BUSH: Tension and confusion - received $1.14 million from Enron. ... War on Iraq

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Hail, hail, today's gathering of the thieves, liars and

crooks.... BUSH: Tension and confusion - received $1.14 million from

Enron. ... War on Iraq:

 

 

 

June 19, 2005

Bethany McLean

Fortune Magazine Senior Writer

 

 

Info: She discusses her reporting on the investigation of Enron.

She is the co-author of " Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise

and Scandalous Fall of Enron " (2003). The movie, Enron: The Smartest

Guys in the Room, which was released in April, is based on her book.

 

BIO: CURRENT:

 

Bethany McLean

· She covers a wide variety of topics for Fortune Magazine, with

stories ranging from Barry Diller and his controversial company

InterActiveCorp to the strange world of the Masters of Wine. Joined

Fortune in July 1995.

· She and Peter Elkind, who is also a senior writer at Fortune,

are the co-authors of the The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing

Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (2003).

· The movie, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, which was

released in April, is based on her book.

 

The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (2003).

http://qanda.org/Program/?ProgramID=1027

 

 

 

Organization: http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html

 

 

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room: —Bethany McLean, Sun Jun 19 22:45

 

* Smoking Gun in Enrongate - Let the impeachment begin? —Liberal

Slant, Sun Jun 19 23:08

o The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron —Smoking Gun

in Enrongate, Mon Jun 20 01:23

+ 9/11/2001 - ENERGY - Enron's Power Crisis —Bethany

McLean / Fortune, Mon Jun 20 02:02

# TRILLIONS TAKEN - George W. Bush, was in

lockstep with Enron —B.J. Rowland, Mon Jun 20 02:12

 

 

 

 

AlterNet: Bush's Enron Ties

Bush's presidential campaign received $1.14 million from Enron. ...

War on Iraq:

Tension and confusion are on the rise in Iraq after a group of

American ...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12155

 

 

 

B.J. Rowland

TRILLIONS TAKEN - George W. Bush, was in lockstep with Enron

Mon Jun 20, 2005 02:12

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=85631;title=APFN

 

Letter to the Editor

TRILLIONS TAKEN

 

Editor,

 

Follow the money. That is the way to see through all of the scams,

cheating, drug busts, fraud, etc. in the thousands of ways it is done.

Follow the money. You probably wonder, as I have, and surely millions

of others have, why is it that nothing has taken place yet with Enron,

Ken Lay, and all those others in on this national monumental scam and

outright theft? Anderson Consulting/Accounting and a boatload of the

worst kind of gangsters stole the savings accounts and ratepayer

dollars in amounts bigger than anything ever to hit the American

people. No penalties of any kind have been imposed which are anywhere

near commensurate with the crimes that were committed.

 

Let me tell you my version of why. This happened because the

President of the United States, George W. Bush, was in lockstep with

Enron. He didn't help engineer the Enron scam directly, but he got a

boatload of the money. Enron was ripping American citizens off,

period. You may not ever find the proof of this connection between

Enron and George W. Bush because of the magnitude of this theft. But

George W. Bush is president today, in my opinion, because of Enron. He

became governor of Texas via Enron, and Ken Lay, where he used them as

conduits to lay the foundation and plant the seed money to the right

politicians.

 

This Enron scam was not pulled off under the radar screen. It was

a big-time scam perform right out in the open and was well known to

politicians, especially those in California, some of whom made it to

the Senate with Enron's help under the table. When California

deregulated their electrical power system in 1997 political money was

flowing out of Enron by the millions to politicians all over hell plus

half of Georgia.

 

The Bush administration won't let the shit hit the fan until Bush

is safe and sound in his Crawford weed patch. And even then it won't

be until the books come out telling the true story of the

under-the-counter deals involving Bush and Cheney.

 

Now add the billions and billions of dollars that are being lost

and going unaccounted for in Iraq today. That probably includes

another billion or more more rip-off by Enron too. So that's hundreds

of millions of dollars that Halliburton, Brown and Root, and Kellogg

are making as long as the United States lasts in Iraq. This war

profiteering will make the Enron rip-off look like a dime store deal.

 

The Bush administration has wheeled and dealed more billions of

dollars away in the first four years than the total amount spent by

the United States in all the prior years of the United States going

all the way back to when that bunch of guys signed the Declaration of

Independence, July 4th, 1776. It's one big monster of fortune.

 

And I am sure that I have missed and least two trillion more

dollars that's changed hands on Bush's shift to date.

 

Pay Attention,

B.J. Rowland

Hagerman, Idaho (formerly Dos Rios)

 

PS. Got a dime to spare, buddie?

http://www.theava.com/05/0216-ltr-trillions.html

 

==================================================

 

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Enron, a Bush role model

AlterNet » Special Coverage » War on Iraq » News Log ». Enron, a

Bush role model.

ALSO IN WAR ON IRAQ. The Pentagon's Manpower Crisis Paul Rieckhoff ...

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/2003/05/000866.html - 14k -

Cached - Similar pages

 

 

 

AlterNet: Bush's Enron Ties

Bush's presidential campaign received $1.14 million from Enron.

