Much to the surprise of those that dream while sleeping, many people do not dream or recall dreaming while they sleep, not even once in their entire lives! Dreaming is a human activity that most people take for granted as if everyone can dream. If dreams are something that some people can see and others do not, then dreaming is something that dwells in the peripheral blind spot of social invisibility. Could it be that there is an everyday ordinary common god, as close as the invisible nose on your invisible face, working miracles in your life?
Dreams have a deeper meaning for clairvoyants such as myself because we see visualizations in our mind's eye while sleeping and awake. A clairvoyant is person who sees things clearly in their minds eye, as they are; sometimes with vivid startling accuracy the Greeks coined the logos or the known. It is unclear if the ability of perception is from the normal senses, psychic abilities, or spiritual epitome.
Clairvoyants rarely reveal their experiences unless the disclosure would be beneficial or helpful to others. There are the unscrupulous clairvoyants and the fakers that use the idea of clairvoyance abilities for selfless reasons that give us all a bad name. Then there is the innocent who believe they have God given talents, which they may; however, do not know what they are doing when they are looking for a lost child and the whole world turns to them for help after exhausting all other alternatives, only to be discouraged by failure and disbelief.
Lastly, Clairvoyance is not always the case a specialized profession such as murder solving, people finding, or gold digging enterprises. In more cases than not, the clairvoyant that is open and clear of negativity at the time of need is the medium of choice; be it a matter of physics or divine intervention.
We are easy to identify. We are the people that stand in front of an elevator button and seem to debating if the up arrow means up and the down arrow means down. We compensate our trans-personalities by way of diversion to a trivial task not wanting people to know that our consciousness has shifted to a higher idea. I have never met a Clairvoyant that was trained the art and many notice they can see thing others cannot as early or earlier than three years of age. Many retain conceptions or memories of existence before conception or entering the human body at birth!
A well-practiced clairvoyant may dwell in the state as often as they can for enjoyment, enlightenment, or to help someone in need. Have you ever heard of the "Absent minded Professor?" Sometimes psychologist misdiagnosis the ability as Attention Deficit Disorder when in fact a clairvoyant can do multiple task of focus at the same time without compensating the accuracy of any of the task performed!
Unfortunately, behavioral scientist ignore the fact that some clairvoyants can take a peek into the future, visualize an eminent threat, and know instinctively when someone has their attention on them or looking at them even when the observation is done remotely by a camera or even a satellite.
Police will use clairvoyants to help with an investigation when all other scientific investigative means have failed and have about a 50/50 percent accuracy rate basically because they cannot measure the clairvoyants capabilities and use those that do not know how to use the art but believe they have special God given talents they really do not possess or know how to use.
In my case, dreaming while my body is asleep at the wheel is the best time to catch up on the adversaries or evil people that try to bring harm to just your everyday ordinary mystic like myself.
I have had a real hard time with the new anti-terrorist domestic surveillance program put into place years ago by congress with good intent to keep us safer; however, the police investigative strategies look for reasonable suspicious acts and nothing is more suspicious looking than a clairvoyant under hyper-surveillance because once a clairvoyant is a surveillance target, we start to behave in a way that we know someone is watching even though we are quite innocent of wrong doing are least harmless to others and dwell in the side lines or well outside terrorist threats.
Most troubling, once you are a target of interest, the information can never be erased or dismissed or expunged. This is bad for the wrongly accused but it is equally troublesome for accurate intelligence analysis having floaters bog the system as alerts that take attention away from real threats. The same can be said for those that have been targeted for political reasons as threats to make it easier on a politician or political special interest group.
It is my belief that most terrorist are not born terrorist, they are transformed into terrorist by pure hatred and intolerance based on the way the rest of the world acts!
Who can argue against the theory that we all act in a way that is predictable? Don't we all stand in the bank beyond the cord ropes, and stand well beyond the red line on the floor without the need of instruction; however, it is a grave error to think that any particular behavior has a predictable reaction.
This is why the Behavioral Sciences will always be an art form; especially if they exclude profiles they do not understand by the method of scientific observation and dump the prognosis in a category of the paranormal which is an area of behavior that cannot be observed and rides in the blind spot of social invisibility.
This is why Mystics that operate alone or along with a group are weary and in some cases angry with U.S. persistent failure to protect individual rights of privacy, leaving many of the few finest of citizens whom act in a way outside of the norm as targets of domestic surveillance.
Domestic surveillance if use correctly, is a helpful law enforcement tool; however, it is the point when the surveillance leaves the general population and focuses on a specific target when things go a wire and resources are placed on people who would do no harm and taken away from those that are real threats.
Additionally, the contracting of private firms in 2008 by U.S. intelligence, even if the employees are sworn law enforcement officers, compound the problem because they are paid and rewarded for intelligence, any intelligence if it is useful are just a report that waste valuable resources and time with total disregard to harm to the subjects of the report.
These people are easy to identify such as John Ashcroft, who is constantly trying to figure out what the term 'ethics' means or what place it has in National Security such as the Nazis wondered during World War II. We would all be speaking German if the principals of ethics were the basis of German diplomacy and tactical maneuvers of the last global conflict.
