And now you know why they weren't put under oath.

That might just lead to some justice in this country's royalty.

queue the owl?

That's unpossible!!

// and stupid, at least say "not to my knowledge", or "recollection"...

// didn't we all know that anyway?

On April 17, the task force staff met with Royal Dutch/Shell Group's chairman, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Shell Oil chairman Steven Miller and two others. On March 22, the task force staff met with BP regional president Bob Malone, chief economist Peter Davies and company employees Graham Barr and Deb Beaubien.

Toward the end of the hearing, Lautenberg asked the five executives: "Did your company or any representatives of your companies participate in Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001?" When there was no immediate response, Lautenberg added: "The meeting . . . "

"No," said Raymond.

"No," said Chevron Chairman David J. O'Reilly.

"We did not, no," said ConocoPhillips chairman James Mulva.

"To be honest, I don't know," said BP America chief executive Ross Pillari, who came to the job in August 2001. "I wasn't here then."

"But your company was here," Lautenberg replied.

"Yes," Pillari said.

Shell Oil president John Hofmeister, who has held his job since earlier this year, answered last. "Not to my knowledge," he said.


Ugh. Thank you, Ted Stevens. You piece of sh*t.

CEOs rarely know what's going on at such a low layer of business where an oil company would be interacting with the White House on a strategic energy policy so I can't say they were openly lying. They may just honestly have not known about it. What's the big deal?

Sorry, I guess I needed the *sarcasm* tag on that one. :-)

I think it may be time for the citizens of the US to pull together and sign a national referendum to remove these jackasses from office. It's provided for in the Constitution, IIRC.

/representative democracy my ass

Oh, but for the good old days when the charge of CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS was actually used....*sigh*

I'm sorry, where in the article does it say that the Bush people said there was no meeting?

I can't imagine that the Task Force wouldn't have met with representatives of the world's largest oil companies, which is one reason why it would be so odd of these guys to deny a meeting that would have been not only appropriate but essential.

but I didnt inhale !11111!!!!

Gee, no wonder Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)was so vehemently opposed to the oath being administered before they testified...

Hey, if Palmero can get up in front of Congress and lie about steroid use and not be charged, why should the CEOs? IIRC, Palmero was under oath.

For some reason, I rememebr reading an article before we went into Iraq about big oil companies and other firms meeting with White House insiders to divy up the Iraqi pie. This wasn't some obscure leftist website or anything, I think it was just buried on page 10 of the NYTimes or something.

Anyway, did anyone really expect truth from these oil guys? Even under oath? The corruption runs so deep, inside the government and outside, on the left and the right, that I'm not surprised by anything anymore.

What the well-dressed Exxon Executive is wearing,,,

Let's not forget what they were discussing.
They had maps of Iraqi oil fields laid out on the table

Professor_UNIX
CEOs rarely know what's going on at such a low layer of business where an oil company would be interacting with the White House on a strategic energy policy so I can't say they were openly lying. They may just honestly have not known about it. What's the big deal?

CEOs usually know when any employees are representing the company in meetings with Government bodies. Interacting with the White House on strategic energy policy is hardly a "low layer of business" for an oil company.

In any case, even if they didn't know about it, most of them answered "No" to the question. "I don't know" would have been the truthful answer in your scenario.

I wish somebody would post the picture that has G.W. and says: "Hey, Bush Voters. Guess what? YOU FELL FOR IT"

Boy, Bush voters must feel really dirty right about now...

credit:www.t-shirthumor.com

Lying in front of Congress is still a crime, whether or not they're sworn in. They might not be liable for perjury, but they could still be looking at up to 5 years for this.

if your company meet with the VICE PRESIDENT of the US and you aren't sure, and it was only 4 years ago, you should be fired b/c you sure as hell have your head up yer ars.

Its not like they were drunk and they're uncertain whether or not it was consensual sex. Although both examples of people in bed together.

Am I the only one who is starting to view this whole thing like some crazy black comedy, and this is the point in the flick where you start laughing uncomfortably at everything that happens?

Seriously, when I read this article I laughed out loud. WTF is wrong with me? Am I just out of outrage?

But anyone who says this administration is in the pocket of big business is playing partisan politics. Yeah.

OK, the gloves farking come off. I am a Republican. A real Republican, not one of the lying sacks of shiat we have in the White House right now.

I used to call myself a Conservative out of embarrassment, but it's become obvious that the "Republicans" in charge now are about as Republican as Jesse farking Jackson. They are beholden to no ideology. They are simply, first, last and always, scum. So I'm taking the name back.

I'm a Republican. Period, end of paragraph, end of chapter, end of story. Either you're for us or against us, and if you support the current batch of blatantly corrupt jackasses, you're against us.

If we don't do something about the spectacularly corrupt assholes in charge, we deserve to have the Left hand us our asses on a silver platter. I'm sorry, if we can't manage to clean our own house, we do not deserve to run the greatest country in the World, no matter how nice our theories sound.

