Heard of the Wyly brothers? (funded swiftboat ads)

[medeak]

holy crap...this is good...the deals made with Bush..
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1312/Wyly_Coyotes

[dArKeR]

1. Shouldn't this be breaking news? I feel great! I said that illegal/immoral

means were being used to "pump up" the Texas university system since aWol got in. In the research type reports coming out in the media, I really started noticing way too many references to researchers from universities in TX.

Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. used to be based in Sunnyvale CA area. Then in the early 80s LMSC started moving their plants offices to TX. I think there were secret deals because they repukes knew that they will never be able to get CA electoral votes so they decided to take over the next biggest state.

I'd bet TX is Satan's Cespool of repukelican corruption.

[Vickers]

2. People need to read this article

Hard to argue "executive privilege" about a couple of businessmen. These guys stink, and if they are subpoenaed about this stuff, they SHOULD have to talk about it.

:kick:

[medeak]

3. we all knew this crap was going on

nice to know there are a few investigative reporters left...

[msongs]

4. are these charges substantiated?

the linked article states, referring to the Wily brothers,

"They repeated the trick in 2004, putting up cash for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the vicious little snipes who tore apart the Kerry campaign.'

However there is no documentation to support this and other similar claims.

otherwise it is all good news, now if we can just get some attention to this outside the closed circuit networks favored by us DU people.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[medeak]

5. Greg Palast

...have heard of him before and his book on NYTimes bestselling list..

[medeak]

6. Tom Paine

mentions him and his contributions to Harper's Bizarre...he's a reputable reporter

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won_.php?dateid=20050417

[FourStarDemocrat]

7. They own the 'Michaels Stores' craft store chain--Boycott them!

http://www.prnewswire.com/micro/MIK

[scarletlib]

8. No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tell me that's not true. i love michael's

[FourStarDemocrat]

10. It's true!

They're way overpriced anyway, although a pleasant store. I ended up paying double of what I expected to pay a few months ago when shopping for items for my son's school project.

[rainbow4321]

11. Their history w/ TX companies

http://www.utwatch.org/utimco/wyly.html

Sam and Charles Wyly introduced the world to Michael's Stores in 1984 with ten stores. The company blossomed into 695 stores in the US and Canada. Sam is a chairman and Charles is Vice Chairman. The conglomerate posted $2.5 billion in revenue at the end of the 2001 fiscal year, and as of March 2002, UTIMCO has $647,405 invested in the company.

Sam, Charles, and Evan were all involved in the Sterling businesses. They all served on the board of directors at each of these software companies. In March of 2000, Sterling Software, Inc. was sold to Computer Associates (the same company who bought University Computers Co), and in a separate but equal occurrence, its spin off company Sterling Commerce Inc. was sold to SBC Communications. Each company was sold for $4 billion. Sam and Charles conveniently had the most amount invested in the latter company when it was sold.


The new Wyly endeavor is Greenmountain.com. A company that started as Green Mountain Power, the "green" energy company has been anything but. Environmental organizations such as GreenPeace and Citizen Watch have contested the practices and advocacy of Greenmountain.com. There are numerous causes for concern for the company, such as increasing pollution and dealing with huge companies such as BP, Nuon NV, and PacifiCorp, one of the dirtiest polluters in the country. The board of directors has Evan Wyly and H. Lee Hobson, a partner at Maverick Capital, Richard Hanlon, a director of the Michael's Stores, and Dennis Crumpler, a former exec at Sterling Commerce. Also, in the late 90's, Sterling Software was paid $6 million to install software for the network at GreenMountain.com.

The Wylys have a strong background in starting companies, remaining on their board of directors, and making friends with their own investment companies. Wyly businesses have a history of dealing with each other as they have illegally made plenty of money; the law turns a blind eye since they know that they can get money from the Wyly family. These are some of the wealthiest and influential men in Texas, gaining their money through questionable ways. But since they have money, they have ties to UT and UTIMCO.

[Fabio]

9. These guys look bad and I hope they get what they deserve BUT

having worked in the investment manangement business, specifically with colleges and endowments, I can tell you that capital allocations are placed all the time with different managers, and this does not mean a governor was involved. if they find a memo proving Shrub pressured UT's investment staff, that is different, though still <probably> not illegal.