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The Cheney Demo Wednesday Morning
Stop the US - Stop Cheney!
I'm just reposting the Cheney stuff because it's really important and is happening tomorrow, 8am.
So far groups I know getting involved - International Action Center, Global X, SF Mime Troupe, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-S.F, and the All People's Coalition To Stop US War & Terror.
Here's info below:
Protest Vice President Dick Cheney's Appearance in SF!
Fairmont Hotel
950 Mason Street (at California Street)
San Francisco
Please dress up as your favorite corporate criminal - bring props - any appropriate corporate criminal attire to hound the VEEP and let him know that his warmongering and promotion of corporate rule are not welcomed in San Francisco!
The war-mongering, right-wing corporate criminal Dick Cheney will be speaking to San Francisco's Commonwealth Club about "economic and national security issues." The New York Times (August 2, 2002) features a front-page article on the suspicious business dealings of the Halliburton Corporation during Cheney's tenure as chief executive. As Bush, Cheney & Co. try to draw attention away from their own corporate misdeeds, the threat of a new war against the Iraqi people grows. Join initial sponsors International Action Center, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-SF, Global Exchange, and others in protesting Cheney to demand: No New War Against Iraq; Stop the Corporate Crime Wave; End US Aid to Israel; Save the Environment from Profiteering; No More Racist Scapegoating.
If you want to enter the Fairmont, please be aware of this security advisories: Please do not bring large purses, bags, backpacks, packages or briefcases, which will slow down security checks. All guests will be subject to search. Please bring photo ID. Once doors close, no one may enter or leave the Grand Ballroom. Advance registration and prepayment required by noon on August 6. No walkups allowed. Registration will be through Ticketweb and there will be a surcharge.(Prices: Preferred seating: $45, General seating: $30).
Contact: International Action Center, 415-821-6545 or Registration: Ticketweb, 866-468-3399, http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=sfbay&query=schedule&attract=85071
So far groups I know getting involved - International Action Center, Global X, SF Mime Troupe, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-S.F, and the All People's Coalition To Stop US War & Terror.
Here's info below:
Protest Vice President Dick Cheney's Appearance in SF!
Fairmont Hotel
950 Mason Street (at California Street)
San Francisco
Please dress up as your favorite corporate criminal - bring props - any appropriate corporate criminal attire to hound the VEEP and let him know that his warmongering and promotion of corporate rule are not welcomed in San Francisco!
The war-mongering, right-wing corporate criminal Dick Cheney will be speaking to San Francisco's Commonwealth Club about "economic and national security issues." The New York Times (August 2, 2002) features a front-page article on the suspicious business dealings of the Halliburton Corporation during Cheney's tenure as chief executive. As Bush, Cheney & Co. try to draw attention away from their own corporate misdeeds, the threat of a new war against the Iraqi people grows. Join initial sponsors International Action Center, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-SF, Global Exchange, and others in protesting Cheney to demand: No New War Against Iraq; Stop the Corporate Crime Wave; End US Aid to Israel; Save the Environment from Profiteering; No More Racist Scapegoating.
If you want to enter the Fairmont, please be aware of this security advisories: Please do not bring large purses, bags, backpacks, packages or briefcases, which will slow down security checks. All guests will be subject to search. Please bring photo ID. Once doors close, no one may enter or leave the Grand Ballroom. Advance registration and prepayment required by noon on August 6. No walkups allowed. Registration will be through Ticketweb and there will be a surcharge.(Prices: Preferred seating: $45, General seating: $30).
Contact: International Action Center, 415-821-6545 or Registration: Ticketweb, 866-468-3399, http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=sfbay&query=schedule&attract=85071
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During Vice President Dick Cheney’s tenure as CEO, the number of Halliburton subsidiaries incorporated in offshore foreign tax havens rose from 9 to 44.
Meanwhile, Cheney is supportive of a heavily expanded military budget, a budget that is increasingly being picked up by ordinary taxpayers who can’t funnel their money through offshore tax havens. And a solid chunk of that military budget will go straight to Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary that has a $1.8 billion contract to support U.S. troops through 2004. Despite being under federal investigation for fraud, Brown & Root is the Army's only private supplier of troop support services over the next decade, according to the Associated Press. The corporate state in action invites citizen action!
