Step back in time to the problem

This post is from my friend BJ Trotter, a retired newspaper editor in the Carolina's. It is an honor for me that she has allowed me to cross post her work from DemWit.

If you are old enough, you remember those red, white and blue posters with the pointed finger and the challenge, “Uncle Sam wants you.”

I have just finished reading the transcript of President Obama’s address to the nation last night. In the wake of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, this president is pointing his finger at YOU: he wants you to help him to help America break its “addiction to fossil fuels.”

Isn’t it time?

When all the blame goes around, it ultimately comes back to YOU – for you are a citizen of a nation which consumes 20 percent of the world’s oil supply while possessing less than 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves.

YOU are further to blame for not demanding accountability in the wake of years of Republican deregulation of this industry.

LET US step back in time to the problem.

On Thursday, 25 May 2006, I noted in my Daily Journal:

BREAKING NEWS: Awaiting a verdict in the 53-day trial of Enron’s founder and CEO Ken Lay (charged with six counts of securities fraud and conspiracy) and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling (charged with 28 counts of the same). The jury has deliberated six days. These men allegedly bilked employees and stockholders out of life savings when the company went belly up. They are accused of reporting the company was doing great when, in fact, it was failing. Stocks plummeted from $90 a share to zero. As an MSNBC reporter stated: “Enron has come to symbolize corporate greed.” This is the biggest case of corporate fraud to date – and there have been some big ones!

Noon. Ken Lay GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS! Jeff Skilling GUILTY on 19 of 28 counts! Also, Reuters is reporting a judge has found Ken Lay GUILTY in a separate case of bank fraud.

Bush’s good buddy Lay came out to the microphone to proclaim his innocence and invoke the name of the Lord. Not once has this hypocrite admitted any guilt in bilking so many out of their life’s savings.

NOW, step into DemWit’s time machine and travel back to the year 2003 when I first wrote “The Enron Connection” - an article I have subsequently updated.

I present the crux of that article here to show how closely aligned the Bush administration – which formulated our energy policies – was to those regulated by them.

From “The Enron Connection” by B.J. Trotter:

RALPH REED - Former head of the Christian Coalition and GOP strategist. Reed was hired by Enron for $10,000 a month in 1997 on the recommendation of Bush political adviser Karl Rove as a way to keep Reed loyal to Bush and close enough not to disrupt the campaign's "compassionate conservative" spin.

DON EVANS - First, Bush's chief campaign fund-raiser, then Secretary of Commerce. Evans accepted Enron Chairman Ken Lay's campaign contributions and fielded Lay's phone calls.

KEEP READING, it gets better.

ALBERTO GONZALES - Gonzales is a White House counsel who worked at Vinson and Elkins, a Houston law firm which represented Enron and signed off on Enron's questionable accounting schemes.

PATRICK H. WOOD III - Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Wood was Ken Lay's personal choice to replace Curtis Herbert, Jr., who was forced out of office by Bush after disagreeing with Lay on regulatory policies.

SPENCER ABRAHAM - After being appointed Secretary of Energy by Bush, Abraham called Ken Lay to talk about Enron's financial difficulties and their effect on energy markets. As a senator, Abraham received substantial Enron contributions.

ROBERT ZOELLICK - U.S. Trade Representative Zoellick, who served on Enron's advisory council, provided another key source of access for Enron officials.

MARC F. RACICOT - Former Montana governor Racicot was Enron's Washington lobbyist. He dropped his client after being named Republican National Chairman.

WENDY GRAMM - As Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chairman, Gramm, wife of then Senator Phil Gramm (R. - TEXAS), pushed through a measure exempting Enron from federal oversight. She serves on Enron's audit committee.

SENATOR PHIL GRAMM - Then Senator Gramm pushed through legislation shielding Enron from government scrutiny and later decided not to seek re-election in 2002.. Thus ended a dedicated Senate career for Gramm, who, in the mid-80s, co-authored the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act with the intent of balancing the nation's budget and cutting federal deficits.

THOMAS E. WHITE - White, a 10-year Enron executive involved in market manipulation and price gouging, sold off $12 million in Enron stock after Bush appointed him Secretary of the Army. Citizen advocacy groups pushed for his resignation, and he resigned in April 2003.

KARL ROVE - Rove, chief White House political adviser, was a major Enron stockholder when he met with Ken Lay to discuss Enron's problems with federal regulators.

JOHN ASHCROFT - U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft had to recuse himself from the Justice Department's Enron investigation after revealing the company donated $61,000 to his failed 2000 Senate campaign.

OTHER BUSH POLITICAL ASSOCIATES WHO HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED BY ENRON - Former Commerce Secretary and Texas oilman Robert Mosbacher, Secretary of State James Baker, former White House economics guru Lawrence B. Lindsey, campaign adviser Ed Gillespie. Department of Commerce General Counsel Theodore W. Kassinger and Maritime Administrator William G. Schubert.

