Posts
Behind the Bushes
GALLERY OF CRIMINALS FOLLOW THE IMPEACH CHENEY EFFORT The first 80 years behind the Bushes
Bush at the Harvard Business School
List of Bush administration scandals
Bush art: the graphics of despair
Bush's drug and other problems
George Bush has always liked torture
George Bush debates George Bush
DSL: Dubya as a second language
Bush book the media didn't want to hear about
Daddy Bush and Clinton and BCCI
What happened to Geronimo's skull?
Sarcasm, satire, and matters not worth responding to
[From the blog of Marc Perkel, 2004]
Past work experience
- Ran for Congress and lost.
- Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
- Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
- Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox
- With father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas. Accomplishments: Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any governor in American history.
- Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes with the help of the Supreme Court.
Accomplishments as president -
- Either lied or used extremely flawed intelligence against the advice of many of our own military, most of our allies, and most of the church leaders of America to waste much of our wealth and many of our soldiers lives on an unwise and unjust war.
- Spent the huge surplus left by the Clinton administration and bankrupted our nation's treasury.
- Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
- Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
- First president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
- First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history (25%).
- After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
- Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in U.S. history.
- In just two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.
- Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in U.S. history.
- Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
- Presided over a 45% increase in the loss of home ownership in America since the year 2000.
- Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in U.S. history.
- Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
- Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in U.S. history.
- Presided over the biggest energy crises in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
- Presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
- Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
- Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest against any person in the history of mankind.
- Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
- The most secretive and unaccountable administration in U.S. history.
- The wealthiest cabinet ever in U.S. history. (the poorest multi-millionaire, Condoleeza Rice had a Chevron oil tanker named after her).
- Presided over the biggest corporate stock market frauds of any market in any country in the history of the world.
- Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
- Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in U.S. history.
- First president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the human rights commission.
- Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
- Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in U.S. history.
- Made the United States the least respected member of the entire United Nations.
- Refused to allow independent inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
- First president in U.S. history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. elections).
- All-time U.S. (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
- George W. Bush's biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
-Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in U.S. history.
- First president in U.S. history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
- First president to run and hide when the U.S. came under attack
- Took the biggest world sympathy for the U.S. after 911, and in less than a year made the U.S. the most detested country in the world
- With a policy of 'disengagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
- Changed U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
- Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in U.S. history.
- In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the U.S. has ever been since the Civil War.
- Entered office with the strongest economy in U.S. history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
Records and References
- At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available)
- AWOL from National Guard and deserted the military during a time of war.
- Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
- All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my father's library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
- All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
- All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
- Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review.
GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF You can't be president and head of the military at the same time - President Bush to Pakistan President Musharraf
You know, when you give a man more money in his pocket -- in this case, a woman more money in her pocket to expand a business, it -- they build new buildings. And when somebody builds a new building, somebody has got to come and build the building. And when the building expanded, it prevented additional opportunities for people to work.
GOP LAWYER SUES BUSH FOR WRONGFUL ARREST AND ABUSE
THE BUSH WAR ON WHISTLEBLOWERS
SMOKING GUN ON BUSH REGIME AND TORTURE
COULD BUSH PARDON HIMSELF?
YAHOO ANSWERS - Let's say it was a Capital crime. And let's say the whole cabinet was in on it. Could the president pardon his whole cabinet, resign, and then the Vice-President (now president) pardon him?
No one really knows the answer because it has never happened and been litigated. However, the majority view is that a president can pardon himself (assuming he does so prior to impeachment). Art. II Sec. 2 of the Constitution states, in part, that the president "shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." The purpose of this clause was to insure the separation of powers by preventing the courts from using the law as a legal blackmail against the president. . . There is a minority view that the president cannot pardon himself.
A FEW REASONS TO JOIN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
JON CARROLL, SF CHRONICLE - I really, really want to be a member of the Bush administration. I wish I'd realized what a cool job it was earlier, but there's still time. Let's look at the perks.
For one thing, I could get a nickname. I've never had a nickname. It could be Jon-Boy or Mr. Toasty or Smallfoot . . .
That's another thing I could do as a member of the Bush administration: I could lie. I could lie to Congress and the FBI and pretty much everybody, knowing the president had my back. . .
And, if all that fails, I'd still have the Supreme Court on my side. . .
