FR Current Events Project: Keeping Tabs on the Media's Attacks on Bush and the Republican Party

All Media Sources | July 10, 2002

[Howlin]

I have honestly lost count of all the lies and distortions being thrown about in the press these last few weeks concerning Bush and his agenda, and the things going on in and around this country, especially concerning the government, the DOJ, and the Congress.

I would like to use this thread -- and you other Freepers -- to compile a COMPLETE THREAD of all the various errors we find in and among the articles we read on here and the news shows that we see daily on TV.

My thoughts are that if we get them all on one thread, maybe we can figure out what the heck is going on in this country and, more importantly in my opinion, WHO is doing it.

Please include the URL for the article or news report you will add to the list; if it is not from a thread on FR, please copy and paste the article, along with date, time, and source to this thread in order to preserve the information.

As always, be careful which newspapers/magazines you post full articles from.

I believe we are in a full frontal fight for the life of this country, the Supreme Court, and the things we believe in. We need to prepare ourselves to refute all the distortions being continually spewed over the airwaves and in the papers of this country.

Now, get to work!

[dixiechick2000]

Lots of great stuff here.
That picture of Livingstone and Gore in '88 blew me away!
Also, I didn't know Hillary had a "special" room for her computers...
she's really scary!
Maybe she's the anti-Christ!

[Mo1]

OK ... my head is still spinning

Thanks for are the hard work

[Darlin']

Another smarmy swipe from the Today Show, The Today Show: Down Stock Market, "Sluggish" Economy GOP's Fault

[M Kehoe]

kay, thanks for the ping.

I try and never watch cbsnbccnnabc, nor do I read timenewsweek etc. Keeps my blood pressure in check.

I hope the thread grows and lasts.

5.56mm

[kcvl]

At least eight of the twenty-nine companies that were invited to go to Russia are linked to Strauss and his firm. AT&T, Westinghouse, Dresser Industries (a Dallas-based oil equipment company) and Enron (a Houston-based natural gas conglomerate) are all Akin, Gump clients. Litton Industries and General Electric have representatives on the board of the U.S.-Russia Business Council. Rockwell International and Bristol-Myers Squibb are former clients of Strauss.

OPIC is headed by Ruth Harkin, wife of Senator Tom Harkin and, prior to joining the Administration, a top corporate lawyer at Akin, Gump.

Enron, which closed a deal, backed by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, to develop European markets for Russian gas, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Administration's export policy. During the past two years, the Ex-Im Bank has supported Enron's agreements with Turkey, India, the Philippines and China - deals worth nearly $4 billion. Kenneth Brody, head of the Ex-Im Bank, is a close friend of Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, having worked with Rubin at Goldman, Sachs. Enron is listed on Rubin's 1993 financial disclosure statement as one of the forty-four companies with which Rubin had "significant contact" during his years at the investment firm.

(Brody, by the way, is said to be a leading candidate to take over at Commerce if Brown, under investigation for everything from slumlording to collecting $400,000 for his "share" in a company in which he had invested nothing, is forced to resign.)

[kcvl]

Member and staunch supporter of the World Trade Organization. During 1997 WTO negotiations, AIG collaborated directly with Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to negotiate Asian financial, investment and trade agreements covering 102 countries, which one report described as bullying and marked by "messages back and forth from Geneva to Washington, and… reports, between the US Treasury and American International Group." [Third World Economics, No. 175, 16-31, 12/97].

During the 1990s involved with U.S. investment in Russia (overseen by Goldman Sachs and The Harvard Endowment) through Brunswick Brokerage. Secured a $300 million OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) guarantee for a Russian investment fund. [Paul Likoudis, Editor, The Wanderer.]

AIG insures more than half of the major US airports.

The world's "market leader" in leasing and remarketing of advanced technology commercial jet aircraft - "the most modern fleet of aircraft in the world. " With 2000 revenues of $2.44 billion AIG owns a fleet of 494 jets, 89 of which it "manages" itself. Clients include airlines in U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America where, in 2000, it leased, "additional aircraft to a number of established customers."

