Menage A Trois: McCain and Palin Are Both in Bed With TransCanada

McCamy Taylor

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Tue Sep-02-08 08:42 PM
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Menage A Trois: McCain and Palin Are Both in Bed With TransCanada

Edited on Tue Sep-02-08 08:44 PM by McCamy Taylor

I. Isn�t There a Word for People Who Get Burned and Then Go Back and Play with Fire Again?

We all know by now that John McCain does not make any decisions for himself. That is what lobbyists are for. Lobbyists pick his girlfriends---the lovely, blonde Vicki Iseman, who represented Paxson Communication for whom McCain did favors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html

If you want more on the money, less on the sex, try my own �Forget the Blonde, McCain is in Bed with the Telecoms� here:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/151

A lobbyist told him how to plan his economic policy. I refer to former Senator Phil Gramm, who left office in a cloud of scandal. He is the man who gave the country the Enron Loophole. He rolled back banking reforms set in place during the Great Depression, leading to our current mortgage crisis, and he is the lobbyist who represents a company called UBS which is mired in accusations of fraud, possibly even criminal wrongdoing. Despite the McCain camp�s assurance that he has �stepped down�, word is that he is still very much a part of the inner circle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm

A lobbyist also told McCain to act like an ass over a regional conflict between two U.S. allies, Russia and Georgia for which even the actual president, George W. Bush has no easy answers. McCain�s top former policy adviser turned out to be a recipient of Georgian largess, making his advice in the matter suspect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/13/mccains-top-foreign-polic_n_118743.html

You would think that after the Keating Five Scandal John McCain would have learned that people who give him money for favors do not give good political advice. But some people never learn. I believe that lobbyists working for TransCanada may have picked Gov. Sarah Palin to be his VP.

II. I Do Not Have a Crystal Ball, But I Knew That a Lobbyist for TransCanada Had Been Raising Money for John McCain. Here Is Why and How.

Here is a link to the journal I wrote late last night.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/283

I will not attempt to recap everything in that journal. For those who do not want to read it, here is a short summary. Gov. Sarah Palin has been promoted on the internet for months for the position of McCain VP based upon the fact that she has been preparing to give away billions of dollars of Alaskan taxpayer money to a foreign company called TransCanada, so that they can build a redundant natural gas pipeline through that state. I call it redundant, because BP and Conoco, two of the companies that drill for gas on the Northern Shore are already building their own natural gas pipeline. This means that after the state sinks $25-30 billion into the project, there is no assurance that anyone will ever use it.

However, anonymous internet bloggers claim that this deal Palin has cut with TransCanada now makes her the perfect VP choice. I guess it does---if you are TransCanada, and you need the FERC to sign off on this deal, and on another project that you are working on in the lower 48, one that involves building a great big oil pipeline to ship dirty oilsands crude from Alberta all the way down to Port Arthur, Texas where it can be refined. More details here.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Keystone_XL_Pipeline

That deal also needs FERC approval. And it needs a whole hell of a lot of good public relations of the type that lobbyists are paid to supply. Because global warming is a very sore subject thanks to Al Gore. And smog is an even sorer subject with the mayors of the nation�s cities, who are watching their tax base decline as they are forced to cope with worsening air quality and rising rates of chronic respiratory illness. And don�t even get me started on foreign oil dependence.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=74b235d2-7f07-4e30-8b7f-c165f5912b1d

Gordon Giffin, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada during the Clinton administration, said there remains "a very big void in understanding" among U.S. policy-makers about the extent of Canadian oil resources and the industry's increasing environmental sensitivity.

Giffin said he was "frankly stunned" by the U.S. mayors' approval of an anti-oilsands resolution at their conference this week, and "the industry in Canada was caught off guard and similarly surprised."

Despite intense and ongoing Canadian lobbying efforts about the oilsands, "I don't think it's sufficient," Giffin says.

"I'm not being critical of anybody. But there hasn't been an adequate recognition of the intensity of the argument on the (environmental) side. If you cede the podium to the other side, then negative impressions get created."

Note that Giffin was a bundler for the Clinton campaign. Not that this matters much to this narrative, since the Senator is not running for national office. He works for a firm called McKenna, Long and Aldridge which lobbies for TransCanada. More about them shortly.

