The suffering, ignored communities of Texas's polluted industrial towns watched in stunned disbelief and horror as their former governor was sworn-in as the 43rd President of the United States after winning the election by a whisker. It was clear to them - long before he sent the Kyoto agreement into disarray and shocked the world with his casual dismissal of global warning - that George W. Bushs record as Governor of Texas provided grave evidence for environmental concern.
Today, George W. Bush may have temporarily won the war in Afghanistan, but he is finding himself engaged in a new battle against a scandal that is threatening to reveal to the world what his critics in Texas knew all along.
The day Bush took office marked the most contested and ugliest election result in US history. Soon after, President George Bush unveiled his plans for reduced social spending, tax breaks directed primarily at the rich, and an energy and environmental policy driven entirely by industry concerns. It was payback time for the big polluters of corporate America for all their campaign funding.
Bush's ambitions to drill for oil across the Alaskan wilderness and deregulate controls over the oil and energy industries appalled environmentalists, but it was his decision to ignore global warming and pull the plug on the Kyoto agreement that caused real outrage around the world.
As Governor of Texas, Bush earned the nickname 'the Toxic Texan'. Now, as the dispossessed communities suffering in the most polluted state in the USA would have warned if anyone had listened, Bush is using his Texas example as a template for the nation.
The story behind the singular determination of Bush to fly in the face of world opinion, the sentiments of most Americans and even many in his own government, reveals incredible single-mindedness and a payment of debts to the business interests that helped him to the White House - above all, oil and coal. Oil runs through every vein of the Bush administration; rarely, if ever, has a Western government been so intimately entwined with a single industry.
But seven months of Bush's oil-friendly presidency and a growing sense of world condemnation was driven out of the spotlight by 11 September and America's subsequent 'War on Terrorism'. With every bomb dropped on Afghanistan, Bush's popularity soared. Even the mighty Enron corporation's collapse was overshadowed by the noise of collapsing Taliban. But the announcement of a criminal enquiry into the company' s failure, and the political consequences for the White House, have finally swept the war out of the headlines.
Enron, the gigantic Texan energy trading firm and biggest single sponsor of George W. Bush's political career, collapsed dramatically amid allegations of fraud and insider trading. It is the biggest business failure in United States history. But during its reign as America's seventh largest company with sales last year of over $100 billion.
Enron was a cash machine for politicians in its home state of Texas and beyond - foremost among them the state's political first family, led by George Bush Senior and Junior, the 41st and 43rd Presidents of America.
There are many hallmarks of a Washington scandal, but most importantly of all, the Enron affair reveals Bush's priorities as President, exposes the institutionalised corruption at the heart of US politics, and shines a harsh spotlight into Bush's own backyard; Toxic Texas.
The energy industry's financial contributions and influence on Bush's national policies may be profoundly distasteful. It is not, however, illegal. Money has always greased the wheels of Washington politics; contributions are given in the expectation of favours returned. Texas is a horrifying example of George W. Bush's legacy; of unfettered industry, of favours returned, and of an environment that has been fouled in the name of profits.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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