Nobody cares that california was bilked out of 9 billion dollars?

[toddzilla]

I don't get this.. enlighten me.

[ieoeja]

1. People hate California. n/t

[CaTeacher]

3. The Californians

care.

[Fovea]

2. It is jealousy

you have the best weather, the sexiest women, and the finest pot...

So many have :nopity:

[K-W]

They put the blame on Grey Davis, making hard to bring this up

and make it good for dems. People assume that the recall was a guilty verdict.

[Trajan]

26. Gray Davis was not to blame ...

He STOPPED the madness, but unfortunately the only tool he used was the long term contracts ....

HE COULD have taken the powerplants through emergency powers (eminent domain), and he did mention that in a previous state of the state address .... He SHOULD have done so ...

Nevertheless: Gray Davis was never the 'cause' of the theft of billions of citizen-dollars .... the friends-of-george (FOG) was the direct cause AND the direct recipients of that fraud ...

To say no one cares is not true: LOTS of people care, but nothing will be done until the GOP get's deep-sixed from power ....

[tinanator]

33. dont sell Davis short

He was way deep in PG&E's pockets. He had options he refused to use to protect Californians. It took two to tango a $9 Billion dollar theft, and no one is willing to consider the validity of the recall results. We are a hot spot for electoral fraud, but since it is typically the Democrats who practice it, the subject is verboten.
How many times have people here called Californians stupid for electing Ahnold? If you look at the historical votes and the recall numbers, that smell aint dead fish.

[Trajan]

34. *blinks* ....

Im a Democrat, through and through ..... I liked Gray Davis, even if he was a tad weak and a bit too centrist ... Having lived through nearly two decades of Deukmejian and Wilson, I was quite glad to have Davis take the gubernatorial office.

IF the Democrats were so well versed in Electoral Fraud, and since it was they who 'typically practiced' electoral fraud: HOW did they continually LOSE the governership ? ...

HOW does a party commit fraud to LOSE elections ? ..

I lived in CA during that 'crisis', and I watched every report, and read every story, about this issue: at NO time did it appear that Davis was part of a great fraud, even as he did allow for the so called 'deregulation' scheme to continue far too long ...

I appreciate your disdain for the right wing, Tin, but I take considerable issue with unfair attacks against my own party members .... To say that Democrats are committing 'fraud' in elections they lose seems a tacit, internal refutation of the assertion .... one might come to the reasonable conclusion that this claim isnt fairly levelled ....

[tinanator]

35. Im sorry not to be more specific

Im referring to the SF Municipal Power Initiative which managed to "lose" by a hair AFTER the summer of Enron. Of course the ballots were removed to a different building for some reason, and this all happened under Willie Brown's watch. Gray Davis has a ton of legitimate criticisms available, none of which are worth enumerating, all of which are now moot, and if you add the ludicrous right wing bullshit attacks, he had some pretty serious issues on his table. He was screwed coming and going by the scam, but he was in PG&E's pockets, and they were part and parcel of the theft.

[tom_paine]

4. I don't think the Imperial Subjects of Amerika care about much beyond

their (our) private lives. (generally speaking)

The sad truth and it's no wonder we lost our Liberty to the first cabal that had the balls to shamelessly take it like taking candy from a baby.

[Demeter]

5. Evidently not.

Of course, when I lived in CA for 2 years, I thought everyone there was crazy, divorced from reality. Maybe they are. Or so drugged and addicted that reality can't impinge.

I was raised in the Midwest, urban style. Can't get over it, either. Reality has a way of doing that to a kid.

[sadiesworld]

8. Lovely post.

:eyes:

[Booster]

10. Evidently you were one of those drugged and/or

addicted. I have lived here since 1966 and I find Californians to be more informed, more tolerant, more logical in their thinking than most others. Even the Republicans I know here are not rabid in any way, although I'm sure there are some. Every state has something to offer, but in my opinion, California has it all. Evident by the many celebrities working their butts off to get Bush out, we are more in touch with reality than most others. Sorry you had to move; the weather is beautiful here.

[Demeter]

12. Nope. Don't drug, never have, not even coffee or tea

I was there 2 years--1990 to '92. Watched my husband become a total jerk, fled in fear of my life and my kids' lives. Silicon Valley--a very strange place then and now.

