A Little middle ground here, read the papers but make your own mind up. Think for yourself and read between the lines.

>The Difference Between The Liberal and Conservative "Debate"
Over The War on Terrorism


Question: You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two
small children. Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife
comes around the corner and is running at you while screaming
obscenities.
In your hand is a Glock .40 and you are an expert shot. You have mere
seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do?


Liberal Answer:

Well, that's not enough information to answer the question! Does the man
look poor or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that is
inspiring
him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about
the kids? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife
out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Is it
possible
he'd be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me
or
would he just be content to wound me?
If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away
while he was stabbing me? This is all so confusing!

_______________________________________________


Conservative Answer:
BANG!

__________________________________________________

Texan's Answer:

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click...
sounds of clip being ejected and fresh clip installed)
Wife: "Sweetheart, he looks like he's still moving, what do you kids
think?"
Son: "Mom's right Dad, I saw it too..."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Daughter: "Nice grouping Daddy!"

Bush accomplishments as President

This first section is about the "hate machine" drum beating in the background, so much so that many people just believe and think that
just because some movie star has spoken then it's the truth. The same one liners that you hear one the radio,
in public and at parties where people who know very little just repeat what they have heard by the Liberal
Hate Machine (LHM). It's the whole McDonalds theory if you ask me- you say it enough times it doesn't
matter if its true, you flood the market with Restaurants and soon no matter where from Tokyo to Kansas,
there's a McDonalds- and you think that's beef your eating there?
These are the same people who were
cheering when Rush was losing his hearing and wished him deaf, that they wished President Reagan would
die from Alzheimer's, the same hate filled people who wished that Charlton Heston would die a painful
death from Alzheimer's as well. I don't really know what to think of people who wish painful death on
other people for their political beliefs, and frankly I don't want to know these people well enough to find
out what they are thinking- I imagine there's not much there (Mostly Hate and more Hate I bet).
I have to say that for the past few years I stepped back from the political spectrum to take a break from all the conflict. When I
wandered back into it I found these people who call themselves peaceful liberals wishing death, pain, and
disability on ANYONE who had different political views from their own. I was shocked and amazed that
people like these feel it's justified for someone to die because they support ideas and think different than
they do. What type of people are these? I'll tell you exactly, and for those frustrated with them as I am you
may agree. Typically these are the most indulged people who and are the ones who scream oppression the loudest, the
ones who have consumed more from society than they have given (consumption through programs put in
place to help poor people succeed or live, financial assistance, mental help, welfare,,,and the list goes on ). Yet if you look at how much money these people have sent back into the economy by working and paying taxes you see a different story.
These are the people who turn a blind eye to the nation and world and only care how about things that
effect them. Ok, so there's my rant, and I'll hop off of my soapbox now. Just for the record - NONE of
the information below was derived from any place with strong political leanings. The information that says "PRESIDENTIAL ACTION" comes right from the white houses own governmental
web page. Thanks for reading, Jeff



HALF TRUTHS AND LIES PROMOTED BY THE HYSTERICAL LEFT
Reneged on his promise to support mandatory emission reductions for carbon dioxide in power plants and
has now backed out of the Global Warming Treaty. Most likely, he never planned to endorse these
measures-he just said he would to get a few votes. He is now paying back his big oil contributors with our
children's breath.
Repealed the Clinton Administration's drinking water regulation, thus allowing the level of arsenic in
drinking water to remain at its high level.
Introduced the idea of government funded religion organizations. An idea that may not violate the letter of
the Constitution, but surely the spirit of the document upon which the American government is founded.
Put forward a tax-break-for-the-rich scheme while touting it as a cure for the poor economy-an economy
he and his henchmen keep harping on, thus trying to fool Americans into thinking this scheme is the only
answer.
Asked us to "move on past" (thus ignore) the Florida election fiasco. He means that we should not question
all the accusations of stolen votes, lost votes, and under-counted votes. We should just accept the outcome
as if we were sheep-or subjects!
Pushed through a ban to keep OSHA from issuing standards and ergonomic guidelines, thus making it more
difficult for hard working Americans to get treatment for this painful work related injury.
Has suspended the black listing regulation regarding the awarding of government contracts to builders.
Now contractors who are known polluters and who are know to discriminate in hiring practices will be
allowed to bid on these contracts.


_______________________________________________________________________

THE TRUTH ABOUT BUSH - WHAT HE IS ACTUALLY DOING AND HAS DONE
this is just a sampling, you can find more at www.whitehouse.gov
_______________________________________________________________________

National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Crime brings trauma, pain, and insecurity into the lives of too many Americans each year. As we work to reduce crime and protect the rights of the accused, we must take equal care to protect the rights of their victims. During National Crime Victims' Rights Week, we remember those who have suffered as a result of crime and honor those who have helped these victims.
Americans suffered over 24 million crimes in 2001, 5.7 million of which involved violence. While we have improved policies and our justice system has treated victims with greater respect in recent years, we must continue our work to ensure the full rights of all crime victims and better protect our citizens. My Administration believes that victims of violent crime have important rights that deserve protection in our Constitution, and to guarantee these rights, I strongly support the passage of the bipartisan Crime Victims' Rights Amendment. This amendment will provide victims of violent crime the right to reasonable and timely notice of any public proceedings involving the crime or release of the perpetrator, and the right to be heard at public proceedings regarding the criminal's sentence or potential release. It will also assure that such victims receive timely notice of any escape of their attacker. Under this amendment, decision makers will duly consider the victim's safety and payment of restitution from the offender to the victim. This important amendment will strike the right balance in protecting individual rights and ensuring fairness and equity in our criminal justice system.
Across our Nation, victims' rights groups work on behalf of victims every day. Through care and compassion, these groups and individuals are bringing hope and comfort to their neighbors in need. Domestic violence shelters, support groups for families of homicide victims, rape crisis centers, and other organizations in our cities and communities offer vital assistance to individuals who have been affected by crime. In times of such crises, counselors, hotline operators, clergy, doctors, nurses, law enforcement, and countless others also help their fellow Americans cope with their pain and suffering.
As a Nation, we must continue to seek justice on behalf of all people who have been victimized by crime. The heroes in these efforts are the individuals and organizations who work to provide valuable support and assistance to those who have suffered from crime. This week allows us to recognize these heroes and renew our commitment to fulfilling the promise of our Nation of justice for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 6 through April 12, 2003, as National Crime Victims' Rights Week. I encourage every community to embrace the cause of victims' rights and to advance it in all sectors of our society.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
__________________________________________________________________________________________

National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Our nation has an important responsibility to create a caring environment in which our children can flourish and reach their full potential. As we observe the 20th anniversary of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we recognize the significant progress we have made to increase the safety and security of our children. We also renew our commitment to protecting our most vulnerable citizens from harm. Child abuse and neglect are national tragedies, and we must work together to eradicate them.
Every day, thousands of children are mistreated by their parents, guardians, relatives, or caregivers. On average, three children a day die as a result of abuse and neglect, and countless others remain silent, their pain unnoticed and unreported. These children face challenges that no child deserves, and young people who have experienced abuse may grow into adults who are self-destructive and damaging to our communities. To help these children become healthy and happy adults, parents and caregivers must provide them with love, security, emotional support, and a strong connection to their extended families and communities.
To help ensure the safety and well-being of our children, my Administration is committed to supporting and strengthening families. In the last year, we have worked with faith-based and community organizations to promote healthy marriages, responsible fatherhood, and partnerships that seek to prevent child abuse and neglect. We also worked with the Congress to reauthorize the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program. This year, we are asking the Congress to fully fund this program at million, an increase of more than 65 percent. In addition, we are working with the Congress to reauthorize the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. This important legislation will provide funding to States for child abuse prevention activities and other vital programs.
Every child is a blessing. Through the cooperation of Federal, State, and local governments, faith-based and community organizations, schools, law enforcement, and health and human service agencies, we can develop and enhance success-ful prevention strategies that protect our young people. In addition, we must continue to recognize the spirit of compassion in individuals and community groups across our Nation that offer care, guidance, and support for young people, parents, and caregivers. By working together, we can put hope in our children's hearts and ensure healthy and safe lives for all our children.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2003 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. I encourage all Americans to join together to support strong families, protect our children from abuse, neglect, and maltreatment, and make our Nation a more promising place for all.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Women's History Month, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
As our Founding Fathers worked to develop the framework of our Nation, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband: "I long to hear that you have declared an independency -- and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors." An early advocate of women's rights, a farm and financial manager, and the mother of an American President, John Quincy Adams, Abigail Adams is one of many American women who helped establish the strength and vitality of our Nation. During Women's History Month, we recognize the generations of American women whose important contributions continue to shape our Nation and enrich our society.
Through vision, hard work, and determination, countless American women have broadened opportunities for themselves and for others at home, in the community, and in the workplace. In 1809, Mary Kies became the first woman to receive a U.S. patent. By developing a method of weaving straw with silk, she helped advance American industry and set an inspiring example for other American women. Her pioneering efforts helped define our country's entrepreneurial spirit and paved the way for future generations of women to take pride in their talents and creativity.
Since Mary Kies' groundbreaking achievement, many American women have become successful entrepreneurs and business professionals. In 1905, Madam C.J. Walker started her own business by creating and selling hair care products for African-American women. After a decade, her company was highly successful and employed more than 3,000 people, and at the time, was the largest African-American owned business in the United States. Today, Madam Walker is remembered for her business accomplishments, efforts to create new opportunities for women, and for her contributions to her community.
Driven by the legacy of these extraordinary figures, American women from all backgrounds continue to break barriers and fulfill their personal and professional potential. At the dawn of the 21st century, women have more choices than ever before. Between 1992 and 2002, the number of female college graduates in the United States has increased from 15.9 million to 23.6 million. Women account for 47 percent of all employed persons and are entering the American workforce in record numbers. In the last 10 years, their ranks have increased by 8.7 million. Furthermore, women-owned small businesses are growing twice as fast as all other U.S. firms, employing 7 million Americans and contributing to the vitality of our economy. To build on these successes, my Administration will continue our work to promote policies that advance the aspirations, hopes, and dreams of every American.
This month, as we celebrate remarkable women in our Nation's past, I encourage all citizens to recognize the countless American women whose efforts continue to enhance the economic, social, and cultural life of our great Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 2003 as Women's History Month. I call upon all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies and activities and to remember throughout the year the many contributions of American women.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
______________________________________________________________________________

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Domestic violence in America is intolerable and must be stopped. According to the 2000 National Crime Victimization Survey, almost 700,000 incidents of violence between partners were documented in our Nation, and thousands more go unreported. And in the past quarter century, almost 57,000 Americans were murdered by a partner. Children who witness domestic violence often grow up believing that physical cruelty in relationships is acceptable behavior, and thus they may tend to perpetuate a cycle of violence in society.
Many Federal, State, and local programs addressing the domestic violence problem have achieved success, bringing greater safety to families. The success of coordinated community-based efforts is helping us win the battle against domestic violence. Community leaders, police, judges, advocates, healthcare workers, and concerned Americans are working together across America to develop solutions to this serious problem and to implement services that will improve our responses when it occurs. For example, many police departments and district attorneys offices have created specialized domestic violence units that cooperate with community advocates to enhance services for victims; and representatives from the faith community frequently provide essential support in areas where there may be no other services available. Programs designed to educate men and women about ways they can help prevent domestic violence are being developed across our Nation. Every citizen has the ability to aid and assist those suffering from domestic abuse and to let victims know that support is available through shelters, hotlines, and other services.
To better assist victims in need, my Administration recently implemented funding for new programs to improve outreach and services for people who are older or who have disabilities.
We have also intensified our efforts to provide meaningful access to Federally sponsored programs for individuals with limited English proficiency, making it easier for them to escape violence, report crime, and gain access to community services.
We must continue to hold domestic abusers accountable; we must punish them to the full extent of the law; and we must prevent them from inflicting more abuse. Protective orders are helpful and can be enforced in every jurisdiction in our country, which means their power extends across State lines and onto tribal lands. This legal authority makes it easier for police and prosecutors to keep aggressors away from their intended targets. Many abusers become more dangerous after court-enforced separation from their victims and often use visitation or exchange of children as an opportunity to inflict abuse. We are working to expand programs that improve the safety of family members in these situations.
During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I urge all Americans to join together in recommitting themselves to eliminating domestic violence and reaching out to its victims, letting them know that help is available. With dedication and vigilance, we can increase safety for thousands of our citizens and bring hope to countless Americans.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2002 as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I urge all Americans to become a part of the coordinated community response to domestic violence and to send the message that this crime will not be tolerated in our Nation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
___________________________________________________________________________
President Bush Calls for Conservation and Stewardship on Earth Day


Today's Presidential Action

President Bush traveled to the Adirondack Park in upstate New York to observe the 33rd annual Earth Day,
where he called for stronger cooperation between government, the private sector and individuals to increase
environmental conservation and stewardship.

This year, Earth Day coincides with the beginning of National Volunteer Week. The President also
highlighted the important work that volunteers do on environmental conservation projects across the
country, and the importance of every American taking personal responsibility for protecting and enhancing
their local environment.

Background on Today's Presidential Action

The Adirondack Park is a New York State park protected by a "forever wild" amendment to the state
constitution in 1894. While the public lands within the Park are controlled by the State of New York, the
history of the Adirondack Park and recent land conservation initiatives in the area demonstrate the
importance of personal stewardship and public/private cooperation in land conservation. The Park is a
unique mix of public and private lands, with about half the land within the park's boundaries (known
locally as the "blue line") remaining in private hands. The 6-million acre Adirondack Forest Preserve was
established with support from private landowners and businesses in the area that were concerned about the
effects that deforestation would have upon local water supplies.

The President also honored the thousands of volunteers who dedicate time every year to advancing
environmental conservation efforts across the country. During his visit, the President worked on a trail
maintenance project on the Ausable River Trail with the Adirondack Council, the Association for the
Protection of the Adirondacks and AmeriCorps members working with the Student Conservation
Association. Individual action plays an essential role in environmental conservation.

More than 200,000 volunteers work on Department of Interior lands each year - three volunteers for every
Department of Interior employee - and thousands more contribute to other federal, state, local, tribal, and
private conservation efforts.
More than 19,000 Senior Corps volunteers work on 2,600 environmental projects each year - dedicating an
average of 1 million hours annually to environmental activities. And, this year, more than 6,000
AmeriCorps members are working on 150 national and local environmental projects.

President Bush's Commitment to Environmental Conservation and Stewardship

Land and Water Conservation Fund: The LWCF may be the most successful federal-state-local partnership
for conservation in American history. The President's FY 03 budget proposal once again fully funds the
LWCF (for the second year in a row) at more than million to support a variety of conservation
approaches - including increasing funding to states and local communities to million, a million
increase over FY 02 funding, and a million increase over FY 01 funding. Under the prior
administration, LWCF funding for states was phased out and the money was reserved exclusively for
federal land acquisitions. The President's FY 03 budget proposal recognizes that federal land acquisition is
not the only way to conserve land and other natural resources, and allows funds to be used for conservation
easements.

Protecting our National Parks: The President's FY 03 budget includes the largest National Parks operations
budget ever submitted. The President's budget reflects his strong support for the National Parks Legacy
Project that he announced last year to eliminate the park maintenance backlog. Approximately 25 percent
of the President's record FY 03 million budget request for maintenance backlog will be spent on
projects that benefit critical natural resource needs.
The President's FY 03 budget also includes an million increase (to .5 million) for the Natural
Resource Challenge, a science-based initiative to strengthen natural resource management throughout the
National Park system by protecting native species and habitats, improving the health of natural resources
within parks, eradicating invasive species, and sharing information about natural resources with the public.
Fifty-two parks will have programs to measure park resource health by the end of 2003.

Protecting our National Wildlife Refuges: The President's FY 03 budget proposes a record million, up
million from FY'02, for our National Wildlife Refuges. The National Wildlife Refuge system is
celebrating its centennial year in 2003, and its Centennial Campaign will improve resource conservation,
visitor programs, and facilities on wildlife refuges nationwide.

Promoting Cooperative Conservation: The President has proposed spending million through the
Department of Interior for a new Cooperative Conservation Initiative to protect and conserve the
environment through partnerships that will tap Americans' ingenuity, imagination, and innovative spirit.
Challenge grants will be awarded competitively to landowners, environmental groups, land-user groups,
communities and local and state governments.

Landowner Incentive Program and Private Stewardship Grant Programs: President Bush has worked to
create new landowner incentive and private stewardship grant programs, which Congress funded at
million this year. The President's FY 03 budget includes an additional million - for a total of
million - for these programs. The President's FY 03 budget includes million in funding for the
Landowner Incentive Program, which provides funds to states, tribes, and territories to make cost-sharing
grants to landowners who voluntarily participate in the protection of habitat for endangered, threatened or
other at-risk species on private or Tribal lands. Another million will go to the Private Stewardship
Grant Program, which directly assists individuals or groups involved in the voluntary conservation of
wildlife habitat on private lands.

A Call for a Strong Conservation Title for the Farm Bill: President Bush believes that America's agriculture
policy should encourage the production of goods and services in more efficient, innovative, and
environmentally beneficial ways. The President is working to ensure that the Farm Bill will bolster the
stewardship of working lands through such programs as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the
Farmland Protection Program, and a new Grasslands Reserve Program. Expansion of other programs, such
as the Conservation Reserve Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives
Program, are also important components of a strong conservation title in the Farm Bill. Greater use of
these well-designed, voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs can provide environmental benefits,
such as improved water quality, habitat, soil retention, and carbon sequestration.

Other Key Bush Administration Environmental Accomplishments

Budget: President Bush's .4 billion FY 03 environment and natural resources budget request is the
highest ever - $1.4 billion, or 3 percent, higher than FY 02 enacted. The President's budget proposal
provides .1 billion, the highest level ever for EPA's operating program, and provides the highest level
ever for EPA state program grants, $1.2 billion.

Brownfields Cleanup - Bringing New Life to Abandoned Sites in Our Cities and Towns: Fulfilling an
important campaign commitment, President Bush signed historic legislation that will result in more cleanup
and redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites known as "brownfields" - improving the environment,
protecting public health, creating jobs and revitalizing communities. The President's FY 03 budget proposal
provides million - twice the FY 02 level of funding - for EPA's brownfields program, million of
which is for grants for states and local communities. The President is also working to make permanent the
brownfields tax credit.

Clear Skies - A Clean Air Act for the 21st Century: President Bush's initiative would dramatically improve
air quality by cutting power plants' emissions of three critical pollutants by 70 percent - more than any
other presidential clean air initiative. This historic legislative proposal would bring clean air to American
communities faster, more reliably, and more effectively than the current Clean Air Act. And, it would help
to reduce acid rain in the Adirondacks.

______________________________________________________________________


PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES CLEAR SKIES & GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
INITIATIVES


PRESIDENTIAL ACTION

Today the President will unveil the most aggressive initiative in American history to cut power plant
emissions, as well as a bold new strategy for addressing global climate change.

The Clear Skies Initiative. Cuts power plant emissions of the three worst air pollutants ­V nitrogen oxides,
sulfur dioxide, and mercury ­V by 70 percent. The initiative will improve air quality using a proven,
market-based approach.
Global Climate Change. Commits America to an aggressive strategy to cut greenhouse gas intensity by
18% over the next 10 years. The initiative also supports vital climate change research and ensures that
America­Ýs workers and citizens of the developing world are not unfairly penalized.
THE CLEAR SKIES INITIATIVE

Dramatically & Steadily Cuts Power Plant Emissions of Three of the Worst Air Pollutants:

Cuts sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 73 percent, from current emissions of 11 million tons to a cap of
4.5 million tons in 2010, and 3 million tons in 2018.
Cuts emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 67 percent, from current emissions of 5 million tons to a cap of
2.1 million tons in 2008, and to 1.7 million tons in 2018.
Cuts mercury emissions by 69 percent ­V the first-ever national cap on mercury emissions. Emissions will
be cut from current emissions of 48 tons to a cap of 26 tons in 2010, and 15 tons in 2018.
Uses a Proven Market-Based Approach:

Protects Americans from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases by dramatically reducing smog, acid rain,
fine particles, regional haze, nitrogen and mercury deposition.
Protects our wildlife, habitats and ecosystem health.
Cuts pollution further, faster, cheaper, and with more certainty, using a ­cap-and trade­" program,
replacing a cycle of endless litigation with rapid and certain improvements in air quality.
Saves as much as $1 billion annually in compliance costs that are passed along to American consumers,
and improves air quality and protects the reliability and affordability of electricity.
Uses the model of our most successful clean air law - the 1990 Clean Air Act's acid rain program - and
encourages use of new and cleaner pollution control technologies.
A NEW APPROACH ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

The President has committed America to an aggressive new strategy to cut greenhouse gas intensity by
18% over the next 10 years. The initiative also supports vital climate change research and ensures that
America's workers and citizens of the developing world are not unfairly penalized. The President's
initiative puts America on a path to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and ­V as the science
justifies - to stop, and then reverse that growth.

Cutting Greenhouse Gas Intensity by 18 Percent Over the Next 10 Years. Greenhouse gas intensity is the
ratio of greenhouse gas emissions to economic output. The President's goal seeks to lower our rate of
emissions from an estimated 183 metric tons per million dollars of GDP in 2002, to 151 metric tons per
million dollars of GDP in 2012. By significantly slowing the growth of greenhouse gases, this policy will
put America on a path toward stabilizing GHG concentration in the atmosphere in the long run, while
sustaining the economic growth needed to finance our investments in a new, cleaner energy structure.
America is already improving its GHG intensity; new policies and programs will accelerate that progress,
avoiding more than 500 million metric tons of GHG emissions over the next ten years - the equivalent of
taking nearly one out of every three cars off the road. This goal is comparable to the average progress that
nations participating in the Kyoto Protocol are required to achieve.


A New Tool to Measure and Credit Emissions Reductions. The U.S. will improve its GHG registry to
enhance measurement accuracy, reliability and verifiability, working with and taking into account
emerging domestic and international approaches. These improvements will give businesses incentives to
invest in new, cleaner technology and voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions.


Protect and Provide Transferable Credit for Emission Reductions. The President will direct the Secretary of
Energy to recommend reforms to: (1) ensure that businesses that register voluntary reductions are not
penalized under a future climate policy, and (2) give credit to companies that can show real emissions
reductions.


Reviewing Progress on Climate Change and Taking Additional Action if Necessary in 2012, which may
include a broad, market-based program, as well as additional initiatives to accelerate technology. If, in
2012, we find that we are not on track toward meeting our goal, and sound science justifies further policy
action, the United States will respond with additional measures that may include a broad, market-based
program as well as additional incentives and voluntary measures designed to accelerate technology
development and deployment.


Unprecedented Funding for Climate Change-Related Programs: The President's budget in FY 2003
provides .5 billion for global climate change-related activities - a million increase. This includes the
first year of funding for a five-year, .6 billion commitment to tax credits for renewable energy sources.