If I were a lawyer, I might worry that a felony conviction would hamper my ability to practice law. . .
Another advantage of being a member of the Bush administration: ill-gotten gains.
And suppose I were to invite a pig to a meeting of my top aides. If some disaffected ex-employee mentioned my habit of bringing pigs into the room, I could say that I have no recollection of any pig in the room. . .
Eventually, I might have to resign to spend more time with my family. But I like spending time with my family. It's pretty much a win-win for me.
FORMER US SURGEON GENERAL TELLS HOW BUSH MUZZLED HIM
REUTERS - The first U.S. surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush accused the administration of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the nation's top doctor from 2002 until 2006, told a House of Representatives committee. . .
Carmona said Bush administration political appointees censored his speeches and kept him from talking out publicly about certain issues, including the science on embryonic stem cell research, contraceptives and his misgivings about the administration's embrace of "abstinence-only" sex education. . .
Carmona said he was politically naive when he took the job, but became astounded at the partisanship and manipulation he witnessed as administration political appointees hemmed him in. . .
Carmona testified with two predecessors, Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served under President Ronald Reagan, and Dr. David Satcher, named by Clinton but whose term ended under Bush.
Carmona said some of his predecessors told him, "We have never seen it as partisan, as malicious, as vindictive, as mean-spirited as it is today, and you clearly have worse than anyone's had."
BUSH DIDN'T THINK ATHEISTS WERE COVERED BY THE CONSTITUTION
POSITIVE ATHEIST - When George Bush was campaigning for the presidency, as incumbent vice-president, one of his stops was in Chicago, Illinois, on August 27, 1987. At O'Hare Airport he held a formal outdoor news conference. There Robert I. Sherman, a reporter for the American Atheist news journal, fully accredited by the state of Illinois and by invitation a participating member of the press corps covering the national candidates, had the following exchange with then-Vice-President Bush.
Sherman: What will you do to win the votes of the Americans who are atheists?
Bush: I guess I'm pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me.
Sherman: Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?
Bush: No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.
Sherman (somewhat taken aback): Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church?
Bush: Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on atheists.
http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/ghwbush.htm
JUNE 2007
BUSH REPORTED ACTING STRANGELY IN MEETINGS WITH FRIENDS
THINK PROGRESS - Anne Geyer writes in the Dallas Morning News about President Bush's strange behavior during a recent meeting"
"Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated 'I am the president!' He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of 'our country's destiny.'"
This is the second time in recent weeks that accounts have surfaced of Bush lashing out or "ranting" in private meetings when responding to criticism of his Iraq policy. Chris Nelson of the Nelson Report offered a similar account earlier this month:
"Some big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he's doing things would be OK. . . etc., etc."
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/bush-wild-eyed/
BUSH NAMES ANTI-GAY SURGEON GENERAL
ART JESTER, HERALD-LEADER, KY - The nomination of University of Kentucky professor Dr. James W. Holsinger as U.S. surgeon general has come under fire from groups that fear his actions as a high-ranking official in the United Methodist Church indicate he is anti-gay. Holsinger, 68, who holds UK's Charles T. Wethington Jr. Chair in the Health Sciences and is a former chancellor of UK's Chandler Medical Center and a former state Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, is being challenged for his role in decisions by the United Methodist Judicial Council. That highest "court" rules on disputes involving church doctrine and policies in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination.
In his role on the nine-member Judicial Council, Holsinger has opposed a decision to allow a practicing lesbian to be an associate pastor, and he supported a pastor who would not permit an openly gay man to join the church. . .
"Dr. James Holsinger has demonstrated in the past that he harbors religious-based prejudice towards homosexuals," said Jamie McDaniel, coordinator of Soulforce Lexington, the local chapter of a national organization that opposes the use of religion to oppress lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. . .
Holsinger's pastor, the Rev. David Calhoun of Hope Springs Community Church in Lexington, is one of the doctor's friends and supporters who said his interpretations of church policy have been correct and reflect longstanding majority opinion within the denomination. . .
