Flush twice... it's a long way to Sally Quinn's place!

Pundit Pap
for August 17, 2003
Blackout Whitewash
by JJ Balzer

August 17, 2003 -- BOULDER, CO (apj.us) -- Officially, I'm on vacation.

Unofficially, I couldn't resist getting out of bed early, grabbing the remote and checking out the Sunday political shows. We have satellite, including East Coast network affiliates.

Predictable, issue one was the fallout from the Thursday blackout that hit much of the Northeast and upper Midwest.

Not surprisingly, there was excessive focus on the specific reason for the failure and improving the electrical grid's "reliability. Energy Secretary Spence Abraham shilled for GOP- and energy-lobbyist-authored "energy reform" -- and we all know what that means.

And there was nary a word on the chronic underlying cause of the blackout: rampant privatization and deregulation of the electricity industry. Nobody has written more eloquently about the issue than former insider Greg Palast, whose brilliant essay "Power Outage Traced to Dim Bulb in White House" is required reading for everyone who wants to prevent another such blackout.

Here's a quick look at a couple of the shows:

This Reeks

George Stephanopoulos began the program by making believe he would discuss the "underlying cause" of the Northeast blackout with Michael Gent of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NAERC). Gent said Thursday's outage began when a power line hit a tree in northern Ohio at around 3:06 PM, and about an hour later a surge of some sort triggered the regional mess. Gent was pushing a theory of "bad design or bad rules" and proposed a self-regulating reliability panel using -- hoo-boy -- market-like mechanisms.

Bad design? Could it be because there's been nothing mandating or even impelling electricity providers to modernize, safeguard and improve their facilities? And bad rules? How about practically NO rules! Conservatives be damned, it is time for a fully funded mandate involving mandatory improvements and redundancy, mandatory inspections, and mandatory system drills on a national basis. The best Steph did is zap Gent by getting him to admit that more transmission lines would help.

Up next was that expert on New York City and Detroit electrical infrastructure, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-Deep South). Okay, we crack wise -- he is on the House Energy Committee -- but we could not help but laugh about Tauzin's call for "incentives" (read: deregulation and payoffs) and his weak attempt to dismiss Steph's point that the GOP has shot down appropriations that would've upgraded the power grid. Steph talked about consolidating energy "markets" and Tauzin talked about "incentivizing" regional grids and "weak grids." Tauzin also used the latest Roveian talking point: pining the blame on "people" who don't want power lines "in their back yards" (as if a back yard is big enough for a transmission line tower, and as if there were no alternatives -- and there are, Billy-Bob).

Here's an "incentive" that neither Steph nor Gent nor Tauzin dared bring up: how about de-privatizing electrical utilities and turning them back into highly regulated public utilities that have their profit margins capped? You'll never see that as long as the companies that provide the fuel that generates electricity, including coal and oil companies, buy commercial time on the networks' news programs -- and buy politicians through any and every means at their disposal.

We skipped the round table but stuck around for the "on the campaign trail" segment which featured Steph following his former employer Dick Gephardt (D-AFLCIO) around Iowa. We learned little about the candidate other than the fact that he's not a half-bad campaigner -- and that he's getting hammered about having supported Junior's march to war against Saddam.

Too bad he was too soft on Smirk since the little dry drunk started squatting in the White House. He might've had a chance -- even without eyebrows.

Delete the Press

Brian "Pretty Boy" Williams was filling in for a vacationing Tim "Mister GOP" Russert, and the first guest was Energy Secretary Spencer "Loser" Abraham.

Bri-Bri gave Spence a 20-lane highway to ply his points, which sounded as if they came straight from the White House:
We know what happened;
We have an energy plan that is stalled in Congress (hey, pal, it's the GOP-controlled Congress);
We'll use this "crisis" to foist more deregulation on the nation!

Brian fired back by bringing up a NAERC report from last year calling for immediate action to upgrade and safeguard the grid. Spence talked a good game about "new transmission" (hell, that's no surprise -- power plant construction is a gravy train for GE, Bechtel and other firms that are cozy with the GOP -- but the problem was not transmission but the grid itself).