A Comprehensive Range of New and Expanded Domestic and International Policies, including:
Expanded research and development of climate-related science and technology
Expanded use of renewable energy
Business sector challenges
Improvements in the transportation sector
Incentives for sequestration
Enhanced support for climate observation and mitigation in the developing world.


A Better Alternative to the Kyoto Protocol. Rather than making drastic reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions that would put millions of Americans out of work and undermine our ability to make long-term
investments in clean energy - as the Kyoto Protocol would have required - the President's growth-based
approach will accelerate the development of new technologies and encourage partnerships on climate
change issues with the developing world.


Important Facts About President Bush's Environmental Initiatives


Today President Bush will become the first-ever President to propose a multi-emission strategy for power
plants that, when implemented, will lead to cleaner air in every community and region across America.


Today President Bush also becomes the first President to propose a cap on Mercury emissions.


If the whole world participates in the President 's climate change strategy, then there will be even larger
reductions of greenhouse gases than under the Kyoto Protocol.


When you consider the President's FY 2003 budget alone, the .5 billion it provides for global climate
change programs is more than any other country in the world.


Over the last decade the U.S. has spent at least billion on global climate change programs.


The U.S. Senate rejected the Kyoto Protocol by a 95-0 vote in 1997.



Bush And Alternative Energy Sources: Modernizing Our Energy Supply And Planning For The Future

President Bush's Energy Plan Supports And Invests In The Development Of New And Renewable Sources
Of Energy For Generations To Come:

The President's Plan:

Proposes tax credits for homeowners who invest in solar homes and for utilities that build wind turbines or
harness biomass and other environmentally friendly forms of power.
Removes impediments to the development of hydro-electricity.
Proposes incentives to buy new cars that run on alternative fuels, like ethanol, that consume less oil and,
therefore, pollute less.
Supports research into fuel cells, a technology of tomorrow that can power a car with hydrogen, the most
common element in the universe, and emit only steam as a waste product.

By employing a balanced, sensible approach, President Bush is ensuring that energy production and
environmental protection are simultaneous priorities of his Administration.

President Bush Is Diversifying Our Energy Supply And Protecting Our Environment:

The President Knows That Americans Understand The Value Of Expanding And Diversifying Our Energy
Supply. Renewable and alternative energy supplies not only help diversify our energy portfolio; they do so
with few adverse environmental impacts. While the current contribution of renewable and alternative
energy resources to America's total electricity supply is relatively small, the renewable and alternative
energy sectors are among the fastest growing in the United States. President Bush believes that continued
growth of renewable and alternative energy is vital to delivering clean energy to fuel our economic growth
for generations to come.

President Bush Proposes Temporary Income Tax Credits For The Purchase Of New Hybrid And Fuel Cell
Vehicles. These credits would be available for all qualifying light vehicles, including cars, minivans, sport
utility vehicles and light trucks. The tax credits will encourage the purchase of highly fuel-efficient vehicles
that incorporate advanced automotive technologies and will help to move hybrid and fuel cell vehicles from
the laboratory to the highway.

President Bush Will Make Renewable And Solar Research A Priority. Beginning in 2004, the President's
budget plan calls for dedicating one-half of the "bonus bids" - the cash paid to the U.S. government by
successful bidders for oil and gas leases - to fund increased research on solar and renewable energy
technology development. This research will be conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy over a seven-
year period, and is a productive and environmentally sensitive part of the President's plan for a balanced
national energy policy.
President Bush And Alternative Energy Sources - Creating A Smarter America For Our Children:

President Bush supports several tax incentives to help increase the contribution that alternative and
renewable energy makes towards our energy supply. The President's strategy for a comprehensive energy
policy includes researching and developing alternative energy sources such as wind, biomass, solar,
ethanol, landfill gas and hydrogen.

WIND: Wind Energy Accounts For 6% Of Renewable Electricity Generation And 0.1% Of Total
Electricity Supply. However, advances by research labs, universities, utilities and wind energy developers
have helped cut wind energy's costs by more than 80% during the last 20 years. The industry is poised for
growth and many areas of the United States have abundant wind energy potential. President Bush supports
expanding tax credits for electricity produced using renewable technology, such as wind. The President's
budget request extends the present 1.7 cents per kilowatt hour tax credit for electricity produced from wind.

BIOMASS: Biomass Is Organic Matter Than Can Be Used To Provide Heat, Make Fuel, And Generate
Electricity. Wood, plants, residue from agriculture or forest products and landfill gas are all considered
biomass. Unlike other renewable energy sources, biomass can be converted directly into liquid fuels - like
ethanol and biodiesel. Biomass accounts for 76% of renewable electricity generation and 1.6% of total U.S.
electricity supply.

President Bush Supports Expanding Tax Credits For Electricity Produced Using Renewable Technology,
Such As Biomass. The President's budget request extends the present 1.7 cents per kilowatt hour tax credit
for electricity produced from biomass and expands eligible biomass sources to include forest-related
sources, agricultural sources, and other specified sources. For existing biomass facilities, the credit for
electricity produced from the new sources is 1.0 cent per kWh for three years of production (2002-2004).
To help reduce emissions from coal fired facilities, President Bush proposes a tax credit for electricity
produced from cofiring biomass from new sources of 0.5 cent per kWh for three years of production (2002-
2004).

SOLAR: President Bush Supports A Tax Credit Of Up To ,000 Per Item For Families Who Fit Their
Homes With Solar Energy Devices. While solar energy technologies have undergone technological and
cost improvements, and are well established in high-value markets like remote power, satellites,
communications and navigational aides, continued research is needed to reduce costs, make the products
more user-friendly and improve performance. Solar energy accounts for 1% of renewable electricity
generation and 0.2% of total U.S. electricity supply. The President proposes a new 15% tax credit for
individuals who purchase photovoltaic equipment or solar water heating equipment for use in the
individual's residence, up to a maximum credit of ,000 for each type of equipment. The credit would be
available for 2002-2007 for photovoltaic equipment and 2002-2005 for solar water heating equipment. This
credit will reduce the cost of these investments and encourage individuals to adopt them.

ETHANOL: The President Proposes To Extend The Excise Tax Exemption For Gasohol (Ethanol Mixed
With Motor Fuels) And The Income Tax Credit For Ethanol Used As Fuel Beyond 2007 When They Are
Scheduled To Expire. This encourages the production of motor fuel from a renewable energy source and
reduces oil consumption.

LANDFILL GAS: President Bush Proposes To Encourage An Alternative Source Of Energy Near
Population Centers By Providing Tax Credits For Energy Produced From Landfill Gas. The credit would
be for energy produced from methane from regulated landfills, which EPA requires to collect and flare
methane, and from unregulated landfills.

HYDROGEN: Hydrogen Is The Most Common Element In The Universe And Can Be Made From Water.
In the long run, alternative energy technologies such as hydrogen show great promise. Converting
hydrogen into energy is compatible with existing energy technologies - such as fuel cells, hybrid engines,
and combustion turbines. Hydrogen is also environmentally sensitive. It can be converted into useful
energy forms efficiently and without detrimental environmental benefits. In order to continue movement
toward this exciting new fuel source, President Bush supports reauthorization of the Hydrogen Energy Act.
(Bush Energy Plan)

__________________________________________________________________________



Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children

Presidential Action

President George W. Bush hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Missing, Exploited, and
Runaway Children to raise public awareness of steps that parents, law enforcement, and communities can
take to make America's children safer.

The President announced his strong support for the Hutchison-Feinstein National AMBER Alert Network
Act of 2002, which would help develop, enhance, and coordinate AMBER plans. AMBER Alert plans are
voluntary partnerships between law enforcement agencies and local broadcasters to send an emergency
alert to enlist the help of the public in finding an abducted child.
The President also announced that his Administration is taking immediate action to help expand and
improve the AMBER Alert system. He announced that:
The Attorney General will establish an AMBER Alert Coordinator at the Justice Department, who will
serve as a nationwide point of contact to assist state and local officials with developing and enhancing
AMBER plans, and to promote statewide and regional coordination among plans.
The Attorney General will establish recommended nationwide standards for issuing and disseminating
AMBER Alerts to help ensure that the use of the system is reserved for rare instances of serious child
abductions.
The Attorney General and Secretary of Transportation will provide a total of million from existing
funds to: (1) develop AMBER training and education programs; (2) upgrade emergency alert systems; and
(3) facilitate the use of overhead electronic highway message boards and other systems as part of AMBER
Alert plans.


Child Abduction
Each year, more than 58,000 U.S. children are abducted by non-family members, often in connection with
another crime. More than 200,000 children are abducted by family members who are seeking to interfere
with a parent's custodial or visitation rights. Although the vast majority of children (at least 98%) return
from abductions, too many children do not. While there are only around 100 reported cases each year of the
most dangerous type of abduction - stranger kidnapping - fully 40% of these children are murdered.

Runaways
There are approximately 1.3 million young Americans on the street every day as a result of running away
and/or homelessness. One in seven children between the ages of 10 - 18 will run away. Some will return
within a few days, while others remain on the streets and never return. Assaults, illness or suicide will take
the lives of 5,000 runaway youth each year. The National Runaway Switchboard (1-800-621-4000), funded
in part through the Department of Health and Human Services, handles more than 100,000 phone calls each
year.

Cyberpredators
Nearly 30 million children and youth go online to research homework assignments and to learn about the
world they live in. Research by the University of New Hampshire found that one in five children between
the ages of 10 and 17 received a sexual solicitation over the Internet in the last year. One in thirty-three
received an aggressive solicitation - a solicitor who asked to meet them somewhere; called them on the
telephone; or sent them regular mail, money, or gifts.



Background on Presidential Action

President Bush hosted the White House Conference on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children to
promote public awareness of the need to improve children's safety, and to generate recommendations and
best practices from experts in the field. More than 600 people from across America came to the
Conference, including parents of victim children; law enforcement officials; federal, state and local leaders;
citizen experts; and other leaders involved in the cause of missing, exploited, and runaway children.

According to the Department of Justice, almost 800,000 children are reported missing to law enforcement
each year, while another 500,000 children go missing without being reported to authorities. The White
House Conference on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children focused on a wide range of topics related
to children's safety, including child abduction; runaway and homeless youth; international child abduction;
sex trafficking of children; child pornography; Internet safety, and corporate and community involvement.

President Bush's Commitment to Increasing Children's Safety

For FY 2003, President Bush has proposed a 26% increase in funding for the Missing and Exploited
Children's Program, which provides training for state and local enforcement on handling missing child
cases. As a result, the President's budget request would almost double funding for the Department of
Justice's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICACTF) program.

In August, the President also announced the release of a new guidebook - the "Parent's Guide to Child
Safety." The guidebook is designed to help parents take specific steps to improve the safety of their
children, and it includes information that children of all ages can understand. The guidebook reflects the
work of experts on child safety from the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, the FBI and
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is available online in English and in Spanish at
www.missingkids.com. The Department of Education sent a copy of the English and Spanish version to
every public and private school and all main public libraries in the country, reaching over 110,000 schools
and more than 6,000 libraries. In the two weeks following the mailing, the Department of Education took
orders for more than 1 million additional copies of the English version and nearly 200,000 copies of the
Spanish version.


________________________________________________________________________


National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, 2001
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Ovarian cancer, the deadliest of the gynecologic cancers, is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. Experts predict that more than 23,000 cases will be diagnosed in 2001, with an estimated 13,900 women dying from the disease this year.
Ovarian cancer is very treatable when detected early, but only 25 percent of ovarian cancer cases in the United States are diagnosed in the early stages. The vast majority of cases are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread beyond the ovaries, often because symptoms are easily confused with other diseases and because no reliable, easily administered screening tool exists.
When the disease is diagnosed in advanced stages, the chance of 5-year survival is only about 25 percent. Currently, 50 percent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer die from it within 5 years. Among African-American women, only 48 percent survive 5 years or more.
Early detection of this disease remains the best way to save women's lives. Symptoms may include abdominal pressure or bloating, persistent digestive problems, excessive fatigue, and sometimes abnormal bleeding. Women also should be aware that risk factors are higher for those who are over 50 years of age, who have a personal or family history of ovarian, breast, or colon cancer, and who have not borne a child.
National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month serves as an important time to recognize Federally funded research efforts by the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program. Their work has achieved great strides, and my Administration is committed to continuing funding of research that will decrease the high mortality from ovarian cancer and ultimately prevent the disease. At the same time, the medical community and nonprofit groups are working together to create more awareness about the disease and spotlight the need for continued research into prevention, early detection tools, advanced therapies, and possible cures.
During this special observance, I commend the scientists, physicians, and other medical and health professionals who are working to advance knowledge and understanding of ovarian cancer. I also encourage all Americans to learn more about the disease and the importance of early detection. Doing so can save lives and protect the health and well-being of countless women.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September as National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.
GEORGE W. BUSH


__________________________________________________________________________


President Promotes New Mother and Child HIV Prevention Initiative Speach


THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. The global devastation of HIV/AIDS staggers the imagination and
shocks the conscience. The disease has already killed over 20 million people and it's poised to kill at least
40 million more.

In Africa, the disease clouds the future of entire nations and threatens to hold back the hopes of an entire
continent. In the hardest-hit countries of sub-Sahara Africa as much as one-third of the adult population is
infected with HIV, and 10 percent or more of the school teachers will die of AIDS within five years.

The wasted human lives that lie behind these numbers are a call to action for every person on the planet and
for every government. So, today, my administration is announcing another important new initiative in the
fight against HIV/AIDS.

I want to thank Secretary Powell and Secretary O'Neill for their hard work on this project. I appreciate so
very much Tommy Thompson, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for he and his
staff's vision and implementation, procedures for this project. I want to thank Andrew Natsios, the
Administrator of USAID. I appreciate Dr. Tony Fauci, the Director of NIH, for being here, as well, of the
Allergy and Infectious Diseases Department. Thank you, Tony, for your hard work on this. I appreciate
Senator Bill Frist and Senator Jesse Helms, for their vision on this issue. And I appreciate Jim Kolbe, from
the House of Representatives. Thank you all for being here today.

One of our best opportunities for progress against AIDS lies in preventing mothers from passing on the
HIV virus to their children. Worldwide, close to 2,000 babies are infected with HIV every day, during
pregnancy, birth or through breast feeding. Most of those infected will die before their 5th birthday. The
ones who are not infected will grow up as orphans when their parents die of AIDS. New advances in
medical treatment give us the ability to save many of these young lives. And we must, and we will.

Today I announce that my administration plans to make million available to prevent mother-to-child
transmission of HIV. This new effort, which will be funded during the next 16 months, will allow us to
treat one million women annually, and reduce mother-to-child transmission by 40 percent within five years
or less in target countries.

I thank all the members of Congress who supported this initiative, especially Senators Frist and Helms.
Their visionary leadership on this issue will mean the difference between life and death for hundreds of
thousands of children.

Our initiative will focus on 12 countries in Africa and others in the Caribbean where the problem is most
severe and where our help can make the greatest amount of difference. We'll pursue medical strategies that
have a proven track record. We'll define specific goals. We will demand effective management. When the
lives of babies and mothers are at stake, the only measure of compassion is real results.

We have a three-part strategy. First, in places with stronger health care systems, we will provide voluntary
testing, prevention, counseling, and a comprehensive therapy of anti-retroviral medications for both mother
and child, beginning before delivery, and continuing after delivery. This combination has proven extremely
effective in preventing transmission of the HIV virus.

Second, in places with weaker health care systems, we'll provide testing and counseling, and we will
support programs that administer a single dose of nevirapine to the mother at the time of delivery, and at
least one dose to the infant shortly after birth. This therapy reduces the chances of infection by nearly 50
percent.

Third, and most importantly, we will make a major effort to improve the health care delivery systems in
targeted countries. This will allow more women and babies to receive the comprehensive therapy. It will
allow for better and longer treatment and care of all AIDS victims. And it will lead to better health care in
general for all the country's citizens.

We'll help build better health care systems by pairing hospitals in America and hospitals in Africa, so that
African hospitals can gain more expertise in administering effective AIDS programs. We'll also send
volunteer medical professionals from the United States to assist and train their African counterparts. And
we will recruit and pay African medical and graduate students to provide testing, treatment and care.

This major commitment of my government to prevent mother-to- child HIV transmission is the first of this
scale by any government, anywhere. In time, we will gain valuable experience, improve treatment methods,
and sharpen our training strategies. Health care systems in targeted countries will get better. And this will
make even more progress possible. And as we see what works, we will make more funding available.

The United States already contributes approximately a billion dollars a year to international efforts to
combat HIV/AIDS. In addition, we plan to spend more than .5 billion on research and development for
new drugs and new treatments. We've committed million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and other
infectious diseases, and we stand ready to commit more as this fund demonstrates its success.

Today's initiative is not a substitute for any of these efforts. It is not a substitute for further U.S.
contributions to the Global Fund. This initiative will complement those efforts, and it is an essential new
step in our global struggle against AIDS.


Today, I call on other industrialized nations and international organizations to join this crucial effort to save
children from disease and death. Medical science gives us the power to save these young lives. Conscience
demands we do so.

Thank you very much.
_______________________________________________________________________

TAX FACTS


TAX BURDEN

* Even with the weak economy in 2002, tax receipts remain high as a share of the economy.

* Total tax receipts in 2002 are estimated to be 19.4 percent of GDP. Since World War II, total tax receipts
as a share of GDP were higher in only six years (1969, 1981, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001).

* Individual income tax receipts are estimated to be 9.2 percent of GDP. Since World War II, individual
income tax receipts as a share of GDP were the same or higher in only seven years (1969, 1981, 1982,
1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001).

* Even with the tax cut and the current economic downturn, projected total tax receipts over the 2002-2011
period are higher as a share of GDP than over any previous ten-year period. Projected individual tax
receipts are also higher as a share of GDP over the 2002-2011 period than over any previous ten-year
period.

BENEFITS OF TAX RELIEF
* Who benefits from the President's tax relief package enacted last summer?
When the major individual income tax provisions are fully phased in:
* 104 million individuals and families will receive an average tax cut of $1,040.
* Nearly 43 million married couples will receive an average income tax cut of about $1,720.
* Over 38 million filers with children will receive an average income tax cut of $1,460.
* Over 10 million single mothers with children will be able to keep, on average, more of their income.
* About 13 million seniors will see their taxes reduced, on average, by .
* In response to the economic slowdown, the President called on Congress to speed the phase in of the 25%
tax rate. Accelerating that rate reduction would reduce taxes for about 34 million taxpayers in 2002. Taxes
would be reduced for one-fourth of all tax filers and one-third of all income taxpayers. Over two-thirds of
the taxpayers who would receive a tax reduction have AGIs under ,000. 82% of the taxpayers who
would receive a tax reduction would receive a marginal rate reduction.
* The taxpayers that would benefit from the accelerated tax rate reductions pay over 80% of all individual
income taxpayers.

DISTRIBUTION OF TAX RELIEF AND THE TAX BURDEN

As a result of enacting the President's tax relief plan last summer:

* The share of income tax relief provided to families with incomes under ,000 is larger than their share
of income taxes paid before the tax cut was enacted.

* The percentage reduction in income tax burdens is largest for the lowest income group (under ,000).

* The percentage reduction is smaller but above average for families with incomes between ,000 and
,000.

* The percentage reductions are below average for families with incomes over ,000.

* Taxpayers with income of ,000 and higher paid 70 cents of every dollar in federal individual income
taxes paid before last summer's tax cut. After the tax cut is fully phased in, these taxpayers will end up
paying a larger share - almost 74 cents of every dollar in individual income taxes paid. The share of
individual income tax paid by taxpayers with incomes under ,000 will decline from 30 cents to 26
cents of each dollar of individual income taxes paid.

* A recent CBO study, "Effective Federal Tax Rates 1979-1997" released last September, showed:
* The share of total federal taxes paid by the highest income quintile and the top 1 percent rose
dramatically over the period.
* The top quintile's share of total federal taxes paid rose from 57.1 percent in 1979 to 64.7 percent in 1997.
* The top 1 percent's share of total federal taxes paid rose from 15.5 percent in 1979 to 23.0 percent in
1997.
* The effective federal tax rate fell by over 30 percent for the lowest income quintile - from 8.1 percent in
1979 to 5.6 percent in 1997, while effective rates for the highest income quintile were virtually the same in
1997 as in 1979.
* During the late 1990s, federal revenue grew faster than GDP, pushing up the share of GDP claimed by
taxes from 18.1 percent in 1995 to 19.9 percent in 1998, a post-World War II high.
* Two-thirds of that growth in revenues came from rising individual income tax receipts, which climbed
from 7.8 percent of GDP to 9.0 percent.

* IRS data show that the average income tax rate for the top 1 percent increased from 23.3 percent in 1989
to 27.5 percent in 1999. For the rest of the top 50% (excluding the top 1%) the average tax rate rose much
less, from 12.8 percent to 13.2 percent.


SMALL BUSINESSES BENEFIT FROM TAX RELIEF

* The tax cut will help small business: the 33 million business owners who are taxed on their business
income at individual rates stand to benefit from the Bush tax cut.
* These business owners will receive over 80 percent of the tax relief associated with the reductions in the
top two rates, providing incentives for expanding their businesses and creating new jobs.
* Small businesses (including small businesses taxed as corporations):
* Provide about 75 percent of the net new jobs
* Represent more than 99 percent of all employers
* Generate more than 50 percent of America's private sector output

MAKING THE TAX RELIEF PERMANENT

* In the 2003 budget, President Bush proposed making the tax relief plan permanent. If we don't repeal the
sunset, among the many tax increases that will occur in 2011 are the following:
* The tax rate on low income families will jump 50% (from 10% to 15%)
* The child credit will fall by 50%
* Marriage penalties will be restored
* Formerly tax-free withdrawals for certain education savings plans will become taxable
* IRA contribution limits will shrink by more than 60%
* The death tax will be restored

EFFECT ON INTEREST RATES

* The government debt share of the overall debt market is shrinking rapidly. Interest rates are already at
very low historical levels. Short-term interest rates are at their lowest level in four decades and longer-term
Treasury security yields recently have been at low levels very rarely observed over the past four decades.


__________________________________________________________________

President Calls for Medical Liability Reform


PRESIDENTIAL ACTION


President Bush urged Congress to protect America's patients, doctors, and hospitals from the staggering
costs of out-of-control lawsuits by passing important medical liability reforms this year.

The President proposed important steps to make health care more affordable and accessible for all
Americans by making the medical liability system more stable and predictable, and by increasing patient
safety by reducing the disincentives for reporting medical errors and complications.

A FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING THE MEDICAL LIABILITY CRISIS


President Bush has proposed a framework for addressing the medical liability crisis.



National adoption of proven standards to make the medical liability system more fair, predictable, and
timely. Experience in many states has demonstrated that these standards can reduce Federal government
costs by at least billion per year or more, freeing up needed funds for making health care more
affordable. These standards can reduce health care costs for all Americans by billion or more, and
improve access to quality health care as well. The President proposes that Congress take action to:

Secure the ability of injured patients to get quick, unlimited compensation for their "economic losses,"
including the loss of ability to provide unpaid services like care for children or parents.


Ensure that recoveries for non-economic damages do not exceed a reasonable amount (,000).


