Rep. Cooper by Day; Hacker by Night?

[DeSwiss]

Rep. Cooper by Day; Hacker by Night?

TPMMuckraker
By Kate Klonick - June 26, 2008, 6:00PM



A strange thing happened at a House Oversight hearing today, with a witness accusing a congressman of hacking a secure website, and claiming he was currently being investigated by the FBI.

The Committee hearing examined questionable practices at Pedernales Electric Cooperative. During the interrogation Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) cited documents that he said came from "secret, password-protected website" of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, in testimony today in front of the Committee

In response, NRECA President Glenn English, a former Congressmen from Oklahoma, claimed that the NRECA counsel had told him that Cooper was in the process of being investigated by the FBI for taking unauthorized information from their website.

As Roll Call reports, the allegation upset the hearing and unleashed a flurry of denials:

Cooper responded that someone had given him authorization and provided him with a password to download the documents, but English said that only he or a limited number of other officials from the organization could authorize access. Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) immediately gaveled the hearing to a close.

An FBI spokesman said the bureau "doesn't comment on accusations made by others concerning its investigative activity."

Cooper spokesman John Spragens said, "This is a bogus attempt to intimidate Congress from trying to investigate an industry. The idea that a Congressman would be under investigation for conducting an investigation is laughable. That's why we have the Constitution."

Spragens added, "We have no reason to think that Congressman Cooper is under investigation."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/">LINK

- The idea that a Congresscritter would be under investigation for conducting an investigation isn't laughable, but is SOP under the Bush regime, lo these many years.

Although, I must say that given my limited and unsatisfactory relationship (emails to him asking for his support on Progressive legislation which he REFUSES TO DO!!!) with my Congressman (because he's a PURE-BRED BLUEDOG), I can't help but to chuckle.

Hey, when a Democrat like me lives in a BLUEDOG's district, sometimes Schadenfreude is all you can get....
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DeSwiss


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[tnlefty]

1. Thanks for posting this! Bookmarked for my spouse to read

later, he's been called into work. That publication is in our mailbox every month. Do you have any idea what Cooper might be up to? In other words, why would he need to 'take unauthorized information from their website'...he could just subscribe. :shrug:

And what the hell does he think he needs to investigate? Co-ops are not for profit, have a board that is elected that people can complain to, and believe me people complain about the most trivial things...inquiring minds want to know.

[DeSwiss]

2. The allegations being made by Cooper....

...are that "many" electric cooperatives are mis-managed. That could be code for "we need an excuse to get rid of the rural not-for-profit electric coops and this is it."

Cooper, in my opinion, is a complete asshat. I find him to be arrogant and unwilling to engage in discussion about issues on which he's already made up his mind. I can remember no other Congressman from middle Tennessee, from Richard Fulton, to Clifford Allen to even Bill Boner, who is more conservative and anti-Progressive, than he is.

He may be right about some of the electric coops. Any coop or business can be mis-managed. His claim now, and that of a few others, is that the problems are systemic. But I would hazard to guess that they are no more mis-managed than the for-profit electric companies. The difference being that their mis-management errs on the side of profits. Such as with the case at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Yankee_Nuclear_Power_Plant#Cooling_Tower_Collapse">which is literally failing apart at the seams. In my judgment, a better use of his investigative skills would be to look into the many safety violations that are now being committed on a daily basis at http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080617/GREEN02/806170368">Browns Ferry nuclear plant operated by TVA.

But in this instance, he'll likely get away with perusing this restricted website based upon what I'm reading now (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/local/Nashville/The_Tennessean/SIG=137dje6jh/**http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tennessean.com%2Fapps%2Fpbcs.dll%2Farticle%3FAID%3D%2F20080628%2FNEWS02%2F806280370">link). He will only say that he was given the password for access by a whistle-blower, but he isn't giving up any names. He can't subscribe to the site, as its intended solely for the use of the members of electrical coop boards.

- The worst part? There's no one on the horizon around these parts to challenge him for his seat.....

[tnlefty]

3. The scuttlebutt that I heard is that he has a brother who

was denied a contract for phone lines on existing utility poles, and that Cooper has been trying to destroy not for profit rural coops since.

What Cooper has been demanding is that at the end of the year coops can't have any retained earnings, and if they do coops must return that value back to their customers. There is to be no long term planning, plans for maintenance, distribution, etc., and that is why otherwise solvent coops take on debt to offset what needs to be done for service to counteract Cooper's grudge.

I also heard that he's going after rural cooperatives in other states. Texas is one state that was mentioned to me- damn talk about holding a grudge!

Actually, I think it's a damned shame that Rep. Cohen, who is the only decent member of the TN delegation, AFAIC, has a primary challenger! :crazy:

[DeSwiss]

4. Tennessee has a history....

...of being against cooperatives and collective effort. From what I've gathered, I suppose that it has always seemed too close to ideology of the "Red Peril" for many folks down here. Beginning in 1988, attempts were made by myself and others to get a bill passed for housing cooperatives that was attacked in Committee and never saw the light of day. We tried again in the early 90s with then House Leader Bill Purcell and Thelma Harper. But they both withdrew their support once they found out we couldn't provide financial support to their campaigns as a nonprofit.

But I've managed a low & moderate income housing cooperative here in Nashville since 1989, and we've never received any support from the feds, the state, nor the local government. Not subsidies. Not tax-credits. No tax breaks. But we're not-for-profit and as such, we're competition to the for-profits. Problem is, the for-profits don't want to serve groups with little or no money, so cooperative efforts are the only thing that truly works, outside of government handouts and tax-breaks that only seem to go to the already wealthy.

And under existing law, nonprofits and cooperatives are allowed to retain some of their income over expense, precisely for the purposes you pointed out. Doing otherwise would constitute mismanagement. So if this is what he's whining about, then its pure BS.

- Which doesn't surprise me, coming from him.....

[tnlefty]

5. They are,

but for quite some time Cooper has been into 'pay it all back out to the consumers' mode, in other words no surpluses. He's been after TN Valley cooperatives for years and if he can find any that are mismanaged and clean them up fine. But long term planning can't be done without the surpluses he's been demanding be returned.

Apparently he's using what appears to be abuses of Federnales Electric in TX, i.e. board members paying themselves more than $1 million a year, purchasing concert tickets, expensive hotels and meals... to go after all electric cooperatives as opposed to investigating and cleaning up any that are wasting money.