Innermost Thought

Found your site from another blog and wanted to see what this was all about

There is no end to the adventures we can have if we seek them with our eyes wide open.

The letter the SEC sent regarding the cessation of the investigation did not exonerate Jr. Bush. In fact it included a phrase basically saying that the cessation of the investigation did not exonerate him of "evil doing" necessarily, they just chose not to go further based on the amount of evidence they had.

All I know is that I cannot wait for Al Franken to publish a book entitled: "GW Jr is a freaking(insert any other "f" word you desire here) Idiot"

The issue is not about him signing the letter and then selling within two months. The letter was contingent on a planned Harken's public stock offering which did not take place, so as far as the letter is concerned, Bush probably did nothing wrong. Although it would have been nice of him to obtain that permission.

However, during his SEC investigation of the sale Bush claimed that this insider sale was planned months in advance (as opposed due to his insider knowledge that Harken was about to announce major losses).

So why did Bush sign the lockout letter if he was planning to sell the stock shortly? I see two possibilities: He was either planning to sell in June of '90 in advance, in which case he fradulently signed the letter. Or, at the time he signed it, he was not planning to sell - in which case he did a (possibly illegal) insider sale and then later lied to the SEC about it.

It think it's the latter, but I could be wrong.

This whole thing is election year smoke the D's are blowing.
The big difference between Whitewater and Harken as far as records go....there is no illegal activity alleged (according to the DEMOCRAT that ran the SEC investigation), so none of those records are public. How about releasing your checkbook balance for everyone to scrutinize? I didn't think so...same principle.
From the Washington Post: "It is fairly common for company insiders to sign such letters and then obtain permission to sell the stock anyway before the lockout period is up, said Carr Bettis, an associate research professor of finance at Arizona State University."
Read the full article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10786-2002Jul16.html

Yeah, like Whitewater records. What's bad for the goose should be bad for the gander, right? How come the same Reps that were calling for Clinton to release records aren't doing the same to Bush? I understand it's politics and the Democrats are doing the same thing, but let's face it, it's hypocrisy goes both ways.

And yes, Bush sold at $4 a share in June of '90. Within two months of that Harken reported a large second-quarter loss (of which Bush had been notified before his insider sale) and by December of that year HEC was down to $1.25 a share. The fact that HEC was back to $4 a year after his sale (and then up to $8 a few months after that) is rather irrelevant -insider sales are only problematic when you take advantage of information not available to the public.

The idea of Bush touting corporate responsibilty is about as laughable as the idea of Clinton championing chastity.

There may have been convictions with Whitewater but none of them were the Clintons, despite the millions upon millions of dollars of Americans' money the Repubs spent to try to prove, or fabricate otherwise. They thought nothing of slandering the reputations of honorable people with lies and deceit as uncovered in David Brock's Blinded by the Right. I even remember an email that some Right wing bastard sent out insinuating that Hillary Clinton had a part in the murder and suicide cover-up of one of her good friends. Their hate is fierce and their tactics ignoble.
As far as Harken eventually making a bigger profit...well, I hear the poor Lay family has to have a garage sale because they can't afford their former lifestyle. Poor babies...they are in the same boat as all those families who lost retirements and life savings. We should start a fundraiser for those Lays...else how will they ever keep all their homes, cars, and amenities.

Records? Like Whitewater? Or Rose law firm records?

The THEN-Democrat-controlled SEC cleared Bush of getting out on insider information that something bad was going to happen: Harken didn't fail. Not only didn't it fail, it prospered. This is not an ImClone thing where everybody sold on bad news that only they knew, and then the company went south. Harken stayed in business and grew even wealthier, long after Bush sold.

Well, Whitewater had allegations made that the Clintons tried to thwart an RTC investigation - and guess what? There were convictions in Whitewater! People went to jail! Bush's sale of his own stock options was investigated by the well-respected Democrat SEC enforcement chief who found no violations of securities laws and has said so on the record.

Bush sold his stock for $4 a share...The following year, the stock rose to a little over $8 a share.

Yes, some of the crap about Harken did come out, but apparently no one paid attention. It was more important for the media to focus on Bush's Forrest Gump diction (a guy like that couldn't be a business crook, right?) and on Gore's wardrobe.

Of course, not all of the dirty laundry was aired. Like Bush taking months before filing with the SEC on multiple insider stock sales, not just one. Or his claiming that the sale was planned long in advance, when only two months before the transaction he signed a letter of intent not the sell for half a year. And his claims keep curiously changing, too: "The SEC lost my filings", no wait "my lawyers misplaced them". What's next - "My dog ate them"?

There is nothing "final and over" about his Harken dealings. I don't consider an investigation of Bush Jr. by SEC friends of Bush Sr. to be very through and impartial. Bush ran on "Character" - he should prove it by showing us the recrods.

I have held my tongue in the past on these postings, but no longer.
This crap about Harken came out before the 1992 campaign....and the 1994 campaign....and the 1998 campaign....and the 2000 campaign...and (GASP!) here it is again before the 2002 campaign.
Give me a break!

Yes, Bush sold Harken and made $800,000, only to see it double in value a short time later. Is that a brilliant deal?

And despite the fact the markets are going down, the economy is doing very well: Look at these numbers. First quarter growth: 6.2%; Second quarter growth: 2.5%; First half growth: around 9%. That is a tremendous recovery. It's not the greatest we've ever had, but it is solid. June retail sales increased 1%. Year-to-year retail sales are up 3.5%. Industrial production numbers (the single best indicator of the economy's progress) are due out shortly, and judging from prior production increases - as well as reasonable durable goods and factory shipments the second quarter - should register historic gains.

The drops in the stock market are akin to the increases in the not too distant past, such as when internet stocks went through the roof. They were based on FEELINGS, NOT FACTS about the stability of those companies.

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