[kcvl]

For example, consider the story of how the Clinton administration has threatened to take South Africa to the World Trade Organization (WTO) because Nelson Mandela got a law passed that allowed South African companies to issue compulsory licenses for pharmaceuticals that combat AIDS.

The U.S. has demanded that AIDS sufferers in South African purchase didanosine (DDL), a drug used in triple therapies, from U.S.-based Bristol-Myers Squibb, at prices few there can afford.

This is to protect Bristol-Myers Squibb’s profit margins. Bristol-Myers Squibb has already been granted exclusive license to sell DDL despite the fact that it was the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that actually did the research, testing and patented the drug (Someshwar Singh, Third World Network Features, Penang, Malaysia, 11/99. Reprinted by World Press Review, 2/00).


Consider also that Al Gore has been the point man in the Clinton administration’s efforts on behalf of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

[illstillbe]

bump ... so I can take my time and read this all ....

[Neets]

Took me all day to get here Howlin....but this is a GREAT idea.....BTT.

[austingirl]

Brief little snide CNN headline news attack this morning. While working out, the club had it on (I don't watch this crap willingly), the "newsreader" said about Bush's suggestion to stop low-interest loans to CEOS - "I see, it's a case of do as I say, not as I do".

How egregiously unfair! First of all, at least Bush had a real job and wasn't living off the taxpayer's money. Secondly, this was ten years ago. Third, he paid the loan back. Fourth, it was and still is legal. Just one tiny, tiny little example of how CNN slimes it's way through the broadcast day.

[Howlin]

I can't remember when reporters started giving THEIR opinions/editorializing like that, do you?

[ladyinred]

I think you are right! Who knew the anti-christ would be a woman in a black pantsuit eh? Great cover isn't it? :)

[Eva]

I have heard reports that it is former Clinton people who behind the ads, for instance Brit Hume mentioned that Lockart, Clintons last press guy, was behind the ads that ran in NY and DC this week.

[dixiechick2000]

"Great cover isn't it? :)"

heheh
Well, after all, she is the smartest woman in the world.
;o)

[Amelia]

What is American Family Voices? The group behind the attacks on Bush.

[BillyBoy]

I figure it would be more productive to keep track of all the "freepers" (at least they claim to be) who spread blantant lies about Bush and/or the Republican Party...but since you want media stuff, check out just about any article written by Steve Neal. The guy is a professional smear artist who writes anti-conservative pieces of fiction disguised as objective election-year "anaylizing"

Here's some excerts from a recent article:

Nomination is Gore's for the taking
Chicago Sun Times | July 10, 2002 | Steve Neal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/713740/posts

LIE # 1
"[Gore] is the clear choice of Democratic voters as their party's '04 nominee against President Bush. "
(30% of 'RATs say the want Gore. That means the other 70% are desperate to find someone else!)

LIE #2
"He [Gore] won the popular vote by more than 700,000 votes in 2000"
(Do Democrats just inflate Gore's "popular vote" margin by another 100,000 every two monthes? The U.S. election atlas doesn't even come close that plurality)

LIE # 3
"[Gore ended up] losing the Electoral College ballot by a single vote."
(That's odd, every news sourse I read says it was 271 to 267. Either Neal flunked basic math or he's still contesting the 1876 election)

LIE # 4
"There are strong indications that Bush may have enriched himself as the result of insider information. Vice President Dick Cheney is also vulnerable on this issue."
(Polls show this issue isn't damaging Bush or Cheney, and even if it was hurting Cheney, it's very unlikely he'd be on the ticket in 2004 no matter what the case is)

LIE # 5
"Four years after their respective losses, Jackson and Cleveland captured the White House. History could repeat itself in 2004."
(Highly unlikely. Neal cites election figures from over 100 years ago as something that could happen again. All the recent recycled Democrat candidacies (Stevenson, etc.) have failed. Cleveland had PREVIOUSLY already had a term as PRESIDENT. Jackson beat Adams in a four way race when he got the popular vote)

LIE # 6
"Bush, whose popularity got a temporary boost from the events of 9/11"
(Temporary? Gee, Neal sure didn't think so when slick had a 70% approval during Monicagate. Clinton's numbers can't hold a candle to Bush's sustained support. Can Neal name another president with a "temporary" boost that has lasted this long?)

