Art Torres just raised the "Republicans caused the Energy Crisis" issue

[PurityOfEssence]

This was on Crossfire, where he quoted Pete Wilson (our own homegrown Dan Quayle) as being personally responsible for energy deregulation.

Hey RichM! Maybe the State Dems are going to do us all a favor.

(ON EDIT: Moving too fast with glee here...)

Art Torres is State Chairman. This was live on Crossfire in a shoutfest against the ever tiresome David Drier. Torres could interrupt a little less, though...)

[mitchtv]

1. yeah interrupting

a republican trait.

[xequals]

2. Art Torres rules

Torres is fire and brimstone, just the kind of Dem we need to lead the party. He easily dominates a debate -- took out Tweety easily the other day. Torres should be the head of the DNC instead of a loser like Terry McCauliff.

[PurityOfEssence]

3. Toughness is going to be the most important characteristic in this

Some of our state apparatchiks like Willie Brown are highly skilled and well-nigh ruthless.

Let's turn the whole thing into a "Republicans screwed us and now they want to benefit from their backfiring greed" shoutfest. The whole thrust of the election should be that the Republicans screwed the people at the behest of big energy, and now they want to blame the victims of their crimes. Let's hear Junior and Dick's name; let's make it megaugly.

[xequals]

4. Exactly

California is overwhelmingly Dem. We need to awake some partisanship by setting it up as Dems vs BushCo's right-wing corporate criminals. Not only will this help us with the California gubernatorial situation now, it will help us chip away at Bushco for 2004 without looking opportunistic since our candidates won't be involved in this.

[PurityOfEssence]

5. It's actually a golden (state) opportunity

We're the aggrieved party. They're attacking us. It's not like this is just an ordinary election, this one was a deliberate and specific attack by anti-pluralist forces to overturn the will of the people.

Couple that with the reality that the nazis are the selfish dicks who caused the problem in the first place, and then their Texas brethren took it upon themselves to opportunistically loot us in a fake crisis, and we have every right for outrage.

Creating the energy crisis by shutting down power plants and deliberately re-routing energy is despicable. Rerouting energy by claiming that transmission capacity was full when it wasn't is ILLEGAL, because it violates the "least expensive mode" concept. Refusing to intervene at the behest of Enron friends, Cheney and Bush paid back political favors at the expense of 15% of the country's population.

This was a fake crisis, just like the Iraqi crisis was baseless. It was done for financial gain for the few and has been deliberately misrepresented. We should cram it down their throats.

[julka]

10. you are EXACTLY right about that!

it's KEY to put them on the defensive.

Torres was on vs. Wilson a moment ago on CNBC.

he didn't do quite as well as he did against Mattews, but didn't get a whole lot of time.

he needs to have a few succinct soundbites to get in there, demonstrating the connection between Enron/Lay/Bush and the California energy crisis, and the deleterious effect it had on the Cal economy

talking/shouting points are in order.

set them out, then repeat them ENDLESSLY, just as they did to Clinton for eight years, and Gore for two. it WORKS, and continues to do so.
why do you think the creature at 1600 still enjoys ANY support at all.
Bernays, Goebbels, Deaver, Atwater, Rove, the unholy pantheon.

Torres, Brown, and their ilk are necessary, but in short supply

Bring on Barney Frank.....he never shrinks

who else?

[Blue_Roses]

6. Speaking of which

why is Terry McCauliff still the head of the DNC? We need new leadership all the way around.

[RichM]

7. Hey, POE, I'm truly glad to hear it!

Nothing would make me happier than to see that my worst fears will prove baseless.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. Never a doubt in my mind

Much as corporatism sucks, the promised land's a long way off, and I know you're eminently practical out there.

The Democrats are sort of like an awkward pet that you just want to see get its footing and run free. I think lots of us will be there to pull together in the face of the idiocy and hatred of the unswervatives.

Simple math will help: they don't have the numbers; even with discipline, they have to get all of their base and most of the crossover while also depressing the disenfranchised into their general stance on non-participation. They might get a wake-up call.

Gore ran a botched campaign, got mercilessly slagged, was outspent and outmaneuvered by an operation that had the press in its pocket, and still he won.

That big huge landslide of '02 was 2% of the Senate (where I think they stole Georgia and killed/stole Minnesota) and far less than 2% in the House. Ooooooh! They've pulled their tricks and they've peaked too early. Too many people have been too hurt.

As for the recall, who knows? It's definitely an absolutely golden opportunity to rip 'em to shreds. They started it.

I wonder what the real percentage of Californians is that approves of having a recall? That'd be a great number to have.

[JNelson6563]

8. I hope we hear a lot more of this!

This ties in nicely:

This story begins with the California energy crisis, which started in 2000 and continued through the early months of 2001, when electricity prices spiked to their highest levels. Prices went from $12 per megawatt hour in 1998 to $200 in December 2000 to $250 in January 2001, and at times a megawatt cost $1,000.

One event occurred earlier. On July 13, 1998, employees of one of the two power-marketing centers in California watched incredulously as the wholesale price of $1 a megawatt hour spiked to $9,999, stayed at that price for four hours, then dropped to a penny. Someone was testing the system to find the limits of market exploitation. This incident was the earliest indication that the people and the state could become victims of fraud. The Sacramento Bee broke the story three years later, on May 6, 2001.

Today, Californians are still paying the costs of the debacle while according to state officials the power companies who manipulated the energy markets reaped more than $7.5 billion in unfair profits.

http://www.yuricareport.com/PoliticalAnalysis/FraudinWhiteHouse.htm

Shining light on this can only help our cause in California and across the country.

Julie

[RainDog]

11. do you CA-ers have a contact number for him?

I want to call with my support.

What is happening in CA is terrible for democracy, for this country.