Rush Hospitalized!

After hearing that U.S. President Barack Obama was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Rush was rushed to an undisclosed hospital location after complaining of groin pain. His condition remains cautious, but it appears he was kicked back pretty hard. Word just in: Glenn Beck was found un-conscious, authority’s think it was a suicide attempt in a tub of tea! And rumor coming into news central is that Sean Hannity had known about the prize from a leak and was aboard that rocket that crashed into the moon. And this just in: Bill O’Reilly was seen signing up for Yoga at a local private studio. And the best, when Ann Coulter found out about the prize, she raced over to FOX, but forgot her makeup, and security arrested her for trying to impersonate a dumb blond. And MSNBC's David Gregory shows his true selve worth, as a FOX spy! Wow, headline news, this is more jolting then a Richter 8 quake. Stay tuned, as things are about to get interesting.

When I Was Hungry...

I haven’t ventured downtown Anchorage since Begich left office and turned out the lights behind him and before the City Hall door could kick him in the you know what! But the lights are still out on the 5th on 5th, so who in hell is running local government? Looking at the condition of the roads, it appears no one. Is this one of Sullivan’s cost cutting energy saving and paper work reduction acts in the making? Oh, that’s right, the mayor’s office was moved over to a cheaper location, at Jerry Prevo’s ABT tax-free haven. I guess its payback to the devil when new mayor Dan disenfranchised the voters. Bottom line, Sullivan should have stayed away from the Assembly’s vote on equal rights. I think it is called interference over executive privilege. We saw what happened to this country when Bush exercised the privilege over righteousness. I guess Sullivan is out to ruin this town! Bottom line, Prevo used his influence and congregation of lemmings to interfere with the process and Sullivan went along for reasons suspicious that warns beware the “Corrupt Bastards Club” still maintains a membership. But I hope if Sullivan is successful in raising property tax that the increase will then include church property. According to scholars, even though there exists language in the Constitution that suggests a separation between church and state, nowhere does it say that a church cannot be made to pay its fair share, to provide property tax towards the common good. Let’s face the facts, the good old days are over with. A church uses the same property tax supported services that a homeowner or business owner enjoys for a fee. Besides, church today is nothing short a slimy business that can use every nook’n cranny tax haven to hide away zillions in income and use that money to set a greedy agenda. It just isn’t fair upon Americanism. The free ride is done with. As far as I am concerned, there is no longer a separation as church is getting into everybody’s business. And a quick calculation of un-taxed church property here in Anchorage proper alone forecasts enough extra income to pay for all the unions’ pay raise contracts for the next three years! Wow, downtown is real dead. Empty streets, empty stores, reminded me of what one would expect at 4am but not at high noon! The coffee shops seemed the only place were clientele were still contributing to the economy. What ever happened to the price of a cup of coffee, “brother can you spare a dime”, not a chance. But maybe the cost is justified, as coffee comes in these high tech cups with these weird like lids. Hey, its cold out even in early October so I don’t need that waste of cardboard insulator! But the insulator hugging the cups today are not