General Moto In addition to cutting 30,000 jobs, maybe General Motors should consider changing its name and relocating to Tokyo to see if it can capture some of the design and marketing magic of the largest car company in the world, Toyota.
Weekly Lottery Winner So let’s see if I got this right. Enron goes tits up, fire sales in mid-2004 some of its assets including Texas Genco, an electric power generator with a dozen plants, to a group of buy-out hotshots (Texas Pacific, KKR, Hellman & Friedman, The Blackstone Group, which in and of itself should have waved the big red ‘someone’s getting screwed and it ain’t us’ flag) for $900 million. NOW SAID BUYOUT GROUP IS SELLING GENCO TO NRG FOR $5.8 BILLION. WOW! Question: Who bails out Genco when it goes tits up? Answer: the same citizens who pay a shit load for Genco electric power that gives Genco its current $5.8 billion value. Maybe the buyout hotshots should leave some of the money on the table for say twenty years to guarantee uninterrupted power production and protect against further consumer gouging. Sure.
Questions of the Week
1. Does big oil dictate what types of cars will be built in America?
2. Why is Cheney so afraid of Iraqi reality?
3. Did this administration abuse the legal system by declaring Jose Padilla and enemy combatant and denying him access to counsel?
When Hell Freezes Over Bush aid Iran can enrich uranium, but only in Russia and under strict controls. Are Putin and his KGB pals thinking ‘CHECKMATE?’
Halliburton’s Dirty War Charges that a $7 billion oil field repair contract awarded in 2003 on the sly to Halliburton are moving at the speed of frozen oil from the Pentagon to the Justice Department, which “is in the process of considering whether to pursue the matter.” Meanwhile, Bunnatine Greenhouse, then chief contracts monitor at the Army Corps of Engineers, who threw the shit at the fan, has been demoted from the elite Senior Executive Service to project manager with no projects.
Pinocchio or Pin Cushion? Is the nonagenarian Chilean General, Augusto Pinochet, guilty of stashing millions in arms kickbacks and embezzled peoples monies in foreign bank accounts under false names or again the innocent victim of what his lawyer calls ‘international Marxism.’ It seems odd that he was deemed too unhealthy to stand trial on human rights violations and genocide charges, but now that millions of dollars are involved, he is robust enough to stand trial on tax evasion and a host of other charges.
Corporate Crook Update
1. Early Christmas gift: Phillip Bennett, ex-Refco CEO, in addition to putting up a $50 million bond, got an. an electronic ankle bracelet to make sure he stays in his Park Avenue pad while waiting for a January 18thhearing on eight charges of conspiracy, fraud, and other baddies that left Refco bankrupt.
2. Honk if you love Jesus! What does a West Texas red-neck do with $69 million he bilks from his employer? He buys a truck stop. The SEC went after Jonathan D. Nelson, former CFO of Snyder, TX Patterson-UTI Energy (NASDAQ PTEN - land-based oil and gas rigs), for pumping $69 million into his own pockets. He also bought an airplane, airfield, cattle ranch, homes, and vehicles.
3. Win some, lose some. The guy who saved born-again Scrushy from the cross didn’t fare too well with Hannibal Crumpler, a former HealthSouth comptroller, who got nailed with a max of 15 years and fines of $1 million plus (they didn’t say the plus) for creating the ‘hide the losses’ game known as conspiracy and lying to auditors in the $2.7 billion fraud. Unlike his former boss, there were no reported sightings of evangelical ministers praying outside the bible-belt courthouse proclaiming his innocence to the heavens…and jurors.
Our Friends in Washington Update
1. While Libby fiddles and collects millions for his defense fund from the who’s who in Republican America and the who were’s in Democratic America, the leakers are getting a new grand jury so don’t send all your money to the Libbyists.
2. One of Tom DeLay’s former hit men cops a plea. Don’t you love it when bullies get theirs? Ruthless Thomas Scanlon, one-time fierce DeLay’s protector and big-time anti-Clinton mouthpiece, is naming names, hoping to have less time behind bars. To ruthless, I guess we can now add backstabbing. Scanlon agreed to repay $19.6 million that he ripped off from his former Indian clients and could spend five years in an iron teepee with no flap. Bob Ney, Republican Congressman from Ohio, one of those named by Scanlon said he wasn’t really aware of what was going on. Sound familiar. DeLay is probably cursing a blue streak. I hope they all end up as cellmates.
3. Uninformed, Unprincipled, Unfit. Don’t let Jean Schmidt off the hook for lobbing the coward bomb at John P. Murtha, PA Dem and Marine war vet. She deserves a one way ticket back to Ohio, not a place on our national stage.
4. Thank God for The Three Republicans. In July, we now learn, VP Cheney called Senators McCain, Graham, and Warner on the mat demanding that they stop pushing for regulations that would ban cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners. The three republicans gave him the GOP finger.
5. Just Say No. When asked if W talked to Tony in April ’04 about bombing Al Jazeera’s Qatar TV studio, press secretary Scott McLelland said, “We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response.” Seems to me that’s quite a long response for no response. Wouldn’t a simple ‘NO!’ have been more effective, even if not much more believable, given this administration’s track record on truth, justice, and the American way.
