There's a whole lot of * "Bending over Backwards" by Republicans in Brownwood Texas !

Trade gap hits record
Increased imports from China fueled soaring U.S. deficit in '05
12:00 AM CST on Saturday, February 11, 2006
By KATHERINE YUNG / The Dallas Morning News
American consumers and businesses are growing increasingly reliant on Chinese-made goods, helping drive the U.S. deficit to an all-time high last year.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services soared to $726 billion, up 17.5 percent from 2004 levels, according to figures released Friday by the Department of Commerce.
As in previous years, trade with China played a key role in creating the imbalance.
Last year, the U.S. bought a record $202 billion more in goods from China than it sold to the Asian powerhouse, up from $162 billion in 2004.
"Ultimately, it is something people should be concerned about," said Nicholas Lardy, a China expert and senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington.
"We don't save enough. I don't think the current trajectory is sustainable."
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-tradegap_11bus.ART.State.Edition2.16b1b665.html
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Government announces $1.6B settlement with AIG
11:46 AM CST on Thursday, February 9, 2006
Associated Press
NEW YORK - In one of the largest regulatory settlements ever, American International Group Inc. has agreed to pay $1.64 billion to resolve allegations that it used deceptive accounting practices to mislead investors and regulators.
The deal announced Thursday also requires the New York-based company, one of the world's largest insurers, to adopt changes in its business practices that will ensure proper accounting procedures in the future.
The pact settles a civil suit filed last May by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer with backing from the New York State Insurance Department and the U.S. Justice Department. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which also worked with Spitzer on the investigation, filed and settled allegations of accounting fraud with the company simultaneously.
The settlement does not cover Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the company's former chairman and chief executive who was named in the suit but has pledged to fight it in court.
Spitzer told The Associated Press in an interview, "This is a company that didn't have to cheat. But once they began, they found it hard to stop. And like an addict, they grew dependent on financial gamesmanship that could ultimately destroy the company."
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/021006dnbusaig.e1d62ce.html
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American International Group

Insurance Company Acquires Privately Owned Water Utility

New York City-based American International Group (AIG) is one of the largest insurance and financial services companies in the world, with revenues of $100 billion in 2004 alone. On May 18, 2005 the company announced that it will control through purchase the water and wastewater services of small communities throughout 17 states.
The company has been plagued with allegations of widespread scandals and fraud, including:
The SEC and the Justice Department are investigating an AIG practice of providing “loss mitigation insurance” to companies. It appears as though AIG sells this service to help distressed corporations hide their losses from federal regulators. In November 2004, AIG paid $126 million to settle allegations it provided these illegal services to two companies, PNC and Brightpoint.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued the insurance company Marsh & McLennan on charges of widespread bid-rigging; AIG is named as a co-conspirator.
Both Spitzer and the SEC are investigating allegations that AIG cooked its own books by hiding transactions and debt with other large insurance companies.

AIG has contributed over $3 million to federal election campaigns since 2001, with 60% of that total going to Republicans.

In recent years, AIG—like other large financial firms—has been purchasing energy assets, inexpensively, from energy companies in financial distress. In just the last couple of years, AIG has acquired ownership stakes in 2,535 megawatts (MW) of power plants in the United States, and 100% ownership of the Southern Star Central natural gas pipeline, which runs from Texas to Wyoming.
In May 2005, AIG announced the purchase of a water utility, Utilities, Inc., whose customer base is primarily spread throughout small rural and suburban communities in 17 states. Though small by comparison to water industry giants such as Veolia, United Water, American Water or Aqua America, Utilities, Inc. claims it is the largest privately held water utility in the country. With AIG’s acquisition, water and wastewater service in the small communities served by Utilities, Inc. will no longer be owned by a privately held company but by a publicly traded corporation under market performance pressures.