Reserve punitive damages for cases where they are justified, and limit punitive damages to reasonable
amounts.

Provide for payments of judgments over time rather than in a single lump sum, to ensure that appropriate
payments are there when patients need them.

Ensure that old cases cannot be brought years after an event.

Reduce the amount that doctors must pay if a plaintiff has received other payments from an insurer to
compensate for their losses.

Provide that defendants pay judgments in proportion to their fault.

Improvements in health care quality and patient safety through litigation reform. Patients deserve high-
quality health care without avoidable medical errors and complications, and the Administration is
supporting many efforts to achieve this goal, through better information and other steps to improve quality.
One proven approach to reducing errors and complications is patient safety and quality improvement
programs implemented by doctors and health care organizations working together. By sharing information
on quality problems and medical errors, health professionals can determine ways to avoid errors and
complications in the first place. But these efforts are blocked by fear of litigation. Good-faith efforts to
improve quality and safety are targets for lawsuits based on the new information. The President has called
for legislation to make it possible for health professionals to work together more effectively to provide the
best possible care for all patients.


BACKGROUND ON PRESIDENTIAL ACTION



Americans spend more per person on the costs of litigation than any other country in the world. Unlimited
and unpredictable liability awards raise the costs of health care for all Americans through higher premiums
for health insurance.

Over the last few years, doctors, nurses, and hospitals have faced skyrocketing medical liability insurance
premiums because of our broken litigation system. Health care providers in states without reasonable
limits on non-economic damages have experienced the largest increases, between 36% and 113% in 2002
alone. These greatly increased costs are threatening access to health care. And, the environment has
caused doctors who fear getting sued to practice "defensive medicine," prescribing costly medical
treatments for the sole purpose of avoiding litigation, raising costs and putting patients at risk.

Many communities across the country are losing access to medical care as doctors leave their practices and
move to states that have enacted medical liability reforms and caps on non-economic damages.


The President spoke today from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where three of five vascular surgeons in the area
have left; orthopedic surgeons have stopped taking trauma calls; OB/GYNs are refusing to take new
patients or curtailing major surgeries; and hospitals cannot afford to insure their physicians or lure talented
doctors.

In Pennsylvania, some doctors have faced a 40% premium increase in 2002. The situation in other states
without litigation reform also continues to deteriorate. Some specialty doctors in Florida had to pay
increased premiums of 75% last year; in Arkansas they faced a 112% premium increase.

For some specialty physicians, the cumulative costs of these annual increases have resulted in premiums
they simply cannot afford -- for example, premiums for OB/GYNs in Pennsylvania have increased by
125% since 1998. In Ohio, OB/GYNs have paid increases of 145% over this same timeframe.

Doctors are retiring early, reducing their practices to patients who present less of a risk of litigation, or
moving to states that reformed their medical litigation system.

These costs, due to a broken litigation system, are also borne by the taxpayer, as the Federal government
also pays for health care delivered directly to members of the armed forces, veterans, and patients served by
the Indian Health Service. These costs are also borne by the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The President's Commitment to Strengthening the Peace Corps

PRESIDENTIAL ACTION:
* Today, President Bush outlined his initiative to double the size of the Peace Corps over the next five
years and expand the number of countries in which Peace Corps volunteers are active.

* The President also announced that a special Peace Corps assessment team will travel to Afghanistan to
evaluate needs and opportunities for Peace Corps volunteers to assist the Afghan people in rebuilding their
nation.

BACKGROUND ON THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE PEACE CORPS:

Launched on January 29, 2002 as part of President Bush's State of the Union Address, the USA Freedom
Corps is an effort to foster a culture of responsibility, citizenship and service, building on the generous
spirit of the American people. That effort begins with President Bush's two-year call to service-his
challenge that every American devote at least 4,000 hours to service to their community, our nation or the
world. The USA Freedom Corps will work to offer expanded service opportunities for Americans at home
and abroad through the newly created Citizen Corps, AmeriCorps and SeniorCorps, and the Peace Corps-
and in cooperation with volunteer organizations large and small.

The USA Freedom Corps represents a broad call to action. One way the federal government can help to
support action by willing volunteers is strengthening existing federal service opportunities - including
Peace Corps. The Peace Corps is unique among federal service programs because it allows Americans to
serve in countries around the world.

Through the USA Freedom Corps effort, President Bush seeks to strengthen the Peace Corps as an
organization and offer the talent of Peace Corps volunteers to new countries around the world.

* Doubling the Size of the Peace Corps: There are currently 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers serving in 70
countries around the world. President Bush pledged to double the size of the Peace Corps over the next five
years - bringing the Peace Corps close to its peak enrollment levels of the mid-1960s.

* Increasing the Number of Countries Where Peace Corps Members Serve: President Bush will work to
expand opportunities for American volunteers to serve in countries where the Peace Corps does not
currently have a presence and where the needs for Peace Corps assistance may be great. This includes
expanding Peace Corps service in Islamic countries.

* Within the next 6 months, a number of countries - including East Timor and Peru - will welcome Peace
Corps volunteers. And, over the next two months, Peace Corps volunteers will be returning to the Kyrgyz
Republic, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in Central Asia.

* Peace Corps assessment teams will be sent to countries like Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana,
Swaziland and Chad to evaluate opportunities for service.

* Sending Crisis Corps Members to Assist the Rebuilding of Afghanistan: An assessment team of Peace
Corps staff members and experienced Peace Corps volunteers - part of the Crisis Corps program - will
travel to Afghanistan within weeks to evaluate opportunities for the Peace Corps to assist the Afghan
people in rebuilding.

* Expediting Applications for Peace Corps Volunteers: President Bush also called for streamlining the
application process for Peace Corps volunteers, as well as improving the management, information
technology and other skills and training to expand opportunities for today's Peace Corps members.

Since President Bush announced his USA Freedom Corps initiative on January 29, more than 2,775
potential Peace Corps volunteers have started applications and almost 7,000 men and women have
contacted the Peace Corps to ask about volunteering. The Peace Corps estimates that there has been a
300% increase in volunteer interest.



_____________________________________________________________________

President Bush's Decision on Steel


PRESIDENTIAL ACTION

Today President Bush is announcing his decision to impose temporary safeguards to help give America's
steel industry and its workers the chance to adapt to the large influx of foreign steel. This relief will help
steelworkers, communities that depend on steel, and the steel industry adjust without harming our
economy.

BACKGROUND ON THE PRESIDENT'S DECISION

Free trade is a cornerstone of President George W. Bush's agenda to help generate jobs for American
workers, open markets to American products and services, and spur economic growth. While free trade is
an engine of economic growth, sometimes changes in global economic conditions and large increases in
imports can have dramatic consequences on industries, and this has been the case with America's steel
industry.

 Foreign steel producers, often nurtured by government subsidies that have allowed them to build huge
amounts of excess capacity, have flooded the U.S. market with imports, seriously affecting U.S. steel
producers, workers and communities. Since 1998, firms accounting for thirty percent of U.S. steel-making
capacity have filed for bankruptcy. Domestic steel prices in the last quarter of 2001 were at their lowest
levels in 20 years, and a number of integrated and mini-mill producers posted significant fourth quarter
financial losses last year.

 Last June President Bush asked the International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate the effects of
imports on America's steel industry and its workers. The ITC found that imports are a substantial cause of
serious injury to the U.S. steel industry.

 President Bush has decided to impose temporary safeguard measures on key steel products to provide
appropriate relief to those parts of the U.S. steel industry that have been most damaged by import surges.
This relief is being provided in response to the injury findings of the ITC and is consistent with the
President's free trade agenda and his commitment to enforcing U.S. trade laws to help maintain the
competitiveness of the U.S. economy.

 These types of temporary safeguard measures are expressly allowed by WTO rules -- in fact, international
trade rules have provided such relief for more than 50 years. Many of our major trading partners including
the European Union, Japan, Korea, Brazil, and India -- have imposed safeguard measures covering a wide
range of products. The President's Commitment to Workers & Communities

 Meeting the challenges and opportunities of the global steel marketplace will also require adjustment and
restructuring of the American steel industry, to ensure its long-term competitiveness.

 Restructuring will impact workers and communities in which they live and we must help hard-working
Americans adapt to changing economic circumstances. The President has proposed a major expansion of
the National Emergency Grants program to assist workers affected by restructuring with effective job
training and assistance. The President has also proposed direct assistance with health insurance costs that
will be available to workers and retirees who lose their employer-provided coverage. And the President
supports coordinated assistance for communities and a strengthened and expanded trade adjustment
assistance program. America's workers are the most highly skilled in the world, and with effective training
and adjustment assistance we will help them find better, higher paying jobs to support their families and
boost our economy.

COMPONENTS OF THE PRESIDENT'S DECISION


Consistent with U.S. international trade obligations, the Administration is announcing temporary safeguard
measures on key steel products. As required by U.S. law and international trade rules, the level of relief is
reduced periodically throughout the duration of the measure: ú

Flat Products: A tariff of 30% will be imposed on imports of plate, hot-rolled sheet, cold-rolled sheet, and
coated sheet. This remedy provides substantial relief for the sector of the industry that has been hardest hit
by imports and which is the anchor for many struggling U.S. companies. This tariff is higher than the 20%
tariff recommended by the plurality of ITC commissioners. The higher tariff enhances the ability of U.S.
producers to adjust to import competition without placing an undue burden on U.S. steel consumers or on
the country as a whole. ú

Tin Mill Products: A tariff of 30% will be imposed on imports of tin mill products. The ITC commissioners
were evenly divided as to whether imports were a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic
industry. As permitted by the statute, the President has decided to treat the commissioners' findings as an
affirmative determination, and has therefore decided that relief is appropriate. A tariff of 30% is appropriate
for the same reasons that such a tariff is appropriate for other flat products. ú

Hot-Rolled Bar and Cold-Finished Bar: A tariff of 30% will be imposed on imports of hot-rolled bar and
cold-finished bar. This tariff is higher than the 20% tariff recommended by the plurality of ITC
commissioners. The higher tariff enhances the ability of U.S. producers to adjust to import competition
without placing an undue burden on U.S. steel consumers or on the country as a whole. ú Rebar: A tariff of
15% will be imposed on imports of rebar. This tariff is higher than the 10% tariff recommended by the
plurality of ITC commissioners. The higher tariff enhances the ability of U.S. producers to adjust to import
competition without placing an undue burden on U.S. steel consumers or on the country as a whole. ú

Certain Tubular Products: A tariff of 15% will be imposed on imports of certain welded tubular products.
This tariff will provide a higher level of relief than the tariff?rate quota recommended by a majority of ITC
commissioners. ú

Carbon and Alloy Fittings and Flanges: A tariff of 13% will be imposed on imports of carbon and alloy
fittings and flanges. This tariff is equal to the tariff recommended by the plurality of ITC commissioners.
This tariff is sufficient to facilitate industry restructuring without unduly burdening U.S. steel consumers or
the country as a whole.

Stainless Steel Bar: A tariff of 15% will be imposed on imports of stainless steel bar. This tariff is equal to
the tariff recommended by the plurality of ITC commissioners. This tariff is sufficient to facilitate industry
restructuring without unduly burdening U.S. steel consumers or the country as a whole. ú

Stainless Steel Rod: A tariff of 15% will be imposed on imports of stainless steel rod. This tariff is lower
than the tariff recommended by the three commissioner plurality. Given the conditions prevailing in the
domestic stainless steel market, this tariff is sufficient to facilitate industry restructuring without unduly
burdening U.S. steel consumers or the country as a whole. ú

Stainless Steel Wire: A tariff of 8% will be imposed on imports of stainless steel wire. The commissioners
were evenly divided as to whether imports were a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic
industry. As permitted by the statute, the President has decided to treat the commissioners' findings as an
affirmative determination, and has therefore decided that relief is appropriate. This tariff is sufficient to
facilitate industry restructuring without unduly burdening U.S. steel consumers or the country as a whole. ú

Slab: Imports of slab will be subject to a tariff rate quota (TRQ). The in-quota volume will be set at 5.4
million short tons. The out-of-quota tariff will be 30%. A majority of ITC Commissioners recommended a
tariff-rate quota on slab, with an in-quota volume roughly equivalent to imports in 2000 and an out-of-
quota tariff of 20%. Slab is an input for a key segment of the domestic industry. Given market
circumstances, including the level of current demand, the TRQ announced today is sufficient to ensure
continued access to slab without undermining the relief applied to other flat products.

Other Provisions FTA partners. For those products where the ITC recommended the inclusion of a NAFTA
partner, or reached a tie decision on whether NAFTA imports should be excluded, the Administration asked
for supplemental information on whether imports from countries besides Canada and Mexico were by
themselves a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic industry or threat thereof. The ITC found in
each case that they were. Based on these findings and the specific factors enumerated in the statute, and
consistent with the obligations of the United States under its free trade agreements and the WTO, the
President has determined that our FTA partners should be excluded from the relief on all products. Imports
from developing countries. Consistent with WTO rules, the Administration will exclude from the relief
imports from developing countries that exported only small amounts of steel to the United States and that
are WTO members. Import licensing and surge protection. The President will impose an import licensing
system to allow the U.S. government to obtain more timely information about changes in steel trade trends
for products covered by the relief.

The President will closely monitor imports to ensure that the purpose of the 201 remedy is not undermined,
and retains the discretion to impose safeguard measures on products from excluded countries should
imports of such products surge during the duration of the relief. This system will also help guard against
transshipment.

Duration. The safeguard measures will remain in place for three years, rather than the four years
recommended by the ITC. In light of the strength of the relief imposed, the President has determined that a
remedy of three years is appropriate. Product exclusions. The President retains the discretion to consider
requests for product exclusions within 120 days after the date of the Proclamation and will consider
requests for product exclusions each year thereafter. This will help ensure that U.S. consumers have access
to needed products. Trade remedy laws. The Administration will continue to enforce vigorously our anti-
dumping, countervailing duty and other trade remedy laws.


_____________________________________________________________________________


President Bush Announces Early Childhood Initiative


President Announces Early Childhood Initiative


Presidential Action



President Bush today announced a new initiative to improve early childhood education for millions of
America's youngest children. The President's initiative will:

Strengthen Head Start to improve the quality of experiences for young children, including training the
nearly 50,000 Head Start teachers in the latest and best techniques;

Ensure that pre-school programs are more closely coordinated with state K-12 education goals; and

Improve the information available to parents and caregivers about the best practices in early childhood
development, including an unprecedented million research effort to identify effective early literacy
programs and practices.


Background on Early Childhood Announcement


In his State of the Union Address, President Bush stressed the need to prepare children to read and succeed
in school with improved Head Start and early childhood development programs. These themes built upon
the First Lady's Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development, held in July, 2001.


The early childhood initiative announced by President Bush seeks to improve the state of early childhood
education, where too many children come to school unprepared to learn. Because a significant number of
young children receive care from people other than their parents (62% of children age 5 or younger),
Federal and state governments provide more than billion annually (more than billion in Federal
support alone) to help families - particularly low-income families - provide for pre-K care.
Despite these significant resources, not all children are receiving care that is high-quality care because: 1)
many states do not fully align what children are doing before they enter school with what is expected of
them once they are in school; 2) early childhood programs are seldom evaluated based on how well they
prepare students to succeed in school; and 3) there is not enough information for early childhood teachers,
parents, and other child care providers on the activities that prepare children to be successful in school.

President Bush's early childhood initiative will help states and local communities to overcome these
obstacles and strengthen early learning for young children by:

Strengthening Head Start: The President has directed the Department of Health and Human Services to
implement a new accountability system to ensure that every Head Start center assesses standards of
learning in early literacy, language and numeracy skills. HHS will implement a national training project
with the goal of training all of the nearly 50,000 Head Start teachers this year in the best pre-reading and
language teaching techniques for young children.

Partnering with States to Improve Early Childhood Education: To ensure that pre-school activities are
aligned with state education goals, the President's plan asks States to develop quality criteria for early
childhood education, including optional guidelines on pre-reading and language skills activities for pre-
school age children ages that align with State K-12 standards. To help states meet these criteria, the
President's plan gives states more flexibility with their federal child care funds.

Providing Information to Teachers, Caregivers and Parents: In order to close the gap between the best
research and current practices in early childhood education, the Department of Education will implement a
broad public awareness campaign targeted toward parents, early childhood educators, childcare providers,
and other interested parties. Additionally, the President announced an unprecedented million
collaborative research initiative between the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
and the Department of Education to identify effective early literacy programs and teaching strategies.


_____________________________________________________________________________________

REFORMING WELFARE TO INCREASE INDEPENDENCE & STRENGTHEN FAMILIES


In 1996, a Republican Congress and a Democratic Administration came together to reach a historic,
bipartisan agreement to reform the welfare system. This historic welfare reform has been one of the
greatest public policy successes in decades:

PRESIDENTIAL ACTION

President Bush will announce his welfare reform agenda to strengthen families and help more welfare
recipients work toward independence and self-reliance. The President's agenda builds on the success of the
historic 1996 welfare reform law:

* Helps more welfare recipients achieve independence through work.
* Protects children and strengthens families.
* Empowers states to seek new and innovative solutions to help welfare recipients achieve independence.
* Provides compassionate food assistance to legal immigrants in need.

KEY COMPONENTS OF THE PRESIDENT'S WELFARE REFORM AGENDA

HELPING WELFARE RECIPIENTS ACHIEVE INDEPENDENCE THROUGH WORK

Increasing Minimum Work Requirements. Under current law, at least 50% of welfare families are required
to participate in work and other activities designed to help them achieve self-sufficiency. The President's
plan closes loopholes and increases the work requirement by 5% per year until reaching 70% in FY 2007.

Requiring Welfare Recipients to Put in a Full Work Week. The President's proposal builds on the
successful work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform law by requiring welfare recipients to work 40
hours per week - either at a job or in programs designed to help them achieve independence. The plan
makes special accommodations for parents with infants and individuals who need substance abuse
treatment, rehabilitation or special work-related training.
PROTECTING CHILDREN & STRENGTHENING FAMILIES

Protecting Children by Providing Historic Childcare Funding. The President proposes to continue
historically high levels of support for childcare (.8 billion per year) through the Child Care and
Development Block Grant.

Strengthening Child Support Enforcement and Encouraging States to Give Child Support Payments To
Mothers And Children. Under current law, government keeps a substantial portion of the money collected
to pay past-due child support in cases of families that have received welfare. The President's proposal
provides financial incentives for the states to give as much of this money as possible to mothers and
children, especially mothers who have left welfare.

Encouraging Healthy Marriages and Two-Parent Married Families as a Goal. The President's plan directs
up to million for programs that encourage healthy, stable marriages. These programs include pre-
marital education and counseling, as well as research and technical assistance into promising approaches
that work.
Encouraging Innovation by States to Help Welfare Recipients Achieve Independence

Establishing Broad New Waiver Authority to Encourage State Program Innovation. New waiver authority
will be established to enable states to integrate a range of programs in order to improve their effectiveness.
This new flexibility will help states design fully integrated assistance programs that could revolutionize
service delivery.

Allowing States to Better Coordinate Childcare and Other Non-Cash Work Support Services. States
support the transition from welfare to work by providing families with a range of benefits and services
including food stamps, childcare, income supplements and transportation assistance. Under the President's
proposal, states would be given the flexibility to streamline and coordinate these support programs, which
now operate under different agencies, different rules, and different reporting requirements.
PROVIDING ASSISTANCE FOR LEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN NEED

Ensuring Vulnerable Legal Immigrants Get Adequate Nutrition: The President's proposal will allow legal
immigrants to receive food stamps five years after entry to the United States. This policy will help to
ensure adequate nutrition among children and other vulnerable immigrant groups, while continuing to
require new entrants to support themselves and their families through work.

Safeguarding Against Welfare Dependency Among Non-Citizens: The President's plan will continue the
existing five-year ban on welfare benefits for non-citizens entering the country after 1996 - ensuring that
welfare policy neither attracts non-citizens to the U.S. to take advantage of welfare nor induces welfare
dependency among non-citizens who do receive welfare benefits.
BACKGROUND

In 1996, a Republican Congress and a Democratic Administration came together to reach a historic,
bipartisan agreement to reform the welfare system. This historic welfare reform has been one of the
greatest public policy successes in decades:

* Since 1996, welfare dependency has plummeted. The number of individuals receiving cash assistance
has dropped by 56 percent.
* Even in a recession, national welfare caseloads are not rising significantly. Instead, they have stabilized.
* Since the law's passage, more single mothers are employed than ever before.
* Child poverty rates are at their lowest level since 1978, and both African-American child poverty rates
and poverty among children in female-headed families are at their lowest level in history.
* The rate of births to unwed mothers has leveled off.

Even with these notable successes, much remains to be done to improve the welfare system for those in
need - and to help welfare recipients on the path to self-reliance and independence.

As part of the 1996 reforms, Congress ended the welfare entitlement under the Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC) program, and replaced it with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) program, a .6 billion per year block grant to states and territories. Under TANF, welfare
recipients are required to work in exchange for time-limited benefits, and states enjoy significant flexibility
in designing the eligibility criteria and benefit rules. Additionally, Congress provided bonuses to states for
high performance and for reducing non-marital births.

President Bush proposes to build on the success of the bipartisan 1996 reform law by making welfare even
more focused on the well-being of children and supportive of families. His plan will strengthen and
improve the TANF program by maintaining the same overall funding level (.6 billion per year) and
basic structure established under the 1996 welfare reform law - while making improvements in several key
areas to encourage welfare recipients to work toward independence.

