From:              info@climatecrisiscoalition.org
Subject:     Earth Equity News (9/30/08)
Date:     September 30, 2008

Click the highlighted headlines for links to these stories.
Bailouts’ Failure May Buy Time for Renewables. By Kate Galbraith, NYTimes, September 29, 2008. “Strange as it may sound, the surprise rejection of the Wall Street bailout package in the House may have breathed new life into the renewable energy industry’s waning hopes that Congress will extend important tax credits that expire at the end of this year. ‘Ironically, the failure of the bailout may have given negotiators more time,’ said Paul Bledsoe, communications director of the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan group of energy experts. The House was planning to adjourn Monday after passing the bailout package, and possibly not to return until the inauguration of the next president. That didn’t happen, so legislators will be forced to stay on — and they could get other work done in the meantime. Both the House and Senate last week approved broadly similar tax credits for renewables, but there is fierce disagreement over provisions within each bill — including how the credits should be funded. Should the credits not be renewed, Mr. Bledsoe suggested they might be passed next year — and put into effect retroactively. The industry, however, hates this idea. ‘We’ve already seen a downturn in solar and in wind in the last three months’ due to the looming expiration of the tax credits, said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association.“

Automaker Bailout Slid By Unheralded. Posted by Jesslyn Taylor, TaylorPaper.com, September 30, 2008. “Only in the shadow of a proposed $700 billion Wall Street intervention could a $25 billion bailout of the auto industry be considered a minor news event and excite little comment. The bailout of the automakers occurred last week. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler say they need help in transitioning from big cars and SUVs to fuel-efficient vehicles. The $25 billion is just half of what the Big Three were requesting. But it still dwarfs the $1.5 billion bailout of Chrysler in 1980. And there are far fewer strings attached than in 1980… There are striking similarities between the automaker bailout and the Wall Street measure; both are a response to bad business practices. In Detroit’s case, the auto industry failed to react quickly to increased consumer demand for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. Now they say they need help responding.”

PV and Thermal: A New Combined Cycle. By Matthew L. Wald, NYTimes, September 30, 2008. “One of the limitations of solar photovoltaic systems is that, at the current state of the technology, no more than a quarter of the energy from the sun is converted to electric current. Most of the rest of the energy is lost as waste heat. But Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems and now a technology entrepreneur and alternative-energy venture capitalist, says he’s found a solution that doubles or even triples the energy yield — a gargantuan leap in a field where engineers exult over the most incremental gains. Mr. Khosla is funding a company called PVT Solar, of Berkeley, Calif., where engineers two years ago began trying to harness that wasted heat. In a sense, it was already being collected, either in the solar modules themselves, or underneath. (Solar arrays are often installed at an angle, to face the sun, thus creating a wedge-shaped space below for heat to collect.) PVT’s founders decided the heat could be harnessed and pumped into the home for climate control, water heating and other uses. It is a sort of combined cycle for solar — a marriage of solar photovoltaic technology and solar thermal systems, which gather the sun’s energy in the form of heat.”

The Big Question: Why are Spanish banks in such rude health when ours (that is the UK) are ailing?
By Elizabeth Nash, The Independent,
Tuesday,  September 30, 2008.

Why are we asking this now?

Spain’s biggest banking group, Santander, yesterday galloped to the rescue of Bradford and Bingley, the latest British bank to hit the skids, saving it from bankruptcy and probably further economic meltdown.

Why is a Spanish bank so keen to expand into Britain?

It’s part of Santander’s grand plan to become the world’s top bank. It is already the leading bank in the Eurozone, No1 in Latin America, and seventh in the world by market share. Once it’s consolidated its presence in the British market, it plans to conquer the US. Growth is its watchword. “The aim is to be second to none,” the bank says in its characteristically immodest way.

Hasn’t Santander already established quite a presence in Britain?

Yes, it chummed up with the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1988 and got a seat on the board, which gave Santander a window on the world that was invaluable when it developed ambitions of international expansion.

