Comments on “Charter School Board Conflict of Interest” Post
All gimmicks, all the time – the offshore drilling fraud (Part 2)
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In an earlier post, I explained how the obstructionist Republicans have blocked energy legislation in Congress that would have actually lowered the price of gas at the pump, and marginally increased domestic oil and gas supplies. Blog For Arizona: All gimmicks, all the time – the offshore drilling fraud
For the sake of argument, let’s assume the obstructionist Republicans currently throwing a temper tantrum actually get their way. How much offshore oil are we actually talking about?
"About 86 billion barrels of additional oil may lie offshore, according to the US government’s Energy Information Administration," and then continued: "Of that amount, about 18 billion barrels are subject to the moratorium." Blog For Arizona: All gimmicks, all the time – the offshore drilling fraud That’s it. A drop in the barrel, so to speak, in the world supply of oil on the global market.
Moreover, even if the offshore moratorium were lifted today, the oil companies simply do not have the oil drilling ships and offshore rigs to drill for the oil, or skilled employees to man them (despite what the howling mad attack dogs of talk radio and the McMedia misrepresent to the public daily).
The global shortage of drill-ships has created a critical bottleneck. The world’s existing drill-ships are booked solid for the next five years. Some oil companies have been forced to postpone exploration while waiting for a drilling rig, executives and analysts said. Dearth of Deep-Sea Drilling Ships Hinders Offshore Oil Search – NYTimes.com
“The crunch on rigs is everywhere,” said Alberto Guimaraes, a senior executive at Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company that has discovered some of the most promising offshore oil but has been unable to get at it.
“Almost 100 percent of the oil companies are constrained in their investment program because there is no rig available,” he said.
As a result, drilling costs for some of the newest deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico — the nation’s top source of domestic oil and natural gas supplies — have reached about $600,000 a day, compared with $150,000 a day in 2002.
The most recent report (8/8/08) from ODS-Petrodata, a firm that tracks drilling rigs, ODS-Petrodata | Weekly Rig Count states that "In the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the number of rigs under contract slipped by two after two jackup contracts ended, while total fleet size was unchanged. With 103 of 123 mobile offshore drilling rigs under contract this week, fleet utilization in the region stands at 83.7 percent." With 630 out of 694 rigs available under contract (worldwide), offshore rig fleet utilization is 90.8 percent." This is maximum utilization; there is little spare capacity.
Update: McCain’s developing campaign bundler scandal
AZ Charter School Board Conflict of Interest?
McCain has a campaign bundler scandal
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
McCain campaign bundler Harry Sargeant III, a Florida Republican, has bundled more than $140,000 in campaign contributions for John McCain, largely from individuals of modest means who have never contributed to a presidential candidate before. While reading what follows, keep in mind that it is illegal for foreigners to contribute their own money to U.S. campaigns.
(In an earlier post Blog For Arizona: The Double Talk Express: McCain is a Fraud on Campaign Finance Reform I reported that the Rothschild family hosted a campaign fund raiser for McCain when he was in London, for which the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a complaint with the FEC, which remains pending).
As reported by Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors – washingtonpost.com:
The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Taco Bell stores in Riverside, the owners of a liquor store in Colton.
* * *
Harry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially worth more than $1 billion, is the archetype of a modern presidential money man. The law forbids high-level supporters from writing huge checks, but with help from friends in the Middle East and the former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit — who now serves as a consultant to his company — Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 for three presidential candidates from a collection of ordinary people, several of whom professed little interest in the outcome of the election.
* * *
The 2008 presidential campaign, which could see each side spend close to $500 million, has heightened the importance of "bundlers" such as Sargeant, who not only write checks themselves but also recruit scores of other donors to give the legal limit of $2,300. Questions about such donor networks have repeatedly emerged as points of stress for the campaigns.
* * *
Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant’s network live in modest homes in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.
Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money.
"I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I’ve got a lot of friends," Sargeant said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I ask my friends to support candidates that I think are worthy of supporting. They usually come through for me."
Donors reached by phone or interviewed in person declined to explain who asked them to make the contributions.
Ibrahim Marabeh, who is listed in public records as a Rite Aid manager, at first denied that he wrote any political checks. He then said he was asked by "a local person. But I would like not to talk about it anymore."
* * *
[N]adia and Shawn Abdalla, who are not registered to vote, said in an interview that they recalled writing a check to an organization in Miami, because a person with that organization was a friend of their mother’s. They said they could not remember his name.
Nader, 39, and Sahar Alhawash, 28, of Colton, Calif… declined to comment about the donations.
* * *
Abdullah Abdullah, a supervisor at several Taco Bell restaurants in the Riverside area, and his wife have donated $9,200 to McCain.
Reached at work, Abdullah said he knows little about the campaign. "I have no idea. I’ll be honest with you," he said. "I’m involved in the restaurant business. My brother Faisal recommended John McCain. Whenever he makes a recommendation, we do it."
Faisal Abdullah, 49, said he helped organize all of the contributions from members of his family. When he was asked who solicited the contributions from him, he said: "Why does it matter who? I’m telling you we made the contribution. We funneled it through the channel in Florida because that’s the contact we had. I was responsible for collecting it."
$97 Million Surplus at the AZ Ed. Dept.?
McCain annoys conservatives, gets spanked by Democrats