Chinese intelligence systems as well as other countries do a better job with surveillance because the people know that as long as you are in the band of the general public under surveillance, than you are relativity safe from privacy intrusion and free to move about freely without fear.
I know this because while living in China, the safest country I know of and I have lived in most, I observed that the police have a good working relationship with the populace and often will complain of two much information that leaves them blindsided to real threats of social invisibility. The same can be said of Italy where the local officer's patrol the communities in which they live, play, and worship.
In America we can say, "nothing changes but the meaning of law" and are economic down fall began many years ago by financing the DEA with resources for a dual mission, attacking drug violations at the street level instead of the source and domestic surveillance in the interest and protection against terrorist threats such as the attack on New York on September 11, 2001.
We like to believe that justice is blind; however, there is no finer judge who lives in a community where the whole town knows of something less than appropriate behavior practiced by the local judge. A paragraph from " A History of La Salle County" 1856-1975 authored by Annette Martin Ludeman shows that at least in Texas, nothing changes but the meaning of law as follows in the month of December, 1886 La Salle County Texas:
"There was a jury inquest inquiring into the cause of the death of C.B. McKinney conducted by Judge Harwood. During the inquest Judge Hardwood was taken very ill and died within five hours. Judge Hardwood's mind was heavily taxed in conducting the inquest and having previously contracted the habit of eating morphine, in a moment of hurry and excitement took and overdose of the drug which cause his death." This of course added more grief and sorrow to the already grief stricken little community."
In today's world, the murderer would be illegible for the position of Judge or Texas Ranger and the Judge would be considered a harden criminal and drug dealer. I am not saying that the DEA has recruited criminals, but the dual task of enforcing equal and harsh penalties along with the billions of dollars of resources on drug users as well as terrorists jeopardizes our National Security.
The DEA should not be in the business of Anti-Terrorism Domestic Surveillance! The Department should be focused on the source of drugs and exterminating the source before drugs exterminate all the citizens of America! The Agency need look no future then the Drug Enforcement Agency itself to get a good head start at eliminating fifty-percent of the problem embedded as DEA Drug Lords that feed off of Federal Funding. Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Texas Governor Rick Perry are very good examples of extracting Federal Funds for state sponsored drug and human trafficking operations.
A good departmental split right down the middle of their dual mission and budget would save money, protect the innocent, and keep us safer. The other half of their budget should be invested in Homeland security and first responders!
First Responders are seldom members of law enforcement, usually a common citizen in the right place at the right time that reports to an awake and alert member of law enforcement. Yes, many times law enforcement personnel are first responders because they are also citizens living in our communities. A cash reward and honorable citizens citation system has work best in the United States sense the conception of the constitution.
We see a break down in communications that is the cause of major security breaches after the application of the 911 Patriot Act and the fleecing of America by law enforcement personnel incorporating private security firms. Citizens today find it almost impossible to report incidents to law enforcement because of a false sense or false belief of omniscience intelligence sold to the public by private security firms.
Lastly, the Chinese intelligence agencies and police have a true respect for individual privacy that naturally leads to respect to the police; otherwise, a country or State can become a police State overnight if surveillance is not regulated and used for political adversaries, criminal activity, or retaliation.
In the United States, the state of Texas has world recognition during these troubling times as a bona fide police state, led by a treasonous dictating tyrant, but let's don't make the mistake of blaming the situation on the police and professional law enforcement.
Any human behavior ethnology can be taken out of context just to give due cause of suspicion, producing a false report that can encourage a public hanging without a need of due process or trial of innocent law abiding citizens.
Attention is a very powerful thing when it is focus on an individual if just from a resentful person or a woman in scorn. So it is the case that most people are clairvoyant in some degree or another but don't practice the art correctly or use it to bring ill tidings to others. The modus operandi of a clairvoyant is strangely enough their biggest enemies their own attention and or the focus of attention by others.
by I am just your everyday ordinary common mystic G N O'Dell 01/13/2011
Dear Law Students of America, please tell us how to use the Freedom of Information Act to get printed copies of the dialogs and names of Texas Governor Rick Perry's illegal telephone calls?
Texas attorneys fear Rick Perry because they could lose their practice if they help us, so no help there; however, "We the People" are going to roast this guy!
Why? Texas Governor Rick Perry is a criminal. He threatens our president by stating he is, "Barack Obama's biggest fear" when he should be looking over shoulder at the Justice Department watching his every illegal move and "We The People" they have sworn to protect and serve!
The everyday majority of Texans do not fear Rick Perry, we are embarrassed every-time he opens his mouth. Only those that Perry owns fear him. We are not stake holders like his conspiring 4,500 appointees of Public Trust including judges in the Supreme Court - What can he do to us Texans he has not already done! He can't even hit a Coyote at 30 yards or balance a budget:
http://www.window.state.tx.us/...
Blagojevich gets 14 years in prison using a office phone that was legally wire tapped. Rick Perry gets away with murder while every one's phone in Texas is illegally tap, recorded, and stored including the office phone he used for unauthorized business.
