words were: "I don't think we ever said -- at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein."

In addition: In 2004, Bush assured the nation that he was seeking search warrants whenever he wished to tap someone's phones, as the 4th Amendment requires. However, in December 2005, the New York Times broke the news that Bush had, in 2002, ordered the National Security Agency to monitor telephone calls without search warrants. Bush then admitted it, and made the preposterous claim that, as commander in chief of the armed forces, he has the authority to suspend the 4th Amendment whenever he sees fit.

These are only a few glaring example of false witness. According to BushWatch, BuzzFlash, BushLies.net, the American Progress Action Fund, my Open Letter to Republican Governors, and my essay George W. Bush Versus the Facts, Bush constantly proclaims one thing and then does the opposite. Also, Knight-Ridder has compiled a catalog of Bush Administration lies justifying the war in Iraq.

As journalist David Corn argues in his book The Lies of George W. Bush, systematic disinformation about everything is standard procedure for this Administration. Bush employs deception about every topic with a regularity far in excess of any of his predecessors.

One example from domestic policy: On September 1, 2005, Bush said "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." (It was collapsing levees that caused much of hurricane Katrina's devastation in New Orleans.) According to MSNBC, Bush had been personally warned about that very danger four days earlier.

X: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

On 3/17/2003, George W. Bush gave the Iraqi government an ultimatum. According to The White House, he included these sentences:

"All Iraqi military and civilian personnel should listen carefully to this warning. In any conflict, your fate will depend on your action. Do not destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people."

Any questions?

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