For connoisseurs of the Miami Marlins stadium fiasco, one finds company in another earlier terrible stadium deal; the publicly financed stadium for the Texas Rangers that launched the political career of George W. Bush. While his father was ascending to the presidency of the United States, Bush parlayed borrowed money into a personal $15 million windfall for his part ownership.
As Russ Baker details in "Family of Secrets", a baseball team provided the public with the only appearance of business acumen, before W. was elected governor of Texas. In reading the book -- published nearly four years ago -- I learned something beyond the faint trace of a man born on third base who thought he hit a triple: the connection to the US EPA.
In considering who -- or which party to vote for or against -- in November, this story bears retelling.
EOM pays attention to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the federal regulator of polluters who the state of Florida and the GOP legislative majority coddles and protects. The EPA has a dismal record in Florida. (Friends of the Everglades, the grass roots group where I serve as volunteer president, mounted a determined battle to hold EPA accountable for failing to enforce the Clean Water Act. As a result, the EPA and state of Florida recently reached an agreement to fund more than $900 million to help repair the badly damaged River of Grass. Yes that is taxpayer money, it is money that should have been paid by polluters for many, many years.)
Many more readers care about the sordid Miami Marlin's stadium -- even Republicans -- than the US EPA. So it is a rare opportunity when the two can be connected, as in the case of the Texas Rangers and the Bush dynastic ambitions.
In the late 1980's, when Bush's father was president of the United States, there were many loyalists of the Bush political clan -- possibly including wealthy Saudi families like the Bin Ladens-- who helped W. and the Rangers through their investment. The partnership needed an inside man to sell the financing scheme and permitting issues. This is how Russ Baker describes the scenario, in "Family of Secrets":
"The inside man was the mayor of Arlington, car dealer Richard Greene. Greene played a key role in the city's decision to heavily subsidize Bush and his group (building the Texas Rangers stadium). At the time he began working to secure a home on favorable terms for Bush's Rangers, he was in trouble with federal banking regulators working for W's dad.
In 1990, at the same time he was talking with the Rangers about a new stadium, Greene was negotiating with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to settle a large lawsuit it had filed against him. He had headed the Arlington branch of Sunbelt Savings Association, which the local Fort Worth Star-Telegram described as "one of the most notorious failures of the S&L scandal." Sunbelt lost an estimated $2 billion, and the feds (and the nation's taxpayers) had to chip in about $297 million to clean it up. Greene and the FDIC reached an agreement on the pending suit just as he was signing the Rangers deal.
The Arlington mayor paid just $40,000 to settle the case-- and walked away. "George had no knowledge of my problems; there is no connection," he assured the New York Times in September 2000. All of the bank's key figures were charged except for him. Not only was Greene not criminally indicted, but he also escaped with minimal monetary pain. Ten days before Arlington's 1991 public referendum on a special sales tax hike to help finance the stadium, Greene, now charged in losses of $500 million, settled all of his civil litigation for a modest $165,000.
Greene's tenure was identified principally with pro-growth and business-friendly policies. Yet after George W. Bush became president, he appointed Greene to be a regional administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, where he oversaw federal environmental programs throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. These states have some of the nation's most severe pollution problems, most of which are connected to petroleum, and thus of central interest to the Bush political clan--which has typically fought emissions controls.
... Greene's EPA appointment was a nice farewell gift from his friends in the White House. He will get a pension equivalent to 100 percent of the highest pay he received at the EPA ..." (Family of Secrets, Page 355-356)
In the future, President George W. Bush would also use the EPA to advance a patently anti-science agenda. Region IV, in Florida, would be a particular opportunity for polluters. More comments on this, tomorrow.
As Russ Baker details in "Family of Secrets", a baseball team provided the public with the only appearance of business acumen, before W. was elected governor of Texas. In reading the book -- published nearly four years ago -- I learned something beyond the faint trace of a man born on third base who thought he hit a triple: the connection to the US EPA.