Where is the rule-of-law here? If Rick Perry can record and listen to our conversations without a court order, then we should have access to the complete dialogs he made in print via a request of The Freedom of Information Act.
There is enough evidence to show that Perry, Corporations, and Persons he talked with could spend some time in prison such as Governor Blagojevich! The conversation he had with the Koch brothers would be of the up most interest since it includes the treasonous sales to our enemy Iran. The same country that used the funds from these transactions to build bombs to kill, critically wound and mane, American Soldiers.
Citation: Controversial Republican billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch -- who have spent untold millions bankrolling right-wing candidates and causes -- are now the subject of a new Bloomberg investigation that shows Koch Industries profited from business with Iran.
Blagojevich gets 14 years in prison By Chris Bury | ABC News - 4 hrs ago
The ex-governor is sentenced in the corruption case that included trying to sell Obama's Senate seat.
Before announcing, Rick Perry used work phone to call donors WASHINGTON (AP) - Time and again, Texas Gov. Rick Perry picked up his office phone in the months before he would announce his bid for the presidency. He dialed wealthy friends who were his big fundraisers and state officials who owed him for their jobs.
"We The People" The Citizens of The United States of America residing in the State of Texas, hereby stand in peaceful protest against Rick Perry Governor of Texas who has stripped the citizens of the State of their rights to pursue economic prosperity, participation in the judicial process, the right to due process while establishing overt and covert intelligence operations outside the jurisdiction and powers of the State, and denied the citizens of the State equal protection of the law, creating a Police State of corruption that has endangered the lives of the people of the State and mismanaged State funds outside of budgetary restraints to a degree of course of bankruptcy and dependency on Federal Funds reserved for emergencies other than corruption of positions of Public Trust who have been appointed by the Governor not elected by the people and met in secrecy with the intent to defraud the people and the Federal Government for the sole purpose and intent of personal financial gain and retention of power as the Governor of the State of Texas. We the People, the citizens of the United States of America residing in the State of Texas demand that a vote be put before congress representing all States of the Union and by two thirds vote in the house in favor, remove the Disability- Texas Governor Rick Perry for engaging in insurrection and rebellion against the constitution and the citizens of the United States of America.
This Christmas Give the World The Gift That Keeps On Giving!
Make a Request Which Is Legal And Binding To Your Congressional Representative Of Any State in The Union To Investigate Rick Perry For Treason And by Two Thirds Vote in Congress Remove the Disability - Texas Governor Rick Perry Before Christmas.
The Center for Disease control employees thousands of professionals nationwide in collaboration with a worldwide network forming a Global data reporting base that has no international or state boundaries.
Unfortunately, the information shared by these agencies is only as good as post electronic data reporting systems and seldom considers dormant diseases. Yes, noteworthy events such as the Black Death have been considered and various theories researched by Anthropologist including forensic scientist. What if the treat is real and I-have-name is the only one that can see it?
What if there is a dormant disease clearly expressed in dusty court records in South Central Texas and Big Oil is trying to hide it to the point of corrupting the Governor of Texas?
Big Oil has a history of corruption motivated by the all mighty dollar and they cannot be stop by any law-a-biding reasonable means including local police, FBI, or military action. This is the case of the hand written court records now held in an ancient school building where President Lyndon Johnson once taught my kin.
La Salle County records have been remove from the court room to facilitate the Cataula County Court House renovation and are at great risk to be destroyed by fire such as the studio set of The Alamo in Austin. Governor Rick Perry claims "The Alamo" movie set burned to the ground by a single lighting strike to hide his Gadhafi style leadership by bizarre media adds that includes the sickening play after play of Katy Perry so called country music
While visiting the school where LBJ once taught, trying to located my oil rights due me and my family, one cannot avoid a pandemic disease that is now dormant; however, cases of this Lunar disease are reported everywhere in Texas and some cases have been noted in Old Mexico South of the Nueces River.
I recommend the Center for Disease Control tape this school off as a crime scene and send in a team of University Forensic Anthropologist from the University of Texas to investigate every case where the court has legally and legitimately declared an individual suffering from the Lunar Virus or disease noted by the term 'Lunacy.'
The Lunacy Pandemic is a unique type of disease that we have never seen the likes of because it only infects the weak, the disabled, elderly and especially woman that are rightful heirs to the biggest oil find in that last 60 years in the State of Texas! Page after page the Honorable Presiding Judge was force to give those suffering from the Lunar Disease oil rights to Big Oil.
Recommendation: Give the Forensic Anthropologist at the University of Texas something to do this semester. Offer a course to locate and eradicate the Lunar disease from the boundaries of Texas that has an affect on anyone who opposes Rick Perry Governor of Texas. The Lunar disease is the first know disease that attack the poor, sick, elderly, and women for profit. Perhaps the Lunar disease is the first virus to become Self-Aware!
A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν pan "all" + δῆμος demos "people") is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic
Texas GOP state Rep. Joe Driver has learned the hard way that public corruption is like a one-way street: once you’ve gone too far, there’s no turning around.
