John McCain?????

[Guest guest]

Maybe this will put to rest the idea that John McCain

is a suitable alternative:

 

 

This February 17, 2000, article is so detailed re

McCain's personal and professional history, and so

powerful in detailing the criminal source of his

wealth, that it should be read in its entirety, and

bookmarked/saved. Please note that although the first

page of the article seems complete in itself, there

are NINE pages tracing McCain's ties to special

interests (the liquor industry in particular - which

shouldn't sit too well with the fundamentalist

religious right) and the legislation he has pushed or

blocked over the years. More importantly, it details

the lengthy criminal history and federal prosecution

and conviction of his wife's family for massive

bootlegging of liquor in post world war II years (when

the fed. govt. controlled prices and minutely tracked

distribution to prevent bootlegging), not to mention

money laundering, tax evasion,fronting for the mob,

etc. over the ensuing decades. And although much was

made of the political corruption in NOLA, wait till

you read of the corruption in Arizona, at least in

2000.

 

My first thought was to question why Bush didn't use a

lot of this info to attack McCain instead of focusing

on McCain's wife's drug dependency or their adopted

biracial child. But W couldn't do that because one of

McCain's biggest contributors and a corporation which

McCain supported so strongly was Annheiser-Busch,

which is a cash cow for the Republicans (and a sponsor

of all 4 of the 2000 presidential debates)and which

tied back into the liquor industry & Cindy's family's

criminal origins of wealth in bootlegging, tax

evasion, etc.

 

The article also details how McCain met his 2nd wife,

a wealthy, heiress/hottie, got into an affair, dumped

his first wife and within 2 months of the divorce,

married the multimillionairess, moved to Arizona, &

went to work for her father. It was the American

dream! His annual income jumped from some $45,000 a

year as a Captain in the military to a joint income

with new wife of over $800,000. And within 2 years of

moving to Arizona, using her family's wealth, he was

elected to the U.S. Congress. Back in 2000 when this

article was written he was ranked the 26th richest

member of Congress, out of 535 members of the House

and Senate. I'm picking out 4 paragraphs from

throughout the 9 page article just to give you a

flavor of the breadth and depth of this outstanding

piece of investigative reporting.

 

Keep in mind that this article was written in 2000.

 

 

www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/2000-02-17/news/feature_...

 

 

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John Dougherty

 

Article Published Feb 17, 2000

 

 

From Day 1, Hensley money has enabled McCain to be a

full-time politician, free from financial concerns.

This story examines the roots of the Hensley fortune

and John McCain's implacable bond to the liquor

industry -- how it has enriched him personally and as

a politician, and how those ties have dictated his

actions on questions of public policy. John McCain's

political allegiances to liquor purveyors and his

father-in-law's interests are subtle. That narrative

is marked by a pattern of patronage. The Hensley saga,

meanwhile, swirls with bygone accounts of illicit

booze, gambling, horse racing, deceit and crime. James

Hensley embarked on his road to riches as a

bootlegger.

 

 

**********************************

 

James Hensley's conviction didn't deter the State of

Arizona from granting him a wholesale liquor license

in the mid-1950s. The Arizona Department of Liquor

Licenses and Control turned a blind eye to repeated

liquor-law violations at the company. State liquor

regulators did nothing when James Hensley failed to

disclose his federal felony conviction on a sworn 1988

disclosure statement to the department and the City of

Phoenix. Today, Phoenix-based Hensley & Company is the

nation's fifth-largest beer wholesaler -- a privately

held business that 80-year-old James Hensley still

controls. He built the Budweiser distributorship into

at least a $200 million-a-year business, with annual

sales of more than 20 million cases of beer.

 

 

 

 

********************************

(Murder of an investigative reporter who had

criticized Hensley's long time business partner &

benefactor, Marley)

 

Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles wrote a series of

stories documenting Marley's questionable performance

in appointive posts he'd previously held. Bolles'

stories doomed Marley's appointment, forcing him to

resign soon after being named to the Racing

Commission. On June 2, 1976, Bolles was mortally

wounded by a car bomb. Before lapsing into

unconsciousness, Bolles uttered the words, " Adamson,

Emprise, Mafia. " He died 11 days later.

 

 

******************************************

(From the part of the article detailing some of the

many bills which McCain as a Senate Committee

Chairman, blocked from consideration)

One such bill would have forced consumers to pay a

10-cent beverage container deposit, as an incentive to

recycle. The alcohol industry -- particularly the beer

industry, which sells its beverages in individual

units -- hates it. On January 28, 1997, the National

Beverage Container Reuse and Recycling Act was

introduced and referred to the Senate Commerce

Committee. The National Beer Wholesalers Association

identified the bill as one of its prime targets.The

bill languished, untouched, until the end of that

session -- and died.