Palast: The California RECALL is about ENRON...

[nostamj]

Mods, I KNOW this is a dupe but the subject line of the other thread doesn't convey the IMPORTANCE of this story.

This is about BushCo & Ken Lay and ENRON and ARNOLD conspiring to keep the big energy companies from repaying BILLIONS that were stolen from CA by taking out the current Governor and replacing him with Arnulled--who will accept a two cents on the dollar compromise

it is stunning.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=283&row=0

[kittykitty]

1. It is indeed stunning

and why does not someone in the mainstream press pick up on it? Well, we know why, but this should get out there!!

[nostamj]

2. it doesn't seem to be 'picking up' on DU...

this is JUST A LITTLE BIT BIGGER THAN GROPING

<sigh>

[LittleApple81]

3. I have been going to all the Arnold threads and YELLING about

this to no effect. What is going on with people?

[Classical_Liberal]

8. Get prepared to be flamed and stalked

butt grabbing and naziism are the most important stories, and if they aren't your in trouble.

[burythehatchet]

17. Damn straight

Tits -

Ass -

Hitler -


Energy Deregulation

Three of these is just like each other - one of them is not

[Emillereid]

4. THIS IS THE STORY

Keep this kicked!

How do we get this into the hands of the media -- giving Schwarzenegger the governorsip in return for dropping the case against BIG ENERGY in a back room deal is over the top -- this must get out.

A quote from the piece:
Now, thirty-four pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men.  It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.


Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear.  The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act."  This litigation, heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers.


It takes real cojones to bring such a suit.  Who's the plaintiff taking on the bad guys?  Cruz Bustamante, Lieutenant Governor and reluctant leading candidate against Schwarzenegger.


Now follow the action.  One month after Cruz brings suit, Enron's Lay calls an emergency secret meeting in L.A. of his political buck-buddies, including Arnold.  Their plan, to undercut Davis (according to Enron memos) and "solve" the energy crisis -- that is, make the Bustamante legal threat go away. ....

[LittleApple81]

6. KICK N/T

[Emillereid]

5. Keep this story up a the top --

it's the one to follow and pass on!!!!!

[harper]

7. Thanks for posting this

You know, I had figured the point behind this recall mess was to get a republican gov in place in time to fiddle with the 2004 election process. This story by Palast is news to me, but boy does it make sense. I've printed it off to show to my CPA brother...he does quite a bit of work in California auditing energy companies. I'll be interested to see what he says about all of this.

[dutchdemocrat]

9. Enron's secret bid to save deregulation

Enron's secret bid to save deregulation
In terms of the Palast article,
(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=14705) this adds an interesting light. The SF Chronicle covered it - a lot earlier that Palast and with a more objective tone. We still don't know how many were at the meeting but note the last paragraph of the article.

Then again, who knows what happened after back doors later. But that's another angle on the tale. I am surprised Palast missed this in his article.

-------------

Enron's secret bid to save deregulation

PRIVATE MEETING: Chairman pitches his plan to prominent Californians
Christian Berthelsen, Scott Winokur, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, May 26, 2001

©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/05/26/MN209410.DTL


Energy executive Kenneth Lay, head of powerful Enron Corp., quietly courted Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Riordan, Michael Milken and other luminaries this week in Beverly Hills to drum up support for his solution to California's energy crisis.

His prescription called for more rate increases, an end to state and federal investigations and less rather than more regulation.

Lay, a close friend of President Bush and one of his largest campaign contributors, hosted a private 90-minute meeting in a conference room at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills on Thursday.

Among the participants were Milken, the former head of the Drexel Burnham Lambert investment banking firm who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 1990 and who now runs a think tank based in Santa Monica; movie star Schwarzenegger; and Riordan, the mayor of Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger and Riordan have been courted recently as GOP gubernatorial candidates.

(snip)

[andym]

52. A copy of this SF Chronicle article should be faxed with Palast's

A copy of this SF Chronicle article should be faxed with Palast's article. It was already reported by mainstream news so it will help prove the importance of the issue.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/05/26/MN209410.DTL


It should be sent with an even-toned note, stating that
this raises some questions, and that Arnold should answer them
before the election.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. These greedy bastards

Never get enough.

No wonder they have to make sure they nullify as many votes as possible with their One Armed Bandit Touch Screens.

