Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Enron

ARNOLD UNPLUGGED It's hasta la vista to $9 billion if
the Governator is selected
by Greg Palast Friday October 3, 2003
It's not what Arnold Schwarzenegger did to the girls a
decade back that should raise an eyebrow.  According to
a series of memoranda our office obtained today, it's
his dalliance with the boys in a hotel room just two
years ago that's the real scandal.
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.
It takes real cojones to bring such a suit.  Who's the
plaintiff taking on the bad guys?  Cruz Bustamante,
Lieutenant Governor and reluctant leading candidate
against Schwarzenegger.
Now follow the action.  One month after Cruz brings
suit, Enron's Lay calls an emergency secret meeting in
L.A. of his political buck-buddies, including Arnold.
Their plan, to undercut Davis (according to Enron
memos) and "solve" the energy crisis -- that is, make
the Bustamante legal threat go away.
How can that be done?  Follow the trail with me.
While Bustamante's kicking Enron butt in court, the
Davis Administration is simultaneously demanding that
George Bush's energy regulators order the $9 billion
refund.   Don't hold your breath: Bush's Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission is headed by a guy proposed by -
Ken Lay.
But Bush's boys on the commission have a problem.  The
evidence against the electricity barons is rock solid:
fraudulent reporting of sales transactions, megawatt
"laundering," fake power delivery scheduling and
straight out conspiracy (including meetings in hotel
rooms).
So the Bush commissioners cook up a terrific scheme:
charge the companies with conspiracy but offer them,
behind closed doors, deals in which they have to pay
only two cents on each dollar they filched.
Problem:  the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if
the Governor of California won't play along.  Solution:
Re-call the Governor.
New Problem:  the guy most likely to replace Davis is
not Mr. Musclehead, but Cruz Bustamante,  even a bigger
threat to the power companies than Davis.  Solution:
smear Cruz  because -- heaven forbid! he took donations
from Injuns (instead of Ken Lay).
The pay-off?  Once Arnold is Governor, he blesses the
sweetheart settlements with the power companies.  When
that happens, Bustamante's court cases are probably
lost.  There aren't many judges who will let a case go
to trial to protect a state if that a governor has
already allowed the matter to be "settled" by a
regulatory agency.
So think about this.  The state of California is in the
hole by $8 billion for the coming year.  That's chump
change next to the $8 TRILLION in deficits and surplus
losses planned and incurred by George Bush.
Nevertheless, the $8 billion deficit is the hanging
rope California's right wing is using to lynch Governor
Davis.
Yet only Davis and Bustamante are taking direct against
to get back the $9 billion that was vacuumed out of the
state by Enron, Reliant, Dynegy, Williams Company and
the other Texas bandits who squeezed the state by the
bulbs.
But if Arnold is selected, it's 'hasta la vista' to the
$9 billion. When the electricity emperors whistle,
Arnold comes -- to the Peninsula Hotel or the
Governor's mansion.  The he-man turns pussycat and
curls up in their lap.
I asked Mr. Muscle's PR people to comment on the new
Enron memos -- and his strange silence on Bustamante's
suit or Davis' petition.  But Arnold was too busy
shaving off his Hitlerian mustache to respond.
To receive more of Greg's investigative reports click
here: 
http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller,
"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"  as well as
"Regulation and Democracy" (with Theo MacGregor and
Jerrold Oppenheim), the United Nations guide to utility
deregulation.  Read Palast's commentaries at
www.GregPalast.com
 .  Reprints permitted. Contact:
me...@gregpalast.com
 .  The Enron memos were discovered
by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Los
Angeles, 
www.ConsumerWatchdog.org
-- 
"That's part of your problem: you haven't seen enough movies.
 All of life's riddles are answered in the movies." (Grand Canyon)
AP uin:283264
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UFV:
Mio Cognato
La Lingua Del Santo
Amelie
Wasabi
Il Ritorno Di Cagliostro
Les Triplettes de Belleville

 by Greg Palast Friday October 3, 2003
spazzatura.