From Volume 8, Issue 19 of EIR Online, Published May 12, 2009

United States News Digest

Obama Budget Plan Slashes Help for Restarting Nuclear Power

May 8 (EIRNS)—The pretense that the Obama Administration is somehow more reasonable on the vital question of nuclear energy, is totally dropped in the President's proposed FY 2010 budget.

The proposed budget calls for ending a research program for using nuclear power plants to develop hydrogen fuel for transportation, and cancels further subsidies to the nuclear industry, which helped pay for licensing and planning new nuclear power reactors. All told, these cancellations would immediately eliminate $168 million that had been earmarked to help bring on line new reactors.

In fact, the cost of not investing in nuclear power is incalculable—the death of the United States as a viable economic power.

A glimmer of this reality was evident at a conference on nuclear infrastructure held in Washington, D.C. yesterday, which discussed the potential for going forward with new nuclear plant construction. Working from the absurd carbon dioxide emissions goals set by the Administration, Karen Harbert, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, declared that this could be done by building 130 new nuclear power plants. The alternative, she said, would be to build 127,500 wind turbines, or devote an area 5.5 times the size of Iowa to biomass. Without doing one of those three things, she argued, the United States would sink to the per-capita energy level of Bangladesh.

Harbert said the Administration is doing nothing to help the nuclear industry. In reality, it is now trying to take away the little support it had.

Pelosi Still Doing Dirty Work for Cheneyacs

May 7 (EIRNS)—Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's alliance with California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, to derail efforts to have a Pecora Commission-type investigation of systemic fraud by Wall Street insiders, is one more example of her long-term protection of the corrupt networks associated with former Vice President Dick Cheney. Issa was the money-bags behind the recall of former California Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, which catapulted the steroid-popping Hollywood celebrity freak Arnold Schwarzenegger into the Governor's Mansion.

Following the deregulation of electricity in California in 2000, the Bush-Cheney-allied Enron led a cabal of energy pirates' assault on citizens of the state, jacking up utility prices by as much as 1.000%, with tactics that included illegal shutdowns of power generators during periods of peak use, ultimately costing the state upwards of $70 billion. After a prolonged period of indecision, Davis, under prodding by LaRouche Democrats, finally took on this cabal, only to run into a determined effort, led by Cheney, to defend Enron.

Pelosi's act of sabotage, in collaboration with Issa, against the bipartisan efforts of Senators Dorgan and McCain, and Michigan Democrat Dingell of the House, to set up a Select Committee to investigate financial fraud, modeled on the Pecora Commission of 1932-34, confirms, in the words of Lyndon LaRouche, that she is still nothing but a Cheneyac. He added that her presence as Speaker represents an extreme danger to the nation, and her retirement is long overdue and she should take Arnold with her.

LaRouche Demands Justice for David Kellermann

May 6 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche today demanded justice for former acting Freddie Mac Chief Financial Officer David Kellermann, who died under strange circumstances on April 22. There is no evident motive for suicide in this case, LaRouche added, but there is a motive for suppressing Kellermann's views. The guy is killed, LaRouche said, probably murdered. He deserves justice. His right to justice is overriding. Because we have experience with injustice, we have a special qualification for stating our views on this matter.

What gave rise to LaRouche's statement, was the continuing coverage of the case in the national media. The Post, which characterized his death as "an apparent suicide," reported that Kellermann left no note and that no motivation has been disclosed.

Contacted by EIR today, Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax County, Va. Police Public Information Office, said only that the "investigation is ongoing." Nancy Bull of the Medical Examiner's Office said that the autopsy has been completed, but that they are waiting for the results of laboratory tests, which could take several weeks. She said that the "cause and manner [of Kellermann's death are] pending."

The question is, what did David Kellermann know that influential circles did not want him to reveal?

Moyers: Summers' Obama Is More Like Louis XVI than FDR

May 3 (EIRNS)—Bill Moyers and Michael Winship of PBS's Bill Moyers Journal today accused President Obama of "Mortgaging the White House," when he "blundered mightily in his choice of economic advisors," naming Geithner and Summers. Moyers, who has argued for a Pecora Commission, and attacked Summers' Wall Street bailout, states: "In his first hundred days, FDR came out swinging. He shut down the banks, threw the money lenders from the temple, cranked out so much legislation so fast he would shout to his secretary, Grace Tully, 'Grace, take a law!' President Obama's been busy, but contrary to many of the pundits, he's no FDR...."

After denouncing Geithner as a stooge for the bankers who have destroyed the economy, Moyers continues: "In choosing a man to manage the bailout of the banks who's so cozy with its players, and then installing as his White House economic adviser Larry Summers, who in the Clinton administration took a laissez faire attitude toward the financial industry which would later enrich him, the President bought into the old fantasy that what's best for Wall Street is best for America. With these two as his financial gatekeepers, President Obama's now in the position of Louis XVI being advised by Marie Antoinette to have another piece of cake until that rumble in the streets has passed on by.

"In fact, other Wall Street insiders many of them big contributors to the Obama presidential campaign, and progressive in their concern for the public interest privately are expressing serious concerns that Geithner, Summers, and their associates are leading the President and America's taxpayers down a path toward further economic disaster."

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