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___.COMPOSITION______In This Issue_______________________________
Another Explosive Bush-Enron Link: Arthur Andersen Executive at Center of Enrongate
Was - You Guessed It - a Bush Pioneer!
Fighting for Its Life, Arthur Andersen Throws Men (and Women) Overboard
Fired Arthur Andersen Auditor Will Cooperate with Congressional Investigators; New
Allegation: Enron Incorrectly Told Employees They Would Be Barred for a Month from
Selling Enron Stock
An Enron VP Warned Ken Lay that Enron's Reckless Practices Will 'Implode in a Wave of
Accounting Scandals', but Lay Still Lied to Employees about the Company's Health
'I Wish We Would Get Caught': Watkins' Memo to Lay is the 'First Smoking Gun' that
Enron Officials Had Advance Knowledge
Why is Bu$h Lying? To Cover Up the GOP's Crony Capitalism
What Did Bush Know, And When Did He Know It?
Hey Don Evans, What About Your Call To Ken Lay On October 15?
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill Poisoned Central Texas
Cheney Will Have to Come Out of His Bunker to Fight Enrongate
C-Span Runs Weeklong Series on the Enron Bankruptcy
Enrongate Ensnares Jeb Bush
Katherine Harris' New Felon Purge System Is Off to a Bad Start
For Florida Activist Mari Anderson, Protesting the Stolen Election Begins At Home
Read 'We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House' - It's About All of
US!
Ashcroft Releases Statistics on 725 Immigrants Detained Without Charges, But Refuses
to Release Names
Jim Jeffords (I-Guts) on the 'Underfund and Test for Failure' Education Bill That Bush
Recently Signed
If Bush is So Popular, Why Does He Hold Republicans-Only Rallies?
Pretzel Producers Allege Dubya Defamation, File Multibillion Buck Lawsuit (Humor)
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http://democrats.com/enron
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__Another Explosive Bush-Enron Link: Arthur Andersen Executive at Center of Enrongate
Was - You Guessed It - a Bush Pioneer!
Arthur Andersen is in BIG trouble for its apparently criminal role in cooking Enron's
books, and then scrubbing the evidence. And guess who supervised the Enron account at
Arthur Andersen? "The head of the Anderson office in Texas that supervised the Enron
account -- D. Stephen Goddard -- is a Bush 'pioneer' having raised or contributed in
excess of $100,000 for the Bush presidential campaign." So reports CBS Marketwatch. We
demand a Special Prosecutor!
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B45BC36B8-2DEF-4EA1-A6DB-1E1299A384ED%7D&siteid=mktw
__Fighting for Its Life, Arthur Andersen Throws Men (and Women) Overboard
"Accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP said Tuesday it is firing the lead auditor of
collapsed Enron Corp. and is putting three other auditors on leave as part of its
inquiry into the destruction of Enron-related documents... [Andersen] said it was
firing the lead Enron auditing partner, David B. Duncan, and placing Enron auditors
Thomas H. Bauer, Debra A. Cash and Roger D. Willard on administrative leave. Partners
removed from the Houston office are D. Stephen Goddard Jr., Michael M. Lowther, Gary
B. Goolsby and Michael C. Odom." Goddard was a Bush Pioneer. One individual not
mentioned is Andersen lawyer, Nancy Temple, who ordered auditors to destroy documents
on October 12. In any event, this is all too little, too late for Andersen. First
Sunbeam, then Waste Management, and now Enron - three strikes and you're out!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49073-2002Jan15.html
__Fired Arthur Andersen Auditor Will Cooperate with Congressional Investigators; New
Allegation: Enron Incorrectly Told Employees They Would Be Barred for a Month from
Selling Enron Stock
>From the AP: "An auditor said to have led a hurry-up effort to destroy documents in
>the Enron case was cooperating with congressional investigators a day after his
>accounting firm fired him, his attorneys said. David Duncan, who oversaw Enron's
>audits from the Houston office of Arthur Andersen LLP, was to be interviewed
>Wednesday by staff from the House Energy and Commerce Committee." In another
>development, "A law firm representing Enron employees in a lawsuit said the company
>incorrectly told its employees in September that they would be barred for about a
>month starting Oct. 19 from selling Enron stock in their 401(k) retirement accounts.