What about education, Everyone says Bush is stupid , is he? or is it More liberal lies?
I realize this is kinda long, but it is really worth reading!!!! Be sure and check out Condoleezza Rice's bio. It's amazing. Check all the qualifications of the Hollywood experts at the bottom of this.
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Yeah, those Hollywood celebs really know their stuff???
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The Hollywood group is at it again. Holding anti-war rallies, screaming about the Bush Administration, running ads in major newspapers, defaming the President and his Cabinet every chance they get, to anyone and everyone who will listen. They publicly defile them and call them names like "stupid" , "morons", and "idiots". Jessica Lange went so far as to tell a crowd in Spain that she hates President Bush and is embarrassed to be an American.
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So, just how ignorant are these people who are running the country? Let's look at the biographies of these "stupid", "ignorant" , "moronic" leaders, and then at the celebrities who are castigating them:
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President George W. Bush: Received a Bachelors Degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He served as an F-102 pilot for the Texas Air National Guard. He began his career in the oil and gas business in Midland in 1975 and worked in the energy industry until 1986. He was elected Governor on November 8, 1994, with 53.5 percent of the vote. In a historic re-election victory, he became the first Texas Governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms on November 3, 1998 winning 68.6 percent of the vote. In 1998 Governor Bus won 49 percent of the Hispanic vote, 27 percent of the African-American vote, 27 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of women. He won more Texas counties, 240 of 254, than any modern Republican other than Richard Nixon in 1972 and is the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to win theheavily Hispanic and Democratic border counties of El Paso, Cameron and Hidalgo. (Someone began circulating a false story about his I.Q. being lower than any other President. If you believed it, you might want to go to URBANLEGENDS.COM and see the truth.
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Vice President Dick Cheney: Earned a B.A. in 1965 and a M.A. in 1966, both in political science. Two years later, he won an American Political Science Association congressional fellowship. One of Vice President Cheney's primary duties is to share with individuals, members of Congress and foreign leaders, President Bush's vision to strengthen our economy, secure our homeland and win the War on Terrorism. In his official role as President of the Senate, Vice President Cheney regularly goes to Capital Hill to meet with Senators and members of the House of Representatives to work on the Administration's legislative goals. In his travels as Vice President, he has seen first hand the great demands the war on terrorism is placing on the men and women of our military, and he is proud of the tremendous job they are doing for the United States of America.
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Secretary of State Colin Powell: Educated in the New York City publicschools, graduating from the City College of New York (CCNY), where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in geology. He also participated in ROTC at CCNY and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in June 1958. His further academic achievements include a Master of Business Administration Degree from George Washington University. Secretary Powell is the recipient of numerous U.S. and foreign military awards and decorations. Secretary Powell's civilian awards include two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the President's Citizens Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Medal, and the Secretary of Energy Distinguished Service Medal. Several schools and other institutions have been named in his honor and he holds honorary degrees from universities and colleges across the country. (Note: He retired as Four Star General in the United States Army)
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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: Attended Princeton University on Scholarship (AB, 1954) and served in the U.S. Navy (1954-57) as a Naval aviator; Congressional Assistant to Rep. Robert Griffin (R-MI), 1957-59; U.S. Representative, Illinois, 1962-69; Assistant to the President, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Director of the Cost of Living Council, 1969-74; U.S. Ambassador to NATO, 1973-74; head of Presidential Transition Team, 1974; Assistant to the President, Director of White House Office of Operations, White House Chief of Staff, 1974-77; Secretary of Defense, 1975-77.
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Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge: Raised in a working class family in veterans' public housing in Erie. He earned a scholarship to Harvard, graduating with honors in 1967. After his first year at The Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for Valor. After returning to Pennsylvania, he earned his Law Degree and was in private practice before becoming Assistant District Attorney in Erie County. He was elected to Congress in 1982. He was the first enlisted Vietnam combat veteran elected to the U.S. House, and was overwhelmingly re-elected six times.
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National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice: Earned her Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her Master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. (Note: Rice enrolled at the University of Denver at the age of 15, graduating at 19 with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science (Cum Laude). She earned a Master's Degree at the University of Notre Dame and a Doctorate from the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies. Both of her advanced degrees are also in Political Science.) She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, and the University of Notre Dame in 1995. At Stanford, she has been a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. Her books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy, and has addressed audiences in settings ranging from the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Moscow to the Commonwealth Club to the 1992 and 2000 Republican National Conventions. From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender Integrated Training in the Military. She was a member of the boards of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California and was Vice President of
the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. In addition, her past board service has encompassed such organizations as Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Carnegie Corporation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Rand Corporation, the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco. Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, she resides in Washington, D.C.
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So who are these celebrities? What is their education? What is their experience in affairs of State or in National Security? While I will defend to the death their right to express their opinions, I think that if they are going to call into question the intelligence of our leaders, we should also have all the facts on their educations and background:
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Barbra Streisand : Completed high schoolCareer: Singing and acting
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Cher: Dropped out of school in 9th grade.Career: Singing and acting
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Martin Sheen: Flunked exam to enter University of Dayton. Career:Acting
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Jessica Lange: Dropped out college mid-freshman year.Career: Acting
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Alec Baldwin: Dropped out of George Washington U. after scandal.Career: Acting
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Julia Roberts: Completed high school. Career: Acting
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Sean Penn: Completed High school. Career: Acting
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Susan Sarandon: Degree in Drama from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.Career: Acting
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Ed Asner; Completed High school. Career: Acting
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George Clooney: Dropped out of University of Kentucky.Career: Acting
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Michael Moore: Dropped out first year University of Michigan. Career: Movie Director
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Sarah Jessica Parker: Completed High School. Career: Acting
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Jennifer Anniston: Completed High School. Career: Acting
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Mike Farrell: Completed High school.Career: Acting
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Janeane Garofelo: Dropped out of College.Career: Stand up comedienne
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Larry Hagman: Attended Bard College for one year.Career: Acting
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While comparing the education and experience of these two groups, we should also remember that President Bush and his cabinet are briefed daily, even hourly, on the War on Terror and threats to our security. They are privy to information gathered around the world concerning the Middle East, the threats to America, the intentions of terrorists and terrorist-supporting governments. They are in constant communication with the CIA, the FBI, Interpol, NATO, The United Nations, our own military, and that of our allies around the world. We cannot simply believe that we have full knowledge of the threats because we watch CNN!! We cannot believe that we are in any way as informed as our leaders.
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These celebrities have no intelligence-gathering agents, no fact-finding groups, no insight into the minds of those who would destroy our country. They only have a deep seated hatred for all things Republican. By nature, and no one knows quite why, the Hollywood elitists detest Conservative views and anything that supports or uplifts the United States of America. The silence was deafening from the Left when Bill Clinton bombed a pharmaceutical factory outside of Khartoum, or when he attacked the Bosnian Serbs in 1995 and 1999. He bombed Serbia itself to get Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo, and not a single peace rally was held. When our Rangers were ambushed in Somalia and 18 young American lives were lost, not a peep was heard from Hollywood. Yet now, after our nation has been attacked on its own soil, after 3,000 Americans were killed, by freedom-hating terrorists, while going about their routine lives, they want to hold rallies against the war. Why the change? Because an honest, God-fearing Republican sits in the White House.
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Another irony is that in 1987, when Ronald Reagan was in office, the Hollywood group aligned themselves with disarmament groups like SANE, FREEZE and PEACE ACTION, urging our own government to disarm and freeze the manufacturing of any further nuclear weapons, in order to promote world peace. It is curious that now, even after we have heard all the evidence that Saddam Hussein has chemical, biological and is very close to obtaining nuclear weapons, their is no cry from this group for HIM to disarm. They believe we should leave him alone in his quest for these weapons of mass destruction, even though it is certain that these deadly weapons will eventually be used against us in our own cities.
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So why the hype out of Hollywood? Could these celebrities believe that since they draw such astronomical salaries, they are entitled to also determine the course of our Nation? That they can make viable decisions concerning war and peace? Did Michael Moore have the backing of the Nation when he recently thanked France, on our behalf, for being a "good enough friend to tell us we were wrong"? I know for certain he was not speaking for me. Does Sean Penn fancy himself a Diplomat, in going to Iraq when we are just weeks away from war? Does he believe that his High
School Diploma gives him the knowledge (and the right) to go to a country that is controlled by a maniacal dictator, and speak on behalf of the American people? Or is it the fact that he pulls in more money per year than the average American worker will see in a lifetime? Does his bank account give him clout?
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The ultimate irony is that many of these celebrities have made a shambles of their own lives, with drug abuse, alcoholism, numerous marriages and divorces, scrapes with the law, publicized temper tantrums, etc. How dare they pretend to know what is best for an entire nation! What is even more bizarre is how many people in this country will listen and accept their views, simply because they liked them in a certain movie, or have fond memories of an old television sitcom!
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It is time for us, as citizens of the United States, to educate ourselves about the world around us. If future generations are going to enjoy the freedoms that our forefathers bequeathed us, if they are ever to know peace in their own country and their world, to live without fear of terrorism striking in their own cities, we must assure that this nation remains strong. We must make certain that those who would destroy us are made aware of the severe consequences that will befall them.
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Yes, it is a wonderful dream to sit down with dictators and terrorists and join hands, singing Cumbaya and talking of world peace. But it is not real. We did not stop Adolf Hitler from taking over the entire continent of Europe by simply talking to him. We sent our best and brightest, with the strength and determination that this Country is
known for, and defeated the Nazi regime. President John F. Kennedy did not stop the Soviet ships from unloading their nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962 with mere words. He stopped them with action, and threat of immediate war if the ships did not turn around. We did not end the Cold War with conferences. It ended with the strong belief of President Ronald Reagan... PEACE through STRENGTH




















Bill Clinton's Skeleton Closet



The frustrating thing about Clinton's scandals is that the press focuses on two-
bit scandals
of little importance, such as internal oral sex, Whitewater and the ridiculous
travel office
"scandal", while ignoring much more significant dirt, such as the Hillary's
,000
commodity profit from a $1,000 investment, and murky but more substantial
affairs such
as the Mena, Arkansas contra supply and drug operation.
And no one (save a few voices on the left) are protesting Clinton's hugely
successful
fundraising and favors for people who have provided it, including the Tyson
Chicken
empire. Running against Bob Dole, this isn't likely to be an issue, but it is a
major fault of
the President.
White House Suppresses Skeleton Closet
In a shocking blunder, the White House successfully put pressure on Hotwired
Magazine to
stop linking President Clinton's name to this very web page. This was all done
behind the
scenes -- we had no idea until we read Brock Meek's Netizen column of April
30th.
The White House official involved, David Lytel, was in charge of creating the
popular
Clinton White House web site. He recently left the White House, and is working
for a
private web page consultant. At a conference, he attacked Netizen for being
cynical and
unfair, citing the Skeleton Closet link. Meeks, in response, noted that Hotwired
had
removed the link after receiving official pressure from the White House. In
Hotwired's
"Threads" discussion, another Hotwired employee admitted that they had been
"intimidated" by receiving email from the "whitehouse.gov" domain early in
Netizen's
infancy, and said she regretted that they caved in.
Lytel's argument -- that it was "dishonest" to link Clinton's name to a page
criticizing him
-- is silly of course. Apparently, he thinks the only "honest" link is one that
goes to a
person's own web page, no matter how self- serving it is. More to the point,
this is a terrible
precedent. As far as we know, it is the first attempt by any American government
to
squelch part of the Internet for nakedly political reasons. (The attack on adult
material
online, while obviously political, has legitimate issues -- or at least a
reasonable excuse --
behind it.) And doing it privately, behind closed doors, makes it even worse.
If we were simply seeking publicity, we'd run to Republican politicians (who
desperately
need an issue) and hope they try to use it. But that would be hypocritical. It's
exactly that
kind of partisan misuse of legitimate scandals that we are trying to make
obsolete here --
because it muddles legitimate issues (like White House censorship of critics) in
stupid,
partisan manipulation. We're trying to contact the White House directly, to get
them to
disavow Lytel's actions. We'll let you know what happens.
Update: White House Backs Down, Sort Of.
We challenged the White House to confirm or deny that Lytel pressured Hotwired,
to
disavow his actions if true, and commit to a policy of avoiding this type of
censorship.
Within two days, they replied as follows:
"Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 17:06:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: WEBMASTER (WEBMASTER@a1.eop.gov)
Subject: RE: White House WWW Comments
To: webmaster (webmaster@realchange.org)
Posting-Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 17:09:00 -0400 (EDT)
It is our policy not to interfere with the content of other WEB sites."
We'll take that as an admission that Lytel was out of line, and a solid
commitment to doing
the right thing in the future. Of course, they didn't live up to that policy
before, and words
are cheap.

And now, on with the Clinton's Skeleton Closet page.
What can we say about Bill and Hillary that hasn't been said before? Clinton's
scandals are
covered in such loving detail by his enemies that we are providing you with
links to various
Clinton scandal pages. At one point I thought I would have time to sift through
ALL of the
stuff on Clinton and scandals and sort out the solid stuff from partisan
attacks. HA! It
would take years.
Mena, Arkansas: Contra & Drug Smuggling Center?
Even though this issue has been adopted by the conspiracy nuts, there does
really seem to
be something behind it. Unlike almost every other Clinton scandal, this one in
non-partisan
-- it actually began with Bush and Oliver North, and still seems to implicate
them much
more than the President.
In a nutshell, it's pretty well established that both weapons for the Contras
and cocaine
were smuggled through the small, obscure airport in Mena, Arkansas during the
1980s and
late 1970s. But other than the fact that Clinton was governor during part of
this time, there
really isn't much of a link to him. There is a lot of drug smuggling in Florida,
but no one
assumes that Florida Governor Jeb Bush is connected to it. The Contra operation
of course
was run by the Reagan/Bush White House.
So when you read about Barry Seal or Kevin Ives and Don Henry (two teens
apparently
killed because they knew about drug deals), the charges are partly true but
mostly
unconnected. Yes, these guys all were killed because they got too close to drug
smugglers,
but there is no evidence connecting any of it to Clinton. Clinton-haters try to
make hay out
of his brother's personal cocaine habit, or Bill's admitted pot smoking, but
that's
ridiculous.
We sure haven't unraveled the whole mess, and I don't think anyone really has.
Smugglers
don't keep very good records. The best we can do is give you links to as many of
the
respectable sources (ie newspaper articles) on the subject as possible.
Dave Feustel used to provide a great resource of newspaper article reprints,
many from the
Arkansas Gazette which is not in that many libraries around the country.
Unfortunately,
he has removed them from his web site, which also moved to Netcom; not because
of the
CIA or whatever your favorite conspirator is, according to email he sent us, but
because of
copyright problems. It's a shame. Here is the list of articles anyway, in case
you can look
them up:
First Wall Street Journal article on Mena, April 22, 1987
Hasenfus plane once owned by Seal, Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, October 10,
1986
Overview, Arkansas Gazette, June 26, 1987
Lots of Barry Seal details, Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate, April 10, 1988
Jack Anderson's first column, SF Chronicle, 2/2/89
Jack Anderson - changes after Seal's death, SF Chronicle, 3/1/89
SF Chronicle, IRS involvement, July 28, 1989
House hearings, Arkansas Gazette, July 25, 1991
Washington Post article, October 22, 1994
Clinton's statement on Mena, Arkansas Gazette, September 11, 1991
Sally Denton and Roger Morris story, spiked at the Washington Post, ran in
Penthouse,
July 1995
Mena & Bobby Seal: Arkansas Gazette, December 22, 1990
Demo Congressman vows to find answers, Arkansas Gazette, December 22, 1990
Mena overview, Associated Press, September 24, 1991
Ref:
Arkansas Times update, August 25, 1995
Column by lefty Alexander Cockburn, February 24, 1992
The San Jose Mercury News' series on CIA involvement in drug smuggling
Progressive Review on CIA/Cocaine story, October 12, 1996
The Nation on CIA/Cocaine story, October 25, 1996
Cockburn on the CIA/Cocaine story, November 11, 1996
FAIR analysis of CIA/Cocaine coverage, December 19, 1996
Clinton's Body Count:
Almost everyone on the Internet has received an email listing various dead folks
under the
heading "Clinton's Body Count." The number of dead has varied considerably over
the
years we've seen this; it's actually lower than it used it be, more often around
60 compared
to 80 in some versions a couple of years ago. There is never any documentation
or proof,
just a lot of suspicious sounding coincidences.
We're pretty skeptical about the list as a whole, mostly because Clinton just
doesn't seem
that competent. If the guy can't cover up 10 blowjobs from a girl who loves him,
how could
he cover up scores of political murders while being investigated by Ken Starr
and several
other hostile, well-funded prosecutors and committees? Starr himself ruled
Vincent
Foster's death a suicide, and Starr had custody of James McDougal, who died of a
heart
attack in prison. So unless you think Ken Starr is in on Clinton's murderous
conspiracy,
these deaths don't make sense.
Some of the entries are even more absurd. One version of the list includes
someone who
died in a one-man skiing accident. So what is Clinton supposed to have done,
planted the
tree 20 years earlier? And the list has grown to include random deaths popular
among
conspiracy fans, such as Danny Casolaro (an investigative reporter who targeted
George
Bush much more than Clinton) and William Colby (CIA director under Nixon and
Ford).
Only the most tenuous of threads connect either to Clinton, while each had much
more
obvious (and effective) enemies.
On the other hand, there are some legitimately questionable deaths of people
with at least
some connection to Clinton. The best known would be Ron Brown, Clinton's
Commerce
Secretary who was under active investigation at the time of his death. The
official version
of his plane crash is reasonable and could well be true, but you don't have to
be a
conspiracy nut to want to know more. There are also a couple of murders of
people on the
list that are not solved; while there's nothing particular pointing to Clinton,
there are some
questions worth looking at.
Even in these cases, though, the "Body Count" lists twist the truth. Take the
case of Mary
Mahoney, a former White House Intern who was working at a Washington Starbucks
when she and two co-workers were shot by unknown attackers. The case is
unsolved, but
Michael Rivero's version of the story claims that she was killed because Michael
Isikoff (the
Newsweek reporter who broke the Lewinsky story) had dropped hints about a
"former
White House intern whose name begins with 'M." The story is stupid anyway, but
now in
hindsight we know it's ridiculous. If Clinton was behind the murder, how could
he have
killed the wrong "M" intern? I think it's safe to say he knew which one he was
having sex
with, even without hints from Michael Isikoff.
So here are some links to versions of the list, and at least one attempt to
actually research
these cases and see if any are reasonable. (All but a couple weren't, it turns
out.)
A list of "Dead Clinton Friends" lists
An investigation of the list, with dates, facts and hotlinks, from Barbara
Mikkelsen's Urban
Legends page. The report is fair and admits when a death might be questionable.
Political Favors for Campaign Contributors
Though his administration floundered at first, Clinton has quickly learned one
aspect of
Washington -- how to raise money from business interests. He has set records in
fund-
raising, eclipsing even Dole's huge haul (though not by much.) Of course, if
Dole was
President he would no doubt regain the lead.
And some contributors seem to think their money is well spent. For example,
Clinton
raised over a quarter million dollars from ADM, Bob Dole's major benefactor, and
pushed
through a regulation benefiting them mightily.
On the other hand, 2 Arkansas firms that formerly bankrolled Clinton (and
received help
from his administration) have switched their support to Dole -- both Tyson
Chicken and
Stephens investment brokers apparently figure Dole gives a better return per
contribution
dollar, or is more likely to win.
Money and Favors: Archer Daniels Midland
For example, he has received at least ,000 from Archer Daniels Midland
corporation,
the agricultural giant famous for spreading money among various influential
people, from
Bob Dole to National Public Radio. Just days after Clinton received a ,000
check in
June 1994, his administration ordered that 30% of gasoline sold in American's 9
most
polluted cities contain ethanol based additives by 1996 (as opposed to cheaper
methanol.)
Archer Daniels makes 60% of US ethanol for gas, and none of the methanol. Bob
Dole, who
receives even more money from Archer Daniels and its president, actually
supported the
Clinton Administration's mandate, even while arguing against Clinton's health
care
proposal for nearly identical federal mandates. (Courts have block Clinton's 30%
rule,
saying he lacked power to favor ethanol over methanol.)
,000 for Hillary from an Educational Foundation
This allegation just came out January 10, so bear with us on it's sketchiness.
New York
state's new Attorney General Dennis Vacco (a Republican) is investigating a
,000 in
payments to Hillary or the Rose Law Firm from the National Center on Education
and the
Economy, a charity that was in Rochester New York and has since moved to
Washington,
DC
Hillary was on their board, as were Mario Cuomo and Ira Magaziner, but no other
board
members were paid. The justification is that Hillary was paid to carry out some
programs.
When this story came out a month ago, Vacco announced he was asking for
contracts with
Hillary or the Rose Law Firm and a description of any work she actually did.
Nothing
more has come of it, which -- in an election year - indicates that nothing
substantial has
turned up.

Try these links, but use a grain of salt; some of the sources are pretty
marginal, and most
are openly partisan.
The Unofficial Clinton Page This is an excellent, nonpartisan page.
Arkansas Times newspaper's Whitewater archive Scroll down a little to
"WhiteWater
Chronicles."
Yahoo's Whitewater Scandal Page
Prosecutor Starr has some scandals of his own


Quotes
"I'm someone who has a deep emotional attachment to 'Starsky and Hutch.' " --
Bill
Clinton, 1996
"I don't think [Bill Clinton] is fooling around anymore. Nor do I think he will.
I read that
Hillary threw a lamp at him. ... You know something? I think she did." -- Ann
Landers
Sources

"Primary Colors", by 'Anonymous', 1996
Wall Street Journal, in general, and in particular:
....January 12, 1996 pA14
....January 8, 1996 pA1
....December 18, 1995 pA16
....December 29, 1995 pA1
....March 23, 1995 p A1
....February 22, 1995 p A1
....January 13, 1995 p A12
"The Mena Coverup", Micah Morrison, Wall Street Journal, October 18, 1994 p A18
"The Real Cost of Ethanol" and "Dwayne's World", Dan Carney, Mother Jones,
January,
1995
"Aides Saw Political Threat In Clinton Loans From '90", Jeff Gerth, New York
Times,
May 6, 1995 p7
"Ann Landers Repents For Slurring The Pope", Associated Press, December 1, 1995
"Blocking the Box", Rick Marin, Newsweek, March 11, 1996
"NY Official Probes Payment to Mrs. Clinton", Associated Press, January 12, 1996

Paid for by Real People For Real Change PAC and not authorized by any candidate
or
candidate's committee.
Real People For Real Change is registered with the Federal Election Commission
as a non-
affiliated, independent political action committee.
Copyright 1996 Real People For Real Change PAC








BUSHS SKELTON CLOSET


Bush Jr.'s Skeleton Closet

George Bush likes to present himself as a straight-talking, regular guy. But as
one analyst said, Bush and Gore seem to have divided up Bill Clinton's
personality. Gore got the wonky studious part and Bush got the charming,
devilish rogue. Unfortunately, it looks like he got the weaselly playboy with a
closet full of skeletons part, too.
To be fair with the comparison, Gore has been wonky and studious only as a
politician; in school, his grades weren't much better than Bush's.
Click on the allegation of your choice:

-- Convicted of drunk driving. Lied repeatedly to cover up his arrest.
-- Lying under oath. Bush & staff stop investigation of contributor's huge
funeral home company.
-- Pulled Strings to Avoid Vietnam, & Got Favorable Treatment
-- Texas government corruption: State $$ for campaign funders & business cronies
-- Cocaine: felony drug use, vile hypocrisy, and a hushed up arrest?
-- His "young and irresponsible" behavior: sex, drugs and (gasp!) rock and roll?
-- Thin skinned: censors his critics with police, lawyers, $$$
-- Character: Spoiled rich kid living off his family's name and reputation
-- Made millions on insider business deals, for little work
-- -- Deal #1. Personal Profits from Failing Oil Companies
-- -- -- -- Easy Money From Odd Sources
-- -- -- -- A Surprise Deal From Bahrain
-- -- -- -- Access to the President and National Security Adviser for his
foreign business partner
-- -- Deal #2. Selling Oil Stocks Just Before Iraq Invaded: lucky guess or
illegal insider trading?
-- -- Deal #3. A Big Slice of a Baseball Team
-- -- -- -- Hypocrisy: using government coercion to make his private fortune

