In the 2000 presidential campaign, then governor Bush described his party as being “Compassionate Conservatives”. However, based on their actions over the last few years they have proven to be more like “Corporate Courtesans” willing to give favors to anyone with money and a desire to support the Party.
Here’s a partial list of their satisfied corporate customers.
During the 2000 campaign Bush promised to support the Kyoto protocol which called for a reduction in CO2 gases to help prevent global warming. But under pressure from petroleum interests he was seduced into abandoning any restrictions. The result is that many species, including penguins, polar bears and children in poor and drought stricken areas, are facing extinction. This did not show compassion, only acquiescence to greed.
Higher water quality, by restricting the amount of arsenic in drinking water was also opposed due to pressure from mining interests who would be forced to be more responsible for the leeching of arsenic and other chemicals from mining operations. Again, where’s the compassion for those, both children and adults, affected by unhealthy water?
In February 2004 the FDA prevented a presentation by Andrew Mosholder which was critical of antidepressant use by children. Mosholder reviewed data from 20 clinical trials involving more than 4,100 children and several different antidepressants. He concluded that there was an increased risk of suicidal behavior among children being treated for depression with Paxil and several other antidepressants.1 The happy customer was the pharmaceutical industry.
A team of investigative reporters in Iraq have uncovered waste and fraud in US companies who received multi-million-dollar construction contracts from the Bush administration. These companies refused to use qualified local workers even though it would have saved money. "A handful of well-connected corporations are making a killing off the devastation in Iraq" observes Chris Kromm, publisher of Southern Exposure. "The politics and process behind these deals have always been questionable. Now we have first-hand evidence that they're not even doing their jobs." Companies include Halliburton, Bechtel and others. The fraud has been so obvious that Halliburton was required to pay $27.4 million back to the US military for overcharges for meals for US troops.2 In addition, oversight has been so bad that Senators have ask Defense Minister Don Rumsfeld to account for over 8 billions dollars entrusted to the Coalition Provisional Authority this year that is now missing.3 For that amount of money it must have been at least a ménage à trois.
The Bush administration shelved a proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities, satisfying an industry that has donated more than $1 million to Republicans.4
The administration supports electronic voting machines that are fraught with errors and open to manipulation. These are sold and programmed by republican owned companies who have donated large amounts to the Republican Party.5 This is a real concern since over a third of the votes for the presidential election will be made using these unreliable and tamper prone machines.
The Bush administration’s lower air pollution standards will affect National parks, including Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Bismark ND. This will allow power companies to operate “dirty” coal fired power plants. "Our deep concern is that this is a damaging case of politics trumping sound science and the long-standing judgment of EPA's professional staff that could have far-reaching impacts and allow harmful air-pollution degradation at national parks ... ," said Vickie Patton, a Denver-based attorney for Environmental Defense. "What they did to work on the problem was to cook the books," said Mary Mitchell Bismark, organizer of Dakota Resource Council, a regional group.6 This clearly shows a lack of compassion for our national parks and the people who are expecting to breathe clean air around them.
Despite the chance that Mad Cow disease could cause a human epidemic in the United States, the administration has chosen not to fully enforce procedures to prevent the spread of the disease, and has declined to require the testing of all beef to ensure it is free of the disease. Other countries, including Britain, Canada and Japan have instituted a policy that requires that all cattle be tested for the disease, where the US only tests 20 to 40 thousand out of over 35 million slaughtered cows. “Unfortunately, Veneman ((Secretary of Agriculture) and the Bush administration currently have no plans to do the right thing. The United States meat industry still believes that the millions of dollars in campaign contributions doled out over the years will continue to forestall the necessary regulations, and that soothing PR assurances will convince the consuming public that this is just some vegetarian fear-mongering conspiracy concocted by the media to sell organic food.”7 Since there is also no testing of people with alzheimers, it is impossible to know how many of these people actually are dying from the human form of Mad cow. Dr. Hulse, a Doctor and Dairy scientist, concludes that “4 million people in the United States suffering from Alzheimer's may actually be infected with the agent that causes CJD”.8 Incredibly, the administration has gone so far as to prevent a cattle farmer from voluntarily testing all of his cows which would have enabled him to sell to a broader market. The administration was “concerned” that this would make other farmer’s meat appear less safe. Where is the compassion for all those people who suffer from this long and terrible disease?
