US Government in Bed with Big Oil, literally! | Arthritis Information

Well, for those that suspected the government is in bed with big oil, your fears have been confirmed. The government agency responsible for regulating big oil has been discovered to be doing cocaine and other drugs at the sex orgies they've been having wit executives of the big oil companies, as well as receiving massive illegal gifts and kick-backs directly resulting in less government revenue from oil and therefore higher taxes.

Read the story anywhere by googling it yourself, or read it here:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/09/10/government_oil_officials_probed_about_illicit_sex/Maybe Lev is right. You are creepily kind of pre occupied with another countrys politics

I think she's just very old with sore joints.

Bump.

This is why gas costs what it does and the price of everything else is rising.Go-Go - I just finished reading a bunch of articles about this - no wonder Cheney had a "Secret" energy task force - they didn't want these drunk, cocaine using, sex fiends outted as being the official US governmental officials in charge of Americas natural resources. I thank you for bringing to the attention of Americans, the ones with their heads up their, excuse me in the sand. Bush and the Republicans are pathetic and should be ashamed of themselves for ruining this country.

Two years ago, before a House committee, Earl Devaney, the Department of Interior's Inspector General said: " . . . anything goes at the Department of the Interior.” But then, should we be surprised when oilmen Bush/Cheney appoint former lobbyists to regulate an industry they use to represent?

A report, the result of an investigation prompted by whistleblowers (insiders), "found that officials at the Minerals Management Service — the division responsible for granting offshore oil leases and collecting royalties — accepted gifts, steered contracts to favored clients and engaged in drugs and sex with oil company employees as part of what he described as a broader “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity.”

"At the center of the scandal is the royalty-in-kind program, under which the service takes delivery of oil and gas in lieu of cash payments from energy companies, then sells it to refiners. The program is vulnerable to manipulation at either end of the transaction, by overvaluing the oil and gas when it is received or undervaluing it when it is sold."

"The program obviously needs a complete overhaul. It has already been the subject of multiple investigations — by Mr. Devaney; Dirk Kempthorne, the interior secretary; the Justice Department; and Congress — for mismanagement and conflicts of interest. In an earlier report in 2007, Mr. Devaney found that the agency had failed — through negligence and possible ethical lapses — to collect billions of dollars in royalties from oil companies for leases in the Gulf of Mexico. "

And Bush wants to lift the ban on offshore drilling?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/opinion/12fri1.html?hp

P.S. Folks should be a little nicer to our Canandian neighbor Gimpy, Canada is the leading oil exporter to the US.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

JSNmore,

I noticed that you said something about our President and Vice President as if they are a part of this crime but I noticed that you must have forgot to post either the part that shows that our leaders were involved in the crime as you insinuate or else you forgot to post the link to show how our leaders are involved rather than being involved in the investigation as they were. And JOI, know why we are getting oil from Canada? Because while the democrats were arguing against drilling, the Canadiens were drilling, drilling and more drilling, even in the pristine arctic. And really, I don't think Gimpy has much to do with the import of Canadien oil.

LEV

Oh, and Gimpy,

This topic heading is very mis-leading. I don't know what your problem but suspect that you are jealous of this great United States. Our government is not in the pocket of big oil. Some criminals that worked for our government may have been in the pocket of big oil but that does not constitute government and guess what is going to happen to those criminals Gimpy? There is not going to be a cover up and many people will go to prison. They are not government workers, they are government prisoners thanks to our wonderful justice system and investigators under the command of George W. Bush, President, United States of America. Oh, JSNM, if you don't have proof of criminal activity against our leaders, please, you do it constantly, but please quit insinuating, that's just nasty and dishonest.

LEV

Yep Go-Go, you Canucks are the worst neighbors the USA can have, maybe China would be a better neighbor to us.

Today's headlines of two MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR banking firms filing for bankruptcy or being taken over, the overnight markets in steep decline, unemployment rising, inflation skyrocketing, having to start over in Afghanistan (gee, didn't we do Iraq twice too?) - all failed Republican and President Bush (I and II) Reaganomic policies of turning everything over to the public sector. And we wonder why these oilies were caught in sex, drug, drunken transactions?

Deregulation of savings and LOANS, there was a brilliant idea Ronnie. Deregulation of public utilities would bring our energy bills down, as we were promised - another failed Reagan/Republican/Bush policy. Yep, oh Canada, what a terrible nation you live in Go-Go. What's the American Dollar to the Loonie these days? The USA is ruined, thanks greedy boys.

[QUOTE=justsaynoemore]Yep Go-Go, you Canucks are the worst neighbors the USA can have, maybe China would be a better neighbor to us.

[/QUOTE]

So when are you moving out ?

JSNM, I stand chastised.

