by James Glaser
July 8, 2002

When ever I think of Enron, I start to think of the poor people that worked there and that lost all of their retirement. Every one knows that buying stocks is a gamble. Stocks can go up and down, everyone is watching with the hope of a big killing, but sometimes it goes the other way. Stocks are a risk, but who would believe that the company that you put in years for, would "tank" and take your future with it.

Remember Kenny "Boy", who was at the head of Enron and how his wife was crying on national TV, saying how they lost all too? Well we all know that was "bull" and she and Kenny are living how executives should, in a multimillion dollar home and selling hundreds of thousands in extra furniture and fixtures. Sure did hit them hard, but it was a good thing that he and George Bush were buds. No trial for Kenny "Boy".

I was just wondering if maybe Kenny didn't get some pointers from George. I can just see the two of them sitting around quaffing a few cold ones and George telling how he made his killing. George did his thing back in 1989 as a director of Harken Energy. George was even on the audit committee so that helped, but what he and the board did was loan money to some Harken insiders to buy a portion of the company. They used corporation money to buy part of the company and then said that sale was a profit. Really looked good on paper though.

The Securities and Exchange Commission found out about this phony sale and made them restate the companies earnings. You see this sale was made to cover losses. Well George took advantage of this by dumping his shares before the little guy found out about this and made $850,000. George's Dad was President and so nothing happened, but in 1993 the SEC sent a letter stating the decision not to prosecute "must in no way be construed as indicating that (Bush) has been exonerated."

Well it was a good thing that this President Bush had that President Bush for a father. Just maybe it was a good thing that Kenny "Boy" had this President Bush for a friend. Now isn't that harsh to say that, but how about those little guys that didn't have that inside info like George did?

George being a "Big Business" type guy can see that this is just the way capitalism works now. Thomas White the Secretary of the Army has said that he would bring his "understanding of best business practices" to the Army. This is the guy that the Senate Armed Services Committee cited for violating his signed ethics agreement. While at Enron this same Thomas White working as vice chairman allegedly hid 500 million in losses to manipulate the California energy crises.

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, reported to be the Administrations lead man on ethics had an attorney-client relationship with Enron while working in Houston. So it is pretty easy to see that this new way to interpret capitalism is through out this Administration. Halliburton, the oil company that the Vice-president was head of, is now under investigation. Even the guy we installed as President of Afghanistan was a former executive at an American energy company.

To be fair, President Bush, did finally after eight months, get his paper work in. Still by that time those still holding stock had really lost. They didn't have that insider knowledge that President Bush did. They were left "holding the bag." Now President Bush will rant and rave about how this dishonesty by top executives is so very wrong and how heads will roll and people will serve time. That is if they weren't a friend.