posted 08-15-2003 02:48 AM            

Directed energy weapon test perhaps.
Posted here because it coincides with the beginning of the 'blackout'.

Items from various websites and talk radio:

IRS office employee claims they switched to backup generators at noon.
('Blackout' began at 4:15 pm)

http://www.nomorefakenews.com

Has lots of anomalies gathered.
eg: Supposed lightning strike to power plant story.
Employees present at the plant report clear skies, no lightning.

In my own words:
'This event had as much official BS "ready to serve" as the Reichstag Fire of 911 did.

JON RAPPOPORT http://www.nomorefakenews.com
>see my first report below, which mentions the possibility of a surge at the time the blackouts began....I'm sure there will be no official out-in-the-open investigation of this possibility, but there is a suggestion here of an external force of some kind applied against the grid....was there an attack??....naturally, Homeland Security took about five minutes at most to assure everyone there was no terrorism here....but I'm not talking about about somebody setting off a bomb at a power station (although one witness in New Jersey claims he saw a power station on fire)....if there was an attack, it would have been sophisticated....never dismiss the chance of "disaster as theater" planned and executed to cause disruption in the infrastructure and lives of people....<

posted 08-15-2003 07:52 AM            

>Hey guys!! We survived in the metro NYC area. Some of the parts are still without power. Ours went back on but not full strength at about 3 this morning. Thank God we were all home at the time. My husband's business is out of JFK airport. He went in this morning to see what he can do. There is still no power so the planes are all off. It made for an interesting night here.
I also wanted to mention this. In the book the Montauk Project. The authors came up with this theory that a time portal had been opened because of the experiments they were doing out there. It is cyclical and happens on a twenty year cycle. It came to fruition on August 12th. Now I wouldn't of thought anything about this but *(shatoga) posted that map of LI where there was a burst of energy. (that is where I live) I was out in Montuak as some of you know for two weeks. There is a lot of government activity going on there. And I mean a lot. I realize that the date is off but the portal could have been opened to other things. Plus Gruman and other government agencies are working here.
They did start chem trailing right after the outage. I wish my digital wasn't being repaired.
Strange days ahead my friends. I will post if I notice anything else.<

posted 08-15-2003 10:53 AM            

However, it seems that the looped radar images cover the times from 00:12 Aug 15 to 00:52 Aug 15. There are many frames unavailable too.

Also curious just where exactly Montauk is?

and,
here's the first paragraph and link to the story written by Greg Palast regarding the blackout.

Power Outage Traced To Dim Bulb In White House
--- The Tale Of The Brits Who Swiped 800 Jobs From New York, Carted Off $90 Million, Then Tonight, Turned Off Our Lights

by Greg Palast; August 15, 2003

posted 08-15-2003 12:17 PM            

From: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/index

The blacked-out blackout.

Burning transformer on 14th street, lightning strike in Niagara, failed power plant in Pennsylvania, failed power plant in Ohio, problems west of Ontario; we are into day two of the great northeastern blackout of 2003 and nobody knows exactly what went wrong. But two things are clear.

First: Despite the lessons learned in 1965 and 1977, the power infrastructure of the United States is a delicate and fragile system that can be taken down by a single point failure. It is hard to claim to be a world leader when one cannot keep the lights on. We are a first world nation with a third world power supply.

Second: Our much vaunted Homeland Security Department is as much in the dark about what happened as anyone else, if you'll pardon the pun. Had the blackout actually been a terrorist attack, the HS boys would still be scratching their heads, unable to locate the problem, let alone decide how to fix it. And this means that with all their spy cameras on we the people, the "peek-a-boo" scanners that see through our clothes at the airports, the covert searches of our computers and homes, the Homeland Security people are looking in the wrong places, because today we know the homeland ISN'T secure, and that fact caught the Homeland Security people completely by surprise. Just think about it. For all their peeking into our mail, banking transactions, and posing with guns and uniforms at airports, the Homeland Security people were caught off guard by the blackout. Which means that if it HAD been a terrorist event, Homeland Security would have failed their primary mission, indeed HAVE failed their primary mission, which is to identity ALL points of vulnerability in the nation and secure them against attack, not just spy on the citizens to make sure they are not unhappy with the current leadership.