“Under the guise of preventing forest fires, the Bush administration is planning the biggest timber sale on public lands in modern history. The Biscuit Project would allow logging of 372 million board feet of timber across 30 square miles of southwest Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest—enough timber to fill 70,000 logging trucks. The logging would be done on wildlands of uncommon beauty and ecological diversity, far from any community that could be damaged in a fire.”9
"It's the biggest logging sale since World War II," says Steve Holmer, communications director with the Unified Forest Defense Campaign, a coalition of national and regional conservation organizations. "Timber companies have made huge contributions to the Bush campaign. This project is political payback." 9
No compassion or concern shown here for conserving our wilderness heritage. Exchanged with pleasure for large contributions from forest companies.
The Carlyle Group, where Bush’s father worked for 10 years, stands to make billions from the war on terrorism through companies it owns. This includes everything from weapons manufacturers to companies that produce anthrax antidotes and clean up. It is the first time ever that a former president worked for a Pentagon supplier.
"It's not possible to get closer to the administration than Carlyle is," asserts Charles Lewis, Director of the Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan organization in Washington. "George Bush senior earned money from private interests that worked for the government of which his son was president. You could even say that the president could one day profit financially, through his father's investments, from the political decisions he himself took," he adds.10
The Carlyle Group gave over $427,000 to political parties in the 2000 campaign, with 84% going to republicans.11 Quite an incestuous group.
The administration has pressured developing countries not to produce generic, cheaper Anti-AIDs drugs.
Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz joined advocacy groups Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières this month in criticizing Washington for bowing to industry pressure by pursuing a policy the groups say could prevent millions of AIDS patients in poor countries from getting the lifesaving antiretroviral drugs and treatment they need.12
The administration has been given millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies and has decided it is better to pleasure them than to show compassion for millions dying of AIDs.
So based on these examples, do you think Bush and his Republican paramours are really “Compassionate Conservatives”, or are they in fact just lusty “Corporate Courtesans”?
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1 “Drug report barred by FDA. Scientist links antidepressants to suicide in kids” by Rob Waters. San Francisco Chronicle, 2/1/2004.
2 “Investigation Reveals Reconstruction Racket in Iraq” by Pratap Chatterjee, Corp Watch, 2/4/2004.
3 “Staggering Amount of Cash Missing In Iraq” by Emad Mekay Inter Press Service, 7/21/2004.
4 “Bush Administration Shelved MTBE Ban” By Pete Yost, Chicago Tribune 2/15/2004.
5 “Voting chaos looms for American election” By Steve Connor, The Independent, 2/16//2004 & Black Box Voting by Beverly Harris.
6 “Bush Air-Pollution Change Opens Door for Coal-Fired Plant”, LA Times, 2/14/2004.
7 “How Now, Mad Cow?”, by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, CommonDreams.org, 2/18/2004.
8 Mad Cows and Milk Gate by Dr. Virgil Hulse MD 1996
9 “Bush Team Pushes Huge Timber Sale Under Guise of Fire Protection”, BushGreenwatch, 7/7/2004
10 “Investing in War - The Carlyle Empire” By Eric Leser, Le Monde Diplomatique.
5/08/04
11 “The Iron Triangle – The blurred boundary that helped Carlyle reap benefits” by Dan Briody, UK Time Online, 5/09/2004
12 “Bush accused of pressuring countries to stop producing generic drugs” by Fiona Fleck Studentbmj.com 7/25/2004
Labels: Compassionate Conservatives, Corporate Crimes
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