Ah, those greedy politicians . . . . . .

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc


Oh, and Bush became an officer at Harken energy when they bought his company. He was on the audit committee - yet he claims he was clueless about whether the stock would drop...

You're having difficulty believing that Bushbaby could be clueless ?


You jest, sirrah !

[Dinner]

Insider trading seems to be all the rage among Republicans these days. Even Delay and Frisk are getting into the act.

[MosesPresley]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
So if Martha Stewart gets jail time for her little stunt, I imagine we can see Sen. Frist going to prison for a couple of years at least, right?

No need to go after anyone else on this matter. We have punished Martha and the example has been set.

[Zkribbler]

Dammit molly bloom , that's an insult to Alfred E. Newman!!

[Sava]

Originally posted by MrFun


This post leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

It gets worse MrFun...

with the money he made from that insider trading, Bush payed off a loan he took out to buy a minority stake in the Texas Rangers.

It gets more sickening...

In 1991, the City of Arlington, Texas, spent $150,000 on a slick ad campaign to propose raising sales taxes to fund a $200 million stadium for the Texas Rangers.

And the lease deal was a wonderful piece of Texas taxpayer rapage if there ever was one. The rent that the Texas Ranger's owners (Bush included) paid on the stadium, went towards the purchase price on the stadium. And when the owners eventually bought the stadium, they paid... $60 million dollars...

that's right... they got the taxpayers to build them a $200 million stadium, then paid $60 million dollars for it

and it didn't end there...

But Bush and his partners weren't satisfied lining their pockets with average Texans' hard-earned cash. They wanted land around the stadium to further boost its value. To that end, they orchestrated a land grab that shortchanged local landowners by several million dollars.

As part of the deal, the city created a separate corporation, the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority, to manage construction. Using authority granted to it by the city, the ASFDA seized several tracts of land around the stadium site for parking and future development.

Puppet for Bush, Partners

While on paper the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority was a public entity, in practice it was merely a puppet for Bush and his partners. According to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, the owners would identify the land they wanted to acquire. A Rangers owner, Mike Reilly, a Realtor, would then offer to buy the parcels for prices he set, which in several cases were well below what the owners believed their property was worth. If the landowners refused to sell to the Rangers at the offered price, the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority could take possession of their land and leave the price to be determined in court.

Several of the landowners took the authority to court over the seizures and won settlements totaling $11 million. In a final insult to taxpayers, the Rangers resisted paying the settlements, trying to pass off yet another cost to Arlington residents. (The Rangers, under new ownership, finally agreed to pay up last year.)

When confronted with the seamy details of the land grab, Bush professed ignorance. But Schieffer, the team's former president, has testified that he kept Bush aware of the land transfers. In October 1990, Bush also let this slip to a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "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."

It was a strategy that would have an enormous payoff for Bush personally.

After he became governor of Texas, Bush put his all of his assets into a blind trust, with one notable exception: his stake in the Rangers. Schieffer kept Bush apprised of the owner's efforts to sell the team to Thomas O. Hicks, the chairman of Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst, Inc., a firm that specializes in leveraged buyouts and until recently owned AMFM, Inc., the nation's largest chain of radio stations. Hicks and employees of his companies are Bush�s No. 4 career patron, having given him at least $290,400.

25-Fold Return on Investment

In 1998, Hicks helped provide Bush with an even greater windfall. He bought the Texas Rangers for $250 million, three times what Bush and his partners had paid ten years earlier. The new stadium and the real estate around it greatly boosted the final sale price. And, since his partners had upped Bush's stake in the team from 1.8 to 11.8 percent, his cut from the proceeds of the sale was $14.9 million, a twenty-five-fold return on his investment of $606,302. Rainwater, who had put far more money into the team than Bush, made $25 million.

Just as important as the cash, however, was the cachet that came with the deal's success. The Ballpark at Arlington finally opened in April 1994, just as Bush was running for governor. He touted the new stadium as a win-win proposition for taxpayers and the team. "Am I going to benefit off it financially?" he asked reporters. He answered his own question: "I hope so." Four years later, everyone would know by how much.

from http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/2675

it's absolutely sickening

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Just a bad taste in your mouth? Shouldn't you be enraged?

I guess I made a bad understatement that betrayed the extent of how I really feel about this.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Sava


It gets worse MrFun...

with the money he made from that insider trading, Bush payed off a loan he took out to buy a minority stake in the Texas Rangers.

It gets more sickening...

In 1991, the City of Arlington, Texas, spent $150,000 on a slick ad campaign to propose raising sales taxes to fund a $200 million stadium for the Texas Rangers.

And the lease deal was a wonderful piece of Texas taxpayer rapage if there ever was one. The rent that the Texas Ranger's owners (Bush included) paid on the stadium, went towards the purchase price on the stadium. And when the owners eventually bought the stadium, they paid... $60 million dollars...

that's right... they got the taxpayers to build them a $200 million stadium, then paid $60 million dollars for it

and it didn't end there...

lovely

[Spiffor]

It just proves that Bush can have successful economic ventures

[Q Classic]

Bush






Bush, the president.

[Az]

Bush
Shaven Heaven
Brazilian Runway

[Spiffor]

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Just a bad taste in your mouth? Shouldn't you be enraged?

I suspect MrFun is used to having a bad taste in his mouth from time to time.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


I suspect MrFun is used to having a bad taste in his mouth from time to time.

That is cold coming from you.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Getting enraged about that sort of thing would be like getting enraged about political repression in the PRC - unbearably tiring.

so true

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Joseph
That is cold coming from you.

No, coming from me, it's just cattyness.

If it were to come from you, it'd be a slur.

Get these things right, dammit!