WTF Is It Now?!?

Due to some problems at Blogger, this page may be pretty discombobulated for a while. I'm using the horizontal scroll bar for the first time and boy, are my arms tired.


SQUINTY McSQUIRTYPANTS SQUIRMS IN SLEAZE SCANDAL
The tide of sleaze engulfing corporate America lapped closer to 'President' Bush this weekend with the revelation that official documents appear to show he provided a misleading account of a controversial share deal.

The SEC is entitled to be notified of all share trades; Bush failed to do this to deadline on four occasions - the main 1990 share deal being reported eight months late. While campaigning for the governorship of Texas in 1994, Bush insisted he had correctly filed notice of his share sale to the SEC, but that it had lost the documents.

'That's what we remember him saying then and that's certainly not what he's saying now,' says Craig McDonald of the research group, Texans for Public Justice. 'One can only presume he changed his story because he knew there were people who could come forward and attest to the opposite.'

When it became clear last week Bush had not filed his documents, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer blamed 'a mix-up with the attorneys'. However, Robin Jordan, the leading lawyer concerned, went on to be appointed by Bush as ambassador to the oil kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

'Funny,' observed a former senior official in the Clinton administration, 'that the man at fault, instead of getting sanctioned, gets sent to a vital national security post by a President from Texas to an oil state and pivotal ally.'

There remains 'one great mystery', says Royce. 'Who was the "institutional client" who bought Bush's shares? Who the hell bought such a large block of crumby stock?' The broker of the deal, Ralph Smith, refuses to say. 'Someone out there was sure looking after George W,' says Royce. - Ed Vulliamy, at The Guardian Observer.