The Politics of Mean--Republicans and Tea Party PSC Candidate Kathy Peterson Ridicule Democrat Lucy Baxley

"I don't think she's in a position health-wise to do what is in the best interest of the people of Alabama."--Kathy Peterson wife of failed Alabama Ag Commissioner candidate Dale Peterson

Who knew that the Koch Tea Party Llama lady would assign herself to be as qualified as a neurosurgeon to make a diagnosis on the health of PSC member and stroke victim Lucy Baxley? Mrs. Peterson wants the voting public to believe that her opinion outweighs the professional medical opinion of Baxley's doctors, including neurologists, who are always at the forefront of stroke victims medical needs and post injury care.

Peterson has kicked off her campaign from way down in the gutter of mean politics.

Kathy Peterson wants Baxley's seat so she can get the "EPA gorilla off our backs" and "help the utilities be successful."  Maybe Mrs. Peterson hasn't noticed the immense profit machine that is Alabama Power (APCO) and what those profits pay for, then again maybe she has, and the lure of loads of campaign cash is too good to resist cheer-leading for:

The cost of influence is high. And nobody buys it like Alabama Power Co.
Alabama Power spends almost $20 million a year to sway public or political opinion, federal documents show.

The purpose of the Alabama PSC is to "ensure a regulatory balance between regulated companies and consumers in order to provide consumers with safe, adequate and reliable services at rates that are equitable and economical." If anyone is confused in this equation it's not the 74 year-old Baxley as Peterson suggests, it's the younger and more corporate friendly challenger herself.

Lucy Baxley

 Peterson's assessment of the wheelchair-bound Mrs. Baxley is mean-spirited and totally uncalled for. Debate Baxley on the issues and leave the personal attacks about her health and physical status out of the discussion. We'll offer you a word of caution on that just because we're feeling momentarily charitable Mrs. Peterson--you may want to get your talking points from somewhere other than what Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh tried this past January.

Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, always delighted to serve her corporate masters before the citizens of Alabama, is joining Peterson's mean girl gang, and taking her turn at a Baxley beating that's couched in a more politically correct statement than Peterson's acerbic remark:

Public Service Commission member Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, a Republican who narrowly lost the 2008 race to Baxley, is considering running for president but hasn't made a decision.

"It is good to hear that Commissioner Baxley feels her health would allow her to serve another term on the Public Service Commission. But, as the only remaining Democrat elected statewide in Alabama, I'm sure she will face strong opposition and a vigorous campaign," the 45-year-old commissioner said Tuesday. 

Note how she says "it's good to hear that Commissioner Baxley feels her health would allow her to serve another term..." like that truly is good news to Alabama Power's favorite twinkling twit, who gets her talking points from APCO power point presentations, and then takes to the editorial pages to strike fear into the hearts of Alabama ratepayers (and voters!) Cavanaugh ran a nasty campaign against Baxley in 2008 and we don't believe for a minute that she's harboring anything good towards Baxley unless it's good riddance.

The Twinker Cavanaugh

Judging from the early positions of Cavanaugh and Peterson, we believe it's safe to presume that these two compassionate Christian women haven't been paying enough attention to their ever-ready bibles. Their Christ is a corporate deity who does not subscribe to the gentility of decorum towards the disadvantaged. It's disgusting to watch personal, hate-filled partisan politics enter into the arena for this PSC position, especially from women.

Mrs. Baxley has different political views from the republicans admittedly, and that makes her fair game for a contentious campaign--but to stoop so low as to question her health for the race in the public eye is beyond the pale.

Baxley's doctors have cleared her for campaigning and her disability in physical strength has no bearing on her mental facilities to continue in her position at the PSC:

The 74-year-old Baxley, who uses a wheelchair because of a stroke in 2006, said her doctors have told her that she is healthy enough to run a statewide race and serve four more years:

"The doctors told me it didn't affect my heart and brain. You use your heart and brain to serve the public," she said. 

We suspect that the two mean girls are attempting to portray Baxley as a weak, dottering old woman unable to do anything for the people of Alabama other than drool out a few statements here and there. 

State GOP head Bill Armistead hasn't put his hoof in his mouth yet but he's signaling the fight for Baxley's seat is going to be an all out war:

State Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead said the ALGOP is making Baxley's defeat a priority, and the normally low-profile race for the utility regulatory board should become one of the premier races in Alabama in 2012.

"We will run a vigorous campaign to make Alabama redder than it's ever been," Armistead said. 

Kathy's husband, Dale Peterson, is on the bought and paid for Koch candidate Herman Cain train with gusto making the Peterson's the latest addition to the Koch family values. They're the antithesis of the qualities the Tea Party claims as part of their core values: honesty, integrity and sincerity just to name a few:

Bloomberg.com--For six decades around the world, Koch Industries has blazed a path to riches -- in part, by making illicit payments to win contracts, trading with a terrorist state, fixing prices, neglecting safety and ignoring environmental regulations. At the same time, Charles and David Koch have promoted a form of government that interferes less with company actions. 