[jenk]

11. those pigs

.

[Room101]

12. KICK, I'm sending this to people

:)

[Cha]

13. MOre Kicks for this riveting, revealing, expose of the Potential

Dirty Damage arnie could do to California! :kick:

[twilight]

14. Ahnuuld and Enron ... all in one neat package!

Thanks for the link and KEEP THIS KICKED TO THE TOP GUYS! Call you newspapers and write to the editors! Get the real news out before it is too late!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[glarius]

15. Kick

kick

[myomy]

16. Saw this today on the daily mailing from BuzzFlash and

have emailed it to a few friends in Calif.

[nostamj]

18. kick!!

this is important

[Judi Lynn]

19. A healthy press would have already been all over this story

Hope they snap out of it, if it's not asking too much.

Thanks to nostamj.

[Bushfire]

20. LA Times email addys

on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=471956

my copy, and past won't allow me to post anything other than the URL right now.

[Karenina]

21. KICK!

:kick:

[nostamj]

22. kick - this is the ONLY Arnold story

keep it up there!

[nostamj]

23. i'll try this again in the morning

it's the ONLY recall story. the ONLY one

[angka]

24. i've been screaming about this for years now.

even way back when it was all the rage to blame californians for their own misery.

they LOOTED that state and this election is all about the cover-up. period.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

25. I hope that the LA Times ran this piece from Palast!

[Emillereid]

26. I've sent this off to CNN, LA Times, LA Daily News, Washington Post

and a few more -- if everyone of us sent this to every paper we could think of -- duplicate are fine -- maybe it'll grow legs. If nothing else maybe they can get the story out by interviewing Palast and saying what he alleges kind of story.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

27. here is a list of CA papers...I don't have the computer savvy to send them

damn damn damn
Major papers:

Los Angeles: News, Times
Oakland: Tribune
Riverside: Press-Enterprise
Sacramento: Bee
San Diego: Union-Tribune
San Francisco: Chronicle, Examiner
San Jose: Mercury News
Santa Ana: Orange County Register

daily's:

Alameda: Times-Star
Antioch: Ledger-Dispatch
Auburn: Journal
Bakersfield: Californian
Barstow: Desert Dispatch
Berkeley: Voice
Chico: Enterprise-Record
Costa Mesa: Pilot
Crescent City: Triplicate
Davis: Enterprise
Escondido: North County Times
Eureka: Times-Standard Fairfield: Republic
Fremont: Argus
Fresno: Bee
Glendale: News-Press
Grass Valley: Union
Hanford: Sentinel
Hayward: Review
Hollister: Free Lance
Lodi: News-Sentinel
Lompoc: Record
Long Beach: Press-Telegram
Madera: Tribune
Marysville: Appeal-Democrat
Merced: Sun-Star
Modesto: Bee
Napa: Napa Valley Register
Novato: Marin Independent Journal
Ontario: Inland Valley Bulletin
Oroville: Mercury-Register
Palm Springs: Desert Sun
Palmdale: Antelope Valley Press
Pasadena: Star-News
Petaluma: Argus-Courier
Placerville: Mountain Democrat
Pleasanton: Tri-Valley Herald
Porterville: Recorder
Red Bluff: News
Redding: Record Searchlight
Redlands: Facts
Ridgecrest: Independent
Roseville: Press-Tribune
Salinas: Californian
San Bernardino: San Bernardino County Sun
San Luis Obispo: Telegram-Tribune, Tribune
San Rafael: Marin Independant Journal
Santa Barbara: News-Press
Santa Clarita: Signal
Santa Cruz: County Sentinel
Santa Maria: Times
Santa Rosa: Press Democrat
Sonoma: Index-Tribune
Sonora: Union Democrat
South Lake Tahoe: Tahoe Tribune
Stockton: Record
Torrance: Breeze
Tracy: Press
Ukiah: Journal
Vacaville: Reporter
Vallejo: Times-Herald
Ventura: Ventura County Star
Victorville: Press
Walnut Creek: Contra Costa Times
West Covina: San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Whittier: News
Woodland: Democrat
Yreka: Siskiyou News

[rocktivity]

28. I've been sending this story around all day

And you Californians need to make a few hundred copies of it and pass it around!


rocknation

[joanski01]

29. WOW!

What a story! It sure makes sense. Kick to the front page.