Calhoun, a United Methodist pastor, noted that Holsinger and his wife, Barbara, were members of Lexington's First United Methodist Church, which asked them to set out and start a new congregation. They founded Hope Springs Community Church in a warehouse at 1109 Versailles Road. Calhoun called it a socially diverse congregation with a "very vital recovery ministry." It serves the homeless and those with addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex; and it has a Spanish-language Hispanic congregation with its own pastor. . . Hope Springs also ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian, Calhoun said. "We see that as an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle," he said. "We have people who seek to walk out of that lifestyle."
http://www.kentucky.com/454/story/85442.html
MARCH 2007
DUBYA ON THE ROAD
We can never replace lives, and we can't heal hearts, except through prayer. - Enterprise, Alabama, Mar. 3, 2007
You know, it's interesting to come back down here to the Gulf Coast. I tried to think back about what it was like the first time I came after the storm hit. And I guess the -- my most vivid recollection is the piles of rubble, literally debris stacked upon debris. It was -- it's hard to believe then that I would be -- I had faith that I'd be able to come to a home, but I had trouble visualizing. And then I kept coming down and I watched the improvement, because of the hard work of the local citizens, people like the Mayor here and the Governor, who set a vision that was a hopeful vision. The federal government's role has been to write checks. The Governor's role and the Mayor's role is help to expedite the federal money to the local folks. And today, we are able to sit in a homeowner -- the word is home. Again, one of the things I like to say is, when somebody walks in, welcome to my home. And it has a special ring to it here in the Gulf Coast, because there was a time when their home was totally destroyed. -- This entire passage has a "special" ring to it - Long Beach, Mississippi, Mar. 1, 2007
I'm a strong proponent of the restoration of the wetlands, for a lot of reasons. There's a practical reason, though, when it comes to hurricanes. The stronger the wetlands, the more likely the damage of the hurricane. - New Orleans, Louisiana, Mar. 1, 2007
In return for federal money, we expect local districts and states to measure, to have tests. The principal, the good Doc asked me to go into the 4th grade class and say to the kids, good luck on the test tomorrow. That was music to my ears, because you don't know whether or not a child is reading unless you test. -- Does he actually believe that? New Orleans, Louisiana, Mar. 1, 2007
http://www.dubyaspeak.com/freshdubya.phtml
JANUARY 2007
GREAT THOUGHTS OF GEORGE BUSH
"I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." - at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002
"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." - Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001
"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.'' - Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001
"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." - Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003
"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." - quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War
"I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." - Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001
"Do you have blacks, too?" - to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001
"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." - as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002"It is white." - after being asked by a child in Britain what the White House was like, July 19, 2001
"I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." - at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001
"I'm the master of low expectations." - aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." -Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002
"I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet. . . - President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004
- "My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire." - radio address, Feb. 24, 2001
- "I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency." -interview with "Runners World," Aug. 2002
- "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." - to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004
-. "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." - Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
-. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." - Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004
- "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." -ashington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
FIFTY BEST QUOTES
http://www.billclevlen.com/bushisms.htm~Compiled by Daniel Kurtzman
AT LEAST 90% OF ALL BUSH VOTERS HAD PRE-MARITAL SEX
[We have extrapolated this fact by assuming that all of the 5% of the American public that did not have pre-marital sex were Bush voters, which leaves 90% of those casting a ballot for Bush having violated the sanctity of marriage and the abstinence only principles promulgated by their leader]
AP - More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past. . . Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44, the study found.
The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people -- about 33,000 of them women -- in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to [the] analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
[A researcher] said the likelihood of Americans having sex before marriage has remained stable since the 1950s, though people now wait longer to get married and thus are sexually active as singles for extensive periods. The study found women virtually as likely as men to engage in premarital sex, even those born decades ago. Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91 percent had had premarital sex by age 30, he said, while among those born in the 1940s, 88 percent had done so by age 44.