Enough. Jesus Mary and Joseph, I feel like whacking these people on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

One more time.

I.

Am.

A.

Republican.

/that felt good

I love this whole "it's ok to lie if you're not under oath" bullshiat that started with Clinton. He lied... under oath OMG. Like people are more or less inclined to lie "under oath". Liars are liars.

Anyway, crap like this whole oil company thing is so ridiculously self-evident. I'm not sure why we need to play all these stupid games. No-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq? I mean for christ's sake already, are people actually surprised by this?!

Week 1: Q: Did you meet with Cheney to set oil policy?
A: OMG NO.

Week 2: Q: YES YOU DID LIARZ
A: ...


NO shiat.

Just to let you know-

Knowingly making a false statement to Congress during a hearing IS a crime. Not being under oath just protects them from being charged with perjury.

/actually read the article
// remember when this document was protected by "executive privilege"?

NakedReporta: This asshattery has got to stop, and the only way it will is if diehard oldschool GOPers start making some noise and taking their party back from the crazy liars, goons and biblethumpers.


Very true, not only is it the right thing to do it would be a good political move also.

The repubs need to try to distance themselves from this sinking ship or they will be taken down by the undertow.

Who's your daddy?

's your daddy, biatches.

/repeat
//sad
///but true

one of the senators from oklahoma (coburn?) claims to have lie detection powers. he was a doctor, and he claims he can read people's physiological responses to lying by observation alone. he must not have been in this meeting. surely he would have seen that Lee Raymond's chin-jiggling was off the scale.

Hey The_Pole_Of_Justice

If all republicans were like you I might be one also.

I so hope that the voters in that state that chairman is in (whatever the farker's name is) that overrode and went against procedure to prevent the swearing in of the execs gets his butt voted out of office. In a truly ideal world, that piece of crap would face criminal charges, but then again, given how so many of the illegal actions of Bush cronies are going without any charges... I'm not holding my breath.


To those 80% of Republicans in the recent polls who gave Bush the thumbs up? Here's one up your's too! GOOD JOB!

The_Pole_Of_Justice

Thank you. Please take back the party of Lincoln from the children of Satan.

Oh, and bring friends if you can.

madtiger: // remember when this document was protected by "executive privilege"?


It still is, of course, the secret service logs of who entered a building aren't...

oopsie!

I'd like to thank Dubya & his group for helping me make the decision to move out of the Republican party and into the Libertarian camp, because these days the Libertarians are closer to what the GOP used to be than anything that the Elephants represent now. Way to go guys, freedom(from the party) is on the march.

Just to let you know-

Knowingly making a false statement to Congress during a hearing IS a crime. Not being under oath just protects them from being charged with perjury.

ALSO:

This fact was STATED to the CEOs during the whole 'should we swear them in?' argument.

Damn...some of the excuses our vaunted leadership class uses to weasel out of impropriety wouldn't fly with my old kindergarten teacher.

"I don't recall"
"I can't remember"
"I lied, but it's ok 'cause I had my fingers crossed behind my back"

String 'em all up including senator for life Ted Stevens.

HappyDaddy

I'm sorry, where in the article does it say that the Bush people said there was no meeting?

Where in the headline (or anywhere else) did that get mentioned?

Nice attempt at distraction.

I swear, if you are Bush supporter now, you are retarded. Seriously. Either that, or you don't care about America.

The Dynamite Monkey

I actually had a similar thing happen... It just got to the point where you just start laughing because it's really beyond belief. Then I stopped looking up news on the web, stopped listening to radio / reading magazines, stopped even using fark for a couple months.

You get mad again, you just need a break.

OH MAH GAWD. A government panel charged with determining energy policy *GASP* actually met with the companies that provide energy in this country!

Oh, wow. That's unprecedented. Yes, surely, that's corrupt.

You're right... they should have been meeting with the Sierra Club and Greenpeace about the country's energy needs, rather than meeting with those big profit-motivated *GASP* CAPITALISTS *CRINGE* who actually provide the energy that keeps this country going.

As others have said, lying to Congress - even if you're not under oath - is a crime.

What's interesting to me is that Vice President Cheney demonstrably knew they lied to Congress and, seemingly, did nothing to correct the record.

Secret Cabal meeting time changed to 9am. Please make a note of it!

You filthy commies just hate rich people. Rich people are better than us, so they can lie whenever they want.

Assgasket: OH MAH GAWD. A government panel charged with determining energy policy *GASP* actually met with the companies that provide energy in this country!

Oh, wow. That's unprecedented. Yes, surely, that's corrupt.

Then why not release the documents?
Why lie in front of Congress about it?

oh,and BTW,

I'm takin' odds on a war on terror newsflash within the next 24 hrs.

Yep, I'll join the "Duuuhhh" chorus.

Bush/Cheney's admin and corporate America's secret adgenda and then lying about it when a Republican allows them to avoid being under oath against a Democrat's protests.