DICK CHENEY - As head of the Bush administration energy task force, which, if I recall, met behind closed doors, Vice President Cheney gave Ken Lay and other Enron executives major influence over the creation of the nation's energy policy.

KEN LAY - Enron Chairman Lay, a longtime personal friend of George W. Bush, made the company Bush's biggest campaign contributor and used his resulting influence to shape public energy policy in Enron's favor.

GEORGE W. BUSH - President Bush rewarded Enron's massive campaign contribution by refusing to intervene when the company's profiteering sparked California's energy crisis - a crisis for which California Governor Gray Davis paid the ultimate price, a recall from office by groups which succeeded in putting the responsibility of the state's energy and budget crisis on his shoulders.

I CONCLUDED the article:

The tangled web of Enron is far-reaching and under-reported. Television news is too busy covering the "flavor-of-the-day" stories - from Michael Jackson's dangling baby to the Laci Peterson murder case to the touting of Ann Coulter's new book, which hails Sen. Joe McCarthy as a great American hero - to report on REAL news. The days of great investigative journalism, when the "Fourth Estate" served a "checks and balances" function, are seemingly in the past.

And, Enron is just the tip of the iceberg. The web of corporate entanglement by the current administration clearly marks a CONFLICT OF INTEREST, a charge which in the past would have had every newspaper and TV news source in this country howling for investigation.

Halliburton, Harkin, Bechtel, Westar. All involved in a political quid pro quo resulting in massive government contracts. Halliburton, where Dick Cheney served as chairman and CEO, and its affiliates have been given the very lucrative job of rebuilding Iraq.

There is no need for an independent counsel here. No one need dig up the facts. These are the facts, reported by a few brave news outlets, citizen advocacy groups, corporate watchdogs and Internet news sites across this nation. The problem with newspapers is their reader base is localized and not as far-reaching as cable TV's CNN, MSNBC and Fox News or the major network anchor desks. These TV news outlets, all owned by major corporations, have remained eerily silent on this issue of conflict of interest.

The ultimate responsibility for righting this wrong lies in the power of the American citizen's sole possession, which cannot be bought or sold - the vote.

Questioning why nothing is being done about this issue is fair.

SOURCES OF NAMES: Common Cause and “Big Lies: The Right Wing Political Machine and How It Distorts the Truth” by Joe Conason.

TRAVELING BACK to the late 1960s:

I worked in public relations at St. Regis Paper Company’s Ferguson Mill in Monticello, Miss. – at the time the world’s largest paper mill. I know the standards in place at that time to protect the environment and ensure workplace safety. I even remember a home office memo explaining the term “ecology.” Somewhere along the way those standards have been eroded.

BACK TO THE FUTURE:

There is a lesson to be learned here. Will America seize this opportunity and accept the presidnt’s challenge?

Not if the Republican Party can help it.

BJ Trotter

Beach Front BP Property

What would you say to a deal that I could get you a beach front piece of property on the Gulf Coast for $901.60? I’m talking about 150 feet to the beach, 100 feet by 100 feet lot of prime beach front property to put your beach house up on? I have a deal that nobody else can beat for property all along the United States Gulf of Mexico. To qualify all you have to do is spill millions of gallons of oil from a botched oil well and be the CEO of BP aka British Petroleum.

If you do the math, BP is setting up a relief fund of $20 Billion for the spill. There is 1680 miles of coastline inside the Gulf of Mexico that is part of the United States. Work the numbers down and it works out to $2254 for each square foot that touches the ocean. Work the numbers out to the size lot I described above and BINGO is the end result.

I’m disgusted and the worst part of the equation is that they haven’t stopped the spill yet. All of the Gulf Coast states are so screwed. All of the fishing industry can kiss its ass goodbye, if you haven’t seen the documentaries on the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska which was 18 years ago, it decimated the entire fishing community. The population of fish never recovered and the shores are still soaked with oil 18 years later. Same goes for tourist running for the beautiful beaches all along the Gulf. The west coast of Florida is so screwed. All those northerners can save a few bucks and just go down to the basement and sit by the oil tank with a sun lamp and get the same experience. This is an environmental disaster of epic proportions and our nation should be begging for ideas from anyone and everyone.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Papamoka

Catholic’s, McCain & Hagee

Us Catholic’s are a tough lot. Hell we have to deal with the shame of the child molesting priest issue that went underground for decades but we all own that shame together as Catholic’s. It is a shame that should never be forgotten by every single Catholic.

Mind you as church organizations go the Catholic faith is very strict with its teachings but very liberal with its actions. Caring for the poor, feeding the homeless, clothing people, offering assistance in many areas of life without care as to whether you are a Catholic or not. There are no flares fired off to make notice of our churches response to people in need, its just done.

