Grandma Millie, Meet the Detectives: An Unlikely Team Unmasks Enron

Grandma Millie, Meet the Detectives: An Unlikely Team Unmasks Enron

It was in a spartan office in Santa Cruz that Kenny Swain met Grandma Millie — and where a little Washington utility drew first blood in its feud with Enron Corp.

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Their task: to search more than 2,000 hours of recorded conversations between Enron energy traders.

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In light of such finds, some contrast the Washington utility's relentless digging with what they see as the less aggressive approach of federal energy regulators.

"This is the kind of thing that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should have done not just against Enron but against all the generators that were 'gaming' the system," said Peter Navarro, a UC Irvine economist. "If that had been done properly, my belief is that California would have been on the receiving end of billions of dollars more from the companies for what happened."

more, very long article but fascinating

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/grandmamilliemeetthedetectivesanunlikelyteamunmasksenron

And, as long as a Bush is in office, he will.

... re-regulation of the energy industry in California and a repayment of the $9 billion Enron & cronies looted from ratepayers.

On Jan. 31, Snohomish filed a new cache of evidence with federal energy regulators. The recent findings suggest that knowledge of energy schemes may have extended to the highest reaches of Enron and that the company may have been actively testing its techniques of market exploitation before California's energy crisis.

Snohomish found, for example, a notation on the computerized calendar of Chief Executive Jeffrey K. Skilling that he met with in-house counsel on June 2, 2000, to discuss trading activities in Canada that had been investigated by Canadian officials. Snohomish also found an internal Enron file on the matter marked "office of the chairman" believed to be from about the same time.

What was that joke that Skilling made:

The difference between California and the Titanic?

The Titanic had its lights on when it went down.

authorities to re-open their investigation of Powerex (B.C. Hydro) and it's connection to Enron. The B.C. government wants the money California owes them for the power supplied during the crisis yet B.C. Hydro is a crown corporation owned by the B.C. government. If Powerex, a subsidiary of B.C. Hydro, is found to have been part of the Enron criminal action in any way, they should be charged and lose any claim to monies owed by California.

sadly, they're trying to throw some of the lifeboats (SS, Medicare) overboard.

Nothing says treason like a big stack of hush money.

until Arnold weasled his way into office. Arnold let them off the hook. He settled outstanding debts for cents on the dollar. He takes money from Energy companies. When he "ran" for Governor he lent his campaign a big wad of cash, then paid it back later with contributions so that Californians wouldn't notice where his money came from.

in real jails with real bad people.

...and it's probably a pretty thankless job! I e-mailed his office a couple months ago to say thank you for staying on this and received a very nice reply from one of his aides. I hope others will contact him in support, as well. ;)

Ahhhnold is now gov? To cover-up for the energy fraud.

The basic reason for foisting the recall and installing Karl Rove's Trojan horse Arnold Schwarzenegger was to let Enron off the hook.

was elected in the first place. It was the energy "crisis" that destroyed Davis' political career. It was also a Republican Governor before Davis, Pete Wilson, who pushed for energy dereg in the first place. It was the centerpiece of his administration.

It's the Dems own fault though. They didn't have to take the Enron money. The didn't have to vote for dereg. They find themselves in the same position that a lot of Dems in Washington find themselves on the Iraq war: "Hey, you voted for it, ya flippity-floppin' flip-flopper."

Monday, October 6, 2003

While the California press is reluctant to challenge the Austrian dumbbell lifter on anything more significant than his palm print on some females' behinds, one reader of our report below confronted Schwarzenegger. Friday, at a staged event in front of the Von's supermarket in Bakersfield, Referring to the disclosure in my column (which would have been well known to the candidate by that time), she shouted, "He's in bed with Kenny Lay, you idiots! It's your money!" There was dead silence for a beat, then came the voice through the loudspeakers, "I suhtunly wasn't in bet wit YOU!"

(While Arnold's proud new boorishness was a hit with the yahoos, the Terminator was stopped dead by his interlocutor's comeback which is simply too brilliant, dead-on accurate, and salacious to repeat on a family website.) Here's what got the man upset:

CALIFORNIA LAY'D BY ARNOLD

According to a series of memoranda our office obtained today, Arnold Schwarzenegger's dalliance with boys in a hotel room just two years ago is every bit as scandalous as his manhandling of women during his career as celebrity he-man.

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.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=284&row=1

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=284&row=0
THIS JUST IN! ARNOLD RESPONDS TO PALAST CHARGES IN "Arnold Unplugged - It's Hasta la Vista to $9 Billion if the Governator is Selected"
Commondreams.org Monday, October 6, 2003

While the California press is reluctant to challenge the Austrian dumbbell lifter on anything more significant than his palm print on some females' behinds, one reader of our report below confronted Schwarzenegger. Friday, at a staged event in front of the Von's supermarket in Bakersfield, Referring to the disclosure in my column (which would have been well known to the candidate by that time), she shouted, "He's in bed with Kenny Lay, you idiots! It's your money!" There was dead silence for a beat, then came the voice through the loudspeakers, "I suhtunly wasn't in bet wit YOU!"

...
CALIFORNIA LAY'D BY ARNOLD

According to a series of memoranda our office obtained today, Arnold Schwarzenegger's dalliance with boys in a hotel room just two years ago is every bit as scandalous as his manhandling of women during his career as celebrity he-man.

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.

from the meetings in LA on.

I did, but didn't learn anything I didn't already know before.