Bush Faces Questions on Offshore Affiliates
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 1, 2002; Page A05
President Bush said yesterday that he is troubled by the creation of offshore affiliates by U.S. companies to avoid paying taxes, a practice that lawmakers are trying to restrict.
Bush's comments coincided with disclosures that companies connected to Bush and Vice President Cheney created such offshore entities. Democrats said the offshore affiliates raise questions about the sincerity of the White House's crackdown on corporate abuses.
The White House confirmed that Harken Energy Corp., a Texas oil company where Bush was a director from 1986 to 1993, set up a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, a popular tax haven, in 1989. Halliburton Co., a Dallas-based energy services firm, registered at least 20 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands when Cheney was chief executive from 1995 to 2000, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records. In both cases, officials denied that the purpose was to evade taxes.
Capitol Hill Democrats, and an increasing number of Republicans, are trying to prevent companies from setting up a shell headquarters in a tax haven, while keeping most of their operations and jobs in the United States. When asked about the issue after a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Bush condemned the practice. "I think we ought to look at people who are trying to avoid U.S. taxes as a problem," he said. "I think American companies ought to pay taxes here, and be good citizens."
Administration officials said the Harken arrangement, disclosed by the New York Daily News, provided no tax advantages. The aides said that, instead, Harken Bahrain Oil Co. insulated the parent company from liability from an explosion or other disaster involving a contract with the Bahrain government. Bush had opposed the deal and Harken never struck oil or made money, the White House said.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) condemned the reported Harken arrangement. "If it is true, I think it gets harder and harder to take his position on corporate accountability seriously," he said.
Bush did not go into detail about the subsidiary yesterday but said, "As far as the Harken issue, we'll try to answer all your questions on that."
Daschle took him up on the offer, repeating his call for Bush to allow the SEC to release its file on an insider-trading investigation involving a large sale of Harken stock by Bush in 1990. SEC officials decided there was no case against Bush. Daschle said the Cayman Islands affiliate was another reason "why we think that the administration needs to lay the record straight, needs to allow the SEC to open up its records."
White House communications director Dan Bartlett repeated the administration's position that all of the relevant documents about the SEC investigation have been released. "Senator Daschle's time would be better served by scheduling a vote on homeland security than wasting it on an irrelevant issue from 13 years ago," Bartlett said.
The Bush administration has become more critical of corporate expatriates than it was before bookkeeping scandals pushed corporate-governance issues to the top of Bush's agenda. In May, the Treasury Department released a preliminary report on the reincorporation of U.S. companies in offshore tax havens, such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Rather than criticize the companies, the report faulted the complexity of the U.S. corporate tax code.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) has drafted legislation that would impose a three-year moratorium on such reincorporations, declaring that for tax purposes, companies that move offshore would still be treated as American.
The Senate approved an amendment yesterday denying defense contracts to U.S. companies that incorporate offshore beginning this year. The House approved a similar measure last week.
Citizen Works, founded by Ralph Nader, released a report yesterday on Halliburton's use of offshore subsidiaries, citing SEC documents to contend that the number went from nine to 44 during Cheney's tenure. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the purpose was not to save money on taxes.
The SEC is investigating accounting changes made by Halliburton under Cheney that resulted in uncollected debts being counted as revenue.
Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
Bush, Cheney Under Fire over Offshore Subsidiaries
Wed Jul 31, 9:13 PM ET
By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a practice now criticized by the White House and Republicans, President Bush ( news - web sites) and Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites) served in leadership positions at companies that set up subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, according to documents and an analysis of company records released on Wednesday.
Democrats said revelations of offshore subsidiaries created by Harken Energy Corp. while Bush served as a director and Halliburton Co. while Cheney was chief executive offered new evidence that the president and the vice president failed to practice the corporate policies they now preach.
The White House, in response to a wave of accounting scandals at major U.S. corporations, has railed against the practice of setting up subsidiaries in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda to sidestep disclosure rules and avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Bush called it "a problem" and said, "We ought to look at people who are trying to avoid U.S. taxes."
