Bush League: Poppy & Smirko star in the World Series instead of rot inside prison where they belong.

[Octafish]

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver probably won't bring this up when the pretzeldents Bush throw out the first pitch at Arlington Stadium before today's World Series game:

The crazy moron made some big bucks by fronting the Texas Rangers, which he found the money to buy into by dumping his HARKEN shares on inside information just before the bottom fell out on the stock. No wonder it was nine months before the corporate director got around reporting it to the SEC. Here's the story, from a real journalist...

Bush built success on Harken sale

The struggling oil company served as a launching pad for the president's role in Major League Baseball which, in turn, spurred his successful political career.

By ROBERT TRIGAUX, Times Business Columnist
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 21, 2002

The struggling oil company served as a launching pad for the president's role in Major League Baseball which, in turn, spurred his successful political career.

Twelve years and 30 days ago, George W. Bush sold most of his stock in Harken Energy Corp. Now the echoes of that deal are undermining his campaign to rein in corporate wrongdoers, calm investors and revive plummeting stock markets.

The basics of Bush's entanglement with the Dallas oil exploration company can be told in three paragraphs:

In 1986, Bush joined the board of Harken when the struggling oil exploration company bought out another money-losing oil company that had, in turn, bought his troubled Bush Exploration Oil Co.

Bush was paid in Harken stock, consulting fees, discounted stock options and low-interest-rate loans by the company. In June 1990, a fateful month for Bush, he sold more than 200,000 Harken shares for nearly $850,000. But he neglected to file a required form with the Securities and Exchange Commission until eight months later.

When Harken soon reported an unexpectedly big loss and Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, company shares plummeted from $4 to as low as $1.25 before the year was out.

That's when those questions -- the same critical ones being asked this summer -- began to arise.

SNIP...

Why did Bush sign off on the same type of loss-hiding accounting that ruined Enron and WorldCom? Bush was a director in 1989 when Harken booked a cash gain after selling its Aloha Petroleum subsidiary to insiders who used money borrowed from Harken. That deal caught the eye of the SEC, which in 1991 forced the company to restate its earnings and show a big loss for 1989.

CONTINUED...

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/21/news_pf/Worldandnation/Bush_built_success_on.shtml

This is one of those stories that should've been picked up and spread by AP, among others. Instead, it's pretty much gone down the Memory Hole. Thank Moon for the St. Petersburg Times and DU.

[dkf]

1. Just one more reason to cheer on the Giants!

Go Giants!

[Octafish]

7. Guess who was in tight with the Mets?

George Herbert Walker.

Nothing against Rangers or Giants fans. It's the ownership class struggle thing.

[Bozita]

2. K&R for inside traders!

[Octafish]

8. Inside like nobody's business...

Guy was born on third base with a silver boot in his mouth.

A Brief History of Bush, Harken and the SEC

By John Dunbar

WASHINGTON, October 16, 2002 — In 1976, George W. Bush was a freshly minted graduate of the Harvard Business School looking for a job.

He had $20,000 left over from his education trust fund, a well-known last name and some great connections. He decided to follow in his father's footsteps by getting into the oil business, and moved back to his childhood home of Midland, Texas.

SNIP...

That same month, under Harken's Non-qualified Incentive Plan, Bush acquired options for 80,000 shares of the company's stock at a cost of $96,000, or $1.20 a share.

Backed by Harvard and two other large institutional investors, Harken continued to expand. Total revenue in 1986 had been $4 million - by 1989, it had eclipsed $1.1 billion.

Still in politics

In June, 1987, Bush went to work full time for his father's campaign for the presidency in his Washington, DC office. According to Harken's proxy statement from the period, the company continued to pay Bush his consulting fee while he worked full time for his father. He regularly flew back to Texas or to New York to attend Harken board meetings; the trips were paid for by his father's campaign, and reimbursed by Harken, according to documents.

In December 1988, after his father won the election, Harken's board gave Bush an option to buy 25,000 shares of Harken stock. Bush exercised the option immediately with the help of a low interest loan from the company. (Such loans were criticized in 2002 when the Bush administration launched its plan to reform corporate governance.)

The next year proved to be a financial turning point for Harken. The company had a petroleum commodities trading subsidiary and in 1989, suffered $17 million in losses, according to one report.

CONTINUED...

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/402/

* Full disclosure: The Open Society Institute, which was founded by George Soros, is a funder of the Center for Public Integrity.

Wonder what the score would be on an even playing field?

[Bozita]

9. I really meant "inside traitors" but that would be more about Prescott Bush.

[Bozita]

11. ooops, I almost forgot about the Valerie Plame thingie. That was treason, wasn't it?

GWB was both an inside trader and inside traitor.

[Octafish]

30. Sure was. But it's OK if you're a rich Repuglian.

Because there's big money to be made in treason for EVERYBODY*.

Everybody who's Anybody, anyway.

[Octafish]

16. Prescott Bush enjoyed golf, among other things.

Prescott Sheldon Bush, Sr. headed the USGA.

Walker Cup was named after George Herbert Walker, his father in law.

[saigon68]

3. "Bring Em On" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Octafish]

10. Bush Violated Security Laws Four Times, SEC Report Says

Smirko would never BREAK the law. VIOLATE the law is the term they use. The AWOL so-and-so did:

Bush Violated Security Laws Four Times, SEC Report Says

By Knut Royce | October 04, 2000
Center for Public Integrity

WASHINGTON, October 4, 2000 — George W. Bush violated federal securities laws at least four times when he was a director of a Texas oil firm in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to an internal government report.