Four years ago it acquired Abbey National, and it is still digesting Alliance & Leicester which it bought for a song in July. You have to remember that the Banco Santander began as a local family-run operation in the northern Spanish city whose name it bears. There’s not much it doesn’t know about how small regional banks work.

So who is the guiding hand behind this grand invasion?

Santander is run by the charismatic Emilio Botin, 73, the latest patriarch of this great Spanish banking dynasty, an astute predator steeped in the business to his fingertips. At the pinnacle of the most powerful business operation in Spain, he is arguably the country’s most influential man. When Botin endorsed Spain’s incoming socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2004, a jittery stock market calmed down instantly.

How has Santander got this far?

The bank has a record of homing in on distressed banks, even lumbering shareholders with apparently hopeless liabilities, as when it scooped up Spain’s Banesto bank in 1995, when it was a multimillion pound black hole ruined by a reckless fraudster. Botin put his daughter Ana Patricia – who will probably succeed when the old man eventually retires – in charge of the operation and she turned it round within five years.

Santander then swallowed Banco Central Hispano in 1995, which enabled it enter the turbulent Latin American market, to the alarm of more cautious operators. Within 10 years Santander consolidated itself as the top bank in the region, and turned its attention to Europe.

How has Santander avoided being savaged by the banking crisis?

Santander never got embroiled in dodgy loans or toxic mortgages, which it regarded as too complicated and unacceptably risky. While the world financial system juddered under the fallout of subprime loans, Sanatander declared its exposure to high-risk mortgages as “zero”. Botin loftily told his shareholders, “We don’t have those strange things.”

So how do Spaniards get their mortgages?

Mortgages in Spain are mostly handled by savings banks, which aren’t quoted on the stock exchange. Some of these became over-generous in dishing out loans during the recent long property boom, and since the bubble burst many face liquidity problems.

Spain’s banking supremos are in general an austere, cautious lot, with none of the buccaneering recklessness of many international counterparts. They are rich, of course, but frugal and philanthropic. If the Botins appear in public, it’s probably to endow a university or science park. You will never see them in the pages of Hola!

So how did Santander come out on top?

As well as knowing the market inside out, Santander’s top brass, ie Mr Botin, the indusputed boss, has an astute sense of market timing. Last year the bank conducted the real estate operation of the century by selling off all its 1,200 properties at the peak of the property boom, including wedding cake palaces in the heart of Spain’s major cities. Pulled off just before the market crashed, the deal netted Santander 4bn euros – which neatly funded last year’s purchase, jointly with its affiliate the Royal Bank of Scotland, of the Dutch bank ABN Amro. It cannily held on to all its branches, however – the bits that make money – and even remains tenant of the properties it sold, with an option to buy back in the future.

How will Santander’s increased presence affect Britain’s high-street banks?

We can expect to see more of Santander’s scarlet flame logo as the old names Abbey, Alliance& Leicester and Bradford&Bingley gradually fade away. In acquiring B&B – as in all its acquisitions – the Spanish bank has been careful to peel away and sell off the liabilities it doesn’t want, to home in on the elements of its core business: branches, and bank deposits.

So having lots of branches is the key to banking success?

That’s the Santander way. It may seem like boring stuff to braver bankers, but Santander believes we need more branches – in Spain there’s a bank on every street corner – and that these are the source of steady money, what Mr Botin calls “high-quality, recurrent earnings”. However, Santander is ruthless in stripping out what he doesn’t need, so bank employees may fear for their jobs.

Will Santander be satisfied, or will it want more of the British market?

History suggests Santander will be eager for another good bargain, especially in the current landscape of smouldering wreckage. The predatory Mr Botin, his coffers plumped with cash, must already be on the alert for further acquisitions, if not immediately. But this is the best moment for him. As he put it recently: “In times of crisis, being better than the others is a big advantage.”

So will the B&B takeover benefit British consumers?

Yes

*Santander has saved B&B from ruin, and account holders can feel their savings and deposits are safe.

