On Wednesday, Reuters reported that "Ecuador is willing to mediate a settlement between Chevron Corp and 30,000 Amazon jungle dwellers suing the oil company for up to $16 billion in environmental damages," according to the country's top attorney.

On the face of it, an innocuous and wholesome development. Who could be against mediation? "We will only step in as a facilitator if both sides want us to," said Inspector General Diego Garcia.

But the background to this story is that Chevron has been lobbying the U.S. government to pressure Ecuador to intervene. As Newsweek reported on July 26,

Chevron is pushing the Bush administration to take the extraordinary step of yanking special trade preferences for Ecuador if the country's leftist government doesn't quash the case. A spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab confirmed that her office is considering the request. Attorney Steven Donziger, who is coordinating the D.C. opposition to Chevron, says the firm is "trying to get the country to cry uncle." He adds: "It's the crudest form of power politics."

The front page ad for willyoujoinus.com has got to go. Who's with me?

Last week Newsweek reported that Chevron is lobbying the U.S. Trade Representative to withhold U.S. trade preferences from Ecuador, to pressure the Government of Ecuador to interfere against a lawsuit brought by peasants in Ecuador seeking redress for the dumping of toxic oil waste in the Amazon. Incredibly, USTR confirmed that it was considering Chevron's request.

The attitude of Chevron towards democracy and the rule of law in Ecuador was summed up by a Chevron lobbyist:

"We can't let little countries screw around with big companies like this - companies that have made big investments around the world."

Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio has initiated a letter of Representatives to USTR, urging USTR to reject Chevron's request, and to affirm that access to the U.S. market will not be used as leverage to interfere in Ecuador's legal process.

It isn't surprising that Sam Nunn is rumored to be on Obama's short list for VP. He is a moderate Democrat with serious national security credibility, his Georgia background would help balance out the ticket, and he is one of the co-chairs of Nuclear Threat Initiative. Perhaps most importantly for Obama's candidacy, he could help reassure older white Democrats that Obama will look out for their interests, too, and not just those of the black and younger white voters who constitute his base.

However, I think it is very unlikely that Obama will pick Nunn as his running mate, for one major reason: the former Senator currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Chevron and General Electric.

The Preamble of The Constitution of the United States of America is:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Bush Preamble:

We the corporate powers of the United States, in order to form a more perfect bottom line, establish injustice, insure slave labor and free trade, provide our corporate friends large defense contracts, destroy the middle class, and secure the belssings of liberty to the mighty dollar and our personal prosperity, as we ignore and walk all over this
Constitution of the United States....

Have you ever wondered why...

... it has been the practice of the major media to avoid mentioning oil in connection with military activity in Iraq; something also common in the Congress, all following the lead of the Bush administration.

UPI.com

Shouldn't we all be shocked then? Shouldn't we be shocked to learn, after the US - British led invasion of Iraq to save the world from the dangers of Saddam's non-existant WMDs, struck Iraq with a shock and awe which was to have become the centerpiece for a GWOT, that as Reuters  reported on Tuesday:

Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.

Welcome to part 5 of the   series on Renewable Energy.
This next installment could easily be a stand alone story, but I wanted to keep it in the context of the entire problem. (especially in light of the Supreme Court's ruling reducing the penalty to Exxon for the Valdez oil spill - an average of $15,000 per plaintiff, some of who lost a year or more in wages)
This segment is about the human cost in blood and lives. I hope that your anger about what has been done in this world in our name, for the consumption of oil, will stir you to the necessity to GET OFF OIL NOW through an immediate change in U.S. consumption and policy.
Here is my interview with Doug Vilsack, son former Presidential candidate, Tom Vilsack and Iowa Governor. Doug is someone I met while stumping for John Edwards, and he was stumping for Hillary. After we met, I told him about the show I host and he mentioned this story, which although I had heard about it, could not believe the depth and scope of the despiteful tactics of big oil and the complicity of our Media, most notably, CNN.

Chevron and other oil companies are using the power from the micro-generating turbines to run the nerve center of oil rig operations - called SCADA in industry jargon. Oil rig SCADA systems used to run off of inefficient thermal electric generators, which burned oil and then converted the heat to electricity. No more.

Folks, the following is an exchange between friends that I think needs to be shared here... with their permission, andn specific IDs removed.  The analysis of how the USA war in Iraq is affecting the price oil is new to me... but has the ring of truth.  

Drew, this is an excellent analysis.  Since you are trying to get it out to the Obama folks, I assume you will not mind my sharing it with others who have connections to others who care about these issues.  Also, would you mind if I posted this on DailyKos, or will you?   If so, do you want me to remove names, or leave yours and Brit’s names and IDs?

One thing that I would add to the analysis is the question for NeoConservatives who are bellyaching about not being able to drill in ANWR and other protected areas.  That question is, If the USA goes ahead and drills to produce the very last resources of our domestic petroleum, what will the USA do in 10 years or later if a real World War erupts and we have no domestic reserves left?   Should we not be conserving our resources now?

