Major scandal Brewing for Jeb Bush????

[janekat]

Thanks, Candy for your earlier post on Florida's Pension Scandal.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=343255

I almost forgot about that outrage. Thank God they're bringing this up again.

Folks this SHOULD lead to a major scandal for Jebbie

http://www.whoseflorida.com/Florida's%20ENRON%20stock.htm
$335 million worth of bad investments
The most remarkable thing about the Florida fiasco, however, was the stupefying timing of several huge Enron purchases -- transactions that have raised suspicions of insider finagling and political favoritism.

Last fall, as many major investors were dumping Enron shares as fast as they could, Florida was gobbling up more and more.

On Oct. 22, the Texas energy company reported $1.2 billion in losses and the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating. Undeterred by the bleak headlines, Florida's pension fund swiftly purchased $7.1 million of Enron stock.

Two days later, after Enron CFO Andrew S. Fastow got canned, the pension fund bought 302,500 more shares and kept buying -- another 816,300 shares over the next six days.

The grimmer the news, the more hungrily Florida invested in the doomed company. In early November, when Enron conceded that it had overstated profits by a mere half-billion dollars, the pension fund snapped up another 1.2 million shares.

Investigations are under way, lawsuits are brewing and political analysts are speculating about potential damage to Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election bid.

[ShaneGR]

1. Re-election bid?????

Uh, he just got re-elected in 2002.

[KoKo]

2. Glad to see this "old" story has "resurfaced." It was all over DU when

the Enron scandal broke about the Florida Pension plans investing long after they should.

As I remember it....Jeb fired or the person resigned who was repsonbible and the story died off the radar screen.

[janekat]

3. The point is they're bringing it up AGAIN

and an audit has just been done. We didn't know for sure how much money we had actually lost until now....

[Eloriel]

6. Great news

That fund administrator had his own ties to Enron, as I recall.

Eloriel

[Vitruvius]

26. And Jeb picked the fund administrator --

no doubt because, like Jeb & George Bu$h, he was in Enron's pocket.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. Texas & Florida

Bush clan turf. One covers the other's back.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[knight_of_the_star]

24. Slow down turbo

By the way your posting, you sound younger than me, and that says something! You do realize that saying such a thing considering the powers given by the Patriot Act and the threat that post COULD pose to Bush could get the SS after you? Slow down before you hurt yourself. The best way to deal with these guys is through legit means eg the courts. They haven't bought ALL of the courts yet.

[sventvkg]

25. Uhh. NOT Young Just pissed and calling it like I see it

I'm not afriad of them....

[Bandit]

30. I sympathise with you but this site is being monitored and your post is

quite inflammatory and could possibly be construed as a threat. Be carefull. Don't let your emotions get the better of you. There are other ways to get your point across. How is the weather up there? It got to thirty degrees last night here in Juneau.

[KoKo]

11. janekat......that was my point...Glad to see it again!

:-)'s Just cause it's an "old" story doesn't mean it's not hugely important. Sorry if my post made it seem that way.

[janekat]

16. whoops - meant to respond to sgr2 n/t

[AP]

17. I believe the original number was about 300 million and Jeb's

defense was that the pensions were guaranteed so nobody really lost any money.

That's insane logic. It's OK for Republicans to transfer taxpayer wealth to their rich cronies so long as the money comes out of funds which were making guaranteed payments.

They make it sound like money grows on trees. A couple hundred million here, a billion there.

Don't worry, we're going to tax the hell out of your kids tomorrow to plugs the holes we made in the budget when we stole from you today.

That pretty much encapsulates the Bush family political philosophy. They should probably translate that into latin (or that bastardized form of Spanish which W stopped trying to speak two years ago) and stick it on their family crest, and then can shove those family crests up their asses.

[Brian Sweat]

27. The tax payers of Florida (me) lost money.

The pension is guaranteed. If the money isn't there, then I will have to take up the slack. Fucking Fuckhead Fuckers.

[Peachhead22]

4. Gov. Rowland

Gov. Rowland of Connecticut did exactly the same thing. But so far it looks like he's gonna get away with it. :grr:

[AP]

18. Ohio was the third state which definitely did this.

Since Republicans dominate OH, you'll never see anyone punished for that.

[Unknown Known]

5. Janet Rehnquist delayed the audit to get Jeb re-elected

If there's anyone who should be recalled - it's Jeb - for malfeasance.

Rehnquist has since stepped down because of the controversy.

http://news4florida.tripod.com/indexpolitical.html

[madfloridian]

8. Jeb's office called Janet Rehnquist to stop it.

I believe it was just blamed on his aide (Shannahan? .....will have to look it up)and Rehnquist. There was a call about that time from his office, and it became hard for him to deny it. It has never taken wings.

