Houston Democrats

Hale, you said: "Imagine if Houston used alternative energy sources. We wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe the Democrats should start looking for ways to increase Houston's local use of alternative energy."

Gosh, Hale, that might be too PROGRESSIVE for our illustrious Democrats! We wouldn't want to appear too forward thinking, now would we? Naw, they'll just sit around and wring their hands about what a mess we're in on all fronts and do nothing. Meanwhile, we'll burn up in the summer and freeze to death in the winter because we can't afford to run the air conditioning or the heat. Lest we forget, if we continue on this path of burning fossil fuels like they're going out of style (which they are) we can look forward to more Cat 4 and 5 hurricanes, tsunamis and typhoons across the globe, more melting of the permafrost in the Arctic region, more acid rain, more skin cancer due to the ever increasing hole in the ozone etc etc etc.

Gee whiz! We wouldn't want to tick off any of the oil and gas companies or big utility companies that contribute heavily to some of our Democrats now would we?

Get some progressive populists in local, state and national offices, and you'll see some positive change on all fronts. 'Til then, you'd better bundle up this winter, kiddies and get use to wearing next to nothing in the summer except 1 million SPF sunscreen.

While we can mostly blame the Republican appointed Texas Public Utilities Commission for permitting these rate increases, it would be less than honest to point out that in the '98 Democratic Party Convention there were Dems, including Legislators lobbying us delegates mightily on the merits of utility deregulation. The "liberal" establishment of the Party was solidly supporting this anti-consumer deregulation. This empowered the utilities to their current carte blanche power over ordinary citizens. A little history lesson never hurts to remind ourselves of the major challenge ahead to move our party and its elected "leadership" toward advocating for the needs of ordinary citizens. Oh, am I speaking ill of my Party by telling the not so complimentary truth? Sorry to spill the beans.

Utility regulation is an application of Common Carriage -- the foundation in admiralty law for establishment of the Texas Railroad Commission.

That was the most popular and progressive thing the otherwise mostly reactionary Jim Crow Democratic Party of Texas ever did.

It is, however, essentially forgotten today, not even listed on the "accomplishments" claimed by the Harris County and Texas Party in connection with fund-raising.

In 1998, not only did the Democratic Party of Texas do the bidding of the telecommunication and power monopolies, the Enron Democrats led the way, exceeding even the Republican Congress.

Still, '98 was a "Sunset" year for the TPUC and one GOP wag had proposed "abolishing" the TPUC, giving its portfolio to the elected old Railroad Commission. That was actually a good idea. If the Democrats had any strategic guile they would have done it.

Remember, almost every voter has a car or a computer or, at least, a cell phone. If we were the party of Common Carriage today, we would easily command overwhelming majorities in the popular vote. But, we are the party of lawyers, mostly, and, of course, self-styled advocates for a collection of fringe causes.

We have no energy or telecommunication policy, no platform, to speak of. Oh, but we can plead just about any special interest cause for small change and almost every vested interest cause, of course, for the big bucks.

Curiously, not only was Common Carriage the best day this party ever had in Texas -- "I've been working on the railroad" was a popular political anthem before it was an elite College "fight song" -- but it was the lynchpin of popular and progressive politics in Houston, Texas.

That is all gone now. Too bad.