The Democrat-led Senate voted on Wednesday to deny lucrative defense contracts to U.S. companies that incorporated offshore this year to avoid taxes. U.S. companies incorporated offshore hold at least $2 billion in federal contracts, including defense contracts.
Lawmakers said the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp. underscored the need to crack down on corporate offshore activities. The Houston-based energy trader had hundreds of subsidiaries in tax-haven countries, which critics said it used to avoid taxes.
While Bush served on Harken Energy's board of directors in 1989, the company set up an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, the White House acknowledged. But spokesman Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites) denied it was a scheme to avoid paying taxes in the United States.
"If it is true, I think it gets harder and harder to take his position on corporate accountability seriously," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said of Bush.
Halliburton, which Cheney ran before becoming vice president, was even more aggressive in its use of offshore tax havens, according to an analysis of company filings with the Securities and Exchange Committee by Citizen Works, a nonpartisan group founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader ( news - web sites).
The number of Halliburton subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens rose from 9 to 44 while Cheney served as chief executive between 1995 and 2000, the group said.
The analysis was distributed by congressional Democrats, who hoped to use it to their political advantage in the November elections. Democrats have seized on the Harken transactions and Cheney's tenure at Halliburton to paint the Bush administration and its Republican allies in Congress as compromised by insider deals and close business connections.
WHITE HOUSE ON DEFENSIVE
Cheney's spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise, had no comment on Halliburton's offshore subsidiaries and other business practices. The SEC is currently investigating how Halliburton accounted for cost overruns on construction jobs. Millerwise said the SEC has not contacted Cheney as part of that inquiry.
Fleischer said Harken's subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, set up as part of an oil-drilling venture with the government of Bahrain, was not designed to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
"Under this, any oil that was produced in Bahrain and sold in the United States would have been taxable in the United States," Fleischer told reporters.
In the end, no oil was produced by Harken in Bahrain. "So I think it's a moot question," Fleischer said. Bush said he had "opposed" the Bahrain venture.
Democrats have called on the White House to release all records of Bush's tenure at Harken, including the minutes of company board meetings. So far, the White House has refused.
Earlier this month, it acknowledged that Bush had received low-interest loans from Harken -- a practice banned under a law the president signed on Tuesday cracking down on corporate wrongdoing.
Fleischer said Bush did nothing wrong at Harken. In 1991, the Securities and Exchange Commission ( news - web sites) investigated Bush's 1990 sale of Harken shares before the company reported large losses. The SEC ended the probe without taking action.
Meanwhile, Cheney is supportive of a heavily expanded military budget, a budget that is increasingly being picked up by ordinary taxpayers who can’t funnel their money through offshore tax havens. And a solid chunk of that military budget will go straight to Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary that has a $1.8 billion contract to support U.S. troops through 2004. Despite being under federal investigation for fraud, Brown & Root is the Army's only private supplier of troop support services over the next decade, according to the Associated Press. The corporate state in action invites citizen action!
Bush Faces Questions on Offshore Affiliates
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 1, 2002; Page A05
President Bush said yesterday that he is troubled by the creation of offshore affiliates by U.S. companies to avoid paying taxes, a practice that lawmakers are trying to restrict.
Bush's comments coincided with disclosures that companies connected to Bush and Vice President Cheney created such offshore entities. Democrats said the offshore affiliates raise questions about the sincerity of the White House's crackdown on corporate abuses.
The White House confirmed that Harken Energy Corp., a Texas oil company where Bush was a director from 1986 to 1993, set up a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, a popular tax haven, in 1989. Halliburton Co., a Dallas-based energy services firm, registered at least 20 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands when Cheney was chief executive from 1995 to 2000, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records. In both cases, officials denied that the purpose was to evade taxes.
Capitol Hill Democrats, and an increasing number of Republicans, are trying to prevent companies from setting up a shell headquarters in a tax haven, while keeping most of their operations and jobs in the United States. When asked about the issue after a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Bush condemned the practice. "I think we ought to look at people who are trying to avoid U.S. taxes as a problem," he said. "I think American companies ought to pay taxes here, and be good citizens."
