Wednesday, February 21, 2007

THE PUBLIC DEMANDS WE KEELHAUL !


Truth or Dare in Public Affairs... The "IDK"

What we need is good old keelhauling.

As long as the "Gang-of-Democrats" is proposing obsolete "Trial-by-Combat" methods of finding out whether their staffs have been lying to them for years, I suggest we reach back into the American Nautical past, and revive another obsolete method of examination, the good old keelhaul. (no- not the "Independent Safety Assessment"---sorry!)

If John Hall's chief of staff can be tied to a rope, and dragged beneath the intake ports of Indian Point at high tide, he can undoubtedly either uncover whatever hidden evils are down there with the zebra mussels, or , if he finds just Hudson River Goodyears down below, perhaps the time "below the surface" can motivate him to own up to not really believing 100% of the exaggerated scare stories about Indian Point, after all.

Either way, the public can be reassured, and widespread public concern that they were being shined-on by professional Chicken Little-ists can be finally and definitively be proven either right or wrong, by a different examination crew, and a different method, much deeper and more stringent than is habitually applied to political press agents.

Therefore it is with great solicitude for public sensibilities, and the expressed wishes of millions that their electric bills not be arbitrarily tripled, that I declare a RISING TIDE OF MOMENTUM for an Independent Democratic Keelhauling, ( ..an IDK...) to be held each week at the Indian Point dock, until the truth is finally brought to light (or all the Anti-Nuclear Democratic politicians quit, and go to live in Bahamas, near Anna Nicole's old place).

At any rate , tapes of the "IDK" will become collector's items, as well known demi-celebrity press-hacks puke, and grovel, admitting they had contempt for the American public for decades---( until the definitive "IDK").

Blog: WHITE NUCLEAR SNOWFLAKE - Get your quick ping button at autopinger.com!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

"BETTERING OUR LIVES"? OR POSTURING FOR AIR TIME?


Do we really need another O.J. Simpson trial?


Suppose I was an honest lawmaker (or a citizen), with concerns about the accuracy, the honesty, or the stringency of previous NRC inspections at Indian Point? Would I be out in the cold, stonewalled by a smug NRC "omerta" system?

Would I have no help , in my quest to understand the truth? Would there be no way to judge whether NRC performed as promised, or slacked off, allowing unseen dangers into our world? Would I be faced with complacent NRC inspectors, not aware of the needed depth, completeness, or stringency of NRC's relations with Indian Point ? Would I have nowhere to turn? Nowhere but writing new targeted one-of-a-kind legislation? Oddball, biased legislation amounting to a bill of attainder against a legally licensed functioning business? (a targeted bill in the National Socialist mold, un-American to the Nth degree, a partisan vendetta masked as "law"?) Some might say yes. But if there were no alternative, it might be necessary, right?

What if there were an existing group, doing that job already? An official group unknown, or overlooked by the freshman lawmaker? Well, yes, actually, there always has been. You see, NRC has an "Internal Affairs" department, just like any police force, and it's called the ACRS.

Woops!

Link to : http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/brochures/br0286/br0286.pdf "ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS"

This committee, a high level expert committee completely separate from the day-to-day routine of NRC inspections, exists under law to provide, amazingly enough, exactly the function John Hall and Chris Shays claim to be implementing with their punitive new bill-of-attainder, and does it long term, as a devil's advocate within NRC, to ensure the NRC process is sound, that its implementation is strict, and that its basis is purely scientific (not political). It's mission for 2005-2008 can be found at the link given above, and I'm happy to say that Dr. Bill Shack has just become its chairman, after a 25+ year career in aging degradation analysis, (allow me to quote): "His work has included measurement and modeling of residual stresses, fracture mechanics analyses of stress corrosion crack growth, assessment of leak-before-break behavior in piping systems, and fatigue of reactor materials. He was appointed to the ACRS in 1993." If anybody in the world can tell us that Indian Point is too old, and gonna blow, it ought to be Dr. Bill Shack, right?

