Bush Twins Studiously Avoid UW Madison Campus
On Wednesday Jenna and Barbara, made campaign appearances at St. Norbert College in De Pere, UW-Oshkosh and Marquette University in Milwaukee, stumping for their father. Barbara encouraged the students to vote and not be afraid of being a young Republican.

"Both wearing casual tops in shades of green — Jenna in olive and Barbara in seafoam — the twin daughters of President Bush stumped for their dad Wednesday in the home of the Green Knights," reports Lee Reinsch in the GB Press Gazette.

Jim Hightower encourages both sisters not to be afraid to fully support their father...
WHY AREN'T JENNA AND BARBARA IN FATIGUES?
9/14/2004

Did you take full and proper notice of the political coming out of George W's twin daughters?

Jenna and Barbara, the 22-year-old twins, have long been kept away from the political glare, but they're now adults who have just graduated from college, and both have been brought into the limelight by the Bush political campaign. Their first outing was for a photo spread and puff piece that ran in Vogue, the fashion magazine. Indeed, they looked splendiferous, beautifully made up and swathed in glamorous designer gowns––one by Oscar de la Renta, the other by Calvin Klein. No telling how many silk worms toiled to make this photo spread possible.

But––tacky me–– I couldn't help thinking as I viewed the photos: Why aren't they in fatigues and Kevlar vests, like other women and men their age?

Jenna and Barbara announced that they would be joining their daddy's election campaign, but I had to ask myself: Why aren't they joining their daddy's war?

After all, he says that his war in Iraq is absolutely essential to our national security. And he insists that his policies over there are absolutely worth all the troops who have been killed, worth the horrible mutilations of thousands of other soldiers, worth the horrific beheadings, worth the untold illnesses and poisonings being contracted by the men and women he has sent there, and worth the illegal conscription of tens of thousands of Americans forced to stay in this disastrous war beyond their legitimate tour of duty.

So, if daddy's war is absolutely worth the sacrifice of America's workaday families––why is it not worth the enlistment of his military-age family?

Maybe it's genetic. After all, George himself was a "ferocious war hawk" who used family connections to keep himself 8,000 miles from Vietnam. And now that he's president, he can start his own war that leaves his loved ones safely swathed in silk...while our families see our loved ones come home in shrouds.

A Trillion has 12 zeros after it... 000,000,000,000
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. budget deficit will balloon to $2.29 trillion over the next decade, congressional analysts said Tuesday. This represents a worse outlook than previously forecast and one likely to stir election-year debate about President Bush's economic policies. The CBO confirmed a preliminary forecast made in August for a record deficit of $422 billion for the 2004 fiscal year.

"This report underscores that our policies are working to create a stronger economy, more jobs and a lower deficit," said House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, an Iowa Republican.

And everything is going great in Iraq, George Bush was an awesome member of the Texas National Guard, there's no problem with assualt weapons back on the streets again and that mushroom cloud over North Korea... "It was probably just a forest fire" says the Whitehouse Sphinx - the same security advisor who earlier reverse-poked, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," as we veered away from Osama and gunned it for Baghdad.

Dick Cheney, the Queen of Denial can't stop displaying a brazen disregard for the facts, telling an audience in Cincinnati Thursday that Iraq had "provided safe harbor and sanctuary...for Al Qaeda," despite the findings of the 9/11 Commission.

Watch Pentagon Strike... and then please explain how Flight 77, a Boeing 757 weighing 80 tons simply vanished.

Deny this: There are only two spots in the US that are located below sea level... Death Valley, CA and New Orleans, LA. What might a true Department of Homeland Security provide for the citizens who Can't Evacuate New Orleans for Ivan, the estimated 100,000 poorer New Orleans residents who have no cars, the ones who often rely on City Transportation for all of their travel who now can't flee to safety.

"Got no place to go and no way to get there," said a 57-year-old grandmother, who lives on a disability check and money she picks up cleaning houses or baby sitting. "They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," Latonya Hill said. "If I can't walk it or get there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."

TALK
President Bush shows that he has compassion, "There are still some people looking for work because of the recession. There are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas. And we need to act in this country. We need to act to make sure there are more jobs at home, and people are more likely to retain a job."

