[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Judy Dugan
Research Director
The Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights (FCTR)
and OilWatchdog.org Project

by dday [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

I appreciate all the comments in my somewhat provocative diary on Chevron's $50,000 donation to the CDP and why I think there's a better way to do business.  I'm no hallowed saint when it comes to politics, and I understand that right now it takes lots of cash.  But my main point is that money received from this particular company at this particular time with these particular underlying scenarios, whether taken in good faith or bad, will not do as much to reach new voters as it will alienate old ones.  People have every right to assume that a politician or a party who receives a large donation from a corporate entity will be expecting something in return, as the instances of such exchanges being consummated are too numerous to count.  And $50,000 buys 1 ad in LA during election season, maybe not all of it, but it drives hundreds of activists crazy, and every decline-to-state voter that hears about it just shakes their head and continues to believe the perception that "they're all the same" in politics.  I know personally, from the reaction this has gotten, that people are upset.  It doesn't mean they'll stop working for the party, but maybe they'll stuff one less envelope.  Maybe they'll make one less phone call.  And maybe they just won't feel as invested in a big-donor top-down party as they would in a small-donor bottom-up one.

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by dday [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

I am fairly surprised that more has not been made in the blogosphere of the unwelcome news that Chevron is doing everything it can to buy off the California Democratic Party and some of its top legislators.  Outside of this small item in The Oil Drum, pretty much nobody has said a word about the fact that the CDP accepted a $50,000 check from a company that is attempting to artificially depress capacity and manipulate the energy market in a way that is shockingly similar to how Enron made themselves a fortune during the 2000-2001 energy crisis.  You can read the details here.

As a delegate to this party, I feel personally tainted by this donation.  I feel like there is a concerted effort to buy my silence.  It will not work, and I want to outline why I am respectfully asking this party, of which I am a member and to which I pay dues, to return the money.

by dday [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

What side will Arnold come down on?

That is the question posed by Pablo Fajardo, an attorney for the 30,000 Amazonian settlers and indigenous people, who call themselves Los Afectados—the Affected Ones. They are suing Chevron for the destruction of their rain forest and the creation of "one of the world's most contaminated industrial sites". Chevron has hired a bevy of well heeled lawyers from high-priced firms in Quito and DC, racking up millions of dollars in annual legal costs.

Fajardo just sent a letter to Schwarznegger requesting he help out with the lawsuit. LAT:

"I would like to invite you personally down to Ecuador to look at what Chevron has done to the rain forest here," wrote Pablo Fajardo, the attorney. "I would plead with you to bring your friends who are executives at the company so they can explain to you what they have done here. And finally, I am asking for your public help in supporting the fight against this company."

Fajardo added: "I have faith because I know you are a man of the environment."

Fajardo has a lot more faith in the governor than I do. Next week Fajaro is traveling to California and hopes to meet with Arnold. The governor's staff refused to comment on the letter since they claimed they have not yet received it. Shall we take bets on whether the governor meets with Fajaro? Yeah, thought not.

Arnold has received about $566,000 from the company in the last few years and another $250,000 to the CA Republican party.

Chevron laughably trying to claim they are bipartisan donors. They give 89% of their contributions to Republicans, so yeah, they are about 11% bipartisan. Oh and they are trying to cry that they are the real victim in all of this. Vanity Fair has a fantastic article about the lawsuit, long but really well done.

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