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You may remember Christopher X. Brodeur from his unexpectedly successful run for mayor, or from his spectacularly unsuccessful fight against aggravated harassment charges that landed him in the clink for six months last year. Well, he's back, and he's taking the fight to a new enemy: the Con Edison bill printing department! From an email he sent us this morning:
Have you seen the new, larger Con Ed bills, which of course waste more paper and create tons more landfill and recycling costs for taxpayers? Why is no one in charge of preventing this waste? Nevermind that the added cost by Con Ed gets passed on to you and me in our "larger" bills.WHY can't we socialize electricity exactly as we did police and fire services, public libraries and public parks? The NYPD sends out zero bills a month to pay for its service, versus Con Ed's 5 million envelopes a month. That's insanity at best. The head of Con Ed gets paid about 3 times more than the head of the USA, (The President) which is a perfect illustration of how the "free market" is as inefficient economically as possible. Before they "deregulated" the electric industry, the head of Con Ed was getting a much lower salary. Now, our rates must keep skyrocketing to pay for the expanded salaries and expanded waste, while Con Ed reduces repairs and servicing of its lines to fund these enormous salaries. (See: the "blackout" in Queens this year.)
There is no logic to Con Ed being for-profit in any way, except to line the pockets of hyper-capitalists. If deregulation makes sense, then why doesn't the government open police, fire, and military services to "competition"? Why doesn't the FDNY send out 5 million bills every 30 days to pay for its services? Because they know it wouldn't work and would be catastrophic. Government is bad, but big business is far worse and far more expensive.
Why will the media not even discuss this issue?
Preach on, CXB-- waste not, want not! Everyone who's able should sign up for e-bill, which eliminates all of the paper. The rest of Chris' letter, after the jump.
Socialism makes more sense than capitalism in police protection AND basic services like electricity and phones. "Competition" MUST increase cost to consumers, duh. (EX: the FDNY doesn't need to spend 50 million a year to advertise its product, while every phone company does. So the FDNY ---by being socialistic---- saves us the 500 million a year or so all the phone companies pay for advertising (which then gets passed onto the customer).There is no debate (pun intended).
The people of America would prefer single-payer electricity and phones (and health care) just like they do single-payer fire, police, military, school, library, parks, sidewalks, and so on.
Ask them.
Now, why can't the People get what they want in a democracy?
You in the media could make this a reality. Why are you opposed to any debate?
christopher x. brodeur
Lower East SIde
917-450-4178
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They also wasted resources printing giant post cards warning us about the larger bills.
Mr. Brodeur should just move to Europe and be done with it. And so should Jake -- maybe then he could annoy Parisist readers with his crap instead of us.
I actually agree with him -- essential services shouldn't be privatized. I think that phone service shouldn't be taken over by the government (there are countries in Europe with nationalized phone service wherein people still don't call each other to chat because the rates are so high), but Con Ed as a privately-owned entity seems like a shaky company at best.
The environmental impact of these larger bills would be absolutely dwarfed by the waste in energy if people weren't charged for exactly what they used in power consumption (which is what he is arguing for). Could you imagine in the summer? Everyone would set their AC at 68 degrees. They would pay the same thing either way, so no reason to conserve power.
Brodeur's run for Mayor was "unexpectedly successful"? Doesn't "successful" mean he won?
Brodeur's run for Mayor was "unexpectedly successful"? Doesn't "successful" mean he won?
Privatization is coming. It's also usually a disaster - see the British experience - how their railway accidents and numbers of deaths stemming from that have jumped since privatization.
I like what he proposes in the same way I like puppy dogs and ice cream. But this is really big. Does he want it to be a "public benefit corporation" like the MTA? Cuz I hate the MTA and think it is one of the most shadily run orgs around. So . . . more info/ planning would help me out. Bringing the issue up can't hurt though.
The only part of his rant that I agree with is executive compensation, which is way out of friggin' control.
I could get on board with putting a ceiling on any single executive's pay to a small, predefined % of the company's gross PROFIT.
Con Ed's subway ads really piss me off. I'm paying $.20 per kilowatt hour to pay for ads that tell me they're "on it?" WTF?
I wish I had so much free time that I could join the fight against such an important issue! Just in CXB's Name, I'll run right home and see if it's even recycled Paper!!!
Boy, he sure missed the boat when Verizon did the same thing with Home Phone Service bills. Assuming he has a land line...
If I were a female ConEd employee, I would not want my picture all over the train next to the words "On it."
Also,unless his number is on his web site, you might want to pull it from the post. Oddly enough that number, when google searched shows up as someone else...
What a tool; you are right, he should move to Europe. Time to start locking up the crazies again and get them off of the street. I'm tired of the nuts getting protection but nothing protecting us from them. Seriously, why doesn't this guy actually do something instead of just complaining. Maybe he should pick up garbage or join the Peace Corp. Do something nut-job!
'If I were a female ConEd employee, I would not want my picture all over the train next to the words "On it."'
