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This is the real story on the Delta and The Fish Terminator. <br>
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-------- Original Message --------
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Subject: </th>
<td>News and Review MPLA and Peripheral Canal
Article/Schwarzenegger's Secrets and Lies</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Date: </th>
<td>Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:03:18 -0700</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">From: </th>
<td>Dan Bacher <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:danielbacher@fishsniffer.com"><danielbacher@fishsniffer.com></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">References: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:6F75F6D9D5980342829251F8289652F9587E89@ex01.ad.resources.ca.gov"><6F75F6D9D5980342829251F8289652F9587E89@ex01.ad.resources.ca.gov></a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:32BF5A05-9B70-4B90-835A-30CFB8B168E9@fishsniffer.com"><32BF5A05-9B70-4B90-835A-30CFB8B168E9@fishsniffer.com></a></td>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:="" margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font
face="elvetica"" size=" style=ont: 12.0px Helvetica">Here's Thursday's
News and Review article on the MLPA and Peripheral Canal, followed by
R.V. Scheide's superb piece on Schwarzenegger, Enron, Blackwater and
the Peripheral Canal.</font></div>
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face="elvetica"" size=" style=ont: 12.0px Helvetica">Thanks</font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:="" margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font
face="elvetica"" size=" style=ont: 12.0px Helvetica">Dan </font></div>
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size=" style=ont: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
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#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"><b>Sea change</b></font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font face="erdana""
size=" style=ont: 16.0px Verdana">California Fish and Game Commission
approves controversial marine reserves; peripheral canal plan proceeds
behind closed doors</font></div>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 11.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#b91900="" face="erdana"" size=" color=b91900"><b>By Dan Bacher </b></font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 12.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#0014ee="" face="erdana"" size=" color=0014ee"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="ttp://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/dan_bacher/author%22"><b>More
stories by this author...</b></a></font></div>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"><b>Barbara
Stephens-Lewallen harvests the tips of sea palms in Sea Lion Cove. The
Marine Life Protection Act bans seaweed harvesters, fishermen and
abalone divers from this and other areas along the Mendocino County
coast.</b></font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"><b>PHOTO BY DAN BACHER</b></font></div>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" background-color:="" rgb(227,="" 225,=""
225);=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333=""
face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">Dan Bacher is the editor of the
Elk Grove-based Fish Sniffer magazine and a longtime advocate for
fishery restoration in California and the West. </font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" font:="" 10px="" normal="" verdana;=""
color:="" rgb(51,="" 51,="" 51);="" background-color:="" rgb(227,=""
225,="" 225);="" min-height:="" 12px;=""><br>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" background-color:="" rgb(227,="" 225,=""
225);=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333=""
face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">The Sportsmen Yacht Club of
Antioch has planned the Million Boat Float from Antioch to Sacramento
on August 16-17, to protest plans to build the canal (<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="ttp://www.millionboatfloat.org/index.htm%22"><font style=""
#b91900="" color="#b99000"><b>www.millionboatfloat.org/index.htm</b></font></a>).</font></div>
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<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333"><b>Last week, the California Fish and Game
Commission</b> voted 3-2 to create a controversial network of 24
marine-protected areas, stretching from the waters near Half Moon Bay
to Point Arena in Mendocino County, that will close or restrict
approximately 20 percent of the region’s state waters from fishing and
seaweed gathering.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">The vote to approve the reserve package developed
through the Marine Life Protection Act process took place just one day
after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a new member of the Fish and
Game Commission, Donald Benninghoven. A Republican from Santa Barbara,
Benninghoven was the deciding vote for the Integrated Preferred
Alternative reserve package pushed by the governor.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Benninghoven replaced the former commission
president, Cindy Gustafson. Gustafson suddenly resigned the previous
Friday, citing an opinion from the state attorney general that found
her post conflicted with her position as the Tahoe City Public
Utilities District’s general manager.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Representatives of Washington, D.C., and San
Francisco-based environmental nongovernmental organizations, including
the League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense
Council, praised the vote while fishermen, seaweed harvesters and the
North Coast-based Ocean Protection Coalition condemned it.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">“This landmark decision is a major step towards
restoring the health and productivity of our state’s ocean wildlife,”
said Warner Chabot, CEO of the California League of Conservation
Voters. “The goal is to restore and repopulate underwater life by
protecting these essential habitats.”</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">“For decades, we’ve protected California’s
special places on land with state and national parks,” said Karen
