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   Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gnter Grass still thinks reunification was a bad idea.
 Forty years of writing from Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Katherine Boo, Marjorie Williams, Joshua Micah Marshall, and more.
 With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.
 The best recent memoir from republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something.
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December 30, 2006
BEHOLDEN TO BIG OIL.... If I didn't know better, I might just think the Bush administration is a little too cozy with the oil industry.
This news, of course, comes shortly after we learned that former Interior Secretary Gale Norton has sailed through the revolving door to become a lawyer for Royal Dutch Shell. Which comes shortly after revelations that officials at Bush's Interior Department tried to hide information that federal incentives for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico isn't cost effective, doesn't produce a lot of oil, and is generally just a massive give-away to oil companies. Which comes shortly after news the Interior Department has barely bothered to collect royalties from oil companies, which the industry owes the government for drilling on federal property, in recent years. If administration officials aren't careful, the public might get the impression that they're beholden to Big Oil. Wouldn't that be shocking? —Steve Benen 1:12 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (21)Comments
Rabble rouser! It's all just a coincidence... Posted by: Bill A on December 30, 2006 at 1:22 PM | PERMALINKNext you'll be saying that Operation Iraqi Liberation was just about oil. Just because the acronym spells OIL doesn't mean that's what they were interested in obtaining. You'd think with Saddam executed you liberals would stop whining about imaginary conspiracy theories. Apparently not. We need oil to run our country, so shut up and leave if you don't like it. America is strong when we all think together. Dissent is for smelly hippies. Shut up and love America like God wants you to. Posted by: Al on December 30, 2006 at 1:26 PM | PERMALINKAt this point, if the country doesn't see that this administration IS big business, we're in trouble. How many other administrations have had people who worked as lobbyists become regulators FOR that industry. Not to even get into having people who politically oppose certain offices even existing running them... Posted by: Mike B. on December 30, 2006 at 1:27 PM | PERMALINKI wonder if all that big oil money has anything to do with James Inhofe, the Senator from Oklahoma, denouncing global warming as a massive hoax? Does he know this Gail Norton chick? Seems like he would want the DoI to pay the Indians the $85 Billion they owe them for oil royalties since, you know, Oklahoma means "Red Man". Just a thought. Posted by: Oilfieldguy on December 30, 2006 at 1:39 PM | PERMALINKIn the interest of standing up for our own little turd Al (and perhaps polishing him a little), I think the fake Al above is a tad over the top. Posted by: B on December 30, 2006 at 1:39 PM | PERMALINKDidn't you get the memo: What's good for corporate America in general and Oil inc. specifcially is what's good for Ameria. And as far as those freeloading Blacks from NOLA, we can't afford to help so fuck 'em!! Posted by: Keith G on December 30, 2006 at 1:42 PM | PERMALINKThis has interesting echoes of Teapot Dome. That scandal involved the fact that the Interior Secretary, Albert Fall, took bribes to sell no-bid leases to Mammoth Oil, and Pan American Petroleum for bribes and kick-backs. Another first for the Bush Administration--more corrupt than the Harding Administration! Onward and Upward with the Republican agenda! Posted by: carwinrpc on December 30, 2006 at 1:45 PM | PERMALINKThe most amazing part of this news is that the Justice department has any ability left to take on anyone friendly to the Bush Administration. OK, cue the right wing bloggers denouncing this as a political witch hunt in 3 ... 2 ... Posted by: Alan on December 30, 2006 at 2:16 PM | PERMALINKAwarding contracts unethically, you say? Wait, stop, look there, yeah there, there's Clinton's penis. Gail Norton working for an oil company, you say? Hold on, did you know gays are getting married in New Jersey. Yep, they're getting married. Can you believe that? Getting married. What is this S/P world coming to? Oil Companies not paying royalties you say? Hell, let me show you something better. We hung Sodom. Yes, we did. We hung him. Yes, we did. Yes, we did. Neener Neener. Hell, I'm feeling a whole lot safer already. Posted by: azggl on December 30, 2006 at 2:28 PM | PERMALINKA bunch of oil industry execs involved in the oil industry? That seems so unlikely. Posted by: QrazyQat on December 30, 2006 at 2:55 PM | PERMALINKThe Clinton administration was also very cozy with Big Oil and helped with plans to lock up the oil and gas in central Asia (not necessarily by military force). Until our country gets off the petroleum teat, we'll be in bed with every sort of Middle Eastern criminal, and we'll be busy making war plans to deal with China. Unfortunately, the cost of running for office means that most of our Congressional leaders/crooks are beholden to both Big Oil and Big PhRMA. Posted by: maracucho on December 30, 2006 at 3:33 PM | PERMALINKI always read Al's Comments as pure sarcasm, and then they sometimes are really funny. Posted by: Jörgen in Germany on December 30, 2006 at 3:46 PM | PERMALINKdont forget me!!!!! excerpts from wikipedia.... Philip Cooney is the former chief of staff for President George W. Bush's Council on Environmental Quality and a former energy industry lobbyist. On 8 June 2005, The New York Times reported that it had obtained internal White House documents which proved that Cooney had unilaterally edited the national climate change reports during 2002 and 2003 to water down its conclusions. Two days after the article was published, Cooney resigned his position as chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and got a job at ExxonMobil. Prior to working for the Bush Administration, Cooney was a lawyer and lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, an industry lobbying organization which has, since 1997, opposed emissions limits by claiming that there was too much uncertainty in climate science. Posted by: Philip Cooney on December 30, 2006 at 3:46 PM | PERMALINKNo surprise seeing as how a bunch of Texas oil millionaires are in charge of the government. Posted by: richard on December 30, 2006 at 6:59 PM | PERMALINKI think it too bad that we only have one Sen. Carl Levin but have a bunch of mostly Steny Hoyer's which is same as a bunch Tom DeLay wannabes. I actually think that Carl Levin is the ONLY senator left that even remotely acts like he owes American the time of day without taking from it's citizens. It remains to be seen if Nancy is actually going to clean up anything. I don't have any more faith in Pelosi then I do Reid. She isn't anymore a leader than Harry Reid. The Clinton administration was also very cozy with Big Oil and helped with plans to lock up the oil and gas in central Asia (not necessarily by military force). Until our country gets off the petroleum teat, we'll be in bed with every sort of Middle Eastern criminal, and we'll be busy making war plans to deal with China. Unfortunately, the cost of running for office means that most of our Congressional leaders/crooks are beholden to both Big Oil and Big PhRMA. Why did Bill Clinton give Mark Rich that pardon? Why did Bill Clinton say those 16 words were JUST a mistake, even knowing what Joe Wilson was trying to do? Why did Bill Clinton say that Bush had a LEGAL right to go to war with Iraq? This WHY I say that we were lied too by not simply Bush but Bill Clinton too. Why was Bill Clinton in lock step with Bush? This is why NOBODY should vote for Hillary. This is why there is NO *cuking way I would vote for her. This is why Paul Krugman doesn't trust or like Hillary either, BECAUSE Iraq was a war that TWO of our Presidents lied about, George Bush AND Bill Clinton.
The spoils belong to the victor. The oil berongs to Victorola. The weak are the many. What you see is what you pet. Greasy wheels get degreased. Simply red is simply dead. Posted by: Al on December 30, 2006 at 9:45 PM | PERMALINK
Corporate governance. Franklin Delano Roosevelt claimed back in 1936---with "new uses of corporations," a "new royalty" rose up. He was so right: "the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself." Oil Investigation Targets Interior Official - Reuters 12/30/06 you don't say... Posted by: mr. irony on January 1, 2007 at 10:38 AM | PERMALINK
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