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November 17, 2003 – Remember our
story on Enron back in August? (see:
ENRON: Politics, criminals, and blame)
Sherron Watkins, the lady who blew the
whistle on Enron CEO Ken Lay’s scheme to bilk California and Enron
shareholders out of billions of dollars while leading the company
into bankruptcy, told of how so many people who saw what was going
on were led to do nothing.
"Money buys a lot of blinders," she
said. "Enron paid among the highest salaries, highest bonuses, gave
the best stock options."
When President Bush took office, he ran
the same playbook. He pulled out the old Enron-one-two, which began
with his tax cuts. In the Enron style of management, when you know
you are crooked and about to do heinous things, and the idea is to
stay crooked while keeping everyone else's mouth shut, the way to do
it is to make clear to everyone that as long as they go along with
you, you will keep putting lots of money in their pockets. $400 per
child, ignore my lies, Bush’s tax cuts told America. Another
trillion dollar tax cut, let me drill in keep more pollution in the
air.
In true Bush-Republican fashion, Arnold
stood at his inauguration today smiling and smiling, saying nothing
but the most profoundly decent things. He even quoted his wife’s
uncle, John F. Kennedy, saying he would be, like JFK, and “idealist
without illusions.”
Then he went right to the statehouse and
kept his promise to voters by making his first act repealing the
tripling of the car tax that had occurred this past year. By doing
this, he directly put hundreds of dollars in the pockets of most
Californians.
Wonderful, right?
Wrong. In and of itself, it may have
been, but unfortunately it turned out to be nothing but step one in
the good ol’ Enron-one-two. Now that he had seemed so nice, and now
that he had kept his promise and put lots of cash directly in
everyone’s pockets, it was time for step two.
As his second act as Governor, Arnold
immediately, “suspended all regulations.” as reported by KPCC radio
in Los Angeles.
All regulations – more specifically, all
regulations, “passed during the last five years.” In other words,
he undid every regulation passed under Governor Davis – who was
re-elected after passing most of them. The immediate effect:
pollution controls, regulations protecting workers, healthcare,
every protective regulation suddenly vanished. All the work of the
legislature and Governor over the last five years done in protection
of the people wiped out in a single stroke. Businesses need no
longer worry about having to operate in ways that protect employees,
the environment, prevent corporate fraud.
And the reality, is that virtually no
Californian will have noticed this – all they will see is him
quoting Kennedy at putting a bunch of cash in their pockets by
cutting the car tax.
“Money buys a lot of blinders,” Sherron
Watkins had said, talking about what had happened at Enron.
Day one of the Schwarzenegger regime in
California, and already all hell has broken lose – but thanks to the
use of the ol’ Enron-one-two, no one will notice for a long time to
come.
And as note, just like with Enron CEO
Ken Lay and President Bush, the money Governor Schwarzenegger is
sticking in people’s pockets is money they company/state/country
doesn’t actually have. Lay paid the big bonuses out of fictional
funds, and so Enron went broke. President Bush has given out all
that tax cut money from non-existent funds, and so the country is in
massive debt. And now Arnold has stuck money that California does
not have in people’s pockets, passing a car tax repeal which will
inflate the current deficit from $10 billion instantly up to $17.5
billion.
With all the similarities in the M.O.’s
of Enron and the Bush Republicans, it really begins to make you
wonder if President Bush and his Texas bunch really wasn’t someone
involved with the Enron scandal which led to California’s energy
crisis which led to the recall of Governor Davis which led to the
election of Governor Schwarzenegger.
Wait a second. All of these things seem
to come directly full circle and be exactly related in every way,
huh?
As Arnold said during the election when
confronted with allegations of sexual harassment, “Where there’s
smoke, there’s fire.” Yes, there is, and look for more on this from
The Moderate Independent in the near future.
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