Login Here...This is not the first time the State Board of Administration has had to explain unusual investment losses. After the collapse of Enron in 2002, it came to light that the state pension fund had acquired big blocks of Enron stock just as other investors were dumping it. The fund lost $280 million.
Coleman Stipanovich, then the board’s deputy executive director, blamed an outside investment adviser, Alliance Capital Management. “We didn’t understand why they were buying it,” he told a Congressional hearing. “Even my mother was watching on TV and knew about Enron.”
Now angry depositors are asking much the same questions about Mr. Stipanovich, who was promoted to executive director in 2002 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush, and who worked closely with Lehman Brothers, the firm that sold Florida more of the subprime-tainted securities than any other firm.
Some of the purchases were in July and August, after the risks of subprime-mortgage related securities were widely known and most investors were shunning them. The timing of Florida’s purchases was first reported by Bloomberg News Service.
Mr. Stipanovich resigned on Dec. 4 and has declined to discuss his decisions.
Some local officials said in interviews that they were also eager to learn what role Mr. Bush might have played. A month after finishing his second term as governor last January, he formed a consulting firm, which in June was engaged by Lehman Brothers. Mr. Bush also sits on the board of Lehman Brothers’s private equity unit.
Spokesmen for Mr. Bush and Lehman Brothers said Mr. Bush’s consulting work had nothing to do with the sales of the securities to the Florida investment pool.
"No crony left behind," eh, Jebbie? Can you say conflict of interest? Because, apparently, Jeb Bush didn't bother...guess it runs in the family.
(H/T to John Anderson, who discussed this with me a bit via e-mail. Can you say "Follow The Money?" Above YouTube is The Kinks performing "A Well Respected Man" live.)
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‘allo…
Ooooooooh….Christy!!! Don’t drop this story, because I heard his name floated for the Repubs the other day….
Preempt this crappola.
A month after finishing his second term as governor last January, he formed a consulting firm, which in June was engaged by Lehman Brothers. Mr. Bush also sits on the board of Lehman Brothers’s private equity unit.
It’s not *what* you know…
Bush Family.
Securities.
Other Peoples Money.
Who could have predicted…
Hi and Happy New Year, Christy!
Whatever value Jeb Bush brings to Lehman Brothers Private Equity, it wasn’t anything he learned on the job.
We need to lock up all the Bushes and throw away the key.
Teddy — It’s amazing how often their bad pennies keep turning up in some scam the public fundage story, isn’t it?
Oh I don’t know. I’d kinda like seeing em on the street as organ grinders with the monkey & the cup.
Saweeeetttt!!
Jeb for 2008!
After HRC for 2008-2001.
I agree. I had been afraid that once Jeb was finished here in Forida, Uncle Dick would have more heart trouble and Jeb would then become W’s impeachment insurance. Pelosi took that necessity off the table.
Trust me, Jeb is much more dangerous.
Correction: Jeb for 2012!
No bush has ever met an interest they couldn’t conflict with.
We need to lock up all the Bushes and throw away the key.
Babs first, ok?
Just feels right.
This is the legacy of the children of Bush 41. Neil did Silverado and the S&L crisis in the 80s. Now, Jeb. And, we all know about George. This be what these boys been bred to.
Neil Bush of Silverado S&L scam noteriety: it’s a crime family tradition to do white collar crime. May they have family training classes at Kennebunkport.
Keep your eye on Marvin, on whom there’s no dirt at all. Clearly, the black sheep of the family, and a dead-ringer for the milkman.
Hi Jane.
Are there any Bushes who are not filthy?
Perhaps, but not in this or the next cycle. That name is toast, and it’ll take the Goopers some time to “cleanse” it…
tbsa:
I like that a lot.
Happy New Year, Christy and the Lake! Will any Bush ever see prison bars? It’s truly astonishing what they’ve gotten away with…
Let’s not be sexist. Let’s trash talk his sister too. Doro is it?