.... War on Iraq:

Tension and confusion are on the rise in Iraq after a group of

American ...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12155 - 22k - Cached -

 

 

Similar pages

 

How Will Bush Deal With the Deficits? Connecting the Dots to Iraq

How Will Bush Deal With the Deficits? Connecting the Dots to Iraq

.... Clearly,

the Bush administration will not adopt the first strategy, raising

taxes. ...

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0105-08.htm - 25k - Cached -

Similar pages

 

 

 

 

DEEP REASONS AND OTHER REASONS FOR BUSH'S WAR ON IRAQ The deep ...

The deep reasons for Bush's Iraq war (ie the unacknowledged or

suppressed reasons:

... The Vulliamy article also points to the quiet role of Enron

and other ...

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/iraq2.html - 7k - Cached

 

 

 

- Similar pages

 

Blog Left: Critical Interventions Warblog (war blog, Iraq ...

Enron-Bush connections are multiple, beginning with a history of

favors to the

... While millions of people will be seriously harmed by the

Enron/Bush ...

 

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/2002/05/enron-sl-scandal-and-bush-gang.\

php

- 53k - Jun 18, 2005

====================

 

 

 

Monday, May 27, 2002

 

Enron, the S & L Scandal, and the Bush Gang

 

The Enron collapse is a major political and economic scandal, one

of the defining events of the epoch. In fact, it is amazing that

George W. Bush has been caught up in three defining spectacles of the

Third Millennium, events that are among the most stunning in U.S.

history and that happened within a single year: the stealing of a

presidential election in Grand Theft 2000, September 11 and subsequent

Terror War, and the collapse of Enron and uncovering of its scandalous

history. The Enron scandals are especially important since they reveal

the complete failure and catastrophic effects of Bushonomics, the

amazingly scandalous history of Bush and his partners in corruption

and crime, and the systemic failures of a system that would allow

Enron and Bush and his cronies to flourish, loot the system in

startling ways, and assume the very pinnacle of economic and political

power.

 

It is clear that the Enron scandals reveal the utter unworkability

and dangerous consequences of the Reagan-Bush conservative pro-market

economic policy that deregulates the economy, allows a Wild West

capitalism to flourish, and that eliminates regulation, law, and

accountability in the economic realm, while placing the state in the

service of the most corrupt and greedy corporations. As Governor of

Texas and President of the United States, George W. Bush and his

associates had done everything possible to deregulate oil and energy

corporations and to provide windfall tax benefits and other financial

favors to his corporate and wealthy supporters. Hence, Enron, for

instance, not only did not have to pay taxes, but also got back

millions in rebates. Laws and regulations governing banking and

accountability of corporations were thrown out the window and the way

was open for Enron and Wild West capital to loot the system and

undermine the economy with substantial payoffs to the Bush

administration and other politicians to look the other way and aid and

abet the corporate theft.

 

A similar looting of the system had taken place earlier and the

same cast of characters had been involved in a previous scandal: I am

referring to the Savings and Loan scam of the 1980s Reagan and Bush

administrations where banking, savings and loan, and other financial

institutions had been deregulated and multitudes of corporate crooks

stepped in and robbed the financial system, costing taxpayers,

according to some estimates, over $500 billion (Lewis 1990) to over $1

3 trillion (Day 1993). In a way, this systematic corporate crime

bonanza was bigger than the Enron robbery and the perpetrators largely

got away with it. The S & L thievery surely should have alerted

government and corporate officials that deregulation and laissez-faire

policy is extremely dangerous and opens the doors to large-scale

corruption and crime.

 

The S & L scandal should have also alerted politicians, the media,

and the public to the sort of scam and corruption that the Bush family

has engaged in for generations. Architects of the S & L deregulation

policy included former Vice-President George H. W. Bush and James

Baker who had served as Reagan's chief of staff and Treasury

Secretary, among other offices in an astounding career that has so far

escaped wide-spread public scrutiny. A book by former Houston Post

reporter Pete Brewton (1992), however, documents how friends and

family members of the Bush and Baker family, as well as the Mafia and

CIA, took over S & L institutions, looted them, and left the public with

the bill.

 

The slime, scandal, and crimes of the S & L looting and Enron

debacle are in some ways similar. After Bush family deregulation

carried out by the father and son, the scammers of the S & Ls and Enron

crooks went on an orgy of corruption, taking out funds from the S & Ls,

for example, and investing them in a variety of schemes and scams that

enabled the S & L managers, such as Neil Bush, to skim off big bucks for

themselves and their cronies. Enron, as we are now seeing, set up

dummy businesses for their con operations, to hide money, to avoid

taxes, to use the firms to hide debt, and to inflate the value of

their stock prices. As the scandal unfolds, no doubt other inventive

business maneuvers will come to light.

 

Both the S & L institutions and Enron threw money at politicians as

they scammed the system, making sure that they had political friends

in high places. The corporate players in the respective crimes spent

money outrageously to buy friends and supporters, ranging from lavish

entertainment, often including prostitutes, booze, and drugs, to

purchases of a wide range of goods and services that bought good-will

and kept money flowing (many Enron creditors, as were shown nightly on

television for some weeks, were left with outstanding bills for

products and services rendered, that could bankrupt many small

businesses). And Enron even bought journalists and intellectuals,

paying them outrageously high fees to speak or consult with the

corporation.

