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  LegoPower77 Abecedarian Premium join:2002-08-03 Arlington, VA
| reply to Beeper Re: Another Day Another Ruse to RipOff Consumers
Yeah, I wouldn't bother with that guy, as most of the posters in here seem to be, he is obviously a partisan with a left-wing agenda. To get a measure on his ignorance, just look at his posting tag. Never mind Cheney sold all his stake in Halliburton at the democrats insistence (then he got pummeled later on for having insider knowledge and getting out before the stock went down). Never mind that the military contracting process goes in cycles and there was open bidding in 2001, never mind that Halliburton has provided logistical and personnel assistance in every major conflict going back to Vietnam, never mind that beloved Clinton contracted them to do work in Bosnia, never mind that the "price gouging" was to deliver fuel in a combat zone and that the "kick backs" were to pay back the Kuwaitis for giving us at cost fuel previously. Never mind all that: there must be some deep, dark conspiracy. And when the facts show otherwise, like the California "deregulation" debacle, he will just attack you as a corporate shill and suggest that your news source is suspect. Q.E.D. For further reading on Cheney and Halliburton -- "You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle" (Proverbs 27:22). | |   calvoiper
join:2003-03-31 Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| Well, ftcr.org has some interesting facts, but it leaves out a key point: PG&E and SCE, as part of the dereg, had promised to cover the risk of unanticipated price spikes in the transitional market--then they totally failed to do so. Rather than enforce that promise (and probably toss them into a real bankruptcy, where they belonged, rather than the sham bankruptcy PG&E ended up in) Governor Gray Davis put the state on the line for billions of dollars in power costs.
With the state picking up the tab, PG&E and SCE avoided their contractual obligations and survived, still owned by the same holding companies.
Yes, the dereg plan had problems, but the real problem was the State of California government's failure to enforce the "worst case" provisions when the "worst case" arrived--instead deciding to bail out the state's electric utilities from their own mess.
(And yes, Gray Davis did name the father of California's electric deregulation, former state Senator Steve Peace, as his budget director. Gov. Davis was then surprised when his budget fell apart, too.)
Calvoiper -- VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
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