*Santander’s low risk policy suggests it will be a steadying influence on Britain’s future banking scene.

*Without Santander’s action, the alternative could have been a wider meltdown too awful to contemplate.

No

*Santander’s move reinforces the concentration of Britain’s banks in the hands of a powerful few.

*Santander has a mixed reputation for its service, and it is strong enough to brush off complaints.

*Savings are better handled by local building societies than by banks answerable only to shareholders.

 e.nash at independent.co.uk

===========

Some of our pointers - A Socialist Prime Minister in Spain; A retreat from Iraq; A US Presidential candidate - John McCain who seemingly thought Spain was an enemy of the US for not following Washington’s edicts like many other lemmings.

Mr. Botin will not laugh, he will not even chuckle - he will just go about his solid business and will not eat chuff. His daughter will yake over after him - a solid Spanish woman - He backed Zapatero rather then a Sarah Palin.

Further, we know Bank Santander in New York - among its many philantropies right here - it is also the host for many solid meetings of the New York based “Foreign Policy Association.”  The Bank Manager in the US comes to listen and mingle with the crowd.

From The European Parliament - September 30, 2008:   Europe props up crumbling banks.

European governments were forced to rescue a number of financial institutions hit by the US-born crisis, sending stock markets plummeting, reports Deutsche Welle.

Washington’s rejection of a 700 billion dollar bailout caused world markets to plummet, it says.

Only a few weeks ago, banks in the eurozone financial sector were said to be safe from the US-born financial crisis, but now, as the global financial situation gradually worsens, five European governments have had to step in to prop up financial institutions, the paper goes on.

France is to inject €1bn into ailing Franco-Belgian bank, Dexia, which will receive €6.4bn in total, with the rest made up from donations from Belgium and Luxembourg, according to Le Figaro.

In Ireland, meanwhile, the government has placed a two-year guarantee on all deposits and certain debts in six major Irish banks, says the Irish Times, in a move it says is to “safeguard the Irish financial system”.

—————

Europe scrambles to save banking system: Banking stocks took a major hit across Europe after news the US bailout had failed.

LEIGH PHILLIPS, The EUobserver, September 30, 2008.

European authorities in Brussels, Frankfurt and at EU member state level are scrambling to save the continent’s financial system after bank stocks plunged when US lawmakers rejected a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street on Monday (29 September).

Banks are petrified of lending to one another for more than one day, requiring central banks to flood their coffers with the money they need to stay in business.

After yesterday’s part-nationalisation of Belgo-Dutch banking giant Fortis and the nationalisation of the UK’s Bradford & Bingley, Belgium-based Dexia, the biggest provider of lending to local governments in the world, could be the next financial institution to be rescued by taxpayers.

In an email from Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, the country’s federal government reached an agreement with Belgium’s regional assemblies to jointly support the bank, Bloomberg News reported.

Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy has joined the rescue operation, despite the bank being headquartered in Belgium, issuing directions that the state investment body Caisse Des Depots offer Dexia funds.

***

Elsewhere, the German government backed by a series of private banks bailed out collapsing mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate reportedly to the tune of €35 billion, according to the German Ministry of Finance.

The list of nationalisations is rapidly growing, with Iceland - not an EU member state - also nationalising the country’s third largest bank, Glitner. The government has taken out a 75 percent stake in the firm in return for €600 million.

The Icelandic bailout is a larger per capita rescue operation than even the failed US $700 billion plan, representing some €2,000 for every Icelander. Following the move, the Icelandic Krona dropped to its lowest level ever against the euro.

***

Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has rushed to the forefront in the crisis, announcing authorities will offer domestic banks a fresh $50 billion atop the $120 billion already supplied.

***

In perhaps the most frightening development, banks have deposited some €28 billion with the European Central Bank, afraid of leaving it stashed anywhere else, according to reports in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, quoting Hans Redeker, currency chief at France’s BNP Paribas.

“The ECB is no longer able to inject liquidity because the money is just coming back to them again,” the British paper quotes the banker as saying.