The blackout has taught us all a lesson. We are not secure. We may have shiny new locks on the front doors but the foundations of the nation are cracked and rotted. The roads are falling into disrepair, the power grid has become unreliable, mail service has slowed down, schools do not teach, emergency rooms close, the internet is clogged with viruses and worms; each and every one of these problematic infrastructures is a threat to Homeland Security, and all are being ignored by the people who take our tax money and use it to watch us, while claiming to be concerned for the security of the nation.

Well, the nation is NOT secure. This blackout may not have been an act of terrorism, but it proves that such an act was not only possible but capable of producing a wide area result. and yet the department of Homeland Security has never once taken steps to make the power system more able to survive single-point failures. Nor for that matter have we seen the Homeland security people give more than a passing glance at the MSBlast worm ripping through the internet as I type this. Homeland Security hasn't made the homeland more secure. It just spies on the citizens. Which proves the Department of Homeland Security is really not about protecting the people, but merely keeping an eye on them.

posted 08-15-2003 03:42 PM            

well that seals it...he's just a bitchin' bush basher...what an idiot...2 years plus 911 2 tax cuts a war koreans filibustering democrats and all that...and this idiot still questions bushs' leadership...

can you say BLIND !

from what I understand now private companies have not been putting money into infrastructure...hardly a government thing...

posted 08-15-2003 06:33 PM            

Decision to post or not to post is solely at the discretion of What Really Happened.

posted 08-16-2003 07:48 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by the professor:
I bet it is Bush's fault,...

---

What a refreshing change from over 8 years of everything from floods, tornadoes, etc.
being Clinton's fault!

Thank gawd our dear Dubya has fixed everything!

eg- All those tax dollars Clinton wasted in needless air intercepts: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/augusta/stories/102599/payne.html
>Monday October 25, 1999
Air traffic controllers couldn't raise anyone by radio.
Fighter jets were sent after the plane and followed it for much of its flight...
An Air Force F-16 fighter jet from Tyndall, Fla., was diverted from a routine training flight to check out the jet, Air Force officials said. Two F-15 fighters from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., then took over to follow it and they later handed off the monitoring to two Air National Guard F-16s from Tulsa, Okla. <

Our dear Dubya is firmly in control!
We can rest easy knowing we have a steady hand guiding our nation.

We may get confused and lost in the "Northwoods" from time to time,
but the real power in Amerika...

Can be always be relied on.
to take proper actions, at the proper time.

eg- power failure?
Funnel a few hundred million to the contractors who contributed to the Bush campaign.
They have already proven;
they can FIX anything!

Replies to off topic comments which deserved their' own topic,
are posted in:

"USA's Democracies? we've built overseas" http://www.chemtrailcentral.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/001346.html

posted 08-16-2003 12:54 PM            

Definately NO ACCIDENT.

It orginated in Canada.

They had hoped it would reach all the way down to DC.

It was someone there with illuminati connections.

They are trying to delay the inevitability.

To be revealed soon.

posted 08-16-2003 05:59 PM            

By Greg Palast
8-15-03
http://www.rense.com/general40/blc.htm

"Californians have found the solution to the deregulation disaster: re-call the only governor in the nation with the cojones to stand up to the electricity price fixers. And unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gov. Gray Davis stood alone against the bad guys without using a body double. Davis called Reliant Corp of Houston a pack of "pirates" --and now he'll walk the plank for daring to stand up to the Texas marauders."

posted 08-18-2003 03:56 AM            

Copyright Joe Vialls. 16 August 2003

As most of the world now knows, at precisely 16:11:09 on Thursday 14 August
2003, every electrical device dependant on overhead or below ground power
lines, went completely dead in New York and across most of eastern America and
Canada. So sudden was the massive resistance to flow through the eastern
electrical grid, that 9 nuclear and 13 other power stations were forced into critical
shutdown, and 7oil refineries stalled in the middle of the catalytic cracking
process. Within minutes, millions of people felt bewildered and alone, with
many suffering severe flashbacks to the events of 11 September 2001.

Caught completely unawares, the Bush administration said the shutdown had
been caused by a power station ""fire", a claim swiftly rebutted by the power
utilities. Desperate to deflect public attention away from the possibility of an "
attack" on America, the Bush Administration then said the shutdown was due to
a "lightning strike" at Niagara Falls, a claim immediately scoffed at by the
Canadian Government, which pointed out there wasn´t so much as a single wisp
of cloud within 100 nautical miles of Niagara.