just items of necessity to ward off a law suit, but double as advertisement. And this one sang out a warning – about hunger. Hasn’t this nightmare been cured yet? Especially in a country that has the technology to feed the entire world? That is why I believe in health care reform with a public option. Maybe it will include nobody gets left behind a meal – three squares a day. Think about the option as a means that bans forever someone going hungry. Lets face the facts, good nutrition is a ways and means towards a healthy lifestyle, so it is the basis for any health care reform and paramount to a successful program. So maybe the silver lining with Obama’s call for reform is the fact that hunger will be met head on. So if we start all over with health initiatives, then maybe people will become more health conscious, thereby becoming less ill. And success will catapult this country forward, wherein health care will be affordable and we will find that the costs continue to creep lower and lower. What a concept, a healthy America! What is truly amazing comes before us evidence that one still finds hunger in Alaska. The statistics are mind boggling beyond relief and belief. Here in a state that is awash in natural resources, a state that has miles and miles of wild land abundant with fish and game, a state that obtains - through the generosity of the U.S. Treasury - up to 3-times the average amount from regurgitated income slashing taxes then the rest of Americans, and there are people and families that are still going hungry? You know what, maybe we should delay paving the roads for a few years and use the money to feed the hungry. The road pavement is crap to begin with, so I would take gravel roads if it meant spending the money to help out the hungry. And why not open up the new downtown civic center as a food depot for the hungry, as this wasted space isn’t being used for anything else! Can you imagine what it would be like after one year’s time if the entire military budget were used not for weapons of mass humanitarian destruction but upon methods of mass humanitarian decisions, like feeding the hungry and finding a cure for breast cancer. Why breast cancer is still a horror in this country with all of its hi-tech medical wizardry is beyond belief to the point that there must be an ulterior motive to not find a cure. It sucks, as does “my belly full but me hungry” cry from a small child. But when we see how upset the wannabe neo-conservative fanatic fan club membership gets when we talk equality, it is apparent greed should also be taxed, as it seems that it has gotten to the point that it is an evil manipulator, wherein that “brother” aspect is but a historical landmark with no meaning whatsoever to the “Now” generation. I guess “either with us or against us” means feeling OK if your neighbor is starving, especially if that neighbor is not aligned politically with the “Corrupt Bastards”. So to those that brave hunger today, along with those that brave a scary world without medical coverage, this country used to salute you with open arms, nowadays it appears a different kind of “arms” at the greed seekers’ disposal! So as representatives abandon their posts for fear that to do what is right may abandon the contributions to their “war chest”, off in the distance I hear this song that really tells it like it is: “America where are you now don’t you care about your sons and daughters. Don’t you know we need you now we can’t fight alone against this monster”. And the monster here comes in many shapes and forms, just look around you, it is front and center. And if you are still dumbfounded Jerry, try looking in a mirror, its scary even without a Halloween mask of horror!