Driver, an 18-year veteran of the Texas House, pled guilty on Election Night to charges that he illegally pocketed nearly $50,000 in taxpayer funds over his two decades in office:
State Rep. Joe Driver, who candidly acknowledged pocketing taxpayer reimbursements for travel paid by his campaign, will enter a guilty plea on abuse-of-office charges, a third-degree felony, a top prosecutor said Tuesday night.
“He is going to plea to the third degree felony,” said Assistant Travis County District Attorney Gregg Cox, head of the Travis County Public Integrity Unit. “It is a plea of guilt.”
The genesis of this scandal was an excellent piece of reporting by the Associated Press over a year ago, in which reporters noticed that Driver had been billing both his campaign and the State of Texas for “luxury hotels, airline tickets, meals, fees and incidentals” related to travel – and then pocketing the extra cash.
That AP’s article included a brief interview with Driver, who not only admitted double-dipping, but also offered up this classic explanation of his actions:
"Now you're scaring the heck out of me," Driver told the AP, adding: "It pretty well screws my week." (…)
Driver insists he thought the double-billing was perfectly appropriate - until talking about it with the AP.
"Well, it doesn't sound like it is now. If you bring it up that way," he said.
“If you bring it up that way,” illegally taking $50,000 sounds almost wrong, doesn’t it?
Driver has announced his retirement from office next year, but that’s not good enough for the people of Texas. He pocketed at least $50,000 of their tax dollars, and we’ll never know if there was more because reimbursement records prior to 2005 have been destroyed.
Now Driver wants to serve the rest of his term with a felony conviction for public corruption. He would spend another 15 months as a lawmaker who, for instance, remains eligible for official travel reimbursements at taxpayer expense.
"We The People" United States citizens who reside in the state of Texas, make a plea to the Honorable Barack Obama President to declare a State of Emergency and remove Texas Governor Rick Perry from office based on Insanity and/or Mental Incompetency.
Sign We The People Petition: http://wh.gov/4C1
The Governor is so far removed by distance, suffers from an Elite Class Delusional Cyber- Universe, and grandiose dreams of becoming the next President of the United States of America; he has attacked his own people with federal funding and Military Aircraft while ignoring a State of emergency concerning brutal killings and torture in the bordering Districts of Texas.
The Texas Governor is internationally known as the "Backbone of Anti-American Human Rights Resentment” created by his dangerous rhetoric and total disregard of executive orders of both President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama, and the International Community.
President Bush Instructed the Governor of Texas State Courts to give 51 Mexican Nationals facing the Death Penalty new hearings that never happened! Governor Rick Perry formed the backbone of Anti-American Resentment within months of becoming Governor of Texas replacing George Bush after his election to the President of The United States in the year 2000.
Blame is now unduly placed on Internet postings by brave concerned citizens of Mexico and Texas residents of bordering districts of the Republic of Mexico, begging for aid and assistance by blog postings which have become the only means of contemporary communications to report the brutal atrocities of innocent people of both nations. The FBI office is swamped with telephone calls and the Internet has become the only way to protect ourselves. Now is a good time to test FEMA! Is the 911 Act "Keeping Us Safer?"
He has forced legislation to defend his own right “to keep and bear arms” with bizarre rodeo media ads, that have in fact forced the people of Texas to disarm themselves for fear of a Perry Police State unwarranted wiretapping [Hacking] that have been known to trigger a search and sizer of weapons legally registered by Texas residents to protect their families, themselves, and property [Reported to Congressman Henry Cuellar District 28th].
We request the State of Texas to arm its own citizens at the states expense and provide training for self-defense just as the President of Mexico has instructed his defense department. Time line of Governor Rick Perry Destructive Behavior [which is not all inclusive or does this list include the illegal use of Private Security Firms "Hackers" in years prior to April 2009]
Mexicans on Death Row to Get Hearings: Bush Tells Texas Courts to Review Cases of 51 Denied Consular Aid By Charles Lane Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, March 8, 2005 "The Bush administration has announced that it will attempt to defuse a long- simmering international dispute over the death penalty by instructing Texas state courts to give 51 Mexicans facing the death penalty new hearings on their claims that they were denied meetings with diplomats from their nation, in violation of international law." Citation http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/foreign-nationals-news-and-developments-previous-years-mark-warren-human-rights-watch
Texas 2002 Governor Richard James Perry
Death Penalty Information Center Foreign Nationals News and Developments - Previous Years (by Mark Warren of Human Rights Watch) Mexico Mobilizes to Oppose Texas Execution (July, 2002) "The ministry's chief legal adviser, Juan Manuel Gomez, said that all ordinary legal means to halt the execution of Suarez, now 33, were exhausted at the end of June. That leaves the possibility of persuading Texas Gov. Rick Perry to grant clemency, something Gomez admitted was unlikely. But he said Mexico would try to find ways to reopen the case under the argument that Texas authorities violated international law by failing to inform Suarez of his right to get help from the Mexican consulate when he was detained. Suarez is set to die Aug. 14. This argument, the official said, was the basis of a recent ruling in Oklahoma in favor of Gerardo Valdez, another Mexican sentenced to death. It would also form the backbone of a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights." Citation http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/foreign-nationals-news-and-developments-previous-years-mark-warren-human-rights-watch
Texas 2004 Governor Richard James Perry
US told to review 51 death row cases Associated Press April 01, 2004 "The State Department has not responded to the ruling, and officials in Oklahoma and Texas, where three of the Mexican inmates are on death row, said no immediate action was being taken in those cases." "It was the second time that the highest United Nations court has ruled that the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which protects foreigners accused of serious crimes. In 2001, Arizona ignored a court order to stay the execution of a German citizen." "Although the court dealt specifically with the cases of 52 Mexicans, it cautioned the principle should apply to all foreigners imprisoned for serious crimes. There are 121 foreign citizens on death row in the United States, 55 of whom are Mexican, according to the Death Penalty Information Center."