Of course this comes with no real surprise, but several of those Senators that blocked the windfall tax have received substantial contributions from oil and gas PAC's that would have been affected. I looked at three of my least favorite Senators John Cornyn, Jeff Sessions and Lamar Alexander.

To read about the Senate Block click here

Also please take a moment and if you can, please donate to my candidates like Rick Noriega, Vivian Figures and Bob Tuke. I started this page after the GI Bill vote, but this is another reason to help these folks.

Click on the thermometer or go to this act blue page

This looks promising...as long as they don't back down...again.

It is baffling to me how these men sleep at night.  There are some great points from Senators Patrick Leahy, Feinstien, Durbin and even Arlen Specter.  

More below.

I am fresh off the anger of the 60 Minutes commercial for Chiquita Banana and their CEO's innocence. Loved it, why do people insist on calling it reporting. I was waiting for them to demand US citizens take to the streets and protest for these criminals to be left alone. Forget how they ignored Ronald Reagan's support of similar terrorist groups.
But my diary isn't about anger over a purchased media shilling for any CEO they can, it is about Chevron. The company who will eventually profit the most from our 'War on Terra'  and who is profitting the most from the world's favorite military junta . We are financing Chevron's success through security for their pipeline in Afghanistan with our special forces and congress allowed them to do business with Myanmar as 'grandfathered' in to do business with them. Poor Chevron wasn't aware the junta was oppressive when they bought the natural gas project from UnoCal , they just jail presidential candidates there-thats not oppressive , it is corporate friendly. The recent tragedy in Myanmar brings many feeling to my heart, some that will lose me any friends who consider themselves humanitarians. The feelings are there. I am tired of Chevron getting a free ride at our expense and it is time to do something.

Abstract

Conflict over the oil resource in Nigeria is not an issue that can be simplified into a single driving cause. The issue is complex and cuts across the topics of violence, environmental degradation, and democratic representation in the Niger Delta. These topics within the issue of conflict over oil encompass political, economic, and social histories where effects can be seen at the local, state national, and international levels. The conflict over oil is largely fueled by the financial interest of western Multinational Oil Corporations. With over 80% of the Nigerian federal revenue being supplied by oil exports to foreign countries, the US in the lead, it is not difficult to identify one of the driving factors of Nigeria's oil conflict. The Chevron Oil Company has established itself as a formidable force within Nigeria's oil fields, particularly in the Bayelsa State. Chevron and its partners have held a presence in Nigerian oil discovery and production since the Gulf Oil Company's first off-shore mining in Okan conducted in 1963.

(disclaimer: abstract continued below followed by lengthy research paper)

()Note: I'm going to begin posting these every day. If you are from Texas, give Sen. Hutchison's office a call at (202) 224-5922.)

I was just watching MSNBC when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison came on to talk about high oil and gas prices. She, of course, defended President Bush's comments today that suggested the solutions to our oil and gas price crisis is the following:

The New York Times is reporting that key Bush cabinet officials have joined with top oil company executives in an effort to absolve Libya of damages it owes to victims of terrorist attacks authorized and funded by Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

The move comes as ConocoPhillips, Hess, Occidental, Marathon Oil, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Dow Chemical warn that "a law that Congress passed in January that is intended to ensure that victims of terrorist attacks are compensated......threatens to disrupt commerce that the United States is trying to encourage."

George W. Bush, his neo-con backers, his supporters in Congress, from both sides of the isle, in the establishment media, the MIC and on Wall Street have accomplished their mission in Iraq. If there was ever any doubt about what that mission was then perhaps this article from Asia Times will make it clear. The article is rather long  and so I'll try to provide some of the highlights here. The blockquotes are from that article.

And, as former Fed Chief Alan Greenspan wrote in his memoir - The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World. "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: The Iraq war is largely about oil."

It appears that John McCain might well get his wish - 100 years of US occupation of Iraq.

I grew up on wide, leafy street in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.  Now, I’m on a wide, leafy street in the Amazon.  Ecuador is no Iowa.  The pork chops here are sub par and, for fun, they like to watch guys in tights kill bulls.  It’s impossible to find good peanut butter, but there is guinea pig roasting in the restaurant next door.  Also, lucky for Iowa, the only black gold anybody’s ever found below their feet around Mount Pleasant is the soil.  Strangely enough, amid the yells of the matadors and the crunch of teeth on well-done rodent, the biggest difference between home and here is oil.  Otherwise, the people here might as well be my neighbors on Main Street.  

In law school they never bother to tell you that the law is about people.  As law students, we are trained to ignore the story, to extract from endless cases only the most pertinent facts and, most importantly, the black letter law.  Black, without color is what it is, and after awhile all of that blackness can seep into your heart.  Inspired, liberal souls quaking in their first torts class can quickly become "lawyers" in the vile, heartless sense of the profession.  While many law students do survive to make the world a better place - or at least vote Democratic - for every hundred good-hearted lawyers there is a Voldemort.  A company like Chevron can afford to employ seven or eight Voldemorts when attempting to delay a $6 billion dollar judgment in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  Luckily enough, there is a Harry Potter in the jungle and a Dumbledore too.