WALK
The Republican National Committee is such a staunch believer in creating these jobs that they used a firm in Maharashtra, India, to create its database of approximately 165 million registered voters.

WALK'in the WALK:
For the record, The Dems’ voter database was developed by a company, Plus Three, based in a distant suburb of New Delhi, India, called Washington, D.C.

In commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act the State of Utah auctioned off 40,000 acres of Utah wilderness lands to oil and gas exploration firms. Their expected findings will satisfy a possible 4 days of US oil consumption and 4 weeks useage of natural gas.

The Truth-Telling Project, led by Daniel Ellsberg, encourages whistleblowing in the national interest. It urges current and recently retired government officials to reveal the truth to Congress and the public about governmental wrongdoing. lies and cover-up. It aims to change the norms and practices that sustain the cult of secrecy, and to de-legitimize silence that costs lives.

Randolph Bourne, a notable American critic and social activist, courageously opposed World War I. The Randolph Bourne Institute (RBI) seeks to honor his memory by promoting a non-interventionist foreign policy for the United States as the best way of fostering a peaceful, more prosperous world.

"We support a former Baathist assassin as president, while a Shi'ite cleric, whose father was murdered by Saddam Hussein, is our most implacable foe." Ghost of Madison a warning for Iraq war

Two Americas... Going Nowhere Workers' Wages Since the Mid-1970s
Since 2000 average wages for American workers have stopped growing. From post WWII 1947 until the mid-70s wages for all US workers were rising steadily, and faster than the inflation rate.

Not only are wages declining, health insurance benefits are shrinking as group policy rates continue to rise at a rate way beyond that of inflation. "Alone among developed nations, the United States relies primarily on employers to provide health insurance for its citizens. More than 60 percent of Americans obtain medical coverage as a benefit from their own jobs or from family members’ jobs." - America’s Achilles’ Heel Job-Based Health Coverage and the Uninsured

"American Jobs Blog" discusses the ongoing development, film information, issues, and ideas relating to the documentary film "American Jobs" directed by Greg Spotts that explores the loss of American jobs to foreign competition. Watch for an upcoming free screening at the Compass Coffeehouse.

Many Americans wonder why we don’t just take a big atomic bomb and drop it on Hurricane Ivan. Little do they realize that not only would Ivan fail to even notice the blast from the largest bomb we can muster, Ivan would absentmindedly scoop up all of the nuclear poison created by the blast and sprinkle it throughout the jet stream for equitable distribution over the entire planet. Hurricane Ivan contains 4 times more power than the entire sum total of all of the energy being used at any one time by all of the people everywhere on planet Earth.

Under federal election law, college students are legally entitled to vote from their residence at school. The New Voters Project intends to make sure they get registered, informed and encouraged to do so on November 2nd.

New Voters Project registers success in UW vote campaign
The Daily Cardinal says, "With election day less than two months away, the UW-Madison branch of the New Voters Project announced they have already registered 3,218 young voters, and said they hope to register a total of 10,000 by November 2."

Fighting Bob Fest Saturday, September 18 in Baraboo...
is named for its inspiration, Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Wisconsin’s former governor, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, who fought to expose and stop governmental corruption, reduce the influence of big business and to empower the people to participate in their democracy.

The theme for this year's Fighting Bob Fest is "Rights at Risk" - the right of a woman to choose; the right of children to a good public education; the rights of minorities to fully participate in our economic and political life; the right of citizens of this country and, indeed, the world, to clean air, water, and sensible growth.

Tom Harkin, Peg Lautenschlager, Jim Hightower, John Nichols, Bob McChesney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tammy Baldwin, Gerald Bracey and others will lay out their view of the risks, and they are asking you to write to FightingBob.com and give your views on the risks and the top three things you will do to fight for our rights.

"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots." — Barbara Ehrenreich

"Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive." — John F. Kennedy

"A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead." — Leo C. Rosten

"The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them." — Mark Twain

"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" — Eleanor Roosevelt

The above quotes from:
http://activismispatriotism.org/

If you miss Donald Rumsfeld at the Republican National Convention, you can still listen to "His" music; Rummy's "Poetic" language makes sweet music on new CD... The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld

Others missing in action: Secretary of State Colin Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.