Texas 2005 Governor Richard James Perry
Mexicans on Death Row to Get Hearings: Bush Tells Texas Courts to Review Cases of 51 Denied Consular Aid By Charles Lane Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Texas 2009 Governor Richard James Perry
International Death Penalty Debate February 11, 2009 7:43 PM By Bootie Cosgrove-Mather "About 6,000 Americans are arrested or detained each year in other countries and need consular help to navigate and understand an unfamiliar, and perhaps hostile, legal system," justices were told by a coalition of former diplomatic leaders and nonpartisan groups. They said Americans would suffer if the United States does not set a good example." Citation: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/10/supremecourt/main660414.shtml
Texas 2011 Governor Richard James Perry
The U.N.'s top human rights official says the U.S. breached international law when it executed a Mexican citizen. GENEVA (AP)July 8, 2011 Associated Press "U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday the Texas execution of Humberto Leal "raises particular legal concerns," including whether he had access to consular services and a fair trial." "Pillay also cited a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling saying the U.S. must review and reconsider the cases of 51 Mexican nationals sentenced to death, including Leal's — But, she said, that never happened." Citation: http://news.yahoo.com/un-official-us-execution-leal-broke-intl-law-160400028.html
Even if you are not among the crush of avant-garde shrewdly cramming Japanese in order to be on a first named basis with the radioactivity arriving from the Land of the Rising Sun, you may, nevertheless, find yourself pondering the meltdown that is launching those particles in our direction.
Then, once you have learned that the corporation whose irresponsible behavior is most responsible for that situation, Tokyo Electric (TEPCO), has been given a sweetheart deal to join the syndicate that is expanding the nuclear complex known as the South Texas Project (STP), despite its long and public record of cutting corners on plant safety, surely you will recognize the need to understand what the push towards more nuclear power has meant for the Americans who call San Antonio home.
The macro-economic environment that our public utility (CPS) entered in 2009 was (and is) characterized by the dynamics of industry trying to outperform mature economies. In the United States, even in the best of times, we no longer expect growth to average much above three percent a year. In Japan, even such modest numbers are a fantasy. For a nation whose economy has produced a stagnation dubbed "the lost decades", any real growth at all would be heartening. While Japan and the USA may remain blue-chips, they are no longer growth stocks. The low-hanging fruit has all been picked. To satisfy the demands for high returns, these societies have supplemented normal business acumen with new areas of heightened profit: technological revolution and overhaul, investment in overseas "growth" markets (typically "emerging" or "third world" nations), financial chicanery, and privatization. In regards to overseas investment, Japan has, at the highest levels of business and government, formed a consortium of six of its most powerful corporations. What they are exporting to emerging and Third World markets is nuclear development. With a moribund and withered domestic nuclear industry emasculated by Three Mile Island coupled with the largest demand for energy on the planet offering almost unlimited profit potential, the United States fits neatly into the description of an emerging or Third World market. NRG Energy, of New Jersey, is the American face on this invasion. Their job, in a financial environment reluctant to take a flyer on risky nuclear deals in an uncertain market, is to "privatize" by leveraging their existing relationship with a public utility to provide the heavy lifting necessary to both pay for the project and the political cover to get the Federal loan guarantees without which the entire idea is a dead letter. These are the interlocutors with which the representatives of the people of San Antonio have decided to joust.
Steve Winn heads the syndicate created by NRG energy to get this deal done. It's called "Nuclear Innovation North America" (NINA). Mr. Winn is a top man in his field, formerly a senior vice-president at Lehmnann Brothers, whose specialty was financing energy deals. This top pro earns his money by getting the best deal for the stockholders of NRG.
San Antonio is, when ranked by population, among America's top ten cities. As cities go, it is an above average place to live. Some decades ago, inspired by the abundance of natural gas hereabout, the city leaders decided our public utility, CPS, would rely, almost entirely, on gas. Unfortunately, when that deal went sour because our supplier of choice would not deliver at the promised price, it was determined that we would never again put all our eggs in one basket.
This resolved into our (CPS') involvement in the original development of the STP project that produced the reactors known as STP 1 and STP 2. These were eventually completed way behind schedule and fantastically over cost. If we flash forward to current time, with those reactors approaching the halfway point in their life expectancy, we find once again our city leaders pondering which direction to go to meet the expanding energy needs generated here by our steady growth in population.
