[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jack Anderson's son says the columnist "would be rolling over in his grave" if he had lived to see the FBI's efforts to get his papers. Anderson died in December after a half-century of investigative reporting that exposed several scandals and put him on President Nixon's "enemies list."

(snipet from DU's newswolf56) Anderson's files contain records of the Congressional hearings c. 1948-1949 that uncovered the Big Oil/Big Automotive conspiracy to destroy public transport in the United States: to shut down fast, efficient electrically powered trolley and rail systems and replace them with slow stinky herky-jerky petroleum-fueled buses offering only the most minimal service -- all this to force the U.S. public into maximum dependence on privately owned automobiles and petroleum fuels.

Anderson wrote extensively about this uniquely capitalist atrocity during the fuel crises of the 1970s, but few people paid any attention, and the outrageous practices continued: hence the fact the U.S. has the worst, most viciously discriminatory, least efficient, most expensive transport system on the entire planet -- one that is also uniquely (and obscenely) profitable for the ruling class.

Hence too the present crisis: the bitter fact millions of U.S. workers are being ruined because they cannot afford gasoline despite the fact there is no functional alternative to the automobile -- nor (because of now-totally-prohibitive costs) will such alternatives ever be built.

No doubt the Bush Administration in service to its corporate masters has sicced the FBI on Anderson's estate to suppress this information -- particularly the undeniable proof that Enron conspiracies are a defining characteristic of capitalism.

The ruling class fear is obviously that such material -- especially the "lost" (that is, deliberately suppressed) records of the Congressional hearings -- will surface to further support the quietly growing conviction that capitalism is essentially nothing more than infinite greed elevated to ultimate virtue: Enron personified.

[nth]

This must not be US only, cuz Japan and EU would love cheap mass transit, but they don't. What gives?

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nth', 'T')his must not be US only, cuz Japan and EU would love cheap mass transit, but they don't. What gives?

[nth]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UIUCstudent01', '
')Corporations generally operate in multiple countries. (And if Jack Anderson made it up, what is the FBI doing trying to check his stuff?)

This can result in all sorts of craziness.. such as Ford producing small fuel-efficent vehicles, but not selling it in the United States because they get more profit from the massive subsidy that the government gives in regards to 'light trucks'.