BASEBALL has been very, very good to Gee Duhbya.

[Octafish]

Unlike Chico Estrada, Duhbya really loves baseball. It's how the unelected moron got so rich. Behold:

Stealing Home

BY ROBERT BRYCE • THE TEXAS OBSERVER, MAY 9, 1997

George W. Bush loves baseball. And why not? After all, baseball has been very good to the governor. When it comes to power, the governor is a true triple-threat. Consider his record: (1) His initial baseball investment of $600,000 carries the current potential of a 2,500 percent return. (2) Through savvy P.R. and political maneuvering, he and his partners have persuaded a city and the state to directly subsidize a facility for their business. (3) Not content with taxpayer subsidies, he and his fellow owners have also successfully used the power of government to take land from other private citizens so it could be used for their own private purposes.

SNIP...

Briefly, here’s what happened on the Ballpark deal. Bush and his partners in the Rangers convinced Arlington officials to:

• Pass a half cent sales tax to pay for 70 percent of the stadium;

• Use the government’s powers of eminent domain to condemn land the Rangers couldn’t or didn’t want to buy on the open market;

• Give the Rangers control over what happens in and around the stadium;

• Allow the Rangers to buy the stadium (which cost $191 million to construct) for just $60 million;

Finally, after twelve years as the sole occupant and primary beneficiary of the stadium project, the Rangers, a privately owned business, can take title to the most expensive stadium ever built in Texas for the $60 million worth of rent and upkeep they will have already paid the city.

CONTINUED...

http://www.texasobserver.org/showMisc.asp?FileName=970509_f1.htm

[maxsolomon]

1. and wasn't the 600k a LOAN?

his daddy's friends basically invented bush out of whole cloth.

a useful idiot.

[Octafish]

2. Thanks for asking. Smirk used the money from the HARKEN Energy stock sale.

Using inside information, HARKEN bigwig Smirko sold what he held in HARKEN stock before the stock tanked on bad news. In the process, he made $600k and ripped off the person or entity which purchased the stock, which fell in value to about $200k. Smirko and the swells at HARKEN even pioneered ENRON-like accounting, selling off one of their assets (Aloha Petroleum) to themselves in order to make it appear like they were making some money. Bottom line: George W Bush is a crook and should be in jail.

Here's background:

Special Report: The Truth About Bush and Harken Energy Corp.

I keep hearing about George W. Bush and his dealings with a company named Harken. What was his relationship with Harken?

In 1986, Harken Energy Corporation purchased Bush's failing oil company for approximately 212,000 shares of Harken stock, then worth about $600,000. From 1986 to 1993, Bush served on Harken's board of directors. In addition to director's fees, Harken paid Bush between $80,000 and $120,000 a year as a consultant from 1986 to 1993.

That's impressive. It sounds like our MBA president was well respected in the corporate world, and Harken management recognized that.

Bush's ties to Harken were less about his abilities than about his connections. With help from his friends and family in the late 1970s, Bush formed the oil company Arbusto Energy Inc., whose name was eventually changed to Bush Exploration Co. Although this oil venture proved unprofitable, Spectrum 7 Corporation acquired it in a merger in which Bush became chief executive officer.

In 1986, when Spectrum 7 was on the brink of insolvency, Harken bought it, paying Bush and his partners roughly $2 million in Harken stock — Bush's portion being the 212,000 Harken shares. Spectrum 7 had reported losses of $400,000 in the six months preceding the sale and was more than $3 million in debt. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Bush's name and connections were the main reasons Harken was willing to offer so much to purchase the otherwise ruined Spectrum 7 and pay impressive director's and consultant's fees to someone who had yet to launch a successful business venture.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thetruthaboutgeorge.com/special/harken.html

[opihimoimoi]

3. IN Addition, Bush made millions hawking signed Baseballs by Sosa

[Octafish]

4. Wow! I didn't know Gee Duhbya HAD any balls!

Doesn't change anything, though. Bush is still a crook.

From www.HawaiiStories.com:

Bush's Aloha Connection

A couple of weeks ago, President Bush called the WorldCom scandal — the latest case of big business malfeasance, following Enron, Xerox and others — "outrageous." Today he's giving a speech on Wall Street in which he's expected to call for a crackdown.

His cries for corporate responsibility are ringing hollow for some, though, as a 1989 Bush business deal makes its way into the headlines. It involves a Texas company called Harken Energy, and a little subsidiary named Aloha Petroleum.

Aloha Petroleum, ostensibly a "kama'aina company," is turning up in the Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, and on CNN. Why? For many, it's Exhibit A in proving that Bush opposes fudging the numbers, except when it works in his favor.

Here's how it worked. Harken Energy had just bought out George W. Bush's failing oil company, likely more for his name and connections than its assets. Haken's own numbers weren't all that rosy, either, however. So a group of Haken insiders created a phony company — funded through a Haken loan — to turn around and "buy" Haken's little Aloha Petroleum at an exorbitantly high price. This sale, essentially to itself, let Haken claim a $10 million "phantom profit," balancing its books quite nicely.

Of course, the SEC was watching, and Haken could only play the shell game for so long. But weeks before Harken announced it had lost $23 million (and Haken's stock plummeted), Bush just happened to unload 212,000 shares of inflated Haken stock for over $848,000.

CONTINUED...

http://www.hawaiistories.com/archives/004708.shtml

[VolcanoJen]

5. And the Red Sox are being very, very good to John Kerry.

Funny, innit? Baseball was strictly Bush territory until the Red Sox suprised us all this autumn. :D

[Octafish]

6. Good news! It is good news!

My fingers, bats and socks are crossed - from now until...

You know this, VolcanoJen, but perhaps newer DUers and our friendly visitors may not have heard: Bush is a CROOK!

Bush and Harken

by Jason Leopold

EXCERPT...

Bruce Hiler, the associate director of the SEC's enforcement division, who wrote a letter to Bush's attorney saying the investigation was being terminated, now represents former Enron president Jeff Skilling in matters before the government. Richard Breeden, the SEC chairman at the time, was deputy counsel to Bush's father when he was Vice President and was appointed SEC chairman when H.W. Bush became President. James Doty, the SEC's general counsel at the time, helped W. Bush negotiate the contract to buy the Texas Rangers. Bush used the proceeds of his sale of Harken stock in 1990 to pay off a loan he took out for a minority stake in the baseball team. Doty has said that he recused himself from the SEC's two-year probe into Bush's sale of Harken stock.

For President Bush, this is the fourth time in a decade he has been forced to answer questions about his business experience. And he still refuses to be forthcoming. Members of Congress are calling for Harvey Pitt, chairman of the SEC, to release all files related to Bush's Harken Energy days, but Pitt said on Meet the Press that he considers Bush's Harken transactions a dead issue and therefore he will not publicly release the files.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020722&s=leopold20020718