Why did Darth Cheney fight so hard to keep his Energy Task Force meetings secret?  It looks like the reasons went beyond his belief in the Unitary Dictator.  The Cheney Cabal carved up Iraq into nine OIL areas, and mapped out the future exploitation for four big multi-national oil companies. From Joshua Holland on alternet:
http://www.truthout.org/...

Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set.

  More of the details in the extended body, this is a compelling story that clearly connects the dots behind the Bush/Cheney Iraq Oil Grab.

Great news from Maryland as Ben Cardin wins the senate primary, and Bush-Schaefer loses the Comptrollers race to the only real Democrat in the race, Peter Franchot.  

The tightest race so far is the 4th Congressional District where challenger Donna Edwards holds a slight lead over Albert Bush-Wynn, the war-monger, Bush-coddling incumbent.

Check out the WJZ site linked here for latest results:

http://cbsdmg.com/...

More Maryland News after the break!

Phillip Merrill, the millionaire owner of the Annapolis Capital and other publications, was found dead in the water after his sailboat washed up on shore last Saturday.

Now the family says that he may have committed suicide with a recently purchased shotgun, but wait for this:

Samuel W. Lewis, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, was one of several hundred guests who attended a party Merrill gave the weekend before he disappeared. Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell attended this year's annual fete, but Lewis said Merrill seemed "less optimistic" that evening and "more going through the motions."

The Sun article says that Merrill was "depressed", but where did he get the idea to buy a shotgun?  Could "Buckshot Cheney" be involved?

Senator Spectre once again sold out to the Bushies, or maybe he was threatened by the evil Sen. Hatch.  Because now he has backed off from his call to subpoena the Telecommunications Executives to find out why they ignored the US Constitution and tapped our phones for Big Brother Bush and his enforcer, Buckshot Cheney.

Here is the NPR audio link of Senator Leahy's sarcastic comments.

My transcript follows after the break:

Maryland consumers will be paying 14.6 cents per kWh starting on July 1, 2006.  For us this is a 72% increase that our governor and the legislature allowed so that Constellation Energy, aka "Enron East" can make huge profits.

Please take the poll to let us get a snapshot of electric rates and municipal/ coop electric companies vs. deregulated gougers like Constellation. Do you get your power from a coop or municipally owned utility?  If so, are your rates lower?

What electric price would cause you to invest in an alternative?  For me, it's $.14/kWh, I'll be installing a solar hot water heater this year.  Compact Fluorescent Bulbs are also an excellent way to cut electric use.

Electric Rate Map, Electric generation costs, and information on utility scams after the break.

Abdul Rahman, the Afghan man accused of converting to Christianity, has disappeared shortly after he was released by the "New Taliban" Democratic government of Afghanistan.  What a great thing the Bushites have done by installing Sharia law once again in Afghanistan!  Let freedom ring (unless you are a Christian in a Muslim country).
From the AP:

On Monday, hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!" marched through the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to protest the court decision Sunday to dismiss the case. Several Muslim clerics threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

more links and news after the break, and a poll:

Maryland's Utilities Service Commission, which is actually called the People's Service Commission, has collaborated with our soon to be unregulated, Enron style utility, BGE, to allow a huge rate increase of 72%.  If that is not enough, the PSC has added a sweetener for BGE- they can raise the customer's bills more gradually and charge 5% interest on the deferred payments.

Why did this happen?  A combination of greed, corruption, and incompetence, standard operating procedures in Cowardly Bob Ehrlich's Maryland, and across the nation in these Bush times.

Jay Hancock is the Baltimore Sun business writer, check out his complete article
there are several excerpts after the jump, plus news on the BGE CEO's cheerleader wife- at least Mayo has some good news today!

This diary attempts to summarize the most corrupt Republicans and their allies.  This started on a few other threads and got a great response.  

Abramoff- sleazemaster of the right wing
Bush- too many crimes to list them all
Cheney- crooked to the bone, leader of the torture cabal
DeLay- the exterminator is on the ropes

The ABCD theme is a simple way to tie the corrupt republicans on the national stage to local repubs.  It is time to remind all voters that a vote for local repub. is a vote for Abramoff, Bush, Cheney, and DeLay.  Bush is at 35%, Cheney at 19%- let's use them to sink the locals.

