WTF Is It Now?!?

BUSH, IN TOUGH WALL STREET SPEECH, VOWS TO MAKE MORE TOUGH WALL STREET SPEECHES

"President Bush said all the right words," Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-MO) told reporters. "The question is, is he prepared to back up those words with more words?"

The President's angry Wall Street speech came just moments after the SEC's startling revelation that 85% of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange do not really exist.

Many Wall Street insiders were shocked by the news, in particular, that AOL-Time Warner was a fictitious "dummy" corporation run out of the Evanston, Illinois basement of a convicted scam artist named Bud Hobey.

Longtime customers of AOL were stunned to discover that their Internet service provider was merely an accounting fabrication and did not actually exist.

"I just can't believe it," said Lynn Carlson, 32, a Manhattan hair stylist. "On the other hand, it really explains why no one ever seems to get my email." - LOL. From Andy Borowitz's column.




News You Won't See on TV

When asked about the recent upset in Bush's filings, this was the quote that came out of the White House:

"These types of late filings are not out of the ordinary," Bartlett told The Washington Post in Wednesday's editions. "It would be like doing a 60 in a 55" speed-limit zone, he said.

I would like to respectfully remind the Administration that speeding is speeding, and it's against the law. We normal folks get a ticket for speeding. I guess the next time I get pulled over, I have a ready-made excuse - the President says it's OK to speed. - Christopher Wing, in the BuzzFlash Mailbag

Just how low will Bush and Gang go to divert the attention from his crooked administration? Unbelievable what Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfwitz said on national television (NBC-Today) this morning. He point blank said that there was an al-Queda terrorist cell working in Jacksonville, Florida. This sure came as a surprise to the Mayor and Law Enforcement officials in the city, so they called Washington and spoke with every agency they could...and guess what? No one had any idea what Wolfwitz was talking about. They knew nothing about any terrorist cell operating in Jacksonville....Talk about crying wolf to divert attention from the growing heat about Bush's illegal stock trading deals. - Cary Lindsey


Remember the story of the Saudi princess who pushed her maid down the stairs in Florida? The maid was denied a visa to return to the U.S. and testify:

"Why in the world wouldn't they give her a visa?" Russell Troutman, Suryono's attorney said. "I'm speculating that it was an attempt on the part of the administration to do a favor for the royal family."

And here's the New York Times' account: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/02/national/02SAUD.html. - CR

George W. Bush's attempt to explain away his failure to timely file the legally-required Form 4 regarding his insider sale of Harken stock - and place the blame on "the lawyers" - fails to deal with the fact that the law says such filing is the legal obligation of the individual director, not the corporation or its lawyers.

Mr. Bush was a member of the Harken board of directors' AUDIT committee. I think assignment to such a post implies at least SOME responsibility on the part of the director so appointed. - Lois Erwin


According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records, on four separate occasions Gov. George W. Bush disregarded federal statutes by failing to file insider stock trade reports on a timely basis, back-dating one trade by some four months. Moreover, one key trade just a few weeks before Iraq invaded Kuwait -- but reported some eight months late after the Gulf War was over -- netted Bush close to $1 million in profit as he sold stock in Harken Energy, an oil company doing business in the Middle East wherein some of his father's largest contributors also maintained substantial positions… The governor also did not reveal the blatant conflicts of interest involved, since the chairman of the SEC was Richard Breedon, former lawyer with Houston firm Baker [as in Bush consigliere James] "and Botts and deputy counsel to Bush's father when he was vice president. Breedon received his SEC appointment after the elder Bush became president." - (via email from Democrats.com)




Quote: "The primary effect is to help Bush deflect charges he was asleep at the switch," - the chairman of the Cato Institute, William Niskanen. He said Bush's crackdown on bad business practices would do little to restore investor confidence, noting that stock values sank after the president's speech.