[Karenina]

30. Hail Mary pass!!!

And the :kick: is GOOD!

[doubleplusgood]

31. "Arnold Gropes Enron"

...maybe THAT kind of headline would get the media's attention.

[Ardee]

32. The missing piece

As the recall was instigated almost entirely by Darryl Issa, and it was his own money that financed it there should be some connection with him in all of this. If not then are the energy companies just using a fortuitous coincidence, the Issa recall, this seems to me to sort of deflate things a bit......if the Ken Lays et al were busy plotting how to avoid repaying their stolen monies then the recall seems a bit too coincidental......

[truthseeker1]

66. What's the only committee Issa serves on????

ENERGY & COMMERCE

http://congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=40137&lvl=C

[nolabels]

33. Follow the money..........................................................

..........................................
..............................................................
Pete Wilson .......................
Ken Lay....................................G.O.P...................... ***********'s
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>................911.....................IRAQ...........
...............SECRET DICK...........Energy TASK FORCE>>>>>>>...........BFEE.........Arms SALES.................Cover Up................... Murder.........
........Corporate Governor(ance)............Lies.....
....Unilateral Unprovoked Military Intervention.....
....(could go on for days like this, get the picture?)................Arnold...................:kick:

[burythehatchet]

34. The nexus of all that we are trying to fight

is in Cheney's undisclosed location - the energy task force is the smoking gun

[Gin]

36. this story makes the whole thing make sense.

gin

[ldf]

35. kick

it's not as sexy, but it seems that this (the state of the california economy, and why) is what the californians are pissed about.

why don't they see the obvious?

i can only say that if they really do elect the 'rimmer', they get what they deserve.

disclaimer: nothing against rimming, as long as everyone is clean.

[sattahipdeep]

37. September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow

Or_The Blood trail of the USA

Key Enron trader pleads guilty to manipulating California
power market%)
Thu Oct 17, 4:37 PM ET

By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - A former Enron trader accused of masterminding a scheme
to drive up energy prices during California's power crisis pleaded guilty Thursday
to conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Timothy Belden, the former head of trading in Enron's Portland, Oregon, office,
admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said the guilty plea shows that that the rolling
blackouts and huge price increases that rocked California last year were the
result of illegal conduct.

"These charges answer the question that has long troubled California
consumers: whether the energy crisis was spurred in part by criminal activity.
The answer is a resounding yes," Ryan said.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/2002-10-17/usw_enron.asp
http://www.webprowire.com/summaries/276585.html
http://www.examiner.com/headlines/default.jsp?story=n.enron.1018w


"It's about time," said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for
California Gov. Gray Davis. The governor "has been saying
for more than two years somebody ought to to go to jail for
the manipulation of the markets."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1622166

[active_in_ca]

38. Palast on KPFA today

Looks like Greg Palast will be on KPFA this morning between 9 and 11 AM

[Terwilliger]

39. WOO HOOO! Yeah, Sunday Salon with Larry Bensky 9A PDT

they'll hear this on KPFK in LA as well...covering the whole state :bounce:

www.kpfa.org
www.kpfk.org
www.pacifica.org

OnEdit: adding Direct audio link

[Gin]

40. this is information on the suit

Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante
Files Lawsuit Against Natural Gas Generators
On Behalf Of California Taxpayers


http://www.ltg.ca.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2002/nov/pr112202.asp

[nostamj]

41. thanks!

and a kick! listening to KPFA but they're having tech problems.... no mention of Palast yet (or, was that really 9-11 EST ???)

[Terwilliger]

42. might have been 10-11...since Larry has said nothing about Palast

[teryang]

45. Good work Gin

I think Arnold and Maria should disclose their stock and bond holdings right now.

http://www.ltg.ca.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2002/nov/pr112202.asp

Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante
Files Lawsuit Against Natural Gas Generators
On Behalf Of California Taxpayers

<The lawsuit names the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., and 38 natural gas traders and generators and their subsidiaries, including Reliant Energy Inc., Mirant California, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Sempra and the El Paso Corporation.