>The stock price plummeted during that period. The company says the actual period was
>a week, but the law firm said employees didn't realize that because Enron didn't send
>out a correction to its initial erroneous e-mail."
http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200201160237000136107_aolns.src
__An Enron VP Warned Ken Lay that Enron's Reckless Practices Will 'Implode in a Wave
of Accounting Scandals', but Lay Still Lied to Employees about the Company's Health
"Even as...Kenneth Lay boasted to employees of the company's growth, one of them
privately warned him in August of the reckless practices that eventually brought down
the energy-trading giant. 'I am incredibly nervous that we will implode in a wave of
accounting scandals,' the employee told Lay in a letter. A 'veil of secrecy'
surrounded Enron's partnerships, which were keeping huge amounts of Enron debt off the
company's books, she said. 'It sure looks to the layman on the street that we are
hiding losses,' wrote the employee, who was identified by her Houston attorney as
Sherron Watkins, Enron's vice president of corporate development. She said several
senior Enron employees 'consistently and constantly' questioned the corporation's
accounting methods to senior Enron officials, including CEO Jeffrey Skilling. Skilling
resigned in August". After Lay phoned them, "the White House should have disclosed the
Enron phone contacts to the news media immediately, [the Brookings Institution Paul]
Light suggested."
http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200201151526000123674_aolns.src
__'I Wish We Would Get Caught': Watkins' Memo to Lay is the 'First Smoking Gun' that
Enron Officials Had Advance Knowledge
"Enron Corp. employees were so nervous about the energy trader's murky finances last
summer that they wished they 'would get caught' for using shaky accounting methods, a
company vice president wrote to Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay in a letter released in its
entirety on Tuesday. Whistle-blower Sherron Watkins, an Enron Global Finance vice
president, wrote in August -- months before Enron's stunning collapse -- that she had
heard one senior Enron manager say, 'I know it would be devastating to all of us, but
I wish we would get caught...a lot of accountants including AA&Co. (Arthur Andersen &
Co.) have blessed the accounting treatment. None of that will protect Enron if these
transactions are ever disclosed in the bright light of day.' [House Energy and
Commerce Committee] Spokesman Ken Johnson said Watkins has agreed to be interviewed by
the committee...[He] called her letter 'the first real smoking gun that showed company
officials had some knowledge, or at least were warned of a potential problem in
advance.http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200201151854000228190_aolns.src
__Why is Bu$h Lying? To Cover Up the GOP's Crony Capitalism
"Why did the administration dissemble so long about its contacts with Enron? Why did
George W. Bush make the absurd claim that... Kenneth Lay, opposed him in his first run
for governor, and that the two men got to know each other only after that race? ...
Because the administration fears... that the latest revelations in the Enron affair
will raise the lid on crony capitalism, American style... The real questions about
Enron's relationship with the administration involve what happened before the energy
trader hit the skids. That's when Mr. Lay allegedly told the head of [FERC] that he
should be more cooperative if he wanted to keep his job. (He wasn't, and he didn't.)
And it's when Enron helped Dick Cheney devise an energy plan that certainly looks as
if it was written by and for the companies that advised his task force. Mr. Cheney, in
clear defiance of the law, has refused to release any information about his task
force's deliberations; what is he hiding?" So writes Paul Krugman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/15/opinion/15KRUG.html
__What Did Bush Know, And When Did He Know It?
Bush claims he was out of the loop as Enron spiraled into bankruptcy. In particular,
he claims Paul O'Neill and Don Evans did not tell him about Ken Lay's desperate phone
calls in October. "Neither O'Neill nor Evans said they informed President Bush of the
telephone calls. But Evans said he frequently discussed Enron's situation during
general meetings with the president in November and December. The tone of those
conversations was 'how sad it was to see what was happening to that once great
company,' Evans said on NBC." So now we know that Evans DID discuss Enron's death
spiral. Exactly WHAT did they discuss? What did Bush know, and when did he know It?