While the pointless political name-calling continued, American media crews
were busy relaying television images of blacked-out New York to the rest of the
world. But as the hours ticked by, an extraordinary and very telling fact
became increasingly obvious: Despite the reality that helicopters are by far the
best camera platforms for wide-angle shots of this staggering historical event,
not one of the more than 100 night-flying-equipped news helicopters based in
the New York area was flying.

With the tantalizing prospect of "exclusive" aerial night shots showing car
headlights snaking out of New York as far away as New Jersey, no media network
would ground its helicopters unless ordered to do so by the Department of
Homeland Security. By 22:00:00 on Thursday 14 August 2003, all fixed wing and
rotary aircraft in eastern America were on the ground, with the exception of two
dimly-lit F-15C Eagle interceptors discreetly patrolling the airspace between
New York and Washington, DC.

Unaware of the Department of Homeland Security´s unannounced shift to a
full-blown war footing, millions of New Yorkers started to feel a little of the
same pressure deliberately exerted on the people of Iraq since the illegal
American invasion started in late March. With an ambient temperature of 93 degrees
Fahrenheit, more than a million dazed New Yorkers shuffled along the dusty
streets, while tens of thousands more remained trapped underground in the subways,
where temperatures easily exceeded 100F.

Children cried aloud with fear and thirst, while adults pretended to be
brave, their hearts pounding furiously at the real prospect of being mugged or
raped in the dark by one of New York´s many ruthless and heavily armed street
gangs.
It was scary, but nothing like the real thing in Iraq. There were no cluster
bombs spreading blood and body parts across the tall New York skyscrapers, no
cannon or heavy machine gun shells shredding innocent women and children
sitting in their parked cars, and no GAU-8 depleted-uranium rounds designed
explicitly to contaminate hospital wards and the nation´s critical stocks of baby
formula.

Despite these obvious omissions, the total power shutdown was probably enough
of a "first warning" to teach everybody that an America without electrical
power is an America in chaos, and an America without electrical power is a
nation wide-open to invasion and conquest, no matter how many citizens would
prefer to remain in denial.

Perhaps the whole experience and the scientifically impossible "cascade"
effect was caused by a few high voltage cables becoming overloaded with dust, or
was merely the cumulative result of a power grid badly in need of an upgrade.
No-one with a brain believes that of course, because at the precise time of
the shutdown, grid loading had decreased significantly, in the "dip" between
noonday business use and the next peak around 7 p.m., when most families turn on
their air conditioners and cook the evening meal.

It seems quite probable that the next shutdown will be the final warning,
with New York and the rest of eastern America deprived of power for up to a
month. Exactly how this might be achieved will be thought by many to be science
fiction, though there are a few pointers in a report I wrote and posted on the
Internet on 11 September 1998, exactly three years to the day before the World
Trade Center was demolished. Here is an extract from that 1998 report:

" ...Say, for example, that the American megalomaniacs were planning to bomb
another hundred thousand Iraqis into instant bloody oblivion, the Munich Group
might send a telex or facsimile to an unlisted number deep within the US
Department of State, suggesting such action would be considered extremely bad
manners, and if it was not cancelled immediately, the electrical supply to the
entire eastern seaboard of America would be disrupted, causing incalculable damage
to property and commerce in the megalomaniacs' own back yard.

"Believing such a threat to be impossible, this first warning would normally
be ignored by the megalomaniacs, in which case the Munich Group might send
another cryptic message two or three days later: "Watch Auckland, New Zealand,
very carefully". Exactly one hour after this message rolled off the facsimile
machine Omega might direct a standing wave at the exact resonant frequency of
copper, across the underground cables connecting the major power stations to the
business districts of Auckland.

"With the exact level of invisible resonant energy calculated in advance,
the electromagnetic properties of the particles in the copper cables would
change immediately, creating infinite resistance and blocking the flow of
electricity to the city. Chaos would reign supreme. Weeks later when the world's top
electrical engineers examined huge sections of the cable in the laboratory they
would find nothing wrong with it, simply because there was nothing wrong with
it.