But Does Dr. Bill think it's his mission to keep NRC honest on this ?...(I quote yet again): "The ACRS advises the Commission independently from the NRC staff on the safety and safeguards aspects of nuclear facilities and the adequacy of safety inspections. ACRS reviews and advises the Commission with regard to safety issues, the adequacy of proposed reactor safety standards, technical issues related to the licensing of plant designs, and other matters referred to it by the Commission. On its own initiative, may conduct reviews of specific safety-related items. Submits an annual report to the Commission commenting on NRC Safety Research Programs." Well, geeze, Louise, it seems that Dr. Bill and his oversight committee, are ALREADY DOING every single thing Shays, Hall, and the other newbies want to tell the public is not being done!!! Amazing!!!

Maybe Hall, had he known anything about the NRC, could have simply written Dr Shack a congressional request to check into the inspections done at Indian Point. Maybe he could have called him up. or visited his office. What could POSSIBLY ever be a motive for the "Dance with Me" author to ignore Dr. Bill Shack, and ACRS, and "Go Public" with a new vendetta bill, to pretend ACRS never existed??

Alas, dear readers, I have to let YOU decide that. I cannot read Chris Shays' mind, or John Hall's either. Could press coverage have played a part? Could one sided (anti-nuclear) staff research have blinded the honorable Congressmembers to what already was routinely tackling these problems?

Could a trumped up adversarial stance, used to garner anti-nuke votes have crippled the perpetrators, so that they ignored, bypassed, and suppressed information about an existing non-confrontational way to protect the public, or pretended it does not exist, and went on their own merry inexpert way to re-invent the wheel, with many many glorious sound bites, and headlines, so they can seem like heroes on the news, while really, all they were doing was ignoring the highly qualified people (Dr. Bill Shack) who were actually doing the job, without consulting newly elected ex-musicians who needed to look good to their fringe anarchist support base?

Or maybe there's some other explanation?
Well,,,, if there is.... We're waiting!

And tell me this: Does a one time only ISA, with non-expert members in it, stand a better chance of understanding the reality in 3 weeks, or does Dr Bill Shack's permanent expert office , with his 30 years of expertise, and their 30 years of expertise, and a mandate to look into the matter in an ongoing manner, with no cutoff point , stand a better chance of finding the truth, without an O.J. Simpson trial type media feeding frenzy clouding all the issues?

How did that O.J. Simpson trial turn out, anyway?
Think that it uncovered the truth?

Could it be that a "new O.J. Simpson trial" effect is exactly what Hall , Shays & the others are after?

Friday, February 16, 2007

MAYBE JUST ASK NRC ?




PSST: REP HALL: LOOK LIKE YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING !!

NRC just finished a CDBI vertical slice inspection of Indian Point on Thursday of this week. What that means, is NRC arrived, and demanded to see several systems, from the topmost FSAR description, all the way down through the most lowly switch, screw, nut and bolt, in excruciating detail, examining whether the safety functionality promised to the public in the FSAR, was indeed implemented by every single component in the system, 100% top to bottom, no substitutions, no "forgotten details" , no excuses, or "we were going to fix that up later" put-offs.

(The FSAR, or Final Safety Analysis Report, is part of a nuke plant's license. In it the operator explains just what he intends to do, in every single particular way, to keep the public safe. It is a ten volume set of very extensive and detailed promises. It took me about three months to read, and understand it...... any promise made, but not kept, means NRC can shut you down, no questions asked, no appeals, no supreme court to bail you out).

This vertical slice method was one third of the Independent Safety Assessment conducted by NRC on Maine Yankee plant in 1996 (which they just barely passed with a D-minus grade).
So.... one-third of the vaunted "Indian Point Independent Safety Assessment" was just completed on Thursday, and can either be believed, and used by John Hall, Maurice Hinchey, et al. to decide what they think about Indian Point, OR-- they can ignore it, get a lot more press time, and pass a law to ask NRC to do it again in 6 months.