Before the public was consulted, and hearings held, a consensus was formed among the city's aristocracy. These included our public utility, our mayor and city council, the media including the editor and reporters of our only real daily paper, the usual Chamber of Commerce types, and those that see nuclear energy as clean and not contributing to global warming. Most of all, electricity generated by nuclear reactors was touted as the cheapest alternative.
Once this decision was made, the hard sell was on. Predictions of population growth were used to heighten the urgency of acting: buy now. Unless we did this deal quickly, the lights would go off, and our jobs would become tumbleweed. The second part of the hard sell was the "come-on" price. A neat number, a cool ten billion, plus the obligatory three billion additional for financing, was floated. Despite its having been around this track before, the pro-nuclear group assured the public that these numbers were written in stone.
Suffice to say, that in the whole wide world, the only people who believed that the first "price" would actually be the real price, and that a nuclear project would be completed on time and on budget, were the "Happy Talk Chorus" (HTC) cheerleading this deal in San Antonio.
Perhaps, because no firewalls were ever erected between the public utility and the private developer in the initial deal, and in a general atmosphere where "public" is increasingly a dirty word; the initial plan developed by CPS was not received with incredulity: San Antonio was going into the energy business. We were going to buy
a full fifty percent interest, even though this would be way more electricity than even the most alarmist cheerleaders had claimed we would need. When questioned about a plan that had San Antonio buying more energy than she needed, the boosters blithely assured the public that excess capacity could easily be disposed of on the energy market. Little was said about the wisdom of a public utility going into the energy business; and less about the fact that it seemed that, once again, most of our eggs were going into a single basket. Perhaps discussion of these points was limited because another overriding problem made them moot. San Antonio simply did not have 6.5 billion dollars to buy a half share of the then 13 billion dollar project.
As the months passed, and the anti-nuclear crowd argued for alternative energy, those that had decided, in advance, for expanding the South Texas Project, began to retreat from the full level of partnership first proposed. The share we could afford to buy got progressively smaller. First it went to 40%, then 20%, and finally 10%. At all times, based on a continuing faith in the "come on" price of 13 billion, each ten percent was valued at 1.3 billion.
At the same time, rumors began to appear, out of town, that the real cost of building nuclear reactors in Texas was known to Mr. Winn and his bosses at NRG. Nonetheless,
The Happy Talk Chorus in San Antonio pushed ahead with the final plan of buying in at the fantasy price of 1.3 billion per ten percent.
The assets San Antonio controlled included the land and water rights at the proposed site. No water, no nuclear. NRG, and its instrument, NINA, couldn't build an outhouse unless they got those rights from San Antonio. In addition, as if holding all the aces was not enough, CPS agreed to supplement its tender with cash. This cash was steadily handed over to NINA, in advance, even though the percentage of ownership that CPS would assume was still up in the air.
The problem for NRG, and Mr. Winn at NINA, was how to get those water rights (and as much cash as possible) out of San Antonio after the truth about the come-on price was made public. The foil they chose was San Antonio's mayor, Julian Castro. With the city council on the verge of authorizing the final one hundred million in cash, an agent of NRG contacted the mayor's office and officially informed him the original cost estimate was just a fantasy number. San Antonio may be off, off, off Broadway, but you can't beat the drama caused by this little bird singing in the midnight hour, or the performances of the members of the HTC as they (to a man), suddenly and self-righteously transformed themselves overnight from confident cheerleaders to indignant victims.
Predictably, rather than admit that the entire aristocracy that comprised the HTC had made an awful error, the CEO of CPS and a board member were forced out. As scape-goating goes, the script of polite society was followed meticulously, and both individuals were praised for their service as they were thrown under the bus. With this tawdry bit of business accomplished, the Happy Talk Chorus, having escaped its own responsibility, now proclaimed a "new era" of truth and transparency at CPS, and renewed the push for nuclear expansion.
The high-point of the drama came in a hysterical law-suit filed by CPS against NRG and NINA. In the suit, CPS charged that San Antonio had been deliberately defrauded
because NRG had known all along that the project would cost much more than the come-on price, demanded thirty-two billion in damages, the right to withdraw from the project, and their four hundred million in cash returned. They did not get one red cent in damages,
were not allowed to withdraw from the project, did not get their cash refunded, and their claim that the water rights were worth two billion was reduced to one billion. Despite this total defeat, the "media" and "journalists" here, all charter members of the original consensus and active members of the HTC, broadcast the result to the people of San Antonio as a victory.
The chief beneficiary of this new consensus was our designated knight on a white horse, the mayor, Julian Castro. Rather than being seen as a tool used by NRG to chivy San Antonio out of full partnership (after all, the last thing they wanted to do was actually sell at the come-on price), he was seen as a hero for pulling CPS back from the brink of disaster. Although he actually did no negotiating, he was also credited with the final deal into which San Antonio was forced to enter.