***

Bank stocks plunge:

Meanwhile, European bank stocks dropped through the floor on Monday, with Germany’s Aareal and Commerzbank particularly badly knocked down, taking a 42 percent and 22 percent hit to share prices. Ireland’s Anglo-Irish Bank was down 46 percent and Allied Irish down 16 percent.

Italy’s Unicredit, Sweden’s Swedbank and France’s Natixis all took a bruising as well, while a host of smaller banks in Denmark are set to collapse, according to the Financial Times. Spanish operations too are struggling.

On Monday, the European Banking Federation tried to reassure citizens that the financial sector was on a sound footing despite the crisis, and that depositors’ savings were not at risk.

“The global economy is facing an unprecedented crisis which is generating a certain degree of anguish due to the financial failure of some major banks,” the EBF said in a press statement.

“The European banking system will weather the storm,” the statement read, adding: “In EU countries retail deposits are insured.”

***

EU timetable:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet bank and insurance company directors on Tuesday to assess the financial sector’s situation in his country, his office announced.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also said that a “structural European response” was currently being prepared for the summit of European leaders in two weeks’ time.

Additionally, on Wednesday, EU internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy is to unveil a tripartite reform of European banks’ capital requirements.

———————-

Russia has a monetary surplus - will this now become its entree card to a tighter relationship with the EU?

Is this the beginning of a realignment that will see a Europe-Russia new economic bloc and a US-China economy tie-up?

Banking crisis claims Belgo-Dutch giant.
LEIGH PHILLIPS, The EUobserver, Monday, September 29, 2008.

The global banking crisis, born across the Atlantic, again sent waves crashing into Europe on Sunday (29 September) as the Belgian, Dutch and Luxemburg governments partly nationalised Belgo-Dutch banking and insurance giant Fortis in an €11.2 billion bailout.

The move was announced on Sunday evening by Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, following a marathon weekend of talks between the three governments and European Central Bank chair Jean-Claude Trichet.

Belgo-Dutch bank Fortis is the latest recipient of tax-payer bailouts in the financial sector.

“We have taken up our responsibility, we did not abandon the savers,” Mr Trichet told reporters.

The deal will see the Benelux governments purchase 49 percent of the bank’s operations in each of the three countries. Belgium is to take on the biggest load, offering €4.7 billion towards the acquisition, with the Netherlands paying €4 billion and Luxembourg €2.5 billion.

The move comes after shares in Fortis plunged sharply in the last two weeks, losing more than a third of their value. Over the past year, shares in the bank - whose assets are many times larger than Belgium’s GDP - have lost some three quarters of their value.

The Belgian and Dutch governments have also said they will guarantee 100 percent the deposits of clients. Normally in the two countries, only an initial €20,000 is guaranteed by the state.

The governments had hoped to avoid any moves towards nationalisation of the bank and were attempting to piece together a purchase of Fortis - or at least part of it - by Dutch bank ING or BNP Paribas in France.

Negotiations broke off with the two banking groups when the Benelux governments refused to accede to demands that they offer guarantees against future losses.

***

Trouble at mill

Meanwhile in the UK, the government is set to nationalise troubled West Yorkshire-based bank Bradford & Bingley, according to British press reports.

The UK’s finance minister, Alistair Darling, has convinced Spanish bank Santander to purchase some 200 of Bradford & Bingley’s branches and €28 billion (£22 billion) in savings, while the UK government is take over €52 billion (£41 billion) of the bank’s mortgages, according to UK daily the Guardian.

The move significantly expands Santander’s presence in the UK, as it already owns Abbey and is in the process of purchasing Alliance & Leicester.

***

In Germany, troubles at lender Hypo Real Estate are also the subject of emergency talks between German banks and domestic authorities.

A possible rescue of the Munich-based bank is under consideration, while Reuters - quoting an unnamed source close to the discussions - is reporting that the group has received a credit line of some €35 billion from a consortium of private and public-sector banks in the country.

