On Friday, July 15, 2005 8:52 PM [PDT], Autoplectic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Chevron spokesman Donald Campbell said the company has not stoked > anti-China sentiment, instead staying with dry and substantive > arguments that Cnooc's bid has been unfairly financed by no-interest > and low-interest loans from government-controlled banks. > > But in Washington, Cnooc representatives complain, the rhetoric has > been far from measured. Peter J. Robertson, Chevron's vice chairman, > has called the bidding war for Unocal more a struggle of "geopolitics" > than a commercial fight. > > "We're not competing with a company," he said. "We're competing with a > government." > Are they really? Spoken as a corporate entity that couldn't exist without government regulation, policy and subterfuge like this: Bush Adviser Helped Law Firm Land Job Lobbying for CNOOC By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 12, 2005; D01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101671.html President Bush's top independent intelligence adviser met last winter with investment bankers in China to help secure his law firm's role in lobbying for a state-run Chinese energy firm and its bid for the U.S. oil company Unocal Corp., according to his law firm, Akin Gump. The involvement of James C. Langdon Jr., chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and a major Bush fundraiser, underscores the tangled Washington connections beneath CNOOC Ltd.'s bid. Both CNOOC and its rival for Unocal, Chevron Corp., have enlisted lobbyists and public relations professionals with deep ties to the Bush White House and Republican leaders in Congress. Wayne L. Berman,a principal lobbyist for Chevron, is a Bush "Ranger," having raised at least $200,000 for the president's campaign. His wife, Lea, is the White House social secretary. Langdon's involvement, given his dual role as Bush intelligence adviser and energy lawyer at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, may prove politically problematic, some security experts said. Members of the intelligence board, known as PFIAB, are granted the highest security clearance and develop top-secret advisories and reports for the president, most of which are not even available to members of Congress. How many times can you say: Cheney's secret Energy Task Force... quickly, without laughing. These folks are getting more flagrant as they get progressively more desperate. Leigh http://www.leighm.net