The ENSTAR Truth

True Story

So now comes Enstar Natural Gas before the Board of Buffones in efforts to try and convince that it is the consumers who should shoulder the burden of an accounting system that is suspicious. Yes, suspicious. I was a Senior Gas Pipeline Controller for Enstar from 1999 through the end of 2003. Back in 2002, some creative book cooking manipulation started to show the ugly side of things upon a business entity that for many years had remained a model business here in Anchorage. I don’t know if it had anything to do with Ben Stevens being appointed the board of directors the parent company of Enstar - SEMCO Energy - but things started to go downhill fast and I lost my job when I refused to be part of the creative accounting gang - as I knew somewhere along the way it would be the consumer that went screwed. Plus, isn’t there a crime against this sort of manipulation if the consumers get taken for a ride? Now I refer to the Board of Buffones - a.k.a. Regulatory Commission - as they were made well aware of what was going on inside Enstar’s Gas Control and Bookkeeping Department. I filed a complaint that never amounted to anything! Now it is the Gas Control that receives on a daily basis all the gas use throughout the system, monitors those volumes for accuracy and consistency and generates reports for billing purposes. If indeed a wrong multiplier was being used which allowed Enstar to over-bill Uncle Sam for gas use at the Ft. Richarson laundry, it is suspicious also, as something should have “Red Flagged” the inaccuracy. Why the Buffones have not taken the liberty to investigate Enstar inside and out is way beyond reality. Back in the early part of 2002, the creative accounting was used to apply gas transportation and delivery profits to an independent gas supplier who had not yet a pipeline in the ditch. This Texas based outfit had not even a gas well that was producing gas, but the company demonstrated a profit, by what the Gas Control creative manipulations produced on paper, and somebody up high was telling the Gas Control workers to make these adjustments. When I placed an “administrative” password lock on the spreadsheet used to manipulate the checks and balances of the system, after correcting months of manipulations wherein somebody was getting screwed over, I was considered “unfit for duty” and placed on administrative leaved until I subjected myself to a “Fit for Duty” examination, basically a psychiatric evaluation. I passed with flying colors because telling the truth is not cause for concern. But the Enstar management was bent on keeping me away from the jobsite – due the fact that I was witness to the book cooking – and did not want me back on the job, especially after I learned that the DOT Operator Qualifier Test, a required test for those individuals that operate a high-pressure pipeline, a test that I was responsible for administering, was all taken care of because the management decided it was best that those required to take the test should be provided the answers during the testing. This is what happens when somebody is placed an “paid leave”! And why provide the answers? Because Enstar was no longer employing experienced gas controllers to run the pipeline and measurement end of the business but accountants that saw too it that the entire system would balance out no matter what went on. Take a little here, leave a little there, it happened on my watch and I said NO. It just doesn’t work that way, this magical balancing act. In fact, the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline which employs the brightest measurement specialist along with the Best Available Technology to measure stuff, it has a problem balancing things to perfection, as there exits just too many variables. And before Enstar decided that I was bad for business and allowed one more chance to conform, I was confronted by an investigator with the DOT Office of Pipeline Safety still having a hard time believing that Enstar has never reported a situation wherein the pipeline was over-pressurized, due lack of experienced operators. See, Enstar management told this fib during a DOT audit. I proved the management wrong and produced the goods, which showed without a shadow of doubt that Enstar has a problem telling the truth and management was trying to pull the wool over the Federal regulators. Enstar was fined for this, but since the book cooking is not a safety issue, it went on un-noticed, until now I believe. To get to the bottom of this, the Buffones need to have an extensive audit of Enstar, but they will most likely find that there was indeed book cooking to the detriment of the consumers and then they will be swamped with work, to undo what has occurred over the years, and that is just to much work for a commission that oversees nothing that matters those they are supposed to protect, us consumers. True story!