==============================

UK economists think mainly like US economists - call it an Anglo-Saxon bias. So, it takes outsiders to see through the maze - some of them also use the Financial Times for their sounding board. We have a collection of those other articles in a separate posting of Financial Times, September 29, 2008 printing. Here we present articles that still propose to take the US bailout for a possible example of how to deal with its overseas ramifications in Europe.

US-Style “Financial Socialism” Not An Option for Europe Says EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.
LEIGH PHILLIPS, for EUobserver, September 19, 2008.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26775/?rk=1

The EU’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, has said Europe should not employ what he called “financial socialism” to solve the ongoing banking crisis by bailing out failing companies.

“Socialists like me, we are against financial socialism,” he said, alluding to the multi-billion-dollar supports and nationalisations of recent weeks that Washington has engaged in to save a host of financial institutions it argues are “too big to fail.”

***

The commissioner - a member of Spain’s centre-left Socialist Workers Party - speaking at a Madrid conference organised by Spanish bourse regulator CNMV, did nonetheless say such measures were warranted where the financial system as a whole was threatened, however.

“No one can say that there won’t be anyone in Europe who will have to face a solvency problem that poses a systematic risk to the financial system,” he said, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Despite his veiled criticism of how the Bush administration has responded to the crisis, he said Europe was prepared to step into markets if the situation ever deteriorated to such a level.

***

“The economic authorities, financial authorities and central banks are prepared if that case were to occur in Europe,” he said. “I hope it won’t happen in Europe, but no one can rule it out either.”

“During a financial crisis, there are different types of support, with public funds, taxpayers, which are justified by the systemic risk,” he added, reports Reuters.

The commissioner said the current upheaval may continue for some time. “We still have no idea how long this turbulence will last and when normality will return to the markets.”

He also said dealing with the crisis required greater co-ordination by European financial authorities.

“We need more coordinated action by supervisors than currently exists … We must move forward faster, we cannot wait until a financial institution operating in seven or 10 countries of the European Union has problems such as those of Lehman Brothers or Bear Sterns.”

***

In separate news on Thursday, central banks worldwide pumped €126 billion into markets in an attempt to boost liquidity.

The money was released by the US Federal Reserve to five other central banks who then made it available to financial institutions domestically.

The European Central Bank is to make €39 billion available and the Bank of England €28 billion. The Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Canada also participated in the operation.

_______________________

In DC, Bailout Bill Pushed Beyond US, to HSBC, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Nomura, RBS - & Sovereign Wealth Funds?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in DC: News Analysis

WASHINGTON DC, September 21 — As the fast track proceeds toward rubber-stamp approval of the bail-out proposal by Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, changes are being made, and they are not pro-consumer. Rather, non-U.S. institutions involved in subprime lending, such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse, Nomura and even Sovereign Wealth Funds have gotten themselves included in the bailout. Their access can be documented. Paulson’s initial proposal as issued on September 20 was:

“The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.”

  This phrase, headquarters in the U.S., caused agitation. Lobbying was done and concession were made.

Paulson and Bernanke: let’s thrown some billions to HSBC and Barclays

 Later on September, Paulson’s Treasury Department issued a clarifying fact sheet:

“To qualify for the program, assets must have been originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008. Participating financial institutions must have significant operations in the U.S., unless the Secretary makes a determination, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, that broader eligibility is necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.”

  The switch no longer requires a U.S. headquarters, only “significant operations” in the country. Surely HSBC, based in London and Hong Kong, considers its Chicago-based subprime lender significant. So too Deutsche Bank’s two subprime lenders.

   Also significant, in terms of supposed concern about moral hazard, is the cut-off date of September 17. Weren’t people on notice at least since February 2008 about the problems in the subprime market?                  Why should investments made after that still be in line for a Federal bail-out?

 Added on September 20, 2008

Those who doubt the sincerity of McCain’s enthusiasm for regulating the banking industry (which would have prevented last week’s 400 billion dollar freefall - to be more exact - the nearing 1.5 trillin dollars tax-payers’ expenditure or $7,500 per every man, woman or child), have reason to be suspicious.