-- Quotes

-- Sources
Quotes
"One of the interesting initiatives we've taken in Washington, D.C., is we've
got these vampire-busting devices. A vampire is a-a cell deal you can plug in
the wall to charge your cell phone."-Denver, CO. Aug. 14, 2001
"Well, it's an unimaginable honor to be the president during the Fourth of July
of this country. It means what these words say, for starters. The great
inalienable rights of our country. We're blessed with such values in America.
And I--it's--I'm a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful
values."--Visiting the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., July 2, 2001
"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation
that suffers from incredible disease."--After meeting with the leaders of the
European Union, Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001
"It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade,
there's more commerce."--Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001
"I've coined new words, like, misunderstanding and Hispanically."-Radio-
Television Correspondents Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 29, 2001
"I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for
predecessors as well."-Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2001
"Then I went for a run with the other dog and just walked. And I started
thinking about a lot of things. I was able to-I can't remember what it was. Oh,
the inaugural speech, started thinking through that."-Pre-inaugural interview
with U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 22, 2001 issue
"Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to
enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment."-
Interview with the New York Times, Jan. 14, 2001 (Thanks to Rachael Contorer.)
"The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating
plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants."-
Interview with the New York Times, Jan. 14, 2001
"They misunderestimated me."-Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."-Greater Nashua,
N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."-Saginaw, Mich., Sept.
29, 2000
"The great thing about America is everybody should vote."-Austin, Texas, Dec. 8,
2000
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."--Reuters, May 5, 2000
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"-Florence, S.C., Jan.
11, 2000
"I understand small business growth. I was one."-New York Daily News, Feb. 19,
2000
"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case."-Pella,
Iowa, as quoted by the San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 30, 2000
"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not
only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark
dungeons of the Internet."-Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000
"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer
questions. I can't answer your question."- Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2000
"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it
is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods."-Austin, Texas, Dec. 20,
2000
"The senator [McCain] has got to understand if he's going to have-he can't have
it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."-To
reporters in Florence, S.C., Feb. 17, 2000
"We ought to make the pie higher."-South Carolina Republican Debate, Feb. 15,
2000
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some
kind of federal program."-Debate in St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000
"It's your money. You paid for it."-LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
"It's not the governor's role to decide who goes to heaven. I believe that God
decides who goes to heaven, not George W. Bush." -- George W. Bush, in the
Houston Chronicle.
"There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of this [web] site, and this
guy is just a garbage man, that's all he is." -- George Jr., discussing a web
site that parodies him
"I'm a uniter not a divider. That means when it comes time to sew up your chest
cavity, we use stitches as opposed to opening it up." -- Bush, on David
Letterman, March 2, 2000. (the audience booed)
"I didn't -- I swear I didn't -- get into politics to feather my nest or feather
my friends' nests." -- Bush Jr., in the Houston Chronicle
Quote Sources


Convicted of Drunk Driving, and Lied to Cover It Up
George Bush now admits that he was convicted of drunk driving. On September 4,
1976, a state trooper saw Bush's car swerve onto the shoulder, then back onto
the road. [The Bush camp spin that he was driving too slowly is simply a lie.]
Bush failed a road sobriety test and blew a .10 blood alcohol, plead guilty, and
was fined and had his driver's license suspended. His spokesman says that he had
drunk "several beers" at a local bar before the arrest. Bush was 30 at the time.
He now says that he stopped drinking when he turned 40 because it was a problem.
More troubling, Bush lied in denying such an arrest, and still won't take
responsibility for his actions. His first reaction was to blame Democrats and
Fox News -- the only openly conservative TV network -- for reporting the story.
"Why [was this reported] now, four days before the election? I've got my
suspicions." He refused to say what his suspicions are, though. Bush admits
covering up the story, but seems to think he has no responsibility for the
failure of his cover up.
In fact, just like Clinton with Monica Lewinsky, Bush has brazenly and
repeatedly lied to cover up and minimize this arrest.
1. Bush Lied at his Press Conference, 11/3/2000
Bush said he paid a fine on the spot and never went to court. That is clearly a
lie, as you can see on this court document showing his court hearing a month
later. In fact, it was a man also in court for DUI the same day who revealed
Bush' arrest. Here is exactly what Bush said in his press conference:
Bush: "I told the guy I had been drinking and what do I need to do? And he said,
"Here's the fine." I paid the fine and did my duty...."
Reporter: "Governor, was there any legal proceeding of any kind? Or did you just
-- "
Bush: "No. I pled -- you know, I said I was wrong and I ..." Reporter: "In
court? "
Bush: No, there was no court. I went to the police station. I said, "I'm wrong."
2. Bush Lied in Court, 1978

Bush got a court hearing to get his driving suspension lifted early, even though
he had not completed a required driver rehabilitation course. He told the
hearings officer that he drank only once a month, and just had "an occasional
beer." The officer granted his request. But Bush continued drinking for 8 years
after that date and has said publicly that he drank too much and had a drinking
problem during that time. Presumably Bush was under oath during the hearing,
though we haven't been able to pin down that detail. The Bush campaign refuses
to comment on this contradiction.
3. Bush Lied To "The Dallas Morning News", 1998

"Just after the governor's reelection in 1998, [Dallas Morning News reporter
Wayne] Slater pressed Bush about whether he had ever been arrested. 'He said,
'After 1968? No.'" Dallas Morning News, 11/03/2000 [Before 1968, Bush was
arrested for theft and vandalism in college.]
4. Bush Lied On 'Meet The Press', 11/21/99

Tim Russert: "If someone came to you and said, 'Governor, I'm sorry, I'm going
to go public with some information.' What do you do?"
Bush: "If someone was willing to go public with information that was damaging,
you'd have heard about it by now. You've had heard about it now. My background
has been scrutinized by all kinds of reporters. Tim, we can talk about this all
morning."
5. Bush Lied to CBS, 1999.

"Bush has often acknowledged past mistakes, but CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan
reports that in a 1999 interview with CBS station WBZ in Boston, he denied there
was any so-called smoking gun." CBS TV news
Bush also evaded countless questions and gave Clintonesque half-truths. For
example, while struggling with how to answer charges of drug abuse, he said that
he would have been able to pass FBI background checks during his father's
administration. But those checks include the question "Have you ever been
arrested for any crime?" So either he was directly lying, or he has some Slick
explanation like "I could have explained the circumstances of the arrest and
still passed the FBI check."
In another evasion, Bush decided to serve jury duty in 1996, during his first
year as governor. On his questionairre, he simply left blank the questions about
prior arrests and trials. Then he found himself on a trial for drunk driving,
where every juror is eventually asked about prior convictions for drunk driving.
The night before the trial, Bush's lawyer asked the defense attorney to dismiss
him, because "it would be improper for a governor to sit on a criminal case in
which he could later be asked to grant clemency." It's a silly argument, because
that problem exists with any criminal trial and Bush had already decided to
serve on a jury, but the defense attorney obliged and excused him before direct
questioning of jurors began.
Bush now justifies covering up his arrest "to be a good role model for his
daughters." How does he figure that? Lying to cover up your crimes is not what I
call being a good role model. Taking responsibility for your actions, admitting
fault honestly and warning people of the consequences you suffered, THAT would
be a good example. But Bush prefers the Clinton route of bald-faced lying, then
blaming your enemies and the press when you get caught.
Bush is now the first person to be elected president after being convicted of a
crime.
Bush had several other drunken incidents, as well. In December, 1972, Bush
challenged his dad (the ex-president) to a fist fight, during an argument about
Bush's drunk driving. He had taken his little brother out drinking, and ran over
a neighbor's garbage cans on the way home. Bush's atypical public service job,
working with inner city Houston kids, appears to have been an unofficial
community service stint set up by Bush, Sr. Apparently the governor didn't learn
his lesson, because his drunk driving conviction occured almost four years
later.
In another incident, he started screaming obscenities at a Wall Street Journal
reporter, just because that reporter predicted that Bush's father would not be
the 1988 Republican nominee. The reporter obviously was wrong, but a drunken
Bush Jr. walked up to him at a restaurant and started yelling "You fucking son
of a bitch. I won't forget what you said and you're going to pay a price for
it."
In fact, Bush' running mate Dick Cheney now admits he had two drunk driving
offenses in 1962 and 1963, giving the Bush -- Cheney ticket a new world record
of 3 DUI's on one ticket. No wonder they seem so relaxed.
The conviction is bad enough, but the real question is, what other revelations
are going to come later, about his drug use (which he won't deny), failing to
show up for a year of his National Guard service, or sexual escapades in his
swinging single days?
There is evidence that Bush has more to hide involving his Texas driving record.
Soon after he became governor, he had a new driver's license issued with the
unusual ID number of "000000005", an action that destroyed the records of his
previous license. His staff could only say, weakly, that this was done for
"security reasons" but there is no record of any previous Texas governor having
done so. Now we have at least of hint of why Bush wanted his records obscured,
and a dark foreboding that more might be lurking, still covered up.
Drunk Driving Sources