"The resonant blocking effect used locally in New Zealand would leave no
visible signs of damage. In this way the American Department of State might be
convinced, solely by the grim demonstration in New Zealand, that it should spare
a hundred thousand innocent Iraqi lives... "

Naturally it is up to every person to make their individual minds up about
the actual cause of the total electrical shutdown on 14 August 2003, and those
interested in the Nikola Tesla aspect of the catastrophe might like to read the
full 1998 report, by clicking on the castle door below.

posted 08-18-2003 05:21 PM            

Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout

Special to World Tribune.com
Monday, August 18, 2003

Al Qaida's Abu Hafs Brigades has claimed responsibility for the blackout last week in the Northeast and Midwest United States. A communiqué by the Abu Hafs Brigades made reference to Operation Quick Lightning in the Land of the Tyrant of this Generation."

It was published as "the third communiqué by the "Brigades."

In the first, they accepted responsibility for the downing of an airplane in Kenya. The second accepted responsibility for the Jakarta bombing of the Marriott hotel on August 5, 2003.

The new communiqué says that in compliance with the orders of Osama bin Laden to strike at the American economy, the Brigades struck two important electricity supply targets on the East coast, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute. The Brigades say that they cannot reveal how they did it, because they will probably have to use the same method again soon. The communiqué also claimed that the operation was meant as a present for the Iraqi people.

The following are excerpts from a report by the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat about the communiqué: [1]

The Blackout was 'a Realization of bin Laden's Promise to Offer the Iraqi People a Present'
"A communiqué attributed to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the power blackout that happened in the U.S. last Thursday, saying that the brigades of Abu Fahes Al Masri had hit two main power plants supplying the East of the U.S., as well as major industrial cities in the U.S. and Canada, 'its ally in the war against Islam (New York and Toronto) and their neighbors.'

"The communiqué assured that the operation 'was carried out on the orders of Osama bin Laden to hit the pillars of the U.S. economy,' as 'a realization of bin Laden's promise to offer the Iraqi people a present.'

'The Americans lived a black day they will never forget'
"The statement, which Al-Hayat obtained from the website of the International Islamic Media Center, didn't specify the way the alleged sabotage was carried out. The communiqué read: 'let the criminal Bush and his gang know that the punishment is the result of the action, the soldiers of God cut the power on these cities, they darkened the lives of the Americans as these criminals blackened the lives of the Muslim people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. The Americans lived a black day they will never forget. They lived a day of terror and fear… a state of chaos and confusion where looting and pillaging rampaged the cities, just like the capital of the caliphate Baghdad, and Afghanistan and Palestine were. Let the American people take a sip from the same glass.'

'The U.S. will not Live in Peace until Our Conditions are Met'
"It added: 'we heard amazing statements made by the American and Canadian enemies which have nuclear physics universities and space agencies, that lightning hit and destroyed the two plants. And we are supposed to believe this nonsense. If the blackout occurred in one or two cities, their lie would have been credible. But the fact is that the blackout hit the entire East and part of Canada.'
"The communiqué continued: 'one of the benefits of this strike is that the U.S. will not live in peace until our conditions are met, such as releasing all the detainees including Sheikh Omar Abdulrahman, and getting out of the land of the Muslims, including Jerusalem and Kashmir.'

"The authors of the communiqué said that the strikes aimed at 'hitting the major pillar of the U.S. economy (the Stock Exchange)… [and] the UN, which is opposed to Islam, and is based in New York. It is a message to all the investors that the U.S. is no longer a safe country for their money, knowing that the U.S. economy greatly relies on the trust of the investor…'

'The Gift of Sheikh Osama bin Laden is on Its Way to the White House'
"The communiqué mentioned that some economists said the blackout in the U.S. and Canada would cost the U.S. Treasury no less than ten billion U.S. dollars and in order to 'break the hearts of U.S. officials, just know that the cost paid by the Moujahideen to sabotage the power plants was a mere seven thousand dollars. Die of sorrow!'
"The communiqué ended with: 'we tell the Muslims that this is not the awaited strike, but it is called the war of skirmishes (to drain the enemy), and that the American snakes are enormous and need to be consumed and weakened to be destroyed. We tell the people of Afghanistan and Kashmir that the gift of Sheikh Osama bin Laden is on its way to the White House; then the gift of Al Aqsa, and do we know what is the gift of Al Aqsa, where and when? The answer is what you are seeing!'

published in English on Dar Al-Hayat website, August 18, 2003, http://english.daralhayat.com/arab_news/08-2003/Article-20030818-14bdd659-c0a8-01ed-0079-6e1c903b7552/story.html

posted 08-18-2003 05:37 PM            

Al Qaida? Come on!!! Oh..wait Al qaida = CIA. That's right.

