Arnold to Settle Enron Lawsuits for Pennies on the Dollar? Surprise!!

[Robin Hood]

Told'ya So
Katherine Yurica, October 16, 2003
http://www.guerrillanews.com/corporate_crime/doc3170.html
Arnold to Settle Lawsuits for Pennies on the Dollar?


The Yurica Report has learned that only three days after Mr. Schwarzenegger won his victory in California, an aide announced that the governor-elect intends to settle pending energy fraud lawsuits. This apparently includes the suit filed by Cruz Bustamante under the California statute, Civil Code section 17200, of the Unfair Practices Act. The purpose of the act “is to safeguard the public against the creation or perpetuation of monopolies and to foster and encourage competition” the Act expressly prohibits, “unfair, dishonest, deceptive, destructive, fraudulent and discriminatory practices by which fair and honest competition is destroyed or prevented.”

snip

Mr. Schwarzenegger's announcement to settle the lawsuits comes on the heels of an article written on the eve of the election by investigative reporter Greg Palast. Palast, whose reports appear on BBC television's Newsnight, said that the Los Angeles based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights uncovered Enron internal memos regarding Mr. Schwarzenegger's secret meeting in May 2001 with Kenneth Lay, the former CEO of Enron. The intent of the power company, according to Palast, was to sabotage the Davis-Bustamante plan to win back the $9 billion dollars in illegal profits earned by power moguls. The plan has worked so far. Clearly Mr. Schwarzenegger should be questioned about his agenda.

[mhr]

1. Link?

eom

[BrotherBuzz]

4. Link

http://www.yuricareport.com/

[9215]

26. A perfect system

for the fascists. If they don't like the politics of a region they bankrupt the state, turn the political situation into a crisis, have a recall, back a bought and sold robot actor and have him remove all lawsuits against them.

A perfectly closed unequivocally fascist system and a destroyed election process to boot.

If this is allowed to continue they will take over the world like a political version Terminator robots.


Arnold Swarznegger you are a vile specimen humanity.

[KeepItReal]

2. Damn! Can we get a link to the Arnold/Enron meeting?

Repubs shelling out $1 million to underwrite an illegal recall campaign (shipping folks in from out of state to collect signatures is illegal, but the courts went with the "intent of the voter") in order to save Enron $Billions sounds like a pretty good deal.

[oasis]

3. Arnold is not granting interviews.

[slaveplanet]

18. interview no, unstaged debate no

but Bill Forman did trick him into addressing this...AS had obviously been prepped...all subsequent press q&a's were given the Berlin Wall tactic. Read on-

-snip-
My third encounter with Arnold, I vowed, would be more fruitful. The debate organizers had decided to hold an additional press conference, this one for the overflow journalists stationed in the campus library. Positioning myself front and center, I watched the tough questions begin to fly, things like: Arnold, just why are Democrats so afraid of you?

Before long, Schwarzenegger’s spin doctor announced the last call for questions, and I weighed my options: Skulking in alleyways had not worked. The straight-arm salute felt creepy and also had proved ineffective. My only choice, I decided, was to be as submissive and pathetic as possible.

When Schwarzenegger made eye contact with me, I affected a look more desperate than a man trying to hail a cab in a hurricane, more sickeningly sincere than those Margaret Keane paintings of big-eyed kids on black velvet.

He broke eye contact, continuing to speak about the special interests to which lesser candidates are beholden. And then he looked back. I raised an index finger, silently mouthing a prayer: One question, just one.

OK, this really was the last question, the spin-guy insisted, as I offered up my most hopeful expression, the kind a dog makes after it has chewed up the rug.

It worked. Arnold pointed to me. The sea of reporters parted, and I rose to my feet and spoke the question: “Do you consider Ken Lay a special interest, and why won’t you talk about when you met with him during our California energy crisis?”

And this is how he answered: “Well, first of all, I just found out very recently --How many days ago? Two days ago? Three days ago?--I had someone look at the record who was there,” he continued, insisting he was just one of 30 people at Lay’s meeting. “And at that time, he was not a star. He was unknown, not the way he is known now. So, I did not remember ever meeting him. So, then we looked at the record, and then we found out two days ago, yes, he was in that room, but I don’t even remember meeting him.”

