Dig A Little Deeper In The Trash

[Campbell]

George W. Bush, Jr. - The Dark Side

wrote a column attacking Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had investigated the allegations that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Niger (and concluded they were false). Novak wrote:
"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report."
Several other journalists besides Novak were contacted by the two Bush Administration officials, who encouraged them to report these facts, though Novak was the only one to publish the story directly. An administration official confirmed to the Washington Post that the two officials had contacted at least 6 journalists with the information in an effort to discredit Wilson. Reporters were contacted at Time Magazine and 3 TV networks, including NBC-TV's Andrea Mitchell (who was called after Novak's column appeared.) CNN reports that "sources" confirmed these contacts to them as well. After Novak's column appeared, some of the others discussed the story, including Time Magazine, Long Island Newsday and the Washington Post.
For fairly obvious reasons, it is a felony (punished by 10 years in prison) to reveal the identity of an undercover agent. In fact President Bush's father, the first President Bush, said in a 1999 speech that those who expose the names of intelligence sources are "the most insidious of traitors."
Wilson's wife -- and mother of his 3 year old twins -- is a case officer in the CIA's clandestine service, working to uncover information about weapons of mass destruction, and her cover job was energy analyst for a private firm. By publishing her maiden name, which she worked under, Novak not only risked her safety, but has tipped off foreign governments that any of their people who met with her are possibly spies. Novak claims that the CIA "asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else." (Journalists are exempt from the law against exposing intelligence sources; it only applies to the government leakers.)
Shortly after the column appeared, the CIA filed a crime report with the Justice Department. In mid-September 2003, they sent additional information verifying the damage that was caused and confirming that the agent's identity had been secret. The Justice Department, headed by Bush appointee John Ashcroft, has now concluded its preliminary inquiry, determined that there is a crime here, and has opened a full investigation.
Here's the interesting thing about this story: everyone in Washington knows which Administration officials made this leak. Keep that in mind when you read the stories about this scandal, and you'll get an idea of how twisted and chummy the Washington insider scene is. Top Bush officials know because, well, two of them did it and Bush and Karl Rove run a tight ship -- they might not do the dirty work themselves, but this administration is famous for NOT having unauthorized leaks.
And pretty much every reporter in Washington knows who did it -- at least 6 were contacted by the leakers in the first place, and they have talked to several other reporters (all off the record without naming names of course.) Because reporters don't want to reveal their confidential sources (or get punished by Karl Rove), they will continue to play this game where the White House gets away with saying "if these allegations are true" and the press piously pretends they don't know who leaked. Of course the allegations are true -- the name was printed, wasn't it? Unless you believe that ROBERT NOVAK of all people is lying and falsely identified his allies in the Administration as the source of the leak, it is an open and shut case. Even the impeccably conservative Washington Times agrees on this point.
Now of course, folks will email me and ask "Who did it then?" I wish I knew, but I'm based in Oregon and don't hang in those circles. Undoubtedly one of our readers does know though, so do a guy a favor and send us the scoop. Wilson first named Karl Rove, the President's brilliant and vindictive political adviser. Karl Rove was fired from the elder President Bush's 1992 campaign, according to Esquire Magazine, "after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr." Interesting parallel.
If you read between the lines, though, the Washington insiders all point to one name. Take, for example, a story in the Washington Post, which has had the strongest sources on this story to date. The story quotes another (unnamed) journalist confirming that administration officials were spreading this story, and then describes the Time magazine article:
"An article that appeared on the Time magazine Web site the same week Novak's column was published said that 'some government officials have noted to Time in interviews . . . that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.' The same article quoted from an interview with I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, saying that Cheney did not know about Wilson's mission 'until this year when it became public in the last month or so.'"
By amazing coincidence, that same name popped up in a USA Today story about Plame. While describing Plame's work, the author went out of his way to point out that Libby was familiar with Plame's work (and identity):
"In Washington, Plame was assigned to the CIA's Non-Proliferation Center, an organization of analysts, technical experts and former field operatives who work on detecting and, if possible, preventing foreign proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby, met with officials at the Non-Proliferation Center before the invasion of Iraq to discuss reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium in Africa. A U.S. official with knowledge of those meetings said Plame did not attend. But the former U.S. intelligence official said she was involved in preparing materials for those meetings."
So neither story SAYS that Lewis Libby was one of the leakers, but boy didn't his name appear out of the blue right when folks were discussing whodunnit? Cheney and his staff have been the most hawkish of the hawks seeking to attack Iraq and damn the torpedoes.
As time goes on, Libby and the Vice President's office just keep getting singled out, seemingly as non-sequitirs, in these discussions. For example, outspoken Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said on CNBC that President Bush should take a more active role "and get this behind him." He went on to say:
"He has that main responsibility to see this through and see it through quickly, and that would include, if I was president, sitting down with my vice president and asking what he knows about it,"
And during Monday's embattled press conference, Bush's press secretary McLellen said this out of the blue:
"There's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the vice president's office as well."
And here is some interesting speculation on who the 'senior administration official' who confirmed the leaks might be. (The leading candidate seems to be George Tenet, head of the CIA.)
The Bush Administration's reaction should break the illusion if anyone still thinks Bush is a man of integrity dedicated to national security. First, of course, his staff exposes an undercover CIA agent in THE most critical national defense area -- protecting the US against weapons of mass destruction held by terrorists and rogue nations. That's what Valerie Plame did, until she was exposed. If Bush is the man he claims he is, he would be shocked by this action, find out who did it and fire them. Instead, he completely ignored the issue after the column was published, until an FBI investigation forced him to react. Though he said the politically correct things to the press -- "I want to get to the bottom of this", etc. -- his press secretary admits that Bush won't even ASK his top aides if they did it. He knows one of them did, because his ally Robert Novak said so. But he can't be bothered to ask who, or do anything about it.
Now, the Bush administration has a twin strategy -- attack Joseph Wilson as a partisan Democrat, and make sure no Republicans join the calls for a special prosecutor. One Republican aide called the strategy "slime and defend." The strategy reveals Bush's true nature -- his only concern is political damage control, not national security.
Is Wilson a Democrat? No one has reported that. He is a vocal critic of the way Bush has pursued war in Iraq, but it's not as simple as him being a partisan activist. He and his wife have given money to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry this year, and Wilson has advised Kerry's staff. In 1999, he gave $1,000 to Democratic candidate Al Gore, but he also gave $2,000 to George Bush himself. Wilson was appointed to his post in Iraq by George Bush's father, the ex-president, who praised his work there, where Wilson went toe to toe with Saddam Hussein, and was a war hawk. This time, he has supported military action against Iraq but criticized the Bush administration for the way they have done it, and the reasons they gave to justify it.
More to the point, so what? It's still just as wrong (and just as illegal) to expose a spy even if her husband opposes the President.
Calls for a special prosecutor are ironic, since Bush and his allies called so insistently for special prosecutors during Clinton's scandals, even though no one suggested that Janet Reno had any direct ties to the scandals, and Democrats fought them just as insistently. Now the roles are reversed. Politics aside, though, there are some real reasons to be suspicious of John Ashcroft's ability to fairly prosecute Bush administration officials. Ashcroft has direct ties to at least one central figure in the investigation, Karl Rove. Rove was a paid consultant to 3 of Ashcroft's political campaigns before Ashcroft was appointed Attorney General. And Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Given these ties, it would be normal for Ashcroft to appoint a special prosecutor or recuse himself from the case, as Janet Reno did with the Waco investigation. (She appointed Republican Senator John Danforth as a special prosecutor). In 2001, Mr. Ashcroft recused himself from the investigation of Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, simply because Mr. Torricelli had campaigned against Ashcroft in Missouri.
Why would the administration expose a CIA agent? Because Joseph Wilson (the agent's husband) had publicly criticized the Bush administration's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and specifically described his assignment in 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Wilson was perfectly qualified to check this out -- he is an expert on Africa who was also the last U.S. Ambassador to Iraq before the (1991) Gulf War. The elder President Bush publicly praised Wilson's "courage and tenacity" and "your skillful conduct of our tense dealings with the government of Iraq." Wilson checked out the claims and reported back that they were "highly doubtful." When the current Bush administration used the claims anyway to justify invading Iraq, and later denied that they knew the claims were false, he stepped forward and proved that these statements were lies.
One goal was to discredit Wilson. One of the journalists contacted, who asked to remain anonymous, said "The official I spoke with thought this was a part of Wilson's story that wasn't known and cast doubt on his whole mission." It also fits Karl Rove's distinctive brand of hardball, to punish Wilson and, more importantly, intimidate any other government officials who considered disagreeing with them on Iraq's weapons. Wilson says that on July 21st, a week after Novak had blown his wife's cover, a different reporter called Wilson to say that he had just spoken with Rove, and that Rove had said that Wilson's wife "was fair game." The senior Bush administration official who confirmed the phone calls to reporters told the Washington Post "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge."
[paste:font size="3"]Revealing a Spy Sources
Lies About Iraq Sources
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
[paste:font size="4"]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.)
[paste:font size="4"] 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