 

Not only does the Enron debacle show that the kind of Wild West

capitalism that George W. Bush and his cronies advocate does not work,

but it also reveals the appalling connections and histories of the

Bush family, especially if seen in connection with the S & L scandal.

Enron-Bush connections are multiple, beginning with a history of

favors to the Texas-based energy corporation from successive Bush

administrations, in George H. W. Bush's presidency, in George W.

Bush's two terms as governor of Texas, and in his short but eventful

term as President. While in Texas, Bush pushed through the Enron

agenda by creating the most deregulatory environment imaginable, where

the energy companies had almost no state regulation or requirements,

to the detriment of the state's environment, economy, and eventually

to the people of Texas who had to pay for the Bush-Enron excesses –-

indeed, given the collapse of Enron stock and the large number of

investors who lost billions, the entire country had to pay for

Bushonomics and the shenanigans of his supporters, friends, and cronies.

 

The epic story of Dick Cheney, oil, and Enron is similarly

mind-boggling. Cheney admittedly met with Enron executives six times

while developing energy, tax, and economic policy. Moreover, there are

allegations that Cheney replaced the head of the energy department

regulation, FERC, Curtis Hubert with Patrick H. Wood, a crony of

George W. Bush's from Texas who was previously had of the Texas Public

Utilities Commission and who would be more pliable to Enron's demands.

For months now, there have been demands that Cheney hand over notes

and documents pertaining to his Enron meetings, but so far he has

stone-walled these requests, opening the way to potential Senate

Hearings or Trials that will perhaps provide a media spectacle

equivalent to Watergate, or maybe even better.

 

The entire Bush administration is, in fact, saturated with oil and

energy connections and ties to Enron. Cheney, national security

advisor Condoleezza Rice, Commerce Secretary and former Bush campaign

manager Don Evans, Bush administration economic advisor Lawrence

Lindsay, and many others in the Bush administration come straight from

the oil and energy industries. Moreover, Cheney, Evans, Lindsay and

others have close Enron connections and were engaged in conversations

with Lay and other top Enron officials during its collapse. John

Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney General, has had to recuse himself from the

Enron investigations because of campaign contributions from Enron and

close connections with the corporation, as have other top Justice

Department officials. Texas Senator Phil Gramm helped write the rules

that deregulated energy production and enabled Enron to create its

off-shore entities, avoiding public scrutiny and tax liabilities,

Gramm's wife Wendy had served on Enron's corporate board, and both

Gramms received bundles from Enron (perhaps leading Phil Gramm to

decide not to run for re-election, knowing that he'd excessively

scammed the tainted Enron money box).

 

Bush's top policy advisor, Karl Rove, always on the take and on

the make, had major stock investments in Enron, which he was forced to

sell when reports leaked out that Rove owned large blocks of stock in

Enron, Dell computers, tobacco firms, and other corporations which had

pending government business and demands. Rove reportedly sold the

stock but continued to provide lavish favors to those who contributed

to Bush campaigns. It was also leaked to the press on January 26 that

Rove had recommended to Enron Christian fundamentalist leader Ralph

Reed, who was employed for years with the corporation. Rove wanted

Reed's support, which he got, for Bush's run for the presidency in the

year 2000, but did not want Reed directly on Bush's staff as the plan

was to package Bush as a moderate " compassionate conservative, " and

not a hardright Christian fundamentalist a la Reed.

 

Top Enron lobbyists had close connections with the Bush

administration and the Army Secretary, Thomas E. White, who Bush

appointed to bring corporate management skills to the military, came

from Enron. White is a typical representative of the " revolving door "

from the public to the private sector and back, and a posterboy for

Bush-Enron connections. While Army Secretary, White had been pushing

privatizing energy production for military bases, a move that would

immensely benefit Enron. He also held onto his Enron stocks, although

he was supposed to divest, and was getting caught up in a web of

scandal that would probably force his resignation.

 

And so the Bush administration is caught up from head to toe in an

economic scandal that could be bigger than Teapot Dome in the 1920s

and a political scandal larger than Watergate. The Bush administration

strategy has been to claim that Enron is an economic affair and not a

political one, but in terms of policies and players the economic and

political overlap with Bush administration policies and personnel

front and center. While millions of people will be seriously harmed by

the Enron/Bush scandals, and perhaps the economy will be weakened, one

gazes in amazement at the scale of the corruption and crime. The

Enron-Bush scandals bog the imagination in immensity and scale and no

doubt we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. It will be interesting

to see if, once again, George W. Bush will escape the taint of scandal

and political destruction. Or will the Bushgate flood open in a

spectacle that will keep the public entertained and the media

chattering class, lawyers, and judges busy for years to come?

 

Posted by:

Douglas Kellner

at 5/27/2002 02:30:41 PM | Permalink

 

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/2002/05/enron-sl-scandal-and-bush-gang.\

php

 

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