Peter Schurman of MoveOn.org says, "Tom DeLay of Texas was kept out of sight, and for good reason. DeLay's in charge of ramming the right wing's agenda through Congress, as the Republican leader in the House. Nicknamed "The Hammer" for his ruthless style, DeLay is nearly as central to right-wing control in Washington as Bush, Cheney, and Karl Rove."

"DeLay was the mastermind behind last year's outrageous redistricting in Texas; he refuses to allow a vote in the House on limiting media consolidation, because it will win; and when other Congresspeople question Bush's war policy, he accuses them of undermining our troopsand surrendering to terrorists. DeLay has literally locked House Democrats out of negotiations on major bills like Medicare, and held votes open for hours while arms are twisted with threats and bribe offers -- and that's according to fellow Republicans."

Schurman says it's time to stop him. "In Texas, DeLay's immersed in a campaign finance scandal that could get him indicted. And meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, he's facing the first formal ethics complaint in seven years, which could force him to resign his post as Majority Leader. The problem is, four of the Ethics Committee's five Republican members have received campaign contributions from DeLay.

Please call your Representative now to "demand an outside counsel to investigate Tom DeLay."

Call Congressman Mark Green:
Washington, DC: 202-225-5665
Local phone: 920-437-1954

Other topics never mentioned at the recent GOP convention... the Crisis in Sudan or the connection between Sadam and 9/11.

Kid's Quotes...
"Since we've graduated from college, we're looking around for something to do for the next few years. Kind of like dad," - Barbara Bush, 1/2 of The First Twins.

"We don't need Mr. Bush to teach us a lesson in democracy... It's funny to Arabs to listen to the President talking about democracy, and at the same time half the population in America still has doubts about his legitimacy as a President."
- Seif Khadafy, 32-year-old son of Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy

Comentators on the radio this morning say Bush is popular with some folks because he's the kind of a guy you might pick when asked, "Who do you want to have a beer with?"

My response is to ask those same folks, "And after you've had those beers, who do you want to drive home?"

"It's Time for a Change" vs. "You've Never Had It So Good" "You've Never Been So Safe" opens today in NYC, in hopes of capitalizing on memories of 9/11. But on Thursday Sept. 2, the night GWB is set to make his acceptance speech, British TV will be airing "The Hamburg Cell", the first major documentary dramatization of the 9/11 plot specifically from the perpetrators' perspective. It will indeed stir controversy because it reveals the hijackers as regular, ordinary, educated, middle class guys who were somehow motivated to strike at the US.

"The central figure in the two-hour long film is Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in Pennsylvania. It shows him being transformed from a moderate Muslim into a suicide hijacker in the months before the attacks," says Malcolm Fitzwilliams and Anthony Barnes of the Independant.

"It is difficult to watch and to hear these facts come out," says David Potorti, whose older brother Jim died in the World Trade Centre. "But the only way to prevent 9/11 from happening again is to face the facts courageously."

Potorti is co-director of Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an international peace campaign set up after 9/11... "As family members of September 11th victims, we know how it feels to experience "shock and awe," and we do not want other innocent families to suffer the trauma and grief that we have endured. While we also condemn the brutality of Saddam Hussein's regime, it does not justify the brutality, death and destruction being visited upon Iraq and its citizens by our own government."

"The Hamburg Cell" was one of a plethora of films focusing on Sept. 11 that premiered at the recent Edinburgh Film Festival.

MissionNotAccomplished.com
The real Flipper... GWB's Administration Shifts on Global Warming, the latest flip flop from President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief. Read 'em and weep... 25 of his biggest flip-flops.

Steve Earle has begun hosting a radio show on Air America Sunday nights. His new album is called The Revolution Starts …Now. Read this Friday, August 27, 2004 transcript of his interview with Amy Goodman - The Revolution Starts Now: Steve Earle on the Republican Convention, the Death Penalty and the GOP Hijacking of Johnny Cash

On RetroVsMetro.org you can learn about how the escalating war between two Americas, "one traditional and rooted in the past, and one modern and focused on the future," affects each of our lives. Pick up a copy of The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, just published (8/24/2004) and already one of Amazon's top 25 best sellers.