The document was prepared by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1991 during its well-publicized investigation into whether Bush had benefited from insider information when he sold Harken Energy Corp. stock before its value plummeted, and then failed to promptly report the transaction to the SEC in violation of federal law. Bush’s stake in Harken helped make him a multimillionaire.

The internal SEC memorandum, prepared by the commissions enforcement division and obtained by The Public i from sources, discloses what was previously not known—that Bush also had been tardy in reporting three other transactions involving stock in Harken, on whose board he sat as director.

SNIP...

The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 requires company insiders to disclose publicly, in a report called a Form 4, all stock purchases and sales by the 10th day of the month following the transaction.

A former SEC official who asked not to be further identified said that he could recall at least one instance—involving the late stock manipulator Alexander Guterma, who began a three-year prison term in 1960 for a variety of securities offenses — where a prison sentence was imposed for failure to report a transaction. More commonly, he said, the SEC has obtained court injunctions barring frequent violators from repeating the offense. But he said that instances of insiders filing late disclosures were “fairly common” and that the SEC, with a limited staff, seldom pursued those cases.

CONTINUED...

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/449/?utm_source=publicintegrity&utm_medium=related_heds&utm_campaign=side_v1

Dan Rather coulda and shoulda played it straight.

[lpbk2713]

4. If the game goes in to extra innings they'll need a wheel barrow to get him out of there.

[Octafish]

17. Remember when he argued with the voice in his ear or his head during the debate?

"Let me finish!

Wastrel's never play fair and square.

[lpbk2713]

28. One thing about Smirky, he remains consistent.

He was a chronic liar then and he is a chronic liar to this day.

[JackRiddler]

5. This is why I'm loving what the Giants have been doing.

Game 4 could be the sweep!

[Cirque du So-What]

6. I'm usually the least-interested-in-sports guy on the planet

but today I am a Giants fan.

[JackRiddler]

13. Today, we are all Giants fans!

[Mudoria]

22. No we aren't

[JackRiddler]

24. Splitters!

[tammywammy]

23. I'm not.

:shrug:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. K & R

They hate us for our memories ;)

[Octafish]

29. Funny you should bring that up...

Something we like to remember: Bush Lied Before 9-11, During 9-11, and After 9-11.

Thank you for having the memory you have and the memories you make, my Friend.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

32. We're in this together.

Be well. :pals:

[Rex]

14. If only Obama had the moral fortitude to start a formal investigation

into warcrimes...it will NEVER HAPPEN, because it would hold responsible the VERY PEOPLE that caused the downfall of America. And that can't happen, the owners get away with everything the ever want to. That is how our govt is set up and how major corporations 'play ball' with the social elite in this country.

Well they won't rot in jail, BUT I am very much hoping there is a Hell so they can rot there for all eternity!

[Bozita]

15. Amen!

[Octafish]

34. Investigate the lies that led to war, too.

Along with impeachment, that must've been taken off the table.

Going by the way they lead their lives, they each must dread that day when they have to account for their existence.

[dancingme]

18. W and Laura don't look like a happy couple

now that they don't have to pretend.

[Octafish]

35. Always felt sorry for her.

Pickles reminds me of the woman who's being held under threat of great bodily harm if she tries to speak up at the restaurant or tries to break away at the highway rest stop.

Remember her former sister-in-law? Sharon, wife of Neil, said she was told she should not walk down a dark alley if she talked about life Amerika's first family of political dynasties.

[UTUSN]

19. K&R #7 for, ONLY #7?!1 Every thread by Octafish is brilliantly dead-on!1

Shrub sure looks like what a cat drug in (poor, semi-pun "drug" INTENDED!1). GO, GIANTS!1

[Bozita]

20. It's down to 6.

[Octafish]

27. Wonder if it's something I wrote?

For instance, some people don't agree with me when I bring up former FBI Agent Don Adams, who recently said: "Oswald Didn't Kill Kennedy." That's something most people, especially citizens of the United States should know. Why the FBI doesn't follow up on his important report is another story missed by the lamestream press corpse.

[w8liftinglady]

21. Now,folks...please let the Rangers win tonight(they'll have cool fireworks)

I am three blocks from there...tomorrow,I could care less

[Bozita]

25. Only if the fireworks are set off under the Bushco seats

[BeFree]

31. that would be fun!

[Solly Mack]

26. k/r

[Octafish]

33. Like warmonger crook father, like warmonger dim son.

Bushes have lied America into illegal, immoral and unnecessary wars.

Father.

Son.

And Grampa, too.

For some reason, they really love oil.

[flvegan]

36. If only there was *something* our Dem-led Congress could do to change that.

Hmmmmm...oh yeah, I forgot that shipment of spines never arrived.

[Octafish]

37. It's like a nuclear armed Mafia were threatening them should they lift a finger in opposition.

Is there a better explanation for the criminal dereliction of duty by Congress and the Executive, unless they are under threat by the scions of the Military Industrial Complex?

[flvegan]

38. You know, that's probably my favorite post of yours.

I think you're really onto something there.

[EFerrari]

39. Too bad they didn't work in Iraq or Afghanistan.

They'd be landscaping by now.