The other parts of the Maine Yankee ISA, general operational compliance, and computer code compliance, have also been routinely tested at Indian Point, and if John Hall's research arm is a bit weak, or one-sided, all the Honorable Rep. needs to do , is post online that he would like me to point him to the existing test results, and I'll be happy to.

But he won't.

Why?

He is preaching to his old choir.
The skeptical-towards-government, but gullible-towards-urban-myths Jeff Rense anti-nuke crowd, all full of themselves with exaggerated factoid on exaggerated mythoid, proton-rays-from-your-lightbulb Helen Caldicott generation.
He needs to impress them with his strength, sternness, independence, and lack of co-optation by what they tell themselves is a corrupt electrical industry watched by a corrupt NRC. I have personally never ever seen a single hint of corruption in the NRC, who scare the living bejabers out of me with their stern professional demeanor, accurate penetrating questions, and willingness to follow the evidence where ever it goes, far beyond my usual comfort level. Entergy, the operator, is falling all over itself lately to be pro-people, pro-safety, pro-environment, and pro just about everything the enviro-anarchists used to claim as their own territory, even to the point where blogs have been seen, accusing Entergy of "stealing the green movement". These claims are 100% true. Entergy, with its expertise, its billion dollar financial clout, and its proactive longterm vision, has positioned itself to carry on the torch, just as Dr Caldicott & her "Anti" generation fall into paranoid babbling, and senile repetition, AND WHO BETTER TO DO IT?

Can Robert F. Kennedy jr light your houses for you? Short answer = NO.
Can 100,000 non-expert bloggers save the Hudson? Maybe--- given time (and Entergy finances).
Can Entergy act to save the Hudson? YOU BETCHA!
Has Entergy acted to save the Hudson? YEP, IN SPADES.
Question: If Entergy is not fooling, and really means it...WHY REJECT THE MOST POWERFUL AVATAR THE MOVEMENT HAS EVER HAD?
.
.
.

( This quiet time is intentionally injected, to allow contemplation of the preceding sentence.)
.
.
.
Which prompts my next proposition.
Go ahead. Chase Entergy away. Take your Hudson, with a closed, useless Indian Point STILL THERE, and ask Hall, Hinchey , Spano, and Cuomo-the-lesser to craft your 21st century lifescape for you.


Sound scary?
I'm getting "lousy future coming" goose bumps , even as I write!


And just in case I'm "spinning you up".... contemplate this: Name for me, a single instance of Hall, Hinchey, Spano, Lowey or Cuomo junior proposing a bond issue FOR A NEW POWER PLANT?

But what the hell, Honda makes a great gasoline powered generator for about $3000. Of course, your house power panel will have to be rewired (about $6000), and YOU provide the gasoline, the testing, the maintenance, etc., etc.

SO WHAT IS REALITY HERE ??

Well, my lights, and my oil burner are on right now!
and I haven't done a thing! ....(It's 17 degrees outside)

Thursday, February 15, 2007

HALL USES NRC AS CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEERS



Recognize the Song?
(Let me tell you why you do)

It astounds me how blithely a politician can ignore other peoples' efforts, and successes, and then attach their work to his own resume', as if they had never existed. John Hall, ignoring years of stringent NRC inspections of Indian Point, now regales his followers (and the news media) with what, pray tell? He proposes that NRC must inspect Indian Point, saying it is "crucial". Come again honorable congressperson?

Has not NRC been inspecting the self-same Indian Point for 35 years, telling you & me that it was safe enough? What part of "Safe Enough" is it that you misunderstand? The American national repository of safety expertise in the nuclear field--the NRC , repeatedly gave Indian Point suggestions on how to clean up their act, even shutting them down for 2 years in the 1990's to learn how to run safely. Indian Point complied, and NRC told them "OK , you are once again safe enough".