"The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government's funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for 12- to 29-year-olds," Finer said. Under the Bush administration, such programs have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
JOHN MCCASLIN, WASH TIMES - For several years, Inside the Beltway has observed the mysterious bike-riding habits of President Bush. Members of the White House press corps, who regularly accompany the president deep into the woods of suburban Maryland or else onto the dusty terrain of his Texas ranch, seldom if ever actually see Mr. Bush atop a bicycle. The big question is why? Could something secretive or covert be taking place that doesn't involve two wheels? For instance, did Mr. Bush in 2004 really fall off of a bicycle and cut his chin, upper lip, nose, both knees and right hand (when his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, inquired: "Did the training wheels fall off?"), or did something more unusual cause his injuries? Was the president actually "enjoying" a bike ride so much during a major terrorist scare in Washington that the Secret Service, or so we were told, didn't bother to tell him that his own wife, Laura, and Vice President Dick Cheney had been rushed into a secure bunker? And how about the Sunday morning not long ago when Mr. Bush's church attire was unusually "bulky"? Immediately after the sermon, the president in the space of seconds had shed his suit of clothes and appeared in a brightly colored outfit that the White House insisted was "bike-riding gear." 'I've never seen a man who hasn't been drinking get out of a suit faster," noted Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle. Now, we learn of yet another bizarre twist involving a presidential biking trek this past weekend. Mr. Bush had been participating in an "extended" intelligence briefing in the Oval Office with his national security team, when suddenly a half-dozen young men and women showed up dressed in the same colorful gear worn by Mr. Bush. The entire group, including the president, immediately climbed into several heavily protected vehicles and sped off. But wait, there's more, discovered in the official White House pool report: "Four of them carried rakes and brooms along with their riding gear; why they had the rakes and brooms with them was unclear."
NOVEMBER 2006
BUSH'S SECRET HIGHWAY
JEROME R. CORSI, HUMAN EVENTS - Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn. Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman's Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation's most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in fast lanes, checked only electronically by the new "SENTRI" system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.
As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. . . A good reason Bush does not want to secure the border with Mexico may be that the administration is trying to create express lanes for Mexican trucks to bring containers with cheap Far East goods into the heart of the U.S., all without the involvement of any U.S. union workers on the docks or in the trucks.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15497&this=stupid
PSYCHOTICS MORE LIKELY TO SUPPORT BUSH
ANDY BROMAGE, NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE - A collective "I told you so" will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse's study gets out. Lohse, a social work master's student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush. . .
The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse's study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person's psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse's explanation. "Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader," Lohse says. "If your world is very mixed up, there's something very comforting about someone telling you, 'This is how it's going to be.'". . .
"Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry," the study says. Lohse says the trend isn't unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election. . .
For his part, Lohse is a self-described "Reagan revolution fanatic" but said that W. is just "beyond the pale."
GEORGE BUSH WOULD LIKE TO HAVE US STILL FIGHTING VIETNAM WAR
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - US President George W. Bush, making his first visit to Vietnam, said that one lesson of the bloody US military defeat here a generation ago was that the United States must be patient in Iraq. "We'll succeed unless we quit," promised Bush, the second US president to visit post-war Vietnam, after talks with close ally Australian Prime Minister John Howard on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific summit in Hanoi. . . Asked whether the US defeat in Vietnam offered lessons, the US president replied: "We tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while.". . .
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/17/061117134723.b5pa72t9.html
DON'T LET YOUR KIDS GROW UP TO BE BUSHES
THE BUSH BOYS illustrate the danger of raising families on welfare. In fact, they are among the nation's most successful public welfare spongers including:
- George, who has lived much of his life on insider trading of one sort or another - some of it just costly to family and friends as he stumbled from one failed deal to another and but some of it - like the Harken affair - raising the possibility of public fraud as well. Then there is the cost to the people of Texas who helped finance Dubya's baseball team with a sweetheart rental and purchase option agreement as well as the use of eminent domain in order to make little Bush rich.
- Jeb, whose failed S&L deal cost us all $4 million.
- Jonathan, whose east coast brokerage was fined in two states for violating laws with Jonathan barred from public trading in Massachusetts.
- Neil, who joined the board of the Silverado S&L, which eventually went bankrupt at a cost of $1 billion to the American taxpayers.
So if you want your kids to grow up straight and save some money, keep them away from that Bush family.
BRITAIN HOLDS SECRET TRIAL TO AVOID POSSIBLY REVEALING BUSH WAR CRIME
RICHARD NORTON-TAYLOR, GUARDIAN UK - Two men are to be tried behind closed doors in an Old Bailey courtroom in a move that will stop the public finding out whether George Bush proposed what would have been a war crime and how Tony Blair reacted. The evidence the government does not want us to hear is in an official record of a meeting in Washington in April 2004, when the situation in Iraq was deteriorating fast. The memo, it has been reported, refers to Bush's alleged proposal to bomb the Arabic TV channel al-Jazeera, and is said to reveal how far Blair went in criticising US military tactics in Iraq at a time when troops were bombarding Falluja.