The resolution by the nation's mayors which Sen. Obama has joined does not bode well for TransCanada, which has spent a lot of time, effort and money, using the power of eminent domain to seize property in the United States so that it can build its dirty oil pipeline. Having a friend in the VP�s office will sure help the company grease those wheels at the FERC---just as Cheney helped Halliburton get all those no bid contracts. And TransCanada has no better friend in GOP politics in the United States right now that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. She just gave them half a billion dollars for a great big fat gas pipeline that will not transport anything for a decade---assuming that the people pumping the gas do not decide to continue using their own pipeline. Hell, the bridge to nowhere was not this costly or silly.

Now, TransCanada would have to have access to John McCain in order to suggest that the �maverick� uterus equipped ex-beauty queen Christian conservative gun toting right-to-life governor of the nation�s largest state was just what he needed to glamorize his campaign. And we all know that the one way to get John McCain�s attention is to wave money in front of him. So, I looked at this list of John McCain�s bundlers from earlier in the year.

http://www.citizen.org/documents/LobbyistsFinal.pdf

and compared it to this list of lobbyists for TransCanada:

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?lname=TransCanada+Corp&year=2008

knowing that there would be a match. There had to be one.

One name stands out. John Clerici from McKenna, Long (as in McKenna, Long and Aldridge, no idea why they used an incomplete name on the lobbying list). This firm is one of those hired to represent TransCanada�s interests in the United States. They bundled for Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney, and if you do a little more reading, you will see that they were involved in the Rudi Guiliani campaign before it imploded.

Here is more on John Clerici.

http://www.mckennalong.com/people-36.html

John's political involvement spans more than a decade, having worked on campaigns for the United States Senate, House of Representatives, and state offices. In 2001, John was a candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates. John was elected as a member of the Virginia delegation to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City that re-nominated President George W. Bush. Since 2006, John has served on the Virginia Finance Committee for McCain 2008.

Prior to joining the firm, John was a judge advocate with the U.S. Air Force where, among other assignments, he advised the Air Force Research Laboratory on the procurement of technology from research institutions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. John has appeared as a military law analyst for the Fox News Channel and MSNBC before national audiences.

III. Oh, Canada!

John McCain has been accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals already, i.e. the Rothschilds in Great Britain.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/20/did-john-mccain-accept-illegal-donation-from-the-rothschilds/

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a formal complaint, dated April 22, 2008, with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) related to a fundraising luncheon held at London�s Spencer House to benefit Senator John McCain�s presidential campaign. The venue for the event was apparently donated to the campaign by foreign nationals, in violation of federal campaign finance laws.

�Recent news reports suggest that Sen. John McCain and John McCain for President may have accepted an in-kind contribution from foreign nationals Lord Rothschild OM GBE and the Hon. Nathaniel Rothschild of Great Britain in contravention of federal election laws,� Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton wrote in a complaint letter dated April 22, 2008. �On behalf of Judicial Watch and its supporters, I hereby request that the FEC investigate the matter.�

Canada has let it be known that it is not pleased at all with the Democratic Party�s choice of nominee. Specifically, they are unhappy that Barack Obama plans to cut back on the United State�s dependence on foreign oil, its use of dirty oil and to concentrate on alternative forms of energy. (And you thought only the Saudis wanted us to continue our fossil fuel addiction.)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080609.wobama09/BNStory/International/home

Under Mr. Obama, the White House is likely to move closer to Ottawa on foreign policy and other international matters, but Canada's most important ties to the United States are economic, and he isn't an obvious ally on the economic front.

He's vowed to fix the North American free-trade agreement and make it more favourable for U.S. workers. He says he'll fight for "fair trade" by vigorously enforcing U.S. laws. He wants to help the Detroit Three auto makers build green cars of the future - in U.S. plants. And he's committed to weaning the country off imported oil by 2020, including, presumably, the roughly two million barrels a day it gets from Canada.

Snip

John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, on the other hand, is a staunch advocate of free trade.

Another potentially thorny issue for the two countries is energy. Canada is the United States's largest foreign supplier of crude oil, as well as natural gas and electricity.
If the United States gets serious about curbing its oil imports and cutting carbon emissions, it could have a profound impact on Canada, and particularly Alberta, argued Christopher Sands, who follows Canada-U.S. relations for the Hudson Institute in Washington.

