Comments on: Cooper Lashes Back At Kos, Accuses Him Of “Cooking Up Poll Results”

By: Gasman

Gasman — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:55:37 +0000

To paraphrase Alec Baldwin, “Jim Cooper is one of the more moderate Republicans in the House today.” It will be a shame to see him ousted from office simply because his ‘principled’ stance on healthcare reform is so out of touch with the electorate of his state. “Good on ya’ ” Jim Cooper for sticking to your guns and ignoring the overwhelming majority of your constituents. What the hell do they know anyway? You might want to start brushing up your resume now; I have a feeling there will be a whole lot of Republicans and blue dog Democrats looking for new gigs come Nov. of 2010. R.I.P. Rep. Cooper. It was somewhat fun while it lasted.

By: furiouschads

furiouschads — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:55:05 +0000

Since he is for a public option, get him on camera agreeing to The Pledge.

By: CasualObserver

CasualObserver — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:33:45 +0000

I’m a Pedernales Elec. member. Two former board members were running all over recently, trying to avoid US congressional subpeonas. Corruption of various sorts alledged, and imo highly likely. Class actions brought and won, if I remember correctly.

Coops don’t have to be corrupt of course, but if they are left to their own devices, and PEC was, they can become horribly corrupt.

By: parsec

parsec — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:02:29 +0000

Electric membership co-ops were quite a deal back in the day. Our local one, the Duck River Electric Membership Co-op, was quite active with their community outreach. They sponsored a competition for high school seniors to write papers extolling the benefits of electric cooperatives. They even had a beauty pageant, the winner being crowned “Miss DREMC.”

By: jaxxsonV

jaxxsonV — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:27:26 +0000

Rural electric coops are not consumer driven.

The only way you can vote for a board member is to select from the one candidate in your district selected by the board nominating committee (directors), else sign your “proxy” over to the board proxy committee (directors) to vote it for you as they see fit.

Bluebonnet Coop in Texas pays a part-time consultant to act as the part-time CEO at a salary of $500,000 a year.

Check out the recent trail transcript from the Pedernales Coop (TX), the largest in the U.S. Totally co-opted by a self-serving, self-perpetuating board.

I remember going to the coop meetings in the county seat as a child in the late 1940s. It was the most wonderful thing in our world at the time. It electrified the county side. AND the GOVERNMENT paid the infrastructure cost with grants to each coop. Dairy farmers were now able to keep milk cold in chilled-water coolers. They could milk the cows using automated milkers. In Texas, it was a monument to LBJ, the moving force of rural electrification.

Now, the “professionals” running them think they are a utility not a coop.

Just not the model for health care.

By: Cujo359

Cujo359 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:14:01 +0000

With a little bit of guilt by association thrown in…

By: row4it

row4it — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:08:36 +0000

Correlation, not causality.

By: ART45

ART45 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:02:12 +0000

Right on, bro.

By: Phoenix Woman

Phoenix Woman — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:00:26 +0000

That’s what Texas is for, per the late great Molly Ivins. Texas, aka The National Laboratory for Bad Government.

By: Cujo359

Cujo359 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:58:16 +0000

Labeling an idea as good or bad depending where it came from is a logical fallacy, and rightly so.