Has anyone seen the preview for this CBS made for TV movie that's coming on tonight? It looks like a gigantic joke to me, "unshredded truth" my ass.. I'll bet you won't hear anything about Bush or Cheney during the entire thing, which is complete horse****. I don't think I'm going to watch it. I don't know if I want to see the whole Enron thing exploited and fabricated for the sake of TV ratings =\
Especially considering that the accounting irregularities happened during the Clinton Presidency and were uncovered during Bush's Presidency.
It's always funny to watch these Hollywood dolts envision how Houstonians talk/act/live...or all Texans for that matter. They still imagine a world of ranches and oilrigs like the TV Drama Dallas. I'm sure I can find something better to do with my time...like shave my ass and clean the dingleberries off of the bathroom floor.
blah blah blah baseless rhetoric blah Republicans attacked the Securities and Exchanges Commission from the START the House GOP fronted by people like Dan Frisa and Jack Fields were told to "ease regulations of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, undermining laws that have been a cornerstone of investor confidence for more than 50 years". News reports from the mid 90s show that Republicans solicited Wall Street firms for advice on how to diminish the SEC's influence Republicans have always made it harder to prosecute corporate crime One of the planks in the GOP's contract with America was the Private Securiies Ligitgation Reform Act, which shielded corporations and accountants from certain shareholder lawsuits. President Clinton vetoed the bill, which he backed up by stating he was not "willing to sign legislation that will have the effect of closing the courthouse door on investors who have legitimate claims. Those who are the victims of fraud should have recourse in our courts.. our markets are as strong and effective as they are because they operate--and are seen to operate--with integrity. I believe that his bill, as modified in conference, could erode this crucial basis of our markets' strength." The Republican Congress overrode the veto. Abner Mikva, who served on the DC curcuit court of appeals put it best, "Simply put, Congress reduced the incentives against comitting fraud.. by inhibiting the rights of individuals to seek damages, we lowered the risks for securities fraud, eliminated deterrence, and fostered a culture of laxity... the effect was to remove many of the restraints on corporate officials and their accountants." Republicans also blocked the Clinton Admin from Seperating Auditing from Consulting. President Clinton's SEC commission chairman, Arthur Levitt, proposed a rule tht would have set new standards that auditors are independent-by barring the built-in conflict that occurs when the same firms servers as an auditor for a company it's also consulting for-- he decried "a massive conflict of interest between accountants duties as auditors and the profits they earn as consultants to the same corporate clients". The repulican congress strongly disagreed. R-Michael Oxley, chairman of the House Financial Services comittee called the proposal "a Draconian solution to a percieved problem." He also joined R-Thomas Bliley of Virginia, chairman of the House Commerece Commitee, and Rep R-Billy Tauzin, chair of the House Energy Commerece committee in forming a phalanx to protect the accounting lobby, and stop the review of the SEC hearings and meetings. A total of 48 members of Congress wrote to Levitt protesting this reform, including Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Banking Commitee, who's wife was the chair of the auditing commitee at ENRON. And so the Levitt-Clinton auditing reform act was killed by the Republicans. and the corporate scandals came. yet another nail in the coffin of the Republican economic track record. as Lynn Turner, cheif accountant of the SEC, put it.. "if these reforms had been in place earlier, we wouldn't have had Enron" The Bush-GOP economic stimulus package also called for a repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax for corporations. The corporate AMT was enacted in 1986, and ensures that firms pay a minimum amount of federal income taxes despite deductions. Before congress created it, 129 of the wealthiest and most successful coporations paid no federal income tax at all. Instead they recieved an average tax rebate of 9.6 percent. Not only would it repeal this tax, it repealed this tax retroactively. So in other words, big corporations got 15 years worth of back taxes equalling millions upon millions of dollars. The AMT repeal would cost 25.4 billion the first year alone. Most of the coporations that benefited from this were corporations that supported the Bush Cheney ticket during the 2000 election, a nice return investment for their campaign contributions (Enron, Chevron, Ford, GE, GM, Kmart, ect.) Enron has given over 2 million dollars to the Republicans and GWB since 1993. Enron would recieve a kick back of 254 million through this legislation. Thankfully, senate democrats blocked this. Bush also placed 52 former Enron executives, lobbyists, lawyers and significant shareholders in key positions of his administration. Including Karl Rove, Chairman of the National Economic Council, Cheif of Staff to Cheney, Secretary of the Army, and the Maritime Administrator. Bush also asked Ken Lay for a list of candidates for chairmen of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to which Lay gratefully obliged. George W. also served a lobbyist for Enron during 1989 when he visited Argentina to lobby the Minister of Public Works and Services, Rodolfo Terragno for a multi-million dollar contract for construction of an Enron pipeline to ship Argentine gas to Chile. Of course, the deal went down (under the next administration), seeing as how Bush was the son of the Vice President
I wanna see who the real person Shannon Elizabeth is playing. Dont see why she is in it other than she is Houston (Sugarland)born.