Garrison, a policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Now it’s time to protect the Yosemites of the sea.”</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">The vote will ban Lester Pinola, the past
chairman of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of Stewarts Point Rancheria
in Sonoma County, and the 600 members of his Pomo Indian tribe from
harvesting abalone, seaweed and mussels in the intertidal zone off
Stewarts Point as they have done for hundreds of years.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">“What you are doing to us is taking the food out
of our mouths,” Pinola told the commission. “When the first settlers
came to the coast, they didn’t know how to feed themselves. Our people
showed them how to eat out of the ocean. In my opinion, this was a big
mistake.”</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Pinola and recreational anglers, commercial
fishermen and grassroots environmentalists showed in force at the
meeting to back “2XA,” the alternative that they believe best meets the
conservation objectives of the MLPA while incurring the least economic
harm to coastal communities. Under this alternative, Pinola and members
of his tribe could continue harvesting abalone and seaweed.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Fish and Game Commissioners Richard Rogers and
Michael Sutton, the latter of who is being investigated by the
California Fair Political Practices Commission for potential conflicts
of interest in regard to his past votes on the MLPA, lauded the
decision as the outcome of a transparent public process.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">“What we have before us today is the result of a
complicated, open, historic process,” said Rogers before the vote.
“I’ve seen processes before that were real railroad jobs, and this
isn’t one. It is the single most best process in my life that I’ve been
involved with.”</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Pinola disagreed with Rogers’ contention. “They
never contacted us to let us know they were planning to close the coast
to fishing and seaweed harvesting, even though we were the first people
on the coast,” he stated.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Commissioners Jim Kellogg and Daniel Richards
forwarded a motion to support Alternative 2XA, but the motion wasn't
voted on. They also made a motion to suspend the implementation of the
MLPA regulations until funding is available and studies are completed
in the existing reserves in south-Central California. This motion
failed 3-2. </font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Jerry Karnow from the California Fish and Game
Wardens Association had asked the commission to delay the
implementation of the MLPA initiative “until there is some relief from
furloughs and enough officers to enforce these significant new
provisions.” </font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Commissioner Richard Rogers then made a motion to
approved the "Integrated Preferred Alternative" with Don Benninghoven
and Mike Sutton voting "Yea" and Kellogg and Richards voting
"Absolutely Not." </font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Proponents and opponents of the marine reserve
plan also clashed over the science behind the decision. Chabot said the
decision was the result of a “science-based, compromise plan” approved
by the commission. “Hundreds of science studies from around the world
prove that marine reserves allow fish and wildlife to grow larger, more
abundant and healthier,” he stated.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Jim Martin, West Coast director of the
Recreational Fishing Alliance, countered Chabot’s contention that the
decision was “science-based,” pointing to a landmark study published in
Science magazine on July 31 that found that the California Current
marine ecosystem has the lowest fishery exploitation rate of in the
world.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Martin argued that the study, coauthored by Ray
Hilborn and 20 other international scientists, effectively challenges
the need to rush the MLPA process. “Much of the motivation for the MLPA
was concern about the state of the groundfish stocks—there is clear
evidence that these can be rebuilt without MPAs,” Hilborn noted, citing
the new study.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">John Lewallen, one of the founders of the Ocean
Protection Coalition as well as the “Seaweed Rebellion” on California’s
North Coast, also strongly contested the decision. The new
marine-reserve package will bar Lewallen and his wife, Barbara
Stephens-Lewallen, from Sea Lion Cove near Point Arena where they have
sustainably harvested sea palms and other seaweed for 25 years.</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">“I’m really stunned that our democracy would be
trashed like it was by the commission,” he said. “Californians have to
oppose today’s decision and the MLPA process, or our coast will be
taken over by private-money interests.”</font></p>
<p style="" 10.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Lewallen and fishermen have criticized the MLPA
Initiative, a public process, for being funded by the Resource Legacy
Fund Foundation, a private nonprofit corporation that receives its
money from the David and Lucille Packard and the Gordon and Betty Moore
foundations.</font></p>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 18.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"><b>Canal plan proceeds</b></font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">As the commission was
voting for the new marine reserves, a package of five water bills that
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta advocates fear will result in the
construction of a peripheral canal was making its way through the
Legislature. Two of the bills—Assembly Bill 39, sponsored by
Assemblyman Jared Huffman of San Rafael, and Senate Bill 12, sponsored
by Senator Joe Simitian of Palo Alto—are based on the Delta Vision and
the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which have been widely criticized by
many environmentalists and fishery advocates for supporting a
peripheral canal.</font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" font:="" 10px="" normal="" verdana;=""
color:="" rgb(51,="" 51,="" 51);="" min-height:="" 12px;=""><br>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">In addition to A.B. 39
and S.B. 12, separate bills on water conservation, water-use reporting
and the Delta Conservancy are winding their way through committee.