Utilities, Inc. has roughly 300,000 customers:

Arizona: Bermuda Water Co.; 5,450 customers.
Florida: Alafaya Utilities; Bayside Utility Services; Cypress Lakes Utilities; Eastlake Water Service; Lake Groves Utilities; Lake Placid Utilities; Lake Utility Services; Mid-County Services; Miles Grant Water & Sewer; Pebble Creek Utilities; Sandy Creek Utility Service; Sanlando Utilities; South Gate Utilities; Tierra Verde Utilities; Utilities, Inc. of Florida; Wedgefield Utilities; 81,000 customers.
Georgia: Utilities, Inc. of Georgia; 11,200 customers.
Illinois: Camelot Utilities; Cedar Bluff Utilities; Charmar Water Co; Cherry Hill Water Co; Clarendon Water Co; Del Mar Water Co; Ferson Creek Utilities; Galena Territory Utilities; Great Northern Utilities; Harbor Ridge Utilities; Holiday Hills Utilities; Killarney Water Co; Lake Holiday Utilities; Lake Marian Water Corp; Lake Wildwood Utilities; Medina Utilities; Northern Hills Water & Sewer; Valentine Water Service; Walk Up Woods Water Co; Westlake Utilities; Whispering Hills Water Co; Wildwood Water Service Co.; 17,400 customers.
Indiana: Twin Lakes Utilities; Water Service Co. of Indiana.; 8,300 customers.
Kentucky: Water Service Corp. of Kentucky, 7,000 customers.
Louisiana: Louisiana Water Service; Utilities, Inc. of Louisiana; 17,100 customers.
Maryland: Green Ridge Utilities; Maryland Water Services; Provinces Utilities; Utilities, Inc. of Maryland.; 7,000 customers.
Mississippi: Charleston Utilities; 1,800 customers.
Nevada: Sky Ranch Water Service Corp; Spring Creek Utilities; Utilities, Inc. of Nevada; 12,800 customers.
New Jersey: Montague Water & Sewer Co.; 1,100 customers.
North Carolina: Bradfield Farms Water Co; CWS Systems, Inc; Carolina Water Service.; 61,100 customers.
Ohio: Holiday Service Corp.; 1,100 customers.
Pennsylvania: Penn Estates Utilities; Utilities, Inc. of Pennsylvania; 5,500 customers.
Tennessee: Tennessee Water Service.; 500 customers.
South Carolina: Carolina Water Service; Salem Church Road Utilities; South Carolina Utilities; Southland Utilities; Tega Cay Water Service; United Utility Companies.; 31,900 customers.
Virginia: Utilities, Inc. of Virginia; 5,200 customers.
Below are the details of AIG’s current energy assets.

POWER PLANTS:
1. Dartmouth, Massachusetts 68 MW natural gas power plant. AIG owns 100%.
2. Front Range, a 480 MW natural gas plant outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. It’s a 50/50 venture with AIG and Colorado Springs Utilities.
3. Vandolah, a 680 MW natural gas power plant located in Hardee County, Florida. AIG is the sole owner.
4. MassPower 258 MW natural gas power plant in Springfield, Massachusetts. AIG owns 33.7%, John Hancock Insurance owns 17.5%, ArcLight (an affiliate of John Hancock) owns 17.5%, Goldman Sachs owns 14.7%, United States Power Fund owns 12.5% and El Paso Corp. owns 4.1%.
5. Cambria 98 MW coal power plant in Edensburg, Pennsylvania. AIG is the sole owner.
6. Gilberton 82 MW coal power plant in Frackville, Pennsylvania. AIG owns 25%, Goldman Sachs owns 19.6%, , FPL owns 5.4% and RI-CORP owns 50%.
7. Panther Creek 83 MW coal power plant in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, a joint venture of Goldman Sachs and AIG.
8. Mt. Poso 58 MW coal power plant in Bakersfield, California. AIG owns 16%.
9. ACE 102 MW coal power plant in Trona, California. AIG owns 13%.
10. Orlando, Florida 114.5 MW natural gas power plant. A joint venture between AIG and ArcLight.
11. Colver, Pennsylvania 106 MW power plant. AIG owns 27.5%.
12. Bonneville 85 MW power plant in Las Vegas. AIG owns half.
13. Orange 104 MW natural gas power plant in Bartow, Florida. The power plant is a 50/50 partnership between AIG and the Wall Street investment bank Bear Sterns.
14. Mulberry 120 MW natural gas power plant in Bartow, Florida. AIG owns 46.75%, General Electric owns 7.5% and Bear Stearns owns 45.75%.
15. AIG owns 22.4% of SEMASS, a 78 MW waste-to-energy plant in Rochester, Massachusetts. DLJ Merchant Banking Partners is the other stakeholder.
16. AIG owns 24.9% of American Ref-Fuel Company of Southeastern Connecticut, which operates an 18 MW waste-to-energy power facility in Preston, Connecticut. DLJ Merchant Banking Partners is the other stakeholder.
NATURAL GAS
AIG owns 100% of the Southern Star Central natural gas pipeline, running through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
source: http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/general/majorwater/aig/
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Note from Steve: You should go rent the Enron Movie at Hastings ! ....and the Republicans want to preach about Morality, Ethics and Integrity ! Beware the Wolves !
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Abramoff's `Equal Money' Went Mostly to Republicans (Update1)