Keep your eye on Marvin, on whom there’s no dirt at all.
Wasn’t he the one in charge of security for the WTC buildings?
Oh Christy. My deep apologies. Mods, please change my #18 to “HI CHRISTY”.
That Edwards ad from earlier is one of the more memorable I’ve ever seen.
http://firedoglake.com/2008/01.....p-what-if/
That ad will certainly help Edwards in the final stretch. Hope it’s enough!
I am so sick of crooks.
jayt,
Are conspriracy theories permitted here?
OT–CNN now has Bhutto’s report that she was going to hand over to Arlen Specter and Patrick Kennedy the day she died.
Ninety percent of the equipment that the USA gave the government of Pakistan to fight terrorism is being used to monitor and to keep a check on their political opponents,” the report says.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/.....index.html
Now where do you suppose Mushy could have goten the idea for that?
White collar crimes are safer less or no time. Much bigger paydays. The bushes have the money noses just follow the money and they are somewhere nearby. Letting the SEC be run by industry is a great way to enlarge your white collar gang every one dets to steal from america.
the bush regime will continue to steal and pillage from the Americans
until they are brought to the bar of justice and jailed for their crimes
what the frig does it take?
The good part is that these assclowns have gotten a lot of name recognition now, that makes it harder for them to hide this kind of shit.
They are used to pulling their scams in the dark.
Are conspriracy theories permitted here?
lol. Bringing up 9-11 tends to go over like a…, well - not so much.
Let us not forget Neil Bush. He not only ripped off Savings and Loans for millions of dollars. He also produces defective educational software, to sell to the government. Neil may be getting some of the Iraq no-bid contracts.
Nei is also the sex machine of the family.
We are really dealing with a crime family. Starting with Prescott, arms dealer to the Nazis? Or does it go back further than that?
We are talking about the sitting Governor in a state where voting irregularities took place — voting irregularities that benefited the Governor’s *brother* running for President.
If that didn’t raise any eyebrows, why should this?
Everyone here has a good heart.
Those in power don’t.
The thought that all we have to do is sit around and sing Kum Bayah is a fantasy.
I guess it was unusual — his big brother George always told him about Jimmy-Jeff Gannon showing up at the door unannounced. And Victor Ashe.
Did I mention the “throw away the key” part of my proposal?
Great topic, Christy -
This all goes under the broad heading of insider trading in which you know something the general public doesn’t know because you have a “conflict of interest”. My, my. How rich one becomes when you leave out “conflict of interest”. Daddy Bush did some insider trading also at the collapse of the dot.com. He knew members on the board of the company. I think he walked away with a pocket full of hot change to the tune of a cool fourteen mil. He got to keep it. Martha Stewart got investigated.
Do you have a cream pie throwing part, too? Please? Anytime, 24/7 — better treatment than Gitmo.
Come on, your harshing my mellow. I was just getting the verses down.
Yes, helping to get a lot of better folks into Congress the last cycle was just a shitload of kumbayahs for all of us here. Is there a point to this pot-stirring this evening? Because Howie alone has done a huge amount of work to bring better people into the political process — and I’m very, very proud of that and the oversight and fact-finding that we have brought to a LOT of issues the past few years.
And the political activism. And I could keep on going here. You want to blah blah about kumbayahs being the sole thing that gets done? You have picked the wrong damn blog…
it’s the story of their lives.
jayt at 31
The American people have never gotten a full discussion of what happened on 9/11.
What Christie said.
completely OT, but this has been driving me crazy all day.
i think i remember chirsty posting a really cute youtube a couple of months ago (i can remember laughing till i cried) with, i think, some small animal (maybe a kitten?).
did i dream the whole thing? maybe it wasn’t christy’s post? because now i can’t find it. if anyone knows what i’m thinking (barely) of, please take pity on me and throw me a link. thank you!