The 18-page complaint alleges criminal conduct on the part of the generators for falsely reporting the cost and volume of natural gas to publications that maintain the natural gas price indexes, which help determine how much money millions of Californians will pay for electricity. The complaint further alleges the publishers of Gas Daily and Inside FERC Gas Market Reports conspired with the generators and traders to knowingly report false information and failed to verify information given to them by the market participants named as defendants. The two industry journals are published by Platts, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.>

[Terran]

43. I hope the LA Times picks this up!

This could be huge! Arnold owes the public an explanation for why he was meeting with Ken Lay!

[nostamj]

44. LA Times *has* been sent the article

by several on DU at least.

CA DUers should be calling/faxing to ANY local media they can.

I did a segment the story on GuyJames yesterday... FWIW...

[Code_Name_D]

55. Protestors need to act

They need to converge on the LA Times heaqurters, and explane things to them.

[VeniceBeat]

67. I Spoke to a Reporter at the Times Today

and he told me that Arnold had flatly denied the allegations. I told him about the newly discovered documents and gave him Palast's URL.
He didn't seem that interested.

I also called and spoke with someone at the Daily News. Lukewarm on the phone.

I guess groping sells more papers than the theft of 9 BILLION!

We'll see.

Maybe they're saving the Enron story for Arnold's IMPEACHMENT TRIAL!

[Bushknew]

46. Why didnÕt Davis and Cruz make this case???!!!!!!!

WHY?

If I were them, I would have been talking about this relentlessly.

So, why arenÕt they?

[Bushknew]

47. ItÕs a conspiracy of stupidity.

If Cruz and Davis are not bright enough to talk about this É

Why hasnÕt Bill Clinton Wes Clark, Al Gore used their fame to FORCE this issue to
the forefront in the media.

ItÕs a conspiracy of stupidity.

How can you have a bomb like this and not let it drop.

IÕm so mad right now, if Arnold wins we deserve to lose, for not educating the public
to what is going on.

DonÕt these people know how to debate? What the FUCK are they waiting for?

Or is it that they donÕt want to offend the energy companies? :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Catherine Vincent]

48. Well Arianna brought it up but no reporter would question it seriously.

Makes you go hmmmm....

[burythehatchet]

59. Waaaaaayyyy to comlicated

for typical viewer to sit through without clicking to next channel

[Terwilliger]

49. Huffington on KPFA NOW!

10:25 PDT

[Terwilliger]

50. Talking about BBV and the affect it might have in California

[Bozita]

51. BevHarris mentioned

[LWolf]

53. We need it in the mainstream media.

Today. It wasn't in my local paper; no surprise. It needed to hit the LA Times. We need it on the radio, the tv, and in the paper. Today. Before the polls open.

[eleny]

54. I'm kicking this one!

:hi:

[dutchdemocrat]

56. This is a great article from AUGUST on the meeting...

Total amnesia
Arnold can’t seem to recall anything about his secret meeting with Enron’s Ken Lay. Perhaps this will refresh his memory.

By Jason Leopold


Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't talking. The Hollywood action-film star and GOP gubernatorial candidate in the state’s recall election has been unusually silent about his plans for running the Golden State. He hasn’t yet offered a solution for the state’s budget deficit, an issue that largely got more than 1 million people to sign a petition to recall Governor Gray Davis.

More importantly, however, Schwarzenegger still won’t respond to questions about why he was at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills two years ago where he, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and junk-bond king Michael Milken met secretly with former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, who was touting a plan for solving the state’s energy crisis. Other luminaries who were invited but didn’t attend the May 24, 2001, meeting included former Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson and supermarket magnate Ron Burkle.

While Schwarzenegger, Riordan and Milken listened to Lay’s pitch, Davis pleaded with President George W. Bush to enact much-needed price controls on electricity sold in the state, which skyrocketed to more than $200 per megawatt-hour (four to five times the price it was a year earlier). Davis said that Texas-based energy companies were manipulating California’s power market, charging obscene prices for power and holding consumers hostage. Bush agreed to meet with Davis at the Century Plaza Hotel in West Los Angeles on May 29 of that year--five days after Lay met with Schwarzenegger--to discuss the California power crisis.