His Character: The Prodigal Son
George W. Bush, Jr. is touted as the savior of the Republican Party by the
national press, because he pulls votes from minority voters and has his dad's
name and fundraising connections to run on. But before we anoint him as the next
president, let's look at what he's done with his life. In a nutshell, Junior
1) grew up as a very rich child of powerful parents,
2) partied from high school until he was 40,
3) made millions off of sweet insider business deals from political allies of
his dad, who happened to be the President,
and 4) got elected governor of Texas mostly because of his name.
Bush Junior has done some good work as governor of Texas. He has crossed the
partisan divide, reached out to minorities, and tackled at least one tough,
thankless issue (school financing; his plan was voted down in the legislature.)
But 4 years -- even 4 good ones -- is a pretty short resume for the leader of
the free world. No one doubts Bill Clinton's ability to handle punishment and
come back for more. But Bush Junior's stamina and attention span are very real
concerns. Furthermore, Bush's term as governor has also been markedly corrupt,
although possibly in legal ways. What we mean is, he has taken millions in
campaign contributions from certain big businessmen -- many of whom were in on
the insider business deals that made him rich -- and those same businessman have
received billions in sweet deals from the Texas state government during Bush's
term.
Specifics: Like Al Gore, Bush Jr. attended Eastern elitist schools, in this case
Andover Prep, and Yale. According to a Newsweek profile, he "went to Yale but
seems to have majored in drinking at the Deke House." He joined the secretive
"Skull and Bones" club in 1968, as any good conspiracy buff can tell you.
His business career was marked by mediocrity or failure which nonetheless
resulted in him getting lots of money from his father's political allies. And
his political career has been handed to him on a platter by his famous name, and
by his dad's cronies.
Bill Kristol, conservative pundit and Dan Quayle's former chief of staff, says
"The Bush network is the only genuine network in the Republican Party. It is the
establishment." Junior and Jeb Bush (elected in Florida in 1998) are the first
brothers to be simultaneous governors since the Rockefellers.
To give you an idea of how rarefied his upbringing was, George Junior had an
argument with his mom at one point about whether non-Christians could go to
Heaven. (Barbara Bush felt they could; George didn't.) To settle the dispute,
they phoned up Billy Graham on the spot. (He sided with Junior, but warned him
not to play God.).)
More recently, Bush's performance during the 2000 South Carolina primary shows
that he received the worst trait common to the famous Bush family -- a vicious
competitiveness that shows no compunction about dirty tricks (such as the phone
calls by his surrogates calling McCain, of all people, "the fag candidate") and
utterly shameless flipflops (like Bush Sr.'s "read my lips, no new taxes", and
Junior's very public refusal to meet with the gay Log Cabin Republicans group
until right before the California primary, when he claimed he was fine with them
all along. Not to mention him suddenly becoming "a reformer" after he got
shellacked in the New Hampshire primary.)
Not only does this trait demonstrate a lack of integrity -- which I define as
having standards and things you believe in that you won't violate, even to win
the presidency -- but there is an incredible arrogance in thinking that voters
will accept and believe a candidate who blatantly changes his positions from
week to week, saying whatever the local primary voters want to hear.
Unfortunately, Bush Jr. has inherited this negative family trait without
receiving any of the graciousness, diligence, and bravery of his father and
grandfather (a Senator who lost his seat over a principled vote in favor of
birth control, back in the 1940s.)
Thin skinned: Bush tries to stifle his critics
One of the most disturbing things about Bush is that he consistently works to
silence his critics using his money and power, including state police and
expensive lawyers. Not since Richard Nixon has a major presidential candidate
been so quick to prevent his opponents from free speech. At the very least, this
shows he doesn't understand big-league politics and may not be tough enough to
handle more serious opponents, such as hostile foreign countries and terrorists.
At worst, it may be a sign of Nixon-like paranoia; that president's thin-skin
started out with similar small potatos and grew to bring down his presidency
amid enemies' lists, illegal break-ins of his opponent's offices, and forcing
the IRS to audit his enemies.
Bush can't blame this on his staff, either; it comes from the top. When asked
about one critical web site, he told the press "There ought to be limits to
freedom. We're aware of this site, and this guy is just a garbage man, that's
all he is."
As governor of Texas, for example, Bush Junior has sent the state police to
arrest peaceful demonstrators outside the governors mansion. While previous
governors allowed peaceful pickets on the public sidewalk outside the mansion,
Bush has claimed that they are blocking public access, and had them arrested.
Not all protestors, either -- just the ones he doesn't want the press to see.
In the 2000 primaries, Bush supporters including NY Governor Pataki sued to keep
John McCain and Steve Forbes off the New York primary ballot in several
congressional districts. Bush denied any involvement, fooling no one, but after
McCain's decisive New Hampshire victory made the move look ridiculous, Bush and
his top strategist Karl Rove called up his establishment minions, after which
they instantly announced that they were stopping their efforts to keep McCain
off the ballot. Ironically, all of the attention to ballot rules revealed that a
number of Bush delegates and alternates used fraudulent signatures to qualify
for the ballot. As a result, it appears that McCain and Forbes will be on the
ballot statewise, but George Bush Jr. won't be in one Bronx congressional
district.
Bush also can't stand criticism on the Internet. His campaign quietly -- and
probably illegally -- bought up over 200 anti-Bush domain names including
"bushsucks.com", "bushbites.com", and "bushblows.com" over a year ago.
(Illegally because he had refused to register as a candidate, as part of his
effort to make it look like people were begging him to run, so spending money
for his campaign was not allowed.) If you type in any of these URLs, you end up
at Bush's official web site. His campaign refuses to say whether this means that
they admit that he bites, blows and sucks. (Maybe he used to be a White House
intern?)
If you wanted to set up one of those sites, breathe easy because many good names
are still available. The Bush camp somehow neglected to purchase
"bushisaprick.com", "bushisweak.com", or "bushsucksdonkeydicks.com", so
makes them yours.
Even worse, Bush and his high-priced lawyers have tried twice to shut down a web
site -- www.gwbush.com -- that parodies the Bush campaign, in particular his "no
comment" answers on drug use in his past. You will recall that Bush has said it
doesn't matter what he did "in his youth," because the question is "have you
grown up" and "have you learned from your mistakes." The parody site presents a
new program called "Amnesty 2000", in which Bush "proposes" pardoning all drug
convicts who have "grown up."
The Bush campaign filed one complaint about the site in April 1999, after which
the parody site's owners changed it to look less like the real Bush site. That
wasn't good enough though, and Bush lawyers filed against the site again in May
1999. So far, it remains in business. Sources
Lying Under Oath. Bush & Co. Squelch Investigation of Contributor's Funeral
Homes
In a (so far successful) attempt to stop a scandal, Bush perjured himself under
oath, according to the sworn testimony of two of his political allies. The
situation is amazingly similar to Clinton's Lewinsky problem: a potentially
damaging lawuit arose (see below) that threatened to involve him. Just like
Clinton, Bush swore an affidavit that he had no involvement in the case, which
got him excused from testifying. And just like Clinton, the affidavit was proven
false months later by new evidence. In this case, it's the recent sworn
testimony of Robert MacNeil, a Bush appointee, that he had discussed the case
with Bush at a fundraiser.
This scandal isn't as sexy as Monica's, but perjury is perjury, and this scandal
actually involves the governor's job, not his sex life. Texas' state commission
on funeral homes (the TFSC) started an investigation of SCI, the world's largest
funeral home company (with 3,442 homes, plus 433 cemeteries) after complaints
that unlicensed apprenctices were embalming corpses at 2 SCI embalming centers.
The commission visited a couple of these, and ended up fining SCI ,000.
But SCI pulled strings with the commission and with Bush himself. Shortly
thereafter, the investigation was shut down and the agency's investigator was
fired. She sought to question Bush for her lawsuit, and that's when he swore his
admittedly false affidavit. In fact, that affidavit has been proven false twice
now.
DETAILS: SCI has long cultivated Bush and his allies. They gave governor Bush
,000 in the last election and in 1994, gave ,000 to the George Bush,
Sr. library, and hired the ex-president to give a speech last year for ,000.
They also spread money around the Texas legislature and the Texas Attorney
General's office.
After the investigation got serious, SCI's boss, Robert Waltrip, called the
funeral commission's chairman and told him to "back off." If not, Waltrip said,
"I'm going to take this to the governor."
Still, the investigation continued. So Waltrip and his lawyer/lobbyist, Johnnie
B. Rogers, went to the governor's office and dropped off a letter demanding a
halt to the investigation. Rogers told Newsweek that he and Waltrip were ushered
in to see Joe Allbaugh, Bush's chief of staff (who is now Bush's campaign
manager.) Rogers goes on to say that Bush Jr. popped his head in and said to
Waltrip, "Hey, Bobby, are those people still messing with you?" Waltrip said
yeah. Then the governor turned to Rogers and said, "Hey, Johnnie B. Are you
taking care of him?" Rogers said "I'm doing my best, Governor."
The problem for Bush is that he swore under oath, in a July 20th 1999 affidavit,
that he "had no conversations with [SCI] officials, agents, or represenatives
concerning the investigation or any dispute arising from it." If Rogers is
telling the truth, than Bush Jr. lied directly under oath. He filed the
affidavit in an attempt to avoid testifying in a whistleblower lawsuit
concerning this investigation and it's alleged squashing by Bush's
administration.
Back in August of 1999, Bush himself admitted that he spoke with Waltrip and
Rogers -- in other words, that he lied under oath -- but used Clintonesque
denials to claim that it was nothing substantial. Bush told the Associated Press
that "It's a 20-second conversation. I had no substantive conversation with the
guy. Twenty seconds. That's hardly enough time to even say hello, much less sit
down and have a substantive discussion. All I know is it lasted no time. And
that hardly constitutes a serious discussion. I did not have any knowledge at
all of Waltrip's problem with this case."
Of course, nothing Bush says here contradicts what Rogers said. In fact, his
careful explanation of why this is not perjury is incredibly similar to Bill
Clinton's weaseling about what the meaning of "is" is. And now MacNeil's sworn
statement further confirms Bush's lie.
Whatever Bush said out loud, Waltrip's complaints to the governor got quick
results. Eliza May -- the investigator for the funeral services commission --
says that after Waltrip visited the governor, she received phone calls from
three senior Bush aides asking if she could wrap up her proble quickly. She says
she was also summoned to another meeting in Allbaugh's office, one month after
the first one, and found Waltrip already there. The governor's top aide, she
says, demanded that she turn over a list of all of the documents that she needed
"to close the SCI investigation."
Since then, investigator Eliza May has been fired, 6 or 10 staff members on the
commission have been fired or resigned and not been replaced, and the Texas
legislature -- led by members receiving substantial contributions from SCI --
passed a bill to reorganize the agency and remove it's head. On August 16, 199,
Bush ordered his Comptroller to take over the agency and run it. May -- who, it
should be noted, is a Democrat and was even state Democratic Treasurer at one
point -- has filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging she was fired because she
persisted with the investigation.
Bush simply didn't show up for his scheduled deposition on July 1st, 1999 in the
case. (He isn't a defendant in the case, because Governors are immune from
lawsuits in Texas, but is being called as a material witness.) He filed his
affidavit on July 20th to indicate that he had nothing to add.
Now Robert MacNeil -- who was the chairman of the Texas funeral commission at
the time, a Bush appointee -- confirms that he also discussed the case with
Bush, at a 1998 Texas fundraiser. In a sworn deposition, MacNeil says that Bush
asked him: "Have you and Mr. Waltrip got your problems worked out?" Replied
McNeil: "We're still trying to work on that, governor." Bush then said, "Do your
job." Bush's campaign says that MacNeil's statement is false. But the language
MacNeil says Bush used is almost identical to what he admits saying to Johnnie
Rodgers in the governor's office. Sources
Corruption in Texas Government; State $ to Big Contributors
Bush's administration has consistenly shoveled large amounts of state controlled
money to men who have either contributed large amounts to Bush's campaign, or
who have made Junior personally rich through sweet insider business deals, or
both.
For example, the University of Texas' Investment Management Company (UTIMCO)
invests $1.7 billion of state money. Most of this comes from profits from oil
discovered on Texas state land. Bush's cronies dominate this board, and in
return investment funds controlled by these very cronies or their friends have
received nearly a third -- million -- of that massive investment pool.
There may even be more, but this obscure group -- created under Bush -- cloaks
its operations in a thick veil of secrecy.
UTIMCO's chairman, Tom Hicks, now owns the Texas Rangers; his purchase of the
team made Governor Bush a very rich man. Furthermore, Hicks and his brother gave
,000 to the Bush campaign. In return, million of the invested money
went to funds run by Hicks' business associates or friends, according to the
Houston Chronicle. Hicks even insisted that UTIMCO increase by million an
investment with a fund that he had an indirect financial interest in, but UTIMCO
staff halted funding after they discovered the conflict.
Then there's Sam and Charles Wyly, the billionaire brothers who secretly bought
.5 million of "independent" TV ads slamming McCain just before the critical
Super Tuesday primaries. (They have also given hundreds of thousands of dollars
to Bush Jr.'s governor and presidential campaigns.) They control Maverick
Capital, an investment fund that received million of UTIMCO money. The
brothers earn nearly $1 million in fees alone from that money, along with a
share of any profits.
Henry Kravis of Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts -- a longtime Bush contributor --
received a million investment deal in 1996. And there are many more Bush
supporters who have received millions from UTIMCO, including the Bass family and
Adele Hall of the Hallmark Cards family.
Another key player in the Bush world is Richard Rainwater, the billionaire Texas
investor who made Bush Jr.'s original involvement in the Texas Rangers deal
possible. That's the deal that made Jr. rich, of course. Bush had several other
personal investments in Rainwater controlled companies. But Rainwater has
received much from Bush and the state of Texas' treasury, too. UTIMCO invested
at least million in Rainwater companies.
And UTIMCO is not the only Bush administration agency funneling money and favors
to his supporters and cronies. T he state teacher retirement fund sold three
office buildings to Rainwater's real estate company at bargain prices, and
without bids in 2 of the cases. The fund invested million in the Frost Bank
Plaza in Austin, and sold it to Rainwater's Crescent Real Estate for
million. Bush signed a law that will give his former baseball team co-owners --
including Rainwater -- a million bonus payment when a new Dallas arena is
built. Bush also proposed a cap on business real estate taxes that would have
saved Rainwater millions on his various properties (but it lost in the
legislature).
In another example, Bush's state Housing department has been investigated for
kickbacks, and Florita Bell Griffin, who Bush appointed to the state Housing
Board, was just convicted of bribery, theft, money-laundering and mail fraud for
trading her influence for cash. She faces 55 years in prison. And Larry Paul
Manley, Bush's director of the Department of Housing until he resigned in
January 1999, is under police investigation for steering federal tax credits to
cronies. Texas' top auditor discovered in 1997 that 60% of department contracts
went to Manley's former colleagues at local savings and loans, but refused to
make the findings public until long after the criminal probes began.
Bush may or may not have violated state ethics laws with all of this big money
backscratching, but there is no doubt that he and these businessman are
operating corruptly -- funneling large amounts of state money to the
businessmen's companies, and large amounts of their personal and business money
into George Bush Jr.'s pocket and political campaigns.
Sources
Avoided the Vietnam War
Most people have heard something about George W. Bush pulling strings to get
into the Texas Air Guard. But the press, while reporting lots of details, has
done a poor job of communicating how consistently and shamelessly Bush Jr.
sought and received favorable treatment while he avoided Vietnam.
Furthermore, his story has repeatedly changed -- he has weaseled like Clinton at
his worst and even flat-out lied when explaining what happened.
To put it in perspective, here are 9 ways Bush got favored treatment in the
service due to his political connections (he was then son of a Congressman and
grandson of a former Senator):
1) He got into the Guard by pulling strings, avoiding the year and a half
waiting list;
2) He took a 2-month vacation in Florida after just 8 weeks, (1 of 3 leaves), to
work on a political campaign;
3) Bush skipped Officer Candidate School and got a special commission as a 2nd
Lieutenant, without qualifications;
4) He was assigned to a safe plane (being phased out of active service), the F-
102 ;
5) During flight school, he was flown on a government jet to Washington for a
date with President Nixon's daughter Tricia ;
6) Bush got an illegal transfer (later overruled) to a base with no work;
7) He simply didn't show up for a YEAR, with no penalty;
8) George W. skipped all his medical exams after they started drug tests, and
was removed from flight status;
9) He ended his service 10 months early to go to Harvard Business School;
Here are the details:
1. Pulled Strings to Get In.
On May 27, 1968, George Bush Jr. was 12 days away from losing his student draft
deferment, at a time when 350 Americans a week were dying in combat. The
National Guard, seen by many as the most respectable way to avoid Vietnam, had a
huge waiting list -- a year and a half in Texas, over 100,000 men nationwide.
Yet Bush and his family friends pulled strings, and the young man was admitted
the same day he applied, regardless of any waiting list.
Bush's unit commander, Col. "Buck" Staudt, was so excited about his VIP recruit
that he staged a special ceremony for the press so he could have his picture
taken administering the oath (even though the official oath had been given by a
captain earlier.)
Bush and his allies have tried to deny this with several changing stories, but
Bush himself admits lobbying commander Staudt, who approved him, and court
documents confirm that close family friend and oil magnate Sid Adger called
Texas Speaker of the House Ben Barnes, who called General James Rose, the head
of the Texas Air National Guard, to get Bush in. Rose, who is now dead, told his
friend and former legislator Jake Johnson that "I got that Republican
congressman's son from Houston into the Guard."
Staudt's unit, the 147th, was infamous as a nesting place for politically
connected and celebrity draft avoiders. Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen's son
was in the unit, as was Republican Senator John Tower's, both of Sid Adger's
sons and at least 7 members of the Dallas Cowboys.
2. Took a 2 month vacation in Florida after 8 weeks in the Guard.
Just 8 weeks after joining, Bush was granted 2 months leave to go to Florida and
work on a political campaign, the Senate race of Republican Edward Gurney. Bush
took a leave every election season, in 1970 to work on his dad's campaign, and
in 1972 to work in Alabama.
3. Skipped Officer Candidate School and got a special commission as 2nd Lt.
As soon as Bush completed basic training, his commander approved him for a
"direct appointment", which made him an officer without having to go through the
usual (and difficult) Officer Candidate School. This special procedure also got
Bush into flight school, despite his very low scores on aptitude tests -- he
scored 25% on a pilot aptitude test, the absolute lowest acceptable grade, and
50% for navigator aptitude. (Bush did score 95% on the easier officer quality
test, but then again the average is 88%).
What made Bush's appointment doubly unusual was his total lack of special
qualifications. This procedure was generally reserved for applicants with
exceptional experience or skills, such as ROTC training or engineering, medical
or aviation skills. Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National Guard,
reviewed the Guard's records on Bush for a special exhibit on his service after
Bush became governor. Asked about Bush's direct appointment without special
skills, Hail said "I've never heard of that. Generally they did that for doctors
only, mostly because we needed extra flight surgeons."
Charles Shoemake, an Air Force veteran who later joined the Texas Air National
Guard and retired as a full colonel, said that direct appointments were rare and
hard to get, and required extensive credentials. Asked about Bush, he said "His
name didn't hurt, obviously. But it was a commander's decision in those days."
Despite Bush Jr.'s weak qualifications, Col. Staudt was so excited about the
direct appointment that he saged another special ceremony for the press, this
time with Bush's father the congressman standing prominently in the background.
The direct appointment process was discontinued in the 1970s.
4. Assigned to a safe plane -- the F-102 -- that was being phased out.
As Bush has been quick to note, National Guard members do face the chance of
being called up for active duty, though few actually did during the Vietnam war.
So what a lucky break for Bush that he was assigned to fly the F-102 Delta
Dagger, a plane already being phased out. In fact, the Air Force had ordered all
overseas F-102 units shut down as of June 30, 1970 -- just 3 months after Bush
finished his training. Since training is so airplane specific, Bush was
guaranteed from the beginning to be safe from combat.
Bush's campaign has even used his training on the obsolete plane to justify his
early discharge, almost a year before his scheduled discharge, since other F-102
pilots were also being released early. But they can't answer the obvious
question -- why spend so much money to train a National Guardsman for 2 years on
a plane that was already being phased out, at a time when the Guard was letting
F102 pilots leave early due to oversupply?
5. Celebrity Political Date.
During his flight training, Bush's celebrity showed in a couple of ways. Most
famously, President Nixon sent a jet to pick up the young flight student for a
date with his daughter Tricia. Alas, the potential political marriage and
dynasty was not to be. Also, the commencement speaker at Bush's graduation
ceremony was -- his dad, Congressman George Bush Sr.
6. Illegal, overruled transfer to a base with no work.
In 1972, Bush once again wanted to work on a political campaign, this time in
Alabama. He applied for a transfer to a nearly defunct base with no active
training or work, the 9921st Air Reserve Squadrom at Maxwell Air Force Base in
Alabama. Bush's supervisors approved, but a higher headquarters overruled them,
noting that the unit had no regular drills.
Lt. Col. Reese Bricken, the unit's commander, told the Boston Globe "We met just
one weeknight a month. We were only a postal unit. We had no airplanes. We had
no pilots. We had no nothing." Even Albert Lloyd Jr., a retired Air Guard
colonel who is helping the Bush campaign clarify the candidate's service, told
the Globe he was mystified why Bush's superiors at the time would approve duty
at such a unit. Lloyd was personnel director of the Texas Air Guard from 1969 to
1995.
Now, the officer who did that has stepped forward and very directly admitted
that he tried to get the easiest possible assignment for Bush. The personnel
officer in charge of Bush's 147th Fighter Group, now-retired Col. Rufus G.
Martin, says he tried to give Bush a light load when he told him to apply to the
9921st Air Reserve Squadron in Montgomery, Ala. Martin said in an interview that
he knew Bush wasn't eligible for the 9921st, an unpaid, general training
squadron that met once a week to hear lectures on first aid and the like.
"However," he said, "I thought it was worth a try. . . . It was the least
participation of any type of unit."
7. Just didn't show up for a year -- with no punishment.
National Guard records and Bush's own supervisor's and friends show no sign of
him attending any drills or performing any service for nearly a year, from May
1972 until May 1973. This period began with Bush moving to Alabama for a
political campaign.
He later applied to transfer to a base that had no work; the transfer was first
approved, then cancelled. Bush did nothing for several months; then in September
he applied to transfer to Alabama's 187th Tactical Recon group for 3 months.
This was approved, but the unit's commander, General William Turnipseed, and his
then admnistrative officer, Kenneth Lott, have both said that Bush never showed
up. "Had he reported in, I would have had some recall, and I do not," said
Turnipseed. "I had been in Texas, done my flight training there. If we had had a
first lieutenant from Texas, I would have remembered."
Bush claims that he did some work in Alabama, but can't remember any details. "I
can't remember what I did," he said. "I just-I fulfilled my obligation." Despite
2 years of searching through hundreds of records, his campaign has been unable
to find any record of Bush's service there, nor could they find a single fellow
serviceman who remembers his presence. The best they could produce was an ex-
girlfriend from Alabama -- Emily Marks --who said George told her he would have
to do some Guard duty later that year (1972) in Montgomery. But all that
confirms is that he knew of his obligation.
In December 1972, Bush returned to Houston and was scheduled to resume duty
there. But in May 1973, Bush's supervising pilots wrote in his annual efficiency
report: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of the
report" (i.e. through April 30, 1972). Bush described one of the supervisors,
the late Col. Jerry Killian, as a personal friend, so it's likely he would have
noticed Bush and given him the benefit of the doubt. Later that month, two
special orders commanded Bush to appear for active duty. He served 36 days of
active duty during May, June and July before leaving the Guard early.
Amazingly, Bush was not disciplined in any way for his absence, and received an
honorable discharge. Under Air National Guard rules at that time, guardsmen who
missed duty could be reported to their Selective Service Board and inducted into
the Army as draftees.
8. Skipped all his medical exams after they started drug tests.
In April 1972, the military started including routine drug tests in servicemen's
annual physical exam, including urinalysis, questions about drugs and "a close
examination of the nasal cavities" (for cocaine). According to the regulation,
the medical took place in the month after the serviceman's birthday. For George
W. Bush, this meant August 1972.
It was May, 1972 -- one month after the drug testing was announced -- that Bush
stopped attending Guard duty. In August 1972, he was suspended from flight duty
for failing to take his physical. (Click here to see the document.) A Bush
campaign spokesman confirmed to the London Sunday Times that Bush knew he would
be suspended. "He knew the suspension would have to take place." Bush never flew
again, even though he returned to his Houston base where Guard pilots flew
thousands of hours in the F-102 during 1973. The only barrier to him flying
again was a medical exam (and his lack of attendance).
Careful readers will recall that when Bush issued his partial denial of drug
use, he said (or implied) that he hadn't used them since 1974, but he pointedly
refused to deny drug use before then, i.e. during his military service. Several
sources have also indicated that it was in December, 1972 -- 4 months after his
medical suspension -- that a drunk Bush Jr. challenged his father to a fist
fight during an argument over the son's drunk driving. (He had run over a
neighbor's garbage cans.) Shortly thereafter, Bush Sr. arranged for his son to
do community service at an inner city Houston charity.
Bush's campaign aides first said he did not take the physical because he was in
Alabama and his personal physician was in Houston. But flight physicals can be
administered only by certified Air Force flight surgeons, and some were assigned
at the time to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, where Bush was living. The
staff now admits that this explanation was wrong.
9. Left service 10 months early.
Even after that easy stint, Bush couldn't fulfill his obligation. He quickly
made up the missed days he had to and applied for an early release, before he
had to take his next annual physical exam (with drug test.) While the official
discharge date was October 1, 1973, Bush's last day in uniform was actually July
31 -- a full 10 months before the end of his 6-year, part time commitment. Al
Gore also requested and received an early discharge (from the Army, in his case)
to go to school.
Weasel words; his story keeps changing.
When asked about his service, Bush has lied, changed his story repeatedly, and
weaseled in a manner eerily reminiscent of Bill Clinton. First of all, he has
flat-out lied. In his official autobiography, ''A Charge to Keep,'' Bush said he
flew with his unit for ''several years'' after finishing flight training in June
1970. His campaign biography states that he flew with the unit until he won
release from the service in September 1973, nine months early, for graduate
school. Both statements are lies. Bush only flew with the 111th for one year and
10 months, until April 1972 when he was suspended for failing to take his
medical exam (and drug test), and never flew again.
Then there is his Clintonesque weaseling and word choice. Bush and his campaign
claimed that no Bush family or friends pulled strings. Under pressure, this
changed to "All I know is anybody named George Bush did not ask him [Ben Barnes]
for help." By that he meant, himself or his dad. Of course, it later came out in
court that a close Bush friend, Simon Adger, had asked Barnes to get Bush Jr.
into the Guard, and that Barnes did so, via General Rose.
Now's it's not even clear that a George Bush didn't ask for help. When pressed,
the former president's spokeswoman (Jean Becker) said he is "almost positive"
that he and Mr. Adger never discussed the Guard matter. "He [Bush Sr.] he is
fairly certain - I mean he doesn't remember everything that happened in the
1960s..." In any case, Bush Sr. and Adger were very close. Ms. Becker
acknowledged that "President Bush knew Sid Adger well. He loved him." Adger may
have needed only a hint.
Furthermore, George Bush Jr. admits that he knew Adger socially at the time, and
further admits that he lobbied Col. "Buck" Staudt, the commander of the VIP unit
Bush joined. Staudt claims that he, not General Rose (who he later replaced),
was the one who made the decision on admissions anyway. Bush Jr. admits that he
met Staudt in late 1967, during Christmas vacation of his senior year, called
him later, and -- in Bush's words -- "found out what it took to apply."
When asked how Bush came to call Staudt, his spokeswoman Karen Hughes said he
"heard from friends while he was home over the Christmas break that ... Colonel
Staudt was the person to contact." She says that Bush doesn't recall who those
"friends" were. But we know that Sid Adger was also a friend of Staudt's, served
with him on the Houston Chamber of Commerce's Aviation Committee, and in 1967
held a luncheon honoring Gen. Staudt and his unit for winning an Air Force
commendation. In fact, both of Adger's sons also joined General Staudt's unit,
in 1966 and 1968 respectively.
Bush and his staff also claim that he vaulted ahead of the Air Guard waiting
list because he was willing to fly an airplane, and there were openings. There
is nothing to support this claim, however. For one thing, the F-102 was being
phased out at the time and F-102 pilots were being released from service early,
as indeed Bush himself was. And Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National
Guard, says flatly that there was no pilot shortage in the Guard squadron at
that time. Bush's unit had 27 pilots at the time he applied; while they were
authorized for 29 pilots, there were two more already in training and one
awaiting a transfer.
Bush also weasels on whether he was avoiding combat or not. He has stated on
several occasions that he did not want to be an infantryman, and acknowledges
that he came to oppose the war itself. He claims that he joined the guard to fly
planes, and would have been happy to go to Vietnam, but ignores the obvious
choice of the Air Force or the Navy -- which his dad, a genuine war hero,
joined. Furthermore, when he signed up for the Guard, he checked a box saying
"Do not volunteer for overseas service." Later, he made a perfunctory
application to transfer to a program called "Palace Alert", which dispatched F-
102 pilots to Europe or the Far East -- and just occasionally Vietnam -- for 3
or 6 month assignments. But Bush was not nearly qualified, as he must have
known, and was immediately turned down, and the F-102 not used overseas after
June, 1970 in any case.
And, as noted above, his story also changed on why he refused to take a medical
exam -- including a drug test - in 1972. (The refusal ended Bush's flying
career.) His staff first claimed that he didn't take the physical because he was
in Alabama and his personal physician was in Houston. But flight physicals can
be administered only by certified Air Force flight surgeons, and there were
surgeons assigned at the time to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, where
Bush was living. His staff now admits that that explanation was "wrong", without
saying where it came from or what the real reason was. Draft & National Guard
Sources
Insider Business Deals
Bush Jr. has made a lot of money off of three business deals. In each one, his
contribution is hard to perceive, yet he walked off with hundreds of thousands
or millions of dollars in deals arranged by his father's political cronies. The
deals were
1. the sale of Junior's struggling oil company,
2. Junior's sale of oil stock just before the Gulf War, and
3. getting a cheap slice of the Texas Rangers baseball team, which he sold in
1999 for a huge profit (he paid ,000, and sold for million).
The general pattern here is just as important as the details. Bush did no work
in his business career that can clearly be called "excellent" or even "solid."
The money he made is tangential to his efforts at best -- the oil companies lost
a great deal of money during his tenure, and the Rangers cut a lot of corners --
which makes the cronyism that much more suspicious.
It's not just that one or two of Bush's deals look funky; every major business
deal he has been involved with included wealthy supporters of his father, and
many of those investors later received favorable treatment from either the
federal government under Bush, Sr. or the current Texas administration of
Junior.
Deal #1: The Oil Business: Rewarded for Losing Money
Like his dad, Junior struck out in Texas and founded an oil company, Arbusto
Energy, Inc., with ,000 of his own money. (Arbusto is the Spanish word for
bush.) The company foundered in the early 1980s when oil prices dropped (and his
dad was Vice President.)
The 50 investors, who were "mainly friends of my uncle" in Junior's own words,
put in .7 million and lost most of it. Junior claims that investors "did
pretty good," but Bush family friend Russell Reynolds told the Dallas Morning
News: "The bottom line was there were problems, and it didn't work out very
well. I think we got maybe 20 cents on the dollar."
As Arbusto neared collapse, Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation bought it in September
1984. Despite his poor track record, the owners made Bush, Jr. the president and
gave him 13.6% of the parent company's stock.
Spectrum 7 was a small oil firm owned by two staunch Reagan/Bush Sr. supporters
-- William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds. These two were also owners of the Texas
Rangers and allowed Bush Jr. to purchase a chunk of the team cheaply; he later
sold it for over 24 times what he paid.
Within two years of purchasing Arbusto and making Bush Jr. president, Spectrum 7
was itself in trouble; it lost ,000 in its last 6 months of operation. That
ended in 1986, when Harken Energy Corporation bought Spectrum 7's 180-well
operation.
Junior got ,000 worth of Harken stock, and a lot more. He was named to the
board of directors, made ,000 to ,000 a year well into the 1990s as a
"consultant" to Harken, and was allowed to buy Harken stock at 40% below face
value.
He also borrowed ,375 from Harken at very low rates; the company's 1989 and
1990 SEC filings said it "forgave" ,000 in loans to unspecified executives.
So what did Junior do for all this money? It's hard to say exactly, but things
happened for Harken after Junior came on board:
it got a million stock offering from an unusual bank with CIA ties,
it won a surprise exclusive drilling contract with Bahrain, a small Mideast
country, and
an Arab member of its Board of Directors was invited to White House policy
meetings with President George Bush and National Security Adviser Brent
Scowcroft.

Easy Money From Odd Sources
The firm's million stock offering was underwritten by Stephens, Inc., an
Arkansas bank whose head, Jackson Stephens, was on President Bush's "Team 100."
(That was a group of 249 rich persons who gave at least ,000 each to his
presidential campaign committee). Stephens placed the offering with the London
subsidiary of Union Bank of Switzerland, which (according to the Wall Street
Journal) was not known as an investor in small American companies.
Union Bank did have other connections; it was a joint-venture partner with the
notorious BCCI in a Geneva-based bank, and was involved in a scandal surrounding
the Nugan Hand Bank, a CIA operation in Australia whose executives were advised
by William Quasha, the father of Harken's chairman (Alan Quasha.) Union Bank was
also involved in scandals surrounding Panamanian money laundering by BCCI, and
Ferdinand Marcos' movement of 325 tons of gold out of the Phillipines.
That wasn't the only financing connection Junior brought; after the company won
its Bahrain deal (see next item), the billionaire Bass brothers of Texas offered
to underwrite the drilling operation. Robert Bass is also a member of Bush's
Team 100, and he and his kin gave ,000 to Bush Senior between 1988 and 1992.

The Bahrain Contract
In January 1990, Harken was chosen out of the blue by the small Mideast country
Bahrain for an exclusive offshore oil drilling contract. They beat out Amoco, an
experienced and major international conglomerate, despite having no offshore oil
drilling experience at all. As of March 1995, the most recent report we could
find, they had found no oil.
Junior has denied that he was involved in the deal, and even told the Wall
Street Journal that he opposed it. But a company insider told Mother Jones
Magazine "Like any member of the board, he was thrilled. His attitude was 'Holy
shit, what a great deal!'"
If he did oppose it, he wasn't much of a consultant. Charles Strain, an energy
company analyst in Houston, told Mother Jones: "Harken is not hard to understand
-- it's easy. The company has only one real asset -- its Bahrain contract. If
that field turns out to be dry, Harken's stock is worth, at the most, 25 cents a
share. If they hit it big over there, the stock could be worth to
dollars a share." As of December 1998, Harken Energy Corp. (HEC on Amex) is
trading at .69 a share.

Access to the President For Bush's Foreign Business Partner
The most troubling thing that happened to Harken after it bought George Bush
Junior in, was that one of its Board of Directors members was suddenly admitted
to the highest levels of United States foreign policy meetings. These were not
Clintonesque meet-and-greet fundraisers, but actual working policy meetings
during a critical period.
After the Harken-Bahrain deal was signed, Talat Othman was added to a group of
Arabs who met with George Bush and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft
three times in 1990 -- once just two days after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Othman was the representative of Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh, who purchased 10% of
Harken stock and had several ties to the infamous BCCI bank. Bakhsh was a co-
investor in Saudi Arabia with alleged BCCI front man Ghaith Pharaon. Bakhsh's
banker, Khalid bin Mahfouz, was another BCCI figure and head of the largest bank
in Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Kalifah, the prime minister of Bahrain, was a BCCI
shareholder and played the key role in selecting Harken for the oil contract.
This is the crowd that gained entry to the President and the National Security
Adviser of the United States after George Junior made his deal with Harken.