…. i made a webpage/blog for my nephews and now i’m having fun posting crazy stuff to it (all suggestions gratefully accepted at speakeasy dot net - 2 boys almost 8 and 12).
“Mr. Bush, you have to admit it’s a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her,” Brown said.
“It was very unusual,” Bush said.
That’s unusual?
hmmm.
Christy at 41,
I’ve noticed you’re filled with anger. Which is not bad.
Don’t turn it on me. I’m on your side, but I have my own thoughts.
selise, TRex had cute animal videos late late on fridays for a while.
Oh, here we fucking go…
JEB has a very stiff composure/demeanor. A multi-millionaire advertising and marketing guru whom was doing some work for Jeb (for a campaign presumably) asked Jeb if he wanted to go out for a drink. Jeb wheeled around stiff-shouldered - he doesn’t turn his neck much - and replied, “No, I have to watch who I hang around with.”
no shit… um, i mean, “amen”
*g*
it’s one the reasons i like to hang out with you-all. it’s not just talk, there’s a hell of a lot of work getting done. inspiring really.
Jeez. Normally a calm person, I have been enraged for the last seven years.
I think of it as another Rovian miscalculation. Buy up the media? We get be your own media, and what an improvement!
Steal elections from a sleeping electorate? They wake up, and they are PISSED.
Yes, let’s keep this story alive!
Can everyone say, Silverado Savings and Loan…I’d say there’s a pattern to this family…
Thank you, Christy!
Jeb has always reminded me of Jimmy Osmond.
Here’s Shrub’s great-great-great grandpappy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obadiah_Newcomb_Bush
Some business dealings but the Crime Family Syndicate didn’t seem to really get going until Samuel Bush, Prescott’s daddy (although the Yale “secret societies” were already tradition in the family at this point):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Bush
Sam seems to be the first to become a major player on the scene. And Prescott really took it to another level. Odd that Prescott was such a friend to Eisenhower given Precott’s background in the Military and Banking industries, and given Eisenhower’s famous Military Industrial Complex speech to the nation. Perhaps Prescott was one of the people Eisenhower was warning against? Or it was a case of keeping enemies to closer than friends?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush
Interesting quote about the Nazi-Bush connections:
“Investigator John Loftus has said, “As a former federal prosecutor, I would make a case for Prescott Bush, his father-in-law (George Walker) and Averell Harriman [to be prosecuted] for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They remained on the boards of these companies knowing that they were of financial benefit to the nation of Germany.” Two former slave laborers from Poland have filed suit in London against the government of the United States and the heirs of Prescott Bush in the amount of $40 billion. A class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. in 2001 was dismissed based on the principle of state sovereignty”
thank you! sorry about the OT… will go check over in the treehouse and be back to business here.
But he’s of so good and he’s oh so fine and he’s oh so healthy in his body and his mind…
Awesome song for these assholes.Aas soon as I saw those assholes in their Brooks Brothers suit ouside the election doors raising hell in the 2000, where vote counting was taking place in Florida I said what the fuck…then I realised democracy was had.
Great song.. ‘well repected masn about the town’ How about the “Man on the Hill”
Some of the dem adds should run those clips… a collage of crimilality that the R candidates support!
Jeb was just a bastion of tolerance and civil rights. Here’s recent news on the former head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement:
That’s right. He makes statements revealing his true level of racism and actually resigns. He then gets a job in time to preserve his retirement funds (most likely managed by someone as crooked as Stipanovich, so some perverse justice here) and there is no repercussion. Bush had the authority to prevent him taking the job, but of course did not.
Word now is that Tunnell plans to run for Sheriff.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/20.....news-metro
attention texans:
Public Health Alert
A trailer hauling 14, 800 pounds of beef, thought to be infested with E. coli, has been stolen in Texas. Consumers are warned to avoid beef packaged with the label “EST. 13116.”
Watch out!