[paste:font size="4"]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 $450,000.
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 $35,000 in the last election and $10K in 1994, gave $100,000 to the George Bush, Sr. library, and hired the ex-president to give a speech last year for $70,000. 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
[paste:font size="4"]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 -- $457 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 $146,000 to the Bush campaign. In return, $252 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 $10 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 $2.5 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 $90 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 $50 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 $20 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 $90 million in the Frost Bank Plaza in Austin, and sold it to Rainwater's Crescent Real Estate for $35 million. Bush signed a law that will give his former baseball team co-owners -- including Rainwater -- a $10 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
[paste:font size="4"]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) [URL='http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#drugtest']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;[/URL]
Here are the details:
[URL='http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#weaseled']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 were both of Sid Adger's sons and at least 7 members of the Dallas Cowboys.
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.
Draft & National Guard Sources

[paste:font size="4"]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 $600,000, and sold for $14 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.
[paste:font size="4"]a $25 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.
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 ($12.2 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 $3.2 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 $135 million subsidy for Bush and partners, compared with the $80 million they paid for the franchise. Since they sold the entire franchise for $250 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 $7.5 million they owe under the terms of the agreement. It held that the team would pay all expenses over $135 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 $7.5 million, but even though the project exceeded the $135 million limit, the partners have refused to pay. Given their huge taxpayer subsidy and $170 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.