Caitlin, Valerie, Carly and friends provide a new twist on dissent with their sports fashion conversation openers... They have created a collection of new team names on colorful sports jerseys ("made in the USA by companies paying prevailing wages") that pay tribute to the national pastime - special interest politics. Support your favorite team: "Axis of Evil Doers", "Far Righteous Indignators", "Family Devaluers", "Corporate Apologists", "Halliburton Overchargers", "Constitutional Tramplers." and many more at ClothingOfTheAmericanMind.com.

On a more serious note the One Thousand Coffins Procession is set to take place in New York City at 10 AM on August 29. "a serene observance parade of realistic symbolic caskets draped in the Flag - to represent and honor each of our fallen soldiers and marines, and make a bold statement that the truth of their sacrifice cannot be censored."

‘His Scream’ Marine’s Father Burns Van, Himself After Learning of Son’s Death in Iraq
"This was his scream that his Chi-Chi — that's what he called Alex — this is his scream that his child is dead and the war needs to stop," said wife and mother Melida Arredondo.
Luz Marina Arredondo, Alexander's grandmother, said the government is at fault in her grandson's death. "I blame them a lot," she said. "They send them like guinea pigs over there."

"America Alone" a new book by Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke is hitting the book stores, describing how a group of radical intellectuals seized the reins of US national security policy after 9/11. Republicans and Democrats alike are finding it a valuable resource in assessing what has happened to the nation under the leadership of George W. Bush.

To quote the description, "It shows how, at this 'inflection point' in US history an inexperienced president was persuaded to abandon his campaign pledges and the successful consensus-driven, bi-partisan diplomacy that managed the lethal Soviet threat over the past half century, and adopt a neo-conservative foreign policy emphasizing military confrontation and 'nation-building.' To date, the costs - in blood, money and credibility - have been great, and the benefits few. Traditional conservatives deplore this approach. This book outlines the costs in terms of economic damage, distortion of priorities, rising anti-Americanism, encroachment on civil liberties, domestic political polarization and reduced security. Then, it sets out an alternative approach emphasizing the traditional conservative principles of containing risk, consensus diplomacy and balance of power. "



LINKS:
The Centre for Public Opinion & Democracy has been established at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia in order to further research, information exchange, and education on the changing dynamic of public opinion on both global and regional issues. It is unique among the handful of similar centres around the world in that its principle focus is not only the public opinion climate of its home country — Canada — but also the attitudes and perceptions of citizens around the world on the political, social, and economic happenings that shape the future of humanity.

Megan Cavanaugh brings the latest news from New York...
"I'm Gonna Kill the President!" A Federal Offense, is now playing through Sept. 4 at an undisclosed location in Manhattan's East Village. When you call 212.802.7446 for ticket reservations a voice explains, "To see the show, go to Manhattan and proceed to the middle of 10th Street, between Avenue A and Avenue B. Our agents will contact you there. You must arrive at least 30 minutes before showtime." The show's reservation line closes with the further warning, "Latecomers will not be shown to the theatre. And make sure you're not followed." The recording also sends a message to the feds: "If you're some kind of law enforcement agent or official, hang up now, there's nothing illegal happening here." Tickets are, "available to Republican delegates (with ID) for free" and are priced at $15.

Meanwhile New Yorkers are talking up the show, promoting it with posters and bumper stickers that all shout the name of the show... "I'm Gonna Kill the President!" while bookstores are hawking another new release... Checkpoint: A Novel by Nicholson Baker a novella that explores the peculiar angst many Americans are feeling right now about their country and their president. The book is set up as a conversation between two old high school buddies. One of them, in despair about the direction the country is going, is convinced he must kill the president; the other tries to talk him out of it.

Why are so many New Yorkers angry about the RNC coming to their city?
“Our tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York’s financial district,” said Christine Todd Whitman days after the 9/11 attack - even though there were no tests, none that would have told the government to announce that all was safe.

