[Futurework] Malicious Intent

[Karen Watters Cole]

From another list: Separating the wheat from the chaff or keeping things in perspective, trying to see through the media circus to what is really going on.  These are not policies of unintended consequences.  KWC Robert Scheer: Reject the Recall, California Republicans are running it as a shell game to distract from their misdeeds – don't play along. Excerpt: “The giddy media spectacle of porn stars and action heroes seeking to lead the world's sixth-largest economy should not divert us from the fact that the key black marks on Davis' resume – the energy crisis and the budget shortfall – were both messes created by deregulating, tax-cutting Republicans. In dealing with both, Davis has not pulled any rabbits out of his hat, but he has been a competent leader who minimized the damage.  The red ink in California is a mere needle prick compared with the hemorrhaging of trillions in future debt thanks to President Bush's tax cuts for the rich, the invasion of Iraq and other disasters. In fact, despite the hysteria, California's current problems are no more serious than that of many states, including New York and Texas, both run by Republican governors.  The underlying problem for all states is a national economy brought to its knees by the epic fall of a panoply of corrupt companies, firms like Enron that used the Republican mantra of deregulation as a convenient cover for looting consumers, stockholders and employees.  It is true that California has paid a particularly heavy price for the machinations of Enron and other energy companies.   How dare Arnold Schwarzenegger or any Republican now ignore the well-documented gaming of the California energy market by Bush's Texas cronies, many of whom landed high posts in his administration?  Was Davis responsible for manufacturing spikes in energy prices that nearly bankrupted the state?  Of course not – but he took the political hit when the lights went out.  It's a safe bet that Schwarzenegger and the other Republicans running will offer not a word of criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney's infamous meetings with top energy executives that excluded consumer representatives.  The minutes of those meetings are still secret, yet we know that the policy that emerged benefited the con artists who caused California's energy crisis in the first place. Nor will the Republicans who bought this recall delve into the role of the Bush-dominated Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  That's the agency that failed in its obligation to bring the energy pirates to heel and force them to properly compensate California for creating artificial shortages.   … Suddenly the Republicans care not a whit about those social values they have been prattling about, or anything else but defeating a prominent Democrat.  They brook no opposition, even from a conservative Democrat; their goal is a one-party system. If you think politics is all a joke anyway, then vote for whichever opportunist makes you laugh the most. But if you think that meaningful representative democracy requires the scrutiny of the serious primary and election process that Davis has twice weathered, then for a small "d" democrat, a "no" vote on the recall is an obligation.” (end of excerpts)  See in full @ http://www.robertscheer.com/   But environmental and utility havoc in the name of corporate profits isn’t limited to just the state of California, there’s the national and international landscape.   Maine, Connecticut AGs question origin of lawsuit, seek probe By Glenn Adams, Associated Press Writer, August 12, 2003 @ http://www.sunjournal.com/story.asp?slg=081203stuff Attorneys general in two New England states suggested Monday that the White House is behind a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate a federal report on global warming.  Maine Attorney General G. Steven Rowe and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, also asked U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft for an investigation. Rowe and Blumenthal said they want to know whether White House officials working at the Council on Environmental Quality solicited a lawsuit filed by a conservative Washington think tank to discredit a 2000 report that documents the dangers of global warming.  The lawsuit was filed last week by the Competitive Enterprise Institute against the White House Office on Science and Technology. Blumenthal said a June 2002 e-mail between a CEI executive and White House staffers "indicates a secret initiative by the administration to invite and orchestrate a lawsuit against itself to discredit an official United States government report on global warming dangers."  Such action, Blumenthal said, could constitute improper and possibly illegal conduct.  Rowe said the idea the administration is inviting a lawsuit from a special interest group in order to undermine the federal government's own work under an international treaty "is very troubling." Dana Perino, spokesperson for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, dismissed assertions that the lawsuit was contrived as "100 percent false and absurd."  Perino added that the White House, which released copies of the e-mail in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, has been "perfectly forthcoming" about its communications with CEI.  A message left with the Justice Department was not immediately returned Monday afternoon. The CEI's lawsuit argues that the National Assessment of Climate Variability and Change and the Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Action Report of 2002 should be invalidated.  The latter report includes references to the National Assessment and documents similar likely impacts, Rowe and Blumenthal say in a letter to Ashcroft.