Article

2003-08-15 -Short Attention Span Theater-

This just in: Blackout fails to generate rampage and looting, Media Disappointed

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Posted by Frank Martin 2003-08-15 1:14:35 PM|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I've heard second-hand reports of people blaming Bush, but haven't heard anything directly. Also, I've heard of reporters wondering why Bush hasn't flown back to the White House to start working on transformer stations and firing up generators or something.

Too many people think the President's job is to be our collective mother.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2003-8-15 1:17:33 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com] 2003-8-15 1:17:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Robert--I wondered the same thing. Was Bush supposed to hook up a bicycle-generator and start pedalling furiously?

I also noticed some asshat reporter on Fox last night trying desperately to find something negatively newsworthy to report. All he had was that some pedestrian in NYC asked a driver how much for a ride. The driver said "All your money!" and drove off before the ped could even react. Just an instance of abrupt rudeness, but the reporter was so gravely relating it you'd think the driver had shot the ped and run him over twice.

Gotta fill that 24/7 airtime, no matter how ignorant and trivial the stories are, I guess.

Posted by Dar 2003-8-15 1:25:11 PM|| [http://users.stargate.net/~dsteckel/] 2003-8-15 1:25:11 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Except in Ottawa, where there is / was serious looting.

Posted by Chuck Simmins 2003-8-15 1:30:20 PM|| [http://blog.simmins.org] 2003-8-15 1:30:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 I'm beginning to understand why Iraqi engineers want German Siemens to fix the problems with electricity in Baghdad...

Posted by True German Ally 2003-8-15 1:54:53 PM|| 2003-8-15 1:54:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 TGA, don't kick us when we're down!

Posted by Matt 2003-8-15 2:23:36 PM|| 2003-8-15 2:23:36 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Soooorrry, but from what I read about the differences between U.S. and German power grids...

Ok you guys bombed it all to pieces in 1945 so we got new ones.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-8-15 2:25:45 PM|| 2003-8-15 2:25:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 TGA, a question. Do you have any problem there with Green Party types trying to stop building of new powerplants and transmission lines? That seems to be one of the major problem here with trying to upgrade the system, the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) crowd.

Posted by Steve 2003-8-15 2:44:54 PM|| 2003-8-15 2:44:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 You will loooooove TGA's arrogance when you will learn that a good part of German power is produced in France. The Iraquis who ask Siemens to fix their electricity problems sound about as competent as their military.

Posted by JFM 2003-8-15 3:50:35 PM|| 2003-8-15 3:50:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 ole Lileks over at Lileks.com had a greatly humorous and very insightful editorial of this episode with the Fox guy.

I got the feeling that the media is still fishing around for something to blame on Bush that could be a campaign issue....too bad, he is out JFKing Ted and out FDRing the eight dwarfs so I think the media and the dems are in for a long cold winter of discontent.

Posted by SOG475 2003-8-15 3:57:54 PM|| 2003-8-15 3:57:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Steve, the Green Party is mainly against nuclear power plants. The government has agreed to shut down all nuclear plants in about 30 years or so (Don't sweat it, Schroeder won't last that long). There is less problems with new transmission lines, we have plenty, not that transmission wire mess the US has. U.S. problems seem to be that people use too much (air condition because of poorly isolated houses for example) and buy too cheap, so money for modernisation isn't available as the companies need to make profits.

Germany has about the best working and well supplied electricity grid in the world. Blackouts like in the U.S. are next to impossible. We are more than oversupplied, even on the day with the highest demand in German history there was still plenty. Some say too plenty. Blame it on (sometimes exaggerated) German security concerns. And even major breakdowns of a big power plant would probably just make the lights flicker before the backup systems kick in.
Yes quite a bit of electricity comes from France. State subsidized (and therefore cheaper) electricity from nuclear power plants mainly. But with the heatwave France imported a lot of German electricity because they ran into problems with cooling the plants. It's give and take.
German consumers have more flexibility now buying the electricity they like. If they want cheap, they probably have mostly nuclear electricity, if they are prepared to pay more, it will be from "greener" sources like water or wind power. (Of course it just reflects the percentage electricity companies are buying).

Re Iraq: The electricity problems there are hardly U.S. fault. The system was rotten for many years and now that electricity gets distributed more fairly it shows how rotten it really is. I have no doubt that the Americans will solve the problem but up to now they have refused German help. And Iraqis who see the U.S. blackouts might have their own ideas.
I don't know how competent Iraqi engineers are. The Iraqi military relied on French weaponry mainly.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-8-15 4:28:08 PM|| 2003-8-15 4:28:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 TGA, it's unfortunate that your government couldn't at least pitch in on humanitarian projects in Iraq, such as fixing the electrical grid, without requiring that the whole enchilada come under UN auspices. If your government doesn't want to contribute troops and security fine, I understand the principle, but humanitarian relief ought to come regardless.

Posted by Steve White 2003-8-15 5:04:58 PM|| 2003-8-15 5:04:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Decentralized power would be the ideal, with the miracle fuel cell supplying local areas, no polllution, etc.etc. But that aint gonna happen, at least in the near term. TGA is entirely correct. The German govt has established REAL high voltage transmission grids, so a break somewhere is easily covered. They also have very adquate generating capacity. They have made that long-term committment to their infrastructure.