[paste:font size="4"] the Bush Watch web site. They have more details here.
[paste:font size="3"]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 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.
[paste:font size="4"]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
[paste:font size="3"]"Mission to Niger", by Robert Novak (syndicated column), July 14, 2003
"A War on Wilson? : Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection", By MATTHEW COOPER, MASSIMO CALABRESI AND JOHN F. DICKERSON, Time Magazine, July 17, 2003
"Capital Games: A White House Smear", by David Corn, The Nation magazine, July 16, 2003
"Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover" by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce, Long Island Newsday (newspaper), July 22, 2003
"War critic at center of CIA flap always vague on wife's job: Ex-ambassador lauded by 1st President Bush" By Bill Nichols and John Diamond, USA TODAY October 1, 2003 p6A
Bush Sr. quote -- ("most insidious of traitors") -- "Remarks By George Bush 41st President of the United States, At the Dedication Ceremony for the George Bush Center for Intelligence", April 26, 1999, on CIA website
"Justice Department Opens Probe Into Leak of CIA Agent's Name", by David Cloud, Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2003 pA3
"Justice Investigates Leak Claim", by Deb Reichmann (AP), The Oregonian, September 29, 2003 pA2
"Bush Aides Say They'll Cooperate With Probe Into Intelligence Leak", by Mike Allen, Washington Post, September 29, 2003; Page A01
"Bush Vows Action if Aides Had Role in Leak" By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, Washington Post, September 30, 2003; Page A01
"White House Says Top Aide Was Not Behind CIA Leak", by David Stout, New York Times, September 29, 2003
ABC-TV News, "The Note", September 30, 2003
"Bush welcomes probe of CIA leak", CNN website, October 1, 2003
"Out the Outers", editorial, Washington Times (newspaper), OCtober 1, 2003
"Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures", By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU, New York Times, October 2, 2003
"White House Looks to Manage Fallout Over C.I.A. Leak Inquiry", By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and ERIC LICHTBLAU, New York Times, October 2, 2003
"Outside Probe of Leaks Is Favored: Poll Findings Come As White House Softens Denials", By Dana Milbank and Mike Allen, Washington Post, October 2, 2003; Page A01
"She's the perfect spy: Outed CIA agent had glamour job & looks to match", By JAMES GORDON MEEK and KENNETH R. BAZINET New York Daily News, October 2, 2003
"Why Are These Men Laughing?"(about Karl Rove), Esquire Magazine, January 2003
"Probe Focuses on Month Before Leak to Reporters: FBI Agents Tracing Linkage of Envoy to CIA Operative", By Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, Washington Post, Sunday, October 12, 2003; Page A01
[paste:font size="3"]George Bush's Arrest Record, The Smoking Gun 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
[URL='http://www.foxnews.com/elections/campaign_central/index.sml?text=/elections/110300/dome_bush_dui.sml&photovideo=/elections/110300/photo_bush_dui.htm']"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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]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
"Bush Twins Summer Vacay", Entertainment Tonight Online, June 3, 2002
"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 $300,000 and got a strict confidentiality agreement from him.
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
Othman and Mirza -- "Aftermath of Terror: Funds Under Terror Probe Flowed From Offshore", by GLENN R. SIMPSON, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 22, 2002
"In Difficult Times, Muslims count on unlikely hero", by Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson, Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2003
“O’Neill Met Muslim Activists Tied to Charities” by Glenn R. Simpson [with Roger Thurow]; Wall Street Journal; 4/18/2002; p. A4
"Know thy enemy" (syndicated column) by Frank Gaffney, December 11, 2002
"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
[URL='http://www.chron.com/content/story.html/metropolitan/217555']"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
"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)
[URL='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812931394/o/qid=940440246/sr=2-2/002-7588755-1647462&tag=ff0d01-20']First Son : George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, by Bill Minutaglio, Times Books, 1999 [/URL]
[URL='http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/293/nation/Bush_denies_allegation_of_72_drug_arrest_in_book+.shtml']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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BACK TO SKELETON CLOSET
Paid for by Real People For Real Change and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. [/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]

 

[Vastator]

Fail...

 

[Iceweasel]

Someone's medication is losing effectiveness. Time to tweak the prescription.

 

[Crixus]

Boo hiss.

 

[Dale Smith]

