''Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy'' is a 2004 documentary film directed by Steven Grandison and Greg Palast. The film, which examines various aspects of the

presidency of George W. Bush George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following his narrow electoral college victo ...

, including the 2000 US presidential election and the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

, is adapted from the 2003

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

production ''Bush Family Fortunes'' and based on the 2002 book '' The Best Democracy Money Can Buy'' by investigative journalist Palast, who had spent years tracking the Bush family for the

and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper. The research for the original BBC film, which claims to have exposed the George W. Bush military service controversy, was also drawn upon by

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

for ''

Fahrenheit 9/11 ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' is a 2004 American documentary film directed, written by, and starring Michael Moore. The subjects of the film are the presidency of George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and the media's coverage of the war. In the film, Moore state ...

'' (2004) and footage was used by Robert Greenwald in '' Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election'' (2002).

Synopsis

Pre-title footage from presenter Greg Palast's cut-off interview with Florida Director of Elections Clayton Roberts, who exits the room, opens the movie.

The war hero

Palast introduces

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

with particular reference to his popular image as a war hero cemented in the public mind by his landing on the aircraft carrier for the

2003 Mission Accomplished Speech On May 1, 2003, United States president George W. Bush gave a televised speech on the aircraft carrier USS ''Abraham Lincoln''. Bush, who had launched the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq six weeks earlier, mounted a podium in front of a White Hous ...

. He introduces authentic former Navy fighter pilot Charles W. "Bill" White, who exposes W. Bush's attempted reenactment of Tom Cruise's ''

Top Gun ''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired ...

'' carrier landing following a heroic Mig shootdown as the pathetic publicity stunt that it was. Palast goes on to allege that Bush used his father's influence to gain a draft-dodging placement with the Texas Air National Guard which he subsequently failed to serve.

The candidate

Palast picks up the story with Bush's 2000 US presidential election campaign where he claims Florida Governor

Jeb Bush John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Bush family, Bush political family, he was an unsuccessful candidate for pre ...

and Florida Secretary of State

Katherine Harris Katherine Harris (born April 5, 1957) is an American politician from Florida. A Republican, she served in the Florida Senate from 1994 to 1998, as Secretary of State of Florida from 1999 to 2002, and as a member of the United States House of Re ...

used their influence to purge and discount the ballots of predominantly Gore-supporting black voters through the “fake felons list” compiled by private company DBT/

ChoicePoint LexisNexis Risk Solutions is a global data and analytics company that provides data and technology services, analytics, predictive insights, and fraud prevention for a wide range of industries. It is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia (part o ...

for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

4 million.

The money

Palast goes on to examine the corporate donors to Bush's election campaign, such as

Enron Enron Corporation was an American Energy development, energy, Commodity, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was led by Kenneth Lay and developed in 1985 via a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both re ...

CEO

Ken Lay Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman and political donor who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in Enron's accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 ...

, who as members of Bush's pioneer network contributed huge sums through family and friends, and who he claims subsequently profited from the Bush presidency with senior government appointments, no-bid contracts, executive orders and deregulation.

The oil

Palast outlines what he refers to as the ''Bush-cycle'', where Bush family members use money to gain political office and then use the office to gain even more money, dating back to Senator

Prescott Bush Prescott Sheldon Bush Sr. (May 15, 1895 – October 8, 1972) was an American banker and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician. as a Wall Street executive investment banker, he represented Connecticut in the from 1952 ...

who funded the family's entry into the oil business, citing the example of Bush's Harken Energy winning a contract to drill in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

thanks he alleges to Bush Snr's presidency.

The connection

Palast alleges that both prior to and since the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Bush has blocked investigations into members of the Bin Laden family and other rich Saudis, who are alleged to have provided funding to

Al Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

and which have long been funnelling money into Bush family business ventures via businessman James R. Bath, who was a part owner of Bush's failed Arbusto Energy. Navy fighter pilot Charles W. ["Bill"White">quot;Bill".html" ;"title="Charles W. ["Bill"">Charles W. ["Bill"White, who was Bath's business partner and close confidant during the decade of the 1980s, is revealed to be the source who first disclosed Bath's tax returns and personal financial statements showing that Bath was awarded a 5% ownership interest in W. Bush's Arbusto in lieu of a cash commission for having funneled BinLaden money to Bush.

The Plan: Iraq

Palast concludes with Bush's declaration of the

, which he claims was made to fulfil a long planned strategy, drawn up at the beginning of Bush's presidency, to divide and sell up all of Iraq's assets, especially the oil, to the Bush family's corporate donors against the interests of the Iraqi people and their democratic ambitions.

Participants

* Clayton Roberts – Director of Elections, Florida * Jim Hightower – Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner * Charles W. ["Bill"] White – Former Navy Fighter Pilot and Bath's longtime business partner * Terry Johnson – Bush's College Roommate * Robert Dieter – Bush's College Roommate * Bill Burkett – Retired Lt. Col., Texas Air Guard * Willie Steen – Florida Voter * Pam Iorio – Election Supervisor, Tampa, Florida * Craig McDonald – Texans for Public Justice * Andrea & Dean McWilliams – Bush/Enron Lobbyists * Nick Kralj – Democratic Lobbyist * Wayne Madsen – author * Pete Brewton – investigative journalist * David Rosen – Oilman * Stephen Push – Families of September 11 * Ron Motley – Lawyer * General Jay Garner *

Grover Norquist Grover Glenn Norquist (born October 19, 1956) is an American political activist and anti-tax advocate who is founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases. A Republican, he is the primary pro ...

– Lobbyist

References

External links

* for Greg Palast * {{George W. Bush 2004 films 2004 documentary films American documentary films American independent films Documentary films about presidents of the United States Documentary films about elections in the United States Films about the 2000 United States presidential election Documentary films about the September 11 attacks Documentary films about the Iraq War Films about George W. Bush Greg Palast 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language documentary films