Nope my story IS correct.

The "blackout" was caused by illuminati stooges to set forth a precedence for a new HUGE taxing mechanism.

Their plan worked.They are already taking about spending Billons of dollars to "fix the problem".Guess who will pay for it?

But don't take my word for it.

Just look at the frightened sheeple and how they voted in this poll....
http://www.cnn.com/POLLSERVER/results/5292.content.html

Yep..your illuminati buddies at work Seeker.

posted 08-18-2003 05:52 PM            

something minor caused a major problem...

or it would have been a week or longer to get the power back...

>>>new tax<<<

posted 08-18-2003 06:04 PM            

If you don't want to face reality that's fine. I know how this illigitimate govt operates.

By the way....

BOOGA BOOGA!!!!!

Give up all your rights!!!!Or USAma will get you!

posted 08-19-2003 05:00 AM            

FURTHER UPDATES ON THE GREAT BLACKOUT

AUGUST 19. I now have a number of credible reports from people within the area of the blackout. These reports indicate that car radios went out just prior to, or as, the blackout started. Also, I have reports of people in three different states---Ohio, Michigan, and New Jersey---hearing sounds like thunder about the time the blackout began. One person in Ohio discovered two interesting things just after the outage descended: a digital clock in the house which had a fairly new battery suddenly displayed a series of non-numerical symbols instead of the time; and the fuse box was too hot to touch.

In light of these reports---and the failure of the mainstream press to take notice of them---we now have to inquire into the failure of many cell phones in the affected areas. This has casually been explained as a “jamming” caused by too many people making calls at once.

One witness in Toronto states that as she and many other people stood outside during the initial evening hours of the blackout, planes were heard flying overhead and the effects of chemical spraying were felt---stinging eyes, etc.

The fact that electronic devices not connected to the power grid went down or behaved strangely points to an event that took place outside the grid and affected it.

What would that event be?

So far, no sources report significant solar flare activity, although I have a statement that an ACE satellite, which monitors solar activity, stopped relaying data shortly before the blackout. Such a satellite is obviously built to function in the face of solar flares so it can register and transmit data.

However, all in all, the most compelling explanation for the blackout is a directed and intentional electromagnetic pulse originating from outside the power grid. There is no other way to describe such a pulse than as a weapon.

We come to the official investigators’ description of the ten-second happening that supposedly triggered the whole blackout. It occurred within the Lake Erie loop portion of the grid, and it involved “an oscillation.” More specifically, 300 megawatts of electricity flowing eastward suddenly turned into 500 megawatts flowing west. As a result, many parts of the system shut down, to avoid damage to equipment.

I have been seeking assessments about these ten seconds. Is it an unusual happening? Yes. Why did it take place? Was it because, as the official investigators suggest, some power generator behind the 300 megawatts suddenly failed. “creating a vacuum”---and because electricity takes the path of least resistance, those megawatts promptly turned around and filled the vacuum behind them?

Apparently, there are canceling safeguards to keep such a thing from happening. Further, a turnaround of 800 megawatts total and 180 degrees in direction is a HUGE event. One that most likely would not be explained by other than some external force applied to the grid from the outside.

A power engineer has suggested I think about these ten seconds using the analogy of a car. I am driving down the highway at a fast clip and then suddenly I’m driving the opposite way at an even faster clip.

If we infer that an electromagnetic weapon was used last Thursday, we can ask, WHO BENEFITS?

Well, there are many levels of answer. But, as I have been writing for the last several days, at one level the beneficiaries are those corporate and government leaders joined together at the hip who are re-creating the whole power industry in the atmosphere of so-called “deregulation.”

Energy Secretary Abraham has awakened from his slumber long enough to put a $50 billion price tag on rebuilding the grid to make it thoroughly modern.

On its face, I find this estimate fatuous. If we really have been laboring under a “Third-World grid” all this time, we would already have had a number of nationwide blackouts.

Even the lead investigator, Mr. Gent, rejects that derisive characterization of the grid.

No, the billions of dollars are going to form a gift for power utilities and construction firms that have friends in high places. To say nothing of energy traders who deal, every day, in buying and selling energy futures.

One of those friends is George Shultz. George is a master fixer and negotiator in the political realm. He has recently been moved in to bring Arnold S up to speed on “economic issues” in the CA gubernatorial campaign.

