Ustwo, your response is similar to throwing the baby out with the bath water.
I stand by the facts in the statements that were presented in the quotes.
It is much easier for you to post a few line in an attempt to discredit the
sources that I used. Yes, this is a complicated set of circumstances. I
quoted sources where the crux of the facts in my argument were best
assembled. Why not do as I suggested in the thread opening; do your own
research and refute the core of my argument. I believe that Bush profited
from a deal that he made, using his authority as Governor to help his
friend, Tom Hicks, to make signifigant profits via the award of the right
of Tom Hick's investment company, Utimco, to manage a huge amount of
Texas University's endowment. Hicks rewarde Bush by organizing a partnership that paid an attractive price for Bush's baseball team. Bush then
evaded taxes by stating an earned bonus as a long term capital gain, which
was taxed at half the tax rate that earned income is taxed at. Bush saved
at least $2.4 million in federal income tax by erroneously categorizing the
bulk of his gain from the baseball team sale as a long term capital gain, instead of what that income really was; earned income.
Now.....Ustwo, impeach the source of the following quotes instead of doing
the work of refuting the facts. The source is the University of Texas
Watchdog Group,
www.utwatch.org .
More on UTIMCO, the University of Texas endowment portfolio manager
that was created while Bush was governor of Texas, at the behest of
Bush friend Tom Hicks, who later paid $250 million to Bush and his partners for the Texas Rangers baseball team......
Quote:
UTIMCO has proven itself to be caught in a web of tit-for-tat political favors, and ethically questionable appointments that can be traced back to both big Texas money and George W. Bush.
In addition, the <a href="utimco_performance.html">performance</a> of UTIMCO's investments have been bleak.
The company has lost over $1 billion in the last year alone, including substantial losses from its ties to the scandal-ridden corporations <a href="/corporations/enron.html">Enron</a> and WorldCom.
Even if UTIMCO can post profits for certain investments, UTIMCO has continually performed well below the Dow Jones average.
<a href="http://www.utwatch.org/utimco/">http://www.utwatch.org/utimco/</a>
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Quote:
UTIMCO Secrecy
Since its inception in 1995, UTIMCO has operated in secret and attempted to shield itself from public visibility and accountability. With the former chairman Tom Ricks at the front line, UTIMCO argued that secrecy was important in making sound business decisions, and public knowledge would threaten the board's ability to strategize. UT Regent and UTIMCO board member Woody Hunt commented "We are appropriately open. There are some proceedings that shouldn't be open because it might hurt our investment strategy. However, all decisions we make are open to the public." (Univ. Wire, March 30, 2001)
In 1999, Don Evans, then the chairman of the Board of Regents, urged UTIMCO to obey open meeting laws of Texas. Despite his pleas, the board continued to hold meetings in private.
In the spring of 2001, State Representative Ron Wilson from Houston amended his education bill to declare UTIMCO as a public institution, requiring it to comply with the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA). This move was prompted by a growing skepticism on the part of legislators and the public regarding the decision process of UTIMCO's investments and the relationship between those decisions and the substantial financial loss the company had taken in recent months.
In October of 2001, UTIMCO passed its own resolution agreeing to comply with TOMA. Further rules applied requiring that the names and the value of assets invested must be made public as per the Texas Open Records Act.
Despite these attempts at opening up the company to public accountability, UTIMCO has continued to be scrutinized for not publishing its meeting times and locations and using such methods as teleconferencing or obscure locales such as the Ballpark at Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers, or the offices of Hicks, Muse, Tate, & Furst, the firm owned by Tom Hicks, to hold those meetings. <a href="http://www.utwatch.org/utimco/secrecy.html">http://www.utwatch.org/utimco/secrecy.html</a>
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