Midwest values have no home in California.

[Cleita]

29. What movie set did you live in that was divorced from reality?

I've lived in California most of my life and the only crazy, divorced from reality people I have known were from out-of-state. The rest of us have worked hard to make the fifth largest economy in the world. Our taxes no doubt have paid for schools and roads for poorer states. And trust me it will be mostly money from California that will probably pay for Bush's Iraq folly.

Please don't make such blanket statements about a very large and diverse state. If we secede, the rest of Amerika is gonna miss what we contribute a lot.

[Literate Tar Heel]

6. I guess because California's the land of crazy liberals

now if it were Texas, it would be a different story, but of course it never would have happened to them because for the most part they were the ones taking it

[Cleita]

30. Crazy liberals?

Being liberal is a political and social ideology. There is nothing crazy about it. What is crazy is for people to let conservatives take all the money, all the best real estate and live the good life at the expense of the working class.

[Solly Mack]

7. If it's any consolation, I bitch about it all the time to people

it's on a long list of outrages I mull over.

[salinen]

9. Oh, didn't you know

Thugs hand out enemies so that the recessives are not burdened with the task. Hate Commies, hate gays, hate liberals, hate Californians. Californians have Hollywood, Berkeley, Humbolt, and San Francisco. What's not to hate?

[LWolf]

11. I do.

Of course, I'm a Californian.

Go figure.

[TexasSissy]

13. I do. It enrages me, actually. This is an issue also close to the

heart of nor'easterners, since their very lives depend on utilities. Not being blackmailed is important to them, I'm sure.

We will hopefully be able to do something about this type of situation, once we have a Democrat in office (and more of them in Congress).

[cprise]

25. Where people turn into popsicles

...because of utility failures, you just don't take bullshit from them. They would need to put serious drugs in the water supply in order to get away with that Enron-style crap here.

[Beaverhausen]

14. You should care- we raise and donate more money to the dem party...

...we have the most electoral votes.

All you people dissing us can Cheney yourselves.

[Gregorian]

15. Nobody knows.

I mean, I couldn't believe it when I heard that Cruz Bustamonte had an ongoing lawsuit against Scwharzennldldflkdnwhatever his fucking name is. I heard that the entire reason for the recall was that if Schwarz. became governor, then he could dismiss that lawsuit. I told everyone I knew that Bustamonte was suing him. But without the news coverage, there is nothing.

Noone knows. Bring up the Michael Miliken, Schwartzeneger meeting in that hotel, and people look at you like, "What are you talking about".

There has been so much sandbagging, burying of the facts, lying, news blackouts, that to just try and stay on top of the situation is a full time job. The people are working.

I'm very upset about this. Not about the money, but about the lack of truth. The truth is much more important than money. We need the media back. These people may walk away from these HIGH CRIMES, as free people. It's a sin.

[donkeyotay]

20. Yeah, we care! But how is anyone to know?

"There has been so much sandbagging, burying of the facts, lying, news blackouts, that to just try and stay on top of the situation is a full time job. The people are working.

I'm very upset about this. Not about the money, but about the lack of truth. The truth is much more important than money. We need the media back. These people may walk away from these HIGH CRIMES, as free people. It's a sin."

Couldn't put it any better.

[KamaAina]

16. How many steroids can you buy with 9 billion dollars?

Cripes, Ahh-nuld could corner the freakin' market on the stuff.

Of course, it didn't all go straight into his pocket... :evilgrin:

[Disturbed]

17. Gropenator/Enron

Bedmates.

[AirAmFan]

18. And why does Dubya's biggest quid pro quo for Enron stay down the memory

hole?

Dubya's big payoff to Enron was a speech in LA on "Why I oppose price caps", at the height of Kenny-boy's Enron gouging. The only reason the lights did not go out on the "president" is that Los Angeles generates its own municipal power.

Even a simple transcript is very hard to find, let alone a video. You must go to http://www.lawac.org and click "Archived transcripts by surname A-H" in the lower left corner of the page.

If you look for it where it should be, in the WH news archive at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/05 , you'll find no trace of it.