CA, of course, has been hit very hard by corporate energy pirates, and George, as a former secretary of state and, more importantly, the head of Bechtel---a giant construction firm that specializes in power facilities---is going to move CA toward a future of more energy building and re-building projects.

Government gifts and consumer rates will fund these projects. The consumer will not be treated to lower energy bills.

The blackout was a perfect op for setting up a “money oscillation” in the direction of private corporations who want to build new energy projects.

On August 18, Bloomberg Financial News reported that, “for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., North America’s biggest power failure may validate their bet on the $13 billion-a-day energy trading market.”

This trading market registered a brief upward spike in prices of 800 PERCENT following the blackout.

A commodities trader interviewed for the article predicted that, in the next 20 years, such blackouts will be the norm.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs can only hope.

We should realize that many of the bonds, the sale of which are currently keeping the state government of CA from declaring bankruptcy, are underwritten by Goldman. This means Goldman is guaranteeing the bonds will be sold to its customers---and so they have been.

Now, Goldman is ALSO, in various ways, underwriting the future of energy companies in CA.

Do you think Goldman perceives a connection between its underwriting the state government and the energy companies?

The success of the latter helps insure the success of the former.

There is, in all this, an immense boondoggle underway.

I have, in front of me, an as-yet unconfirmed statement that, on the day prior to the blackout, “the share trading volumes and price appreciation moves in stocks” of various companies that would see upward stock-price spikes in the event of such a blackout showed some interesting activity. That would not surprise me. It would be one more vector in the boondoggle.

Bases on the evidence so far available to me, I’m making the judgement that the August 14 blackout was an intentional event.

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com
*** http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=489
Few Lessons Learned from California's Energy Debacle
SACRAMENTO, CA -- Closed door negotiations continue between California's Democratic Governor Gray Davis and executives at the state's two big utilities. At issue: how much tax-payers and rate-payers will have to pay for the Golden State's failed experiment with electricity deregulation. The utility companies say they need $10 to $12 billion to keep the lights on this summer -- and right now it looks like law-makers will play along. Across the board, California consumers already pay the highest rates in the nation. And now their rates may go up again.
The state's two big utility companies, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, say they need a multi-billion dollar, consumer-financed bailout to stave off bankruptcy. Edison and PG&E insist they can't afford the current wholesale price of electricity -- which is 10 times the price it was when the utilities were regulated monopolies. That was before they sold off their power plants to out-of-state companies like Texas-based Enron and Duke Energy of North Carolina.
But consumer advocates are quick to point out that both big utilities have unregulated subsidiaries that are making record profits. "These companies have plenty of assets," says Doug Heller of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "They could bail themselves out."
Meanwhile, PG&E has moved to erect a firewall between its power-producing subsidiary, PG&E National Energy Group, and its money-losing utility company. PG&E National Energy Group owns more than 30 power plants in 10 states and is making tremendous profits by selling to its own utility company at grossly inflated rates.
"The idea that the utilities are somehow the victims of deregulation is patently ridiculous," Heller says. "Utility lobbyists wrote the deregulation legislation and have benefited mightily from it."
Further evidence of public manipulation comes from the global investment firm Credit Suisse First Boston, which sent a memo to its clients saying the California's rolling blackouts were not caused by shortage, but by the utilities themselves. According to the document, the blackouts were "intended to soften up the legislature and the voters to the need for rate increases." Shortly after the memo was leaked to the press, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter urged investors to buy the utilities' stock, upgrading PG&E's rating to "outperform."
President George W. Bush is an outspoken proponent of deregulation. It's no coincidence that the natural gas giant Enron, gave the Republican Party more than $1 million last year, and the company is the president's biggest lifetime campaign contributor. http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=3328
Most telling, perhaps, was the Merrill official's portrayal of financial institutions' strange attraction for Enron's scheme. "Enron was a very aggressive client," Martin testified. The company was "recognized by everybody in the U.S. and perhaps globally from Wall Street to government to consulting to academia as the future way that American companies would be run We were focused on working with them as a seeming industry leader."
Enron "the future way that American companies would be run" was the ultimate expression of the global economic model that the U.S. government, and later, the World Bank, has been pushing since the dawn of Reaganomics in the early 1980's. Enron's rise accompanied heavy-handed efforts by U.S. and World Bank officials to pry open developing countries' energy sectors to foreign corporate control.
------------------------
Posible solution?
------------------------
Reassert Democratic Authority over Electric Utilities and other Natural Monopolies: It is well known that Enron played a pivotal role in bringing about the deregulation of electricity in California that, in turn, provoked an energy crisis in that State. By exerting political influence over state legislatures, Congress and state and federal regulators Enron was able to effectively remove government oversight of its own trading and marketing practices. By removing government oversight, Enron ensured it would be able to make far more money trading energy than it could by actually producing electricity at a power plant. By manipulating both prices and supply of electricity, Enron was able to gouge consumers in California and reap billions of dollars in revenues and profits.
Despite the California fiasco, the Bush Administration has gone ahead with the wholesale deregulation of energy utility markets and promoting the construction of new power plants throughout the country.

