Rick Richbourg: December 2000 Archives

UNBELIVEABLE!

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Yes - completely OUTRAGEOUS!

California energy regulators have allowed a temporary 7% - 15% electricity rate increase. This comes amid the Standard and Poors's downgrades in bond ratings to the only step above junk status.

While the dust of the much maligned - deregulation policy still settles, Utilities are hemorrhaging billions more in cash (energy expenses) than they have been allowed to collect from customers.

While deregulation is bearing the blame it is rather a two-pronged fork that is the fulcrum for this energy crisis:

1) artificial price caps in place which do not allow the utilities to charge a market rate ...
2) A policy of 'No energy Policy' save that of no search, no find, no production of same.

Looters masquerading as consumer advocates professed outrage at the temporary increase and referred to the current pricing structure as 'gouging'. While one spokeswoman gleefully indicated that 'she didn't care if the utilities went out of business'; I would urge us all to contemplate the full measure of her wish.

When Private Utility Companies are forced out of business in California, there are only a couple of options: Let the entire state grow dark and literally grind to a halt or (more likely) have the 'State' step in and take over the 'obviously failed policies of private ownership.'

Could this be the 'shot across the bow' for the rest of our nation? Environmentalist and Consumer Advocates lobby for legislation that disallows Private Sector Companies from producing a profit, then forces those same companies to continue to provide goods and services to those same groups based on need.

What does it signify when the 'motor of business' (the profit motive) is carved from the enterprise and what does it indicate about those (looters) who are willing to participate? How - in America ( you know - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness), can it be that these plunders are allowed to roam free without the public outcry and condemnation that these criminal acts demand?
...Objects filtered through the 'rose-colored' prism of some glasses are not as clear as they appear.

Some 35+ days post the Year 2000 elections and a good deal is still being whispered about that darned 'Democrat Dreaded' Butterfly Ballot. As if someone has pulled the stake from this Dracula's heart to let it confuse again, much has been omitted and even fallaciously implied.

Most now know that a Democrat Supervisor of Elections designed the "ballot" for use by mostly Democrat voters in a Democrat controlled County. One can't image that the Supervisor of Elections would PERPETRATE ON PURPOSE a ballot so complex that citizens of ordinary sense would fail to render a legal vote.

While Palm Beach County has many Democrat sympathies, (and perhaps some voters there may have miscast their ballots), this same county also hosts a bastion of support for Patrick Buchanan. So much support in fact that in the 1996 Presidential Primary he garnered over 9000 votes in that same county. It should also be noted that his cousin (and a campaign chairman) also lives in this county. It should not be so hard to imagine that most of the 3400 ballots cast for Candidate Buchanan were actually intended for him.

While some still seek to demagogue this issue, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that the 'Democrat Dreaded' Butterfly Ballot was in fact a LEGAL ballot. Moreover, Candidate Buchanan earned most of the ballots cast for him and now citizens must now draw back the hammer yet again drive the stake into the heart of this Butterfly Ballot issue.

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This page is a archive of recent entries written by Rick Richbourg in December 2000.

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