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thousands of votes for Gore were probably counted in his favor, thanks to the confusing “butterfly” ballots used in Florida, and never mind that Diebold, makers of electronic voting machines used across the country, stated that they would be proud to help put George Bush in office, that’s just politics right? Maybe not the politics of Jefferson and Washington, but they didn’t sell their souls to multinational oil companies to get elected either. So, we were stuck with an un-elected “appointed” president, whose only military experience was being AWOL for 9 months from the National Guard, whose only accomplishments in the business world was running several oil companies into the ground, then “managing” a baseball team, that turned out to be just another vehicle for George to collect money from billionaires that wanted to curry favor with the president’s son. George’s insider deals eventually catapulted him to the Texas Governorship, then the presidency:
TEXAS AIR NATIONAL GUARD: At a time when thousands of soldiers without a draft deferment are dying in Vietnam, George Jr. decides it would be fun to fly planes for the National Guard, because his student deferment is about to expire. Although Fearless George didn’t hesitate to send National Guardsmen to Iraq after becoming prez, (apparently confused about the function of a “National” Guard) during the Vietnam conflict there was little chance of most Air Guardsmen being sent to that hellhole. Trouble was, it was a year and a half’s wait to get into the Texas Guard, known as a haven for kids with important parents and Dallas Cowboys football players. In the world of George Jr., you only have to ask and you will receive, since he receives his assignment to the Air Guard immediately upon application, with the help of then-Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes, who ultimately apologized to all Texans for helping rich kids avoid Vietnam. Then his superiors, anxious to curry favor with the powers that be, make him a 2nd Lieutenant without all the fuss and hassle of actually going to Officers Candidate School. Then he is given pilot training, regardless of his painfully low test scores
(25% on pilot aptitude, 50% on navigator aptitude). Just to be on the safe side, he is trained on a fighter that is being phased out of the Vietnam war. Still not satisfied, Junior asks to be assigned to a National Guard Base in Alabama, one that is essentially closed, with only a few maintenance and postal personnel. His Commanding Officer willingly assents, but is overruled by his own superiors. Then George succeeds in getting assigned to another base in Alabama, but never gets around to actually showing up for duty-for 3 months. Both the unit’s commander and administrative officer can’t remember seeing him even once, and no records exist that show Bush attending a single drill. George is transferred back to Dallas, but again disappears. As noted in records by his supervisors (including one pilot Junior describes as a friend) he does not show up for a single drill in 6 months. Meanwhile, the Guard begins drug testing, with urinalysis and checks of nasal cavities for traces of cocaine use. Party boy George can’t be bothered with such a messy process, and doesn’t show up for his drug test. This is too much, even for his compliant buddies in the Texas Guard. After grounding him for missing the drug test, they later order him to appear for duty, and George goes through the incredible hardship of serving 36 days, and leaves the Guard with an honorable discharge. Never mind that any other soldier who misses a single drill without prior notice is summarily shipped out for duty to Vietnam, it’s always special rules for Junior!
ARBUSTO ENERGY: George’s first chance to prove to the business world that it’s not what you know but who you know, This company was formed in 1977 with Osama bin Laden’s older brother, Salem, as a major partner. The company was almost bankrupt by 1982, and worth only 400 thousand dollars, when a Bush family friend invested 1 million for a 10% holding in the company. Some might call this “investment” a gift, but why get hung up on definitions? The company was renamed Bush Exploration the same year, and was again near bankruptcy by ‘84 and merged with Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation, with Bush installed as chairman of the board and CEO. Under Bush’s leadership, the company continued to lose money, reporting a net loss of 1.5 million in ‘85, and was sold for 2.2 million to Harken Energy, with Bush appointed to the board of directors. After the death of Salem bin Laden, his interest in Harken was transferred to Khalid bin Mahfouz, a criminal billionaire accused of financing al Qaeda, (later indicted by a New York State grand jury and fined 225 million for his terrorist activities) and owner of a 20% share of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), an institution later convicted of money laundering, drug smuggling, arms trafficking, and support of
terrorism. Another investor in Harken was Ghaith R. Pharaon, who is being hunted worldwide by law enforcement agencies for his part in the BCCI scandal. By 1990 Harken had lost 23.2 million, after Bush sold his interest for an 850 thousand dollar profit (2 months before Harken announced huge losses, and 3 months before daddy Bush invaded Iraq). This suspicious sale was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, with no charges filed. Daddy to the rescue! Bush was also required to register the sale as an inside trade, a requirement he violated with impunity for 9 months, because the rules are for other people, not a president’s son! George Jr. has some unusual business partners, and if you are judged by the friends you keep, how are we to judge George Bush? How ironic that a president who markets himself as being a warrior against terrorism has so many terrorist buddies!