Another reporter followed up with a question about deregulation. As it turns out, Arnold is for it. And then it was time to go. As he left the room, reporters called out questions about Karl Rove and Cheney. Arnold ignored them, exiting to applause from the more star-struck “reporters” left behind.

This weekend--while I pondered the idea that Lay’s public disgrace was actually a rise to stardom--the Schwarzenegger campaign reportedly put journalists in isolation. The media was placed in a press-only section behind a stage from which he would no longer take questions. Now more than ever, with only days left before the vote, Arnold’s handlers need to make sure that no one screws things up. Not even Arnold.

[Wickster]

5. Found the link:

http://www.yuricareport.com/

[imax2268]

6. I found this...hope it helps...

Arnold and Kenny Lay

Ok, just for a minute, forget the 10+ girls Arnold is accused of and has admitted to sexual harassing; forget that Arnold invited an accused Nazi War Criminal to his birthday party; forget that Arnold admired Hitler for his speaking abilities and his power; forget that he only took part in one debate - the one where the questions where scripted in advance; forget his sexist attacks on Arianna Huffington; forget his smugness; forget the fact that he is utterly unprepared to run the 5th largest economy in the world; forget the fact that he said "the public doesn't care about figures" when asked about any specifics because the media for a moment had grown tired of his movie lines; and just check out his connections to Kenny Lay, Enron, and the California energy crisis, the mess that supposedly ignited this recall:

Published on Saturday, October 4, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Arnold Unplugged - It's Hasta la Vista to $9 Billion if the Governator is Selected
by Greg Palast

It's not what Arnold Schwarzenegger did to the girls a decade back that should raise an eyebrow. According to a series of memoranda our office obtained today, it's his dalliance with the boys in a hotel room just two years ago that's the real scandal.

The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17, 2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay. Also frolicking with Arnold and Ken was convicted stock swindler Mike Milken.

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.

How can that be done? Follow the trail with me.

While Bustamante's kicking Enron butt in court, the Davis Administration is simultaneously demanding that George Bush's energy regulators order the $9 billion refund. Don't hold your breath: Bush's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is headed by a guy proposed by … Ken Lay.

But Bush's boys on the commission have a problem. The evidence against the electricity barons is rock solid: fraudulent reporting of sales transactions, megawatt "laundering," fake power delivery scheduling and straight out conspiracy (including meetings in hotel rooms).

So the Bush commissioners cook up a terrific scheme: charge the companies with conspiracy but offer them, behind closed doors, deals in which they have to pay only two cents on each dollar they filched.

Problem: the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if the Governor of California won't play along. Solution: Re-call the Governor.

New Problem: the guy most likely to replace Davis is not Mr. Musclehead, but Cruz Bustamante, even a bigger threat to the power companies than Davis. Solution: smear Cruz because -- heaven forbid! -- he took donations from Injuns (instead of Ken Lay).

The pay-off? Once Arnold is Governor, he blesses the sweetheart settlements with the power companies. When that happens, Bustamante's court cases are probably lost. There aren't many judges who will let a case go to trial to protect a state if that a governor has already allowed the matter to be "settled" by a regulatory agency.

So think about this. The state of California is in the hole by $8 billion for the coming year. That's chump change next to the $8 TRILLION in deficits and surplus losses planned and incurred by George Bush. Nevertheless, the $8 billion deficit is the hanging rope California's right wing is using to lynch Governor Davis.

Yet only Davis and Bustamante are taking direct against to get back the $9 billion that was vacuumed out of the state by Enron, Reliant, Dynegy, Williams Company and the other Texas bandits who squeezed the state by the bulbs.

But if Arnold is selected, it's 'hasta la vista' to the $9 billion. When the electricity emperors whistle, Arnold comes -- to the Peninsula Hotel or the Governor's mansion. The he-man turns pussycat and curls up in their lap.

I asked Mr. Muscle's PR people to comment on the new Enron memos -- and his strange silence on Bustamante's suit or Davis' petition. But Arnold was too busy shaving off his Hitlerian mustache to respond.

The Enron memos were discovered by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Los Angeles, www.ConsumerWatchdog.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the link...
Blogging Buffalo

[0007]

10. In my humble opinion

all the negitive press on the muscle man was from his own party, and the reason was to put the Enron thingie on the back burner, and make the voters believe it was coming from Davis and his dirty sour grapes.