Today's Washington Post article revealing the secret CIA torture camps in Eastern Europe is important since it brings up a clear and convincing reason to impeach Bush and charge many in his administration with crimes.

The US law is clear (US Code 18, Part 1, Ch. 113C)

Any US citizen who is involved in committing torture or is part of a conspiracy to commit torture (Bush) is subject to severe penalties up to 20 years in jail.  This felony charge definitely rises to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" as grounds to impeach Bush.

Text of US anti-torture law follows with links to sources:

What price per gallon are you paying today?  I just paid $3.00/ gallon here in Baltimore, Maryland. A quick snapshot of the prices we pay across the country will help us highlight supply shortages and price gouging.

Remember, the oil companies are Bush's cronies.  Yes, supplies have been disrupted, but reports of $5 to $6 per gallon are outrageous. From the AP story

The Coca-Cola company wasn't content with just stealing the water from an Indian community, they also wanted to get rid of some toxic cadmium-laced sludge, so they told the villagers that it was fertilizer, and encouraged them to spread it on their crops.

Now their cropland is polluted and Coke still wants to steal their water and dry up their wells by pumping out 500,000+ liters of water per day. Here's the story

Check out their revised site:  http://www.buyblue.org/

They still seem to have a few growing pains, but have a good start on a way we can vote with our dollars. Why let the Bush/Rovians continue to wallow in our money that is cycled through the mega-corporations into their campaign coffers?

Start by boycotting Wal-Mart, there are several excellent diaries up on that subject already and they gave millions to the Bushies.

Here's a few related links:
An excellent article by Jim Hightower
http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2002-05-08/news.html

An older anti-Bush site
http://www.boycottbush.net/

Please help me locate and or start a blog similar to daily Kos but specific to Maryland politics.

We have a mini-Bush wannabe governor, Ehrlich, who will be trying to steal his election in 2006 with the infamous Diebold machines.

This same Ehrlich is trying to sell off our state conservation and park land to his developer cronies.  There is plenty of material to discredit him, but a Maryland blog would be a great way to collect and disseminate it.

The latest is a memo forbidding any MD government worker from talking to two Sun reporters who have offended Herr Ehrlich- definitely Bushian logic.

Rehnquist is now feeding the worms, proof that even the biggest crooks and traitors can't cheat death. Rehnquist's legacy, the entire Bushite scum regime, unfortunately lives on, destroying our country and the world. Anyone who thinks the 2000 and 2004 elections weren't stolen is not living in the reality based world.   What ever happened to the idea that a justice should be "competent".   Rehnquist got his start challenging minority voters in Arizona years ago, he completed his crooked journey with the Bush v. Gore travesty, signaling the end of the rule of law in the USA.  

Toyota has a large customer care center and the lady I spoke with today had just rented F 9/11 last night.  They have a huge stake in the Sinclair mess since they are a major Sinclair advertiser, it might be helpful to concentrate our efforts on a few companies to try to get them to pressure Sinclair.
Toyota Customer Care:  800-331-4331  #3

Mark Hyman, Chief slimeball at Sinclair, will do anything to swing the election to Bush.  It would be a big win for them since Colin Powell Jr. would then let them buy even more stations.  

Sinclair = Bush's Pravda

Here's the link to other Sinclair advertisers:
http://www.boycottsbg.com/advertisers/

Sinclair Broadcasting, a group of television stations in the East and Midwest, plans to force all it's affiliates to air "Stolen Honor", an hour long anti-Kerry propaganda piece funded by the usual right-wing groups similar to the Swift Boat Liars.  Help me stop Sinclair from this clear violation of FEC and FCC guidelines:

1) Call or write the FCC

Chairman Michael K. Powell: Michael.Powell@fcc.gov
Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy: Kathleen.Abernathy@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov

Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

1-888-225-5322 (1-888-CALL FCC) Voice: toll-free
1-888-835-5322 (1-888-TELL FCC) TTY: toll-free
(202) 418-2555 TTY: toll
(202) 418-0710 FAX
(202) 418-2830 FAX on Demand
(202) 418-1440 Elections & political candidate matters

Let "Colin Powell Jr." (aka Michael) know that you are not happy with Sinclair's plan to violate the Fairness and Equal time rules before an election.