Sometimes I wonder if fluoridated and passive, mind control and conditioned, human resource debt slaves are on par with the cell phone talking, video game playing, low information, Uber-American psycho-patriots.
What Christy is “full of” is truth and hunger for justice. To characterize that as “anger” is a mighty stretch.
Hey thanks Bonkers. I’ll come back and read your links after dinner.
Seeing “Jeb Bush” in a thread title made me decide to get up and take a pee.
Was it this one? It’s funny and contains a kitten…
Neil Bush (I think i have the right bush) just bought the old MBNA headquarters a few miles from me here on teh coast of Maine. He’s pres. of Athena healthcare. Now everyone hereabouts is touting this as a good thing for the coast, but i remember reading something very fishy about Athena Healthcare and now i can’t find it. It was the new name for some old corp that got in trouble i think, Can’t find the thing i read anywhere.
Anybody got an idea on this?
Jeb is a secretive type of guy. He wishes that he could run the whole show by himself. He doesn’t like to deal with State House Representatives. Jeb has his own ideas and he wants to implement them without input from outsiders. He believes himself to be highly intelligent and capable. Capable of being a one-man wrecking crew, I say.
CarolynU_ I left a response for you at the end of last thread about voting for the president and how I’m approaching the elections this year.
Word —
Talk and action — as much a catalyst as an information center IMHO.
Good idea. You might lose your appetite if you read before dinner. Disgusting people those Booshes are.
Art — I just finished reading through the last threads worth of comments. I notice that you never seem to answer a question. Don’t try sophistry on me, it won’t work.
As for kumbayahs — if you don’t like how things are done at FDL, blogger has a nifty mechanism that allows you to set up your blog where you can push your own thoughts for free on anyone who wants to read them. In case you didn’t know about it, I wanted to be certain that you were aware of the possibility….
what kind of equipment are we talking about here?
Everyone here wants to be part of a community.
Fine.
What if one wants to come here to be different?
Happy New Year, Christy!
One can be different. What one can’t be without pushback is insulting, rude and factually off base. There is a vast difference between the two. Capice?
I think you just want to be noticed, Art. Any attention is good attention?
Seeing “Jeb Bush” in a thread title made me decide to get up and take a pee.
Surprised the reaction wasn’t, umm, stronger…
must be an entitlement thing… they’ve just done SOOOOO much for the country, surely we should all be obliged to give just a ‘lil back to enrich Jebby’s trust fun…
Usually people close the door first.
The CNN article doesn’t say any more on that but does talk a little more on computer tricks planned for changing the vote results.
Yup.
Maybe Art would like to spend some time going through the archives of a real left wing rant and raiver so he can see the difference between calm, rational thought and discussion aiming towards actionable change versus outright vitriol?
I can give you directions…….
click on my name.
Ewww — there’s a mental image I didn’t need… *g*
thank you! i think that was the one i was vaguely thinking of.
lol. now I’ve got a disturbing visual to go with the story…
it is always worse than we think. always
Christy,
Do you have any doubts?
H.W. is often credited as being a War hero for being shot down , but considering the Bush Crime Family’s penchant for lies and death-loving, I’ve always been skeptical of that story.
We need a PT-Boaters For Truth group to get to the bottom of it!
should somebody call CTuttle? The Hawaii game is about to come on, and he might have forgotten… heh.
Art — If you don’t think enough is being done, or anyone else, we are pretty much always open to listening to new action ideas. So, instead of throwing out insulting kumbayah insinuations, how about tossing out an idea or two on actions we ought to be taking?
FISA fight, part whatever the hell we’re on at this point, is coming up shortly. So if anyone has a good action idea or two other than what we’ve already been doing, I’d love to hear it…just for starters.
Got it. Agreed.
I believe it is time for the “ignore” treatment.
I have a shitload of doubts. Every day. Do you?
I found this, too.