<SNIP>

http://newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2003-08-28/essay.asp

[dutchdemocrat]

57. And more background

The California Recall Plot


By

Michelle Mairesse



It was an extraordinary moment. Congressional Representative Darrell Issa stood before a press microphone array and wept. He had just spent two million of his estimated $300 million fortune gathering signatures and running campaign ads urging citizens to recall California Governor Gray Davis and replace the governor with Issa himself.

Issa had reason to hope. Ben Ginsberg, the attorney who headed the Bush team in the Florida courts in the 2000 presidential election, had been Issa’s advisor during these months of importing, organizing, and deploying petition circulators from out of state. Then a thunderclap came out of the blue and Issa’s dream collapsed: The night before Issa cried on camera, a movie star announced on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show that he, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was preparing to be California’s next governor.


Issa’s resume neglected to mention that, like several of Bush’s cabinet members, he had been charged with four felonies and convicted of one, but he thought his neoconservative outlook and his rags-to-riches immigrant’s story would compensate for any past mistakes. He was wrong. Although the Republican wheeler-dealers kindly allowed him to pick up the recall tab, they never considered backing his run for the statehouse. Arnold was their boy from the beginning--and had been for years.

SNIP

http://www.hermes-press.com/recall2.htm

[Pastiche423]

58. Of course Arnold

won't discuss the meeting. It would blow the whole reason for the recall out into the open.

It would also bring the Energy Task Force meetings, Enron and whistle ass et al's complicity into the light.

[eleny]

60. kick again

:kick:

[frank frankly]

61. palast is one of the best ever

:kick:

[rbnyc]

62. kick

:kick:

[smallprint]

63. Maybe this is why Drudge + corporate media

are suddenly dumping on Arnold-- if Arnold is elected, and this story gets out, then the whole conspiracy gets exposed...

[Pastiche423]

64. A...

:kick: for the nightowls.

[Sideways]

65. Bump It Up

:kick:

[dutchdemocrat]

68. Bump

Bump

[dutchdemocrat]

69. Breakfast kick

If you are pushing the Palast article you must read this excellent piece by David Leopold, Las Angeles Bureau Chief for Dow Jones

He started at Dow Jones Newswires as bureau chief in April 2000. At that time, the California energy crisis was just two months away. His job was covering the energy industry.

In two years at Dow Jones, he wrote 2,000 stories, was credited with being the leader on coverage of the energy crisis and won the company’s journalist of the year award in his first eight months at the company for my coverage of the crisis.

When the Enron debacle began, he was put on a number of investigative stories.

He's got Arnie pegged as well and even suspect musclehead may have had energy shares.

Total amnesia
Arnold can’t seem to recall anything about his secret meeting with Enron’s Ken Lay. Perhaps this will refresh his memory.

By Jason Leopold


http://newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2003-08-28/essay.asp

[morgan2]

70. palast on democracy now

greg palast is talking about this now on democracy now

[phillybri]

71. KICK

:kick:

[gasperc]

72. connect dots...Enron+oil+electoral lock+media hypnosys

Since day one, right after the inauguration Bush lifted the caps on the western energy market, which opened the floodgates to humongous price spikes in early 2001. By then, Bush Inc was already trying to cut a deal with the Taliban to build a pipeline thru Afganistan. The Taliban's price far exceeded the dirt cheap price Bush inc. wanted to pay. Under the threat of a carpet of gold or carpet of bombs, the taliban struck first. All the while, Bush inc is still consumed with the notion that oil dominance is necessary for America's prosperity, WITH NO OTHER ALTERNATIVES TO CONSIDER. The hell with conservation, alternative energy, etc. With Enron blowing up, plan B went into effect, take over CA to pressure Dems to spend time and resources in a recall at the least and missing the advantage of the guv's chair during the 2004 election. With CA in play, the electorate, confused and dumbfounded, the GOP can lurch or squeek or ram their way thru the 2004 election. All at the expense of the safety, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of the average American.

[leftchick]

73. was brought up this Mon. AM by C-Span caller!

to the editor of Time magazine. His reply was that he had not heard the story before and nothing else! :grr:

[nostamj]

74. arrgghhh.........

Time can't help now... too late.

[rbnyc]

75. maybe not too late...

...another kick.

:kick:

[denverbill]

76. Great work by Palast, once again.

That guy has to be the best reporter in the world right now.

[TeeYiYi]

77. kick

TYY :kick: