George Dubya Enron

“Rich and 'stupid'

Robert Scheer - WorkingForChange

12.28.01 - If you follow George Bush's thinking on how to fix our broken economy, you would throw a few hundred million in tax breaks to his buddies who bankrupted Enron. Not simply because they bankrolled his ascension to the Texas governorship and the White House, but, more importantly, because they are the modern alchemists who can make money out of nothing.

Because nothing is what Enron is to its once-loyal employees, who lost those private savings accounts that Bush is always touting; some of them will now have to live on Social Security, which the president is doing his best to bankrupt.

Nothing is what Enron is to its many small stockholders, including California's public workers, whose state pension fund was heavily invested in the now-bankrupt company. Nothing is what Enron is to consumers in California and a half dozen other states forced to seek expensive long-term electricity contracts because of Enron's shenanigans in the energy market. Nothing is what Enron is to the people of India and other countries, still eating the ashes of spectacular Enron promises.

But Enron's millions found their way into the bank account of company chairman Kenneth L. Lay— close family friend and financier of the political careers of Bushes, junior and senior. Equally fortunate was Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former CEO who masterminded Enron's meteoric rise and who resigned in August, cashing out tens of millions before Enron's crash.

Bush's Army secretary, Thomas White Jr., is another former top Enron executive who also managed to sell his $50 million to $100 million stake in the company well before it dropped from $90 to 29 cents. Karl Rove, top White House political advisor, had a smaller $250,000 stake in Enron which, as far as I can determine, reporters have not asked him about. Nor have they quizzed Bush's economic advisor Lawrence B. Lindsey or trade representative Robert B. Zoellick, who went directly from Enron to the White House, if they are now in the ranks of the suddenly poor. Not likely.

The most important question for America's economic future should be directed to the president himself: Does he still believe in the miracle of Enron? Why, after Enron's collapse, does Bush still insist on a stimulus package that rewards high-flying executives while resisting extending unemployment insurance and medical coverage to workers thrown out of their jobs because of the mismanagement and other acts of economic stupidity by companies like Enron?

"Stupidity" is used charitably, when motives that appear more mendacious hopefully will be explored by congressional committees planning to get to the bottom of the smelly Enron mess during February hearings. Can it be a mere intelligence deficit that led Enron's ex-CEO to claim to the New York Times that he didn't know how the company came to overvalue its assets to the tune of $600 million, that he didn't know of the highly suspect investment partnerships conducted by his chief financial officer—his most trusted aide—and that he is without a clue as to the reasons behind Enron's collapse?

''We're all trying to figure out what happened,'' Skilling said. That eerily dumb if not totally disingenuous statement haunts at a time when we are all trying to figure out what happened to the recently splendid U.S. economy that has fallen into recession on Bush's watch.

Enron was Bush's model for economic progress, and Enron's Lay was the one individual consulted most closely in private meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials during development of their environment-busting plan to ''solve'' our energy problems. Bush's Enron advisors were the chief zealots in his kitchen cabinet pushing for unregulated markets combined with tax breaks for rich companies, and Enron won handsomely from the Bushes on both counts.

The idea that what's good for the super-rich is good for the economy remains Bush's economic mantra. It's a bankrupt philosophy, as witness the Enron debacle. Or, for an even more ominous example, we need look no further than the current total collapse of the dramatically deregulated economy of Argentina. Food riots in a once prosperous society are not a pretty sight.





© 2001 workingforchange.com


URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=12567”

“Birch, you're not doing your job.”

“Ha ha ha, Solitary Hiker, nobody on TT is paying any attention to Enron, just like in real life. You see, I've got the sheeple right where I want them... believing that Dubya could not possibly be an evildoer. It would be preposterous to think that Dubya - "The fighter of evil" - would actually be evil himself. As long as I have the Evil Osama as our enemy, the sheeple will never believe Dubya is evil. That's in spite of the facts that I stole the election; the strong economy falling into recession on my watch; the failure of my administration to detect and prevent the 9/11 attacks; and now my involvement with Enron. Furthermore, the sheeple don't even seem to notice that Dubya is prolonging this war in Afghanistan. You see, as long as I have Evildoers loose, the sheeple will support Dubya and keep my approval ratings at 89%. Nobody cares that my strategy of bribing Muslims with 25 million dollars to catch Osama for me is falling on deaf ears. Muslims can't be bought the same way Americans can be bought. Of course, Dubya always thought anybody could be bought, especially in American politics, but apparently not Muslims. Only Americans are greedy and evil. You may have also noticed that I'm making no concerted effort to catch Osama. If I really wanted to catch him, I would send in 50,000 soldiers. But that might actually work, and if Osama is caught, my war against EVIL is over, and then my approval ratings would go down.

Must keep the public's attention away from ENRON!”

“I considered purchasing Enron stock in early 2000. After I looked at their 10k statements, ten year track record, and other on-line information I saw it was an empty company with nothing propping it up except paper and creative accounting.

Now the question is why didn't other 'experts' see the entire company was a scam? I am just an amateur small time investor and I saw it. Kinda makes you wonder about all those Wall Street analysts, doesn't it?”

“Gordon,
Don't you know that all those Wall Street investment wizards went to Ivy League schools? That's where they teach people something that the rest of us don't get in our educations. [How to keep the suckers smiling while you give yourself a fat Xmas bonus without even beating the S&P500.]

As an example, do you remember three years ago when Long Term Capital Investment went belly up and the Federal Reserve, along with all the Wall Street major investment firms had to scramble together and find a bail-out solution for them? LTCI was run by not one, but two Nobel Prize winners in economics. They were speculating in derivatives. It is said that if LTCI had failed it would have brought down the whole market.”