According to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance’s Bill
Jennings, the five bills, taken as a package, “comprise a road map to a
peripheral canal.</font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" font:="" 10px="" normal="" verdana;=""
color:="" rgb(51,="" 51,="" 51);="" min-height:="" 12px;=""><br>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">“In a stunning
abdication of legislative responsibility and due diligence,” Jennings
continued, “the package authorizes the creation of a Delta Stewardship
Council comprised of four members appointed by the governor, two from
the legislature and the Chairperson of the Delta Protection Commission.
… Our Legislature proposes to allow the Governor, who strenuously
advocates building a peripheral canal, the authority to appoint a
majority of members to a council that has authority to build and fund
it.”</font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">Huffman disagreed with
critics of his bill.</font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" font:="" 10px="" normal="" verdana;=""
color:="" rgb(51,="" 51,="" 51);="" min-height:="" 12px;=""><br>
</div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">“In all the debate
about the Delta, I want to make one fact clear at the outset,” Huffman
said, responding to concerns about his bill. “My Assembly Bill 39 does
not authorize, argue for or call for construction of the Peripheral
Canal.”</font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" font:="" 10px="" normal="" verdana;=""
color:="" rgb(51,="" 51,="" 51);="" min-height:="" 12px;=""><br>
</div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 20.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"><b>Secrets and lies</b></font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 16.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#444444="" face="erdana"" size=" color=444444">When it comes to
sticking it to the people, the ‘people’s governor’ has a plan</font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" font:="" 10px="" normal="" verdana;=""
color:="" rgb(51,="" 51,="" 51);="" min-height:="" 12px;=""><br>
</div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 11.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#b91900="" face="erdana"" size=" color=b91900"><b>By R.V. Scheide </b></font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 12.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#0014ee="" face="erdana"" size=" color=0014ee"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="ttp://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Contact?content%1080624%22"><b>rvscheide@newsreview.com</b></a></font></div>
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margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 12.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#0014ee="" face="erdana"" size=" color=0014ee"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="ttp://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/r_v_scheide/author%22"><b>More
stories by this author...</b></a></font><font style="" 10.0px=""
verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"> </font></div>
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#0014ee="" face="erdana"" size=" color=0014ee"><a
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href="ttp://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid%1080624#readComment%22"><b>Read
1 reader submitted comment</b></a></font></div>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"><b>Liar, liar, pants on
fire.</b></font></div>
<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:=""
#333333="" face="erdana"" size=" color=333333"><b>PHOTO BY GOVERNOR’S
OFFICE</b></font></div>
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<div style="" margin-right:="" margin-bottom:=""
margin-left:="" 0px;="" background-color:="" rgb(227,="" 225,=""
225);=""><font style="" 10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333=""
face="erdana"" size=" color=333333">Have you ever caught a public
official in a lie? Privy to any government secrets? Let me know at <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="ailto:rvscheide@newsreview.com%22"><font
style="" #b91900="" color="#b99000"><b>rvscheide@newsreview.com</b></font></a>.</font></div>
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<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333"><b>How much longer are we going to take it?</b>
The secrets our leaders keep from us and the lies they tell in the
truth’s place?</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Consider Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s entire
political career. It essentially began in May 2001, in a secret meeting
with Enron CEO Ken Lay at a swanky Beverly Hills motel.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">During the previous year, Lay and Enron—along
with its partners Reliant Energy, Williams, Dynergy and Entergy—had
gamed California’s electricity market to the tune of $8.9 billion.