...
Good Point!
"The environmental impact of these larger bills would be absolutely dwarfed by the waste in energy if people weren't charged for exactly what they used in power consumption (which is what he is arguing for)."
You are so right. Why doesn't this jackass move to Europe so he can pay taxes on 75% of his income.
By his logic, cable TV (including pay per view) should be free too. That way we Americans can satisfy our need to be constantly entertained as we sit on our fat lazy asses with the air conditioning blasting. And then we won't even notice when this psychopath takes over the government.
BTW:
my mayoral campaign technically proved I was the most popular candidate in electoral history, based on votes-per-energy spent.
And this is AFTER they illegally banned me from all debates (including the ABC one!); illegally banned me from all election coverage; illegally arrested me 3 times to smear me.
Imagine my votes-per-dollar tally if my free subways and other plans had been in all the press like Ferrer's schools plan! (What plan?)
And I'm the best debater on earth. I steamrolled all the major candidates the few times I was allowed in debates and audiences went ape for me and my platform. (I'm not some airhead like Bloomberg or Ferrer.)
How did I set records even with the massive blacklist?
THIS is why Team Bloomy had me falsely arrested, and they were smart to do so. I could've easily gotten enough votes on Staten Island alone to Nader the election to Ferrer.
I got 17,000 votes without even trying! (We intended to do more campaigning, but summer 2005 was a scorcher, so we skipped going out most days.)
FYI:
my fight on the harassment charges was NOT "unsuccessful", jake. I could've pled "guilty" for zero days in jail, but the GOAL was to expose the nearly-absolute corruption of our legal system, and it was very successful.
Even people who hate me said "I hate CXB, but a year in jail for speech? That's nuts. Something doesn't smell right".
My goal is to educate people on the corruption of the courts, judges, prosecutors, jails, etc.
If going to jail was bad, I wouldn't keep challenging Goliath, obviously.
In fact, I predicted years ago everything they did in my trials, so the morons inadvertantly made me look like a supergenius with ESP!
If my predictions hadn't come true, I'd feel like I lost. (EX: I said they'd have to get a City Hall appointed judge to illegally preside over my trial to guarantee a fixed result and voila!)
They broke hundreds of different laws to "convict" me, but remember my last "conviction" was thrown out as totally bogus.
And I got $35,000 in a lawsuit settlement, which bought a lot of my musical gear. (I asked for 35K and got it.)
This time, I won't settle for less than $300,000.
Plus, I told the idiots I'd use their evil against them: they keep making me more famous, which always backfires on them. Hell, my last Night Of A Shitload Of Stars was standing room only!
The more famous the crooks make me, the more I can get the message out about how totally corrupt Bloomberg is.
More details upon request.
BTW:
my mayoral campaign technically proved I was the most popular candidate in electoral history, based on votes-per-energy spent.
And this is AFTER they illegally banned me from all debates (including the ABC one!); illegally banned me from all election coverage; illegally arrested me 3 times to smear me.
Imagine my votes-per-dollar tally if my free subways and other plans had been in all the press like Ferrer's schools plan! (What plan?)
And I'm the best debater on earth. I steamrolled all the major candidates the few times I was allowed in debates and audiences went ape for me and my platform. (I'm not some airhead like Bloomberg or Ferrer.)
How did I set records even with the massive blacklist?
THIS is why Team Bloomy had me falsely arrested, and they were smart to do so. I could've easily gotten enough votes on Staten Island alone to Nader the election to Ferrer.
I got 17,000 votes without even trying! (We intended to do more campaigning, but summer 2005 was a scorcher, so we skipped going out most days.)
FYI:
my fight on the harassment charges was NOT "unsuccessful", jake. I could've pled "guilty" for zero days in jail, but the GOAL was to expose the nearly-absolute corruption of our legal system, and it was very successful.
Even people who hate me said "I hate CXB, but a year in jail for speech? That's nuts. Something doesn't smell right".
My goal is to educate people on the corruption of the courts, judges, prosecutors, jails, etc.
If going to jail was bad, I wouldn't keep challenging Goliath, obviously.
In fact, I predicted years ago everything they did in my trials, so the morons inadvertantly made me look like a supergenius with ESP!
If my predictions hadn't come true, I'd feel like I lost. (EX: I said they'd have to get a City Hall appointed judge to illegally preside over my trial to guarantee a fixed result and voila!)
They broke hundreds of different laws to "convict" me, but remember my last "conviction" was thrown out as totally bogus.
And I got $35,000 in a lawsuit settlement, which bought a lot of my musical gear. (I asked for 35K and got it.)
This time, I won't settle for less than $300,000.
Plus, I told the idiots I'd use their evil against them: they keep making me more famous, which always backfires on them. Hell, my last Night Of A Shitload Of Stars was standing room only!
The more famous the crooks make me, the more I can get the message out about how totally corrupt Bloomberg is.
More details upon request.