THE TEXAS RANGERS: Can you say “land grab”? Can you say “sweetheart deal”? This
scam, perpetrated on the city and taxpayers of Arlington, Texas, should go down as one of the most corrupt deals involving public funds, ever. Essentially, the rip-off went like this: Bush buys a 1.8% share of the Texas Rangers, with 600,000 dollars in money borrowed from a bank run by one of the investors that footed the bill for his bumbling mis-management of the oil companies mentioned above. These investors, especially anxious to curry favor with Bush Sr. after his ascendancy to the presidency, decide to take 300 acres of valuable land between Arlington Stadium and nearby 6 Flags amusement park. They begin this land theft by offering the owners of the land an extremely low offer. As expected, the owners decline to sell. Thus begins an incredibly stinky deal involving then-Texas governor (and Democrat) Ann Richards and Arlington Mayor Richard Greene, who was the subject of a federal lawsuit because of his part in the 2 billion dollar failure of Sunbelt Savings, an Arlington Savings and loan. This lawsuit was settled for 40 thousand dollars when Greene agreed to the plan to steal the 300 acres from its rightful owners. A quasi- governmental agency called the Arlington Sports Facility Development Authority (ASFDA) is formed, with Gov. Richards’ approval. The agency has the 300 acres condemned, the owners of the land are given a pittance as payment, all according to plan. This was just the beginning of the screw job perpetrated on the public. The agency then floats bonds, financed by taxpayers to pay for the land, and to buy and enlarge the stadium. Even though Bush and friends agreed to pay all renovation expenses over 135 million, (ultimately 190 million) they decided they didn’t feel like paying the extra costs. Fans pay the extra 55 million through a ticket surcharge. Then, incredibly, the stadium is sold back to Bush’s gang of thieves for 60 million dollars! But, the “investors” repaid this money out of ticket receipts, without a dime coming out of their own pockets. Meanwhile, George is given a bonus for his hard work at hanging around and being the president’s son. His stake in the team and stadium is increased to 12%. The facility is ultimately sold for 250 million dollars, after George is elected Governor of Texas. George pockets 15 million dollars, and no doubt laughs all the way to the bank.
HOW TO BE GOVERNOR AND PAY OFF YOUR FRIENDS: It is an irony that the same Texas Rangers deal that made George rich at the expense of Arlington taxpayers probably helped him get elected governor. Texans liked their new stadium, and were apparently blind to the corruption and good-ole-boy deals that made it all possible. How ironic that George also made campaign statements that he favored self-reliance instead of dependence on the government! This kind of Orwellian double-speak would become a hallmark of all of his political campaigns, with a gullible public eating it up. As governor, George would take cronyism and insider deals (at the expense of taxpayers) to new heights that made the Texas Rangers deal look like nickel-and-dime stuff. First, George personally pressured Texas officials to drop an investigation into a huge funeral home corporation that contributed heavily to his campaign, then lied about his role under oath. Then, after receiving a measly 25 thousand dollar “donation” to his campaign fund (after already being elected!) from Billionaire investor Tom Hicks of Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst, Bush threw his support to a plan to “privatize” the 13 billion in finacial assets of The University of Texas. In this case, “privatize” was simply a codeword for putting the money into a fund that would not have any oversight from any government regulators or public watchdog groups, as well as exempting the fund from bothersome things like open meeting laws. Bush proceeded to dole out billions to the same buddies who had enriched him through his bumbling stewardship of his oil companies and the Texas Rangers, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. Bush’s rich friends no doubt got more bang for their buck than they expected when Junior went from incompetent manager to incompetent governor to incompetent President of the United States.