Administration officials said the Harken arrangement, disclosed by the New York Daily News, provided no tax advantages. The aides said that, instead, Harken Bahrain Oil Co. insulated the parent company from liability from an explosion or other disaster involving a contract with the Bahrain government. Bush had opposed the deal and Harken never struck oil or made money, the White House said.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) condemned the reported Harken arrangement. "If it is true, I think it gets harder and harder to take his position on corporate accountability seriously," he said.
Bush did not go into detail about the subsidiary yesterday but said, "As far as the Harken issue, we'll try to answer all your questions on that."
Daschle took him up on the offer, repeating his call for Bush to allow the SEC to release its file on an insider-trading investigation involving a large sale of Harken stock by Bush in 1990. SEC officials decided there was no case against Bush. Daschle said the Cayman Islands affiliate was another reason "why we think that the administration needs to lay the record straight, needs to allow the SEC to open up its records."
White House communications director Dan Bartlett repeated the administration's position that all of the relevant documents about the SEC investigation have been released. "Senator Daschle's time would be better served by scheduling a vote on homeland security than wasting it on an irrelevant issue from 13 years ago," Bartlett said.
The Bush administration has become more critical of corporate expatriates than it was before bookkeeping scandals pushed corporate-governance issues to the top of Bush's agenda. In May, the Treasury Department released a preliminary report on the reincorporation of U.S. companies in offshore tax havens, such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Rather than criticize the companies, the report faulted the complexity of the U.S. corporate tax code.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) has drafted legislation that would impose a three-year moratorium on such reincorporations, declaring that for tax purposes, companies that move offshore would still be treated as American.
The Senate approved an amendment yesterday denying defense contracts to U.S. companies that incorporate offshore beginning this year. The House approved a similar measure last week.
Citizen Works, founded by Ralph Nader, released a report yesterday on Halliburton's use of offshore subsidiaries, citing SEC documents to contend that the number went from nine to 44 during Cheney's tenure. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the purpose was not to save money on taxes.
The SEC is investigating accounting changes made by Halliburton under Cheney that resulted in uncollected debts being counted as revenue.
Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
Bush, Cheney Under Fire over Offshore Subsidiaries
Wed Jul 31, 9:13 PM ET
By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a practice now criticized by the White House and Republicans, President Bush ( news - web sites) and Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites) served in leadership positions at companies that set up subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, according to documents and an analysis of company records released on Wednesday.
Democrats said revelations of offshore subsidiaries created by Harken Energy Corp. while Bush served as a director and Halliburton Co. while Cheney was chief executive offered new evidence that the president and the vice president failed to practice the corporate policies they now preach.
The White House, in response to a wave of accounting scandals at major U.S. corporations, has railed against the practice of setting up subsidiaries in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda to sidestep disclosure rules and avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Bush called it "a problem" and said, "We ought to look at people who are trying to avoid U.S. taxes."
The Democrat-led Senate voted on Wednesday to deny lucrative defense contracts to U.S. companies that incorporated offshore this year to avoid taxes. U.S. companies incorporated offshore hold at least $2 billion in federal contracts, including defense contracts.
Lawmakers said the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp. underscored the need to crack down on corporate offshore activities. The Houston-based energy trader had hundreds of subsidiaries in tax-haven countries, which critics said it used to avoid taxes.
While Bush served on Harken Energy's board of directors in 1989, the company set up an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, the White House acknowledged. But spokesman Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites) denied it was a scheme to avoid paying taxes in the United States.
"If it is true, I think it gets harder and harder to take his position on corporate accountability seriously," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said of Bush.
Halliburton, which Cheney ran before becoming vice president, was even more aggressive in its use of offshore tax havens, according to an analysis of company filings with the Securities and Exchange Committee by Citizen Works, a nonpartisan group founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader ( news - web sites).
The number of Halliburton subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens rose from 9 to 44 while Cheney served as chief executive between 1995 and 2000, the group said.
The analysis was distributed by congressional Democrats, who hoped to use it to their political advantage in the November elections. Democrats have seized on the Harken transactions and Cheney's tenure at Halliburton to paint the Bush administration and its Republican allies in Congress as compromised by insider deals and close business connections.