With that being said, there is a religious Christian war going on in American politics that is based in hate. Christian, and hate are two words that should never go together when talking about the American Christian experience of faith. Love thy brother does not have the word “except” in it. Down at the bottom of the page there is no italicized notes with a list of who is not to be loved. If you think this war is happening in both political parties then you would be dead wrong. This issue is totally owned by the “My God is better than your God” Republican Party and Reverend John Hagee is heading up the battle with his endorsement of John McCain. Over at the Washington Post they have this great read on it…

Hagee Endorsement of McCain Has Risks

By LIBBY QUAID
The Associated Press
Monday, March 3, 2008; 6:23 PM

SEDONA, Ariz. -- Endorsed by an influential Texas televangelist, Republican John McCain endeared himself to one group of voters but risked alienating another with the pastor's anti-Catholic views.

The controversy has been mild so far, but still, every vote counts in a presidential election that is expected to be closely contested.

Evangelical or born-again Christian voters were key to George W. Bush's victories, but so were Roman Catholics, who chose Bush over their fellow Catholic John Kerry in 2004 and over Al Gore in 2000.

The televangelist, San Antonio megachurch leader John Hagee, has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and called it a "false cult system" and "the apostate church"; the word "apostate" means someone who has forsaken his religion.

He also has linked Adolf Hitler to the Catholic church, suggesting it helped shape his anti-Semitism.

McCain said he does not agree with some of Hagee's past comments. "It's simply not accurate to say that because someone endorses me that I therefore embrace their views," McCain told reporters at a news conference Monday in Phoenix. - Washington Post

Just checking facts and we have this video from YouTube…



John McCain needs to look in the rear view mirror of his campaign and think about this endorsement more clearly. No matter how McCain spins this in the desire to hold on to the Bush Evangelical right vote he will loose the Catholic vote in large blocks. That is where the weakness of the McCain campaign will be in the general election. Pitting one Christian based religion against another Christian based religion offers no hope or change from the Bush full speed ahead of separation of the people. Good luck with that one Johnny! Here is your cross, you earned it, wear it well.

My family was from the old school, marry an Irish girl and marry a Catholic girl. I got one out of two right but one thing is true of both my wife and I is that our Catholic faith is one issue we never argue over. Our faith is our rock and we stand on it many times to keep our heads above the tides of life. To have someone call our faith a bastardization of religion or a whore just bothers me.

As for John Hagee, from this die hard Catholic, you sir are a money grabbing hypocrite. You call my church a group of “Whores”? You call my faith a “False Cult”. Then you call us a “Nazi” shaping tool of Adolf Hitler! I’ll turn the other cheek. Hit me again as you drive away from your multi million dollar church and studios in your luxury car to go to your personal mansion paid for by believers only looking for any beacon of hope that is the beginning of their faith.

Two words for the most self righteous Reverend John Hagee, “False Prophet”. Somewhere in the bible is a story about being very aware of men preaching God’s word and directing hate towards our fellow man. Again, God and Hate are two words that should not be used together if you are a minister, priest or a Reverend. In politics this endorsement is tantamount to forsaking an entire people for the favor of one.

In the battle for Christian voters John McCain is selling out his own self respect for votes from just one religious political group. What would he do as President? In acceptance of this endorsement he has basically endorsed the same words of Reverend John Hagee and called all of us in the Catholic faith “Whores”! As a practicing Catholic I resent it. If this is what the Republican Party is all about then I would suggest Catholic Republican’s jump ship in the general election simply for this endorsement.

There is no back peddling on this very central Catholic issue and Senator McCain will not back off or denounce John Hagee’s endorsement. That is the issue to stand and fight for as Catholics come November. Our faith is not a whore!

I have to run, as a Catholic I have to say a couple dozen Hail Mary’s and a ton of Our Father’s for this post…

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com

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Get Real Obama?

Politics in Washington D.C. is more about smoke and mirrors rather than just telling you yes or no in any given question that deserves a yes or no answer. Having watched many of the debates it is interesting to see many of the candidates on both sides of the Presidential race dodge, weave and outright not answer the questions asked of them.

It’s not often that you catch a politician just as confused as the rest of us when questions are asked and he answers as honestly as he can with the truth. Sometimes the art of politics is just being real and answering the questions truthfully.

Barack Obama is one of the few politicians in this race that will respond to a question directly. You may not like the answer but it is a direct answer with honest and sincere facts to back it up. Sometimes when you do that you get burned and can joke about it later…



I’m backing Obama for President simply because he seems like the kind of guy that would help a neighbor out. He seems more like us in the middle and lower class even though he is technically a millionaire. He seems like someone that you would enjoy watching a football game with in your living room on a lazy Sunday afternoon. He just seems more real than the alternative in the Democrat Party and the Republican Party.

Papamoka

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