Barbara Bush’s Katrina earmark

March 24, 2006

In case you missed it yesterday, former First Lady Barbara Bush generously donated to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, but included a fairly specific request with her contribution.

Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.

Since then, the Ignite Learning program has been given to eight area schools that took in substantial numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

It’s odd; I didn’t think my regard for the Bush family could get any worse. These guys somehow manage to surpass my expectations.

I can appreciate Barbara Bush looking out for her ne’er-do-well son, but using the Katrina Fund to promote Neil Bush’s software company, called “Ignite!” isn’t just tacky, it’s low. It’s not like the former First Lady’s reputation on the disaster was strong before. When we last heard from her, she was telling us that families left with nothing after the hurricane “were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”

But that was just a dumb remark; Barbara Bush’s earmark is far more ridiculous. As Josh Marshall noted:

Ignite!’s has a unique business model, which works like this. Neil goes around the world finding international statesmen, bigwigs and criminals who want to ‘invest’ in Ignite! as a way to curry favor with the brother in the White House.

A couple years ago when I was at Salon I wrote about the craze for investment in Ignite! then taking hold among Red Sea oil magnates and progeny of the rulers of the People’s Republic of China (See this article as well about the craze for investing in Ignite! in the United Arab Emirates and specifically in Dubai). Now, Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has awakened to the wonders of investing in Ignite!

The jokes about the “Bush crime family” certainly have the ring of truth sometimes, don’t they?

Post Script: Stories like this one also won’t help: Bush’s Uncle Earned Millions in War Firm Sale.

I am really upset at you.

First you keep mentioning a Bush aide who stole money from Target’s and rarely, if ever, mention that he also stole money from HECHT’S.

Now, you are making fun of NEIL Bush.

I am not sure I can take any more of your nasty insults.

I don’t see you making any posts saying that “Carpets” are evil. I don’t see any posts where you complain about the “Baggers” in the Bush Administration.

  • The jokes about the “Bush crime family” certainly have the ring of truth sometimes, don’t they?

    CB, they aren’t jokes. They are facts.

  • As I’ve said before, the basic difference between the Bushes and the Corleones is in the number of vowels.

    Oh, and they made Fredo the Godfather instead of Michael.

  • Barbara is getting more scary every year.

    I have come to the conclusion that she is the evil dumbass that decided W. had to be President before Jeb got to run. Sort of like the mother who insists that the ugly older sister has to be married first before you can marry her pretty daughter.

  • His product is called Curriculum on Wheels. This story gives new meaning to the phrase “cash COW”.

  • What I find interesting is that people believed the image that was put out – about here bing the nice white haired grandmother.

    Please. She was weaned on being a political wife and the Bush family wouldn’t have taken someone that couldn’t hack it into their family.

  • I said it before – follow the money. You see how nicely everyone is profiting from current policy? Cheney and Halliburton, , Bushco and oil and various others in the mix like his uncle and brother. Isnt there some way to expose this as illegal? Its surely unethical. How egregious does all this have to get before it stops?

  • Far from me to defend a bush but let’s be realistic here.

    Ol babs sees a way of getting a tax deduction and helping out one of her own.

    kneel was the one that just got divorced, had puss dripping from his dick (courtesy of Thai hookers), was involved with Silverado S & L (cost us a cool billion and change), hangs out with moon (the Fulbright-building-crowned-king-of-world-peace), and hooks into the mideast emirs with his ‘educational software’ company.

    Looks like he’s one of the clan that can use a bit of help. And who can pass up a chance to save on their taxes. I mean, it’s not like the bush clan is rich or anything…

  • Take a look at the crappy Ignite software (Leisure Suit Larry for kids? – Kids these days are much more sophisticated as far as software goes than this Ignite junk). Not only is b.bush cheating the Katrina victims, she’s throwing money into the Ignite craphole. She is just as stupid as her dumbass sons (all of em). As usual, mommy dearest is there to bail out their failures.

  • “As usual, mommy dearest is there to bail out their failures.” – Texan4real

    Now is that fair? The Saudis bailed out W. when his companies went tits up.

  • “The Saudis bailed out W. when his companies went tits up.”

    The Saudis were “friends” of herbie and babs. Favors for favors.

    Who ever said it was going to be fair?

  • “Who ever said it was going to be fair?” – Texan4real

    I just think it is more damning to say that W. had to have the Saudis bail him out when he ran his first companies into the dirt 😉

    One expects support from ones parents. Support from Wahabists who kill their citizens for converting to christianity is rather less expected.

  • For my money, that ghastly old bat is by far the worst of the whole sorry clan. A true scumbag in every sense of the word.

  • One expects support from ones parents. Support from Wahabists who kill their citizens for converting to christianity is rather less expected. -Lance

    Support from parents? Get your priorities straight. Laundered money is not support. DUH!

    Wahabists who kill their citizens for converting to christianity – This is the government installed and supported by the Bush Regime – babs included. DUH!

  • Umm… have you guys every heard of ArBUSTo Oil?

    Same exact scam: and the guy who ran it is now PRESIDENT OF THE FUCKING UNITED STATES. Where was the outrage then? Sheesh.

    Shrub drilled dry holes. His company was worse than useless. He did just what Neil is doing: worked his Rolodex of powerful people, getting them to “invest” in ArBUSTo in order to get influence with Poppy, who was Preznit at the time. He made a killing when the company was acquired. Neil is arguably more clever: he found a way to turn these “investments” into “charitable” tax deductions!

    Nothing new under the sun.

    Graft, corruption, sleazery, Bushes, Repugs. Fuck ’em all, I say.

  • Josh Marshall points out it’s even worse. Apparently, Babs & George H.W. are investors in Ignite!. So, Babs has given a tax-subsidized “donation” to a company of which she is part owner & employs her son.

    Honestly, politics aside, the Bush dynasty is nothing more than black-hearted opportunists. The only reason they’re republicans at all is because it suits their purposes – there’s very little ideology involved.

  • The Bushes honed croney capitalism to the highest art — getting two of them into the White House! Big wheels keep on turning. The higher father keeps on weeping. Shrub keeps on throwing america into the mega dry hole.

  • Money Laundering

    Look: She is using a 501(c)3 charitable contribution to launder money to her son. I am unreliably informed that Babs is an investor in Ignite Learning — certainly there is skullduggery betwixt Ignite and her “reading” foundation.

    Worse, it seems that her “earmark” did NOT fully fund the purchases, and additional funds had to be looted from the Bush Clinton Katina Fund (of Houston, not affiliated with the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund … weird aint it?) to buy the cash COWs.

    So, if she didn’t materially benefit directly from her donation, her son did, and they managed to scam additional monies out of the charity in addition to her “donation” (which she can offset her taxes against — which means that WE pay the difference).

    Tom DeLay is on trial for the same kind of money laundering. How come NO ONE in the media is noting that this may well be criminal tax fraud. Certainly it is the same sort of crime that Al Capone got nailed on.

    But then, Capone wasn’t as legendarily vindictive as Babs is.

    I guess the Tree doesn’t grow far from the rotten fruit.

    And forget the question as to why no one is pursuing the story as potentially criminal: we all understand how compliant the “media” is these daze; (sic)

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