"In retrospect, it's unclear whether the Bush dynasty built Enron or vice versa."--Kevin Phillips, Republican Analyst

"We tried to do our best to maintain manufacturing in the United States, but we have to be competitive to survive as a company."--Jeff Beckman, Levi Strauss spokesman

There is a need to reform the greedy and amoral capitalism of the United States, the leading debtor country in the world who has the arrogance to export democracy by waging wars. American greedy and amoral capitalism is at the root of our world’s problems. The American government has been hijacked by the biggest corporations representing the military industrial complex and there is an extreme need to reform the role of corporations and redirect their purposes for the benefit of people at large rather than for the benefit of what Kevin Phillips calls the top 1%.

I watched the video Despotism & Democracy and I learned how the progressive concentration of economic power leads to the concentration of information and ultimately to the decline of democracy as we are told to shut up and how to think and do.

Last Friday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has released the study WMD IN IRAQ: Evidence and Implications. This study reports that "Administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's WMD and ballistic missile programs."

We already knew that this Bush administration is made of professional liars and in fact the Pentagon was labeled as the Lie Factory when they invented the Office of Special Plans for fabricating bogus intelligence against Iraq.

In his book Wealth and Democracy, Kevin Phillips writes:

"Between 1979 and 1989 the portion of the nation's wealth held by the top 1% nearly doubled from 22 percent to 39 percent. By the mid-nineties, some economists estimated that the top 1% had captured 70% of all earnings growth since the mid-seventies. In 1999, the New York Times reported that within the most prosperous fifth of US households, national income growth was shared so unevenly that some 90 percent of that fifth's income gain went to the top 1%."

We have a world for the top 1% class and we people at large are being duped. President Bush’s brother Neil made over $170,000 in the single day of July 19, 1999 by buying and selling the stock of Kopin Corp, a company for which he marketed his Bush name to provide consulting work. Martha Stewart sold her ImClone stock on December 27, 2001 one day before this stock tumbled and now she is on trial as she has been charged for insider trading. As far as I am concerned I don’t see any difference between Martha Stewart’s trading and Neil Bush’s; they are both insiders of the stock market manipulated by the top 1% class.

It makes me laugh to think of the crony benefit of $US188 million received by Richard Grasso, former chairman of the New York Exchange (NYSE). In this regard, interim NYSE chairman John Reed has stated

"We clearly believe there has been damage. Now the question is what do we do about it. Do we sue the board [themselves?], sue Grasso or begin to negotiate with him?"

I have one more sad laughter as the top 1% class is accusing China of stealing American jobs while they themselves want to live out of their profits, rents and copyrights in their designed Free Market. Oh yes, I was forgetting, after being embedded with Enron the top 1% class is now going after the supposed culprits of Enron’s bubble: president Bush’s friends.

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Krugman, Paul Enron and the System (PDF) January 9, 2004, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/opinion/09KRUG.html

Phillips, Kevin Will the Enron albatross be on Bush's neck ... PLACING FAULT IN THE ENRON SCANDAL February 23, 2002 Los Angeles Times, http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/editorial/2730112.htm

Associated Press Levi Strauss closes last two U.S. plants (PDF) January 8, 2004 http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/01/08/levi.s.closing.ap/index.html

Becker, Elizabeth and Edmund L Andrews I.M.F. Says Rise in U.S. Debts Is Threat to World's Economy January 8, 2004 The New York Times, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0108-02.htm

Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Despotism & Democracy 1946 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4971.htm

Zakaria, Tabassum US misrepresented weapons danger, report says January 9, 2004 Reuters, New York Times, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/08/1073437409808.html

DEMOCRACY NOW! The Lie Factory - How the Neocons & the Office of Special Plans Pushed Disinformation and Bogus Intelligence on Iraq http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5398.htm

Miller, David The Domination Effect January 8, 2004 the Guardian/UK, http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0108-09.htm

Phillips, Kevin Wealth and Democracy Excerpts http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kevin_Phillips/Privateersmen_WAD.html

Dittmar, Sharon Separate Parts of the American Dream June 2, 2002 http://www.firstuu.com/Sunday_Services/Sermon_Archive/2002/6-2-02.htm

Yost, Pete Bush Brother Makes Big One-Day Profit January 1, 2004 Associated Press, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3573871,00.html

Associated Press Jury selection starts in Stewart trial. Domestic diva faces securities fraud charges (PDF) January 6, 2004 http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3887560&p1=0

New York Times $A244m: fair pay or a hand in the till? January 8, 2004 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/07/1073437345047.html

Drawbaugh, Kevin Enron's Fastow in Plea Bargain Talks January 7, 2004 Reuters, http://news.findlaw.com/business/s/20040107/enronfastowsdc.html