Melanie Sloan on Hardball discussing the Bush administration's own contradictions over FOIA
Melanie Sloan appeared on Hardball last night to talk about the contradictions between what the Bush administration said in court documents about FOIA requests -- and what the White House website said. Hardball managed to find someone to try to defend the Bush administration's contradictions. But, as Melanie notes, the law is the law and even the Bush administration is supposed to follow the law:
August 27, 2007 Embattled
August 27, 2007
Embattled Attorney General Resigns
STEVEN LEE MYERS NYT
WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.
Bob Egelko, San Francisco
Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, August 25, 2007
A federal appeals court has revived California's request for at least $1 billion in refunds to electricity customers, saying federal regulators who denied the repayments had ignored tapes in which Enron traders joked about gouging customers during the energy crisis of 2000-2001.
The ruling was issued Friday by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which repeatedly has found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission abused its authority or violated its own rules in considering the state's claims of multibillion-dollar overcharges during the energy crisis.
The commission eventually imposed limits on the energy charges in mid-2001 but has rejected most of the state's refund requests. Friday's ruling was the third since 2004 in which the appeals court has ordered the commission to reconsider separate refund claims of at least $1 billion.
In Friday's case, the court overturned two of the commission's decisions on refunds that California is seeking for power purchased by a state agency from suppliers in the Pacific Northwest.
In one, the commission said the state was ineligible for refunds because it had taken possession of the electricity in California rather than in the Pacific Northwest. The appeals court found that conclusion to be baseless.
The commission's second decision was to disregard evidence that energy companies had manipulated the market during a period of shortages and soaring prices, the court said.
That evidence included tape recordings of traders working for Enron, the now-bankrupt energy broker. In one conversation, an Enron employee refers to demands for refunds of "all (the) money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California," and his colleague replies, "Yeah, Grandma Millie, man."
Later, the two mention a fire under a power line and chant, "Burn, baby, burn."
The federal commission was given the tapes and related documents in 2003 but did not take any of them into account in its decision that the short-term energy market in the Pacific Northwest was competitive and that no refunds were justified, the court said.
The commission's "failure to consider or examine the new evidence showing intentional market manipulation in California and its potential ties to the Pacific Northwest was arbitrary and capricious," Judge Sidney Thomas said in the 3-0 ruling.
gwb and FERC
"...abused its authority or violated its own rules". This is bushco at work, namely Pat Wood, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. There are Enrons still out there in the energy business who are still pouring money into the pockets/campaign chests of bushco officials and they are still manipulating energy prices, with connivance of bushco. One wonders if there are not laws to deal with corrupt regulators.
Pat Wood, installed by Bush as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission early 2001, was gwb’s favorite regulator as the chairman of the Public Utility Commission in Texas. He turned that watchdog agency into a mechanism to enrich the industry that it was supposed to regulate. This was warm-up for his next job: chairman of FERC. As determined by this court, he has broke the rules of that body and the law to keep the extortionate electricity providers from having to refund what they have gouged from the people of California. He has done worse than that.
There is no question that Pat Wood has also used his position at FERC to benefit the energy industry generally, turning this watchdog body into mechanism to enrich the energy companies in the same fashion that he corrupted the Texas PUC. The question is did Pat Wood manage to enrich himself? Pat Wood resigned two years ago and was replaced by Joe Kelliher who continues the FERC policy of supporting gouge.
Remember: Pat Wood - Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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Pat Wood, III is the immediate past Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, independent regulator of the nation's interstate pipeline and wholesale electric power industries. During his four years at the FERC, he led the response to the 2000-2001 California energy crisis, the bankruptcy of Enron, the significant rise in fuel prices and the 2003 Northeastern power blackout. While doing so, he promoted infrastructure development and well-ordered competitive energy markets.
From 1995 to 2001, Pat Wood chaired the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which led successful efforts to introduce competition and deregulation to the retail electric power and telecommunications industries. The restructured Texas electric market is considered to be the most robustly competitive power market in the country.
Mr. Wood has also been an attorney with the Baker & Botts law firm in Washington, D.C. and an associate project engineer with Arco Indonesia in Jakarta. He has a B.S. in civil engineering from Texas A&M University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Pat Wood, his wife Kathleen, and their four boys have recently moved to Houston where is involved in energy and infrastructure project development. He serves as an independent board member for Sunpower Corp., a solar technology company and Texas Genco, a competitive power generator.
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It is good that there should be a record of those who pay to hear Pat Wood hold forth about how he FERCed the nation on energy policy. One would like to know more about Leading Authorities, Inc.
BASRA, Iraq, Aug 26
BASRA, Iraq, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Britain withdrew its contingent overnight from a joint headquarters it shared with Iraqi police in Basra as part of plans to pull its troops out of Iraq's second city, the British forces said on Sunday.
Britain, which has had control of security in Basra since it joined the United States in invading Iraq in 2003, has begun withdrawing this year and is expected to pull its forces out of their last base inside the town in the next week or two.
The British contingent in Iraq has been reduced from about 7,200 last year to about 5,500 now, even as the United States has sent an additional 30,000 troops. Britain has already withdrawn from two bases inside Basra and now has troops only at one base inside the city, a palace built for Saddam Hussein.
"There had been a small presence up to now of British forces in the PJCC (Provincial Joint Coordination Centre) for the support and mentoring of Iraqi police," British forces said in a statement.
"Last night these forces were moved from the PJCC in the framework of the plan for the handover of the Basra Palace to Iraqi control, though British forces currently remain at the palace base," the statement said.
Britain is pulling its forces back to a single base at an airport outside of Basra. It says its troops are no longer required in Basra because the mainly Shi'ite city has not been the scene of sectarian fighting like in Baghdad further north.
But the drawdown of British troops in the city has seen them coming under increasing attack. Thirty-four British service members have died in Iraq since April, making it the deadliest period since 2003.
the U. S. alone
Tony Blair resigns, the Brits pull out. Blair's resignation is a mystery and is uncharacteristic of leaders who enjoy good health and vigor, popularity and firm political support, as Blair did.
Look at the map of Iraq. The British had responsibility for the occupation of Basra, the port of Iraq. They held a tiny portion of Iraq, less than 1% of the area of the country. Now they are leaving. The question is why did they stick around so long? Did bushco have a hold on Tony Blair?
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Aug.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Aug. 26, 2007
AP) A call by Puerto Rico's governor for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq earned a standing ovation from a conference of more than 4,000 National Guardsmen.
Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila said Saturday that the U.S. administration has "no new strategy and no signs of success" and that prolonging the war would needlessly put guardsmen in harm's way.
"The war in Iraq has fractured the political will of the United States and the world," he said at the opening of the 129th National Guard Association general conference. "Clearly, a new war strategy is required and urgently."