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President George W. Bush calls indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff ``an equal money dispenser'' who helped politicians of both parties. Campaign donation records show Republicans were a lot more equal than Democrats.
Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show. At the same time, his Indian clients were the only ones among the top 10 tribal donors in the U.S. to donate more money to Republicans than Democrats.
Bush's comment about Abramoff in a Dec. 14 Fox News interview was aimed at countering Democratic accusations that Republicans have brought a ``culture of corruption'' to Washington. Even so, the numbers show that ``Abramoff's big connections were with the Republicans,'' said Larry Noble, the former top lawyer for the Federal Election Commission, who directs the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.
``It is somewhat unusual in that most lobbyists try to work with both Republicans and Democrats, but we're already seeing that Jack Abramoff doesn't seem to be a usual lobbyist,'' Noble said.
Abramoff, 46, is under investigation by a Justice Department-led task force; he has already been indicted in Florida in a separate case involving the purchase of a casino boat company.
Abramoff is talking with prosecutors about providing testimony against former political and business associates in exchange for a reduced sentence, the New York Times reported today, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the case.
`Glass Houses'
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has set up a Web page, dubbed ``Glass Houses,'' featuring pictures of Democratic senators and a tally of funds they took from Abramoff or his associates.
In the last week, two Democrats have said they're returning donations from Indian tribes represented by Abramoff and from his associates. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota -- the top Democrat on a committee investigating the lobbyist -- gave back $67,000. Senator Max Baucus of Montana is returning $18,893.
Mostly Republicans
Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff joined with his former partner, Michael Scanlon, and tribal clients to give money to a third of the members of Congress, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, according to records of the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service. At least 171 lawmakers got $1.4 million in campaign donations from the group. Republicans took in most of the money, with 110 lawmakers getting $942,275, or 66 percent of the total.
Of the top 10 political donors among Indian tribes in that period, three are former clients of Abramoff and Scanlon: the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of California. All three gave most of their donations to Republicans -- by margins of 30 percentage points or more -- while the rest favored Democrats.
Abramoff faces allegations that he bilked the casino-owning tribes out of millions of dollars and attempted to corrupt public officials. E-mails released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee during a year of hearings offer evidence that he directed the tribes to donate funds to specific lawmakers.
Continued to Give
Abramoff's tribal clients continued to give money to Democrats even after he began representing them, although in smaller percentages than in the past.
The Saginaw Chippewas gave $500,500 to Republicans between 2001 and 2004 and $277,210 to Democrats, according to a review of data compiled by Dwight L. Morris & Associates, a Bristow, Virginia-based company that tracks campaign-finance reports. Between 1997 and 2000, the tribe gave just $158,000 to Republicans and $279,000 to Democrats.
The Republican senatorial committee is sending information out to state campaigns and to all Republican press secretaries on Capitol Hill about the Democrat-Abramoff connections, spokesman Brian Nick said. The cover sheet asks, ``They Don't Know Jack???'' in red ink and features a picture of Abramoff surrounded by Democrats including Dorgan and Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Reid's Response
Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said the senator is still considering whether to return the $60,000 in donations he received from Abramoff associates and clients. The money includes contributions that came from Abramoff's former employer, Greenberg Traurig LLP, a lobbying and law firm with multiple issues in Congress.
Bush, in the Fox News interview, said of Abramoff: ``It seems to me that he was an equal money dispenser, that he was giving money to people in both political parties.''
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said yesterday that Bush was making the point that Abramoff's links weren't exclusively Republican. ``The president was referring to press reports showing Mr. Abramoff, his clients and associates have contributed to both Democrats and Republicans alike,'' Healy said.

