Monday, June 14, 2004
Reagan
Last year, before his father’s death, in an interview with the online magazine Salon, Ronald Reagan’s son, Ron Jr. gave a critique, making clear his distaste for the Bush administration.
“The Bush people have no right to speak for my father, particularly because of the position he’s in now,” Mr. Reagan said then. “Yes, some of the current policies are an extension of the 80’s. But the overall thrust of this administration is not my father’s - these people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive and just plain corrupt. I don’t trust these people.”
Mr. Reagan was not quite so pointed on Friday night, after the funeral. “Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly religious man,” he told mourners gathered at sunset at the Reagan presidential library. “But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians - wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage. True, after he was shot and nearly killed early in his presidency he came to believe that God had spared him in order that he might do good. But he accepted that as a responsibility, not a mandate. And there is a profound difference.”
- Bob Woods
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Playing the religion card
Now that Bush’s poll numbers are starting to stink as much as the war and the policies and lies that people are finally getting sick of, his campaign is having to grasp at whatever straws are left.
It’s time to play the religion card.
The Boston Globe reports that when in Rome recently, the president asked Vatican officials (among them Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state) to promote socially conservative issues in the United States more aggressively. While White House officials have not confirmed the meeting, it could be part of a re-election strategy that hinges in part on winning support from highly religious voters.
Bush said “Not all the American bishops are with me” on cultural issues and asked the Vatican to push the bishops toward greater ‘activism’. The issues that Bush expressed concern about were stem cell research, gay marriage and abortion.
However, Bush may have tougher sledding with the Pope himself. While the American press dutifully reported the awarding of a medal by Bush to the Pontiff and little else, the European press reported that the Pope very publicly reamed Bush a new asshole over the Iraq war, it’s conduct, and the torture and disrespect for basic human rights. Hardly a word of this appeared in U.S. newspapers or TV. As usual.
Also, Bush is pushing for American bishops to deny Kerry communion in church, because of his pro-choice views, while at the same time raising the red herring of “would a Catholic follow the marching orders from Rome over his duty as president” that JFK was subjected to 44 years ago. Seems obvious to me that the fact that Kerry keeps his own views, not what the church tries to impose, settles that one.
So, on to Plan B - The Bush campaign has been trying to set up thousands of “Friendly Congregations” to aid its reelection efforts by identifying volunteers willing to distribute campaign materials, facilitate voter registration. They have something like 1600 in Pennsylvania alone. But churches can’t get involved in partisan politics. They can’t endorse candidates or call for the election or defeat of individual candidates or give money to campaigns without losing their tax-exempt status.
Until now.
Last week, an amendment was made to a “must-pass” jobs bill that both parties have signed off on and is ready to be voted on. This provision entitled “Safe Harbor for Churches” was inserted in the “American Jobs Creation Act of 2004” at the request of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who said “this is an election year and there are not many bills that will become law this year.”
What happened to “separation of church and state?” These people will do anything to get re-elected, and once again they show their utter contempt for the Constitution and democracy.
This stinks, just like Bush’s poll numbers, and the war and the policies and lies…
- Bob Woods
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
More Enron Tapes, More Gloating
June 8, 2004
(CBS) The Department of Justice reportedly has thousands of hours of Enron employees recorded during the West Coast power crisis. Now, some in Congress want all the tapes released.
“I want to make sure that no federal agency suppresses this information, makes the case harder for us to get relief,” says U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
After CBS broadcast the voices of Enron energy traders gloating over the crisis they helped create, more tapes were released.
In one tape, an employee says, “You gotta think the economy is going to fucking get crushed, man. This is like a recession waiting to fucking happen.”
The tapes show Enron tried to bring California to its knees.
Elsewhere on the tapes, another employee says, “This is where California breaks.”
“Yeah, it sure does man,” says another.
And they proposed to do that by exporting energy out of the state so the company could drive up prices even more.
“What we need to do is to help in the cause of, ah, downfall of California,” an employee is heard saying on the tapes. “You guys need to pull your megawatts out of California on a daily basis.”
“They’re on the ropes today,” says another employee. “I exported like a fucking 400 megs.”
“Wow,’’ says another employee, “fuck ‘em, right!”
