200 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
200 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 6 Num. 97
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======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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THE BUYING OF THE PRESIDENT
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===========================
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Here are some pieces of a puzzle for you:
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1. Bill Clinton's #1 campaign contributor, according to Charles
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Lewis, author of the just released book, *The Buying of the
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President* (New York: Avon Books, 1995-96), is Goldman Sachs.
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They reportedly contributed $107,850.
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2. Robert Rubin worked for Goldman Sachs just before he moved on
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to become Treasury Secretary.
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3. The January 1995 commitment, by Bill Clinton, of $20 billion
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for loans and loan guarantees to Mexico.
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4. According to Workers World ("Mexico: Washington's Role In The
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Economic Crisis," Jan. 26, 1995), "The bail-outs... were
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developed to defend the profits of Telmex, Citicorp and other
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corporations."
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5. According to Christopher Whalen, publisher of *The Mexico
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Report*, the bailout was being pushed by friends of the Treasury
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Secretary, Robert Rubin, and Goldman Sachs.
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So Goldman Sachs is the #1 contributor to Bill Clinton's
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presidential campaign. Then Robert Rubin, of Goldman Sachs,
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becomes Treasury Secretary. Then big money investors, likely to
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suffer loss consequent to the late-1994 Peso devaluation, are
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rescued by Clinton/Rubin. Hmmm...... Could there be some sort of
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deal going on here? Hmmm........
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Author Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity
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(http://www.essential.org/cpi) was Brian Lamb's guest on a
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segment broadcast by C-Span on January 12, 1996. In his new book,
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Lewis has profiled about a dozen presidential candidates:
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Clinton, Gore and the announced (prior to September 15, 1995)
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Republicans. There is also a "wild card" chapter, giving
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background on five candidates of whom there was speculation that
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they would run for president.
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Host Brian Lamb of C-Span asked Lewis what he meant by
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documenting, in his book, what he referred to as the "Top Ten
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Career Patrons" of each candidate; why call them "career
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patrons"? Lewis replied, "I think we too frequently look at a
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snapshot... We don't look at the pattern. Virtually everyone
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running for president has been a 'player' on the national scene
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for ten, twenty, or more years... And so there are groups,
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interest groups -- business, labor, and other groups -- that have
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been *around* these candidates. And so when you elect the
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candidates, you're getting these 'patrons' as I would call them."
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An analogy might be that it's as if the various candidates are
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"prize fighters", backed by wealthy interests watching from the
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shadows. And sometimes, just as in the world of prize fights and
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gamblers, those laying down the cash will hedge their bets. At
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position number 5 in Clinton's list of career patrons is Gallo
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Wine in Modesto, California. For Bob Dole, his number 1 career
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patron is Ernest and Julio Gallo Winery, Modesto, California.
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"I assume they are the same?" asked Lamb.
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"Right," answered Lewis.
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"Are they getting something for their money?"
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"To me, there's no question about it."
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Remember, we're talking about *career* *patrons* here. So for
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Senator Dole, this means that Gallo has been funding him for a
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long time, presumably when he represented just his state of
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Kansas as senator. So why does Gallo, from California, pay to
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help elect Senator Dole, from Kansas? Says Lewis: "There are
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several legislative examples of how Dole helped Gallo. And we
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calculated that Gallo made over $100 million from legislative
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measures that Dole was involved in."
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A caller from Dayton, Ohio asked, "What about foreign
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contributors to campaigns?" George Bush, she claimed, helped
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Croatia in its push for independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Did
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this in turn help de-stabilize Yugoslavia so that American boys
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and girls now risk death and injury in the region? "Do you have
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there what foreign countries contributed to candidates?"
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According to Mr. Lewis, "Foreign governments and foreign
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corporations... I believe it is illegal for them to make direct
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contributions to candidates. However what happens is the U.S.
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subsidiaries will frequently make these contributions... The
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Center for Public Integrity has done a lot of research over the
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years about foreign lobbying. We've identified a lot of lobbying
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firms and law firms doing all kinds of things. We're the ones
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that came out with the study that half the trade officials from
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the White House, over a 20-year period, went to work for the
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people that we are negotiating against. This information was used
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by Perot, Clinton and others in the '92 election."
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Mr. Lamb then wondered about a recent article in Roll Call, which
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"had a story yesterday which said that under the new law over
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here, about disclosure and all, and what gifts you can give, that
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the lobbyists have figured out a way around it with the staff.
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And there's a big travel thing with the people that work on the
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staffs of these committees. And the way they get around it is,
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the industry gives money to a tax-free foundation, and then the
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tax-free foundation sponsors the trips for several staff members
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to go overseas on a trip in which the lobbyists join them on that
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trip."
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Sighed Lamb: "Is there any way this will *ever* stop?"
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"If there's a loophole like that, it needs to be closed,"
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answered Lewis.
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"How are you gonna close it?"
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"Well... I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head,"
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was the response. Mr. Lewis could only offer that we've just got
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to basically keep trying.
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Lamb then inquired of Lewis if he had "ever studied the
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townhouses that exist behind the Capitol, where all the lobbyists
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have their 'hideaways?'"
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Said Lewis: "I haven't studied it. But I certainly have walked
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past them."
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"Is there a story there?"
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"There probably is. It would really be fun to just lay out who
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lives in each one of them and what they're all about."
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Lamb amplified that the notorious townhouses were "for fund-
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raisers and special dinners. And Members go there. They're off-
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limits, they're off-the-record."
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"It would be nice to know who goes there, on a daily basis,"
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responded Lewis. "The problem is, the Freedom of Information Act
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does not apply to Congress. We can't ever find out where these
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guys go. We can't find out how they fill up their hours in the
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day. We can't find out who they meet with."
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"Interesting that they're the ones that wrote the law," he added.
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Also on Clinton's list of top ten career patrons is, at number 2,
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something called Voice of Teachers for Education. (Could this
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have anything to do with why he does not support school vouchers
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that would offer poor families a choice as to what school their
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children attend?) We also find, further down the list at about
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the middle, that the President's major *group* of funders,
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occupying several positions, turns out to be lawyers and
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lobbyists. "His biggest source of income [is] trial lawyers, but
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also big lobbying and law firms -- which is frustrating, because
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we don't know who they all represent and who their clients are,"
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complained Lewis.
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Names of contributors flashed by, but I believe I did indeed see
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the name "Jackson Stephens" as being among the top-ten career
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patrons for *both* Clinton and Dole.
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Another interesting tidbit, mentioned only in passing, was that
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James Lake(sp?), who worked for the Bush presidential campaign,
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also worked for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International
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(BCCI).
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Does Lewis get discouraged? "I get frustrated, like anybody else.
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This is a pretty bleak situation here in Washington. But I also
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know that somebody's got to do something... And I feel we *are*
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getting information out to the people. And I think we're getting
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better at it."
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See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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