Herbes de Provence

OK, so the art of smoke pit barbeque - dungeon style cooking - has once again shown the world that Americans take a fancy to crap upon the palette! I didn't make this up, this "crap", as my bloke buddies from England alerted upon the facts. Did you ever see a British Cookbook? One night while sitting at a pub, several of us tried our best to draft one up along with a few drafts - pints - but there came about front and center only three recipes of interest. Yellow Matter Custard, Solomon Gundy and Spotted Dick. The cocktail waitress asked if the latter was a disease? So the cookbook design called for a whole lot of pages "Intentionally Left Blank", just like George Bush’s memoirs. Now the "Blokes" may be right on with their attitude towards American "dungeon" style cooking, as I have yet to come upon a brisket or rib that is edible unless one is famished. As it usually means over-cooked, over-smoked and over-spiced once good meat to the point it could be used as belt leather or patch up an Alaskan winter boot pock mocked with holes. Really, talk about judging a book by its cover. Rub, dry or wet, it usually finds a concoction made of so many different spices that it takes away the true worth behind the "spice of life". It is called variety, but apply sparingly or else - crap! And what is with those jerks on the "Food Network", those that try to judge other real "chefs"? Why judge for the better with tactics indulging in intimidation, belittling and it seems nothing constructive but down right nasty ridicule. Hey, you try making an edible dish with “stink” tofu. In actuality, I stopped watching the food gurus when some idiot - Food Detective Ted - started saying that MSG was OK! This guy probably couldn't even fix a decent peanut butter & jelly sandwich, unless MSG was allowed to be slobbered on between the nut and jam! And if good for you, this MSG stuff, why do so many restaurants still advertise that "NO MSG" is used in the cooking process? Maybe Ted had too much of the crap while growing up. What ever happened to worthwhile cooking shows, like Julia and Jacque, or good old Justin Williams, with a story behind every recipe. Now that was the true art of slow cooking! So I have taken a different approach to cooking, called singularity. Or in French, "Seule et Unique Herbe Cuisine". It means one spice at a time, to provide unadulterated individuality to flavor upon the spice of interest. See, Herbes de Provence is a historical concoction of garden spices that are collected after the harvest, wherein everything leftover from a summer's harvest is added together, stuff of fragrance that has not already been used to infuse good cooking. What I am talking about is true French cooking. Just look at how spices are abused in America? So this summer I set out to truly enjoy herbs on a solitary basis. I set out the earthen filled pots to grow basil, rosemary, thyme and sage. So as the summer sun allowed a harvest of a few choice leaflets or a fragrant stalk here and there, through a harvest that perpetuates over the season, it meant a one herb only cooking show and tell. Wow. This is it! Parsley, sage, rosemary and time, all have unique and undivided taste sensations, all by their lonely selves! So with a one-herb specialty – like the catch of the day – along with a dash of good quality sea salt and fresh cracked peppercorns, alas perfection. Hey, would you mix good wines together? It is no different a chaotic mess when a wannabe cook throws this, that and the kitchen sink together, in efforts to fool one's senses. And this "Seule et Unique Herbe Cuisine" makes for simple cooking. When you are enlightened to a meal with one and only one herb, it catches the attention. It makes you seek out the truth in this sensation, just like how good wine is enjoyed. It makes eating more of an experiment over that of just a stuffing habit. Rosemary by itself is so versatile, as is thyme and sage. Hey, maybe there is no reward in a Bloke Cookbook, but what about a cookbook on "Seule et Unique Herbe Cuisine"? So over the summer, I prepared the book. Sage only Chicken, Rosemary only Chicken..... It definitely excites the pallet. And when fall comes rushing down the mountains with termination dust close behind, it is time for the Herbes de Provance, all together now. It is great for Thanksgiving time cooking, as a summer’s past memory, but through experiment I am a firm believer in solo spice cooking. Now I had the cook book all ready for the debut, but somehow, just like over-cooked meat ruining things, there was not enough room on the shelves as some book called “Going Rogue” won out the Iron Fist Challenge - or whatever it is called. And this goes to show that this country continues to get wooed by crap, here then there and everywhere, abuse upon the palette and abuse upon what we have available to read. I guess it is all dungeon style cooking and drag-on style beauty queens, at the expense of our individuality! Herbes de Provence? I wonder what happens if it is rolled and smoked, as I need something to ease away the day’s pain, especially when the 1st Amendment becomes a punching bag!

Meet the Press

Is David Gregory a spy for Rupert Murdoch?

