From the Dennis Kucinich bio:
"About Dennis
Kucinich first came to national prominence in 1977 when he was elected mayor of Cleveland at age 31; the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city.
In 1978, Cleveland's banks demanded that he sell the city's 70 year-old municipally-owned electric system to its private competitor (in which the banks had a financial interest) as a precondition of extending credit to city government. Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light.
In an incident unprecedented in modern American politics, the Cleveland banks plunged the city into default for a mere $15 million.
Kucinich lost his re-election bid in 1979. Fifteen years later, Kucinich made his first step toward a political comeback, winning election to the Ohio Senate on the strength of the expansion of the city's light system which provides low-cost power to almost half the residents of Cleveland.
In 1998 the Cleveland City Council honored him for, "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
..."
It is a fundamental problem with democracy and the frequent elections that long term planning is difficult. The voters don't have the brains and time to analyze complex issues and are most concerned with immediate benefits, in the form of cash in their pockets.
Many consumers are against consumer protection legislation because it raises the cost of doing business. Until they got screwed. And then they e-mail me and most expect me to work for them free of charge.
I missed the debate yesterday and I'm sure I didn't miss much. The media is definitely a big part of the problem. Everything is reduced to ratings, i.e. advertising dollars.
It's great that Dennis Kucinich told Ted Koppel how he felt about the debate:
Hear Dennis' remarks: mp3
See Dennis' remarks: 56K | Broadband (RealMedia)
Like most people, Dennis Kucinich probably knows nothing about credit scoring and how it affects the working people. He might be the only American elected official who cares and has the brains to look into this credit scoring scam, understand it and has the guts to do something about Fair Isaac and the CRAs.
If you know any legislators who might care about anything besides money and power, please post who they are.
Posted by Christine at December 10, 2003 05:54 PM