David Keogh, a former civil servant, is charged with unlawfully disclosing the memo. Leo O'Connor, a former Labor researcher, is charged with disclosing a classified document. The way the government went about demanding a private trial, and the arguments used by the judge to allow it, are deeply disturbing.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Blair's foreign-policy adviser, who was present at the Washington meeting, told government lawyers that the disclosure of the memo "could have a serious impact upon the international relations" of the UK, and was likely to have damaged the "promotion or protection" of British interests, including those of British citizens in Iraq.
Sheinwald signed a certificate necessary to persuade the judge that the trial should be held in secret before Keogh and O'Connor were charged at the end of last year. We now know that, soon after the men were charged, government prosecutors requested an adjournment of the pre-trial hearings until April 2006. They said they needed a certificate from the foreign secretary. Two weeks later Margaret Beckett replaced Jack Straw. In June she signed the required certificate. The government has not explained why Straw failed to sign one when he was foreign secretary.
Beckett claims that the disclosure of the memo would be as harmful now as when it was first drawn up: disclosure would have a "serious negative impact on UK/US diplomatic relations. The ultimate consequence ... would be a substantial risk of harm to national security." Beckett continues: "My assessment is that this risk is of such magnitude to outweigh the interest of open public justice."
In his little-noticed ruling the judge, Mr Justice Aikens, elaborates on these claims. The contents of the memo would be read "throughout the world", he warns - a prospect, it seems, too awful to contemplate. . . "It is reasonable to conclude," he warns, that some individuals, parts of the media, and "even some states", might react "very unfavorably" to the memo's contents. This might be "for no other reason than the topic under discussion was US/UK policy concerning the state of Iraq at a delicate time". And he comes with a trump card. He says: "It is also legitimate, in my view, for the court to bear in mind the ever-present threat to national safety which is posed by the possibility of terrorist acts by extremists in the UK."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1921328,00.html
ASIDE FROM BEING A PROTO-FASCIST SOME OTHER WAYS GEORGE BUSH IS DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS
GARRY WILLS, NY REVIEW OF BOOKS - The right wing in America likes to think that the United States government was, at its inception, highly religious, specifically highly Christian, and even more specifically highly biblical. That was not true of that government or any later government - until 2000, when the fiction of the past became the reality of the present. George W. Bush was not only born-again, like Jimmy Carter. His religious conversion came late, and took place in the political setting of Billy Graham's ministry to the powerful. He was converted during a stroll with Graham on his father's Kennebunkport compound. It is true that Dwight Eisenhower was guided to baptism by Graham. But Eisenhower was a famous and formed man, the principal military figure of World War II, the leader of NATO, the president of Columbia University­his change in religious orientation was just an addition to many prior achievements. Bush's conversion at a comparatively young stage in his life was a wrenching away from mainly wasted years. . . .
Bush was a saved alcoholic - and here, too, he had no predecessor in the White House. Ulysses Grant conquered the bottle, but not with the help of Jesus. Other presidents were evangelicals. Three of them belonged to the Disciples of Christ - James Garfield, Lyndon Johnson, and Ronald Reagan. But none of the three - nor any of the other forty-two presidents preceding Bush (including his father)­would have answered a campaign debate question as he did. Asked who was his favorite philosopher, he said "Jesus Christ." And why? "Because he changed my heart." . . .
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19590BUSH REPORTED TO HAVE PURCHASED 99,000 ACRES IN PARAGUAY
Why might the president and his family need a 98,840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a semi-secret U.S. military base manned by American troops who have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution by the Paraguayan government? - Wonkette
PRENSA LATINA - The land grab project of US President George W. Bush in Chaco, Paraguay, has generated considerable discomfort both politically and environmentally. The news circulating the continent about plans to buy 98,840 acres of land in Chaco, Paraguay, near the Triple Frontier (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay) is the talk of the town in these countries.
Although official sources have not confirmed the information that is already public, the land is reportedly located in Paso de Patria, near Bolivian gas reserves and the Guarani indigenous water region, within the Triple Border. . .