In considering who -- or which party to vote for or against -- in November, this story bears retelling.
EOM pays attention to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the federal regulator of polluters who the state of Florida and the GOP legislative majority coddles and protects. The EPA has a dismal record in Florida. (Friends of the Everglades, the grass roots group where I serve as volunteer president, mounted a determined battle to hold EPA accountable for failing to enforce the Clean Water Act. As a result, the EPA and state of Florida recently reached an agreement to fund more than $900 million to help repair the badly damaged River of Grass. Yes that is taxpayer money, it is money that should have been paid by polluters for many, many years.)
Many more readers care about the sordid Miami Marlin's stadium -- even Republicans -- than the US EPA. So it is a rare opportunity when the two can be connected, as in the case of the Texas Rangers and the Bush dynastic ambitions.
In the late 1980's, when Bush's father was president of the United States, there were many loyalists of the Bush political clan -- possibly including wealthy Saudi families like the Bin Ladens-- who helped W. and the Rangers through their investment. The partnership needed an inside man to sell the financing scheme and permitting issues. This is how Russ Baker describes the scenario, in "Family of Secrets":
"The inside man was the mayor of Arlington, car dealer Richard Greene. Greene played a key role in the city's decision to heavily subsidize Bush and his group (building the Texas Rangers stadium). At the time he began working to secure a home on favorable terms for Bush's Rangers, he was in trouble with federal banking regulators working for W's dad.
In 1990, at the same time he was talking with the Rangers about a new stadium, Greene was negotiating with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to settle a large lawsuit it had filed against him. He had headed the Arlington branch of Sunbelt Savings Association, which the local Fort Worth Star-Telegram described as "one of the most notorious failures of the S&L scandal." Sunbelt lost an estimated $2 billion, and the feds (and the nation's taxpayers) had to chip in about $297 million to clean it up. Greene and the FDIC reached an agreement on the pending suit just as he was signing the Rangers deal.
The Arlington mayor paid just $40,000 to settle the case-- and walked away. "George had no knowledge of my problems; there is no connection," he assured the New York Times in September 2000. All of the bank's key figures were charged except for him. Not only was Greene not criminally indicted, but he also escaped with minimal monetary pain. Ten days before Arlington's 1991 public referendum on a special sales tax hike to help finance the stadium, Greene, now charged in losses of $500 million, settled all of his civil litigation for a modest $165,000.
Greene's tenure was identified principally with pro-growth and business-friendly policies. Yet after George W. Bush became president, he appointed Greene to be a regional administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, where he oversaw federal environmental programs throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. These states have some of the nation's most severe pollution problems, most of which are connected to petroleum, and thus of central interest to the Bush political clan--which has typically fought emissions controls.
... Greene's EPA appointment was a nice farewell gift from his friends in the White House. He will get a pension equivalent to 100 percent of the highest pay he received at the EPA ..." (Family of Secrets, Page 355-356)
In the future, President George W. Bush would also use the EPA to advance a patently anti-science agenda. Region IV, in Florida, would be a particular opportunity for polluters. More comments on this, tomorrow.
3 comments:
So let me get this straight: the bin Laden's financed George W.Bush's piece of the Rangers, giving him thee "business acumen" credentials so he could run for Texas' governor and then run and be elected president?
The shooter on the grassy knoll is the same guy who shot RFK and pushed Teddy's car off of Chappaquidick Bridge.
And somehow this is all tied to the emasculation of the EPA and 9/11.
You guys (and ladies) make me dizzy.
From Daily Kos: Both David Rivera (FL-26) and Dan Benishek (MI-01) trail by nine points, according to Democratic polling. Rivera did offer some (sketchy) counterpolling last week, but if Dan Benishek is polling, he is holding his numbers very close to the vest. That, ordinarily, is far from a good sign.
Typical disinformation, number 1 anon. Ready shoot, aim.
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