George W. Bush, Jr. - The Dark Side

wrote a column attacking Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had investigated the allegations that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Niger (and concluded they were false). Novak wrote:
"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report."
Several other journalists besides Novak were contacted by the two Bush Administration officials, who encouraged them to report these facts, though Novak was the only one to publish the story directly. An administration official confirmed to the Washington Post that the two officials had contacted at least 6 journalists with the information in an effort to discredit Wilson. Reporters were contacted at Time Magazine and 3 TV networks, including NBC-TV's Andrea Mitchell (who was called after Novak's column appeared.) CNN reports that "sources" confirmed these contacts to them as well. After Novak's column appeared, some of the others discussed the story, including Time Magazine, Long Island Newsday and the Washington Post.
For fairly obvious reasons, it is a felony (punished by 10 years in prison) to reveal the identity of an undercover agent. In fact President Bush's father, the first President Bush, said in a 1999 speech that those who expose the names of intelligence sources are "the most insidious of traitors."
Wilson's wife -- and mother of his 3 year old twins -- is a case officer in the CIA's clandestine service, working to uncover information about weapons of mass destruction, and her cover job was energy analyst for a private firm. By publishing her maiden name, which she worked under, Novak not only risked her safety, but has tipped off foreign governments that any of their people who met with her are possibly spies. Novak claims that the CIA "asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else." (Journalists are exempt from the law against exposing intelligence sources; it only applies to the government leakers.)
Shortly after the column appeared, the CIA filed a crime report with the Justice Department. In mid-September 2003, they sent additional information verifying the damage that was caused and confirming that the agent's identity had been secret. The Justice Department, headed by Bush appointee John Ashcroft, has now concluded its preliminary inquiry, determined that there is a crime here, and has opened a full investigation.
Here's the interesting thing about this story: everyone in Washington knows which Administration officials made this leak. Keep that in mind when you read the stories about this scandal, and you'll get an idea of how twisted and chummy the Washington insider scene is. Top Bush officials know because, well, two of them did it and Bush and Karl Rove run a tight ship -- they might not do the dirty work themselves, but this administration is famous for NOT having unauthorized leaks.
And pretty much every reporter in Washington knows who did it -- at least 6 were contacted by the leakers in the first place, and they have talked to several other reporters (all off the record without naming names of course.) Because reporters don't want to reveal their confidential sources (or get punished by Karl Rove), they will continue to play this game where the White House gets away with saying "if these allegations are true" and the press piously pretends they don't know who leaked. Of course the allegations are true -- the name was printed, wasn't it? Unless you believe that ROBERT NOVAK of all people is lying and falsely identified his allies in the Administration as the source of the leak, it is an open and shut case. Even the impeccably conservative Washington Times agrees on this point.
Now of course, folks will email me and ask "Who did it then?" I wish I knew, but I'm based in Oregon and don't hang in those circles. Undoubtedly one of our readers does know though, so do a guy a favor and send us the scoop. Wilson first named Karl Rove, the President's brilliant and vindictive political adviser. Karl Rove was fired from the elder President Bush's 1992 campaign, according to Esquire Magazine, "after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr." Interesting parallel.
If you read between the lines, though, the Washington insiders all point to one name. Take, for example, a story in the Washington Post, which has had the strongest sources on this story to date. The story quotes another (unnamed) journalist confirming that administration officials were spreading this story, and then describes the Time magazine article:
"An article that appeared on the Time magazine Web site the same week Novak's column was published said that 'some government officials have noted to Time in interviews . . . that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.' The same article quoted from an interview with I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, saying that Cheney did not know about Wilson's mission 'until this year when it became public in the last month or so.'"
By amazing coincidence, that same name popped up in a USA Today story about Plame. While describing Plame's work, the author went out of his way to point out that Libby was familiar with Plame's work (and identity):
"In Washington, Plame was assigned to the CIA's Non-Proliferation Center, an organization of analysts, technical experts and former field operatives who work on detecting and, if possible, preventing foreign proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby, met with officials at the Non-Proliferation Center before the invasion of Iraq to discuss reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium in Africa. A U.S. official with knowledge of those meetings said Plame did not attend. But the former U.S. intelligence official said she was involved in preparing materials for those meetings."
So neither story SAYS that Lewis Libby was one of the leakers, but boy didn't his name appear out of the blue right when folks were discussing whodunnit? Cheney and his staff have been the most hawkish of the hawks seeking to attack Iraq and damn the torpedoes.
As time goes on, Libby and the Vice President's office just keep getting singled out, seemingly as non-sequitirs, in these discussions. For example, outspoken Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said on CNBC that President Bush should take a more active role "and get this behind him." He went on to say:
"He has that main responsibility to see this through and see it through quickly, and that would include, if I was president, sitting down with my vice president and asking what he knows about it,"
And during Monday's embattled press conference, Bush's press secretary McLellen said this out of the blue:
"There's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the vice president's office as well."
And here is some interesting speculation on who the 'senior administration official' who confirmed the leaks might be. (The leading candidate seems to be George Tenet, head of the CIA.)
The Bush Administration's reaction should break the illusion if anyone still thinks Bush is a man of integrity dedicated to national security. First, of course, his staff exposes an undercover CIA agent in THE most critical national defense area -- protecting the US against weapons of mass destruction held by terrorists and rogue nations. That's what Valerie Plame did, until she was exposed. If Bush is the man he claims he is, he would be shocked by this action, find out who did it and fire them. Instead, he completely ignored the issue after the column was published, until an FBI investigation forced him to react. Though he said the politically correct things to the press -- "I want to get to the bottom of this", etc. -- his press secretary admits that Bush won't even ASK his top aides if they did it. He knows one of them did, because his ally Robert Novak said so. But he can't be bothered to ask who, or do anything about it.
Now, the Bush administration has a twin strategy -- attack Joseph Wilson as a partisan Democrat, and make sure no Republicans join the calls for a special prosecutor. One Republican aide called the strategy "slime and defend." The strategy reveals Bush's true nature -- his only concern is political damage control, not national security.
Is Wilson a Democrat? No one has reported that. He is a vocal critic of the way Bush has pursued war in Iraq, but it's not as simple as him being a partisan activist. He and his wife have given money to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry this year, and Wilson has advised Kerry's staff. In 1999, he gave $1,000 to Democratic candidate Al Gore, but he also gave $2,000 to George Bush himself. Wilson was appointed to his post in Iraq by George Bush's father, the ex-president, who praised his work there, where Wilson went toe to toe with Saddam Hussein, and was a war hawk. This time, he has supported military action against Iraq but criticized the Bush administration for the way they have done it, and the reasons they gave to justify it.
More to the point, so what? It's still just as wrong (and just as illegal) to expose a spy even if her husband opposes the President.
Calls for a special prosecutor are ironic, since Bush and his allies called so insistently for special prosecutors during Clinton's scandals, even though no one suggested that Janet Reno had any direct ties to the scandals, and Democrats fought them just as insistently. Now the roles are reversed. Politics aside, though, there are some real reasons to be suspicious of John Ashcroft's ability to fairly prosecute Bush administration officials. Ashcroft has direct ties to at least one central figure in the investigation, Karl Rove. Rove was a paid consultant to 3 of Ashcroft's political campaigns before Ashcroft was appointed Attorney General. And Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Given these ties, it would be normal for Ashcroft to appoint a special prosecutor or recuse himself from the case, as Janet Reno did with the Waco investigation. (She appointed Republican Senator John Danforth as a special prosecutor). In 2001, Mr. Ashcroft recused himself from the investigation of Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, simply because Mr. Torricelli had campaigned against Ashcroft in Missouri.
Why would the administration expose a CIA agent? Because Joseph Wilson (the agent's husband) had publicly criticized the Bush administration's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and specifically described his assignment in 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Wilson was perfectly qualified to check this out -- he is an expert on Africa who was also the last U.S. Ambassador to Iraq before the (1991) Gulf War. The elder President Bush publicly praised Wilson's "courage and tenacity" and "your skillful conduct of our tense dealings with the government of Iraq." Wilson checked out the claims and reported back that they were "highly doubtful." When the current Bush administration used the claims anyway to justify invading Iraq, and later denied that they knew the claims were false, he stepped forward and proved that these statements were lies.
One goal was to discredit Wilson. One of the journalists contacted, who asked to remain anonymous, said "The official I spoke with thought this was a part of Wilson's story that wasn't known and cast doubt on his whole mission." It also fits Karl Rove's distinctive brand of hardball, to punish Wilson and, more importantly, intimidate any other government officials who considered disagreeing with them on Iraq's weapons. Wilson says that on July 21st, a week after Novak had blown his wife's cover, a different reporter called Wilson to say that he had just spoken with Rove, and that Rove had said that Wilson's wife "was fair game." The senior Bush administration official who confirmed the phone calls to reporters told the Washington Post "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge."
[paste:font size="3"]Revealing a Spy Sources
Lies About Iraq Sources
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
[paste:font size="4"]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.)
[paste:font size="4"] 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