***
THE BLACKOUT SHELL GAME

AUGUST 17. Former Energy Secretary and Governor of New Miexico, Bill Richardson, is geting a lot of TV face time as he expounds on the US electricity problem.

Richardson says we're a superpower with a Third-World grid. We aren't building enough transmission capacity.

From his comments, one would think that last Thursday's blackout was caused by a drain on the system. You know: heat wave, too many air conditioners going.

In fact, according to investigators, that was not the case at all. There was plenty of energy available in the US.

But Richardson's comments do assist "a new agenda." Get major federal bucks and give them to private energy companies so these companies can undertake new construction projects.

Of course, don't expect electricity rates for the consumer to drop. More electricity built into the hopper has nothing to do with what people pay.

It's a boondoggle. A private company makes profit on every federal dollar it receives.

A current Quickvote poll on the Internet reveals that 64 percent of Americans would be willing to shell out more taxes to improve the energy grid. So the hustle is working. The blackout is having the desired effect.

Meanwhile, George Shultz, fixer supreme, is doing "a Reagan" on Arnold S. George was brought in when Reagan entered the presidential primaries in 1980. Bill Casey, who would go on to become head of the CIA, was Reagan's campaign manager, and Bill perceived that Reagan needed some serious help on economic policy. Bill, a pal of George, called George in, and a meeting with Reagan was arranged.

George came away from that meeting shaking his head. Reagan was very vague and nearly clueless in the economic arena.

So George gave Reagan a crash course and brought him up to speed.

Now George is at it again, with yet another actor running for public office. Arnold will learn all about corporate-government partnerships---as in, government gives out the money, and companie suck it up and pocket a "reasonable" amount.

California will supply some of that government money, and the feds will supply some.

Now that the blackout has occurred, we magically have a very promising scene for corporate welfare. The CA grid.

No one will revisit the energy heist that occurred in CA when deregulation was enacted. No. Instead, transmission lines and generators and power stations and every single thing that can be built or rebuilt will go on the wish list.

If you had to stage an event that would create amensia in the public mind about that CA energy heist, you could not have done any better than last week's blackout. It was perfect.

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com
_____ ___ ____________________

the prophet Orwell never understood how close he came to the truth.
(or/ who was in the white House in 1984?) www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/ www.gerenser.com/1984/ www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/1984/

Newspeak/Newtspeak

TIME.com: TIME Magazine Archive -- Newtspeak For Neophytes -- Oct ...

"Oct. 22, 1990 Newtspeak For Neophytes By PAUL GRAY/ Newt Gingrich, the House Republican whip, is the street-fighting man of politics. ... "
www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1101901022-152859,00.html

TIME.com: TIME Magazine Archive -- Newtspeak For Neophytes -- Oct ...
"2 minutes left in checkout. YOU ARE PURCHASING: Newtspeak For Neophytes By PAUL GRAY/ 102 Words. Pay Per View. Purchase individual ... "
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/buylink/0,11397,1101901022-152859,00.html

NewtSpeak
"NewtSpeak - Gingrich's 'Language, A Key Mechanism of Control'. How can you tell if someone is speaking for themselves or just parroting ... "
www.beachonline.com/newtspeak.htm

Questions For Our Times
" ... - shame on who? Propaganda wars - NewtSpeak, and how you can tell when they're lying Trust, Faith and Lies - the radical religious right will stop at nothing. ... "
www.beachonline.com/questions.htm

Speech 450 (Propaganda)
"Speech 450. Propaganda. Newtspeak: Conservative Touts Helpful List of Political Words by Marsha Mercer. Knoxville News-Sentinel, September 26, 1990, p. A12. ... "
http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/Mercer_re_GOPAC.html

Speech 450 (Propaganda)
" ... the People, etc. 1990 GOPAC Memo on Language Article on GOP list of 133 words Marcer Mercer on "Newtspeak" c. Transfer carries the ... "
http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/PropTechniques.html

Newspeak=Newtspeak
Orwellian nightmare/Fallwellian reality

Mech got it right
about the Goldstein=Bin Laden parallell.