Unlike on Iraq, the Bush administration can’t try to blame this lie on faulty intelligence. Only later did New Yorkers and the general public learn that scientists found the residue from the Twin Towers was as corrosive as drain cleaner, and that between 100 and 1,000 tons of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were released into the local environment.

In fact, the city had never witnessed an incident that resulted in the release of more airborne toxins. Months later, the EPA’s Inspector General admitted that, “National security concerns and the desire to reopen Wall Street played a role in the EPA’s air quality statement.”

On Oct. 26, 2001 Juan Gonzalez with the Daily News, one of only a few crusading journalists posted a front-page expose entitled, “A Toxic Nightmare At Disaster Site.”

New Yorker Mike Burke says, "I remember reading the story where I was working just blocks from the still-burning site. Then I learned what I had been breathing for the past six weeks: benzene, heavy metals, PCBs and other dioxins."

None of the other news outlets felt it was appropriate to warn readers about the danger. And government officials continued lying. The media eventually caught on and would later reveal how the Bush administration pressured the EPA to rewrite press releases to downplay the risks the still-burning site posed to New Yorkers.

But by then Mt. Sinai’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine had already treated 4,000 people left ill by the fallout. Hundreds of firefighters and cops went on disability after working at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill.

Burke remembers, "For ten weeks that smell permeated the lives of the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who worked or lived downtown. Many woke up to the smell. Many more toiled through the workday breathing it in. While working downtown, I would face the smell coming off the train, during lunch breaks and after work. Sometimes when the wind was strong it would fill my office on Nassau Street. This didn’t end until Thanksgiving. All of us New Yorkers were collectively lied to about what we were smelling and how dangerous it was."

The Sierra Club has just released a major 180-page report on the entire affair...
"Air Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero: How the Bush Administration's Reckless Disregard of 9/11 Toxic Hazards Poses Long-Term Threats for New York City and the Nation" criticizing the Bush administration's handling of the post-9/11 clean-up in downtown New York.

"The Republicans chose to hold their convention here, I think most of us believe, to continue the political exploitation of 9/11, which this administration started almost immediately after 9/11," says Rep. Jerrold Nadler, whose congressional district in Manhattan includes the site where the World Trade Center once stood.

NYC AGAINST RNC LINKS:
www.rncnotwelcome.org/
www.counterconvention.org
www.windowtreatmentnyc.com
www.norncposters.org/
www.liteupbush.com/

I'm betting the name Merrie Spaeth doesn't ring a bell with most people...
She's the current media representative working for the Vietnam Swift boat veterans critical of John Kerry's decision to make his military service a major part of his campaign for president. They and Spaeth have publicised claims that Kerry is lying about his military service record, that he cannot be trusted, and that he “betrayed all his shipmates.” They spent $550,000 to create and run "Any Questions", a rebuttal to a pro-Kerry spot, in Wisconsin, Ohio, and West Virginia. I'm betting that not many people also know that Texas Republican activist Merrie Spaeth also served as former President Reagan's chief press officer and later as an advisor to Ken Starr.

Salon's Joe Conason says, "Behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth you will also find eternal Kerry antagonist and Dallas attorney John E. O'Neill, law partner of Spaeth's late husband, Tex Lezar; and retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as 'the classic body-count guy' who 'wanted hooches destroyed and people killed.'"

Conason further explains, "In 2000, Spaeth participated in the most subterranean episode of the Republican primary contest when a shadowy group billed as 'Republicans for Clean Air' produced television ads falsely attacking the environmental record of Sen. John McCain in California, New York and Ohio. While the identity of those funding the supposedly 'independent' ads was carefully hidden, reporters soon learned that Republicans for Clean Air was simply Sam Wyly -- a big Bush contributor and beneficiary of Bush administration decisions in Texas -- and his brother, Charles, another Bush 'Pioneer' contributor."

Journalist Greg Palast bets that while you might remember the name Katharine Harris there is a lot more that you don't know...
So he provided the facts behind a short new on-line video all about how Harris changed Florida's election laws and expanded the data from Choicepoint to "scrub" 55,100 eligible voters from the rolls.

OpenSecrets.org provides a handy bi-partisan guide to help you identify all of the Active Advocacy Groups in the 2004 Election Cycle.