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020113/bs/enron_collapse_5.html
__Hey Don Evans, What About Your Call To Ken Lay On October 15?
On the Sunday shows, Commerce Secretary (and chief campaign fundrai$er) Don Evans
focused on his conversation with Ken Lay on October 29. But Congressional
investigators have learned that Evans called Lay TWO WEEKS EARLIER on October 15, ONE
DAY BEFORE Lay told Wall Street the shocking news that Enron lost an astounding $618
million in the third quarter. Evans says they talked about a problem in India - yeah
right! What did Evans know, and when did he know it?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/686993.asp
__Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill Poisoned Central Texas
Did you ever wonder why the Texas Oil Mafia chose Paul O'Neill as Treasury Secretary?
After all, O'Neill was CEO of Aluminum giant Alcoa, based in Pittsburgh. Now we learn
the answer: "Alcoa's Rockdale power plant has illegally emitted hundreds of thousands
of tons of toxic pollutants into the Central Texas air since the mid-1980s, state and
federal environmental regulators said Wednesday."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1205609
__Cheney Will Have to Come Out of His Bunker to Fight Enrongate
"As Enron Corp.'s collapse has mushroomed into a major political issue, pressure
appears to be growing on Vice President Dick Cheney to fully disclose the Houston
company's role in developing President Bush's energy plan last spring... 'Politically,
they [the vice president's office] are going to do this,' one prominent Republican
consultant said. 'They may be stalling this, but ultimately ... they are going to
provide that information. They can make it fairly painful by delaying. But the longer
you wait, the worse it gets...' 'The vice president may have to emerge from an
undisclosed location soon to face some uncomfortable questions on a well-connected
constituent,' said Larry Markinson, senior fellow at the Center for Responsive
Politics. 'We do know that it sounds like Enron had some input in development of the
energy policy. But we don't know where, how, what they got and what language got
changed.'" So reports the Chicago Tribune.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0201140153jan14.story?coll=chi-news-hed
__C-Span Runs Weeklong Series on the Enron Bankruptcy
C-Span is running an Enron show every night this week starting at 8 pm ET, repeated at
11 pm ET. Here's the rest of the week's schedule: Wednesday January 16- Politics and
Lobbying - Review the Opening Statement by Rep. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) on December 12.
Thursday January 17- Government Oversight - Review testimony by Robert K. Herdman,
Chief Acct., SEC on December 12. Friday January 18- Stockholders - Review testimony by
401k Victims on December 18.
http://www.c-span.org/enron/index.asp
__Enrongate Ensnares Jeb Bush
If there's a Bu$h scandal, you can be sure that Little Brother Jeb is involved. So it
comes as no surprise that Florida's pension fund lost $300 million in Enron's
collapse. Jeb claims to be a hero because he recently fired the pension fund manager,
Alliance Capital Management. But why did he hire the firm in the first place? The
chairman of Alliance is Frank Savage. Savage is on the board of directors of - you
guessed it - Enron. So why did Jeb give his state's pension funds to a director of
Enron in the first place, and why did he wait until he lost $300 million before firing
him? Could a $6,500 contribution from Enron to Jeb in 1998 have influenced him? Jeb's
campaign manager, Karen Unger, says "Gov. Bush has never been swayed on an issue by a
campaign contribution. He cannot be bought." Hey Karen - tell that to a judge!
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/01/011402_Florida_Enron_Alliance.html
__Katherine Harris' New Felon Purge System Is Off to a Bad Start
Katherine Harris refused to let Florida officials create a system for correctly
purging ineligible felons, and instead hired yet another private company. "A
preliminary sampling last month of data on 1,328 people from seven counties identified
by FDLE as felons found that 5.3 percent were incorrectly tagged as ineligible to
vote." Sounds like just enough votes to steal a close election for her hero, Jeb Bush.
Democrats will need a massive GOTV effort in 2002 - not just in Florida, but
everywhere in the USA..
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/monday/news_c324d65136b7d001002f.html
__For Florida Activist Mari Anderson, Protesting the Stolen Election Begins At Home
"Mari Anderson has been flying two large American flags upside down at her home since
the November 2000 presidential election. Flying flags upside down is a traditional way
of displaying the flag when the nation is in distress. Anderson said that the
upside-down flags are a political statement of her feelings after George W. Bush was
declared the presidential winner in Florida over Al Gore... There also are a
half-dozen other signs in her yard and hanging on her house with political statements
about President Bush, his brother Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and their administrations.
