Democratic Talk Radio: Democratic Voices Column

November 19, 2003

The California Republican Scandals

How is the devastating California wildfires, Enron, jobs, Arnold- the movie star Governor and the Bush Administration all linked? They are linked by a series of seemingly related political/policy scandals involving power and money. The citizens of California have been and are being victimized by Republican policy and politicians.

Recent news reports revealed that former Democratic Governor Gray Davis had asked for federal funds from the Bush Administration for $480 million dollars to remove an abnormally huge number of dead trees from public lands that were killed by insects. He asked for the funds to prevent wildfires 7 months before the massive wildfires began. The likely property damage was at least ten times the amount requested. More importantly, many people lost their lives as a result of the fires.

The Bush Administration failed to act on the funding request of Governor Davis in our opinion because the fire threat removal work would have created jobs in California during the Recall Election efforts. The republican effort to recall Davis was successful largely because of the bad economy in California. The extra jobs would have undermined the Republican recall effort. The fire threat removal would have demonstrated the relative efficiency of the Davis Administration. It would have made removing Davis much more difficult.

The bad California economy was in large part the result of the California Energy Crisis. The California Energy Crisis now appears to be the result of collusion and/or illegal trading practices by some of the largest energy companies in America including Enron. These same companies are huge financial backers of Bush Republicanism. Enron’s Ken Lay remains the largest financial contributor to Bush during his political career.

Davis urged the Bush Administration to act to stop the illegal price gouging. The Bush Administration let the rip-off of the California taxpayer and consumer continue until the California economy was badly wounded. A huge number of California businesses never fully recovered. The Republican Spin Machine went to work full-time blaming Davis for the actions and inaction of Republican interests. The State treasury was drained keeping the lights on and taxes were raised as a result of price gouging.

According to Greg Palast, Arnold- the movie star Governor had private meeting with Ken Lay during the California Energy Crisis to discuss doing business together. The Corporate Media largely ignored this meeting during the Recall Election. Rumor has it that Arnold, as Governor, may now seek to drop the lawsuits filed under Davis against the energy companies.

Column written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio which is nationally syndicated on the ieAmerica Radio Network). You can hear them via the Internet several days a week from 2-4pm Central at http://www.ieAmericaRadio.com. You are invited to visit the Democratic Talk Radio site at DemocraticTalkRadio.com. They can be reached by mail at: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Reach DTR by phone at 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287.

Sincerely,
Stephen Crockett
Al Lawrence
Co-hosts: “Current Affair” News Talk Program
WEKR 1240 am radio
(931) 433-3545