This is an ongoing work, with the needs of the American public in mind, making nuclear plants safer, chiding them, fining them, learning all their secrets, and John Hall had nothing to do with it. NRC is quite capable of finding out just what is right, or wrong about Indian Point, minus any piggy-back grandstanding by ex rock musicians with an old anti-nuke concert axe to grind.

Tell us, John, just how will your bill for one additional inspection change the ongoing process, 35 years on, that has been made up of several hundred inspections to date? Will your bill give new eyes to the NRC inspectors? New hands? New science, new intelligence? Have they not had their intelligence, their science, and their dedication all along? What an insult your bill is, to all the expert people of good will who have been actually doing the work that you now propose, as if new, as if every single victory they crafted in their careers, is nothing but a PR opportunity, for a newbie congressperson, only because the one time your name is on it, somehow this one last time, its gonna be the big one, the right one, the crucial one, the indispensable one, the one that America demands or else?

Maybe to journalists this is true. NRC just doing the real work, week after week, for decades, is not news. Indian Point, making our lives comfortable and safe, month after month, for decades, seems to be no story at all. But somehow, when 3 Democrats meet at a frozen kayak club, and say "We will force NRC to inspect Indian Point", somehow, this rises to the level of a mall shooting, or a celebrity divorce, and now all of us are told how "crucial" the activity is.

Well, yes. It is crucial. So crucial in fact, that NRC has dedicated itself to it for 30 years, and will continue doing it long after Mr. Hall returns to songwriting.

But this week, all that work is not theirs. Their part in it doesn't count, can't be believed, and is no news. This week all that work is suddenly John Hall's claim to fame. They say that 95% of new songs are somebody else's song, rewritten a little, and offererd up as new work. I say Mr. Hall is just lip-synching NRC's tune, and calling it "Dance With Me". It's not Hall's song, It's not Hall's life's work, it's NRC's work, and he has simply plagiarized it, and added his own sour notes, I might add.

Meanwhile kayaks or no kayaks, over at NRC, the long slow original song plays on.... ensuring that we are all safe, that Entergy toes the line, and that we have the electricity we need , also. That kind of harmony, blending reality, public safety, and public needs, is perhaps too sophisticated a symphony for Hall to comprehend. Perhaps novice music student Hall should book a few lessons with the concertmasters--- NRC.

Or perhaps a dozen anti-nuke Dr Jabberwockies would be best to do the job, misunderstanding 100% of what they see, full of hate and paranoia, deciding just how much electricity you and I , and our children may utilize, for the next 30 years? Perhaps we could all just camp out together, until 2040?

Blog: WHITE NUCLEAR SNOWFLAKE - Get your quick ping button at autopinger.com!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

HALL DECLARES: "LIFEBOATS ?--WHAT'S A LIFEBOAT ?"


Who said there would be lifeboats?

The 20-odd million people living in the soon-to-be-unaffordable Hudson Valley region need more than empty stunts, cooked up by devious and overanxious "activist advocates'" (paid press agents), in the pay of big charity, big oil, and antinuclear lobbyist foundations, and in turn, foisted on clueless Democratic electees as panaceas, without understanding, without any need, and in the end, without any possible viable result.

It seems that the paid antinuke lobby has settled on the "Independent Safety Assessment" as the next in a line of ostensibly serious proposals that all end up useless exercises in partisan attack futility. It is one thing to oppose policy from the sidelines, but it is quite another to be elected, and have the responsibility of making livable lives for your constituents, outside of any one-sided expectations on the part of the far right, the far left, or the far anti-nuclear fringe.

Just as bungled electric service negotiations are turning into major permanent rate hikes and tax hikes for the unfortunates living in Rockland county, are we to stand by mesmerized, while the same electoral stupidity begins to destroy infrastructure on the east shore, in attacking Indian Point power plant for no demonstrable reason, except that certain fringe political groups voted a "no nukes" line?