“This is just like the savings+loans scandal.Thsi time tho,a lot of key operatives were in key white house positions.Takes a lot of balls to put yer head so close to the fire.It could blow up in GW's face but Osama is deflecting the heat and the media hasnt made much of it yet.”

“Am I comming or going?I don't know please make it stop....:)


Crazy Mike”

“Every day I thank my lucky stars for Osama. Thank you, thank you, thank you. For not only has Osama given my administration direction, Osama's evil overshadows my own.”

“Enron is what makes this country great.”

“Heard on C-SPAN that there will be no fewer than Five congressional commitees investigating Enron when the session starts up again.”

“Must be getting hot for Bush now. Scandal...”

“Bush's Whitewater?

slick willy only screwed Monica. w and his Enron lapdogs screwed tens of thousands.”

“Methinks this will get ugly--too bad--I just hate ugly.”

“It'll be hashed out on C-SPAN all next week, 8 pm Eastern/5 Pacific, Monday-Friday. Each night a different subject or group will be covered (at least to the extent of what is known so far)... accountants, investors, bankers, etc.”

“Didn't W's quote denying any responsibility sound just like, "I did not have sex with that woman" ?”

“I did not have sexual relations with that multinational corporation!”

“Seventy-two United States Senators and something like one-hundred and forty-four House Representatives all accepted campaign contributions from Enron. A goodly mix of fine upstanding Republicans and Democrats it was. Our ex-El Presidente, Mr. Bill himself obtained a $100,000 campaign for the DNC after he let officers of Enron ride along on Air Force Two when Clinton went to India. It was during Clinton's watch that Enron got that sweet gas/power generation deal with India that has now fallen apart.

Nothing much will come of all this. The Democrats won't want to dig too deeply les they too get snared.

DemocRat and RepubliCon politicians are taking money from all sorts of powerful multinational corporations and lobbies. These parties care nothing about what the average American thinks. They care less about what happens to Americans. That's why we have GATT, NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, (not to mention near worthless fiat money,)etc. Lucky for them that the average American doesn't even think. He has become half man, half sheep and 100 percent fool.
Face it sheeple, the system is seriously flawed. It won't be solved by voting Democrat or Republican.”

“71 Senators and 188 Reps, according to Larry Makinson from the Center for Responsive Politics.”

“It is NOT GW Bush's fault that he and most of his cabinet accepted large contributions from Enron or that they were in contact with Enron executives at least 14 times before they went bankrupt! This is a SET-UP by those rotten Clintons! BASTARDS!!”

“TRUE!

Enron is a creature of the energy deregulation movement of the clintonistas.

clintons environmental policies were so stupid he and his toadies created the energy crisis. But then again most people who call themselves environmentalists are stupid.”

“Bullsh!t.”

“Bush lost consciousness for a brief time in the White House on Sunday evening while choking on Enron. He fell from his couch and has a scrape and large bruise on his left cheekbone, plus a bruise on his lower lip, to show for his troubles. His glasses cut the side of his face.

The White House physician says the U.S. president quickly recovered from fainting after choking on Enron television reports. CNN's John King reports (January 13)



Bush was evaluated by a White House physician and cleared to travel Monday after all his vital signs were determined to have recovered from the shock of Enron revelations, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Dr. Richard Tubb, an Air Force physician, conducted the follow-up exam on the president. "Dr. Tubb checked all the vital signs and he told me all are normal and the president said he feels fine," Fleischer said.


Bush told the White House medical team Sunday he was watching the Sunday Enron news reports linking him to the scandal on the couch in his bedroom, when he fainted. Bush said he believes he lost consciousness for only a few seconds at about 5:35 p.m., because when he opened his eyes, he said, his dogs were in the same location as his last memory from being seated on the couch.

However, he told a top aide, Karen Hughes, "they were looking at me a little funny."

Bush was initially examined by a White House nurse and then by Tubb on Sunday, and ran through a series of tests that included a cardiopulmonary workup, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Tubb told reporters Bush reported an Enron accusation "did not go down right" and the doctor said it was possible a news report had lodged against a nerve and momentarily caused a decrease in the president's heart rate, causing him to faint.”

“ZAHN: Talk to us a little bit about what would cause the president to faint and what does Enron have to do with it, if anything?

GUPTA: It is actually a pretty common problem. Something that could occur when people are scared of something. Sometimes cramping in the intestines can do this. Sometimes violent coughing can do this.”

“Just a few months ago the left was accusing George Bush of inflating energy prices to enrich his energy 'Buddies.'

Now that Enron has collapsed the left is saying George Bush is responsible for causing his 'Buddies' corporation to go bankrupt.

Gas prices go up, George is to blame. Gas prices go down, George is to blame.

I don't pretend to understand the scope of the Enron debacle, but I think someone should end up in jail for this crime. I doubt George Bush is responsible, but if he is send him to jail.

We need to put him on a pretzel free diet too.”

“Well said, bacpac. From now on everything that happens will be laid at the feet of whomever is the current president.
It is a crime that the executives can walk away with millions while the workers have no recourse to a retirement that they have already paid for.”

“I sent a message to the Whitehouse encouraging "W" to resign. I think he's too connected to Enron.”

“You're right, it should be a crime for executives to walk away with money from worker's retirements, but it should also be a crime for people (politicians) to steal money from those who have made good choices in life and give to those who have made bad choices in life through the way of taxes.”