COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE

by Randy Reynolds

To: George W.
From: Randy

re: Vulture Funds

Congratulations on your humanitarian instincts. I'm referring to this year's State of the Union speech in which you announced a billion dollars in aid to African nations. That billion dollars will fight disease and hunger and will educate millions of children.

Maybe you are a compassionate conservative after all!

Ps. I heard this money will never get to Africa--it'll go to vulture funds instead. I don't exactly know what a vulture fund is, so I did some research and apparently it's a situation where the U.S. government announces debt relief for Africa and gives the money to a Republican donor in America. For keeps.

Since your IQ is at least as low as mine, I thought you might be interested in what I've learned so far:

"Vulture funds are companies which buy up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off, then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest." --UK Chancellor Gordon Brown

"The US taxpayers are putting up more than a billion dollars to write off the debts of the African nations, but what Bush isn't saying is that he is then allowing that money to be captured by his biggest donors, like Paul Singer..." --Greg Palast, BBC

"Paul Singer is the number one donor to George Bush and the Republican cause in New York City. In the run-up to the 2000 election, he gave them $300,000. In 2004, he gave them $1.2 million..." --Greg Palast, BBC

"Profiteering doesn't get any more cynical than this. Zambia has been planning to spend the money released from debt cancellation on much-needed nurses, teachers and infrastructure: this is what debt cancellation is intended for not to line the pockets of businessmen based in rich countries." --Caroline Pearce, Jubilee Debt Campaign

"Under US law, the President of the United States has the absolute power to stop any vulture fund from collecting money from a poor nation. It’s called the power of comity. The African nations are pleading with George Bush to stop his big donors from collecting." --Greg Palast, BBC

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulture_fund

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/archives/cat_politicscorruption.html

http://plumer.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html

http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/listing/Your-Vulture-Fund-Primer-has-arrived-and-it-looks-great/san-francisco-ca/3a470bcd-58de-4c39-918b-902c0b5c4723

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=2893

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/vulture_fund.html