During California’s rolling blackouts, when streets were lit only by head lights and families were trapped in elevators, Enron Energy traders laughed. One trader is heard on tapes obtained by CBS News saying, “Just cut ‘em off. They’re so fucked. They should just bring back fucking horses and carriages, fucking lamps, fucking kerosene lamps.”
And when describing his reaction when a business owner complained about high energy prices, another trader is heard on tape saying, “I just looked at him. I said, ‘Move.’ (laughter) The guy was like horrified. I go, ‘Look, don’t take it the wrong way. Move. It isn’t getting fixed anytime soon.”
California’s attempt to deregulate energy markets became a disaster for consumers when companies like Enron manipulated the West Coast power market and even shut down plants so they could drive up prices. Traders can be heard manipulating the market, using now-infamous schemes with names like death star, ricochet and fat boy.
One employee is heard asking, “You want to do some fat boys or, or whatever, man, you know, take advantage of it.”
In fat boy, Enron traders used fake power sales to hide megawatts, shrinking the supply of energy and driving up prices. They also used the oldest trick in the book: lies.
“It’s called lies. It’s all how well you can weave these lies together...” an employee is heard saying.
The other employee says, “I feel like I’m being corrupted now.”
The first employee adds, “No, this is marketing,”
“OK.’’
Another taped exchange between different employees regarding a possible newspaper interview goes like this:
Employee 3: “This guy from the Wall Street Journal calls me up a little bit ago…”
Employee 4: “I wouldn’t do it, because first of all you’d have to tell ‘em a lot of lies because if you told the truth…”
Employee 3: “I’d get in trouble.”
Employee 4: “You’d get in trouble.”
Eventually, the lies unraveled and traders scrambled.
“I’m just—fuck—I’m just trying to be an honest camper so I only go to jail once,” says one employee.
The tapes could affect dozens of cases already filed against the company by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
“If these are ever heard by a jury, they’re going get strung up,” says Lockyer.
After hearing the tapes, the state’s two U.S. senators demanded an immediate $8.9 billion refund.
At a recent hearing Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. said, “All I can tell you is you have to listen to what’s happening out there to ordinary people who you are responsible to help through this.”
With Enron and other major energy companies in bankruptcy, big refunds are unlikely. But the tapes could provide the evidence states and cities need to break contracts they were forced to sign at the height of the energy crisis.
There was quick reaction in Washington to the Enron audiotapes first aired by CBS News, and the tapes have become part of the debate over the President’s massive energy bill.
“People were talking about market manipulation. People were talking about schemes, people were making jokes,” said U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
“While the president would like to have an energy bill, I’d like to have an energy bill that protects consumers,” said Cantwell.
It’s clear from the tapes that Enron employees knew what they were doing was wrong, and now lawmakers are responding.
“I will offer an amendment to compel the Bush administration to get off the dime and get back this money that has been stolen,” said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.
Two Enron traders, from the office where the tapes were made, have admitted manipulating energy prices and pled guilty in court. Another goes on trial in October. Former Enron chief Ken Lay is the only top company official who has never been charged with any crime.
Monday, June 07, 2004
Is It Tough Being a Republican?
It is very tough to be a Republican in 2004, because somehow, you have to believe concurrently that:
1. Jesus loves you, but shares your deep hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, but our highest national priority is enforcing U. N. resolutions against Iraq.
3."Standing Tall for America” means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
4. A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all humankind without regulation.
5. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans’ benefits and combat pay.
7. Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins, unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.
8. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won’t have sex.
9. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, but then demand their cooperation and money.
10. HMOs and insurance companies make profits and have the interest of the public at heart.
11. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
12. Global warming and tobacco’s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
13. It is okay that the Bush family’s “Carlisle Group” has done millions of business with the Bin Laden family.
14. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him and Rumsfeld reassured him he was our buddy, a bad guy when Bush’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, but then a bad guy again when Bush junior needed a prop for his re-election campaign as the “war president”
15. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying about WMD existence, to enlist support for an unprovoked, undeclared war and occupation, in which thousands of soldiers and civilians die, is, somehow, solid “defense” policy in a “War against Terrorism”.
