Questions for George W.:
In 1984, after your firm, Arbusto Energy, had fallen on hard times, you
managed to get a job as the 30-something president of Spectrum 7
Energy Corporation, the firm that purchased Arbusto. You also got
14% of the Spectrum's stock. Meanwhile, your 50 investors in
Arbusto got paid off at about 20 cents on the dollar. Is this the sort of
thing your new economic advisor, Lawrence Lindsey, was thinking of
when he said Americans had become too greedy?
Or might he have been thinking of the deal in 1986 when, after
Spectrum 7 had lost $400,000 in six months, you sold it to Harken
Energy, becoming a major Harken stockholder and receiving a good
salary as a director and consultant?
Or was it that time when you sold two-thirds of your Harken stock for
a 200% profit on June 22, 1990, just 40 days before the start of the
Gulf War and one week before the company announced a $23 million
quarterly loss, setting off a 60% drop in share price over the next six
months?
Why were you so valuable to these companies given your less than
impressive business acumen?
When you and your Harken partners ran short of cash and hooked up
with investment banker Jackson Stephens of Little Rock, Arkansas,
he got you a $25 million stock purchase by Union Bank of
Switzerland. Did you know that Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, who joined
your board as a part of the deal, was connected to BCCI? Did you
know that the United Bank was connected to BCCI (including its
operations in Panama), the Nugan Hand Bank (a notorious CIA-front
in Australia), and Ferdinand Marcos?
Did you know that it was Jackson Stephens who introduced the
players in what would turn out to be the infamous First
American-BCCI deal?
Why do your think the government of Bahrain chose Harken to drill its
offshore wells even though it had never dug overseas or in water
before? Why do you think it chose Harken, with no relevant
experience, over Amoco, with plenty of it? Did you ever discuss with
your dad Harken-Bahrain deal? Did any sheiks or other officials ever
express any concern over the failure of Harken to find any oil? Do you
think they really cared?
Tell us again why you waited almost a year past the legal deadline to
file the necessary SEC report on your Harken stock deal.
You borrowed $180,000 from Harken at a low rate. Did you ever pay it
back or was it included among that $341,000 Harken listed in SEC
documents as loaned to executives and later forgiven?
You have worked closely with a number of persons with CIA ties. Do
you think it is healthy for the country to have three presidents in a row
so closely connected with this intelligence agency?
Do you think it is healthy for the country to have three presidents in a
row who are Yale men?
Your grandfather Prescott was on the board of Brown Harriman which
helped provide some of the financing for the Soviet and Nazi regimes.
Do you think this was a wise idea?
As president would you continue this tradition in our policy towards
China?
During World War II your grandfather had property seized under the
Trading with Enemy Act. Was he pro-Nazi or just a
proto-neo-capitalist ahead of his time?
What is the American voter to make of the fact that two of your
brothers, one father, one grandfather, and one uncle have been
involved in unseemly scandals of one sort or another? How do you
distinguish your ethical code from theirs?
One of your Uncle Prescott's hot deals resulted in an early but major
transfer of sensitive technology to the Chinese government. Your
father in 1989 lifted sanctions that blocked such ventures. Do you
approve of Uncle Prescott and your father's behavior in these matters?
As president would you allow such deals to continue?
Do you approve of your uncle and father's role in what has become to
be known as the "October Surprise?"
You invested $600,000 in the Texas Rangers and later sold out for
$15 million. What did you do for the Rangers in between? How much
of this profit reflected your ability to get the city of Arlington to
condemn land for a ball park at 1/6 its true worth and then impose a
1/2 cent sales tax to subsidize your business? Is this an example of
what you meant in 1993 when you said, "The best way to allocate
resources in our society is through the marketplace. Not through a
governing elite?"
Can you name a business deal you have been in that hasn't raised
ethical questions? That has made a profit without some form of
government subsidy?
Why did you have to hire private investigators to find out what dirt
private investigators might be able to dig up on you?
Do you think that you have used more or less cocaine than, say,
Marion Barry or Bill Clinton?
Discuss this remark by Michael King in the Texas Observer:
"Although by his own admission George W. was an indifferent
student, he was nevertheless the deserving-by-both beneficiary of the
oldest most illegitimate, and most sacrosanct form of affirmative
action. . . It's business as usual."
Since you want to help "instill individual responsibility" and give
people a "future of opportunity, instead of dependence on
government," why did you and your neighbors at the exclusive Rainbo
Club development get a tax break from your government?
In what ways do such tax breaks differ from welfare benefits other
than that welfare recipients are more needy?
Do you believe that being a member of a secret society dedicated to
promoting fraternal nepotism in public office is consistent with being
president of a democracy?
If the words "skull and bones" are mentioned at a White House news
conference, will you -- as the tradition of the society demands -- feel
compelled to leave the room? |