WHITE HOUSE ON DEFENSIVE
Cheney's spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise, had no comment on Halliburton's offshore subsidiaries and other business practices. The SEC is currently investigating how Halliburton accounted for cost overruns on construction jobs. Millerwise said the SEC has not contacted Cheney as part of that inquiry.
Fleischer said Harken's subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, set up as part of an oil-drilling venture with the government of Bahrain, was not designed to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
"Under this, any oil that was produced in Bahrain and sold in the United States would have been taxable in the United States," Fleischer told reporters.
In the end, no oil was produced by Harken in Bahrain. "So I think it's a moot question," Fleischer said. Bush said he had "opposed" the Bahrain venture.
Democrats have called on the White House to release all records of Bush's tenure at Harken, including the minutes of company board meetings. So far, the White House has refused.
Earlier this month, it acknowledged that Bush had received low-interest loans from Harken -- a practice banned under a law the president signed on Tuesday cracking down on corporate wrongdoing.
Fleischer said Bush did nothing wrong at Harken. In 1991, the Securities and Exchange Commission ( news - web sites) investigated Bush's 1990 sale of Harken shares before the company reported large losses. The SEC ended the probe without taking action.
You can add Americans for Safe Access to the list of groups present to greet Dick.
Cheney will regret having come to SF, for one reason of another.
I'm here and I already regret it. Except that wonderful bridge over there that several of my family members helped construct all those years ago.
Whats the deal with all the stinky people here ? I'm not usually able to smell the people I sit around with. Thank goodness for the breeze. I just give up trying to hide my attempts to get downwind. I'm usually more sensitive. Spheeaash!! Wheres the good weed at here ? Any help ? I'm not asking these guys. My lips aint sharing a joint with these stinky fuckers.
Whats the deal with all the stinky people here ? I'm not usually able to smell the people I sit around with. Thank goodness for the breeze. I just give up trying to hide my attempts to get downwind. I'm usually more sensitive. Spheeaash!! Wheres the good weed at here ? Any help ? I'm not asking these guys. My lips aint sharing a joint with these stinky fuckers.
Downwind. Upwind. Amanda. Ananda. Better fish sandwich. Great food guys. Thanks. Hehehe.
A black suit with a pink 'blouse' is one funny god damned look.
New boots. New socks. New shades. Film at 10.
A black suit with a pink 'blouse' is one funny god damned look.
New boots. New socks. New shades. Film at 10.
Bad Poetry
Is the territory
Of Politicians
Who can't draw
Can't write
Can't paint
Can't fuck
Can't suck
Can't fight
Can't flight
Who know
"If they could still weep
They would not take the job."
By the way, the Cheney protest was great. Excellent work by the GE/SF Mime Troupe team. Heckling the pro-Cheney knuckleheads was a lot of fun too. I wish they would show up more!!
Chron and the AP have already butchered and obscured the story:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/08/07/national1359EDT0608.DTL
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2002/08/07/cheney.DTL
Is the territory
Of Politicians
Who can't draw
Can't write
Can't paint
Can't fuck
Can't suck
Can't fight
Can't flight
Who know
"If they could still weep
They would not take the job."
By the way, the Cheney protest was great. Excellent work by the GE/SF Mime Troupe team. Heckling the pro-Cheney knuckleheads was a lot of fun too. I wish they would show up more!!
Chron and the AP have already butchered and obscured the story:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/08/07/national1359EDT0608.DTL
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2002/08/07/cheney.DTL
"He stopped and stood silently for several seconds as the women chanted. As Secret Service agents led protesters from the room, Cheney said "Thank you," laughing slightly, and resumed his speech. "
That is sooooo classic! Treated like the retards they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't stop laughing at the visual image this presents!
That is sooooo classic! Treated like the retards they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't stop laughing at the visual image this presents!
Your mama.
The woman ain't no liberal and she wuddn't no where near the place.
It's a good headline, but not much substance. All the news stories only talk about his health, the presence of hecklers, and whether he'll run again if his wife lets him.
THANK YOU HECKLERS!! We love you!!
It was so important to do that and to have the courage to stand up for all of SF who is behind you!
Women have the power!!
THANK YOU HECKLERS!! We love you!!
It was so important to do that and to have the courage to stand up for all of SF who is behind you!
Women have the power!!
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