Cloak & Dagger

Actually, this could be expanded upon and called the Rupert Murdoch "Cloak & Dagger" Experiment. See, I work at an oil exploration and exploitation site way up north in Alaska. A place that maybe sees an outdated newspaper once a month, if weather lucky. A place where even celebrities of "Ice Road Truckers" stay away from. Where cell phone coverage sounds like the 4th of July on a good day, as the nearby Russian KGB radio-waves have a tendency to interfere. A place wherein it seems time stops with respect to what is going on elsewhere in the world. It is a place wherein the workers are called "roughnecks", that is one step backward a "Red Neck". It is all "chew" snuff, football, dueling banjoes and FOX news. Sure there are females around, to clean the toilets! It is the kind of place wherein Sarah Palin is queen bee, because she was behind the "Drill Baby Drill" assault upon pristine areas of Alaska. See, the sentiment around here follows the sentiment of Ex-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, "wasteland"! If you are a liberated American, you don't last long unless you can camouflage that belief, kind of an in the closet type of existence. So when the management installed a big screen TV in the dining room, it wasn't all for sport weekends, but for FOX news to continue to erode the 1st Amendment rights, at not telling the truth, the whole truth so help me Murdoch over God. Now imagine trying to eat breakfast with Glenn Beck mouthing off, trying to digest lunch with Sean Hannity on a rage about nothing and diner with Bill O'Reilly puking out misinformation at a decibel rating that should be reserved for the weekend college football challenges. It sucked! And it was rather insulting to watch more and more derelicts like Ann Coulter and some idiot in a dress, Michelle Malkin, try to sound intelligent when it was clear and convincing that an IQ was just a suggestion. Is "lie" the choice of words for this gang? Talk about puke and diarrhea of the mouth, the FOX trademark is alive and well. This news channel has got to be a cloak and dagger of hate and fear mongering and nothing else. How this broadcast gets sponsors is beyond decency. So being compelled to stick up for my rights, of equal access, I decided to place the FOX news' channel on the "Child Lock" listing, with my very own password and all! Wow, were residents pissed off, to the point that "snuff" was being consumed as fast as the commissary could dish it out. Really, when Joe Redneck started eating his grits and saw "Child Lock" flashing across the screen when he wanted to be entertained by morning crap, it provoked anger. Drilling for oil almost came to a standstill! So the only other channel available with news was that of MSNBC, with the likes of Ed, Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. But news is news, isn't it? What was rather revealing was the fact that people want the news, no matter what the take is. Being isolated away from family, we want to know what is happening outside, or at least have some semblance of world affairs, something that links us closer to reality. The news channels provide that missing link to reality. So within a week, people started to show signs of relief, not getting upset that Murdoch was banned, and starting to act civil with respect to the real news. Honestly, people started talking not doom and gloom as had been the norm when Beck was alive and well, but started to show some signs of intelligence and realizing that the subliminal message behind the Fox broadcast was causing a disconnect to that reality, the latter so sort after when incarcerated away with work duties way out in the boonies. Hey, this is not a wasteland! So even after the "Child Lock" was erased after a week or so of teasing, for the last several weeks it has been MSNBC as the news channel of choice amongst "Rough Necks"! This could be revolutionary. People around the camp were starting to engage in true Americanism over Fox Sinicism. It was rather interesting to note that most grownups had some semblance of decency when it came to politics and history of this once great country. So even though the numbers of guinea pigs engaged in this unsolicited experiment may mean nothing on the big scale of things, it proves something of interest. It goes to show that people have been tricked with the likings of the "Screws", a.k.a. Sean's "Crew" of misfits. So there is hope. If for some reason FOX went voluntarily banned for just a single week, this country would see an entirely different mindset. As it appears that what is coming from Crap Network Central is in desperation over decency. Truth seekers not welcome seems to be the Fox's mindset. So maybe there should be a moratorium on FOX, not at all a restriction of 1st Amendment rights, but a timeout so those that have been tricked can have a breather, to have the timeout to realign their beliefs as it appears that the Murdoch has released a monster, and Sarah is way up there in that category - monster that is! Hey would any other book publisher print crap for Sarah? No and not to forget that Harper is owned by Murdoch. When does an individual have too much power through wealth? As money can buy anything, including a media blitz that is ruining this country with false fake-me-over talk show hosts that are inciting hate. It goes to show that the tax system is out of control! In my book, anything over a million should be the property of Uncle Sam! Anyway, my experiment was indeed something of modern day man interest, it worked by giving back "Independence" and a sense of individuality towards thinking, so maybe there is hope! And when the truth is front and center, that Murdoch tried to use his wealth and power to influence world politics, in the end it backfired, as even "Roughnecks" have limits to manipulation in the truth.

