Entergy is "kind of like the Mafia" - Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood

[bananas]

Hood blames Entergy for legislative delay
BY JOHN O'BRIEN
MONDAY, JULY 06, 2009 2:00:00 PM

JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood recently said the power provider he has been battling for months is "kind of like the mafia."

Hood made the remarks in a Thursday report by WLBT in Jackson regarding the state Public Service Commission putting many of its workers on furloughs to save money. Hood blamed lobbyists for Entergy Corp. for misinforming lawmakers on how many employees the PSC and the Public Utilities Staff should be kept, the report says.

Last week, the PSC and Public Utilities Staff were not told their budgets at the end of a special legislative session.

"It just shows you Entergy's kind of like the mafia -- 'if you try to regulate us we'll shut you down.' And that's what happened," Hood said in the report.

"They have shut down the actual functions of the PSC to a bare minimum and they've shut down the agency that assists them completely. From what I was told, senators and Gov. (Haley) Barbour were right in the middle of the shutdown. I guess he's carrying the water for Entergy."

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[RandomThoughts]

1. If that is what happened, that is a core problem.

That kind of short circuiting of regulation is somewhere between helping corporate lobbyist above the people of his state, and covering for financial malfeasance and what would effectively be the same as a cover up of theft through refusing to investigate a market manipulation.

The rampant corruption in favor of certain sectors is the system that has to end. Many times it is thought that just electing leaders will solve the problem, however when money or 'the way it is' has an effect on even who runs against who in a primary, fixing the problem requires more then just election cycles.

Quite simply the systems of control through money over political advancement or legislation has to be removed. They have no place in a free democracy when they actively go against the interest of the people of that society. And there only claim to be able to exist is that they currently do exist, there is not an argument that can defend a corrupt area that only has its own profit as its first priority.

Profit motive is good for distributions of goods. But it is not good for directing the direction of society, or setting any control over systems of society, since profit motive of a few without competition, or with manipulation of competition, is opposite of the good of all of society.