Maybe because Texas gave us that wet-lipped huckster Ted Cruz, you think the state deserves to freeze in the dark. I get that, but it’s not their fault, a least not the victims burning family heirlooms to stave off frostbite. “What happened was entirely predictable,” power distribution expert attorney Beth Emory said of the blackouts. She told me this… READ MORE
Power companies have two jobs: Keep the lights on and don’t kill your customers. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. of Northern California flunks
Power companies have two jobs: Keep the lights on and don’t kill your customers. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. of Northern California flunks on both counts
Update of the original report for Truthout
[October 24, 2006]
Don’t kid yourself. If you think the sentencing of Jeff Skilling, former Enron CFO (criminal financial officer), to twenty-four years in the slammer means that justice has been done, think again.
First, Skilling got away with murder – or at least grand larceny. Like Al Capone convicted of failing to file his taxes, Skilling, though found guilty of stock fraud, is totally off the hook for his BIG crime: taking down California and Texas consumers for billions through fraud on the power markets.
For The Guardian (UK)
Is the Alaska Pipeline corroded? You bet it is. Has been for more than a decade. Did British Petroleum shut the pipe yesterday to turn a quick buck on its negligence, to profit off the disaster it created? Just ask the “smart pig.”
Years ago, I had the unhappy job of leading an investigation of British Petroleum’s management of the Alaska pipeline system.
Excerpted from Armed Madhouse
May 17, 2001. In a room at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverley Hills, the Financial Criminal of the twentieth century, not long out of prison, met with the Financial Criminal of the twenty-first century who feared he may also have to do hard time. These two, bondmarket manipulators Mike Milken and Ken Lay, no-yet-indicted Chairman of Enron Corporation, were joined by a select group of movers and shakers – and one movie star.
Special For Truthout
Don’t kid yourself. If you think the conviction of Ken Lay means that George Bush is serious about going after corporate bad guys, think again.
Ken Lay Will Get Away with his Real CrimesSeattle Post-Intelligencer
Al Capone cut throats, machine-gunned people to build his gang and went to jail””for not filing his taxes properly. Likewise, Ken Lay, buccaneer of the power industry, will go down””if the jury doesn’t buy his alibi””for not filing his SEC forms properly.
Listing of stories about Enron that Greg has covered over the years.
One year ago today, the lights went out. Even when the Big Blackout ended, the power pirates who have us by the bulbs kept us in the dark, fibbing, fabricating and faking their way through a series of bogus excuses for a disaster created by greed overload.
Bush and Republicans Should Give up Ill-Gotten Gains
When the feds swoop down and cuff racketeers, they also load the vans with all the perp’s ill-gotten gains: stacks of cash, BMWs, whatever. Their associates have to cough up the goodies too: lady friends must give up their diamond rocks.
(Courtesy of A Great Listener)
AJ: This is earth shattering. Can you break it down for us and tell us what the economists have done?
GP: Well, I’ll tell you two things. One, I spoke to the former chief economist, Joe Stiglitz who was fired by the (World) Bank.
Greg Palast, an investigative reporter for the BBC and the Observer (sister paper of the Guardian), is well-known among BuzzFlash readers for his expose on how Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris disenfranchised black voters in Florida.
Based in London (because tenacious investigative reporters are not valued in the U.S. media, he says) Greg is thorough, cynical and fearless. In March, BuzzFlash.com will be featuring Greg’s new investigative reporting book, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.” Greg Palast takes no prisoners. Here’s Greg as quoted in news release by the Institute for Public Accuracy:
“The California blackouts are a simple case of greed run amok. The big winners in this monstrosity are Enron — the largest career contributor to George W. Bush — and other energy companies who have strangled the market. ‘Deregulation’ is a lie — it is simply moving regulation from democratic government agencies to an unelected circle of market manipulators.”
When Tony met Enron I was there to witness love at first sight. New Labour was warned about Enron and its number crunchers, Arthur Andersen, after the office of Jack Cunningham, then Tony Blair’s Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, rang me in New York at 5am on 21 September 1995.
ma . t r u t h o u t | Greg, welcome to TO. We have been looking over your new book, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.”
Greg Palast | Yes, now there is some prophecy in there that is coming too true, unfortunately.
ma . t r u t h o u t | You raise a number of hot-button issues. You revisit Florida. How far are we away from Florida at this point? What do we know that we didn’t know before? What’s the relevance to where we’re at right now?