Groups representing California’s ratepayers sued to get that money back.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
negotiated a settlement in which Enron would pay back $1.5 billion,
about 17 cents on the dollar—to the state’s ratepayers. However, the
agreement required the consent of Gov. Gray Davis, who refused to sign
off on it.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">So what happened after Arnold’s secret meeting
with Lay? A bunch of right-wingers bankrolled by the usual suspects
forced a recall election. Arnold ran for governor, citing Davis’
supposedly inept handling of the energy crisis and the state’s budget,
which was $8 billion in the red, or roughly the same amount Enron owed
the state.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">You know the rest, or at least half of it. Arnold
was elected. One of his first acts in office was to sign off on the
$1.5 billion settlement, letting Enron off the hook for $6.5 billion.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">I experienced my own brush with Schwarzenegger’s
penchant for secrecy in 2007, after reading <i>Blackwater: The Rise of
the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army</i>, Jeremy Scahill’s exposé
on the private security company that’s become infamous for various
atrocities its employees have committed in Iraq.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">In the book, Scahill cited an article from The
Virginian-Pilot newspaper that claimed the North Carolina-based company
and the Schwarzenegger administration had discussed the possibility of
Blackwater providing emergency services if a Hurricane Katrina-type
disaster were to befall California. The information, according to the
article, came straight from the governor’s office.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">That’s interesting, I thought, considering that
at the time Blackwater was involved in a contentious battle with local
residents in Potrero, east of San Diego near the Mexican border, who
opposed the by-now-notorious company’s plans to build a major training
base in the area.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">So I called the governor’s office and asked about
the Blackwater conversation. They said it never happened. I called the
Virginian-Pilot, where one of the story’s reporters informed me that a
Schwarzenegger official had indeed given her the tip. I called
Blackwater, twice. First, the spokesperson said the conversation took
place, then she said it didn’t.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe
(pronounced “zee”), opened its Potrero facility last year. Earlier this
month, Scahill scored another Blackwater scoop, as reported in The
Nation. In a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Iraqi civilians, two
former Blackwater officials swore under oath that CEO Erik Prince may
have murdered or facilitated the murders of witnesses in an ongoing
government investigation of the company. They also said Prince imagines
he’s waging a holy war against Islam.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">None of this is to say Schwarzenegger paved the
way for Blackwater’s entry into the state. However, there’s no doubt
that Prince and the governor share friends in high places, and given
Arnold’s fondness for backroom dealing, we’ll probably never know for
certain.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">I couldn’t help but think of this penchant for
secrecy upon learning of the proposed legislative committee that’s been
cooked up (see “<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="ttp://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid%1080633%22"><font
style="" #b91900="" color="#b99000"><b>Sea change</b></font></a>,” by
Dan Bacher, SN&R Green Days) to shove through the project Arnold
hopes will be his legacy, the peripheral canal and the expansion of the
State Water Project.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">The state’s voters have rejected this project
multiple times, and Schwarzenegger couldn’t even get his proposed $11
billion water storage and reliability initiative on the ballot last
year. Nevertheless, he persists. If you can’t get it done in public, do
it in secret, and make sure you stack the committee with your Southern
California Republican cronies.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">Rumor has it that the committee will be
recommending construction of a peripheral canal by the end of the
legislative session in September. If that should come to pass,
Schwarzenegger will find it difficult to claim the mantle of Governor
Green. Not that it matters. That was just another lie, too. By the time
the canal is built, he’ll be long gone, leaving us to pick up the
environmental pieces.</font></p>
<p style="" 18.0px="" 0.0px=""><font style=""
10.0px="" verdana;="" color:="" #333333="" face="erdana""
size=" color=333333">How long are we going to put up with this?</font></p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="80">--
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente
Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.refpub.com/">http://www.refpub.com/</a> -- Tel: 408.778.3024</pre>
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