Today's fun fact about George W. Bush, brought to you from the pages of Fortunate Son by J.H. Hatfield.

When Bush in his late 20s/early 30s decided to go into the Oil Business, he started up a company called Arbusto Oil (Arbusto being Spanish for Bush). Bush provided the "expertise" and the money came from a man called James Bath. Mr. Bath made his money by being the guy who invested money in the states for rich people from the middle east. One of Bath's clients was Salem bin Laden. Name sound familiar? He's Osama's father.

So essentially, money made off of the bin Laden family funded George W. Bush's first business. Creepy.

Do I think that there's a secret conspiracy between Bush and Bath and the bin Ladens? (Although, suspiciously, all of their names DO start with b...). No, that's a little too far-fetched. What I do think this shows is that the world of the incredibly wealthy and elite is a small one, and those upper 1% all run in the same circles. This is why Bush campaigned on Enron CEO Ken "Kenny Boy" Lay's airplane. It's not because they were plotting the downfall of a major corporation. It's that Billionaires like to hang out with other Billionares.

That sort of insular, self-contained world can't be good. Those people are out of touch. Need proof? Look at the tax cut Bush gave to his Billionaire Buddies, and the screw-job he gave to the middle and working classes. It's no conspiracy - it's just good old fashioned cronyism

. Still... Bush-Bath-bin Laden. Pretty freaky, huh?

--opus

posted by opus  at 10:01 AM