"Speech before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on May 29, 2001:

"The Honorable George W. Bush, President of the United States

I'm glad to be here today to talk about our economy and a prosperity agenda for America.... And our prosperity agenda makes a priority of energy security. We can get everything else right, but if our energy supply is unreliable or unaffordable, our economy cannot thrive. For too long, America has neglected energy. The neglect ends now. My administration has developed a comprehensive national energy policy--more than 100 recommendations to promote conservation, expand energy production, improve energy transmission and protect the environment....

Blame shifting is not action, it's a distraction. My administration will continue to work to help California through the difficult months ahead.

All our efforts are guided by a simple test: Will any action increase supply at fair and reasonable prices? Will it decrease demand in equitable ways? Anything that meets that test will alleviate the shortage, and we will move swiftly to adopt it. Anything that fails that test will make the shortage worse. We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse. And that's why I oppose price caps. Price caps do nothing to reduce demand, and they do nothing to increase supply....

At first blush, for those struggling to pay high energy bills, price caps may sound appealing. But their result will ultimately be more serious shortages and, therefore, even higher prices. I want to assure Californians that the federal government takes very seriously our responsibility to make sure that companies are not illegally gouging consumers. I have publicly called on federal agencies to investigate all complaints of illegal gouging, and if those complaints are justified, to take strong and appropriate action. I'm pleased that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has done just that...".

[madfloridian]

19. I tried telling that tale to my uncle there, and he just laughed.

He did not take me seriously at all. He is concerned about the invasion of our privacy, the deficit, the war, and works with charity groups to give elder care.......but he blames all our problems on the "liberals."

He quote Rush all day.

[Mountainman]

21. Because the controlling people in government want it that way.

If Kerry wins we will all forget about what bad things went on the last four years. If he doesn't we will have four more years of bad thing happening to us. The average American has no interest in what's going on until he/she is adversely affected by it. We have replaced reality with reality TV.

[Catfight]

22. Are you serious? People don't care that Bush has squandered

America right under their noses....why the hell do they care about right/wrong, illegal/legal, please. It's ALL about the money!

[Zorra]

23. Enrahnold is pushing for a settlement to get Enron/Duke etc. off the hook

for way less than what they ripped off from the people of California. We all know who put "Enron Arnie" in office. He is just doing what they hired him for - service to the energy industry, and promoting more deregulation.

Arnold Unplugged - It's hasta la vista to $9 billion if the Governator is selected
Friday, October 3, 2003
Greg Palast

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.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=283&row=1

Settlement talks put FERC refund decision on hold
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, July 1, 2004

At the request of California, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has postponed further work on determining refunds from power generators for price gouging during the 2000-2001 electricity crisis while settlements with more than 50 different companies are explored.

Billions of dollars are at stake, although probably not the $9 billion that California has consistently demanded from generators who took advantage of power shortages and a bad state power deregulation law by lying, cheating and scamming to drive up prices.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the new drive toward settlements in a letter read to the participants at the opening of the talks Wednesday in the commission's chambers.

"Now is the time to resolve these cases and to help put California back on the path to prosperity," the governor said.

The commission has indicated that California's refund total could be as little as $3 billion.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/ca/story/9846937p-10769284c.html

[Snow]

24. We californians care, yes we do....

and we're gonna secede, by damn!

[mongo]

27. When yo do secede

will you offer political asylum to us poor DU'ers in Appalachia?

[Cleita]

31. They're gonna miss us too.

We contribute the most in federal taxes. We have the coast for trade with Asia and we don't need any of them except for water and then we may not even need them for that if we get enough desalinization plants built. We can solve a lot of our energy problems with solar because sunshine is something we have plenty of. It's time we kept our money and spent it on the things the people of our state need.

[Warren DeMontague]

28. I'm amazed it was buried on page 6...

especially the part about the enron traders lauging that they "bilked Grandma F*ckin' millie" for "$400 a %@**%^ing megawatt hour"... That got way less press than Theresa HK telling some dude to "shove it".

It's the press. The story was soft-pedaled.

As a righteously outraged Californian, I think it's HUGE.

[sampsonblk]

32. Our Party Leaders haven't pressed the issue

If our guys would press the issue, maybe it would get some media play. But, sadly, they have said little. And that wasn't even compelling. So this travesty goes unnoticed by most.

If things remain as they stand now, history may even record that Gray Davis was at fault, and got booted out of office for his own failures. This is not good news.