Lev, thanks for clarifying that the Presidesnt and Vice President did not persoanlly attend the orgies. I don't know how it works in the US, but in most other countries government agencies are the responsibility of the government. Yes, I know it's crazy and backwards, but some of these crazy, undeveloped countries actually think that the heads of the government should maybe know what's going on in some of the more important offices. Maybe the one regulating energy sources and accounting for only very large chunks of government revenue might be one they would keep tabs on. I don't know how they got so backwards. Like, in Canada we might hold the PM accountable for something like this even if he hadn't personally done it, because he and his party would be responsible for the policies and the appointing of the people who's job it would be to regulate it. I know we're so backwards. Another crazy thing we do is think of the "government as a bunch of people----actually, all the elected people and their main appointies, not just the PM and the "vice PM are the government. It's so backwards! Anyway, I wrote the PM and told him maybe he should contact LevLarry 'cause Lev can explain how it works, and then the PM won't have to be accountable for....well...anything! Thanks, lev!Gimpy-a-gogo2008-09-15 08:37:18JSNM....just googled. YIKES. BIG YIKES. And it's pulling everyone else in the world's economies down with it. Of course, some people think the rest of the world should just shut up while they vote for people that practically arrange for this kind of stuff to happen. No vision.

These are precarious times.Gimpy,

So what you are saying is that the President and Vice President is responsible for the crime, right? Are they also responsible for catching the criminal or do you want it two different ways? I know you only want it one way, the bad way. Don't involve me with your politics. I am not a part of your country nor am I a citizen of Canada and have no desire to be a part of your country, therefore I have no reason to be involved in your politics. As much as I could very much help your PM and your country, I have better things to do. I do however want an answer, are my President and Vice President at least also responsible for catching the criminals? You are a very strange duck, Gimpy. You have so much trouble in your own country and yet you spend all of your time and energy trying to disgrace my country. I still believe that the problem you have is jealousy of my great country. If it weren't jealousy you wouldn't try so hard to make my great country look bad. Look how stupid you are. You want to blame the President and Vice President for the crime but give them no credit for catching and prosecuting the crime. Don't you think that that makes you look stupid? There is something very wrong with you Gimpy, seriously.

LEV

First of all, some of the Dept. of Interior officials have retired, so they cannot be prosecuted.

Secondly, the investigation and report about the Department of Interior, was the result of a "whistleblower", an insider, coming forward. It was not a result of a higher up calling for the investigation. In fact, there is some question of President Bush's Justice Dept., headed at the time by Alberto Gonzales, that they may have not pursued, "blocked" numerous whistleblower cases brought against the oil industry.

FROM MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

By Greg Gordon and Marisa Taylor

WASHINGTON -- Senior Justice Department officials blocked the U.S. attorney in Colorado from supporting a whistleblower's suit last year, jeopardizing the government's prospects for recovering as much as million from a major oil company for its alleged underpayment of royalties.

U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said Washington overruled his request to enter the case against the Kerr-McGee Corp. A lawyer for the whistleblower said he was told that decision was made "at the highest levels" of the Justice Department, then run by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"I recommended strongly that we intervene," Eid said. "My view did not prevail."

Moreover, McClatchy Newspapers found that the Justice Department has participated in only a handful of the 80 whistleblower cases brought against the oil industry since 1995.

Whistleblower suits are generally less successful without the Justice Department's intervention, and if a whistleblower prevails on his or her own, taxpayers get a smaller share of the damages.

The disclosures come in the wake of scathing reports from internal watchdogs this week over the Interior Department's mismanagement of oil leases and are likely to fan criticism that the Bush administration has ignored allegations that oil companies have cheated taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars in fees for the rights to drill on federal lands.

In three reports released this week, the Interior Department's inspector general disclosed that officials of the agency's Minerals Management Service had engaged in illicit sex and drug use with oil company employees and had accepted thousands of dollars in gifts, golf and ski outings, meals and drinks while overseeing the leasing and royalty payments.

Meanwhile, former MMS auditors have alleged in some of the 80 lawsuits that high-ranking Interior Department officials blocked them from issuing routine subpoenas seeking company records that could document the fraudulent underpayment of royalties.

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the agency routinely investigates False Claims Act suits and intervenes as warranted, but that he could not comment on the pending Colorado case.

However, the allegations have prompted some to call on the Justice Department, which so far has charged only one lower-level MMS official, to form a task force and conduct a broad criminal investigation of the leasing and royalty-collection program."

For complete article see:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/684536.html

Just think, American tax dollars funding oilies sex, drugs and alcohol - rock on President BushOMG - have you guys see this?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/MNIP12T0JT.DTL

What is happening in the US? Altho it is sneaky and I LIKE it.

Pip