Deal #2: Selling Oil Stock Just Before Iraq Invaded
George Bush, Junior sold 60% of his stock in Harken Oil in June, 1990 for
,560. That was brilliant timing; in August, Iraq invaded Kuwait and Harken's
stock dropped 25%. Soon after, a big quarterly loss caused it to drop further.
A secret State Deparment memo in May of that year had warned that Saddam was out
of control, and listed options for responding to him, including an oil ban that
might affect US oil prices.
We can't be sure that the President or an aide mentioned these developments to
his son, or that Harken's representative who was admitted to meetings with the
President picked up something and reported back to Junior. But it is the
simplest and most logical explanation. The Bushes acknowledge that George Senior
and his sons consult on political strategy and other matters constantly.
Furthermore, Harken's internal financial advisers at Smith Barney had issued a
report in May warning of the company's deteriorating finances. Harken owed more
than million to banks and other creditors at the time. George Bush, Jr. was
a member of the board and also of Harken's restructuring committee, which met in
May and worked directly with the Smith Barney consultants. He must have known of
these warnings.
These are pretty clear-cut indications of illegal insider trading. The
Securities and Exchange Commission, controlled at the time by President George
Bush, investigated but chose not to press charges.
Junior also violated another SEC rule explicitly. He was required to register
his sale as an insider trade by July 10, 1990, but didn't until March 1991,
after the Gulf War was over. He was not punished or cited.
Deal #3: A Big Slice of the Texas Rangers for a Little Money (and a Big Profit)
The third unusually easy deal for George Bush Junior was his involvement in the
Texas Rangers baseball team. In a nutshell, he was offered a piece of this
valuable franchise for only ,000, by supporters of his dad who also bailed
out his failing oil company. He sold his stake for million - while Texas
governor -- to a Texas millionaire with lots of businesses regulated by his
administration. "When all it is all said and done, I will have made more money
than I ever dreamed I would make," Bush told the Forth Worth Star-Telegram.
Bush was allowed to buy 1.8% of the team for ,000 of borrowed money, and was
even made one of the two general managers. His qualifications for partial
ownership? Several years working at failing oil companies, and his political
connections through his father. It's hard to be sure, but we're guessing that
latter was probably more important.
Junior tripled his investment, like the other owners, with the help of massive
government intervention and subsidies. But his real wealth came from simply
being given 10% of the team as a "bonus" for "putting together the investment
team."
Even if he really had done that work, it's an absurd bonus (.2 million), but
the fact is that he didn't add much. Cincinatti financier William DeWitt brought
Bush in, not vice versa, shortly after George Bush Sr. was elected president.
(DeWitt had also invested in Junior's oil companies.). The only investor Bush
actually brought in was Roland Betts, a Yale fraternity brother, and that wasn't
good enough.
Under Junior's management, the deal was about to fall apart until baseball
commissioner Peter Uebberoth brought in another investment group led by Fort
Worth Billionaire Richard Rainwater and Dallas investor "Rusty" Rose. Since the
deal, both men have profited greatly from business with the Texas administration
of George Bush, Jr. Rose personally invested .2 million and became the other
general manager of the team. Under the team partnership agreement, Bush Junior
couldn't take any "material actions" wihtout Rose's prior approval. There was
also a method for removing Junior as a general partner, but no way to remove
Rose. Yet Rose's "bonus" for his role in setting up the deal was less than half
of Junior's.
What kind of owners would approve such a big payoff to Bush? In addition to Rose
and Rainwater, men with business pending before Texas government, the owners
included William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds, major contributors to President
Bush who had also purchased Junior's failing oil company through their Spectrum
7 Energy company.
If this deal doesn't smell bad enough already, consider Bush's blatant
hypocrisy. The main value of the team is its new stadium (ranked by Financial
World as the most profitable in baseball) and 300 acres of vacant land the team
owns between the stadium and 6 Flags of Texas, which is next door.
Putting Tax Money into Bush's Pocket
The hypocritical part is, the private owners of this very valuable land didn't
want to sell. Bush and his partners gave them only a lowball offer, and when it
was rejected they arranged for a new government agency (the Arlington Sports
Facility Development Authority, or ASFDA) to condemn it for them.
The agency foreclosed the land and paid the owners a very low price, later
judged by a jury to be only 1/6th of its actual value. The agency also floated
bonds, guaranteed and repaid by taxpayers, to finance the purchase. This
amounted to a million subsidy for Bush and partners, compared with the
million they paid for the franchise. Since they sold the entire franchise for
million, it's easy to see whose money Bush and friends pocketed.
The next time Junior talks about tax cuts, remember this: Arlinton had to impose
a new 1/2 cent sales tax just to pay for the subsidy Bush and his partners
received.
To add insult to injury, Bush and his partners continue to stiff the taxpayers
for .5 million they owe under the terms of the agreement. It held that the
team would pay all expenses over million. The original owners of just 13 of
the acres sued the City of Arlington, saying that the ASFDA had not paid a fair
price for the land. The jury awarded them .5 million, but even though the
project exceeded the million limit, the partners have refused to pay. Given
their huge taxpayer subsidy and million profits, it seems absurdly selfish.
George Bush, Jr. has said in campaign speeches "I will do everything I can to
defend the power of private property and private property rights when I am the
governor of this state." Apparently this deal was not covered by that statement,
since he wasn't governor yet.
He claims that he "wasn't aware of the details" of the land condemnations, even
though he was the team's managing general partner and has bragged about
personally getting the stadium built. But he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
in October 1990 that "The idea of making a land play, absolutely, to plunk the
field down in the middle of a big piece of land, that's kind of always been the
strategy."
And the key to their land play was always the strong arm of government. A memo
from Arlington real estate broker Mike Reilly to Rangers President Tom Schieffer
dated October 26, 1990 - the day before Bush's comment about the land play -
said "In this particular situation our first offer should be our final offer ...
If this fails, we will probably have to initiate condemnation proceedings after
the bond election passes."
On the first day of the 1993 campaign, Bush said "The best way to allocate
resources in our society is through the marketplace. Not through a governing
elite." Not through a private sports team buying in the President's son cheap,
and then getting the government to hand them extremely valuable land.
Party Hearty: Sex, Drugs, And Rock 'N Roll?
For almost half his life, Junior was distinguished mainly by his hearty appetite
for partying. A Newsweek profile by Evan Thomas, describing his college years,
says he "seems to have majored in beer drinking at the Deke House." After he
formed his first company (which failed), Thomas writes, "By his own account,
Bush spent a lot of time in bars, trying to sort out who he was. He had a kind
of ragged nervous energy in that period, and he could be a bully."
The Bush family spin is that the governor quit drinking cold turkey on his 40th
birthday, straightened out by the love of a good woman (his wife, Laura.) They
even pull out their secret weapon, lovable Barbara Bush, with anecdotes about
what a rascal little George Junior was.
But the explosive element here is not booze. It's sex, drugs and hypocrisy.
Frankly, it doesn't bother us if candidates have partied, even a lot. Who wants
a bunch of namby-pamby boy scouts running the country? But George Bush Jr. makes
a big point of travelling around the country and lecturing students on staying
celibate, sober and drug free. He does not permit the option of partying hard
until you're 40 and then stopping.
And as governor, he attacked his predecessor for allowing leniency toward first-
time drug users, and pushed a "no tolerance" policy that has sent casual cocaine
users -- who's dads aren't rich, or president -- to prison for years. He even
has the gall to proclaim that such users "need to know that drug use has
consequences." At least if you're from the wrong neighborhood.
No Handcuffs or Dwarf Orgies
Junior is so worried about his past that he hired a private detective to
investigate himself. (I guess he can't remember what he did at those parties,
which tells you something right there.)
According to an unnamed insider quoted on MSNBC, Bush "isn't terribly thrilled"
about what they found, though no one is spilling the details (yet). "No
handcuffs or dwarf orgies, but he was a handsome, rich playboy and lived that
life," the insider said.
W is For Women: Bush volunteers to reporters that he has been faithful to his
wife. However, he was married at 31 and makes no claim of virginity before that
point, even as he lectures the youth of today to remain celibate. A Clinton aide
who was in Bush's class at Yale has already warned him that "People who live in
glass houses shouldn't throw stones."
We have received two credible reports from women who say they had affairs with
George Bush, Jr. One alleged affair took place after Bush was married, on
business trips to Los Angeles; in the other case, Bush was single but the woman
was married at the time. Neither woman is willing to go public with further
details, including their names, which is why we aren't publicizing these
incidents more, but in our editorial opinion they are credible, and the details
that these woman have provided check out.
Furthermore, porn publisher Larry Flynt has alleged that one Bush affair led his
then-girlfriend to have an abortion, and claims to have 5 affidavits from
friends of the woman and others supporting the claim. Again the woman does not
want to be named, which makes it hard to prove the claim, but you can't really
blame a lady for not wanting to be known as the "Bush abortion girl." Flynt made
this allegation on CNN. The host of the program actually said "Now we at CNN
don't want to be accused of censoring anybody...", yet that is exactly what CNN
did. They removed the show's transcript and links from their web site days after
the broadcast. You can still get details on the incident at the Bush Watch web
site. They have more details here.
COCAINE:
According to a new book, three independent sources close to the Bush family
report that Governor Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession, and taken
to Harris County Jail, but avoided jail or formal charges through an informal
diversion plan involving community service with Project P.U.L.L., an inner city
Houston program for troubled youths at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community
Center in Houston's dirt-poor Third Ward. (In another new book, reporter Bill
Minutaglio, writes that the year of community service was arranged by the
Governor's father, ex-president Bush, after he caught Bush Jr. driving drunk.)
That year certainly is out of character with the rest of Bush Jr.'s life. Before
and after 1972, he was a rich, hard drinking playboy. Suddenly, and only that
one time in his life, he worked for a liberal charity in an inner city ghetto.
As soon as the year was over, he resumed his previous pattern and has done no
charity work since.
The author of this new book, J. H. Thompson, has some interesting scandals of
his own. Of course, his own flaws don't disprove what Bush did or didn't do, but
the way Thompson has responded certainly undercuts his credibility. First, he
admitted to a reporter from Slate Magazine that he made up at least one detail,
that one of his informants spat tobacco into a styrofoam cup during their
(phone!) interview.
Then, reporters -- or perhaps Bush campaign operatives -- found that the author
apparently is an ex-convict, on parole for hiring a hit man to kill a former
boss. That doesn't mean he can't research, of course, but Thompson's credibility
suffered greatly as he claimed it was someone else, despite incredible
similarities between his resume -- including unexplained job gaps during the
prison years -- and confirmation from his parole officer that indeed, the author
named J. H. Thompson is the one who did time.
Bush Jr.'s Evasive Responses:
Bush has essentially admitted that he used cocaine in his Clintonesque,
carefully worded partial denials. He won't deny using cocaine or marijuana,
though under persistent questioning he said that he hadn't used cocaine in the
last 7 years. Most newspapers report that he denies using cocaine since 1974,
but that's not exactly true.
That is the most favorable interpretation of what Bush said, but since Bush and
his campaign have already made Clintonesque denials on other issues, we need to
look at his words carefully.
What Bush actually said was ""I could have passed the [FBI] background check on
the standards applied on the most stringent conditions when my dad was president
of the United States - a 15-year period," Mr. Bush said. This is ambiguous
because background forms ask slightly different questions, depending on the
position. Drug questions can go back one year, seven years or 10 years. Bush Jr.
didn't have any formal position in his father's administration, so which one
applies is unclear. And 15-years is not one of the choices.
Since Bush Sr.'s presidency began in January 1989, reporters assumed that Jr.
was denying drug use for 15 years before that, to 1974. But that is not at all
clear. His only direct statement was for seven years before today. He could
easily have been denying drug use only for 15 years before today, based on 7 or
10 years dating back from the END of his dad's term. 10 years before 1993, the
end of Bush Sr.'s term, is pretty close to 15 years before today.
The Clinton administration actually has a stricter standard than Bush did -- the
FBI now asks about any drug use after age 18. But Governor Bush has refused to
say whether he would pass that standard, even though that is what he will be
asked if he wins. Bush also has refused to answer whether he could have passed
the FBI test when his father was vice president, during the 8 years from 1981-
1989.
As for the arrest and diversion charge, Governor Bush admits working at the
center in 1972. When asked for comment, Bush's campaign spokesman reportedly
said "Oh shit... no comment." McLellan denies saying that.
Bush's father, ex-president George Bush, denies the cocaine arrest charge, and
in yet another carefully worded denial, Bush said ""It's totally ridiculous what
he suggested and it's not true."
You'll recall that President Clinton made a very similar statement about
Gennifer Flower's allegations of an affair, during the 1992 campaign. Later,
when he had to testify under oath, it turned out that he was denying that all of
the details of the story were true, not whether an affair had occurred or any
specific details (many of which were accurate).
Similarly, Bush himself does not deny being caught with cocaine, or having
performed community service. Bush's campaign spokesman has now denied that Bush
was ever arrested on any drug charge.
The director of the center, Madgelean Bush (no relation), also denies the
reports. However, her center is dependent on Texas state money, and the
director, who grew up poor but has amassed several houses around the center
while running it, allowed Governor Bush to use the center for a photo
opportunity earlier this year.
The Bush campaign also produced Carol Vance, who was the Democratic District
Attorney in Harris County in 1972, to say that there was no diversion program in
that year, nor were there any Republican judges (as Hatfield's book states.)
Rock and Roll: Bush keeps a picture of himself with two members of ZZ Top, but
does not play the song "Tube Snake Boogie" during his celibacy lectures. We have
found no evidence to support the the most explosive allegation so far; that Bush
played air guitar to a Foghat record at a party in the late 1970s. But he won't
deny it, either.
When pressed on the hypocrisy issue, he speaks to hypocritical baby boomer
parents everywhere: "If I were you, I wouldn't tell your kids that you smoked
pot unless you want 'em to smoke pot. I think it's important for leaders, and
parents, not to send mixed signals. I don't want some kid saying, 'Well,
Governor Bush tried it.'"
It's amazing enough that he openly defends hypocrisy, but his own signals are
very mixed. When allowed to imply that he is just another manly, hard-drinking
rapscallion, Bush seizes the opportunity. "When I was young and irresponsible, I
was really young and irresponsible," he often says. He even hints at pot
smoking, as in the above quote, and why not? Everyone from his likely opponent
Al Gore to Newt Gingrich has admitted smoking pot.
But Junior wants it both ways. When the deadly rumor of cocaine use surfaces, he
retreats to his high-minded rhetoric about not giving mixed messages. If he
thinks he can skate to the presidency without either his right-wing foes or
embittered Clintonistas pushing his past into the limelight, then he really IS
on drugs.
Sources
The Bush Watch (web site), an opinionated, well-researched and reasonably fair
(though blatantly liberal) anti-Bush site. http://www.bushwatch.com
"The Sons Also Rise", by Evan Thomas, Newsweek, November 16, 1998 p44-8
"Like Most, I'm Amazed" (Bush interview with Howard Fineman), Newsweek, November
16, 1998
"Another Bush Contemplates Run for Presidency", by Sue Anne Pressley (Washington
Post news service), San Francisco Chronicle, May 12, 1997 pA5
"The Bush Brothers", by Howard Fineman, Newsweek, November 2, 1998 p30-33
Drunk Driving Sources
George Bush's Arrest Record, Fox News Website, November 3, 20000
Bush's Driving License Suspension Record, The Smoking Gun website, November 3,
2000
"No arrests after '68, Bush told paper", By Wayne Slater and Pete Slover , The
Dallas Morning News, 11/03/2000
Bush lied about his arrest, a reporter says", by Jake Tapper, Salon Magazine,
November 3, 2000
Court hearing: "Bush downplayed drinking", by Stephen A. Kurkjian and David
Armstrong, Boston Globe, 11/4/2000 pA11 "Bush Admits 1976 DUI Arrest; Dem
Delegate Made Disclosure", Fox News Website, November 3, 2000
"Bush Admits He Drove While Drunk", The Oregonian, November 3, 2000 pA19
"Bush Still leads, but Key States Buoy Gore: Disclosure of DUI for GOP Candidate
is Late Disruption", by Jackie Calmes and Jeanne Cummings, The Wall Street
Journal, November 3, 2000 pA22
Interview with Thomas Connolly, (the lawyer who revealed the conviction), Fox TV
News, November 3, 2000, 12:00 PST
"What Is George Dubya Hiding?", by Linda Starr and Bev Conover, The Online
Journal, June 4, 1999
Yelling at reporter -- from The Economist, July 29, 2000 p21
Quote Sources
Two good general sources for funky Bush quotes are "The Complete Bushisms",
compiled by Jacob Weissberg, SLATE web site and The Bush Watch: Bushisms, by
Jerry Politex (both ongoing).
"vampires": "At Night, Bush-Speak Goes Into Overdrive," By FRANK BRUNI, New York
Times, August 19, 2001
"feather my nest": "Business associates profit during Bush's term as governor"
by R. G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA1
Divider: "Bush Muffs Letterman's Late-Night Opportunity", By CARYN JAMES, New
York Times, March 2, 2000
"Who goes to heaven":"Bush fields questions about faith upon return from trip to
Israel" by Clay Robison, The Houston Chronicle, December 3, 1998
"More money than I ever dreamed": quoted in "The Governor's Sweetheart Deal", by
Robert Bryce, The Texas Observer, January 30, 1998
Thin Skin Sources
"New York GOP leaders eye surrender in anti-McCain effort" By MARC HUMBERT
(Associated Press), on the CNN web site, February 3, 2000
"Bush Criticizes Web Site as Malicious", by Wayne Slater, Dallas Morning News,
May 22, 1999
"Governor Rips Web Site Parody", Associated Press, May 21, 1999
"Bush Campaign Tries to Limit Internet Attacks", by Alan Elsner, Reuters News
Serviec (on Yahoo! web site), May 19, 1999
"4 protesters arrested at Governor 's Mansion" by R.G. RATCLIFFE, Houston
Chronicle, April 20, 1999 Section A Page 13 Metfront. 3 STAR edition
"Activists to challenge policy against protest gatherings near the Governor's
Mansion", by Jay Root, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 25, 1999
Avoiding Vietnam (and National Guard Favoritism) Sources
Here is an excellent web site with actual photos of the military documents from
Bush's career: http://www.cis.net/~coldfeet/document.htm
"2 Democrats: Bush Let Guard Down", By George Lardner Jr. and Howard Kurtz,
Washington Post, November 3, 2000; Page A22
Questions remain on Bush's service as Guard pilot , By Walter V. Robinson,
Boston Globe, 10/31/2000, pA14
"1-Year gap in Bush's Guard duty", by Walter Robinson, Boston Globe, May 23,
2000
"Ex-Lawmaker Says He Helped Bush Join the Guard in Vietnam War", by Jim Yardley,
New York Times, September 27, 1999
"Barnes moves to block questions about Bush, Guard", by Ken Herman, Austin
American-Statesman, September 9, 1999
"Records of Bush's Ala. Military Duty Can't Be Found", by Wayne Slater, Dallas
Morning News, June 26, 2000 pA06
"Friends: Barnes was asked to help get Bush in Guard", by George Kuempel and
Pete Slover, Dallas Morning News, Sept. 8, 1999
"Texas Speaker Reportedly Helped Bush Get Into Guard", by George Lardner, Jr.,
Washington Post, Setember 21, 1999 pA04
"Bush's Air Guard career an unusually easy flight", by Richard Serrano, Los
Angeles Times (reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle), July 4, 1999 pA-6
"At Height of Vietnam, Graduate Picks Guard", by George Lardner Jr. and Lois
Romano, Washington Post, July 28, 1999 pA01
"Bush flies into an air force cocaine cloud", by Tom Rhodes, The London Sunday
Times, June 18, 2000
"Ex-Pol at Center of Bush Flap", by Michael Holmes (AP), Washington Post,
September 8, 1999
"Barnes says he urged Guard slot for Bush", by Pete Slover and George Kuempel,
Dallas Morning News, September 29, 1999
"Adviser asked Barnes to recall Guard details before Bush joined race", by Pete
Slover and George Kuempel, Dallas Morning News, September 26, 1999
"Bush Worked Campaign While in Guard", by Chris Williams (AP), Washington Post,
May 23, 2000 "Gtech settles Littwin lawsuit", by Ken Herman, Austin American-
Statesman, October 30, 1999 Gtech paid Littwin ,000 and got a strict
confidentiality agreement from him.
Funeralgate Sources
"Surprise Testimony in Texas: New questions are raised in a politically charged
Texas lawsuit", Newsweek, October 30, 2000
"The Funeral Home Flap: Trouble for a Texas Mortician with links to the Bush
Family", by Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, August 16, 1999
"Bush Affidavit Refuted", by Janet Elliot, Law News Network, August 16, 1999
"Funeral company hopeful after takeover " By Juan B. Elizondo Jr., Austin
American-Statesman, Wednesday, August 18, 1999
"Governor's role questioned in funeral agency oversight: Bush's office rejects
call for legislative control", By George Kuempel , The Dallas Morning News,
August 8, 1999
"Bush Watch Special: Dubya and The Gravedigger", by Jerry Politex, The Bush
Watch Website (ongoing)
Scandal Timeline, Austin Chronicle, ongoing
Insider Deal Sources
"Business associates profit during Bush's term as governor" by R. G. Ratcliffe,
Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA1
"How Bush REALLY Made His Millions", by Jerry Politex, The Bush Watch Web Site,
ongoing
"Who is David Edwards?", by Micah Morrison, The Wall Street Journal, March 1,
1995
"The Governor's Sweetheart Deal", by Robert Bryce, The Texas Observer, January
30, 1998
"Bush's Big Score", by Robert Bryce, The Dallas Observer, February 9, 1998
"Bush's Free Ride", by Stuart Eskenazi, Dallas Observer, October 29, 1998
"Good Connections: Family Ties helped fund oil venture that began Bush's
business career", by Richard Oppel Jr. and George Kuemple, Dallas Morning News,
November 16, 1998
"Whitewashing the Bush Boys", by Stephen Pizzo, Mother Jones, March-April 1994
"Family Value$", by Stephen Pizzo, Mother Jones, September-October 1992
"Diamond Brilliance: Bush mastered art of he deal in building his baseball
fortune", by R. G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA19
"The Family that Preys Together", by Jack Colhoun, "Covert Action Quarterly,
#41, Summer 1992
"Downloading the Bush Files", by Michael King, Texas Observer, November 1998

Corruption Sources

"State agency official convicted of bribery: She peddled influence for cut of
business", by ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA, Houston Chronicle, November 2, 2000
"Tit for tat? How the Texas brothers who secretyly funded attack ads against
McCain have made millions managing state money under the Bush administration in
Austin," by Joe Conason, Salon.com, March 6, 2000
"Business associates profit during Bush's term as governor" by R. G. Ratcliffe,
Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA1
"Secrecy Cloaks $1.7 billion in UT Investments: Board puts money in funds run by
trustees, friends of trustees", by R.G. Ratliffe, The Houston Chronicle, March
20, 1999
"How Bush REALLY Made His Millions", by Jerry Politex, The Bush Watch Web Site,
ongoing
"Who is David Edwards?", by Micah Morrison, The Wall Street Journal, March 1,
1995
"The Governor's Sweetheart Deal", by Robert Bryce, The Texas Observer, January
30, 1998
"Bush's Big Score", by Robert Bryce, The Dallas Observer, February 9, 1998
"Downloading the Bush Files", by Michael King, Texas Observer, November 1998
"Richard Rainwater: The invisible man behind one of the year's biggest deals",
by John Morthland, Texas Monthly, September 1996
"Auditor Withheld Findings on State Housing Agency", by Craig Flournoy, Dallas
Morning News, February 18, 1999
"Capitol Report: Housing Officials Under Fire", Austin American Statesman,
February 3, 1999

Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N Roll Sources

"The smut monger's scoop", by Harley Sorenson, San Francisco Examiner, October
30, 2000
"Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President", by J.
H. Hatfield, St. Martin's Press, 1999 (withdrawn)
First Son : George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, by Bill Minutaglio,
Times Books, 1999
Bush denies allegation of '72 drug arrest in book, By Michael Kranish, Boston
Globe, 10/20/99 pA10
Bush Adds to Drug Use Statement", Dallas Morning News, August 20, 1999
Busting Bush's Biographer, by Jacob Weisberg, Slate Magazine, Oct. 19, 1999
< a
href="http://www.slate.com/code/BallotBox/BallotBox.asp?Show=10/22/99&idMessage=
3871">"Fortunate Son Revisited", by Jacob Weisberg, Slate Magazine, Oct. 22,
1999
"Author alleging Bush drug arrest reportedly a felon: He denies being Texas
convict, says similar names led to mistake", By Pete Slover, The Dallas Morning
News, October 21, 1999
"George W. Bush, the dirt digger" by Jeannette Walls, MSNBC's "The Scoop" gossip
column.
GOP insiders have privately confirmed to The Skeleton Closet that Bush hired the
private detective, and that he was a very sexy and highly sexed bachelor.
"Bush, looking at D.C., sees a 'sullied process'", Austin American-Statesman,
September 16, 1998
"The Sons Also Rise", by Evan Thomas, Newsweek, November 16, 1998 p44-8

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candidate's committee.
Copyright 2001 Real People For Real Change









AL GORES CLOSET

Two years ago, the conventional wisdom was that Al Gore was a squeaky clean, if dull policy wonk who would be a
shoo-in to succeed Clinton in a country weary of Bill's various scandals. Now, after 2 years of almost continuous
scandals of his own -- most concerning his relentless fundraising activities -- it was a major break for Prince Albert
when his own party's Attorney General decided not to sic a special prosecutor on him. Here's the real question: is Al
Gore corrupt compared to other politicians? Or is he just a run of the mill hack?
One thing is, like several of this year's candidates (notably George W. Bush), Gore has grown up in that protected,
distorted world of wealth and privilege that makes it so difficult for him to understand normal people and normal life.
That's not a "scandal", really, but it makes it hard to be sure how he will react ina crisis, and that is the most important
role our president's have.