The no-nukes cadre was but a small minority in a fairly close majority voting Sue Kelly into retirement in favor of John Hall, and Hall made much of declaring he was "everyone's congressman"---- so now we demand to hear exactly what cause there is to begin to harrass Indian Point, and its mentor, Entergy, aside from promises perhaps rashly made at fuzzy-logic no-nukes concerts over twenty years, by a man who does not understand the area's big cities, the inner suburbs, the local job markets, the local near-suburban housing crunch, the need for blue collar work, and the urgency of the viable absorption of unknown tens of thousands of new arrivals, who are here for the long haul, and who cannot survive integration into American life as penniless marginalized peons, prevented from participation by ill-thought-out infrastructure-burning rampages, hatched in the name of 1980's rock'n'roll concert talk.

In the only other "Independent Safety Assessment" ever held, (Maine Yankee 1996) there seemed to be a glaring proximate cause---a smoking gun--- in an employee allegation of criminal wrongdoing. Without that allegation, which also implicated the NRC, no ISA ever would have happened a decade ago. Where is today's smoking gun? Where is the specific wrongdoing. It is much more than claiming Indian Point could be "Guilty until proven innocent", ..... it is a case in which our freshman congressrocker cannot even say WHAT Indian Point might be guilty of!

In the Maine case, in 1996, even the smoking gun claims were later found to be not true--- it just so happened that Maine Yankee was decrepit, understaffed, lax in almost every way, ignored by its corporate owners, and so it was put to a just and deserving death. And in the irony of ironies, the savior corporation called upon to send knowledgeable experts to Maine to complete the burial arrangements, was you guessed it--ENTERGY!! Entergy uncovered a host of FURTHER bad stuff at Maine Yankee, and correctly advised them to stay closed, and give up their license (which they eventually did).

At least in part from the glaring lessons learned in doing away with Maine Yankee, Entergy entered New York in 2000 with a healthy skepticism toward Indian Point, and began a long 7 year improvement plan, one still being followed today. Almost every area concentrated on by Entergy at Indian Point harks back at least in part to some laxity found at Maine Yankee, and therefore has been specifically targeted now for at least 7 years of ISA remediation at the New York plants, whether they needed it or not.

All this info is available to Hall, and tells him not only could nothing bad be found by an Indian Point ISA, but that it is at root a deception of the public, to act as if an ISA could do the public any good . It cannot. But it can help Hall, and a few other complicit cross-burners, because professionally organized antinuke fakery contributed at least some votes to all of them.

Bread & Circuses is, I'm afraid not enough here. What we need, all us 20 million forgotten souls (all of us who didn't meet at the concerts)-- what we need, is a concrete plan to build energy centers. Not study centers, actual viable electricity-producing power plants, to replace Indian Point's 2000+ megawatts, get them built, set up, and pumping on the grid--so that we can live here---- and I will be the first one to say , at that point, to Indian Point :....."Goodnight old gal, thanks for a fine half-century"

If nobody builds those plants, every single swipe at Indian Point , is a hatchet swipe on at least 15 million of us being able to afford to live here.
Mark my words. Its smoke and mirrors. Its bread & circuses. It's screw-your brother for a soundbite, but it is NOT responsible leadership.

It's like blowing up the Titanic first, so it won't hit an iceberg, and,
once in the icy water saying: "Lifeboats?"
"Who said there would be lifeboats?"

Monday, February 5, 2007

INDIAN POINT WHITE NOISE--FROM CHICKEN LITTLE


THE ANNOYING WHITE NOISE OF CHICKEN LITTLE

There's a small decal on gas pumps, that tells us of the dangers of gasoline. It tells us it's carcinogenic, that the fumes are caustic and will burn eyes, skin, or mucus membranes, and that it is extremely flammable, and can ignite from a cell phone ringing. If you're like me, you ignore it, and go on pumping. Afterwards we barrel down the highway at 80 mph, unconcerned to be sitting over a tank of napalm, so unconcerned in fact, that we talk on the phone, drink coffee, or even read the newspaper as we drive. So much for neurotic fear of a danger very close at hand, several times a day, every day of our lives. Mostly, we never curry any obsession over it, and just go on about our business, and nothing, in fact, ever happens.