[madfloridian]

7. Audit report came out in March of this year, figures way different.

They can sure play number games.
I have posted this about once a week since last November, then I posted the CNN article from March. I mailed it to reporters to ask why they would not cover, etc etc.

It has not gotten responses very often. I think maybe people are mad enough now to take note. We have been far too busy bashing candidates to notice other things.

This CNN story has the figures which came out first. The newest article, circulated by the AP uses different figures. I wrote them to find out the difference. You can just imagine I have not heard back.

In February or early March, I called Senator Bill Nelson's office to inquire as to the progress of the audit. I got a run-around. Since I am a retired teacher, that was enough. I knew he had pursued getting it finished, then it was being ignored. I said I would stay on the line until they figured out where the data was.

What she emailed me was pretty similar to this CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/12/bush.pension/

SNIP...."The "excessive" contributions totaled about $3 billion, and the federal share of that was about $517 million. The "primary cause" of that initial surplus was "exceptional investment performance," but the draft says the money must either be paid back or future contributions must be reduced....."

[janekat]

15. Now that Dubya's vulnerable so is Jeb...

I'm convinced that the only reason the Jeb has gotten away with this to date is because everyone was so ga-ga over his brother the Prez. Now that Dubya is getting beat up by the media and everyone else it's also OPEN SEASON on Jebbie!!!!

I've been contacting everyone in Florida I can think of to get this story out.

We all need to write letters to the editor also.

[veracity]

9. What about Jeb's PNAC connection?

Jeb is a signatory to the letters sent by PNAC to Congress in the late 1990's - encouraging military intervention in the Gulf region. No one every mentions that he's involved in the rat pack, along with Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Perle, - the founding members. No matter.. why do I feel the people of Florida wouldn't really care about any of this anyway...not after their support of Jeb in the last election.

[candy331]

12. US need new start

Corruption by the truckload every where you turn. I too say throw all the bums out and start all over again, at least it may take a while before the new ones get corrupt. We need a breather.It is time to consider getting rid of career politicians and bring an end to consecutive terms. One term limit may need to be the wave of the future.

[madfloridian]

13. This needs to be reposted at least once a week.

Now I am going to find the article where he told a few fibs about the cost of the class size amendment. He just pulled the figures out of the air. It was in the Bradenton Herald, have it saved somewhere from last year.

And don't get me started on Cypress Gardens. They are letting it die, stalling and stalling on buying a part of it. Then the developers will have free rein.

Weekiwachee is under attack now. What do you want to bet Silver Springs is next??? Those developers are so doggoned land-deprived.

[grasswire]

14. Don't forget the Harvard connection...

...to BFEE. It's a gruesome scandal.

[madfloridian]

21. Have you got a reference I can save in my files?

I don't think I heard that one.
Thanks.

[janekat]

19. Is this the article?

Here's 2 from the Bradenton Herald:

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/opinion/4762533.htm
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/news/opinion/6659665.htm

Here's another one about the topic:

http://www.floridacapitalnews.com/campaign/stories/1003classsize.htm

Let me know if you want any others.

[madfloridian]

20. I had not seen the dumb voters one before. Good one.

...."But why do they assume the amendment was "a mistake" and that the consequences are "unintended?" Why not assume the voters knew exactly what they were doing? Since the Governor and Legislature had failed for years to provide enough money to prevent classes from becoming overcrowded, voters by referendum ordered them to take measures to reduce their average size.

And rather than taking that vote as a criticism of their performance, which it was, the Governor and Board of Education react by assuming the voters didn't know what they were doing. As if voters couldn't see or hear Bush's wildly exaggerated campaign against the amendment, with warnings that it would cost $27 billion by 2010, when the low-end estimate of its eight-year cost was only $8 billion. Most newspapers, including this one, also editorialized against the amendment, thinking it unwise to enshrine this arbitrary limit in the Constitution...."

Saving this one to my files. Thanks.

[clyrc]

22. I didn't know about Weekiwachee!

Will they not be happy til they destroy everything worthwhile about Florida? I've never been to Weekiwachee, but I've been to Silver Spriongs several times and it is so gorgeous. It's so tragic that we even have to worry about this sort of thing, but we do.

[madfloridian]

23. Hi there, stranger.

Send me a link to your overseas blog. I lost mine. Hope all is well.
Weekiwachee is now owned by the city by the same name, with few inhabitants, low population.
It is Swiftmud that is saying they must update or close. Of course, no big businesses have to bother, just these attractions.

Looks like the developers consider it prime land.

[HFishbine]

29. So

that's who was buying my shares.

[Silversocal]

31. Poor Jebbie is in trouble

I acutally feel sorry for him.

[madfloridian]

32. Nothing will happen, has been posted for months, nothing happens.

Jeb is Teflon.