Mitt Watch: Ugly Deals And Not So Blind Trusts

Sept 25th, 2012

While everyone is debating either the fairness of the rate or the bizarre and hypocritical over-payment revealed in the release of Mitt Romney's 2011 tax returns, there are some darker and more complicated issues raised.

After reminding us that it was Romney himself who stated years ago "you can always tell a blind trust what it can and cannot do," FT reports that his investments in Chinese energy concern Cnooc, a group with direct dealings in Tehran and a history of human rights abuses, seem to have been made and sold with suspiciously convenient timing regarding his political ambitions.

The short version: his "blind trust" invested in Cnooc after their practices were raising eyebrows and under investigation here in the U.S. but divested late in the Summer of 2011 just before candidate Romney made talking tough on China one of his campaign's talking points. More on this HERE. 

The next time we hear anyone from Team Romney refer to the "morality of capitalism," it's worth asking them just what the hell they think they're talking about.

Buying Keystone XL

Jan 30th, 2012

As Speaker John Boehner's Keystone problem is just beginning and could end his career, it's not hard to see how he would have finally come to the conclusion that anything goes in the Beltway.

Image via Public Campaign Action Fund

Graft, Potential Catastrophe and The XL Extension

Oct 3rd, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Throughout this past Summer, environmentalists protested the construction of an oil pipeline. 

So what? Right?

Most major media outlets portrayed the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline extension and the controversy surrounding it in just such an innocuous manner.

The failure to communicate with our citizens the scope of the project, the lack of transparency among the decision makers involved and the actual dangers posed by this industrial scheme run amok is staggering.

BP Might Have Been Lying?! No!

Aug 22nd, 2011

As if there was any question, the early spin applied by BP in the days and weeks following the Deepwater Horizon disaster is now being "investigated." Of course they were lying. That's what's liars do. They lie.
via

Trump - America Should Pillage Libya

Aug 22nd, 2011

With the news that Gaddafi's end is near, those responsible journalists over at Fox & Friends sought the sober and deliberative analysis of renowned foreign policy guru... Donald Trump. Add this to the list of things I can't make up. It's a doozy of a performance. Trump wants to know, since we are the real "victors" here and not those smelly, brown rebels, why can't we just take all their oil?

"You know in the old days, when you win a war, you 'kept to the victor, belongs the spoils.'"

This sentiment is closer to pure Fascism than anything I have heard on Fox in weeks. Lately, that's saying something. Just think, only a short time ago, Fox was fawning over the prospect of a Trump Presidency. Can you imagine? Perhaps his slogan could have been, "It Takes A Pillage."

Libya's Endgame

Aug 22nd, 2011

The Muammar Gaddafi regime is at its ended.

Via AP:
"As rebels swarmed into Tripoli late Sunday and his son and one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam was arrested, Gadhafi's rule was all but over, even though some loyalists continued to resist."

International Criminal Court trials are expected for Seif as well as his four brothers, if they are also captured alive.

Eliza Griswold ponders the strongman's fate:

"Two planes are reportedly waiting on the runway at Tripoli’s airport to carry off Muammar Gaddafi to places unknown, according to Al Jazeera."

Her analysis of Gaddafi's possible exile is worth reading.

The WSJ rounds up official state responses to the developments of the last 24 hours. What might come next HERE and HERE. The potential impact on oil markets HERE.

The following video is from inside Tripoli this morning.