Peanuts compared to any of the nefarious dealings Bush and Cheney have
been involved in:
"Several researchers have investigated the business history of the
Bush family. The facts that they have uncovered are not very pretty.
The business record of George W. Bush holds some revealing insights to
how his presidency has operated, and helps to explain why the country
has fallen so deeply in debt and has so many other problems.
As explained by Kevin Phillips in his book, American Dynasty:
Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush,
George W. Bush's businesses fail but he makes millions. Among Mr.
Bush's business ventures:
* Arbusto, an oil exploration company, lost money, but it got
considerable investments (nearly $5 million) because even losing oil
investments were useful as tax shelters.
* Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. bought out Arbusto in 1984 and hired Mr.
Bush to run the company's oil interests in Midland, Texas. The oil
business collapsed as oil prices plummeted by 1986, and Spectrum 7
Energy was near failure.
* Harken Energy acquired Mr. Bush's Spectrum 7 Energy shares, and
he got Harken shares, a directorship, and a consulting arrangement in
return. Harken, under Bush, brought in Saudi real estate tycoon Sheikh
Abdullah Bakhsh as a board member and a major investor. Over the next
few years, Harken would turn out to have links to: Saudi money, CIA-
connected Filipinos, the Harvard Endowment, the emir of Bahrain, and
the shadowy Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
o A 1991 internal SEC document suggested George W. Bush
violated federal securities law at least 4 times in the late 1980s and
early 1990s in selling Harken stock while serving as a director of
Harken. This is essentially the same kind of activity that Martha
Stewart is going to prison over. Except at the time of the
investigation, Mr. Bush's father was president and the case was
quietly dropped.
In his book, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W.
Bush, John W. Dean explains that his family name and his father's
prominence were significant factors in George W. Bush's business
"success", or, were significant factors in repeated saves from serious
business and financial failures. Both Arbusto/Bush Exploration and
Spectrum 7 failed with Bush as chairman and CEO. At Harken, Mr. Bush
was relieved of day-to-day management responsibilities but still
served on the board of directors. Dean also notes:
* George W. Bush claims his formative years, which he extends to
age 40, are out of bounds. Yet those are the years when one's
character and values are formed. Bush had occasionally overindulged
with alcohol, and he was a bit of an irresponsible youth.
* Dean believes Mr. Bush took advantage of his insider information
when he sold his Harken stock in 1990, but he escaped SEC penalties
because his father was president and many of the investigating
officials had Bush family ties and other conflicts of interest. Many
of the facts about the Harken deal remain buried and Bush has
stonewalled all efforts to find out more.
Our first oil company/MBA president naturally views the world through
the eyes of a CEO, according to Eric Alterman and Mark Green. In their
book, The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America, they
describe how this results in a probusiness/anticonsumer record,
including crony capitalism with the awarding of post-Iraq war
contracts (Halliburton, Bechtel, and MCI/Worldcom getting most of the
contracts). Alterman and Green note that the first 2 years of the Bush
administration coincided with the biggest corporate scandals and
bankruptcies since Teapot Dome in the 1920s. Mr. Bush had to manage a
falling economy riddled with corporate malfeasance. Companies on the
corporate rap sheet:
* MCI/Worldcom -- the single largest corporate securities fraud in
U.S. history.
* Enron -- the largest contributor to Bush's political career. The
Bush administration is staffed with numerous former Enron employees
and consultants.
* Harken Energy -- Bush's behavior on Harken's board of directors
was similar to that of the companies caught in the corporate scandals.
Mr. Bush received several memos from Harken officials about the
impending financial crisis in the company, sold his stock, then
several days later the Harken financial problems wewre made public. He
failed to file notice of these sales to the SEC for 8 months. The SEC
simply stopped their 1990-91 investigation.
* Halliburton -- Dick Cheney served as CEO and chairman from
1995-2000. He sold Halliburton stock before bad financial news
regarding his company was made public. Halliburton committed fraud on
its investors by overstating its earnings.
* Enron and Worldcom were followed by scandals and failures at
Adelphia, Tyco, and others. "
http://alaric3rh.home.sprynet.com/science/bceo.html
On Mar 24, 9:15 am, "d.b.baker" <[email protected]> wrote:
> You might think the President would have enough to do running the
> country, but not President Obama. No, President Obama has all the time
> in the world to pile up all the personal wealth he's entitled to:
>
> [Q] - Obama's $500,000 book bonanza;
>
> As he empathized with recession-weary Americans, President Obama
> arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000
> advance for a children's book project, a disclosure report shows.
>
> The terms of the book deal were disclosed in a Senate financial
> disclosure report filed Tuesday.
> -http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/19/obamas-500000-book-bo...
>
> Obviously, Obama doesn't have a care in the world. He came out of
> affirmative action and hit the jackpot: Air Force One, The White
> House, Camp David, free food, a dozen 6-ton limos, two very impressive
> helicopters, a million dollar retirement plan, unlimited travel,
> personal TV appearances, with plenty of time left over to write books
> and drop in on Jay Leno.
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