* ``Republicans are bending over backwards to exaggerate the links'' between Democrats and Abramoff, said Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. ``This is a Republican scandal that involves Republican lawmakers doing favors for a Republican lobbyist.''

`Representative No. 1'
Scanlon, Abramoff's former partner, has pleaded guilty to attempted fraud and corruption of public officials and is cooperating with the Justice Department's investigation. His plea agreement refers to efforts to corrupt U.S. lawmakers, including a ``Representative No. 1,'' identified by lawyers in the case as Ohio Republican Robert Ney.
The other names most frequently mentioned in connection with Abramoff are both Republicans: DeLay, a one-time friend who has cut off contact with the lobbyist, and Senator Conrad Burns of Montana. Burns, who is facing criticism in his home state for being the top recipient of Abramoff-related donations, said on Dec. 16 he planned to give back to the tribes about $150,000 in contributions from Abramoff, his associates and tribal clients.
In the Florida case, in which Abramoff has already been indicted, prosecutors allege that he and partner Adam Kidan conspired to defraud lenders when buying SunCruz Casino Ltd. in 2000. Kidan pleaded guilty Dec. 15, and his lawyer said he's willing to testify against Abramoff.

source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=arVHles5cKJc&refer=us
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Three More GOP members tied to Abramoff
by Joe in DC - 2/11/2006 01:24:00 PM

Court filings show the roll of Abramoff-linked GOPers continues to grow. Add LaTourette from Ohio, Young from Alaska and Capito from West Virginia:
Two of the elected officials referred to in Friday's filings have been identified in published reports as Reps. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, and Don Young, R-Alaska. According to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, the two representatives wrote to the GSA in September 2002, urging the agency to give preferential treatment to groups such as Indian tribes when evaluating development proposals for the Old Post Office.

LaTourette maintains he did nothing improper by advocating special opportunities for certain small businesses in areas known as HUBzones, or Historically Underutilized Business zones. His spokeswoman, Deborah Setliff, said that the letter was reviewed by Young's chief of staff and counsel and that it did not advocate any particular business over another.

A spokesman for Young did not return telephone calls.

Friday's filings by prosecutors refer to a third member of Congress, Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Her name appears in e-mails that suggest she was trying to help Abramoff secure a GSA lease for land in Silver Spring for a religious school.

Capito claims to know nothing about the effort. "The action taken by her former chief of staff was done without her knowledge, approval or consent," said her spokesman, Joel Brubaker. "She was not aware of any contact with GSA of any type on this matter."
source: http://americablog.blogspot.com/
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From the Dallas Morning News Business Section page 2d 2.11.2006

Farmers' incomes expected to decline
Farmers will see their incomes plunge in 2006 coming off two years of unusually high prices and record crops, the Agriculture Department said Friday.
Rising energy costs and interest rates are gobbling up the bottom line for farmers, analysts said.
On average, net income for a farmer should be $48,600 in this year, down from $ 68,300 last year, according to forecasts from the department. The average was $ 52,500 from 2000 through 2005.
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Saturday February 11, 2006 Op Ed: Letters To The Editor The Brownwood Bulletin

Fascism raising its head in the United States

To the editor:
The word fascism seems to be raising its murderous head here in the good old U.S.A.
Why you might ask could I make such an unlikely statement?
Please allow me to answer without trying to insult anyone’s intelligence.
The big book, The Oxford Universal Dictionary, first published in the year 1933, universally accepted by the most learned among us states as follows!
Fascist — formed in 1919 by none other than Benito Mussolini.
Read on: Next we have the American Heritage Dictionary accepted by the U.S. Library of Congress.
States: Fascism — a government system that exercises a extreme right control. Typically through the merging of state and business leadership with a belligerent nationalism.
Could this type of system be compared to our present two houses of Congress? After all, each member of both houses no longer truly write our bills of law.
It is admitted by even the old retired member that this statement is true.
Does this place the lobbyist of large dominant wealthy corporations in this dictatorial power? Think!
Furthermore, is our present executive branch of government in any way obligated and or tied to the power of big money — corporations?
Finally, please don’t let me stir the fire of possible extreme right believers of this, our country. I only hope to offer a country boy’s picture of the other side of the story. God bless each of you and our dear country.

L. L. White
Brownwood
source: http://brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2006/02/11/op_ed/letters%20to%20the%20editor/letter02.txt