Quotes
"He goes 'I'm a really big fan.' And I was like 'Yeah, right. Name a song, Al.' The answer came limply back: 'I
can't name a song, I'm just a really big fan.'" - Courtney Love of the rock band "Hole"
"Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put
it in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it. I've chopped it. I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn
and stripped it and sold it." -- Al Gore, 1988
"Sometimes, you never fully face up to things that you ought to face up to." -- Al Gore, discussing tobacco


Tobacco Hypocrisy

At the Democratic national convention in 1996, Gore gaving a moving speech about his only sister's painful
death from lung cancer. And since then he has pushed the administration's aggressive anti-smoking campaign.
What Gore didn't mention is that he grew up on a tobacco farm, worked on it, and continued to accept checks
from that farm for years after his sister died. In 1988, while running for president, he defended tobacco farmers
while campaigning in Southern tobacco states (and made the quote up above: 'I've raised tobacco ... I've
shredded it, spiked it,... and sold it.') He accepted contributions from tobacco companies as late as 1990.
Gore claimed that "emotional numbness" led him to defend and profit from the tobacco industry. "Sometimes,
you never fully face up to things that you ought to face up to."
Gore himself smoked during college. "Peer pressure played a factor," he said, "stress in college." We should
have guessed that the guy who said "Tobacco addiction ... is just as powerful of an addiction as heroin or crack
addiction" was an ex-smoker

Money, Money, Money


Fundraising Cronies: A Nasty Bunch of Characters

Even more than Bill Clinton, Al Gore has been a money raising machine (though nothing quite like George W.
Bush). In one memo, Gore bragged "I did three events this week which were projected to raise ,000 and ...
actually raised ,000. Tipper and I were supposed to do $1.1 million, and it looks like we will be closer to $1.3
million." Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward estimates that Gore and his network raised fully million
of the Democratic National Committee's million total in 1995 and 1996.
In the process, Gore has been kissing up to a lot of characters with checkered pasts (and/or convictions.)
Frankly, whether Gore made phone calls from his office is piddly business. But spending time with accused or
convicted criminals if they have money to give is a much more serious concern for a potential president.
Here are some of Al's business associates:
convicted cocaine smuggler Jose Cabrera
Howard Glicken, who admitted soliciting and laundering foreign campaign contributions
Franklin Haney, indicted for illegal campaign contributions
Jose Cabrera, convicted cocaine smuggler
Jose "Gordito" Cabrera is serving 19 years in prison for smuggling cocaine; he was caught in January 1996 with
3 tons of Cali cartel cocaine and (maybe worse from Gore's point of view) boxes of smuggled Cuban cigars.
Earlier, he pled guilty to conspiracy to bribe a witness in a drug investigation (in 1983) and to income tax
evasion in connection with another drug investigation (in 1988). He served 3 and a half years in prison on the
first charge, just a year on the second.
In 1995, in between these convictions and guilty pleas, Cabrera was getting his picture taken with Al Gore at a
Florida campaign event, and posing with Hillary Clinton in front of the White House Christmas tree. White
House visitors routinely get a background check, which should have turned up his record. When the Miami
Herald broke the story of Cabrera's convictions, the Democratic National Committee returned Cabrera's
,000 donation (made in 1995), but the Justice Department refused to release the photos of Gordito with Gore
and Hillary -- found in the drug raid that yielded the coke and cigars -- until pressured by Republicans.
Howard Glicken, illegal campaign fundraiser
Howard Glicken, a long-time fundraiser for Al Gore, is awaiting sentencing on his negotiated plea bargain for
illegal fund raising. He raised million for Clinton-Gore and the DNC in 1996, and owns 2 Jaguars with the
vanity plates "Gore1" and "Gore2."
Glicken owns a company that brokers deals between U.S. and Latin American companies, and is not shy to use
his political connections to help his work. In 1996, Glicken showed up at a Florida fundraiser, muscled 4 South
American clients into it and introduced them to President Clinton and Mack McLarty, Clinton's top adviser on
Latin America. Party officials tried to keep them out, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Glicken "raised
a stink", saying "I raised all this money; I can bring in anybody I want." Glicken was given a coveted seat on a
Commerce Department trade mission to South America in 1994. He has been hosted by the U.S. ambassadors in
Argentina and Chile, and received help from the Argentine Embassy even after he pled guilty to soliciting
foreign campaign contributions.
Glicken had some rough patches in his pre-Gore career. He headed the precious-metals trading division of
Capital Bank in Miami, but was forced to leave in 1983 after splitting a ,000 commission that the bank
considered a kickback with his friend, Harry Falk. The commission was for helping arrange Capital Bank
financing of the sale of ,000 in Piaget watches.
Glicken then founded his own precious-metals trading company in Miami with Falk. Falk and the 6-man
company itself were indicted in 1991 for laundering drug money. Glicken was not charged, but his company
agreed to pay ,000 to settle the charges, and Glicken testified against Falk in 1995 under a grant of limited
immunity.
Franklin Haney, indicted for illegal campaign contributions
This Tennessee real estate developer and longtime Gore fundraiser was trying to get the FCC to move its
headquarters to a development of his called "The Portals." He was also a guest on Air Force One during 1995-6.
Haney was a generous donor. He was indicted in November 1998 for 42 counts of illegal campaign contributions
to the Clinton-Gore campaign between 1992 and late 1995. More strikingly, he paid a $1 million fee to Peter
Knight right before he became the Clinton-Gore campaign manager. Knight also ran Gore's House and Senate
offices for years and helped finance his campaigns; Time calls him "the hub of Gore's political circle." Haney
claims that the million bucks was a fee for "advice" on attracting the FCC to the Portals; that must have been
some damn good advice. More likely, it was a contingency fee for delivering the FCC deal, using his Gore
connections.



Illegal Fundraising At a Buddhist Temple (and Weaseling About It Afterwards)

There were mountains of ink spilled about this episode, but the short story is this: Gore appeared at a Buddhist
temple at what was obviously a fundraiser, though technically it was called something else for legal reasons. The
criminal part is that the temple gave monks money to reimburse them for donations to Gore and the Democrats.
That is illegal of course for the temple, but not the politician unless you can prove that they knew about the
reimbursement. No such evidence has popped up, though some of the players from the Clinton/Gore illegal
foreign donations scandal are involved. These darker connections haven't been pinned down yet; given the
relatively small amount of money involved, and severe risks of knowingly arranging for reimbursed donations, it
seems unlikely that Gore campaign officials would take the risk..
The reason this scandal got so much attention was Gore's ridiculous weaseling about it. He claimed that he
didn't know it was a fundraiser (when various memos showed that he clearly did) and then kept changing his
story.
It is similar to Gore's illegal phone calls issue; not necessarily a huge deal by itself, but Gore's response under
crisis shows that he learned one of Clinton's worst traits -- that "didn't inhale" kind of weaseling when he's
under fire.


Illegal Fundraising Phone Calls

The other widely publicized Al Gore scandal has to do with the many fundraising phone calls he made from his
official residence. The calls themselves are not that big a deal -- most congressman do the same, they just don't
live in a government-owned building -- but two bad things are clear from all of this.
First, Gore has cheapened the vice presidency (as Clinton has cheapened the presidency) by taking relentless
fundraising another step further, eroding another ethical standard. There's no reason to expect anything
different if he's elected president.
Second, he once again showed his Clintonesque weaseling side, in his now famous statement that "There is no
controlling legal authority" saying that the phone calls were illegal (in other words, different courts ruled
differently, and the ones in his area didn't say it was illegal.) That evasive, self-excusing attitude seems to be his
standard response under pressure, and that's not leadership. Worse yet, when pressed about a memo indicating
that he was at a meeting where using the money as "hard money contributions" -- which is strictly illegal --
instead of soft money, he said that he didn't remember hearing that, and that he may have been in the bathroom
because he drank a lot of iced tea at these meeting. Not only is this evasive, it's a really WEAK evasion

Slumlord


Gore owns and rents out a trailer in Carthage, Tennessee for a month. In the summer of 2000, Gore's
property managers and family friends, Audrey and Charles Elrod, tried to evict tenant Tracy Mayberry
(pictured above, with her husband) after she complained about a lack of repairs to overflowing toilets and
backed up sinks. They claimed that Mayberry and family had run the place down and clogged up the septic
system with toys and garbage.
After bad publicity, Gore overruled the Elrods, said the Mayberry's could stay, and -- claimed a Gore
spokesman -- fixed the place up. But Mayberry was not impressed. "Right now, I still say he's a slumlord," she
said. "In my opinion that's exactly what he is." She said that the work was never completed, it was sloppy and
that one toilet still leaks. She moved out, and seven Republican activists drove her and her family up to a new
home in Lima, Ohio.
Postscript: Police were called on the Mayberry family twice in their first two days in Lima. First, for parking on
their lawn, and second, for a report of a fight. No arrests were made.


Drug Use
Gore has long admitted that he smoked pot, both during his stint in Vietnam and for a "brief while" after his
return. He claims that it was only a few times.
Here again he seems to be lying. Former drug buddies of Gore's have come forward to say that he was a heavy
smoker, right up until his first run for Congress in 1976. In college, Gore was said to be hanging out in the
basement of his dorm, getting high and watching TV most of the time. After his return from Vietnam, friends
such as John Warnecke say that got high with Gore as often as 3 or 4 times a week, listening to Grateful Dead
albums and talking about what they would do if they were president. "Al Gore stoned was a mix of
expansiveness, melancholy and paranoia," Warnecke said.

Environmental Trendiness (and Hypocrisy)

In the past, Al Gore has made his environmental positions a big part of his message, notably in his book "Earth
in the Balance", which sold well. We don't critique candidates' policy positions, but some of that may come back
to haunt him by making him look extreme, trendy or hypocritical.
Gore runs the risk of being shown up as a hypocrite, the way Mike Dukakis was in 1998 after Boston Harbor's
pollution problem was exposed.
One example is the Pigeon River in North Carolina and east Tennesee. The Champion International paper mill
has pumped tons of chemicals and byproducts into it for years, turning it the color of cofee and adding a
sulfurish smell. Gore campaigned hard against this pollution and lobbied the EPA to crack down. But in 1987,
as Gore started running for president the first time, he was pressured by 2 politicians whose support he craved
for the North Carolina Super Tuesday primary. Terry Sanford (then a Senator) and Jamie Clarke (North
Carolina congressmen) lobbied him hard to ease up on Champion. Gore did, writing to the EPA again and now
asking for a more permissive water pollution standard. Sanford and Clarke endorsed him, and Gore won the
state handily.
Another example is a Gore family property that has been mined for zinc and germanium for decades. The Vice-
President and his dad, the late Senator Albert Gore, Sr., obtained the land in a very favorable deal with the late
Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum. Gore, Sr. was heavily supported by Hammer financially, and
carried his water in the U.S. Senate.
Back in 1972, when zinc was discovered across the river from the Gore family land in Carthage, TN, Hammer
sent engineers out and offered ,000 per year for a mineral rights lease on some property owned by a church
that had been willed the land. Instead, they wanted to sell and Hammer won a bidding war to buy the land for
,000. He then sold it to Gore Jr. and Sr. for the same amount, and immediately started leasing the land back
from him for the same ,000. Lynwood Burkhalter, who in the 70s was president of the company that assumed
this lease from Occidental Petroleum, called the payments "extraordinarily large."
Mining is, of course, a very messy business environmentally. The mine itself hasn't been that bad. Republicans
have claimed that it's polluting the local drinking water, but according to the Wall Street Journal those
problems "are actually very minor." However, the Journal notes that the plant in Clarksville TN, which
processes the Gore minerals, is a federal Superfund site contaminated with cadmium and mercury, posing "a
threat to the human food chain."
There's also a damning quote about cutting down Yew trees to make a promising cancer treatment that we used
to include in our Gore quotes section. Except that the really embarrassing part -- which we got from an editorial
in the Austin, Texas American Statesman -- turns out to be distorted and out of context. The full quote, which is
still a little odd, is:
"The Pacific Yew can be cut down and processed to produce a potent chemical, taxol, which offers some promise
of curing certain forms of lung, breast and ovarian cancer in patients who would otherwise quickly die. It seems
an easy choice -- sacrifice the tree for a human life -- until one learns that three trees must be destroyed for each
patient treated, that only specimens more than a hundred years old contain the potent chemical in their bark,
and that there are very few of these yews remaining on earth." - Gore, in "Earth in the Balance", p. 119
The distorted version puts a period after "for each patient treated," as if the ratio of trees to humans was what
bothered Gore. In reality, his point is that treating all current cancer patients would destroy all of the trees,
leaving none of the drug for future cancer patients.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

Most people feel that all politicians lie, but all Gore has a particular way of stretching the truth. He's actually
more of a braggart who consistently exaggerates his role in the successful things he does. There are actually two
sides of his truth deficit; the highly publicized tendency to exaggerate, and (what we feel is) the more serious
problem of evasion.
The most famous example of exaggerating, of course, is that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet", but
this is hardly an isolated example. When the LINUX and open-source computing movements reached their
maximum trendiness, hidden text in his web page -- visible to knowledge computer users with the "View
Source" command -- proclaimed that his web page was an Open Source web page and invited users to
contribute to it. For anyone knowledgeable on the subjects, and even for some boneheads like this editor, that is
a ludicrous statement that combines bragging and idiot ignorance in equal measure.
Then there is Gore's claim to have uncovered the most famous toxic waste site in the country. As a young
congressman in the late 1970s, he said, "I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal." (It's a
neighborhood in upstate New York that was disastrously polluted by an old underground chemical dump.)
Now each of these claims has some element of truth to it, and his opponents -- and even the newspapers, in the
Love Canal case -- have exaggerated or misquoted him. Gore did support the Internet early on as a congressman
-- it's fair to say that he took the initiative *among congressmen* -- and even Vincent Cerf, the computer
scientist who is in fact considered "the father of the Internet", says "It is entirely fitting that the Vice President
take some credit for helping create an environment in which (the) Internet could thrive." And Gore did hold the
first federal hearings on Love Canal. But both the Internet and the Love Canal scandal were established and
well known before Gore ever heard of them.
Plus, the slips continue. Frankly, I can't understand the controversy over the family dog's medication price -- the
dog does take it, and it costs less than it does for his mother in law. But Gore recently (on September 18, 2000)
told a union meeting that his parents sung him to sleep with lullabies such as "Look for the union label" -- a
song that was written as a jingle for a union ad in 1975, when Gore was 27.
Gore's consistent pattern of exaggeration highlights two of his worst traits. First, he is simply out of touch,
swamped by that Washington culture that thinks it is the source of all new and good in America and unable to
understand the real world outside. And second, you can hear the cocky arrogance in his voice in his statement
about Love Canal. When he says the words "little place", you can feel him struggling to contain his pleasure
with his good deeds.
But more troubling to us is Gore's tendency to evade questions about his ethical lapses. Some of these are
legalisms where he is actually correct, but has such a tin ear for the way normal people talk that he sounds like a
mafia don. For example, his infamous line about "no controlling legal authority" is the most accurate way of
describing the law on the picky point of where fundraising phone calls are made from. But he's so out of touch
with normal folk that he probably didn't realize how weaselly that sounded.
The more serious examples concern the Buddhist temple fundraising, where he repeatedly changed his story
about whether that event was considered a fundraiser. Apparently what he was trying to say was that he knew it
was a reward for people who had given money, but that technically the event itself was not a fundraiser. This is
fairly typical in our current corrupt system. But when you can't answer a question directly, folks naturally
wonder if there is more going on. No one has been able to prove anything yet, but neither can Gore explain
himself.
Worst of all are his evasions that simply aren't credible, such as his statement that he didn't hear discussion
about fundraising proceeds going illegally into a "hard money" fund because he drank a lot of iced tea and often
had to go to the bathroom..

Tipper, the chipper Rock 'N Roll Wife

Al Gore's wife Tipper upstaged her husband when she made her own political crusade, pushing for warning
labels for warning labels for violent and drug oriented music. She may have been reflecting sincere Baby
Boomer fear of that evil music (a fear based on remembering how evil their own music was growing up), but
more likely this was a weak and very cynical political play.
Inevitably, bands with the warning label sell more records and those without (Hanson) have all the hipness of
PG-13 movies. And they knew this would happen ahead of time. But more to the point, Tipper likes a bit of that
rock 'n roll herself. She and Al are both fans of the notoriously drug-addled Grateful Dead; Tipper actually
played bongos with a remnant band consisting of half of the Dead's surviving members. (Is Jerry Garcia
grateful now?)
Best of all, Tipper herself played drums in an all-girl rock band called "The Wildcats" when she was in high
school. Rowwrrrr! If anyone has verified recordings of this band, please email us at once. We will put them on
the web site if possible.


Sources
"The Trouble With Al," by Daniel Klaidman and Karen Breslau, Newsweek, September 22, 1997 p39
"Gore Faces More Revelations About His Fundraising Involvement," Wall Street Journal, September 5, 1997
pA1 Washington Wire column
"Gore is Linked to John Huang on 1989 Trip," by Glenn Simpson, Wall Street Journal, December 13, 1996
pA16
"The Golden Gore Touch Turns to Velcro," Albert Hunt's editorial column, Wall Street Journal, March 13,
1997 pA15
"Gore Put at Center of Demos Soliciting,", by Bob Woodward, Washington Post News Service, in San Francisco
Examiner, March 2, 1997 p A-7

Tobacco Hypocrisy
"Gore talks smoking with Sealth students", by Gloria Kruzner, West Seattle Herald, December 24, 1997
"'Numbness' Let Gore Accept Tobacco Help," San Francisco Chronicle, August 30, 1996

Pollution

"From Al to Zinc: Story of a Mine Shows How a Fatherly Favor Still Haunts Gore", by Glenn Simpson, Wall
Street Journal, November 1, 2000 pA28
"Gore's Pollution Problem", Newsweek, November 24, 1997
"Earth in the Balance," by Al Gore (Houghton Mifflin, 1992) p119 (Yew tree) and generally. "How Would Gore
fare if he were called on to serve?," by David Ridenour, Austin American-Statesman, August 16, 1998

Scrooge
"GOP Labels Al Gore a 'Scrooge'", by Judith Havemann, Washington Post, April 17, 1998 p A04

Drug Use
"Magazine Watch", Media Research council, Tuesday February 8, 2000 (Vol. 2; No. 6)

Slumlord Sources
"GOP Helps Gore Tenants Move Out", Associated Press, (Washington Post), Saturday, July 8, 2000; Page A06
"GOP Helps Fed Up Gore Tenant Move Out", Nashville Newschannel 5 TV web site, July 7, 2000
"Tough Times For Gore's Ex-Tenants", by Jake Tapper, Salon Magazine, July 12, 2000

Quote Sources
--- Tobacco and Facing Up: "'Numbness' Let Gore Accept Tobacco Help", San Francisco Chronicle, August 30,
1996
Al Gore -- Stupid Statements Web Site, for these quotes:
--- Chopping, etc. tobacco quote --- Courtney Love: From Damian Whitworth in Washington, whoever that is.

Fundraising: Cronies
"Donor to Clinton, Gore Indicted", Dallas Morning News, November 5, 1998
"Gore's Ties to Hsia Cast Shadow on 2000 Race", by Judith Havemann, Washington Post, February 23, 1998 p
A01
"Al Gore Money Man's Unsavory Past", Robert Novak's syndicated editorial column, San Francisco
Chronicle,December 1, 1998 pA23
"Justice bares photo of felon with Gore, first lady", (Scripps Howard News Service), Houston Chronicle,
October 25, 1996
"The Veep Treatment," by Michael Weisskopf, Time Magazine, June 9, 1997 p32
"A Fund-Raiser for Gore Retools His Career With an Aura of Clout," by Phil Kuntz and Jill Abramson, Wall
Street Journal, April 29, 1997 pA1
"The President's Air Force One Guests, 1995-96", CNN/Time AllPolitics Web Site, April 15, 1997

Fundraising: Illegal Phone Calls
"Fund Pleas By Gore From White House", San Francisco Chronicle, August 27, 1997 pA9
"Reno won't Order Probe of Gore", LA Times News Service, November 25, 1998
"Al Gore Made Fund-Raising Calls," Knoxville News-Sentinel quoted by Associated Press on America Online,
March 11, 1997
"Gore Made 48 Illegal Calls From Office," San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1997
"The Pendleton Act (what say?): How Al Gore Broke the Law," editorial by Michael Kelly, San Francisco
Examiner, March 9, 1997 p C-17
FBI Transcript of Interview with Gore, August 12, 1998, File 58A-HQ-1193317 (iced tea defense is on page 3 and
6)

Fundraising: Buddhist Temple Sources
"Gore Says He Erred Attending Fund-Raiser," (from AP), San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 1997 pA6
"Gore Says he Realized Gathering at Temple Was 'Finance-Related'", Boston Globe news service, San
Francisco Chronicle,January 15, 1997 pA2
"Gore Saw Sect Leader, Memo Says," (from AP), San Francisco Chronicle, December 24, 1996
"Donors: Warnings", Los Angeles Times, February 15, 1997 pA19
"Former Top Aide Defends Gore,", by Los Angeles Times News Service, San Francisco Chronicle, September 6,
1997 pA4
"Was Gore an Innocent Victim in Temple Affair?" Robert Novak's syndicated editorial column, San Francisco
Chronicle, August 13, 1997 pA21

Liar, Liar Sources

"Back on the Slippery Slope", by Bill Turque, Newsweek, December 13, 1999 p45
"Examples of Gore's most criticized statements", USA Today, September 19, 2000
FBI Transcript of Interview with Gore, August 12, 1998, File 58A-HQ-1193317 (iced tea defense is on page 3 and
6)