posted 02-22-2004 12:13 AM            

Political Platform

Billionaire focus groups are hard at work hammering out the finer details of our political message. Until that process is complete, the following is our preliminary platform:

- Blood for oil: it's worth it! Four hundred U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the invasion. Even if we adopt a flattering estimate of their economic productivity, they would have earned at most an average of $25,000 per year. The aggregate GDP loss resulting from their deaths is thus $10 million per year -- less than the annual income of just one of us. The long-term GDP gain from American control over Iraq's vast oil resources, in addition to our booming military industry, amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars and easily overshadows the small economic cost of American casualties.

- Job relief for America. When George Bush came into office, our companies were desperately in need of relief from the tight job market. Although during the 90s billionaires saw unprecedented gains in wealth and income, years of low unemployment raised wages, strengthened labor unions, and created a new generation of spoiled employees threatening to impose reforms on our economic way of life. Thankfully, after only four years in office George Bush has delivered what we could previously only fantasize about: strong growth, soaring profits, but without creating jobs. Bush has carried us into another economic Golden Age, and with a second term he can make jobless growth the rule, not the exception, for years to come.

- Leave no billionaire behind.

- Deregulate elections. Eliminate all limits on campaign contributions. Democracy means the right to use our money in any way we choose. Repealing the restrictive laws regulating money in politics will make the buying of elected officials vastly more efficient.

- Re-capitalize the prison-industrial complex.Prisoners cannot migrate in search of higher pay, demand raises or benefits, organize labor unions, protest, or engage in other forms of economic terrorism. They are the ideal modern workforce. Upon re-election, George Bush will promote prison sector growth by expanding the war on drugs and toughening penal codes to send more poor people to prison for longer sentences. Moreover, Bush understands that private-owned prisons are especially successful at turning poverty, crime, and social deterioration into a solid bottom line for investors.

-Defend Enron.The poor have initiated a campaign to blame corporate America for their own shortcomings. Under the banner of "corporate responsibility" they aim to rob us of the rights upon which our cherished way of life is founded: secrecy and power. They want us to expose our governance and accounting to public scrutiny. They will stop at nothing to destroy our freedom to purchase elected officials. Recently they have focused their witch-hunt on Ken Lay and his esteemed Enron Corporation in an effort to divide our class. It is our duty as billionaires to defend our moneyed brothers from these attacks rather than acquiesce to such scapegoating. For who will it be after Enron? General Motors? Halliburton? J.P. Morgan? Walmart? George Bush spent much of his first term in office fighting to defuse public pressure for stricter corporate regulations. We have every reason to expect that Bush, a close friend of Kenneth Lay, will continue to defend corporate "criminals" from political persectution if re-elected.

- Small government. Big wars.The best way to eliminate social programs and other forms of wealth redistribution is to drain the treasury. President Bush has successfully created an unprecedented federal deficit in two ways: tax cuts and military spending. We fully support this proven strategy.

- Free the Forbes 400.

- End economic terrorism. Strikes, health & safety standards, minimum wage, taxes, etc.

- On to Iran! They've got oil too.

- Health care is already affordable. (Because we can afford anything.)

- The Class War: Let's finish what we started.

posted 02-22-2004 12:16 AM            

Now in Previews, Political Theater in the Street
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and COLIN MOYNIHAN
Published: February 19, 2004

Karl Rove, the political adviser to President Bush, made a brief visit to a Manhattan nightclub yesterday and netted the Bush-Cheney re-election effort about $400,000. But Mr. Rove also caught a glimpse of what might greet Republicans when they come to New York for their national nominating convention this summer.

Mr. Rove was the guest speaker at a fund-raising reception at the club, Eugene, on 24th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas. Marvin Bush, the president's brother, also attended the event.

"Fabulous, fabulous," Mr. Rove said as he left after giving a 20-minute talk to several hundred people gathered inside.

But while Mr. Rove was inside, more than 100 protesters were outside, standing behind blue police barricades chanting slogans, waving placards and offering a bit of street theater that confused the police.

At one point, as hundreds of guests with invitations waited to pass through velvet barriers to enter the club, a small group of men in bowler hats and women in gowns marched up, chanting, "Four more wars" and "Re-elect Rove."

As the group approached, a man who appeared to be a security agent of some type, was overheard whispering into a microphone: "We've got two groups. One for and one against."

Actually, it was two against. The person was confused by a group that calls itself Billionaires for Bush, a collection of activists who use satire to make a political point. Indeed, members of the Sierra Club, who were protesting on the other side of the street were also confused and began shouting at what they thought was a pro-Bush contingent.

" We want the truth and we want it now!" the Sierra protesters shouted.

The billionaires shouted back, "Buy your own president!"

It took a few minutes, but the police finally realized what was going on when they escorted the group behind the blue barricades as well. Still, the show was not over. A black town car pulled up and out stepped a man whom who the crowd assumed to be Mr. Rove. "There is Karl Rove," people shouted.

Reporters, photographers and television cameramen swarmed the man, but the police pushed them back. Another man lifted the velvet rope to let him enter. But the would-be Mr. Rove walked over to the crowd of protesters and began shaking hands, when finally, again, this was seen to be a joke. It was not Mr. Rove, but an actor playing the part.

Each of the groups has said it planned to stage similar events when the Republican National Convention comes to New York City from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2.

None of this dampened the enthusiasm of those who attended the event. It was organized by some of the Bush campaign's select fund-raisers, called Mavericks, who included Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's daughter, Emma Bloomberg, and Gov. George E. Pataki's daughter, Emily Pataki. Mr. Bloomberg also attended, slipping in and out of a service entrance. Those in attendance said Mr. Pataki did not show up.

Andrew Prisco, 23, who said he lives in Manhattan and works in financial services, said Mr. Rove told the audience, which he estimated at about 700, that the two most important issues facing the nation were terrorism and the economy.