And naturally, Brian and Spence pushed that previously-noted Republican talking point blaming property owners for not wanting high-tension wires in their backyard. Hilariously, Spence flogged stand-alone hydrogen fuel cells (I doubt you would have seen him -- or any GOPer -- pushing that notion a decade ago, but now that big Smirk-aligned companies are getting into the fuel cell biz... well, you do the math).

Brian played footage of Toronto's mayor skewering our fearless leaders for never taking the blame for anything. Spence did the requisite diplomatic, "We're not going to point fingers" song-and-dance (and of course they won't point fingers -- they'd be pointing at their own cronies who have pushed for deregulation of energy without any effort to maintain the grid).

Spence then claimed that Team Smirk has pushed for more energy generation and grids -- sidestepping not only the fact that Junior has been resisting upgrades and fail-safes but that GOP governors, notably New York Governor George "Sad Sack" Pataki have been pushing and passing bills that give electric utilities a free pass to gouge prices while letting the grid deteriorate.

Spence lied when he said there is a constituency that "does not want" new energy generation or distribution (nonsense -- they want cheap, clean alternatives, but you and your accomplices deride these technologies because you know they'd undercut a greedy, deregulated energy industry).

Following the break -- the circus came to NBC! Two California gubernatorial recall candidates, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D) and Bill "Loser" Simon (Ultra-Rightist).

Brian started by trying to turn Bustamante into a liar by recounting his supposed promise not to run if Davis were recalled -- and Bustamante fired back that he is running to defend environmental and educational programs in California and provide a positive option in case Davis is recalled. Brian tried to turn Bustamante into a hypocrite for fighting the recall while in essence running for governor -- and Bustamante fired back against the recall and the "perpetual recall" frenzy it would trigger. Brian then played footage of Feinstein calling Bustamante a hypocrite -- and again, Bustamante blasted Brian by saying that the political reality prompted him to present a "win-win" option to voters.

Brian turned to "sore loser-man" Simon -- is he in it to win? Simon lied when he said "the people" were behind the recall (yeah -- people like millionaire Congress-sleaze Darrell "Grand Theft" Issa and GOP strategist Frank Luntz). Simon said people are hungry for leadership (but that's why they voted for Davis last time -- loser). Simon said he projected a deficit and then LIED about Davis playing politics over electrical prices in California (as if those prices were not an issue -- and as if Enron and the Texas energy cartel had nothing to do with the rolling blackouts). Brian rubbed Simon's nose in a comment by Rep. David Dreyer (R-Media Hog) calling on Republicans to get behind a certain Austrian bodybuilder -- and Simon, in a television first, was correct about something: he blasted Arnie for not having spelled out his plan for California. He should have stopped there -- but instead, Simon pitched himself as the guy with the answers for California (that worked so well as a campaign mantra last year, Bill, didn't it).

Brian turned back to Bustamante, focusing on California's deficit -- and Bustamante seized on Simon's having correctly said that some candidates have no answers, but that the deficit situation actually seems to be improving. Simon said he would cut all agencies' budgets by by 6.5%.

Brian then quoted one of the extremists behind the recall claiming that Bustamante was essentially the same as Davis -- which gave Bustamante a chance to say he wants the car tax increase toned down on working families (a clever and winning gambit).

Brian turned to the handful of issues Arnie has spoken out on -- and it turns out he's a liberal! Simon, interestingly, would not bash Arnie; instead, he harped on about "plans to sell out California to the highest bidder, deregulate the state, and gut programs" (all couched in the usual rhetoric about "shrinking big government"). Simon, in his last word, said he'd be a great governor and called himself a leader.

(We still call him a loser.)

Bustamante, in his final word, scathed the recall effort as a hijacking of democracy -- but did say that those who signed the petitions (that is, were fooled into signing them) want to see changes, and yes, "tough love" would be required for a couple years.

When Brian said that Bob "Prince of Darkness" Novak and Doris Kearns Goodwin were waiting in the wings, I grabbed the remote and turned on Comedy Central.

P.S.: Click here to read a snippet from the CNN Late Edition transcript wherein Wesley Clark barbecues Tom DeLay Texas style.