Was Yucca Mountain the Real Reason Kucinich Was Silenced by GE?
We've all heard about the elephant in the room, but how about a mountain? Yucca Mountain to be more specific. The mountain which you may have seen in your visit to Las Vegas, Nevada, is becoming a big part of the national debate.
Why? Yucca Mountain is most notable as the site of the proposed Yucca Mountain Repository, a U.S. Department of Energy terminal storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel and other radioactive waste. That has environmental groups worried and the site, which was suppose to open in 1998 to store nuclear waste, and has delayed opening the facility till more tests are done at the site. The site is considered the most studied piece of geology in the world.
So why does this matter? Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the only Presidential contender to have voted against using the proposed site and General Electric, which owns NBC and MSNBC who ran the debate yesterday, didn't want his take on the whole mess that the United States Government is brewing.
John Edwards, stealing a convenient tactic out of his former running mate turned foe John Kerry, has stated that although he voted for the plan he is now against. Thanks, John.
Hillary Clinton continues to vote in favor of Yucca Mountain's funding which has cost the taxpayers of this nation upwards $7 Billion dollars.
What about "Mr Change" Barack Obama? Well, he votes in favor of Yuka Mountain and while doing so is taken major money from backers in political donations.
Hillary Clinton was nice enough to point that out when the elephant was brought up briefly in last night's MSNBC debate.
So, was Kucinich not allowed to debate because he was a "fringe candidate" or was GE just afraid that he would dare speak the truth that will bring in major amounts of money for the corporation and, at the same time, risk the health of millions in the biggest growing metro area in the United States for years to come when the facility starts storing nuclear waste?
Yes, it is VERY likely GE censored Kucinich
As you have just written, and just as Ron Paul was excluded by FOX news, there are hidden reasons why they do not want Kucinich and Paul to have the spotlight. The corporations want to control the agenda, and these guys' candidacies pose a very real threat to Corporate America. The Des Moines Register/Gannett, FOX news, ABC news, and now NBC/G.E. are playing God. With more exposure, these candidates might let viewers know that there are alternative ideas/solutions out there. Their ratings might go up. That cannot be allowed to happen. Corporate America counts on their ability to manipulate the public, and they're very good at it, because WE let them. Americans ARE media illiterate, myself included (but I'm trying to change, I've read "Coercion" by Douglas Rushkoff). I'm tired of being told UP IS DOWN and DOWN IS UP. As long as we allow ourselves to be manipulated, we have only ourselves to blame for the lousy leaders we keep getting. Advertising is the Art of Deception, and you're the victim.
If our leaders keep holding a greater allegiance to the Almighty Corporations than to the citizens, we will lose any semblance of a real democracy!
Yucca costs taxpayers nothing
"Yuka Mountain's funding which has cost the taxpayers of this nation upwards $7 Billion dollars." Yucca mountain research is paid out of the Nuclear Waste Fund which has been created via a 1 mil per kWh charge on nuclear generated electricity. The cost is thus internalized and costs taxpayers nothing.
Yucca costs taxpayers nothing?
That charge is past on to consumers(taxpayers). $7 billion dollars worth.
Yucca Mountain
Actually, Yucca has cost taxpayers about $3 billion so far, but the previous comment is correct that most of the costs (over $6 billion) are paid by nuclear utilities and their customers. The $3 billion represents the share of disposal costs that are attributed to disposal of government-managed nuclear waste.
Here's another TAXPAYER liability: the government has contracts with the utilities to dispose of their waste starting in 1998 and has been found to be in breach of contract, making the government liable for as much as $7 billion when/if the repository begins to accept waste. The delay has consequences and the Democratic candidates skip over that as they seek to curry favor with Nevada voters.
YES - excluded for this and more.
NBC has donated money to the top three contenders' campaigns as well. The debate started off with questions about race and the Clinton and Obama campaigns. An issue MSNBC has been trying to heat up all week for some headlines. It's a non-issue anyway because we know none of the candidates are racist in the first place. But it is an easy way to blow 20 minutes of a debate with the top 2 candidates making speeches with little content related to how they would take care of health care, economy, Iraq, Impeachment, etc.
GE also has a lot to gain, via military contracts, by keeping the troops in Iraq. It's disgraceful that they would actually fight to keep the American people from hearing a counter point of view from the so-called top three candidates. Its shameful and it turned the debate into a fake softball questioned infomercial for MSNBC's favorites who talk about change but offer nearly none.
Why would they fight to exclude Kucinich?
He was against war with Iraq and has voted 100% of the time NOT to fund the war and insist on cutting funding immediately.
He is the only candidate with a single payer not for profit health plan that cuts out insurance companies. Keep in mind that the insurance companies are for universal health care as well, but not from the other candidates, not Kucinich. The other plans would be equal to universal insurance for all Americans. What insurance company would not back that plan? They did it with car insurance and they will do it with your health insurance and guess who still won't be able to afford it.
Kucinich is for Impeaching Bush and Cheney, thus protecting our constitution and stop future presidencies from spying on its own people and manipulating the country into a war which would serve as a giant money laundering operation for government cronies.
Kucinich is the only candidate who is championing civil rights for all Americans by accepting gay marriage. Not going half way by calling for civil unions or passing the buck by letting individual states decide.
Agree w/ Voter69 100%
I agree. Thanks for making the points.
Kucinich is the most representative of the people, yet the people can't see it because of the deceit and censorship by corporate media.
Yucca Mountain funding is costing the tax payers a fortune.
