April 20, 2004
PSC protects public phone companies
It turns out that Verizon Communications wrote, word for word, the position of PSC member Rudy Bradley during a 2002 case in which Bradley was arguing hard on the company's side of a dispute.Posted by Norwood at April 20, 2004 07:19 AMAfter Bradley had finished regurgitating Verizon's words, Verizon then turned around and "quoted" Bradley's supposed display of wisdom in a subsequent court appeal.
What a sweet arrangement! The utilities write down whatever they want, and it comes out of the PSC's mouth. Then the phone company can quote the "experts" of the PSC.
Bradley, naturally, says he knows nothing of how this came about. His staff gave him the material. After all, he harrumphs, he must be Properly Informed about the issues.
At this point, I ask you to remember something quite specifically.
Although we are talking about a different case, remember that the PSC also was in charge of deciding whether you should have to pay higher rates to your local phone company, such as Verizon or Bell South.
"Don't worry!" the Legislature told the people of Florida, when it rammed through the law for higher phone rates in 2003. "The final decision will be up to the PSC! And the PSC is fair and impartial!"
"Don't worry!" Gov. Jeb Bush added, when he signed the law to jack up phone rates. "Consumers are protected, because the final decision will be up to the PSC!"
The PSC was supposed to be professional. The PSC was supposed to make its decision based upon the facts. The PSC even went through the sham of holding public hearings throughout the state.
Then, of course, it voted 5-0 to jack up phone rates.
How many comments made by PSC commissioners during that process were written by Verizon, too?
How many other little "briefing papers" have been slipped over the transom?
Maybe if the citizens of this country where more civicly active we might have better control of the corporations(i.e. the actual rulers of our so called democracy) and prices they charge. But until then I'll be laughing all the way to the bank as a Verizon worker who loves to take advantage of stupid customers just as much as the Bushies love to take advantage of the stupidity of the general population. Uniformed consumers who know more about sitcoms and sports teams than what their government is doing to our country deserve to be fucked hard without lubrication.
Posted by: The Great Satan at April 20, 2004 05:42 PM