Until the recent disaster in Japan and the resulting failure of safeguards at the six reactors run by TEPCO at Fukishima, the deal credited to Mr. Castro, but more properly the result of the skill of Mr. Winn and his lawyers, was hailed in San Antonio as "a great deal" and Mr. Castro as "a hero". NINA did agree to kick-back almost one hundred million to San Antonio on the condition that blue-state San Antonio agrees to join the other elements of the nuclear coalition in lobbying the Obama administration for loan guarantees. That would reduce our cash outlay to three hundred million and together with the reduced one billion dollar value assigned to our land and water rights, would produce a final cost to San Antonio of 1.3 billion. However, if the deal doesn't fly, San Antonio will have to kiss its cash good-bye.
Yet, we did not get the 10% share that was the rate before our "victory" in court. We only got 7.6%, which reflects the more honest price for the reactors, but is a third higher
than the come-on rate. The excited "buy now" estimates of future energy needs have been scaled back to make the smaller purchase look more significant. We are now told that where once we needed to buy 40%, 7.6% is adequate.
CPS has a new chairman for the new era of transparency. He has no experience in running a public utility, or in representing any public interest, and is actually a highly successful corporate flak. Up until Fukishima, he had actually re-started negotiations
with NINA to buy an even larger share, despite the fact that he was hired at a time CPS was charging NINA of defrauding San Antonio.
Subsequent to finalizing the 7.6% sale to CPS, NINA cut TEPCO a sweetheart deal.
They were allowed to buy a 10% share in the project for only 180 million dollars. That TEPCO got a larger share for one-tenth the price that CPS was snookered into paying has barely been mentioned in San Antonio. What once would have been a cause for clearing
leather now doesn't rate a yawn in Texas.
Since San Antonio paid in full and in advance for its share, no other investor has paid anywhere near the rate CPS termed "a great deal". Aside from the slice slipped to TEPCO, NINA has not been able to interest anyone else in injecting cash into the syndicate, after they burnt through San Antonio's cash, they declined to spend their own money, and work at the site was drastically reduced.
For the fourth quarter of 2010, NRG declared a loss. For the entire year, this leading energy conglomerate declared a profit of only 485 million dollars. In other words, if it were not for the four hundred million advanced by the public utility CPS, the private energy giant NRG would barely have shown any profit at all for 2010.
The events at Fukishima today may very well lead to San Antonio tomorrow. Of the six members of the powerful consortium designed to revive the Japanese economy by exporting nuclear construction to Third World markets such as the United States, two;
Toshiba and TEPCO are already involved in Texas. TEPCO, Asia's largest utility, has been welcomed with a sweetheart deal that makes a mockery of the people of San Antonio, despite its long and well-documented record of cutting corners on safety. The clouds of radioactivity spreading from its most recent failure at Fukishima have shined a new light on the Texas project.
CPS has backed off buying a larger share, pending future developments.
In fact, the entire project in Texas is now in doubt. This is not because the people of San Antonio, or Texas, are up in arms. It's because of Fukishima.
In an April 13th, 2011 article, Reuters reported that prospects for completing the project are bleak. It quoted the CEO of NRG Energy, David Crain, as saying "the project's odds of success have dropped substantially". He went on to say that even if they get loan guarantees, it will be "an uphill battle". Translation: unless they can find more "investors" like the HTC in San Antonio, they can't build the reactors. They are certainly not going to use their own money. These remarks are consistent with reports since the March 11th disaster in Japan. None of these reports even mention San Antonio, recognizing that the people here, thanks to the Happy Talk Chorus, have been played,
and are not players worth noting.
For San Antonio and its hardworking ratepayers, most of whom slog through on very modest incomes, this is a disaster. The unthinkable may very well happen. Our entire
four hundred million may go straight down the toilet. CPS had to borrow that money.
Electric rates in San Antonio, deal or no deal, have been projected to rise up to forty percent in the next ten years.
Mr. Crain's remarks of the 13th were not reported in San Antonio.
San Antonio Citizen
Sensible comments to swantsays@gmail.com
Throughout Tom Delay's trial, it was assumed that prosecutors would bring up Delay's past as a way to show a pattern of unethical and illegal behavior, but visiting Judge Pat Priest told prosecutors this week that he only wanted to hear prior bad acts that could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Queue the discussion about Delay's trip to Britain. The Houston Chronicle reported this morning:
"DeGuerin said he expects one of those to be a trip to England and Scotland in 2000 that DeLay took with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Allegations have been made that Abramoff paid for DeLay's airfare on the trip in violation of U.S. House rules, but DeGuerin said Amy Ridenouer of the National Center for Public policy will testify that her organization paid for the trip."
Delay's current attorney Dick DeGuerin is telling reporters, and conceivably the judge, that Amy Ridenour's "National Center for Public Policy Research" paid for Delay's trip. This statement contradicts what Delay's attorney, Bobby R. Burchfield, told reporters back in 2005. Ridenour merely had her organization reimburse Jack Abramoff for paying for Delay's travel. Abramoff put Delay's charges on his credit card... From the Washington Post:
Burchfield did not dispute that Abramoff used his credit card to pay for DeLay's plane fare, but said in a statement that "the majority leader has always believed and continues to believe that all appropriate expenses for the U.K. trip were paid by the National Center for Public Policy Research." He said that "to the extent that Mr. Abramoff put the charges on his personal credit card, Mr. DeLay has no knowledge of this. But that would be consistent with Mr. Abramoff obtaining full reimbursement from the National Center."