If you've gotten a new electrical appliance lately, you'll be familiar with the multilingual manuals usually packed inside the boxes, where the first 12 pages are shock warnings, and hazard warnings, and admonitions to use safety glasses, or gloves, and to never, ever snip off the ground plug on the electric cord. After those annoying 12 pages, you finally get to maybe one page of how-to manual, and that's it, end of the book. Are you actually helped by those first 12 pages? Do you actually read them? I doubt it, and the very first thing I usually do, is get my cutting pliers, and remove that useless ground plug, so I can use the gizmo (whatever it may be) with my extension cords. Am I living life on the edge? Should all my insurance policies be immediately cancelled? Should normal people shun me, and cross to the other side of the street, to avoid coming within my circle of maximum risk?

Meanwhile, some celebrity in need of camera-time gets up on a podium, and starts warning me in dire tones, that there's mercury in flu vaccine, and that if I want to escape the curse of autism , I have to risk getting sick, because trying to protect myself is gonna kill me, so that the best thing I can do is carry a box of surgical gloves with me from October till May, and wear a face mask, and wipe down my credit card with 70% denatured alcohol after each use. Does anybody actually listen? And the ones who ignore it (my guess is about 98%).... are they dying like flies, from bird flu, or mercury ingestion, or dirty doorknobs? I don't have all the figures, but I've never heard anything about it either, so maybe it's bullshit, and nobody is being harmed. What's your take?

All these situations deal with more or less real cautions that have taken themselves much too seriously, overestimating their own negative point of view, and the public's need to hear it. In point of fact, all this urging is of great value to the person or organization warning us, but of zero value to us as citizens. The gasoline decal keeps the gas station owner from lawsuits, the 12 pages of electrical warnings keep the appliance maker from predatory litigation, and the celebro-activist gets needed exposure during slack months between movie deals, avoiding a "useless playboy" moniker by having "a cause".

Great for them.
Useless for us.


It is into THIS category, that I place all the pandering nonsense about closing Indian Point. It's great for an Andrew Cuomo to brand himself as pro-something-or-other, by threatening to close a facility that people depend on, do not worry about, are not afraid of, and ignore totally in their daily lives, except when tax time comes around, and they are struggling to make their nut, in the highest per capita taxation region of the world. So what is it that Cuomo is proposing for us all? That we get to like double taxes? That we learn to enjoy blackouts? That we get real used to turning off all that electronic gear we just bought, and leaving it off permanently, because he can't figure out how to build us a new power plant, but he CAN figure out how to shut the one we have now?

Who gains?
Short answer: Cuomo gets a sound byte.
Spitzer won't be governor forever. Proper positioning can pull in all Cuomo senior's IOU's, and Cuomo-the-lesser can become Guv in 8 years. THAT'S his motivation, not "public safety", not "terrorism", and certainly not truth.

Who loses?
Everybody but Cuomo, and half a dozen celebro-activists, who can dance around with a scalp on their spears. That scalp will look at first like Indian Point's scalp, but in the end it will be YOUR scalp, and mine, when this region shoots downhill into an unlivable, unaffordable hell-hole, suitable only for illegals, and the mega-rich.

Don't say you weren't warned.
I know, I know..... nobody's listening.

