Proof that Californians are basically idiots.

[RBHam]

Arnold to Settle Lawsuits for Pennies on the Dollar?

Excerpt:
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.”

According to news talk show host Bernie Ward of KGO radio, San Francisco, who reported the story Friday night on his radio show, (October 10th), Schwarzenegger's aid stated that the governor-elect's administration did not want to be saddled with someone else's lawsuits. The Unfair Practices Act, however, has provisions that require businesses who profit from unfair practices to pay the victims those profits. Although the Act does not authorize recovery of damages in a representative action, according to Hiliary N. Rowen, an attorney from the law firm of Thelen Reid & Priest, “the plaintiff—who need not have been harmed by the challenged conduct—may seek injunctive and restitutionary relief, including the disgorgement of profits on behalf of all those injured.” (See Hiliary Rowen's article).This provision would make the power companies, who profited an estimated $9 billion from the California energy scam, the losers.

In the meantime, Claire Cooper of the Sacramento Bee reported Friday on another lawsuit in the Federal Court. She reported the judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seemed skeptical of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) “ contention that it acted legally three years ago, when it relied on competition among energy wholesalers to determine the cost of California's power supply and did not require them to file the rates they would charge.” California sued FERC, claiming it is due a refund of $9 billion in gouged profits because the Federal Power Act didn't authorize FERC to approve a fluctuating marketbased rate structure. The question is, does the governor-elect intend to settle the federal suit also?

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.

http://www.yuricareport.com/CalifRecall/Arnold_to_Settle_Lawsuits.html

[Sequoia]

1. I, I, I can't breathe.

The media here and in the USA just won't touch this story. Shame, such shame.

[donco6]

2. Obviously, time to pay the piper. EOM

[peekaloo]

3. Wonder if Kenny Boy's name came up during that limo ride....

with the Chimp. Good to see ya back at it RBHam!

[arcane1]

4. why did NOBODY touch this during the election??

:wtf:

I was literally SCREAMING at the tv when steroid-man was in the 'debate', and not ONE candidate would bring this up... not even Arianna!

Is it ILLEGAL to mention Enron on tv???

:shrug:

[mlawson]

20. Why did no one touch Dumbo's AWOL history during 2000 election??

And his likely cocaine use, and all the other skeletons that were in his closet?? Because the Dems always try to be so *NICE*, and look where it gets us!!!!

[ParanoidPat]

5. This post is PROOF that RBHam is.....

.....shall we say less than a genius to put it politely! :evilgrin:
From where I sit out here in California the worst I can say is that Californians are grossly uninformed due to a lap dog press that refused to report the story about Gonad the Governator meeting with Ken Lay until after the election!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. masturbation

The TV media in California is like a dog that humps its own leg.

[Democat]

9. The California media hates Democrats

They have been bashing Democrats for many years.

Without the media getting involved and supporting the recall, it would never have happened.

[shance]

24. I love this. Now its the CALIFORNIA media. Since when was corporate media

relocated to California?

I will raise you one as well and say not only did the media not grab the story that Palast must have sent them, Diebold machines, along with other electronic voting machines, were doing their democratic best to spread the wealth of votes more evenly out amongsts those wonderful 150 or so governmental candidates.

Schwartzenegger didnt win, but AMERICANS want to stick their head in the sand. Dont blame California - blame the real offenders.

What is it about Dems that they eat their own all the time.

Makes me think at times (and threads) like these to returning to being a Republican. If only I could.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

28. palast

I don't necessarily think that the CA TV media is worse than anywhere else, but they have the advangate of having honed celeb whoring to a high art form. As for supporting republicans, just look at the format of the debate that Arnie attended. They ensured that it would contain no substantive issue discussions whatsoever. It was like some kind of low-rent version of Crossfire if it were moderated by Larry King's pancreas.

As for Palast...
I read his story. Unfortunately, it wasn't up to his usual standards. In fact, it came dangerously close to being bullshit.

Keeping in mind that this meeting happened before the Great Enron Implosion, he seems to be taking advangate of 20/20 hindsight here. He jumps from Ahnuld's meeting with Lay to the recall with absolutely nothing in between except a bunch of insinuation that something fishy is going on. But where the hell is the evidence? What does he have? He has some papers that say that a meeting occured. That's it.
In retrospect, it's a pretty compelling conspiracy theory, if you go in for that sort of thing. Realistically, I think it amounts to a theory with not much supporting evidence (at least presented by him - there may be other evidence elsewhere that I'm unaware of)

Believe me, I'd love to know that Palast is right, but when he publishes crap like this, he cheapens the rest of his work. I know I'm not the only person that feels this way.