Here’s a quote from John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries:

“Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketwise health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry! How could he be different from the prevailing anti-government or anti-regulatory mainstream of the Republican party when he made former Senator Phill Gramm his chief economic adviser - the man who has done most in breaking down the security firewalls that were established with the experience of the Great Depression in mind?

Also -

NEW MCCAIN ATTACKS ECHO ROVE ADVICE
By Sam Stein, Huffington Post
Is John McCain’s campaign taking political directives on how
to handle the current economic crisis from Karl Rove?
 http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/9955…

IS PALIN PLANNING ON BEING THE NEXT DICK CHENEY?
By Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
Her history doesn’t show a love of transparent government,
and now she won’t answer whether she considers the VP to be
part of the Executive Branch.
 http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08…

PALIN’S SELF-RELIANT IMAGE OF ALASKA IS BOGUS
By David Morris, AlterNet
Palin is trying to appeal to the self-reliant,
anti-government voters while her state is the most dependent
on government pork.
 http://www.alternet.org/election08/98817…

VAN JONES: WE CAN’T DRILL OUR WAY OUT OF OUR ENERGY PROBLEMS
By Van Jones, AlterNet
In an electrifying speech, Van Jones explains that we have
to invent and invest our way out of the economic and
environmental crises.
 http://www.alternet.org/environment/9955…
————————-

The original September 19th posting:

From:    ddboyle at live.com
Subject: McCain Antagonizes Spain Rather than Admit Misunderstanding a Question
Date: September 19, 2008

How far will McCain go to avoid admitting he didn’t hear or understand a question? Apparently, he’d sooner antagonize a NATO ally than admit he was winging his response to an interviewer’s question, a question that he obviously didn’t hear or understand.

In an English-language interview with Radio Caracol WSUA 1260AM in Miami, the journalist asked McCain if he would invite Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero to the White House. McCain responded that he would extend friendship to all friendly Latin American nations. The journalist repeated her question, pointing out that she had asked about Spain. McCain then repeated that leaders of all friendly Latin American nations would be treated cordially, and that those who are not friendly to the US will be dealt with harshly. The journalist once again tried to steer McCain to her question, which, as she pointed out yet again, was about the Prime Minister of Spain, not a nation in Latin America. McCain again repeated his response.

When all puzzled and concerned parties followed up on this exchange, they fully expected McCain to perhaps say that the journalist’s accent was too thick to understand, or that the phone call connection was fuzzy, or even that he was a little confused about whom the woman was asking about. Instead, the McCain camp insisted that McCain knew very well whom he was talking about, and did indeed mean to lump the Spanish Prime Minister into the same category as the leaders of Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela. This is nonsense, because recently, McCain stated that he would invite the Spanish Prime Minister to the White House. McCain does not at all believe that the Spanish government is belligerent to the U.S. But McCain chose to rewrite America’s relationship to this important NATO ally, rather than admit he didn’t hear a question.

SOURCES:

 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-tra…

 http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanma…

 http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archiv…

 http://technorati.com/posts/KZ68n9mWEruP…

 http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/mccai…

The Video:

 http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/…

——————-

It is clear - McCain did not hear. I sympathize with him - I also do not hear well anymore - but then I do not run for President and he does. Further, he clearly did not chose a stand-in future replacement for running mate - he preferred a fast-draw political advantage maker. That was his first Presidential decision and he failed the test. His handling of the Spanish question proves the point and his people’s debacle at the gates of the UN - in the Palin/Ahmedinejad/ Hillary conundrum shows that there is no present thinking that goes beyond November 4, 2008.

Then, Obama thought perhaps too much about the time he will have to manage the world out of his oval room - and worried too little about how he will get there? Was his Hillary decision responsible for giving, birth out of the Alaska oil, to the Sarah - Venus? We would have picked Governor Bill Richardson, have faced frontally the American prejudice for “real outsiders” and have left McCain the only possible choice - pick an outsider of quality.