16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which should include “banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet”.
17. The public has a right to know about Hillary’s cattle trades, but George Bush’s Harken Oil stock trade should be sealed in his Daddy’s library, and is none of our business.
18. What Bill Clinton or John Kerry did in the 1960s was of vital national interest but what Bush did in the ‘80s is irrelevant.
19. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a “spirit of international harmony”.
20. Affirmative Action is wrong, but that it is OK for your Daddy and His friends (here and in Saudi Arabia) to get you to graduate from Yale without studying much, to dodge the draft in the Texas Air National Guard, to bail out your company Harken Oil and the Texas Rangers, to get the Governorship of Texas and then to have the Supreme Court appoint you President of the US.
21. You are a conservative, but it is OK to spend like there is no tomorrow and run up deficits that your grandchildren will have to pay, while at the same time refunding as much tax money as possible to rich people who do not need it.
This illogical behavior can take a toll on a healthy mind.
So if a friend of yours has been acting a bit dazed and confused lately, be nice: he or she may be a Republican!
- Bob Woods
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Enron's Thieving Butt - The Portland Connection
It looks like the “smoking gun” has finally come to light in the case against Enron. Some of the dirty dealing done by Enron happened at their West Coast trading desk, which was here in Portland. The outrageous practices detailed in this memo sent electricity prices skyrocketing and nearly bankrupted California. The memo was on the letterhead of Stoel Rives, a Portland law firm that represents many corporations in Oregon, including the company I used to work for.
We will be paying for this greedy manipulation of the power markets for years, rates are still more than twice what they were before this scam. Enron was the largest contributor to Bush’s campaign, and the largest corporate bankruptcy to date. The CEO, Ken Lay is a close personal friend of Bush and has managed to keep himself out of jail, despite a long list of corporate crimes.
As “Deep Throat” said during the Watergate days - “follow the money”...
Some of Enron’s political contributions:
George W Bush - $623,000
Phil Gramm (R-Texas) - $108,350
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) - $101,500
Tom DeLay (R-Texas) - $154,650
Gordon Smith (R-Oregon) - $14,500
- Bob Woods
redacted from CBS News -
When a forest fire shut down a major transmission line into California, cutting power supplies and raising prices, Enron energy traders celebrated, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports.
“Burn, baby, burn. That’s a beautiful thing,” a trader sang about the massive fire.
Four years after California’s disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard – on audiotapes obtained by CBS News – gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash-in on, the Western power crisis.
“He just fucks California,” says one Enron employee. “He steals money from California to the tune of about a million.”
“Will you rephrase that?” asks a second employee.
“OK, he, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day,” replies the first.
The tapes, from Enron’s West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.
“If you took down the steamer, how long would it take to get it back up?” an Enron worker is heard saying.
“Oh, it’s not something you want to just be turning on and off every hour. Let’s put it that way,” another says.
“Well, why don’t you just go ahead and shut her down.”
Officials with the Snohomish Public Utility District near Seattle received the tapes from the Justice Department.
“This is the evidence we’ve all been waiting for. This proves they manipulated the market,” said Eric Christensen, a spokesman for the utility. That utility, like many others, is trying to get its money back from Enron.
“They’re fucking taking all the money back from you guys?” complains an Enron employee on the tapes. “All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?”
“Yeah, grandma Millie, man”
“Yeah, now she wants her fucking money back for all the power you’ve charged right up, jammed right up her asshole for fucking $250 a megawatt hour.”
And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis.
“Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling,” says one trader.
“Ok.”
“Do you know when you started over-scheduling load and making buckets of money on that?
Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a Bush win.
“It’d be great. I’d love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy,” says one Enron worker.
That didn’t happen, but they were sure President Bush would fight any limits on sky-high energy prices.
“When this election comes Bush will fucking whack this shit, man. He won’t play this price-cap bullshit.”
Crude, but true.
“We will not take any action that makes California’s problems worse and that’s why I oppose price caps,” said Mr. Bush on May 29, 2001.
Both the Justice Department and Enron tried to prevent the release of these tapes. Enron’s lawyers argued they merely prove “that people at Enron sometimes talked like Barnacle Bill the Sailor.”
