itsmeeeeeee

these articles about electricity and nuclear waste spills are all very heavy on innuendo, while at the same time pointing out that obama's consumer protection intentions were, in fact, pretty damn honorable. using almost NOTHING BUT QUOTES FROM THE ARTICLES THEMSELVES:

"Consumer groups say he had a great record of backing the little guy against utilities when he was in the Illinois Legislature. Obama's spokespeople talk a good game about what he would do in the White House."

another example: the first article clearly states that according to the head of the illinois citizen utility board (a consumer protection agency) "He was one of our strongest allies in Springfield," Kolata says. "I can't remember a time when he was not on our side."

Obama once crossed his mentor, Jones, to oppose a bill increasing what incumbent phone companies could charge competitors leasing their lines, Kolata said. Phone outfits lobbied heavily for the measure, and "almost all Senate Democrats were convinced or forced to vote for it," he said. "State Sen. Obama sided with the consumer on that."

from the same article: "As a new member of the Illinois Senate in 1997, Obama voted for an electricity-deregulation bill that his staff says was supported by consumer groups and was far less than what power providers wanted."

...Obama thinks deregulation has gone too far and Washington has taken its eye off the ball.

"Obama believes that, due to a lack of oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, consumers have unrightfully been forced to deal with high spikes in electricity prices," says spokesman Ben LaBolt. He also "supports stepping up regulation of utility companies," as well as increasing home-heating assistance with a windfall-profit tax on oil companies, LaBolt said.

from the second article - also VERY heavy on innuendo:

"When residents in Illinois voiced outrage two years ago upon learning that the Exelon Corporation had not disclosed radioactive leaks at one of its nuclear plants, the state’s freshman senator, Barack Obama, took up their cause.

Mr. Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks."

"he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it," and goes on to say that in attempts to get the bill to pass he was forced to compromise, but that the bill was killed...

(i guess making an effort to at least make SOME progress, and get SOME improvements is a bad thing? and the fact that it still didn't make it through is all his fault!)

Mr. Obama “never discussed this issue or this bill” with Mr. Axelrod. The campaign acknowledged that Exelon executives had met with Mr. Obama’s staff about the bill, as had concerned residents, environmentalists and regulators. It said the revisions resulted not from any influence by Exelon, but as a necessary response to a legislative roadblock put up by Republicans, who controlled the Senate at the time.

“If Senator Obama had listened to industry demands, he wouldn’t have repeatedly criticized Exelon in the press, introduced the bill and then fought for months to get action on it,” the campaign said. “Since he has over a decade of legislative experience, Senator Obama knows that it’s very difficult to pass a perfect bill.”

Asked why Mr. Obama had cited it as an accomplishment while campaigning for president, the campaign noted that after the senator introduced his bill, nuclear plants started making such reports on a voluntary basis.

Nuclear safety advocates are divided on whether Mr. Obama’s efforts yielded any lasting benefits. David A. Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists agreed that “it took the introduction of the bill in the first place to get a reaction from the industry.”

Others say that turning the whole matter over to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as Mr. Obama’s revised bill would have done, played into the hands of the nuclear power industry, which they say has little to fear from the regulators. Mr. Obama seemed to share those concerns when he told a New Hampshire newspaper last year that the commission “is a moribund agency that needs to be revamped and has become a captive of the industry it regulates.”

On March 1, Mr. Obama introduced a bill known as the Nuclear Release Notice Act of 2006. It stated flatly that nuclear plants “shall immediately” notify federal, state and local officials of any accidental release of radioactive material that exceeded “allowable limits for normal operation.”

(does this sound like he's given up on the issue? like he's not trying? or remotely like he's an industry whore? damn him!)

the article goes on to say:

To flag systematic problems, it would also have required reporting of repeated accidental leaks that fell below those limits. Illinois’ senior senator, Richard J. Durbin, a fellow Democrat, was a co-sponsor, and three other senators, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, later signed on. But Mr. Obama remained its primary champion.

In public statements, Mr. Obama dismissed the nuclear lobby’s arguments that the tritium leaks posed no health threat.

“This legislation is not about whether tritium is safe, or at what concentration or level it poses a threat,” he said. “This legislation is about ensuring that nearby residents know whether they may have been exposed to any level of radiation generated at a nuclear power plant as a result of an unplanned, accidental or unintentional incident.”

Almost immediately, the nuclear power industry and federal regulators raised objections to the bill."

and as far as the third article?

well, all i can say is it sure sounds like a butt lot of sour grapes to me! a few people trying to ram candidacy petitions through with enough bad signatures on them to disqualify them, and woman who shot herself in the foot with her own indecision, etc.? i'm sure you could dig up a lot of these kinds of stories on anyone.

and in conclusion - to put a fine point on all this - all the articles reek of the kind of smear politics that have been going on which so many of us want get beyond.

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