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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (271443)	7/8/2002 4:49:53 PM
From: rich4eagle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Please give me one example where I have abused the TOU? Quite the contrary I usually get called all sorts of names by your right wing buds as well you. Did you not just call me a liar a few posts back

To: greenspirit who wrote (271443)	7/8/2002 4:51:46 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush Readies Crackdown on Corporate Misconduct Mon Jul 8, 1:18 PM ET By Adam Entous WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Responding to a wave of corporate scandals that have turned his pro-business reputation into a potential liability, President Bush ( news - web sites) put the final touches on Monday on new policies to crack down on boardroom misconduct, with criminal penalties for the worst offenders. Bush will present his plan on Tuesday in a Wall Street speech aimed at restoring investor confidence shaken by accounting scandals at telecoms giant WorldCom Inc. and other once high-flying firms, which have laid off thousands of workers and seen their stock values plummet. The speech will come amid new revelations that drug company Merck & Co. recorded revenues of $12.4 billion from its pharmacy benefits subsidiary in the past three years that the unit never actually collected. Bush is under pressure to act decisively after Republican Sen. John McCain joined Democratic lawmakers in calling for the resignation of Securities and Exchange Commission ( news - web sites) Chairman Harvey Pitt, a former Wall Street lawyer with prominent clients including major accounting firms. McCain said Pitt's response to recent accounting scandals "appeared slow and tepid." With congressional hearings into the WorldCom debacle set to get under way, former Chief Executive Bernard Ebbers and former Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan told lawmakers they will refuse to testify to avoid incriminating themselves. Ebbers was appointed by Bush in July 2001 to serve on the administration's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. The White House said WorldCom has been represented on the committee since 1997, and that Ebbers, as the company's former CEO, was the automatic designee. Wrapping up a three-day Fourth of July holiday weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine, with an early morning round of golf, Bush told reporters his speech was "in pretty good shape." But he declined to reveal details as he, his father, former President George Bush, brother-in-law Bobby Koch and Cape Arundel golf pro Ken Raynor teed off at the crack of dawn. "I'm focused on 18 holes of golf," Bush said. The president was to meet his advisers when he returned to the White House later on Monday. Republican sources said the proposal would include new criminal penalties for company officers who submit intentionally misleading financial statements. Currently they can face fines and other civil penalties. By taking a harder line in public on corporate crime, the first U.S. president with a master's degree in business hoped to distance himself politically from boardroom bosses whose big donations helped finance his 2000 presidential campaign. Bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. was one of Bush's biggest contributors. POLITICAL FALLOUT In the run-up to the November congressional elections, Democrats hoped to use the corporate scandals to their political advantage, accusing Bush and his fellow Republicans of spearheading policies that reward corporate greed at the expense of workers and investors. Bush's own conduct as a businessman has been questioned since an internal Securities and Exchange Commission memo detailed his 34-week delay in reporting stock sales worth more than $1 million while serving as a director of Texas-based Harken Energy Corp. more than a decade ago. The White House is also worried about political fallout from a probe of accounting practices at Halliburton Co., the energy company that Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites) ran from 1995 to 2000. Army Secretary Thomas White is a former senior Enron executive, and other administration officials, including economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, were Enron consultants. Hoping to improve corporate America's image, the Business Roundtable launched a public relations campaign that included full-page advertisements in major newspapers declaring: "Enough is enough." The group said it would support a proposal by Maryland Sen. Paul Sarbanes to create a new oversight board for accountants, crack down on insider trading and take other steps to close regulatory loopholes. The Business Roundtable said it would also support tougher penalties for CEOs guilty of wrongdoing. "The penalties should be real, they should be severe, they should be prompt," said John Dillon, the chief executive of International Paper Co. and the chairman of the Business Roundtable. But the Democrat-leaning American Family Voices said it would counter with a television advertising campaign of its own, saying, "Bush and his economic team promising to crack down on corporate America is like letting the fox guard the henhouse." White House officials were tight-lipped about the specifics of Bush's speech, but Bush has vowed that "executives who commit fraud will face financial penalties, and, when they are guilty of criminal wrongdoing, they will face jail time." In March, Bush proposed several measures aimed at cracking down on abuses by corporate executives. But he stopped short of backing the tougher reforms advocated by lawmakers and his own treasury secretary. story.news.yahoo.com.