Who are the "15 new oil & gas explorers" who received $193 million from Alaska in July 2009?

By GottaLaff


There's a story brewing about some shady dealings with Big Oil and SarahPac over at Palingates.

Sarah's old Twitter account "AKGovSarahPalin" has been deleted, but after she resigned, Palingates made a complete PDF-copy of it.

AK is the place to invest. 15 new oil & gas explorers rcvd $193M cash from State for their tax credits in FY09. http://tinyurl.com/l2y68b
10:50 AM Jul 12th from web

That was a sample tweet.

[S]he enjoyed the generosity of a number on Texan business people on June 13, 2009. SarahPac received some large donations on that date [...]

All the above SarahPac donors have connections with the gas and oil industry. [...]

No one has been able to find a list of the 15 new oil and gas explorers who were the recipients of these $193 million dollars. [...]

There may be no connection whatsoever to those companies or people in Giddings, but there are so many coincidences... the timing of Sarah Palin's visit to Giddings, Texas, all the donations to SarahPac on June 13 and this lovely tax break for 15 new investors...

Sarah Palin doesn't believe in coincidences...

That was a sample of what Palingates has documented. Please go read the rest here.

Gramm-pa McCain Bundler Accused of War Profiteering

By GottaLaff

We're witnessing an avalanche. They can try to dig out of all of these messes (the last two days of posts alone are overwhelming), but it's a losing proposition. The latest is all about Harry Sargeant, the Florida fundraiser who has been bundling checks for Republican Sen. John McCain:

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) released a letter today outlining his findings after reviewing contracts Sargent's oil company brokered with the U.S. Department of Defense.

They aren't pretty.

"I have been conducting oversight of procurement problems in Iraq since the war began over five years ago. The IOTC contracts stand out for the extent of the company's apparent profiteering," Waxman wrote. "Of the $210 million in profits received by the company, at least one third -- $70 million -- appears to have benefited a single individual: Mr. Sargeant."

At issue were the prices Sargeant's company, the International Oil Trading Company, charged for jet fuel. Waxman said the company offered the highest prices of six companies to bid for the military contract, but won because it was the only one with the blessing of the Jordanian royal family to deliver fuel over Jordanian land.

Waxman says that if the oil contracts Sargeant's company had been awarded to the lowest bidders, the taxpayers could have saved over $180 million.

Guilt by association, right Gramm-pa?

Cheney's link to corrupt senator Stevens exposed

By GottaLaff

Oh dear. Oh my and oh dear:

Vice President Dick Cheney has been linked to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who the Justice Department has accused of seven counts of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars, Newsweek reported.

In a conversation secretly recorded by the FBI on June 25, 2006, Stevens "discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits."

Stevens told Allen: "I'm gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here and say, 'Look … you gotta get this done'."

Only two days later, Cheney took the unusual step of writing a letter to the Alaska legislature which pushed the members to "promptly enact" a bill that would approve the pipeline.

Aw, come on, let's not be hasty. We all know the Nation of Dick is innocent. He'd never do anything underhanded. He's a fine, upstanding gentleman who always insists on complete transparency. Give him a break. There's no witness, no proof. Wild accusations, as usual. Fuggetaboutit.

Stevens revealed that he asked the vice president to send such a letter.

Never mind.

Speaking of oil, State Department involved in oil deal

By GottaLaff

Big news!

Committee Questions State Dept. Role in Iraq Oil Deal

Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President [sic] Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that ran counter to American policy and undercut Iraq’s central government, a Congressional committee has concluded. The conclusions were based on e-mail messages and other documents that the committee released Wednesday... State Department officials did nothing to discourage the deal and in some cases appeared to welcome it, the documents show. The company, Hunt Oil of Dallas, signed the deal with Kurdistan’s semi-autonomous government last September.

Come on, what's so newsy about that?

Schumer wants to probe Iraq oil deal

By GottaLaff

Chuck Schumer isn't about to go along with this deal:

Sen. Charles Schumer called Monday for an independent probe into the Iraqi government’s decision to open the country’s oil fields to foreign oil companies.
“This is a head fake by the Iraqi government,” Schumer said just hours after the Iraqis announced their plan. “The Iraqis have shown they will pursue these contracts at all costs, their nation’s political stability be damned.”

Schumer criticized the Iraqi government for signing the deal before an oil revenue sharing law is in place, saying the decision could potentially inflame sectarian tensions within Iraq.

The New York Democrat said he plans to offer an amendment to an upcoming defense authorization bill requiring the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on the law’s potential consequences.

Expect other lawmakers to follow Schumer’s lead in blasting the deal, as the announcement is a potential two-for-one special for Democrats, eager to argue that the Bush administration is trying to control Iraqi oil resources and trying to steer the revenues to large oil companies. [...]

“This…contract will only make a bad situation worse,” [Schumer] said. “Signing these deals without a revenue-sharing law is like putting the cart before the horse. The Iraqi government should know better, and so should the Bush administration that has apparently had an ‘advise-and-consent’ role on these deals.”

Glad to see someone was alert on this one. Now about that follow-through...