'The election was a crime,' Anderson said. 'I went up to Washington, D.C., to protest,
something I never thought in my life I would do. I was so upset I had to do something.
We have rights and freedom of speech is one of our rights. I am exercising that but I
am also worried that we are losing our rights.' Anderson said she plans to continue
flying the flags upside down until after the 2004 presidential election."
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/localstoryA8299A.htm
__Read 'We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House' - It's About All
of US!
Finally! Here's a book about the pro-democracy movement that arose following the Theft
of the Presidency by George W. Bu$h. This book is about all of US - the true patriots
who have fought for Democracy in the face of a criminal Republican Party, a corrupt
media, and a cowardly Democratic Party. "They wrote letters, organized rallies and
marches, signed petitions, formed Internet sites and groups, and did whatever else
they could to register their disapproval of what the court did. They worked for needed
electoral reforms so that all Americans' votes could be counted in future elections.
'We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House' covers their story,
which has been largely ignored by the media. The roughly 100,000-word book was written
by journalist Jackson Thoreau and social worker Sharon Thoreau." This is an eBook that
you can print on your own printer - $5 donation requested.
http://www.legitgov.org/we_will_not_get_over_it.html
__Ashcroft Releases Statistics on 725 Immigrants Detained Without Charges, But Refuses
to Release Names
"The American Civil Liberties Union, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
and the Center for National Security Studies, sued the Justice Department in December
to obtain more detailed information about foreign nationals detained on criminal and
immigration charges since Sept. 11... Federal prosecutors denied most of the requests,
arguing that providing the names, locations and other details about detainees would
undermine the FBI's Sept. 11 probe and could endanger the public by revealing the
arrests of suspected terrorists. 'Releasing this information could pave the way for
additional terrorist activities in that it would undermine the ability of the United
States to obtain cooperation from knowledgeable witnesses,' wrote James S. Reynolds,
chief of the Justice Department's terrorism and violent crime section." How does
Ashcroft's Justice Department "obtain cooperation" - through torture? What is Ashcroft
hiding from the American people who pay his salary?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45807-2002Jan14.html
__Jim Jeffords (I-Guts) on the 'Underfund and Test for Failure' Education Bill That
Bush Recently Signed
"I fear it will not provide the assistance � both financial and technical � that
schools will need to meet the goal of having every student reach their full academic
potential. Education budgets throughout this nation are facing severe cuts, due in
part to the recent economic downturn, but also due to the high costs associated with
providing students with disabilities with special educational services...[Early last]
year, during Senate consideration of the ESEA bill, this body unanimously passed the
Harkin-Hagel amendment that required Congress to fully fund IDEA through progressive
annual increases. I am extremely disappointed that the final product...does not
include this critical amendment. Without inclusion of the Harkin-Hagel amendment and
without sufficient funding for the programs outlined in this bill, I am afraid that
this bill may actually do more harm than good...[and] we will still only be funding
less than half of the children who qualify for the Title One program."
http://www.senate.gov/~jeffords/1218education.html
__If Bush is So Popular, Why Does He Hold Republicans-Only Rallies?
Republicans say Bush's poll ratings are astronomical. But all of Bush's public
appearances are open only to Republicans, like his visit to Aurora MO on 1/14. Why is
that? What is Bush afraid of? Why doesn't the Republican media ask him?
http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5544
__Pretzel Producers Allege Dubya Defamation, File Multibillion Buck Lawsuit (Humor)
"The National Association of Pretzel Producers ('NAPP') filed suit late yesterday
against President Bush, naming White House Physician Dr. Richard Tubb, White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman Ken Lisaius, and Bush aide Karen Hughes
as codefendants. NAPP's complaint, which seeks five billion dollars in compensatory
and punitive damages for 'pretzel product slander, pretzel product libel, and
defamatory snack food disparagement,' alleges that Bush and his codefendants 'did
willfully and maliciously and/or with reckless disregard for the truth, publish and
disseminate false and/or untrue statements about the activities of one or more
pretzels...'" So writes Madeleine Begun Kane, author of Dubya's Dayly Diary.
http://www.madkane.com/bushpretzel.html
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