[paste:font size="4"]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 $450,000.
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 $35,000 in the last election and $10K in 1994, gave $100,000 to the George Bush, Sr. library, and hired the ex-president to give a speech last year for $70,000. 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
[paste:font size="4"]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 -- $457 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 $146,000 to the Bush campaign. In return, $252 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 $10 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 $2.5 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 $90 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 $50 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 $20 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 $90 million in the Frost Bank Plaza in Austin, and sold it to Rainwater's Crescent Real Estate for $35 million. Bush signed a law that will give his former baseball team co-owners -- including Rainwater -- a $10 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
[paste:font size="4"]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:
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 were both of Sid Adger's sons and at least 7 members of the Dallas Cowboys.
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.
Draft & National Guard Sources

[paste:font size="4"]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 $600,000, and sold for $14 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.
[paste:font size="4"]a $25 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.
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 ($12.2 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 $3.2 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 $135 million subsidy for Bush and partners, compared with the $80 million they paid for the franchise. Since they sold the entire franchise for $250 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 $7.5 million they owe under the terms of the agreement. It held that the team would pay all expenses over $135 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 $7.5 million, but even though the project exceeded the $135 million limit, the partners have refused to pay. Given their huge taxpayer subsidy and $170 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.

[paste:font size="4"] the Bush Watch web site. They have more details here.
[paste:font size="3"]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 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.
[paste:font size="4"]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
[paste:font size="3"]"Mission to Niger", by Robert Novak (syndicated column), July 14, 2003
"A War on Wilson? : Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection", By MATTHEW COOPER, MASSIMO CALABRESI AND JOHN F. DICKERSON, Time Magazine, July 17, 2003
"Capital Games: A White House Smear", by David Corn, The Nation magazine, July 16, 2003
"Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover" by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce, Long Island Newsday (newspaper), July 22, 2003
"War critic at center of CIA flap always vague on wife's job: Ex-ambassador lauded by 1st President Bush" By Bill Nichols and John Diamond, USA TODAY October 1, 2003 p6A
Bush Sr. quote -- ("most insidious of traitors") -- "Remarks By George Bush 41st President of the United States, At the Dedication Ceremony for the George Bush Center for Intelligence", April 26, 1999, on CIA website
"Justice Department Opens Probe Into Leak of CIA Agent's Name", by David Cloud, Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2003 pA3
"Justice Investigates Leak Claim", by Deb Reichmann (AP), The Oregonian, September 29, 2003 pA2
"Bush Aides Say They'll Cooperate With Probe Into Intelligence Leak", by Mike Allen, Washington Post, September 29, 2003; Page A01
"Bush Vows Action if Aides Had Role in Leak" By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, Washington Post, September 30, 2003; Page A01
"White House Says Top Aide Was Not Behind CIA Leak", by David Stout, New York Times, September 29, 2003
ABC-TV News, "The Note", September 30, 2003
"Bush welcomes probe of CIA leak", CNN website, October 1, 2003
"Out the Outers", editorial, Washington Times (newspaper), OCtober 1, 2003
"Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures", By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU, New York Times, October 2, 2003
"White House Looks to Manage Fallout Over C.I.A. Leak Inquiry", By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and ERIC LICHTBLAU, New York Times, October 2, 2003
"Outside Probe of Leaks Is Favored: Poll Findings Come As White House Softens Denials", By Dana Milbank and Mike Allen, Washington Post, October 2, 2003; Page A01
"She's the perfect spy: Outed CIA agent had glamour job & looks to match", By JAMES GORDON MEEK and KENNETH R. BAZINET New York Daily News, October 2, 2003
"Why Are These Men Laughing?"(about Karl Rove), Esquire Magazine, January 2003
"Probe Focuses on Month Before Leak to Reporters: FBI Agents Tracing Linkage of Envoy to CIA Operative", By Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, Washington Post, Sunday, October 12, 2003; Page A01
[paste:font size="3"]George Bush's Arrest Record, The Smoking Gun 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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]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
"Bush Twins Summer Vacay", Entertainment Tonight Online, June 3, 2002
"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 $300,000 and got a strict confidentiality agreement from him.
[paste:font size="3"]"Surprise Testimony in Texas: New questions are raised in a politically charged Texas lawsuit", Newsweek, October 30, 2000
"The Funeral Home Flap: Trouble for a Texas Mortician with links to the Bush Family", by Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, August 16, 1999
"Bush Affidavit Refuted", by Janet Elliot, Law News Network, August 16, 1999
"Funeral company hopeful after takeover " By Juan B. Elizondo Jr., Austin American-Statesman, Wednesday, August 18, 1999
"Governor's role questioned in funeral agency oversight: Bush's office rejects call for legislative control", By George Kuempel , The Dallas Morning News, August 8, 1999
"Bush Watch Special: Dubya and The Gravedigger", by Jerry Politex, The Bush Watch Website (ongoing)
Scandal Timeline, Austin Chronicle, ongoing
[paste:font size="3"]"How Bush REALLY Made His Millions", by Jerry Politex, The Bush Watch Web Site, ongoing
"Who is David Edwards?", by Micah Morrison, The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 1995
"The Governor's Sweetheart Deal", by Robert Bryce, The Texas Observer, January 30, 1998
"Bush's Big Score", by Robert Bryce, The Dallas Observer, February 9, 1998
"Bush's Free Ride", by Stuart Eskenazi, Dallas Observer, October 29, 1998
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/03/lie/index.html
"Good Connections: Family Ties helped fund oil venture that began Bush's business career", by Richard Oppel Jr. and George Kuemple, Dallas Morning News, November 16, 1998
"Whitewashing the Bush Boys", by Stephen Pizzo, Mother Jones, March-April 1994
"Family Value$", 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
Othman and Mirza -- "Aftermath of Terror: Funds Under Terror Probe Flowed From Offshore", by GLENN R. SIMPSON, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 22, 2002
"In Difficult Times, Muslims count on unlikely hero", by Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson, Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2003
“O’Neill Met Muslim Activists Tied to Charities” by Glenn R. Simpson [with Roger Thurow]; Wall Street Journal; 4/18/2002; p. A4
"Know thy enemy" (syndicated column) by Frank Gaffney, December 11, 2002
"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
"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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Paid for by Real People For Real Change and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Yep, the Bush crime family are real POS....but guess what? They are thick as thieves with the Clintons. The Mena airport where cocaine was being flown in during the Iran/Conta era was not under the authority of the FAA because it was Rockefeller controlled. Heroin was being flown in from China to pay back a loan from David Rockefeller. You see, for every 5,000 dollars in arms and ammo, the Bush and Clintons got 15K in pure uncut cocaine...after it was "cut" that 15 K became worth over 100K and every politician that was in on it got their fair share of the cut of the proceeds. The Bush and Clinbtons are nothing but proxy soldiers for the power elites...it's a fact and one that I can back up with indisputable proof by the players involved like Chip Tatum...."Google" hi name and then come back and tell me that I am wrong. Larry Nichols, a former Clinton insider had his "Come to Jesus" moment when two young teenagers Don Henry and Kevin Ives came across the unloading of illegal drugs and their beaten bodies were found on rail road tracks. Bill "drop trou" Clinton covered up the investigation and sent Arkansas DPS thugs to intimidate the families of these two young men....you want "truth"? Let me lay some on a....