Sullivan Unfit for Duty

So what gives with new kid on the block Mayor Sullivan? The day after we mourn the loss of a decent politician, son Dan decides to use the fear mongering to gain popularity. Yes, fear upon the masses in efforts to sidetrack opinion polls that have him sinking fast. Dan, so far you are no where close what your dad was as a great politician for Anchorage, looking out for this city’s best interest. First and foremost, kid Sullivan went against the wishes of the Anchorage Assembly, against the voice of the people, when he vetoed the equal-rights amendment. A bill passed by the Assembly for the people and by the people – after hearing the voice of the people. So now kid Sullivan clamors up just like all disrespectful conservative right wing idiots and uses the cat in the bag trick - fear mongering – to gain what has been lost. That being popularity. Sure it is fear mongering! Either that, he knows not what he talks about. Again, he is not fit for duty as this city’s mayor. For reasons consistent with not knowing the truth of the matter or knowing all too well the truth and abusing the office and the power of that office by hiding the truth. His recent live quote: “I do not want, under my watch, for half the population of the state to not have heat and not have lights”, this is a statement that makes Sullivan unfit for duty. It is a lie. Bottom-line, this is crap and corrupt politics at its best. Hey Dan, are you going to turn the heat off at Sullivan’s Steak House and McKinley? I really doubt it. It all has to do with escalating the fear factor upon the premise that Anchorage and the Kenai and the Valley may not have enough natural gas to heat and boil water should there be a cold spell this winter. Whatever happened to Global Warming? Here is my take on Sullivan’s crap like conserve energy fear mongering campaign – a.k.a. Enstar Rip-Off Alert: Most are surely familiar with the Missing Kids "Amber" Alert, a warning that a terrorist has hijacked a youngster. We are also all so familiar with the TSA color code for travelers, once again a sign of terrorist activity that can threaten our existence. It appears now that those of us that live in Southcentral Alaska - Anchorage, Kenai and Palmer through Matanuska Valley - we must contend with another color coding system, this one also against terrorists! The latter defined as those trying to inflict pain and suffering upon our well-being with disruptions in natural gas to our homes. And this new terrorist organization upon which this warning applies? It is the local gas company that runs the delivery system that is supposed to securely provide my home, our neighborhoods, our schools and businesses uninterrupted clean and affordable natural gas. For years we have heard about the lack of natural gas to fuel our stoves and water heaters. That has allowed the supply and demand theory to rob my wallet clean, just for the necessities of heat and a little hot-water. I talked to a flight attendant just the other day, a sad story it is, as she had to come out of retirement just to make enough extra money to pay her monthly gas bill. My gas bill as gone crazy, like a 300% increase in three years time. And Enstar is always coming up with these off the wall excuses of why we should have to pay for their very own screw-ups. Take for instance Aurora Natural Gas reneging on gas contracts or the fact that Enstar under-billed the laundry at Ft. Richardson? And Enstar’s management had the audacity to file with the regulators that the consumers should have to pay for these bad business decisions? Hey Enstar, get some accountants that know what they are doing! Get some people that would say "NO" to fixing the books. Yes indeed, book fixing has happened before with Enstar, so what assurances are there that it isn’t happening today? I was there. When I worked for Enstar there was always this book fixing stuff going on because they could not make ends meet. It was a day-to-day pencil and eraser game; take a little here, put a little there. Actually, the computer spreadsheet accelerated this creative accounting. In fact, one outfit that didn't even have a pipeline was profiting from this out-of-control pencil whipping action. I complained to the regulators, lost my job and nothing was ever done about it. Actually, because I was honest and refused to help “cook” the books, it was considered insubordination which allowed Enstar to say I was unfit for work unless I went for psychiatric evaluation. The Doctor – bowtie Joe - had a good laugh and told me the management staff seemed to be the “crazed” ones. But he lived outside so didn’t give a rat’s ass about “cooked” books! Now had the state regulators investigated Enstar way back when they had the chance, maybe this new found “fear” would not be a bother now that winter is upon us and we fend for a little relief. So now we are told that there is plenty of supply but the delivery system is weak? Somebody is not telling the truth here. So there is now this magical gas supply but Enstar may not be able to get it to my home? To the point that the gas may become a trickle at peak demand times? That peaking comes in the morning when I am trying to boil water for coffee and at night when I am trying to cook a decent meal after a hard day at work. What gives? This goes