[arcane1]

29. hmmm... let's see

Wilson is working on Arnold's staff... Arnold has said he's going to bring back Wilson's de-reg plans... also said he's going to work on the Enron settlement

2+2 = 4

the way to know for SURE, of course, is to get Arnold to come clean about what he DID discuss with Ken Lay (and jeez, if they didn't discuss Enron's issues with CA, then what DID they talk about???)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

33. and again

And that proves... what, exactly, aside from the fact that he's a pro-business dereg-happy Republican?
There are lots of Republicans out there who aren't Enron's whores who'd do exactly the same stuipid crap, Ken Lay or no. I don't understant this perdilection people have for invoking Lay, etc's spooky mind control rays whenever Republicans act like Republicans.

[arcane1]

34. mind control rays?

why are you trying to debunk something you admit happened? Arnold met with Lay, Arnold is now planning all the things Lay wanted. Repubes acting like Repubes... no need for conspiracy, it's true!

unless you think Arnold came up with all of these plans all by himself?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

36. and again again

Ok, you're not understanding what I'm trying to say. I think I've been unclear.

We have: Enron meeting with Arnold

This seems to be fairly straightforward and proven.

What we *don't* have, and what Palast claims in his half-mad gibberish is:

1) The recall was a direct result of this meeting.

2) Arnie's current idiotic behavior was directed by Ken Lay and is a result of this meeting.

There is no evidence to conclude either of those things. I would say that one could have a reasonable suspicion for point #2, but what Palast is claiming is way out of the realm of deductive reasoning.

[maggrwaggr]

31. can you say the word "starfuckers" without being deleted?

If so, that's what the media is in California, especially in Los Angeles.

Starfuckers.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. scary

Here's my take:

Ahnuld wouldn't mention it because what he wants to do is grossly idiotic. Plus, it would require making an actual policy statement.

Bustamante wouldn't mention it because it would remind everyone of just how badly the Davis administration botched its handling of the crisis.

Camejo *did* mention it, but nobody paid attention.

Huffington didn't mention it because... well... ?

McClintock didn't mention it because the only obvious solution is getting rid of deregulation, which is very distasteful to republicans in california, even at this point. Plus, bringing it up would have required him to deal with Bustamante's energy lawsuits.

But the real reason that nobody mentioned it is that absolutely NO substantive issues of ANY KIND were actually discussed at ANY TIME during the campaign!

The problem here isn't just that Californians are idiots (they are) but that the state's media is full of idiots, the people running for governor were idiots, Davis is an idiot, and it was just one gigantic clusterf$#@ from beginning to end.
California voters got to vent their frustrations, and now they are going to figure out the truth - that there's nothing that anybody can do about the current situation. You just need to ride it out.

What really astounds me is that the one area of California that truly has a RIGHT to be angry about the state of the economy, the bay area, voted most heavily against the recall. The bay area has undergone such an economic bitch-slap, that if ANYONE should be angry, it's them. But they got out-voted by the still-rich freaks in Orange County, and the still-poor farmers in the central valley, and neither of those groups has suffered anywhere near as much as the bay area during Davis' tenure.

That is all.

-y

[arcane1]

8. believe me, the bay area IS pissed

and not ALL Californians are idiots :eyes:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. LA Out of California!

Yeah, but the Bay Area actually seems to understand that it's the VC buttheads and people like Quattrone and his goons that had a lot more to do with this than Davis. I understand that people up here are pissed, but even so, I think the idea of voting for anything even remotely LA (or especially Hollywood) is just really, really hated up here.

[arcane1]

11. true indeed

I have only met ONE (count 'em, ONE) person in all of CA who supported the recall, and he chose McClintock

he lives in San Diego, which he complains is too liberal for him :crazy:

but EVERYONE I know in the bay area was anti-recall. Friends, neighbors, co-workers, DUers, you name it. Was a vastly unpopular measure up here!!

[liberalhistorian]

13. What's the reaction now?

Are people there really angry and frustrated right now?

[arcane1]

21. everyone I know is pissed off

MOST counties in CA voted against the recall, it's only a couple of places where it won, though sadly by enough to throw the whole thing to the repubes

and I sure as hell haven't been quiet about it! :evilgrin:

of course, since I don't know anyone who voted for this idiot, it's hard to find anyone who is pleased...

it's just getting started, though. Wait until he tries pulling this dereg shit

[Demobrat]

26. You know how you felt when the 2000 election was stolen?

Like that.

[Ardee]

25. WE are NOT IDIOTS

Every county in the Bay Area overwhelmingly voted down the recall.

It is a damn shame that the one candidate mentioning the pending settlement if Arnold won, Peter Camejo, was covered only by one newspaper in California, the esteemed San Jose Mercury News......