That form of government roots itself in the Tea Party, the political platform (with a lot of Shelby County republican mixed in) of PSC candidate Kathy Peterson. In the state of Alabama, the Tea Party and republicans are closely aligned, despite most TP'ers claiming disappointment with the republican party.  It seems they do agree on one thing in the race for the Alabama PSC seat currently held by Baxley: come out swinging, hit below the belt and don't be afraid to get mean for the team.

Take a look at the following video and imagine the kind of world Kathy Peterson, the Tea Party and most republicans are campaigning for. It's the world according to Koch, but at least there will jobs right?

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

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CASE STUDY: Dr. Willie Soon, a Career Fueled by Big Oil and Coal (and the Southern Company)

Story excerpt by Kert Davies for GreenPeace USA June 28, 2011

Of all the climate deniers, one scientist has been particularly closely involved in the campaign against the climate science consensus for the majority of his career: Dr. Willie Soon. 

Since 2001, Willie Soon has received direct funding for his research of $1.033 million from Big Coal and Big Oil interests. In contrast, he received $842,079 from conventional government or university funders in the same period. The last grant he received from a funder with no ties to dirty energy interests was in 2002 (a grant that carried through to 2006). Since then, he has been entirely funded by the fossil fuel industry.

The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation gave two grants to Dr. Soon totaling $175,000. The 2005-6 grant for $110,000 from the “Koch Foundation” is titled  "Koch/Mobile [sic] Charitable foundation." This two year grant came from the Charles G. Koch Foundation according to Media Matters Transperancy.

Beginning in 2002, Soon's funding mostly came from oil companies, including Southern Co., one of the largest coal burners in the United States, and the American Petroleum Institute, according to documents uncovered in a Freedom of Information Act request by Greenpeace and seen by Reuters.

"A campaign of climate change denial has been waged for over twenty years by Big Oil and Big Coal," said Kert Davies, a research director at Greenpeace US.

"Scientists like Dr. Soon who take fossil fuel money and pretend to be independent scientists are pawns."

Read more here 

 

FOIA requests revealed a "previously unknown" money source and the presence of a 'Southern player' in the investigation: The Southern Company (SOCO). This should come as no surprise to informed watchers of the company, and it's something to keep in mind whenever you hear SOCO's and Alabama Power hired guns propagandizing climate change to suit their end of the equation.

Sometimes they rely on elected 'pawns' like Ms. Cavanaugh for assistance.

In an editorial from the Anniston Star earlier this year, Alabama Public Service Commissioner, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh railed against increased environmental regulations on APCO and other heavy polluters with a gusto. She referred to global warming as "medicine show tonic" and carried the water for Alabama Power Company (APCO) by claiming "more stringent regulations would increase power bills by 30-40%."

BamaFactCheck.com dismantled her claims one by one and revealed that Ms. Cavanaugh made these claims based on information from APCO:

Public Service Commissioner Twinkle Cavanaugh says she attended a December presentation by Alabama Power at the PSC’s Montgomery offices. The power company outlined its costs for compliance with EPA regulations.
Cavanaugh, whose job is to regulate Alabama Power and other electrical suppliers, was upset by what she heard.
“I literally got so incensed by what was going on, I wrote something that was maybe 10 or 12 pages handwritten,” she said. Cavanaugh said she later whittled the piece down to the op-ed that ran in The Star and other papers. 

Clearly, Ms. Cavanaugh is a malleable sort who blindly accepts one-sided propaganda as fact to rant about publicly, and we no longer wonder why she became a member of the Alabama PSC. She's a perfect fit in this industry apologist agency. Maybe the next time she decides to attend presentations by industries her agency is charged with regulating, she will think first and become "incensed" second instead of the other way around.

In the meantime, it might be helpful for the PSC to be aware of what the Southern Company has been paying for. This might assist them in making more thoughtful decisions about serious issues under their authority, and hopefully dissuade any other members from taking to the editorial pages and coming off like industry shills rather than informed, non-biased and responsible regulators.

Big polluters know that if they buy 'experts' to prop up their claims of 'no harm from our industry' who give false credence to their scare tactics of 'jobs will be lost, costs will rise' they'll gain ground with the uninformed. It's one of their oldest and most frequently used tricks because it works. So does the money that pours into the expert's pockets.

Dr. Soon does not deny that he received the money from these industry groups, but he claims it had "no influence on his research and findings"-- the standard defense when the dirty tricks get exposed. Soon can claim his results are unbiased, but it's difficult to escape the traceable money trail of a career fueled by big coal and oil.

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