Maybe she will re-enact the "Women of Enron" pictorial in Playboy...:leers: What a waste of air space...why would anyone want to be reminded of the Enron failure..I cartainly have better things to do...
I certainly hope you don't really believe the drivel you put forth. Clinton's SEC didn't catch the irregularities...period.
I'm no Clinton lover, and Clinton's SEC didn't catch the irregularities, but neither did Bush's "Pitt" of an SEC. The irregularities were only "caught" after Enron imploded. Clinton had dealings with Enron, but at least Clinton didn't run for President crisscrossing the country in an Enron corporate jet, like your buddy George W. Especially funny is how Ken Lay went from "Kenny Boy" in George W.'s terms, to "who?" as soon as Enron imploded. Yes, the Clinton Administration had dealings with Enron, but the Bush Administration was, pardon the pun, wearing kneepads and giving head to Enron in the Oval Office. Enron's influence over the Bush Administration is well documented in many places, including earlier in this thread. The fact that the Bush Administration has swept it under the rug makes it all the more sleazy, and the fact that the Democrats haven't challenged him on it is sickening. Denying the influence Enron had on the Bush Administration is denying the truth. The only reason George W. didn't bail them out is because he knew it doing so would bite him in the ass politically, and George W. is just as much of a slimy politician as Clinton or anyone else for that matter. As for the TV movie, it's gonna stink. I'll be watching HBO.
The main legislation easing accounting practices was a Phil Grahm/ Christopher Dodd bill. The most influential Senators in the override of Clinton's veto were Grahm, Dodd, and Lieberman. The two Democratic Senators were in fact the driving force behind the veto, as they received the bulk of big accounting firm contributions.
There's way too many Republicrats in office right now. I hate Lieberman with a passion. Even still, show some proof. Or at least some figures.
Show some proof????? Are you kidding me??????? You just detailed the bill that Clinton vetoed, and that the Senate overrode. Are you telling me that you don't even know who brought that legislation to the floor??
Stats are from various web sources. _________________ From 1989-2001, Enron Corporation PAC, and Enron executives, employees and their family members gave a total of $5,951,570 in hard and soft money to federal candidates and parties. Of this amount, 74% ($4,404,162) went to Republicans and 26% ($1,547,408) to Democrats. Lay himself wrote checks totaling $882,582, of which $793,110 went to Republicans. Enron Corporation is President Bush's number-one career patron, having given him more money throughout his political career than any other contributor. Enron Corporation PAC, and Enron executives, employees and their family members contributed a total of $736,800 to President Bush from 1993 to 2001. Enron also contributed $250,000 to the Republican National Convention for its 2000 convention. Kenneth and Linda Lay gave $276,500 to George W. Bush from 1993 to 2000, including $100,000 to the President's inaugural fund, $10,000 to his election recount fund and $40,000 to his 1999 State Victory Fund Committee. For Senators specifically, Dodd received $2,000 total from Enron during the period 1989-2002. Lieberman got the same amount over the same number of years. The top senators were from Texas, with Kay Bailey and Phil each getting more than $101,000 from Enron. Of the top ten Enron recipients in the Senate, only 2 are Democrats: Schumer from NY at $21,000 (all of his money came in 97-98) and Jeff Bingamon, ranking D on the Energy committee at $12,000. Looking at the major accounting firm contributions, all I could find quickly were Arther Andersen numbers, which I suspect mirror the other firms, though they may not. At any rate, here are the numbers: Top Andersen recipient from 1989-2002 was Phil Gramm at $76,850. Second was Chris Dodd at $54,843. The top ten is split evenly between Ds and Rs, but the amount of money drops off significantly after Dodd. Lieberman's not even in the top 20 and got a little over $11,000 from AA sources. From 1989-2002, Enron gave about $215,000 to GOP presidential candidates and a little under $25,000 to Dems. From 1989-2002, AA gave over $260,000 to GOP presidential candidates and about $68,000 to Dems, though almost half went to Bradley. Both Enron and AA only gave to Bush, Dole, and Bush on the GOP side.
That movie was awful. They even somehow managed to make Shannon Elizabeth look unattractive. Geeeeezus...
Enron Corporation is President Bush's number-one career patron, having given him more money throughout his political career than any other contributor. Come on rimrocker, you know this is all just liberal media bias.
