Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Full Sovereignty [1] President Outlines Steps to Help Iraq Achieve Democracy and Freedom Remarks by the President on Iraq and the War on Terror United States Army War College Carlisle, Pennsylvania May 24, 2004 The first of these steps will occur next month, when our coalition will transfer full sovereignty to a government of Iraqi citizens who will prepare the way for national elections. [2] "Iraq Seeks Custody of Hussein; Bush Has Security Concerns" NY Times June 16, 2004 [Quoting from the print edition] The applicability of Iraqi law to foreign contractors was also a dividing point. [Interim Prime Minister of Iraq] Allawi wants all Iraqi laws to apply to them. Dan Senor, a spokesman for the occupation, said such workers would answer to Iraqi laws if they are charged with criminal acts. But an order signed by Mr. Bremer gave contractors immunity from legal prosecution over any incident involving their work, he said. On handing over the Republican Palace, there was also a dispute. "We asked that the Republican Palace be vacated at the first possible opportunity in order for us to use it as Iraqis, as a Republican Palace or a museum," the new government's president, Sheik Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar said at a news conference Tuesday in Baghdad. "Whatever we do with it is a matter for Iraqi sovereignty. It is a symbol of Iraqi sovereignty." The palace is now being used by the Coalitional Provisional Authority as a headquarters, and Americans would likely want it as an annex to the American embassy due to open here after June 30, Mr. Senor said. [Note that the linked, updated version of the article omits the last paragraph.] 10:11:00 PM    comment [] Remember when ... [1] Forbes Magazine, May 2001: Vice President Dick Cheney, in a speech yesterday in Toronto, said energy is a "storm cloud over the horizon...that has lately taken on an urgency not seen since the 1970s." He suggested the rolling blackouts in California could "[foretell] a national trend." Cheney's solution to the "potential crisis," which he blamed largely on the Clinton Administration, is to drill more, mine more, generate more and build more nuclear plants. He nodded to "conservation," but essentially mocked it as "a sign of personal virtue"-- Jimmy Carter in his cardigan. Gas lines are a relic of the '70s and will stay that way.In fact, there is no energy crisis and there is little reason to expect there will be. Conservation is a big part of the reason why. While California's blackouts are in the headlines, the Golden State's problems are local and, indeed, do not even cover all of California. Los Angeles, for example, is unaffected because it has its own municipal power service. "As a country, we have demanded more and more energy. But we have not brought online the supplies needed to meet that demand," Cheney said. But the facts are something different. Between 1980 and 2000, despite a 90% increase in real gross domestic product (GDP), energy consumption increased by just 25.6%. The massive decline in energy use relative to economic output was not a function of price increases. Indeed, during that time energy prices rose by 44.8%, and most of that price rise was in the last two years. The energy price increase was tiny compared to nonenergy prices, which rose by 119%. [2] The Nation, March 2002: In the spring of 2001 the severity of the California energy emergency had inspired demands for government action, and Enron had a problem. Officials in California were arguing that federal price caps on wholesale energy sales would prevent profiteering and stabilize wildly fluctuating energy markets, and even some Republicans were saying that caps made sense. But the caps would cost Enron -- which had come to dominate energy markets by taking advantage of deregulation -- a fortune. Enron CEO Kenneth Lay knew he needed high-level help. So he arranged to meet with a man who had headed a corporation with extensive business ties to Enron and who had been a prime recipient of Enron's political largesse. Vice President Dick Cheney cleared his calendar for an April 17 private meeting with Lay regarding what aides described as "energy policy matters" and "the energy crisis in California." At the meeting Lay handed Cheney a memo that read in part: "The administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate wholesale power markets by adopting price caps...." The day after he met with Lay, Cheney gave a rare phone interview to the Los Angeles Times that had one recurrent theme: Price caps were out of the question. Dismissing the strategy as "short-term political relief for the politicians," Cheney bluntly declared, "I don't see that as a possibility." Cheney's prognosis was flawed; within days, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to price caps and the markets calmed down. [3] Associated Press, June 2004: Enron Corp.'s manipulation of energy markets gouged Western customers for at least $1.1 billion, according to audiotapes and documents released Monday by the same utility that uncovered tapes of traders laughing about cheating grandmothers on their electricity bills. If we only knew then what we know now, the press would have held Cheney accountable. Um, wait a minute ... we did know then what was going on. Never mind. 12:48:38 AM    comment []

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