Just a little SPAM for those who wonder why the economy of our state is so
screwed up...


from http://www.robertscheer.com
--------------------------------

BLAME BUSH FOR CALIFORNIA'S BUDGET WOES
His daddy, his appointees at FERC and his old buddies at Enron screwed the
state, but good

July 1, 2003 - The other day a woman asked me to sign a petition calling for
the recall of California Gov. Gray Davis. Why, I asked. Because he
bankrupted the state, she said. When I begged to differ that it was the Bush
administration and its buddies at companies like Enron that had put the
state into an economic tailspin, she said she was being paid according to
the number of petitions signed and didn't really care. But voters should
care because Davis is being used as a fall guy for problems that are beyond
his control.

Remember Enron and those other scandals that cost folks their jobs and their
401(k) savings? They were a result of deregulation, the mantra of the
Republicans. Deregulation was most disastrous for California's energy
market, in which a crisis cost jobs and threw the world's fifth-largest
economy into long-term disruption. This was not the normal workings of the
market but the result of market manipulation by officials of Enron and other
energy companies, some of whom are on their way to trial.

Still out cruising the boulevards is our president's once close friend,
Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay. A major contributor to Bush family political
campaigns and former Enron chief executive, Lay invented the energy trading
game. It was made possible by his successful lobbying for the 1992 Energy
Policy Act, signed into law by the elder Bush. That law allowed a minor
Texas company to mushroom into the world's largest energy titan before it
went poof.

Daddy Bush also tended to Enron's rise by appointing Wendy L. Gramm to head
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which promptly exempted
electricity trading from the regulatory oversight covering other
commodities. Gramm went on to serve on Enron's board of directors and its
so-called auditing committee. Her husband, Phil Gramm, then a GOP senator
from Texas, later pushed through legislation further deregulating the
industry.

When the younger Bush ran for president, he turned to Lay, who became the
single biggest contributor to Bush's campaign. George W. returned the favor
big-time by appointing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission members
who looked the other way when Enron and its fellow swindler companies were
fleecing California. These appointees insisted that California's problems
were of its own making and would have to be solved without the imposition of
the wholesale energy price caps that would have saved taxpayers from a
crushing burden.

Vice President Dick Cheney emerged from secret meetings with Enron
executives and stated that the administration considered wholesale price
caps a "mistake" because "there isn't anything that can be done short-term
to produce more kilowatts this summer." Either Cheney was lying or his Enron
buddies were lying to him because, at the time, Enron was routing
electricity from California to sell at a higher price in Oregon. Federal
price controls would have prevented Enron and the other companies from
playing one state against another.

It is disingenuous for California Republicans to now blame Davis rather than
their man Bush for the state's economic problems. Only last week, the
Republican-dominated FERC banned Enron from selling electricity as
punishment for having severely distorted Western energy markets. Enron and
60 other companies were ordered to show why they should not be forced to
return their illegally gained profits.

FERC at the same time said California must honor $12 billion in long-term
contracts written under duress with the same companies that were gaming the
market. The contradiction was acknowledged by commission Chairman Patrick H.
Wood III: "I guess people could go, 'Gosh, these are the same parties that
show up in those other [market-gaming] cases.' "

Duh! No kidding. They are being rewarded for scamming the state, which
contributed to the budget crisis, and schoolchildren will have to pay the
price.

Californians provide much more to the federal government in taxes than they
get back in services. The feds should bail out the states, which cannot
indulge in the red-ink financing that has become a specialty of the Bush
administration.

It is absurd to blame current difficulties on any state's governor,
Republican or Democrat. It is the Bush administration that has mismanaged a
successful economy inherited from Bill Clinton. It is the Bush
administration that should bear responsibility for the difficulties being
experienced by state governments - and it should at least help California as
much as it is helping our newest state, Iraq.

Copyright © 2003 Robert Scheer

Jack Martinelli wrote:
Just a little SPAM for those who wonder why the economy of our state is so
screwed up...

You wannabe Socialist NIMBY hypocrite, if you'd had the
honesty to build your own ****ing nuke power plants, Arizona
wouldn't have to have hosted it for you (ever heard of Palo
Verde?)!

Get your thumbs out of your mouths and act like adults;
you want electricity, build nukes in your own ****ing state
and quit whining.

Either that, or stop using electricity and live like the
nice, innocuous Green herivores you adore.