WEBLINKS...
One of the DC Compass Web Board regulars, cheese_hunter recently posted a helpful link to a great resource: SpellCheck.net, a free on-line spell checker. The site has a bunch of other handy useful tools.

Paper Napkin explains that they are, "a service to help passive-agressive cowards avoid people who would like to date them." They explain, "If someone random asks you for your email address so they can contact you for a date, give them any email address @papernapkin.net (write it on a cocktail napkin for maximum effect) and we will send them a rejection message."

If you think this form of rejection is a bit mean I'd like to introduce you to some angry Knickerbockers...
No passive-agression here. They spit it out in plain and simple English, "We are New Yorkers adamantly opposed to the Republican's selection of our city to celebrate rising unemployment, their gutting of social services, tax cuts for the mega-rich, unlawful detention of immigrants, and their unrelenting exploitation of the 9/11 victims while standing on their ashes." RNCnotwelcome.org reads like a manual for uncivil disobedience... "The Republican National Committee has, for the first time in its 150 year history, selected New York for their Convention from August 29-September 2, 2004. In a shallow attempt at exploiting the lives lost at the World Trade Center, the RNC has pushed the Convention date to September. We have witnessed two unjust wars, at least one American life lost each day overseas, a depressed economy, the collapse of the dollar, $87 billion to boost war profiteering, the closing of our firehouses, a health-care crisis, millions of children being left behind, and now this. We say, Enough!"

Dear Bloggers: Media Discover Promotional Potential of Blogosphere
"The Wall Street Journal Online is promoting one story per day outside its subscription wall to bloggers. NYTimes.com is boosting the number of RSS feeds it offers. Media companies are starting to work with -- instead of against -- the blogosphere."

In May of 2001 energy giant Chevron Corp quietly renamed one of its big oil tankers. The Condoleeza Rice, named after the former Chevron director and current National Security Adviser to President Bush, was renamed the Altair Voyager. In April, at a White House press briefing, assistant press secretary Scott McLellan was asked about the oil tanker.

A reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle questioned with, “Before she became National Security Advisor, [Rice] was on the board of directors of Chevron Corporation. Chevron –– before she left –– named an oil tanker after her. There’s an oil tanker named the Condoleeza Rice. It’s a 136,000 ton oil tanker that carries oil around the world. Given that Chevron has been accused of human rights abuses with the Nigerian Mobile Police against civilians in Nigeria, I’m wondering whether the president thinks it’s wise to have this close a relationship with Chevron.”

McLellan said that he thought “the issue has already been addressed by Dr. Rice and she will uphold the highest ethical standards in office.”

When asked whether the president should call the CEO of Chevron and say, “Take the name off the tanker,” McLellan said, “I think the issue has been addressed.”

“We made the change to eliminate unnecessary attention caused by the vessel’s original name,” says Chevron spokesperson Fred Gorell.

When it comes to campaign contributions, the Republican Party’s ties to the oil and gas industry have been well documented to say the least. No longer is it a surprise to note that 78 cents out of every dollar the industry has contributed to federal parties and candidates over the last decade has gone to the GOP or that President Bush was the No. 1 recipient of the industry’s money during the last election. But here’s something you might not know: Bush, with more than $1.8 million in contributions, got more money from the industry during 1999-2000 than any other federal candidate over the last decade, barely eclipsing two fellow Texans in the process. Sen. Phil Gramm (R) is the No. 2 recipient of oil money since 1989, with $1.6 million from industry PACs and individuals, while his oil patch colleague Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) ranks second with $1.3 million. Texas-based companies dominate the industry’s giving. The most generous: the Houston-based Enron, the industry’s No. 1 contributor during 1999-2000 with more than $2.3 million in contributions, about $1 million more than No. 2 ranked Exxon-Mobil.

George Bush, of course, is a Texas oilman, although not a very successful one. His company, Arbusto, merged with Spectrum 7 in 1984 as it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Spectrum was bought out by Harken Energy in 1986, giving Bush a seat on Harken’s board, some stock options and a $120,000 consulting contract. As the first president to have an MBA, Bush has surrounded himself with people with similar (and more successful) corporate backgrounds.