Difference between revisions of "George Walker Bush"

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===SourceWatch Articles About Bush and the [[Bush administration]]===
 
===SourceWatch Articles About Bush and the [[Bush administration]]===
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*[[Bush administration financial misconduct and lack of accountability]]

Revision as of 22:54, 5 February 2006

George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut. Bush spent some childhood in Midland and Houston, Texas. George W. Bush was sworn into office as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20, 2001[1], with a minority of the popular vote, after a contested election debacle which was reviewed up through the Supreme Court. A detailed timeline of events notes that on 13 December 2000, the President-elect pledged in his acceptance speech "to deliver reconciliation and unity to a divided nation." The pledge was not fulfilled. In fact, what occurred was very much the opposite of what was pledged. He gained a second term in November 2004 by what evidence indicates to be another manipulated and flawed election process.

Education and business career

Bush *In 1982, Philip Uzielli worked out a deal with George W. to purchase a 10 percent stake in Arbusto for $1 million. The entire company was valued at less than $400,000.

  • In February 1984, George W. agreed to a merger of Bush Energy (formerly Arbusto) with an oil exploration company called Spectrum 7 in which William DeWitt Jr. and Mercer Reynolds III would each control 20.1 percent and George W. would own 16.3 percent. George W. was named chairman and CEO of Spectrum 7, which brought him an annual salary of $75,000. [Harper's Magazine, February 2000.]
  • "In a six-month period in 1986, Spectrum 7 lost $400,000 and owed more than $3 million with no hope of paying those debts off."
  • In September 1986, a New York lawyer, Alan Quasha, owner of Harken Energy Corporation, "agreed to acquire Spectrum 7 in a deal that handed over one share of publicly traded stock for five shares of Spectrum 7, which at the time were practically worthless." [WP, July 30, 1999.] "After the acquisition, George W. was named to the Harken board of directors. He was given $600,000 worth of Harken stock options and landed a job as a consultant that paid him $120,000 a year."

"After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, he assembled the group of partners [2] that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989."[3]

"He served as managing general partner of the Texas Rangers until he was elected Governor on November 8, 1994, with 53.5 percent of the vote. He became the first Governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive four-year terms when he was re-elected on November 3, 1998, with 68.6 percent of the vote."[4] Texas Governor: January, 1995-January, 2001.

Bush married Laura Welch, a "former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna."[5]

The wastrel son

18 May 2004: "The Wastrel Son" by Paul Krugman, New York Times Op-Ed:

"He was a stock character in 19th-century fiction: the wastrel son who runs up gambling debts in the belief that his wealthy family, concerned for its prestige, will have no choice but to pay off his creditors. In the novels such characters always come to a bad end. Either they bring ruin to their families, or they eventually find themselves disowned.

"George Bush reminds me of those characters and not just because of his early career, in which friends of the family repeatedly bailed out his failing business ventures. Now that he sits in the White House, he's still counting on other people to settle his debts not to protect the reputation of his family, but to protect the reputation of the country."

"As long as political figures aren't willing to disown Mr. Bush's debt the impossible situation in which he has placed America's soldiers there isn't much they can do.

"So how will it all end? The cries of 'stay the course' [in Iraq] are getting fainter, while the calls for a quick exit are growing. In other words, it seems increasingly likely that the nation will end up disowning Mr. Bush and his debts.

"That will mean settling for an outcome in Iraq that, however we spin it, will look a lot like defeat -- and the nation's prestige will be damaged by that outcome. But lost prestige is better than ruin."

The 13 April 2004 news conference

13 April 2004 News conference

"I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet."

George W. Bush and the American constitution

11 March 2004: Syndicated columnist Marianna Means writes that "Bush loves to tinker with [the]Constitution."

"When President Bush called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex weddings, he warned that such a radical step was essential to 'prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever.'
"It was, he said, 'a serious matter of national concern.'
"What he didn't say is that his proposal is meaningless. It isn't going to happen. There is no supermajority in Congress for mauling our most fundamental governmental document to permanently discriminate against a specific group. (Constitutional amendments require approval by two-thirds of those present in both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states.)
"Bush also didn't say that this is the seventh amendment he has embraced, reflecting breathtaking contempt for the principles embodied in the work of our Founding Fathers."


White House hospitality and George W. Bush

10 March 2004: Remember the Clinton administration "Lincoln Bedroom for sale" smear? Well, Sharon Theimer, writing for the AP, says that "Bush Fund-Raisers Among Overnight Guests" at both the White House and Camp David:

"In all, Bush and first lady Laura Bush have invited at least 270 people to stay at the White House and at least the same number to overnight at the Camp David retreat since moving to Washington in January 2001, according to lists the White House provided The Associated Press.
"Some guests spent a night in the Lincoln Bedroom, historic quarters that gained new fame in the Clinton administration amid allegations that Democrats rewarded major donors like Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand with accommodations there."
"Bush's overnight guest roster is virtually free of celebrities - pro golfer Ben Crenshaw is the biggest name - but not of campaign supporters.
  • "Mercer Reynolds, an Ohio financier, former Bush partner in the Texas Rangers baseball team and former ambassador to Switzerland. Reynolds is leading Bush's campaign fund-raising effort. He was a guest at the White House and the Camp David retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.
  • "Brad Freeman, a venture capitalist who is leading Bush's California fund-raising effort, has raised at least $200,000 for his re-election campaign and is also a major Republican Party fund-raiser. Freeman stayed at the White House.
  • "Roland Betts, who raised at least $100,000 for Bush in 2000, was a Bush fraternity brother at Yale and a Texas Rangers partner. Betts stayed at the White House and Camp David.
  • "William DeWitt, a Bush partner in the oil business and Texas Rangers who has raised at least $200,000 for Bush's re-election effort, stayed at the White House.
  • "James Francis, who headed the Bush campaign's 2000 team of $100,000-and-up volunteer fund-raisers and was a Bush appointee in Texas when Bush was governor. Francis was a White House guest.
  • "Joseph O'Neill, an oilman and childhood friend who introduced Bush to Laura Bush and raised at least $100,000 for each of Bush's presidential campaigns, stayed at the White House.
  • "Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and New York Gov. George Pataki, who each raised at least $200,000 for Bush's re-election campaign, were White House guests.
  • "James Langdon, who raised at least $100,000 for Bush, is a Washington attorney specializing in international oil and gas transactions. Langdon, whose clients include the Russian oil company LUKOIL, is a member of Bush's foreign intelligence advisory board and served on Bush's 2000 presidential transition team on energy policy."

George W. Bush's lack of 'speed and smarts'

22 November 1999: "Is George W. Really Ready? A leader with a gentleman's C may no longer cut it in a world where speed and smarts rule" by Jonathan Alter, Newsweek Vol. 134 Issue 21, p47:

". . . Bush wouldn't have to worry so much about performance if he had a compelling life story to give him gravitas. Unfortunately for him, he's had the least eventful personal history of any major political figure in modern memory. Until his 1994 election as governor of Texas, Dubya lived deep in his father's shadow. President Bush was an academic and athletic star at Andover and Yale, a war hero and successful oilman. George W. was an academic slacker at the same schools, a mediocre athlete, a member of the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War and an unsuccessful oilman. Before politics, he was probably best known for the nicknames he attached to people--a hipper and more sarcastic version of the Saturday Night Live character who gives everyone he meets a name while 'makin' copies.' . . ."

Style Characterization

"A conservative, authoritarian style, with public appearances in military uniform (which no previous American president has ever done while in office). Government by secrecy, propaganda and deception. Open assaults on labor unions and workers' rights. Preemptive war and militant nationalism. Contempt for international law and treaties. A carefully manufactured image of "The Leader," who's still just a "regular guy" and a "moderate." "Freedom" as the rationale for every action. Fantasy economic growth, based on unprecedented budget deficits and massive military spending." Source: original / archive.

"Forget 'compassionate conservatism.' While you're at it, toss the 'reformer with results.' Education, taxes, welfare reform -- none of those things really matter. For George W. Bush, one issue matters: loyalty. You're with him or you're not. There's no in-between. It's a lesson that he learned from his mother, Barbara, a fiercely territorial woman who never forgets a slight, and from his father, former president George H.W. Bush. George W. has been fiercely protective of his father, and he believes part of the reason his father served only one term in the White House was the lack of loyalty among his staff members. During the elder Bush's four years as president, W. became his loyalty Doberman. It was George W. who sifted through his father's staffers, demanding that they either commit fully to their father or get the hell out. It was George W. who fired his father's White House chief of staff, John Sununu. The abrasive Sununu, George W. believed, simply didn't have his father's best interests at heart." Robert Bryce, Austin Chronicle, March 20, 2000.

Sister died at a very young age as a small child

SourceWatch Resources

Articles on George W. Bush

SourceWatch Articles About Bush and the Bush administration

Bush Family Members


External Links

Directories

Biography and Background

Presidential Data

News Articles

Web Sites Calling for Bush's Impeachment

  • The Four Reasons, The Four Reasons why "We the People" must uphold the Constitution of The United States of America and hold those who violate it accountable.
  • Impeach Central, a grassroots movement to publicize the crimes of Bush and to petition Congress to begin investigations leading to impeachment.
  • Impeach Bush meetup has monthly meetings to organize Impeach Central activities.
  • Francis Boyle, Impeach Bush Now and other articles on Conspiracy Planet.
  • VoteToImpeach Campaign initiated by Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States, a non-partisan grassroots campaign to convince Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings.
  • ImpeachNow.org, The National Coalition to Impeach Bush & Cheney.

Less-Than-Flattering Articles and Web Sites

Less-Than-Flattering Videos

Bush Family

  • David G. Armstrong, Sins of the Fathers, The Austin Chronicle, April 10, 1992 (pp. 14, 16): "...in 1934, a shipping line established at the end of World War I in a deal arranged for Brown Brothers, Harriman by Prescott Bush's partner and father-in-law, G.H. Walker, was found by Congress to be subsidizing 'a wide range of pro-Nazi propaganda efforts both in Germany and the United States.'"
  • 17 October 2003: "Bush Ancestor's Bank Seized by Gov't" by Jonathan D. Salant, AP: "President Bush's grandfather [Prescott Sheldon Bush] was a director of a bank (Union Banking Corp.) seized by the federal government because of its ties to a German industrialist (Fritz Thyssen) who helped bankroll Adolf Hitler's rise to power, government documents show. ... The new documents were first reported by freelance writer John Buchanan in The New Hampshire Gazette."

Recommended Reading

  • 50 Ways You Can Show George the Door in 2004 by Ben Cohen & Jason Salzman (Westview Press, ISBN 0-8133-4282-1).
  • Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate by Robert Bryce (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-188-6).
  • The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney (Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-04675-4).
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