Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Recent
Stories
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
August 14, 2003
Peter Phillips
Inside
Bohemian Grove: Where US Power Elites Party
Brian Cloughley
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan: the Strange Congressman Behind the
CIA's Most Expensive War
Linville and Ruder
Tyson
Strike Draws the Line
Jim Lobe
Bush Administration Divided Over Iran
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
Tom Turnipseed
Blowback in Iraq
Gary Leupp
Condi's
Speech: From Birgmingham to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Website of the Day
Tony Benn's Greatest Hits
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
23, 2003
The Boy Mayor and
the Power Company
Kucinich
has been Burnt by FirstEnergy Before
By CATHERINE DONG
Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was cautious
in his statements Saturday about the First Energy plant in Ohio
that may have been responsible for the massive blackout affecting
more than 50 million people across North America. He did not
immediately point an accusatory finger at First Energy, emphasizing
that the first priority must be to restore power and water to
those who have lost it. Even the concerns he expressed about
First Energy were carefully prefaced by the words "recent
press reports indicate" and "if press reports are accurate,"
indicating his willingness to give them a fair shake, something
that they were less than willing to give him 25 years ago.
Dennis J. Kucinich first made his name
in politics by becoming the youngest mayor of a large city, when
in 1977 he became the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio at age 31. He
took over a city that was deeply in debt but, as these things
tend to go, was soon blamed for the city's financial crises.
The city tried to negotiate the renewal of $14 million worth
of notes held in local banks. A rollover, it's called, and it's
usual for banks to agree. Not this time.
The banks had a get-rich-quick scheme
up their sleeve. They wanted Mayor Kucinich to sell the city's
electric company, MUNY Light, to Cleveland Electric Illuminating
Company whose parent company nowadays is, you guessed it, First
Energy. Why did these bankers want that? Well, of the eleven
directors of Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, eight were
also directors of four of the banks. And five of the banks held
almost 1.8 million shares of CEI stock.
So the banks pushed the city into default
and Kucinich lost his next re-election bid because of First Energy's
greed. Oh, yes, greed. Because in the 1990s, the people of Cleveland
woke up to the fact that Dennis Kucinich had saved them all a
ton of money. In 1998, the Cleveland City Council honored him
for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell
the city's municipal electric system," saying he had saved
Clevelanders more than 300 million -- that 300 million that they
would have paid to CEI if Kucinich had caved in. But he didn't.
That doesn't seem to be his style.
Yet Kucinich's run-ins with First Energy
don't end there. In March of last year, workers at the Davis-Besse
Nuclear Power Plant, also owned by First Energy, accidentally
discovered that leaking boric acid had created a football-sized
hole, 6 inches deep, in the head of the nuclear reactor, leaving
only a thin stainless steel lining, two-tenths of an inch thick,
which had begun to crack and bulge, to contain the nuclear reaction
inside. "[T]hat's not a lot of wiggle room between containment
and Kingdom Come," wrote William M. Adler in The Austin
Chronicle.
The plant's been closed, of course, while
it "fixes" things. Congressman Kucinich asked the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to revoke First Energy's operating license
for the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, at least until the outcome
of the criminal investigation against the plant. But the NRC
decided last month not to revoke the license. Why would they
decide that? Well, perhaps more puzzling (or is it all too clear?)
is why the NRC promoted Sam Collins, the Director of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation to a higher position in July -- Deputy Executive
Director for Reactor Programs. Collins was the management official
directly responsible for overseeing the Davis-Besse nuclear power
plant while its flaws went undetected. Apparently $450 million
worth of flaws, and counting. Three-and-a-half months before
the hole was discovered, Director Collins actually halted a government-ordered
shutdown of the plant, after First Energy Corporation pleaded
financial hardships, despite harsh criticism of his action from
within his own Office of Inspector General. Coincidence? Or do
the powers-that-be in Washington feel they want someone in charge
who will give proper consideration to the needs of big donors
to the Bush campaign, like First Energy. That's right, First
Energy donated $640,000 to the Bush campaign in 2000.
NYC's City Council estimates $750 million
lost in revenue to the blackout. Five deaths have so far been
blamed on it. Remind you of another sell-out, when a certain
mayor was asked to sell out his city for 15 million in city debts?
And he didn't? Except that this time, it looks like somebody
did.
When Kucinich re-launched his political
career in the mid-1990s, his campaign symbol was a light bulb.
His slogan: Light Up Congress.
Dr. Catherine Dong received her Ph.D. in government from Cornell
University. She has taught American politics and political ethics
courses at Pitzer College and Chapman University. She is currently
working on a book entitled, Practice Makes Perfect: Raising Your
Kids to Make It in America. She can be reached at: cdong@theboojum.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
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