Mark L. Fergerson

Jack Martinelli wrote:

Just a little SPAM for those who wonder why the economy of our state is so
screwed up...

from http://www.robertscheer.com
--------------------------------

BLAME BUSH FOR CALIFORNIA'S BUDGET WOES
His daddy, his appointees at FERC and his old buddies at Enron screwed the
state, but good

[snip]

Liberalism fails when it runs out of other people's money. Don't
whine, build nukes - and cut the Enviro-whiner crap. Listen to your
engineers for a change.

Uncle Al signed a Gray Davis recall petition. Uncle Al will be voting
for Conan the Republican. Clean the Democrat poofters and girly men
out of Sacramento. Life is an ass-kicking contest bloody and
sicnere. Don't enter one-legged men.

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" The Net!

"Jack Martinelli" wrote in message ...
Just a little SPAM for those who wonder why the economy of our state is so
screwed up...


from http://www.robertscheer.com
--------------------------------

BLAME BUSH FOR CALIFORNIA'S BUDGET WOES
His daddy, his appointees at FERC and his old buddies at Enron screwed the
state, but good

July 1, 2003 - The other day a woman asked me to sign a petition calling for
the recall of California Gov. Gray Davis. Why, I asked. Because he
bankrupted the state, she said. When I begged to differ that it was the Bush
administration and its buddies at companies like Enron that had put the
state into an economic tailspin, she said she was being paid according to
the number of petitions signed and didn't really care. But voters should
care because Davis is being used as a fall guy for problems that are beyond
his control.

Remember Enron and those other scandals that cost folks their jobs and their
401(k) savings? They were a result of deregulation, the mantra of the
Republicans. Deregulation was most disastrous for California's energy
market, in which a crisis cost jobs and threw the world's fifth-largest
economy into long-term disruption. This was not the normal workings of the
market but the result of market manipulation by officials of Enron and other
energy companies, some of whom are on their way to trial.

Still out cruising the boulevards is our president's once close friend,
Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay. A major contributor to Bush family political
campaigns and former Enron chief executive, Lay invented the energy trading
game. It was made possible by his successful lobbying for the 1992 Energy
Policy Act, signed into law by the elder Bush. That law allowed a minor
Texas company to mushroom into the world's largest energy titan before it
went poof.

Daddy Bush also tended to Enron's rise by appointing Wendy L. Gramm to head
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which promptly exempted
electricity trading from the regulatory oversight covering other
commodities. Gramm went on to serve on Enron's board of directors and its
so-called auditing committee. Her husband, Phil Gramm, then a GOP senator
from Texas, later pushed through legislation further deregulating the
industry.

When the younger Bush ran for president, he turned to Lay, who became the
single biggest contributor to Bush's campaign. George W. returned the favor
big-time by appointing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission members
who looked the other way when Enron and its fellow swindler companies were
fleecing California. These appointees insisted that California's problems
were of its own making and would have to be solved without the imposition of
the wholesale energy price caps that would have saved taxpayers from a
crushing burden.

Vice President Dick Cheney emerged from secret meetings with Enron
executives and stated that the administration considered wholesale price
caps a "mistake" because "there isn't anything that can be done short-term
to produce more kilowatts this summer." Either Cheney was lying or his Enron
buddies were lying to him because, at the time, Enron was routing
electricity from California to sell at a higher price in Oregon. Federal
price controls would have prevented Enron and the other companies from
playing one state against another.

It is disingenuous for California Republicans to now blame Davis rather than
their man Bush for the state's economic problems. Only last week, the
Republican-dominated FERC banned Enron from selling electricity as
punishment for having severely distorted Western energy markets. Enron and
60 other companies were ordered to show why they should not be forced to
return their illegally gained profits.

FERC at the same time said California must honor $12 billion in long-term
contracts written under duress with the same companies that were gaming the
market. The contradiction was acknowledged by commission Chairman Patrick H.
Wood III: "I guess people could go, 'Gosh, these are the same parties that
show up in those other [market-gaming] cases.' "

Duh! No kidding. They are being rewarded for scamming the state, which
contributed to the budget crisis, and schoolchildren will have to pay the
price.

Californians provide much more to the federal government in taxes than they
get back in services. The feds should bail out the states, which cannot
indulge in the red-ink financing that has become a specialty of the Bush
administration.

The other states know that though. Which is why we want Calfornia,
New York, Texas, and Washington DC to keep their murderers locked
up, off the streets and off the TV. And keep you clean air cars,
and Governors. The rest of us will take care of the thinking
the guns, and the lights.