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Sunday, February 4, 2007

THE ANNOYING WHITE NOISE OF CHICKEN LITTLE


THE ANNOYING WHITE NOISE OF CHICKEN LITTLE

There's a small decal on gas pumps, that tells us of the dangers of gasoline. It tells us it's carcinogenic, that the fumes are caustic and will burn eyes, skin, or mucus membranes, and that it is extremely flammable, and can ignite from a cell phone ringing. If you're like me, you ignore it, and go on pumping. Afterwards we barrel down the highway at 80 mph, unconcerned to be sitting over a tank of napalm, so unconcerned in fact, that we talk on the phone, drink coffee, or even read the newspaper as we drive. So much for neurotic fear of a danger very close at hand, several times a day, every day of our lives. Mostly, we never curry any obsession over it, and just go on about our business, and nothing, in fact, ever happens.

If you've gotten a new electrical appliance lately, you'll be familiar with the multilingual manuals usually packed inside the boxes, where the first 12 pages are shock warnings, and hazard warnings, and admonitions to use safety glasses, or gloves, and to never, ever snip off the ground plug on the electric cord. After those annoying 12 pages, you finally get to maybe one page of how-to manual, and that's it, end of the book. Are you actually helped by those first 12 pages? Do you actually read them? I doubt it, and the very first thing I usually do, is get my cutting pliers, and remove that useless ground plug, so I can use the gizmo (whatever it may be) with my extension cords. Am I living life on the edge? Should all my insurance policies be immediately cancelled? Should normal people shun me, and cross to the other side of the street, to avoid coming within my circle of maximum risk?

Meanwhile, some celebrity in need of camera-time gets up on a podium, and starts warning me in dire tones, that there's mercury in flu vaccine, and that if I want to escape the curse of autism , I have to risk getting sick, because trying to protect myself is gonna kill me, so that the best thing I can do is carry a box of surgical gloves with me from October till May, and wear a face mask, and wipe down my credit card with 70% denatured alcohol after each use. Does anybody actually listen? And the ones who ignore it (my guess is about 98%).... are they dying like flies, from bird flu, or mercury ingestion, or dirty doorknobs? I don't have all the figures, but I've never heard anything about it either, so maybe it's bullshit, and nobody is being harmed. What's your take?

All these situations deal with more or less real cautions that have taken themselves much too seriously, overestimating their own negative point of view, and the public's need to hear it. In point of fact, all this urging is of great value to the person or organization warning us, but of zero value to us as citizens. The gasoline decal keeps the gas station owner from lawsuits, the 12 pages of electrical warnings keep the appliance maker from predatory litigation, and the celebro-activist gets needed exposure during slack months between movie deals, avoiding a "useless playboy" moniker by having "a cause".

Great for them.
Useless for us.


It is into THIS category, that I place all the pandering nonsense about closing Indian Point. It's great for an Andrew Cuomo to brand himself as pro-something-or-other, by threatening to close a facility that people depend on, do not worry about, are not afraid of, and ignore totally in their daily lives, except when tax time comes around, and they are struggling to make their nut, in the highest per capita taxation region of the world. So what is it that Cuomo is proposing for us all? That we get to like double taxes? That we learn to enjoy blackouts? That we get real used to turning off all that electronic gear we just bought, and leaving it off permanently, because he can't figure out how to build us a new power plant, but he CAN figure out how to shut the one we have now?

Who gains?
Short answer: Cuomo gets a sound byte.
Spitzer won't be governor forever. Proper positioning can pull in all Cuomo senior's IOU's, and Cuomo-the-lesser can become Guv in 8 years. THAT'S his motivation, not "public safety", not "terrorism", and certainly not truth.

Who loses?
Everybody but Cuomo, and half a dozen celebro-activists, who can dance around with a scalp on their spears. That scalp will look at first like Indian Point's scalp, but in the end it will be YOUR scalp, and mine, when this region shoots downhill into an unlivable, unaffordable hell-hole, suitable only for illegals, and the mega-rich.

Don't say you weren't warned.
I know, I know..... nobody's listening.

......

tags: cuomo nrc indian point defense hudson
Technorati Profile
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