Harper's Magazine publishes a monthly feature, Harper's Index, "a statistical snapshot of the world's economic, political, and cultural climate." Time magazine does something similar called Numbers. Here's some data worth pondering:
(source)
- 49 - the number of vacations that Bush has taken since he was inaugurated in 2001
- 5 - the number of weeks that Bush will spend on vacation. It is the longest presidential vacation in at least 36 years.
- 319 - August 3, 2005 was the 319th day Bush has spent on vacation since his 2001 inauguration.
- 20% - the fraction of Bush's presidency that he has spent on vacation
- 27 - the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in August alone. That's right. In three days, 27 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
- 1,826 - the total number of U.S. troops who have died in Bush's illegal Iraq war, as of August 4, 2005.
The lyrics to U2's song Sunday, Bloody Sunday keep going through my head:
I can’t believe the news todayAmerica can do better than George W. Bush.
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away
How long...
How long must we sing this song?
How long? how long...
And it’s true we are immune
When fact is fiction and tv reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die
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