And you wondered why he was made presidentTHE GREEN BUSHES
The Family's Profiteering Goes Unobserved
By Margie Burns | February 1, 2004 (page 1/3)

Editor's note: Margie Burns is a vigorous and scholarly writer who uses the Internet to advantage, as we first saw in her exposé of Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton. Her article on the Texas-based oil company appeared in our September 15, 2003, issue. In her on-line research she finds a lot of revealing material, including corporate and government sites that most newsrooms don't seem to know exist.
Burns's subject in this issue is the scandalous nepotism being practiced within the Bush family. The Economist magazine says that "George Bush's Washington is a study in family influence." One of the few researchers of computerized government data, the Center for Public Integrity, an outstanding public-interest organization, now finds that Enron has been the president's top campaign finance patron over the course of his political career. It's former CEO, Ken Lay, is a close friend of George W. Bush.
A Texan, with a Ph.D. in English literature, Burns teaches at the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus, and is a busy freelance writer.

eil M. Bush, a younger brother of President George W. Bush, has a $60,000-a-year contract with New Bridge Strategies, a recently formed, Washington-based firm that helps generate contracts for companies seeking reconstruction business in Iraq. Although New Bridge Strategies is connected to the Bush White House in several ways, the younger Bush is an important contact point for the company.
The people who run Houston-based Crest Investment Corporation, where Neil Bush is a co-chairman with light duties for his $60,000-a-year pay, include at least one investor in Bush's educational software company called Ignite!-Learning.
Questions e-mailed to the two companies employing Neil Bush were not answered.
Ignite!-Learning will be among those companies vying for contracts dealing with Iraqi education. With Secret Service protection provided by us taxpayers, Neil Bush has already traveled to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Japan to generate interest in his education products.
Neil Bush's unbecoming contracts, including even more lucrative arrangements with a Chinese-Taiwanese company, have come to light through court papers in his scandal-ridden divorce proceedings. Court documents reveal that Bush has a consultancy contract for $400,000 a year with the Chinese-Taiwanese computer chip manufacturer Grace Semiconductor.
That contract was generated while the Bush administration negotiated with China's government on sensitive trade, armament, and human rights issues. The Neil Bush deal, however, is only the most flamboyant recent instance of how Bush relatives and associates have profited from U.S. foreign policy.
AND THE WINNERS ARE—Easily the most profiteering First Family in American history, the Bushes have consistently benefited from George W. Bush's war on terrorism and from the invasion of Iraq, as revealed in regulatory filings, business reports and company press releases.
One well-connected winner is Engineered Support Systems, based in St. Louis, where William H.T. ("Bucky") Bush, an uncle of George W. Bush, joined the board of directors in March 2000. William H.T. Bush was one the Bush "Pioneers," the campaign contributors who raised more than $100,000 in the 2000 presidential election.
Engineered Support Systems has three segments: light military support equipment, heavy military support equipment, and electronics and automation systems. Long-term contracts are "substantially all" with the U.S. government, according to the company. Since 2000, following the presidential election and the 9-11 attacks, the company's federal contracts, revenues and its stock value have all gone up.
Defense Department databases list Engineered Support Systems as 54th among its top 100 contractors for fiscal year 2001, up from 62nd in 2000. The company received over $297.5 million in military contracts in 2001, including $120.5 million from the Army.
Net revenues for the first nine months of 2002, when the company acquired two new subsidiaries in Washington's northern Virginia suburbs, increased to $289.7 million. Net revenues for the full year increased to $408 million. In 2003, according to a preliminary report, the company was 93rd among top contractors, with $273.5 million in contracts. A company subsidiary, Radian, Inc., was 197th, with $109.2 million in contracts. Welcome to Washington Spectator Online
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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Hmmm ... I wonder why the article didn't mention how Bill Clinton, who never worked a private job in his entire life, rose from a $35,000 per year Governor of a back-woods state, to a mega-millionaire?

I'm getting really sick and tired of the ultra left-wing hit pieces being produced by the radical hate mongers and their politics of hate. When will they get it thorough their pointy heads that GEORGE W. BUSH ISN'T GOING TO BE RUNNING FOR POLITICAL OFFICE EVER AGAIN?

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Mellow out, I'm not running this for you only, maybe there's someone else on this site who would be interested in what a bunch of crooks the whole Bush family is!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Ok, your point is well taken. BUT ... I wasn't aiming my comments at you either. Just commenting in general.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

here's a question for you: why are you always asking me to explain everything I post, are you really that dense or are you just harrassing me?

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Neither one, Med ... honest.

What I'm trying to do is to have you turn your thoughts inward to explore your assertions, self-evaluate them and then think along a different plane.

Please read the forward to Ayn Rand's book "Anthem" that I left for you in another post. If you study that, then you will see what I'm trying to do. As a devout Randian, I consider it a duty and an honor. (honest) ... I used to think pretty much along the same political lines that you do. I've discovered along the way that there are not two sides to the truth. I discovered that I had been lied to. I believed the lies. I believe them no more.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Vi, 40 years ago when I first read Ann Rand, I was of that opinion also, but the ensuing 40 years have changed my view of the world and it's workings! I could not achieve the successes that were alluded to in her novels, was it me being flawed or was it the system that rewards sons of influence? I never did figure it out and ended up a commoner like 98% of the populace. So for me to believe in the Ann Rand view of life has negative connotations. My views are from a long life of hard work and slim rewards. My body has paid the price and to sit at my desk typing, sends my back into massive pain attacks. I've been told by doctors that I have massive amounts of arthritus in my spine, I can't argue that as the pain is real. I'm not sniveling, just expressing my views from my perspective. Pain is a great teacher.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

I could not achieve the successes that were alluded to in her novels, was it me being flawed or was it the system that rewards sons of influence?

It was neither one, Med. Only the very talented few reach the top. Success is in the striving for greatness, no matter one's field of endeavor. Its just natural that there are those with more talent, skill, desire and opportunity. Usually, those on the top are driven to excess. They are obsessed with what they do. Believe me ... I have known a lot of very wealthy people, done business with them, hung out with them, vacationed with them ... and they all have one thing in common ... a burning desire to maximize their potential. In my estimation, they deserve their success and the wealth it brings. For me ... life is way too short. I like to smell the flowers ... especially the ones in my grow cabinet.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

I'm with ya on the flower thing!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Hi med, where do you think JFK would fit into this theme?

Seriously, this is an interesting thread.
Rand showed me that the engine of the world is better left stoked by unfettered genius and those who burn for excellence. They do us all a favor in sharing their genius!
I love Ayn Rand.

deja vu?

Wavels

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If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~