"If Obama is elected, Alberta will have a real challenge," Mr. Sands said. "They'll need to make the case that oil is plentiful and that it can be a lot cleaner."

He likened the challenges facing the oil sands to the intense U.S. resistance Hydro-Quebec faced to its hydroelectric projects in northern Quebec in the 1980s.

"There a campaign in the U.S. to stigmatize the oil sands," he said. "It's going to take a real push back to counter that."

What kind of push is Mr. Sands talking about? A campaign to nominate a vice presidential candidate who will be the TransCanadian Candidate? One who has already proven herself willing to fork over half a billion dollars of tax payer money from the state of Alaska to pay for a second natural gas pipeline that no one is even sure that the state needs? Someone like that might be willing to push through the Alberta to Port Arthur dirty oil pipeline that TransCanada and the Alberta oil industry so desperately want and need�once she is in office.

Is he talking about this recent visit by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to the oilsands project? Where the two men were presumably encouraged to twist the arms of United States politicians, maybe even asked to invest some of their own money in dirty oil so that their lackeys in Washington would be unable to just say no to more foreign oil dependence, more global warming and more pollution?

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle+articleid_2534677.html

Or is Mr. Sands talking about even more sinister---and illegal tactics? Is foreign money being funneled into the McCain campaign from Canada so that the United States will continue to import lots of Canadian crude?

Here is a fascinating article about how McCain is �courting� Canada. Since the citizens of that country can not vote in our election, why the hell does he care what they think---unless he wants their money and their propaganda?

http://www.thestar.com/News/USElection/article/444440

WASHINGTON�John McCain says his trip to Canada this week is no "campaign ploy."
But by delivering in Ottawa a partisan message he could deliver in Omaha, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is about to use the Canadian capital as a convenient backdrop in the U.S. election campaign.

It's a move as rare as it is curious.

Curious? Try suspicious. And it raises all kinds of red flags about the behavior of the staff of Canada�s Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Recall that last spring his office was the source of leaks which were used to sow dissension within the ranks of Democrats, by portraying Sen. Obama as a �lying politician� and Sen. Clinton as a �dirty trickster� and causing the public to doubt the sincerity of both politicians when it came to the plight of the American working class. Here is a link to refresh the memories of those who need it.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/03/05/canada-obama.html?ref=rss

In retrospect, it is clear that the office of Stephen Harper was the source of the dirty tricks, not Clinton. He was acting against the presumed Democratic nominee, Barack Obama and for the Republican nominee John McCain. And why should not he? To Harper, McCain means a steady market for dirty Canadian oil and a FERC which will rubber stamp any costly project that companies like TransCanada want to build in the U.S.----maybe Sarah Palin will get them federal funding and take it out of New Orleans reconstruction funds. That would be in keeping with her history in Alaska, where she vetoed funds necessary to repair a public sports arena/emergency shelter and then spent triple that amount on a private Church and her hometown stadium.

If Sarah Palin was selected for John McCain by lobbyists representing the interests of TransCanada, that would also explain the lack of any realistic vetting process. �Vetting� would have consisted of whitewashing her negatives and accentuating her positives. A lobbyist who has worked closely with McCain would know exactly how to present a VP candidate to the Senator to make her sound appealing.

As usual, this is just one of my theories, but given the seeming insanity of this pick----her obvious lack of qualifications, the lack of vetting---it is my best explanation for how the Republicans have gotten stuck with this Thomasina Eagleton.

IV. The Financial News Is Always the Most Accurate News

One final word about TransCanada's natural gas pipeline in Alaska. Sarah Palin will tell you that her state needs that pipeline. Others will tell you that they need it like a hole in the head. I find that financial news is the most accurate. Here is what financial analysts said about the project before TransCanada managed to get their candidate on the GOP ticket.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/89363-alaskan-pipeline-presents-risk-for-transcanada-bondholders

A natural gas pipeline connecting northern Alaska to the civilized world could be decades away, and that�s on top of the decades that have already passed since the idea first surfaced. The Alaskan government has given TransCanada (TRP) the thumbs up, with a possible C$500-million in support, to proceed with the regulatory process.

Bondholders should be scared, according to Laurie Conheady, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

This was on Aug. 6, 2008

Of course, that was before TransCanada made a move on the U.S. treasury.