Yucca Mountain funding is not paid out of some special fund. Congress has repeatedly voted more money to fund the project and this has passed, curtesy of Clinton and Obama. This is part of the reason America is so broke. One version of the energy and water development bills Clinton and Obama voted for included funding for both Yucca Mountain and nuclear bunker buster bombs. We do not have the money to pay for General Elecric's follies.
GE too afraid of Dennis
I think Yucca may be just one of the reasons Dennis was not allowed to debate. I am certain the decision passed down just before the debate was somehow "bought" and I still cannot believe the supreme court would say that Kucinich's presence would infringe on NBC's "first amendment rights"! I believe that Kucinich's stands for truth to power (healthcare for all, soldiers all home from Iraq, no attack on Iran, investigating and indicting and imprisonning the people who instead of defending our Constitution are destroying it, and on and on) are why GE is too afraid of Dennis Kucinich to allow him to speak. I expect that this will enrage those Americans who have not been put to sleep by the corporatocracy and we will see this kind of business exposed more and more. Call the members of Congress who need to hear from we the people--don't let our Democracy be destroyed!
This is and always has been
This is and always has been unacceptable. Used to be we had a law acknowledging that broadcasters USE public common land, airwaves, etc. to do business, and the compact is that they also have a duty for their being ALLOWED to use it, to help inform the populus.
On top of that, they are hypoctritical. They do all kinds of fluff pieces, claiming "that's what the public wants", they try and PROVOKE people in a bid for better ratings, more viewers...so tell me, how come they want to have the debates be BLAND and SEDATE?
Candidates like Kucinich (my favorite...the only candidate I could vote for without holding my nose) no matter where one stands on the issues, he SHAKES things up, and SHAKES = RATINGS INCREASE!!!
SO, given that they do things all the time, for ratings, it is disengenious of them to pretend suddenly they are the Miss Manners and acme of decorum and only want "serious" candidates.
Bull. Some EARTH-SHAKER AND MOVER up in the top echelon of GM got on a phone, or sent a memo, decided to flex and censure a candidate they didn't like the message from. We mortals have to know how the "bigwigs" think of themselves...like they are morally better, smarter, and have all the answers. That WE need to be LEAD by the leash, or whip and carrot...
The disregard is palpable. And disgusting. BOYCOTT MSNBC.
BOYCOTT their sponsors. Tell them why. It is the only way.
kucinich silenced
I do boycott all network tv. I told them I do. They don't care because millions of sheeple viewers negate the ones not watching. Silence begets silence. BOYCOTT is not the answer unless you can get the BOYCOTT message out on corporate tv. Now, how do we do that?!
Dennis Kucinich
From my perspective, Dennis Kucinich is one of the real patriotic Americans. How long are we going to allow this egregious, manipulation of our great democracy by this miasma of treason by America's corporatocracy!
Kuinich kept out of debate
If the other candidates had any respect for the constitution they would boyott the 'debate' as well. Since they do not respect my right to hear ALL candidates I exercise my right NOT to vote for any of them.
If not Yucca Mountain, where then??
The power that corporations holds is awful. They should not be able to manipulate the political process in that way.
Yet, that doesn't mean that the opposition to Yucca Mountain is therefore right. If you care for the environment, you would want to have nuclear waste stored in a safe place. Purely disrupt the Yucca Mountain project is not a victory for enviromentalists, because the waste will remain unsafe.
And the issue of taxpayers having to pay for it is beyound the point - you shouldn't be stingy when it comes to enviromental responsibility.
Yucca
Why don't we just put a little waste in every state, that way no one will benefit or suffer for the Hiroshima-like environment we will get to live in some day.
It will also make attacks less likely, from other countries that are sick of America's imperialistic ways, because the "waste" will not be concentrated in one area.
Along with that, the government can use the American citizens, at all longitudes/time zones/ cultures and other variables, as lab rats, to see if there are any benefits of living near such "waste".
There would be a lot of money to be made for a "Silkwood-like" book from one of the large media corporations that run American politics.
I am sure we will find out one day that, Americans have been, still are, and always will be used in government (tax-payer) funded studies, to see what happens when poisons are used in their everyday life.
Heck, Cheney and Rummy got many dangerous chemicals to be ok'd by the government to be used by American citizens in their foods and personal care items.
How can the medical community/pharma corps make any money if we are all healthy?
America...the land of cheap lab rats that pay for their own demise.
What a better way to control a population.
Corey Mondello
Boston, Massachusetts
cpmondello@yahoo.com
www.CoreyMondello.com
1-20-08
GE Sucks
Why do we need a Nuclear Waste Repository?
The G is for Globilization
I recently saw Jeff Immelt, GE CEO, interviewed by Michael Eisner on CNBC. It was clear from his remarks that GE is benefiting from the policy that's called "globalization." You know, the stuff of "free trade," NAFTA, the WTO ... all the labor force wrecking policies Kucinich proposes to reverse.
Knowing, too, how often former GE CEO Jack Welsh appears as a guest on CNBC, one might say GE is a darling of Wall Street.
All thoughts aside of how this cozy relationship might turn toxic in the coming credit bubble unwind, Kucinich's H.R. 3400 legislation for "Rebuilding America's Infrastructure" and its Federal Bank for Infrastructure Modernization surely do not win accolades on Wall Street.
First, the FBIM threatens to return the Power of the Purse to the People.
Foremost, H.R. 3400 forwards capital-intensive investment serving the benefit of all. This is something Wall Street simply HATES.
Capital-intensive investment begets more capital-intensive investment. Wherefore, then, will come financing for those grand speculations serving to enrich a few and bankrupt a nation?
This is why Kucinich was run out of the race for the presidency.
Support H.R. 3400. This legislation is just like FDR's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which rescued the nation from the depth's of the Great Depression.
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