[RBHam]

27. Okay, okay...

Misinformed, manipulated and over-medicated?

see post 22

[liberalhistorian]

12. I know that Shrub is generally unpopular

in California, so I've been wondering what most Californian's reaction has been to the picture of the Governator with Shrub on the front page of USA Today, and the statement underneath it that Ahh-nold is looking to Shrub to assist CA's economic crisis. If I lived in CA, I'd get the hell out NOW!

I think, with that picture, that they're just beginning to realize what they actually done and what they're really in for.

[realFedUp]

14. A generalization....

I can't speak for the smarts of those who voted for Ahnold,
but the rest of us are fairly intelligent...

[maggrwaggr]

15. has anybody proved yet that Arnold won the election?

If so, I haven't seen it. It was just announced before any votes were counted. 900,000 votes missing last I heard.

I just don't believe that we have fair elections any more. I live in California and I sure didn't see ANY support for Arnold.

Yet he won? Uh .... no.

[shance]

30. Thats a good question.

Which few have bothered to ask.

Instead they go straight into <yawn> blaming the Dems and now the Californians.

[Bertrand]

16. I dont think we should call other people idiots

for one thing, many people werent informed of Arnolds ties to Enron, etc. from the media (and, incidentally, Cruz and his outlets) Alot of people are not idiots but just ignorant of politics because they have to work from paycheck to paycheck while supporting a family, etc.

[prolesunited]

17. My take on it

First, Californians are not idiots. I don't know why we can't construct arguments around here without slamming entire groups of people based on geography, race, income, etc.

I think the media feeding frenzy over the charges of groping and sexual indiscretions were a smokescreen for what truly was important in this race: the energy situation and settlement. It was like a magician, keeping the public focused on one thing and pulling off the "trick" while people are distracted.

They didn't want people to know what was up, but you have to fill the media vacuum with something. If you don't hand them something on a silver platter, they might just start digging things up on their own.

Let me say that I think the charges against Arnold by those women were very serious and to touch a woman in the manner that he did in rises to the level of sexual assault. However, much of the public doesn't see it that way and they know it. They can play that off as just another boys-will-be-boys situation and after Clinton, another sex scandal is the last thing the voters are in the mood for.

They knew they could slide on this issue and in the meantime, keep the public spotlight off the energy situation. Do we know for sure the Dems never brought the energy situation up, or was it that the media filter simply did not allow this story to bubble up to the surface.

[arcane1]

19. and Arnold deliberately waited until the LAST MINUTE

to even join the race, thus making these allegations seem like desperate, hasty character assasinations...

[brainshrub]

18. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

This is nuts! The people of California deserve what they get.

[RBHam]

22. Sorry. Using the term "idiots" was intended to catch the eye.

Misinformed, manipulated and over-medicated would be better terms.

[Minstrel Boy]

35. It caught the eye, but the thing is,

that kind of generalization only distracts from the point of your important post. And DU's Californians are assuredly none of the above.

[RBHam]

23. Here's Chris Floyd's take

Global Eye -- Circus Maximus

Excerpt:
Taking advantage of the state's Republican-installed, loophole-ridden "deregulation" laws, Lay and the barons gamed the energy grid in 1999-2000, forcing massive blackouts and monstrous price hikes, and costing California more than $70 billion, as Jason Leopold reported in Scoop. After hard evidence of widespread tampering and manipulation came to light, the state government of Governor Gray Davis filed a $9 billion civil suit against Lay and the boys to recover some of those ill-gotten gains.

It was then that Arnie sat down with "Kenny Boy" (the cutesy nickname George W. Bush gave to his biggest contributor) and conman Mike in L.A.'s swank Peninsula Hotel to launch their plunder protection plan. Kenny Boy would work on the Washington energy regulators -- whose chief had been appointed by Bush on Lay's personal recommendation -- to reduce any federal penalties to peanuts. The moguls would then use Arnold's boundless ambition for power (his admiration for dictators was as well-documented as his girl-groping) to take over the state government and put the kibosh on the private lawsuit.

Here's the crux: The main charge against Davis in the recall was that his inept leadership had led to an $8 billion budget deficit. (Actually, Arnie -- and the national media -- continually repeated the falsehood that the state had a $38 billion deficit. But who cares? Hey, did you hear about that tiger?) Yet a Schwarzenegger win meant throwing away $9 billion -- leaving it in the pockets of Kenny Boy and his fellow Bush bagmen.

http://www.tmtmetropolis.ru/stories/2003/10/17/120.html

[PlanetBev]

32. There is a Pulitzer Prize in this somewhere

This needs to come to the light of day. L.A. Times, are you listening?