LIE #7 "Gore has major advantages over the Democratic field. He is the largest vote-getter in the party's history and is the only Democratic candidate with a national political base."
He's only the largest "vote getter" in the party history because the 2000 election had more voters than any previous election. In terms of %, he's a fair candidate in the party's history. He has no "national political base". His supporters in virtually every southern and western state were unable to get out his support at all. The last Democrat with a truly national political base was Johnson

LIE # 8
"Gore, who is from Tennessee, got shut out in this critical region in 2000."
(Gore and his "national base" DID get shut out of that region, but that's because he's NOT from Tennessee. He's a lifelong resident of Washington D.C.)

[ravingnutter]

The following is a story about which Clintonites are running for office.

Return of the Clintonites

Includes a name I had not seen before..."Rahm Emanuel, is running for an open House seat with Clinton's active, overt support." More info on Emanuel can be found here and here.Consider the sources and take it for what it's worth, but Skolnick linked Emanuel to the Mossad and MER says he was the main money link to Clinton's Jewish supporters and is an Israeli spy. Skolnik also connected him to Wasserstein Perella, whose specialty is apparently laundering funds of the Red Chinese Secret Police through the Chicago markets.

Bowles is getting heat for his connections with Merck (the pharmaceutical company) and Forstmann Little, a New York based investment-banking firm whose recommendations triggered a loss of $100 million in the state of Connecticut’s employee pension fund. I had found some links between Bowles and Ann Bingaman (Jeff Bingaman's wife), but will have to go look those up again.

[ravingnutter]

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (previously Wasserstein Perella)/Enron connection:

Wasserstein had a conflict of interest that complicated its pitch for the Enron business. Dresdner is a major lender to Enron, according to Henry Miller, co-head of restructuring at the firm.

Corporate Financing Week

[ravingnutter]

See my posts 237 and 238 above about Rahm Emanuel...here is his connection to Rubin and Goldman, Sachs & Co....

Emanuel has long been more interested in blue-chip clients than in the working poor. While serving as Clinton's chief fund-raiser in 1991-92, he simultaneously worked as a consultant for Goldman, Sachs & Co. A company spokesman insisted in 1993 that there was nothing improper about Emanuel's dual roles. But, at the very least, it had the appearance of impropriety. Emanuel was criticized for providing unprecedented political access to the investment banking firm.

Robert Rubin, who was then chairman of Goldman, Sachs, later became Clinton's Treasury secretary and the administration's brightest star. Rubin, now chairman of the executive committee at the New York-based Citigroup, is backing Emanuel in the 5th District. Just a few months ago, Rubin showed questionable judgment in lobbying the Bush administration to intervene on behalf of Enron when the energy giant was on the verge of collapse. Stockholders have lost tens of billions of dollars. More than 20,000 Enron workers lost their life savings.

Source

[ravingnutter]

Rahm Emanuel/Export-Import Bank connection:

"When Rahm served as a Senior Advisor to President Clinton, I knew I could turn to Rahm whenever I needed to get something done for Illinois," Simon said. "I recall, for example, when Caterpillar was being threatened by competition from Japan. If they had not gotten a loan - quickly - from the Export-Import Bank, we would have lost hundreds of Illinois jobs. We needed help from the White House. I called Rahm, and he attacked that challenge because he understood what those jobs meant to the workers involved and their families. He made that loan happen, and Cat won the contract."

Source