THE 911 ATTACKS: Even though many details of 9\11 are still shrouded in mystery, thanks to Bush administration secrecy, some facts are undeniable: George’s shadowy kid brother Marvin (Marvin? George has a brother named Marvin?) was on the board of directors, and a major investor, in a Kuwaiti corporation named Securacom (later renamed Stratesec) that was paid to provide a private security force for the World Trade Center as well as Dulles International Airport where flight 77, the jet that crashed into the Pentagon, originated. Another interesting tidbit is that “sell short” stock bets, also called “put options” (where a bet is made that a stock will go down in value) were made on American Airlines and United Airlines stock at an unprecedented rate, in the weeks before the attacks. Short bets were also made on Morgan Stanley (an investment firm) stock at 25 times (2,500%) more than average in the week before 9\11. Let us not forget that American and United airlines each had two planes commandeered by the hijackers for the attacks, and Morgan Stanley occupied a whopping 22 floors of the North Tower of the trade center. Dozens of other companies likely to lose stock value also saw a huge increase in short calls, while armament makers like Raytheon saw huge increases in “long” calls (bets that the stock value would go up). To date, no individual or company has been tried or convicted for these stock bets. If you tried to pull this stuff in Las Vegas, you would be summarily beaten to a pulp behind the casino, but hey, coincidences happen! Another interesting fact that you may not know or have forgotten, is that officials of at least 3 countries (France, Germany, and Israel) warned Bush in August of 2001 that attacks involving jets in N.Y.C. were imminent. So George either ignored the warnings or already knew what was going to go down. Was George a willing participant, a dupe, or just incredibly incompetent during 9\11? We will probably never know, because as more years pass since the attacks, the more complacent the American public becomes.
WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION: Never mind that we were in the midst of an economic recession after tech companies started out-sourcing high paying jobs to Asia, George decided to distract us with some good ole American jingoism and adventurism after the events of 9\11. Never mind that the WMD’s were a total fraud, and never mind that not a single Iraqi citizen was ever implicated in any of those events, and never mind that most of the terrorists in those jets were actually Saudi Arabians connected either by birth or by association with George’s “investor” friends, it was time to bomb somebody by golly, and show the world what a Fearless Leader Junior really is! George knew where his money came from, so he obviously couldn’t bomb Saudi Arabia. First, George was off (by proxy) to Afghanistan, to start a war that still hasn’t been finished, with the only measurable result after the suppression of the Taliban, being that opium exports from Afghanistan rose from near zero under the Taliban to unprecedented levels. The end result was that the quality of heroin on the streets of America also rose, and the price dropped, leading to more deaths and addiction of our citizens. Considering the connections of many of George’s old Arab buddies to the drug trade, is that really surprising? Thanks George, but we didn’t really need that! Looking at 9\11 from that perspective, is it any wonder that George had dozens of Osama bin Laden’s family and associates hustled out of America on a jet plane, at a time when airlines and private planes were supposedly not allowed to fly in the days after the terrorist attacks? George may be incompetent at most things, but lying and fear-mongering is one of the few things he’s good at, and he saw the opportunity to pervert the average American’s fear and patriotism to his own uses. Thus, we are stuck with the Iraq war. Never mind that George was only able to bully one major power (Britain) into participating with us, along with a few token soldiers contributed by Australia, Poland, and a few obscure banana republics that owe us big time, he proceeded to dub this group the “The Coalition of the Willing”. Maybe “The Coalition of the Coerced” would be a better name. Britain has since recalled most of its troops, leaving American participation at over 98% of this so-called “coalition”. George’s adventure has caused the deaths of between 150,000 and 1 million Iraqi non-combatants (a fancy word for women, children, and those too old to fight) with no end in sight for the death and destruction. And the cost to America in dollars and lives? As of February, 2008, The cost to the American taxpayers has reached 495 billion dollars, with nearly 4,000 American men and women dead, and nearly 30,000 soldiers wounded. This total does not take into account the suicides of returned war veterans. CBS News tried to ascertain the true number of suicides by veterans, and did an exhaustive study of veteran suicides in 45 states. They found that 6,256 vets committed suicide in one year
(2005). The Pentagon claims that only around 2,200 vets committed suicide in that year, but they don’t keep exact figures for these kinds of deaths. So what do we get for nearly half a trillion dollars, 9 trillion in public debt, and an estimated 15,000 war-related deaths of American soldiers? Well, George gets to protect his own interests, and those of his terrorist buddies in the oil fields of the mideast, but most Americans are now scratching their heads and trying to figure out what this has to do with keeping America free. Mission Accomplished? Yeah, right, George!