The facts are clear: Tom Delay had his travel to Britian paid for by Jack Abramoff. Abramoff was later reimbursed by Amy Ridenour's National Center for Public Policy Research. In fact, The Washington Post analyzed receipts which proved this:
The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.
DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.
Perhaps after Deguerin puts Ridenour on the stand to have her claim she paid for Delay's tickets he can also explain the difference between paying for them, and reimbursing Abramoff for them. It would be great if he can also explain the difference between Delay funneling this Abramoff reimbursement through a political operative and non-profit, and the illegal corporate money Delay funneled into Texas.
The Texas Democratic Party won a major fight last Friday by forcing Leo Vasquez and the Harris County Voter Registration office to admit to using voter suppression tactics. Additionally, Rep. Scott Hochberg played a key role in unearthing the details about how the office was rejecting tens of thousands of voter registration ballots. (Read more about those details below the fold...)
TDP Chair Boyd Richie released the following statement about the settlement:
“From my first days as Chairman, the Texas Democratic Party has worked vigilantly in both the legal and legislative process to protect Texans’ right to participate fully in our democracy. The Texas Democratic Party will monitor the current Harris County Voter Registrar’s practices with that same vigilance to make sure the terms of this agreement are carried out properly.
“It’s a shame that the Texas Democratic Party has been forced to go to court time and again to do what our state and local officials should be doing – protect the right to vote. As a great Texas Democrat, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in 1965: ‘It is wrong--deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.’”
The lawsuit settled a number of lies that Vazquez, Paul Bettencourt, and other Harris County Republicans had been pushing for months. As the Lone Star Project explains:
Earlier this year, in a hostile and dishonest op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Leo Vasquez, responded to Lone Star Project reports detailing corruption within his office by calling Texas Democratic Party legal action a ”nuisance lawsuit” with “no merit” and saying that the “partisan attacks” were led by the Lone Star Project. (Source: Houston Chronicle, 6/16/2009) However, Vasquez was forced to acknowledge in the settlement that the TDP lawsuit was based on facts that showed the Tax Assessor's office had engaged in improper behavior regarding the handling of voter registration applications and the handling of provisional ballots.
Vasquez would not have agreed to the settlement if he did not believe that there was a strong chance that he would lose the lawsuit and more corruption would be uncovered.
Here's a look at the lies Leo told -- and the truth he finally admitted in the lawsuit settlement:
Leo's Lie
The Facts
“It is also my highest priority and the goal of the employees of the tax office to register every eligible voter in Harris County.”
24.4% of those applying to register to vote in Harris County were denied registration in time to vote in the 2008 elections. (Source: TX Secretary of State and Harris County Voter Registrar)
“These attacks are nothing more than partisan witch hunts”
As part of a court settlement, Vasquez acknowledged widespread voter registration problems detailed by the Lone Star Project. Vasquez was forced to accept more than a dozen changes insisted upon by Democrats to protect the rights of Harris County voters. (Source: Houston Chronicle, 10/23/2009)
Commenting upon Ed Johnson, Vasquez said, “There is nothing illegal about this activity, and it has nothing to do with his [Johnson’s] official duties with the tax office.”
While refusing to fire Johnson outright, Vasquez has acknowledged the Johnson is unfit to serve as Associate Voter Registrar and has reassigned him within the Tax Office. (Source: Houston Chronicle, 8/1/2009)
Responding to the Lone Star Project’s call to fire Ed Johnson for working as a paid Republican campaign consultant while also on the County payroll, Vasquez said, “This assertion is preposterous …”
Vasquez acknowledged the obvious conflict of interest and, as part of the legal settlement, was forced to initiate a policy prohibiting outside work as a partisan political consultant. (Source: Vasquez Settlement, 10/23/2009)
I think everyone should congratulate the Texas Democratic Party for taking the lead on work that should have been done by Harris County elected officials -- but was not, for obviously corrupt reasons.
More on the history of this story below the fold...
(This is happening Wednesday morning. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Public Citizen is holding one of a series of national events in front of the Capitol in Austin on Wednesday about the upcoming Citizens United v. FEC case in the Supreme Court.
This will take place Sep 9th starting at 10:30 am on the South steps of the Texas Capitol (11th and Congress), to coincide with the Supreme Court hearing the Citizens United case, in which they have signaled they want to overturn a century-old principle that bans corporations from directly participating in campaigns.
Imagine it-- if corporations could openly support or oppose political candidates and give money to their elections!
We will need people to come who support clean elections and are tired of corporate influence in our politics. We will be holding two simultaneous rallies. One will be a Citizens Rally with homemade signs (feel free to bring your own) and another with people dressed in suits (led by your truly) representing the corporations, carrying stock signs saying "Corporations are People Too", "Why shouldn't I be able to buy a President?",
If interested or for more info, go to www.DontGetRolled.org or please email Andy Wilson awilson-at-citizen.org
Also read our full press statement from Public Citizen's New President, Rob Weissman here and after the jump