Concern increased last week with the arrival of Bush" daughter, Jenna, and a source from the Physical Planning Department saying that most of the Chaco region belongs to private companies.
Luis D'Elia, Argentina´s undersecretary for Land for Social Habitat, says the matter raises regional concern because it threatens local natural resources.
STEVE O - It has been reported that George W. Bush has recently purchased a 98,842 acre farm in Northern Paraguay. What on earth does the President of the United States need a 98,000+ acre farm in Northern Paraguay for?
On the surface it looks all very innocent, but let's add the very quiet trip that Jenna Bush made to the country earlier this month in which she met Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and his family at their official residence. She also met with U.S. Ambassador James Cason. Could it be that our little drunken Jenna is all grown up and playing diplomacy?
This all still seems very innocent on the surface, but now let's add the five hundred U.S. troops that arrived in Paraguay with planes, weapons and ammunition in July 2005, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court jurisdiction. Neighboring countries and human rights organizations are concerned the massive air base at Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay is potential real estate for the U.S. military.
Does Bush plan on being charged with something in the future? Does Bush foresee a collapse of the United States and feels a strong need to have a place to cut and run to, or does Bush just need a nice secret little place other than Gitmo where he can send people he doesn't like?
http://www.teambio.org/2006/10/bush-family-98842-acres-and-a-mule/
BRING IT ON - Jenna Bush paid a secret diplomatic visit to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and U.S. Ambassador James Cason. There were no press conferences, no public sightings and no official confirmation of her 10-day trip which apparently ended this week. . .
And Jenna's down there having secret meetings with the president and America's ambassador to Paraguay, James Cason. Bush posted Cason in Havana in 2002, but last year moved him to Paraguay. Cason apparently gets around. A former "political adviser" to the U.S. Atlantic Command and ATO's Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, Cason has been stationed in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama … basically everywhere the U.S. has run secret and not-so-secret wars over the past 30 years.
Here's a fun question for Tony Snow: Why might the president and his family need a 98,840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a semi-secret U.S. military base manned by American troops who have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution by the Paraguayan government?
WONKETTE - Here's a little background on the base itself, which Rumsfeld secretly visited in late 2005: U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner.
Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion.
BUSH PARAGUAY LAND DEAL RUMOR UPDATE
TOM PHILLIPS, GUARDIAN - Meeting the new couple next door can be an anxious business for even the most relaxed home owner. Will they be international drug traffickers? Have they got noisy kids with a penchant for electronic music? As worries go, however, having the US president move in next door must come fairly low on the list.
Unless of course you are a resident of northern Paraguay and believe reports in the South American press that he has bought up a 100,000 acre ranch in your neck of the woods.
The rumors, as yet unconfirmed but which began with the state-run Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, have triggered an outpouring of conspiracy theories, with speculation rife about what President Bush's supposed interest in the "chaco", a semi-arid lowland in the Paraguay's north, might be.
Some have speculated that he might be trying to wrestle control of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the largest underground water reserves, from the Paraguayans.
Rumors of Mr Bush's supposed forays into South American real estate surfaced during a recent 10-day visit to the country by his daughter Jenna Bush. Little is known about her trip to Paraguay. . . Reports in sections of the Paraguayan media suggested she was sent on a family "mission" to tie up the land purchase in the "chaco".
Erasmo RodrÃguez Acosta, the governor of the Alto Paraguay region where Mr Bush's new acquisition supposedly lies, told one Paraguayan news agency there were indications that Mr Bush had bought land in Paso de Patria, near the border with Brazil and Bolivia. He was, however, unable to prove this, he added.
Last week the Paraguayan news group Neike suggested that Ms Bush was in Paraguay to "visit the land acquired by her father - relatively close to the Brazilian Pantanal [wetlands] and the Bolivian gas reserves".
The US presence in Paraguay has been under scrutiny since May 2005 when the country's Congress agreed to allow 400 American marines to operate there for 18 months in exchange for financial aid.
At the time many viewed the arrival of troops as a sign that Washington was trying to monitor US business interests in neighboring Bolivia, after the election of Evo Morales, a leftwing leader who promised to nationalize his country's natural gas industry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1928928,00.html
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