The Corrupt Bastards Club: Investigation linked to Alaska production tax issue and pipeline

File this in the realm of things that are so bizarre and appropriate, that you'd just have to think it was fiction.

The Anchorage Daily News reports this morning that the FBI raided the offices of VECO, the giganto oil service company, and several Alaskan legislators, looking for items, and now please pause with me to savor this one....

“Any physical garments (including hats) bearing any of the following logos or phrases: ‘CBC,’ ‘Corrupt Bastards Club,’ ‘Corrupt Bastards Caucus,’ ‘VECO.’”*

1. Could they have been that stupid? That arrogant?
2. I'm somewhat jealous, what with the nature of my feelings on Big Oil's tentacular influence in this state. I should have coined the term and been using it myself.
3. I will pay a sizable bit of money on Ebay if any of these items turn up. EVER.
4. And nothing, I mean nothing on this Earth would please me more than to spend some portion of Permanent Dividend Fund check on it. The symmetry, oh wait... I must swoon.
5. I need to trademark that term and start kicking out hats and t-shirts immediately.

"A copy of one of the search warrants, obtained by The Associated Press, links the investigation to the new production tax law signed last month by Gov. Frank Murkowski and the natural gas pipeline draft contract Murkowski and the state’s three largest oil companies negotiated," writes Associated Press reporter Matt Volz.**

This is going to play out like daytime television, friends, and I for one am going to be reading every piece of news I can get.

*"'Bastards Club' hats in probe" by Matt Volz, The Associated Press, September 1, 2006.
**Ibid.