to show that the regulators are missing in action or afraid to do their sworn jobs. This cannot happen and Sullivan should realize this and not make a big issue over nonsense. It works like this. Pipelines charge a tariff to transport a commodity. That is all Enstar is in it for, the tariff, to pay for salaries and infrastructure and steel away profits disguised as something else, just a delivery boy. We pay the tariff and any increases, just so we don't have to worry about that supply getting to our homes. Tariffs usually increase over time, in efforts for the pipeline owners to maintain the system. If the system is undersized, an increase in the tariff is justified, we all pay for it, but we get something from it - not just lip service. If Enstar is not fit to keep this pipeline up to standards, then the Michigan based company that owns it should be denied a business license and go away. But there is a long history behind what appears to be yet another failed system here in Alaska. Enstar was once upon a time a decent company, owned by Seagull Energy. It was an out-of-site side business for this Texas based oil conglomerate. So we enjoyed our cake and ate it too, with respect too plentiful natural gas at bargain basement prices. Back then the gas was not tied to the "Hub" price, as there existed incentive criteria that kept the gas prices low and affordable. Then came this Michigan company that wanted to have a 30% increase in revenue per year, by increasing the gas delivery system with more customers, not realizing that Anchorage was the big city and the historical growth rate for new customers per year was more in tune to 4%. Basically, this company did not do its homework and paid out three times the market value for the Enstar pipeline and infrastructure. It was a failed business venture from day 1. It was a big joke, this takeover by a bunch of incompetents, as the CEOs came to Alaska to fish and get wooed around town in the Fun Bus. They didn't realize and couldn't grasp the concept that there was limited growth here in the Last Frontier. And their purchase of Enstar - pipeline and compressor stations - was a laugh, as there was no way in hell that they could ever recover their loses. So for years, Enstar management has tried everything to make our lives miserable. From gas shortages to a threatened delivery system. Now when things were not going so well, with respect to profits, Semco – the Michigan based parent company - placed Ben Stevens on the board of directors while he was a state senator and it all went downhill from there. We are paying outrageous hard earned money for this commodity and now we hear the truth, that there is plenty of gas just a crappy system to get it from the gas fields to our homes. And Ben is still a free man? Here is the bottom line! If Enstar cannot provide enough natural gas due a system that has not been maintained, there is a system of curtailment already in place. The consumers are the last to lose out. So there is no need to worry, no matter what kid Sullivan tries to tell you. First on the curtailment plan, the military bases, as they have their own power plants and a backup source of energy that is supposed to last at least 30-days. Wait, that used to be the case until Ted Stevens privatized military housing at the bases in efforts to make his buddy Rubini rich, which meant the brass had to tear down the power plants, as the military cannot compete. With that, the heating and electrical demands went to MLP, placing more constraints on the entire system should there be a record breaking cold spell. Believe me, this mess has the Stevens' family to blame! Anyway, Enstar has an apporved curtailment plan, which stipulates that the consumers – you and I – will be the last without gas. It means closing businesses, then schools and the military will already be in limbo. And in the end if my house freezes up due lack of gas to heat, I will have the option to sue Enstar out of business and the Michigan based rip-off artists can go away and maybe, just maybe an entity fit for running a gas delivery system can take matters onto their own hands and this "Alert" bull crap can be but another piece of crap archive that shows the destructive ways and means of the Stevens' family! So in ending, Dan Sullivan uses the fear mongering when the truth is far from truthful. And if the pipeline delivery system is so bad that it cannot keep up with demand, then the regulators have not done their jobs, to see to it that the one and only gas company is doing its job. This entire natural gas thing stinks, and I reiterate, it seems to have gone all down hill when Ben made $70,000 dollars for nothing, to which he still refuses to tell the truth of what he did for that “extra” cash! Hey, if he did something good for the people, advertise it. Get the point! Bottom line, if there was a decent journalist left around these parts, it is time to report the truth behind the entire Enstar fiasco, including the Stevens’ family ties, the military privatization, everything that has made what was once a well respected business a joke, wherein the new kid on the block would no longer be able to use it too his advantage, by using the fear card when all the time it was just the “Corrupt Bastards” at work and the “people” were once again blindsided!