The Activities at Mena - MENA is no myth! | WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

 

[easyt65]

Holy shit....write a book!

Didn't bother to read 90% - SUMMARIZE.

 

[Muhammed]

George W. Bush, Jr. - The Dark Side

wrote a column attacking Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had investigated the allegations that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Niger (and concluded they were false).

Of course that's a lie that idiots like you believe because you're so stupid that your are easily brainwashed by fake news.

Th fact of the matter is that Niger's prime minister confirmed to Joe Wilson that an Iraqi delegation did request him to sell Iraq more uranium yellowcake.

 

[Rigby5]

Holy shit....write a book!

Didn't bother to read 90% - SUMMARIZE.

Here is all that is important:

Bush knew the Iraqi WMD claims were false because ambassador Wilson has gone to Niger and discovered the docs where Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake uranium was from 1979, for the Osirak reactor. Since Israel had blow up that reactor in 1979, the yellowcake had been sitting in Iraq, totally untouched since then.
Yet Bush still allowed Cheney to claim Iraq was only weeks away from nuclear weapons.

 

[Rigby5]

Of course that's a lie that idiots like you believe because you're so stupid that your are easily brainwashed by fake news.

Th fact of the matter is that Niger's prime minister confirmed to Joe Wilson that an Iraqi delegation did request him to sell Iraq more uranium yellowcake.

That is a lie.
When an Iraqi diplomat went to NIger in order to buy food in an attempt to bypass the US blockade, the Niger prime minister mistakenly thought the Iraqis were actually interested in more yellowcake. They weren't.
Iraq has no way to use yellowcake since it had no reactor, and was sitting 55 tons of yellowcake since 1979.

The US confirmed that the 55 tons of yellowcake from 1979 was still there, untouched in all that time.
The US sold it to Canada in 2004.

 

[justoffal]