The problem in the US is that we have the technology and the talent but we do not have the national consensus and the will to invest long-term in our infrastructure. The same situation applies to our roads and bridges, public buildings, and our water and sewer infrastructure. We have let things go in allocating funds to basics while we have been funding pie-in-the sky. In short, we are short changing our descendents. It is time to stop this mindset and make the long term committment. This is the only way we will turn this around. Iraq is an example in the extreme of what not to do.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-8-15 5:18:40 PM|| 2003-8-15 5:18:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Steve as far as I understand sending German engineers (like the guys of the Technisches Hilfswerk, who fix about anything) isn't a problem at all. No U.N. blahblah needed. The thing is that the U.S. has REFUSED that aid up to now (although I don't know whether this is still true in these days). Baghdad central power plant Al Dora has been nearly completely delivered by Siemens (in the 70s I think), no wonder the local engineers want the Germans back (the plant fell into disrepair in the embargo years and probably due to Saddam's disconcern). Same with Baghdad hospitals: they want to continue to work with German medical technology. But a German delegation just came back from Iraq and said that talks with Bremer always end up with Bremer trying to find a US company instead.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-8-15 5:32:38 PM|| 2003-8-15 5:32:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 I might add that there seem to be changes in that policy lately.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-8-15 5:38:21 PM|| 2003-8-15 5:38:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 Germany has about the best working and well supplied electricity grid in the world.

Yeah. My brother-in-law and I could've set up Germany's power grid. It's nice to say your system is better but like a true European, you forgot one thing: scale. The power grid that caused the trouble here loops around lake Erie; starts in New York state, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and back around through Canada to New York State. Just looking at an atlas you will see this is a distance of some 800km, which is enough to cover the width of Germany and 1/4 of Poland. If the entire USA was only 800km wide, they'd be a state-of-art electrical system that not even Germany could dream of. And BTW, sure the grid needs updating, but the investment will have to be huge; it's not something that can be done overnight... like in Germany. Sheesh. (BTW, I'm Canadian, and no the problem did not start up here. Power outage occured at 4:11pm in Toronto. In Cleveland it started around 4pm. So there.)

Posted by Raphael 2003-8-15 6:13:12 PM|| 2003-8-15 6:13:12 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 Here's a link to an interesting commentary (hat tip: LGF) that's relevant to the US backout:
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/000409.html#000409

Posted by .com 2003-8-15 6:13:39 PM|| 2003-8-15 6:13:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 I heard Hannity on the radio saying Hillary was out and about blaming this entire debacle on Bush,I had an ice cream cone last night that melted, I blame the right wing adiministration!!!

Posted by wills 2003-8-15 6:14:31 PM|| 2003-8-15 6:14:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 Here's a laugh for you:
The Top Ten Theories About What Caused the East Coast Power Blackout

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2003_08_10_balkin_archive.html#106090837664351599

Pretty good - including his closer on Death Penalty changing from electric chair to lethal injection.

Posted by .com 2003-8-15 7:09:17 PM|| 2003-8-15 7:09:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 Given the difficulty in all 50 states getting rates that reflect reality of cost, since the regulatory agencies are shilling for the incumbent pols to keep rates "affordable, there will never be sufficient capitol available for the upgrades and increased generating capacity.

Add to that the ridiculous, frivolous, and preventative permitting procedures for trying to remediate the antiquated systems, enforced by the MIMBY crowd, the "greenies", and others of like ilk, don't hold your breath for any substantive progress in this millenium.

Posted by MommaBear 2003-8-15 8:18:50 PM|| [http://site-essential.com] 2003-8-15 8:18:50 PM|| Front Page Top

#20 That can't be true, MommaBear. I actually watched O'Reilly tonight and one guest said it's all the fault of deregulation and Uncle Sam needs to re-regulate.

Posted by Anonymous 2003-8-16 1:09:38 AM|| 2003-8-16 1:09:38 AM|| Front Page Top

#21 Some years back(while living in Tucson,Az.)the Tucson Electric Power co.began lobbing for a huge rate increase,the reason to improve infrastructure and power generation.Within a week of the rate increase being approved the Board of Directors voted themselve's huge pay raises and bonus'.
Anybody else see something wrong with this picture?

Posted by raptor 2003-8-16 7:24:14 AM|| 2003-8-16 7:24:14 AM|| Front Page Top

12:11 Anon1
10:37 Craig
07:24 raptor
01:38 Anonymous
01:26 Anonymous
01:18 Bomb-a-rama
01:09 Anonymous
23:41 BigFire
22:59 Alaska Paul
22:32 Old Patriot
22:23 RLS
21:57 Alaska Paul
21:26 Aris Katsaris
21:19 Alaska Paul
21:07 fullwood
20:37 True German Ally
20:32 hammerhead
20:18 MommaBear
20:16 .com
20:13 Raphael
20:08 Raphael
20:08 hammerhead
20:03 Anon1
20:01 True German Ally