And it worked.

We've been foiled again!

[Robin Hood]

11. It wasn't hard to do,

Since it appears that a majority of Californians are imbeciles who enjoy shooting themselves in the foot.

" We don't like that Davis signed those extorted energy deals, so we're going to vote for the guy who let's the energy crooks get away with screwing us. God bless America".

[okieinpain]

16. truly amazing stuff, yet people on this board don't like the word

SHEEPLE. truly amazing.

[sendero]

22. I like it....

... I'm beginning to think only sheeple don't like it.

I just wonder how they are going to spin this. I would think that even a sheeple can see how corrupt this action is.

[Le Taz Hot]

7. I blasted the Palast article

the day before the recall election to every news outlet I could get my hands on. Unforutately, it was too late to make a difference. We're STILL getting virtually nothing about it on the "news." Get lotsa KOBE KOBE KOBE, though. :eyes:

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Helllooooo, Mainstream newspaper, where are yooouuuuuu?

When I'm calling youuuuuuuu....Will you answer toooooooo.....

We need to start logging the number of days that we learned about the Ken Lay meetings here on DU, and when it finally hits the mainstream press. Especially now since Schwin boy seems to have a plan that he failed to tell us about in the debates about settling the claims for pennies on the dollar.

[farmbo]

9. Drop your trousers and grab 'em CA voters...

Here's your reward for voting for the "cool" "outsider" candidate.

:spank:

And for those of you DUers who opposed the Gropenator, check out the movie "High Noon". You're going to be playing the Gary Cooper role...trying to keep these lawsuits alive alone in the face of California's cowardly and self- absorbed voters who don't know true evil when it shows up at the train station.

Good Luck... and Good Hunting!

:kick:

[UTUSN]

12. Kick n/t

[Starpass]

13. Wait, wait,,,,what is that I see??----

..oh, it's the bare asses of the population of CA all raised high in the air, with cheeks spread to take more of the rape-a-dope coming from the Kenny Lay-Wannabees!!! I hope they get it. They let the scum in the door; let them pay the price until they bleed so bad that they can't help but wake up. Arnie is paving the way for more abuse of Californians at the hands of any scum who want to have their share of the people's pocketbooks.

[abbyhoffman]

14. No he's not!!

He can't it's not up to Arine its up to the AG and the AG is elected not appointed & Calf AG is a Lib from San Francisco he is not going to settle!

[BrotherBuzz]

15. I don't know squat about law

but this case is not through the Attorney General's office but a private lawsuit filed last year by Bustamante under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." Arnie can settle and, and as stated in the Palast article "There aren't many judges who will let a case go to trial to protect a state if that a governor has already allowed the matter to be "settled" by a regulatory agency."

Heck, what do I know? I just read the Palast and Katherine Yurica articles....

[okieinpain]

17. by the way what does this say about maria shirver-kennedy.

.

[UTUSN]

19. Kick for Needs to Be Kicked n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. I don't know, but it is beginning to scare the hell out of me.

*

[goforit]

25. Love is blind!!....but,

Maria is blind and dumb!!!

[oasis]

21. kick

[Elidor]

23. California seems to have a weakness for bad actors going gubernatorial

And Californians always pay for it dearly. My condolences to ALL Californians, even the fools who voted for this jerk.

[goforit]

24. What a payoff!!!...........Ca. needs to sue the Govenor!!!

But I'm not a Californian!!!

[BrotherBuzz]

28. Yes, and Bustamante

should be leading the charge. Think of the headlines: Lieutenant Governor sues Governor! Actually, this may be the only thing that could save Bustamante's political career.

[gorviston]

27. This is old news, came out before the election....

from Greg Palast, on October 3 (once again, it shows how wide awake and on-the-job the mainstream media is) --

It's not what Arnold Schwarzenegger did to the girls a decade back that should raise an eyebrow. According to a series of memoranda our office obtained today, it's his dalliance with the boys in a hotel room just two years ago that's the real scandal.

The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17, 2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay. Also frolicking with Arnold and Ken was convicted stock swindler Mike Milken.

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.

there's more at the site.