George W. Bush, Jr. - The Dark Side

wrote a column attacking Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had investigated the allegations that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Niger (and concluded they were false). Novak wrote:
"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report."
Several other journalists besides Novak were contacted by the two Bush Administration officials, who encouraged them to report these facts, though Novak was the only one to publish the story directly. An administration official confirmed to the Washington Post that the two officials had contacted at least 6 journalists with the information in an effort to discredit Wilson. Reporters were contacted at Time Magazine and 3 TV networks, including NBC-TV's Andrea Mitchell (who was called after Novak's column appeared.) CNN reports that "sources" confirmed these contacts to them as well. After Novak's column appeared, some of the others discussed the story, including Time Magazine, Long Island Newsday and the Washington Post.
For fairly obvious reasons, it is a felony (punished by 10 years in prison) to reveal the identity of an undercover agent. In fact President Bush's father, the first President Bush, said in a 1999 speech that those who expose the names of intelligence sources are "the most insidious of traitors."
Wilson's wife -- and mother of his 3 year old twins -- is a case officer in the CIA's clandestine service, working to uncover information about weapons of mass destruction, and her cover job was energy analyst for a private firm. By publishing her maiden name, which she worked under, Novak not only risked her safety, but has tipped off foreign governments that any of their people who met with her are possibly spies. Novak claims that the CIA "asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else." (Journalists are exempt from the law against exposing intelligence sources; it only applies to the government leakers.)
Shortly after the column appeared, the CIA filed a crime report with the Justice Department. In mid-September 2003, they sent additional information verifying the damage that was caused and confirming that the agent's identity had been secret. The Justice Department, headed by Bush appointee John Ashcroft, has now concluded its preliminary inquiry, determined that there is a crime here, and has opened a full investigation.
Here's the interesting thing about this story: everyone in Washington knows which Administration officials made this leak. Keep that in mind when you read the stories about this scandal, and you'll get an idea of how twisted and chummy the Washington insider scene is. Top Bush officials know because, well, two of them did it and Bush and Karl Rove run a tight ship -- they might not do the dirty work themselves, but this administration is famous for NOT having unauthorized leaks.
And pretty much every reporter in Washington knows who did it -- at least 6 were contacted by the leakers in the first place, and they have talked to several other reporters (all off the record without naming names of course.) Because reporters don't want to reveal their confidential sources (or get punished by Karl Rove), they will continue to play this game where the White House gets away with saying "if these allegations are true" and the press piously pretends they don't know who leaked. Of course the allegations are true -- the name was printed, wasn't it? Unless you believe that ROBERT NOVAK of all people is lying and falsely identified his allies in the Administration as the source of the leak, it is an open and shut case. Even the impeccably conservative Washington Times agrees on this point.
Now of course, folks will email me and ask "Who did it then?" I wish I knew, but I'm based in Oregon and don't hang in those circles. Undoubtedly one of our readers does know though, so do a guy a favor and send us the scoop. Wilson first named Karl Rove, the President's brilliant and vindictive political adviser. Karl Rove was fired from the elder President Bush's 1992 campaign, according to Esquire Magazine, "after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr." Interesting parallel.
If you read between the lines, though, the Washington insiders all point to one name. Take, for example, a story in the Washington Post, which has had the strongest sources on this story to date. The story quotes another (unnamed) journalist confirming that administration officials were spreading this story, and then describes the Time magazine article:
"An article that appeared on the Time magazine Web site the same week Novak's column was published said that 'some government officials have noted to Time in interviews . . . that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.' The same article quoted from an interview with I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, saying that Cheney did not know about Wilson's mission 'until this year when it became public in the last month or so.'"
By amazing coincidence, that same name popped up in a USA Today story about Plame. While describing Plame's work, the author went out of his way to point out that Libby was familiar with Plame's work (and identity):
"In Washington, Plame was assigned to the CIA's Non-Proliferation Center, an organization of analysts, technical experts and former field operatives who work on detecting and, if possible, preventing foreign proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby, met with officials at the Non-Proliferation Center before the invasion of Iraq to discuss reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium in Africa. A U.S. official with knowledge of those meetings said Plame did not attend. But the former U.S. intelligence official said she was involved in preparing materials for those meetings."
So neither story SAYS that Lewis Libby was one of the leakers, but boy didn't his name appear out of the blue right when folks were discussing whodunnit? Cheney and his staff have been the most hawkish of the hawks seeking to attack Iraq and damn the torpedoes.
As time goes on, Libby and the Vice President's office just keep getting singled out, seemingly as non-sequitirs, in these discussions. For example, outspoken Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said on CNBC that President Bush should take a more active role "and get this behind him." He went on to say:
"He has that main responsibility to see this through and see it through quickly, and that would include, if I was president, sitting down with my vice president and asking what he knows about it,"
And during Monday's embattled press conference, Bush's press secretary McLellen said this out of the blue:
"There's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the vice president's office as well."
And here is some interesting speculation on who the 'senior administration official' who confirmed the leaks might be. (The leading candidate seems to be George Tenet, head of the CIA.)
The Bush Administration's reaction should break the illusion if anyone still thinks Bush is a man of integrity dedicated to national security. First, of course, his staff exposes an undercover CIA agent in THE most critical national defense area -- protecting the US against weapons of mass destruction held by terrorists and rogue nations. That's what Valerie Plame did, until she was exposed. If Bush is the man he claims he is, he would be shocked by this action, find out who did it and fire them. Instead, he completely ignored the issue after the column was published, until an FBI investigation forced him to react. Though he said the politically correct things to the press -- "I want to get to the bottom of this", etc. -- his press secretary admits that Bush won't even ASK his top aides if they did it. He knows one of them did, because his ally Robert Novak said so. But he can't be bothered to ask who, or do anything about it.
Now, the Bush administration has a twin strategy -- attack Joseph Wilson as a partisan Democrat, and make sure no Republicans join the calls for a special prosecutor. One Republican aide called the strategy "slime and defend." The strategy reveals Bush's true nature -- his only concern is political damage control, not national security.
Is Wilson a Democrat? No one has reported that. He is a vocal critic of the way Bush has pursued war in Iraq, but it's not as simple as him being a partisan activist. He and his wife have given money to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry this year, and Wilson has advised Kerry's staff. In 1999, he gave $1,000 to Democratic candidate Al Gore, but he also gave $2,000 to George Bush himself. Wilson was appointed to his post in Iraq by George Bush's father, the ex-president, who praised his work there, where Wilson went toe to toe with Saddam Hussein, and was a war hawk. This time, he has supported military action against Iraq but criticized the Bush administration for the way they have done it, and the reasons they gave to justify it.
More to the point, so what? It's still just as wrong (and just as illegal) to expose a spy even if her husband opposes the President.
Calls for a special prosecutor are ironic, since Bush and his allies called so insistently for special prosecutors during Clinton's scandals, even though no one suggested that Janet Reno had any direct ties to the scandals, and Democrats fought them just as insistently. Now the roles are reversed. Politics aside, though, there are some real reasons to be suspicious of John Ashcroft's ability to fairly prosecute Bush administration officials. Ashcroft has direct ties to at least one central figure in the investigation, Karl Rove. Rove was a paid consultant to 3 of Ashcroft's political campaigns before Ashcroft was appointed Attorney General. And Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Given these ties, it would be normal for Ashcroft to appoint a special prosecutor or recuse himself from the case, as Janet Reno did with the Waco investigation. (She appointed Republican Senator John Danforth as a special prosecutor). In 2001, Mr. Ashcroft recused himself from the investigation of Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, simply because Mr. Torricelli had campaigned against Ashcroft in Missouri.
Why would the administration expose a CIA agent? Because Joseph Wilson (the agent's husband) had publicly criticized the Bush administration's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and specifically described his assignment in 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Wilson was perfectly qualified to check this out -- he is an expert on Africa who was also the last U.S. Ambassador to Iraq before the (1991) Gulf War. The elder President Bush publicly praised Wilson's "courage and tenacity" and "your skillful conduct of our tense dealings with the government of Iraq." Wilson checked out the claims and reported back that they were "highly doubtful." When the current Bush administration used the claims anyway to justify invading Iraq, and later denied that they knew the claims were false, he stepped forward and proved that these statements were lies.
One goal was to discredit Wilson. One of the journalists contacted, who asked to remain anonymous, said "The official I spoke with thought this was a part of Wilson's story that wasn't known and cast doubt on his whole mission." It also fits Karl Rove's distinctive brand of hardball, to punish Wilson and, more importantly, intimidate any other government officials who considered disagreeing with them on Iraq's weapons. Wilson says that on July 21st, a week after Novak had blown his wife's cover, a different reporter called Wilson to say that he had just spoken with Rove, and that Rove had said that Wilson's wife "was fair game." The senior Bush administration official who confirmed the phone calls to reporters told the Washington Post "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge."
[paste:font size="3"]Revealing a Spy Sources
Lies About Iraq Sources
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
[paste:font size="4"]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.)
[paste:font size="4"] 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


[paste:font size="4"]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 $450,000.
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 $35,000 in the last election and $10K in 1994, gave $100,000 to the George Bush, Sr. library, and hired the ex-president to give a speech last year for $70,000. 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
[paste:font size="4"]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 -- $457 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 $146,000 to the Bush campaign. In return, $252 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 $10 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 $2.5 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 $90 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 $50 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 $20 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 $90 million in the Frost Bank Plaza in Austin, and sold it to Rainwater's Crescent Real Estate for $35 million. Bush signed a law that will give his former baseball team co-owners -- including Rainwater -- a $10 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
[paste:font size="4"]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) [URL='http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#drugtest']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;[/URL]
Here are the details:
[URL='http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#weaseled']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 were both of Sid Adger's sons and at least 7 members of the Dallas Cowboys.
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.
Draft & National Guard Sources

[paste:font size="4"]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 $600,000, and sold for $14 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.
[paste:font size="4"]a $25 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.
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 ($12.2 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 $3.2 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 $135 million subsidy for Bush and partners, compared with the $80 million they paid for the franchise. Since they sold the entire franchise for $250 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 $7.5 million they owe under the terms of the agreement. It held that the team would pay all expenses over $135 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 $7.5 million, but even though the project exceeded the $135 million limit, the partners have refused to pay. Given their huge taxpayer subsidy and $170 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.

[paste:font size="4"] the Bush Watch web site. They have more details here.
[paste:font size="3"]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 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.
[paste:font size="4"]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
[paste:font size="3"]"Mission to Niger", by Robert Novak (syndicated column), July 14, 2003
"A War on Wilson? : Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection", By MATTHEW COOPER, MASSIMO CALABRESI AND JOHN F. DICKERSON, Time Magazine, July 17, 2003
"Capital Games: A White House Smear", by David Corn, The Nation magazine, July 16, 2003
"Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover" by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce, Long Island Newsday (newspaper), July 22, 2003
"War critic at center of CIA flap always vague on wife's job: Ex-ambassador lauded by 1st President Bush" By Bill Nichols and John Diamond, USA TODAY October 1, 2003 p6A
Bush Sr. quote -- ("most insidious of traitors") -- "Remarks By George Bush 41st President of the United States, At the Dedication Ceremony for the George Bush Center for Intelligence", April 26, 1999, on CIA website
"Justice Department Opens Probe Into Leak of CIA Agent's Name", by David Cloud, Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2003 pA3
"Justice Investigates Leak Claim", by Deb Reichmann (AP), The Oregonian, September 29, 2003 pA2
"Bush Aides Say They'll Cooperate With Probe Into Intelligence Leak", by Mike Allen, Washington Post, September 29, 2003; Page A01
"Bush Vows Action if Aides Had Role in Leak" By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, Washington Post, September 30, 2003; Page A01
"White House Says Top Aide Was Not Behind CIA Leak", by David Stout, New York Times, September 29, 2003
ABC-TV News, "The Note", September 30, 2003
"Bush welcomes probe of CIA leak", CNN website, October 1, 2003
"Out the Outers", editorial, Washington Times (newspaper), OCtober 1, 2003
"Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures", By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU, New York Times, October 2, 2003
"White House Looks to Manage Fallout Over C.I.A. Leak Inquiry", By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and ERIC LICHTBLAU, New York Times, October 2, 2003
"Outside Probe of Leaks Is Favored: Poll Findings Come As White House Softens Denials", By Dana Milbank and Mike Allen, Washington Post, October 2, 2003; Page A01
"She's the perfect spy: Outed CIA agent had glamour job & looks to match", By JAMES GORDON MEEK and KENNETH R. BAZINET New York Daily News, October 2, 2003
"Why Are These Men Laughing?"(about Karl Rove), Esquire Magazine, January 2003
"Probe Focuses on Month Before Leak to Reporters: FBI Agents Tracing Linkage of Envoy to CIA Operative", By Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, Washington Post, Sunday, October 12, 2003; Page A01
[paste:font size="3"]George Bush's Arrest Record, The Smoking Gun 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
[URL='http://www.foxnews.com/elections/campaign_central/index.sml?text=/elections/110300/dome_bush_dui.sml&photovideo=/elections/110300/photo_bush_dui.htm']"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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]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
"Bush Twins Summer Vacay", Entertainment Tonight Online, June 3, 2002
"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 $300,000 and got a strict confidentiality agreement from him.
[paste:font size="3"]"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
[paste:font size="3"]"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
Othman and Mirza -- "Aftermath of Terror: Funds Under Terror Probe Flowed From Offshore", by GLENN R. SIMPSON, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 22, 2002
"In Difficult Times, Muslims count on unlikely hero", by Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson, Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2003
“O’Neill Met Muslim Activists Tied to Charities” by Glenn R. Simpson [with Roger Thurow]; Wall Street Journal; 4/18/2002; p. A4
"Know thy enemy" (syndicated column) by Frank Gaffney, December 11, 2002
"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
[URL='http://www.chron.com/content/story.html/metropolitan/217555']"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
"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)
[URL='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812931394/o/qid=940440246/sr=2-2/002-7588755-1647462&tag=ff0d01-20?tag=usmb-20']First Son : George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, by Bill Minutaglio, Times Books, 1999 [/URL]
[URL='http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/293/nation/Bush_denies_allegation_of_72_drug_arrest_in_book+.shtml']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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Yeah um.... Not sure how you managed to violate the character limit.... I no longer read novels. I find that if I'm going to spend not much time reading something it should be a technical manual that increases my knowledge of my trade.