HOW TO STEAL AN ELECTION, PART II: Probably the biggest news story of 2004 that you never heard about, The Ohio presidential election was another exercise in business as usual for Bush and his corrupt gang of helpers and advisors. Ohio, like Florida in 2000, was a pivotal state, and Bush’s pollsters and statisticians knew this long before the Ohio voters went to the polls. The results of the Ohio election were so tainted that Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, member of the House Judiciary Committee, conducted a five-week study during which hundreds of witnesses were interviewed. The results of this study,Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio and detailed in a 2005 Harper’s article by Mark Crispin Miller, catalogs a host of violations of state and federal laws, including the National Voter Act, the Help America Vote Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act. Many offenses listed by Conyers revolve around Secretary of State for Ohio (and co-chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in Ohio) Kenneth Blackwell. Blackwell, who was also apparently chairman of The Department of Dirty Tricks, didn’t even try to pretend that he was overseeing a fair, unbiased election. He made sure that that very few voting machines were available in heavily Democratic urban areas despite huge increases in voter registration in those areas, while many more machines were allocated in heavily Republican areas. This left voters in these Democratic areas standing in long lines for hours, sometimes literally standing out in the rain, while voters in heavily Republican areas rarely had a long wait to vote. Voters in many Democratic-leaning precincts gave up after waiting for as long as 11 hours, and went home. In urban Franklin County, home of Columbus, Ohio, 125 voting machines were never taken out of storage. Even though a pre-election analysis showed the need for 5,000 voting machines, Franklin County received only 2,866. Blackwell issued a directive allowing election officials to decide who had access to provisional ballots, a violation of the Help America Voting Act, and a direct violation of a court order by a federal judge. The judge was forced to re-write the directive himself, since Blackwell refused to change the directive. Blackwell, as co-chairman of the Ohio Bush campaign (he apparently never heard of the term “conflict of interest”) also oversaw other dirty tactics by his party: voter “caging” where registered letters are sent to likely Democratic voters, and if the letters were not signed for, their residency is challenged with loss of voting rights, banning poll watchers from a European group that had been invited by The State Department to watch the polls, banning reporters and poll watchers from observing the election and ballot counting in violation of The First Amendment, closing one polling place because of an FBI report of a terrorist attack that the FBI denies ever reporting, among other dirty tricks. In Miami County, Bush received 13,000 votes after all precincts had reported, while in Perry County, Bush received more votes than there were registered voters in that county. In 1964, in some precincts of Texas, Lyndon Johnson received so many more votes than registered voters that the saying went, “Even the cows voted for Lyndon”. The Conyers report, however, does not detail how many cows reside in Perry County. The list of dirty tricks goes on and on, including thousands of missing votes in some counties, a polling place that never opened because no one had the key to unlock the storage area for the voting machines, machines that didn’t work in a heavily Democratic county, notices put on doors in Democratic precincts advising that voters were to vote on November 3, (the day after the election) removal of John Kerry’s name from ballots in Hamilton County, voting machines that transferred votes from Kerry to Bush in Mahoning County, the list goes on and on, and “the plot sickens”. One whistle-blower, Sherole Eton, Deputy Director for Elections in Hocking County, filed an affidavit stating that an employee for Triad, the manufacturer of the voting machines in that county, had modified a computer used to tabulate vote totals, as well as advising election employees on how to manipulate the machines to change vote totals. She was fired for her attempt to do the right thing. More evidence emerged that Triad machines were manipulated in at least two other counties. Triad’s founder has been a heavy contributor to the Republican party. There were “literally thousands upon thousands” of violations, to quote the Conyers report, so many, in fact, that Conyers’ committee decided to only detail the grossest violations. Ultimately, only two low-level election employees were ever tried for their crimes, and after their conviction the presiding judge stated that he was convinced that the guilt for depriving citizens of their right to vote went to a much higher level, and that he didn’t think the defendants were telling the whole truth. Blackwell went untried and un-convicted, although he was later defeated in his bid for election as Ohio governor. Apparently the Republican Party was unable to fix that election for him.
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If you have ever wondered about the mind of George Bush Jr., and why, as president he has rarely, if ever compromised on any issue before him, it is easy to attribute this to the fact that until 2006, he had a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. However, his conduct since then has shown his disdain for the art of compromise, as he continues with his abject toadying to his party’s extreme religious right that continue to pull his strings. Junior has never had to compromise or take orders from anyone in his entire adult life, even during his so-called “service” in the National Guard. He’s been given everything he has, including his personal fortune, by people and\or organizations anxious to gain favor from him or his father. He’s a spoiled elitist, raised to expect privilege and special favors in every endeavor he’s ever engaged in. He has duped a large segment of society into believing that he is saving us from terrorism, while immersing himself in corruption on an unprecedented scale. His policies have ruined our economy, devalued our dollar, and left us a debtor to the largest communist country in the world. As a member of the rich elite, he is incapable of empathy for the average person who actually works for a living. Barring another convenient terrorist attack that would give him a believable pretext to suspend the next elections, and install himself as president-for-life, we can only hope that we will be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief, and bid him farewell in January of 2009. We can only hope.
Sources: http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm http://rangevoting.org
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/08/0080696
http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/feature/2003/08/21/conason_four/index.html
http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/conason/2005/05/06/bush_blair_iraq/index.html?
http://www.publicintegrity.org/warcard/default.aspx?
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney11172007.html
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
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