The Bush family founded Zapata Oil in the early 50’s and later bought United Fruit, both CIA brass plates. United Fruit, IIRC, was also deeply involved in the “unrest” in South America that Naomi Kein so charmingly documents.
impeachment
You better back that up Art. Don’t just throw ringers, because yes, there should be an independent investigation for sure in my opinion (I’m certainly not alone in the world), but don’t use 9/11 to patronize anyone either. We need facts. Facts. The legitimate discussion exists. I want an open discussion of facts as we know them.
Over the next year President Bush with the help of Vice President Cheney will be leading the nation in the prosecution of the Global War on Terror.
Sorry didn’t have time to read this but this only the touch of the of what is happening in FLA. You have it right but it makes Neil look like nothing in the in the S&L
Cool, glad we’re on the same page.
Sorta like Valerie Plame’s former “employer” Brewster Jennings?
Different, as in, specious, fact-free and condescending in the same comment?
Mission Accomplished.
how about two cats talking?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3U0udLH974
Christy at 89
Impeachment.
No more any Dem is better than any Repub.
Is that a start?
It’s Bushnet Welfare
The Bush family founded Zapata Oil in the early 50’s and later bought United Fruit, both CIA brass plates
If you’ve ever got a free 90 minutes, this one’s *real* interesting.
Just sayin’…
http://video.google.com/videop.....;plindex=0
forgive poor nutsy kitty, but i’ve ben saying since the martial law thing that pakistan is a dry run experiment financed by booschies to see how far they can go. they know the pakis are far more activist than americans, so if they can get away with no elections and martial law and murders in pakistan, no sweat here. sorry. just how i see it.
I keep thinking about this next year and the atrocities Bush will pull. What will be left for any President to fix.
We do need a fighter but the mighty powers may win out unless the people get their power back.
Art, this might not be the time or place for your argument. Maybe some morning when we’re in that kind of mood?
Yes, but… they weren’t formed exclusively for CIA purposes, they actually did a) drill for oil and 2) grow fruit. Did Brewster Jennings actually do energy consulting, too?
Any dem is better than any repub when it comes to the possibility of appointing 2+ new justices to the SC next term.
Who said any dem was better than a republican? Do you have a particular link to some post or comment on that one? Because just throwing that out as a generalization doesn’t really work here given how much shit we’ve thrown at the dem presidential candidates at one point or another? And at the GOP ones, too. And the Dem leadership. And the GOP leadership. I mean, hell, I think Rahm Emmanuel uses a print-out of our logo for a dart board in his off hours…
In the meantime while the primaries are front and center as well they should be, there is still activism work to be done.
OT: Actually it isn’t. It’s part of the continuum. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 increased the cost of birth control at clinics by as much as 900%. This puts the pill out of reach for millions of college women and women on Medicare. Bills called the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act has been introduced in both the House and Senate to remedy this situation. Please call your senators in support of the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act. Urge Congress to pass this legislation without delay.
Cronyism, the revolving door, blank stupidity, it’s a recipe for financial mismanagement and disaster. We have talked about this before but the subprime bubble could be seen years out. We were talking about it here a couple of years ago in terms of ARMs. And it wasn’t in July and August of 2007 that things went kerblooey. The first mortgage lending companies to go belly up did so at the end of 2006. eCAHNomics ascribes the inability to react to a bursting bubble to a herd mentality and negative reinforcement. I would only add a healthy serving of sheer dimwittery.
United Fruit became Chiquita right? As president, Bill Clinton made a sweeping change in government that clobbered Caribbean island independent banana growers to the benefit of Chiquita. This is according to that Robinson fellow.
United Fruit Company used pesticides in Nicaragua that really hurt the banana workers. The workers have had an ongoing legal battle that was reported in the Tico Times (Costa Rican english language newspaper) a couple years ago.
newtonusr at 100
I’ll be gentle. I like your posts.
Circle jerks?
Well, that’s OK if you like them.
That’s mainly what one finds here.
Bannish me.