Get your 30 minute hate
from O'Reilly on FAUX 'News"
or
Get your 3 hour hate
from Rush Limbaugh
On 'Clear Channel'
(never a more newspeak name for a propaganda outlet)

PROPAGANDA
(in the New World order)

Newtspeak incarnate:
"Language, a Key Mechanism of Control," http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/GopacMemo.html
19990 GOPAC memo on language
http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/NYTimesArtGopac.html http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/Mercer_re_GOPAC.html

"The words and phrases are powerful. Read them. Memorize as many as possible. And remember that like any tool, these words will not help if they are not used."

Gingrich is described in "The Almanac of American Politics" as "a politician of ideas: he spews forth theories and political analogies and phrases ... like a broken water main spews out water."

But rather than encouraging would-be Newts to seek out and articulate their own political theories and analogies, GOPAC sent a sort of simple-minded Cliff Notes. The underlying idea is that candidates don't need ideas; they need only emotionally charged words.

The words suggested for GOP candidates to use about themselves are warm and strong and vague. The candidates should be pro-flag, pro-children and pro-environment. They should be tough and listen and learn and help and lead. They should eliminate good-time in prison and be passionate about prosperity, workfare and reform.

posted 08-19-2003 10:01 AM            

It's basically handing control of our utilies into the hands of organized crime syndicates that will willingly rob the public blind.

It's anything but a free market solution.

posted 08-19-2003 09:07 PM            

****************

Ridge: Blackout Was 'Initial Test' for Homeland Security System
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
http://www.foxnews.com

INDIANAPOLIS — Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday last week's blackout was an "initial test" of new systems and partnerships with states designed to enhance the nation's response to crises.

Click to learn more... Click to learn more...
"The systems that were put in place, the means by which we communicate and share information that we have set up in our respective organizations to help one another if we need one another, were clearly tested that night," Ridge said during a meeting of the National Governors Association.

"Let's just call it an initial test of our relationship, and I think it worked pretty well."

Although state and local authorities shouldered most of the load in responding to the outage, Homeland Security teams stood ready to deploy.

One group was prepared to set up backup telecommunications networks so the federal government could manage police, fire and emergency services. But the primary networks did not break down.

"Clearly we still have additional work to do, but it demonstrated again the notion that the federal government has to partner with the states in order to maximize our ability to prevent a crisis or respond to a crisis," Ridge said.

During his public remarks, Ridge did not discuss heightened concerns that the nation's electricity grid and power plants might be vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, energy secretary during the Clinton administration, said Monday that Ridge should conduct an immediate assessment of security at plants and electricity grids, and develop a plan that includes "additional security assistance to the states."

Richardson stressed the need to improve security at nuclear plants.

posted 08-20-2003 04:19 AM            

Freshly in office, PA Governor Ridge whined and complained....
after a blizzard...
that help from the Clinton Administration was too slow.

Can you say "hypocrite"?

Clinton's FEMA people were then in the state,
helping locals to fill out necessary paperwork to get federal funds and resources.

Ridge took the cheap shot, as always.

(as US taxpayers picked up the bill- for PA, cutting taxes & services, (and) being unable to handle the situation, as a result.)

I was there.

Snow was waist deep, National Guard HummVees got stuck in snowbanks.
Us civilians with snowmobiles saved the day.

Americans, working together, no politics,
no greed for renumeration.
Just meeting a need as unpaid volunteers.

Political hacks like Ridge took credit for the work of real people.

(To whom he wouldn't even give the time of day)

posted 08-22-2003 10:03 PM            

THE MIDDLE-FINGER NEWS
For Now Saudis Get Blackout Payoff
Sticking It To The Poobahs
News So Hot You Can Fry Eggs
by Sherman H. Skolnick
skolnick@ameritech.net www.skolnicksreport.com www.cloakanddagger.ca
8-18-3

posted 08-28-2003 01:40 PM               

quote:

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CNN Breaking News Email

-- Major power outage hits south London, cutting subway service during evening rush
hour.

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