Whatever Happened to Gregory Jaczko?

[FBaggins]

Gregory Jaczko, who resigned as NRC chairman in 2012 due to a roiling controversy over his management style, has been an outspoken critic of nuclear safety in this country, but is no longer working full-time on industry issues. It might even be said that when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meets with the five-member NRC on Thursday morning, Jaczko will be persona non grata.

Jaczko, who declined to be interviewed this week, has kept a low profile. A former aide to Sen. Harry Reid, Jaczko was appointed last spring by the majority leader to a new congressional advisory panel established under the 2013 defense authorization bill to assess the effectiveness of the National Nuclear Security Administration, an Energy Department agency that manages America's nuclear weapons. But nearly a year later, there is no record that the panel has met, nor will anyone at the NNSA or the Energy Department comment about its work.

...snip...
Unfortunately for him, Jaczko's voice can apparently be grating to some. His downfall at the NRC began with reports that he was abusive to staffers, particularly women, and failed to communicate well with fellow commissioners. At the height of the controversy about his tenure, Jaczko called an impromptu news conference and adamantly denied allegations that his management had resulted in a dysfunctional NRC. "I want to assure you that none of these issues are a distraction to the agency," he said. He also said charges that he was abusive were "categorically untrue," a phrase he repeated numerous times during a 30-minute meeting with the media.

...snip...
Jaczko also suffered from the perception that he was on the NRC to do Reid's bidding and kill plans for a nuclear-waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Not long after Jaczko became chairman, President Obama put the long-planned project on ice.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/whatever-happened-to-gregory-jaczko-20140129

[kristopher]

1. Typical rightwing nuclear industry hit piece trying to smear a critic.

Anyone that is critical of the nuclear industry is "persona non grata" according to nuclear industry propaganda.

It is amazing that anyone would think that progressives would value nuclear industry propaganda about their critics any more than we would value coal industry propaganda about critics of the coal industry or petroleum industry propaganda about critics of the petroleum industry.

Thanks for sharing their perspective yet again.

[FBaggins]

2. The National Journal is a RW outlet now?

Who knew?

Your knee-jerk paranoia that anyone that doesn't agree with even your most extreme positions is suddenly a RW plant was tiring years ago... now it's just sad.

At the very least it's intellectually lazy.

[kristopher]

3. Are you trying to say that right wing propaganda isn't everywhere?

Last edited Thu Jan 30, 2014, 08:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Need I remind you of Judith Miller and the NYT for just one glaring example.

The National Journal claims, without much in the way of evidence, that former NRC Chair Greg Jaczko is “persona non grata” on Capitol Hill and to the nuclear industry. On one level, that’s what happens when one speaks the truth. It might have been better if Jaczko had been even more aggressive when he was the Chair, although that would probably have reduced his effectiveness at the agency–and he did do a lot to make the NRC more safety-conscious, especially for a brief period of time following the Fukushima disaster. But he was up against four other Commissioners who see their mission as less to protect public health and safety than to protect the fading remnants of the nuclear power industry.

But in our view, becoming “persona non grata” to the nuclear industry and its Congressional allies is a badge of honor and we should all be thankful for Jaczko’s public statements since leaving office–especially those pointing out that all U.S. reactors suffer from fundamental design deficiencies and should be shut down.

We do have a real beef here with National Journal. They headlined the article Whatever Happened to Gregory Jaczko? and are actually the one coining the phrase that Jaczko is “persona non grata.” After all, no one is quoted to that effect and the only anti-Jaczko quote they could muster up came from the zealously pro-nuclear blogger Rod Adams–one of a dwindling few who think a nuclear “renaissance” would be a good idea. It seems to us that speaking the truth may be a little too much for the National Journal; in the context of this article they are not actually reporting on anything real, but rather they seem to be hoping to make that assessment a foregone conclusion. Jaczko’s views may not be mainstream to much of the Journal’s inside-the-Beltway audience; out in the real world they make a lot of sense.

http://safeenergy.org/2014/01/30/nuclear-newsreel-thursday-january-30-2014/

[FBaggins]

4. Lol! Everywhere?

No.

Only in your imagination.

[bananas]

5. The National Journal has a glowing article on Republican Bob Dole - By Mike Magner

Mike Magner: Same guy who wrote that disgusting piece of crap you quoted in your OP.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/member/daily/bob-dole-90-looks-back-on-a-great-life-20130729

Bob Dole, 90, Looks Back on ‘A Great Life’
By Mike Magner
July 29, 2013

Very few people who reach the milestone of age 90 can look back on as many noteworthy accomplishments as former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

War hero, vice presidential candidate, Senate majority leader, Republican nominee for president—and those are just the most significant titles Dole has earned in his nine decades so far.

Yet it is the public-service aspects of his career—not the ones most often featured in the news—that Dole seemed to take the most pride in during an interview with National Journal Daily in his office at the law firm of Alston & Bird, where he maintains a role as senior counsel.

<snip>

Hundreds of friends of Bob Dole showed up in Statuary Hall in the Capitol last week to celebrate his birthday on July 22, in an event featuring country singer Lee Greenwood crooning one of Dole’s favorite songs, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

<snip>

Lee Greenwood - a favorite among war-mongering Republicans!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Greenwood

He is best known for writing and recording the patriotic song "God Bless the USA" in the early 1980s. In 1995, he was featured with the song in the Warren Chaney docudrama, America: A Call to Greatness.[3] "God Bless the USA" gained renewed popularity following the launch of Operation: Desert Storm in 1991, and again, ten years later, following the September 11, 2001 attacks; in fact, the song even re-entered the Top 20 of the country charts in late 2001. Since then, Greenwood has played at many public events and commemorations of the attacks.

Political views and advocacy

In November 2008, President George W. Bush appointed Greenwood to a six-year term to the National Council on the Arts.[4] He is a Republican.

[FBaggins]

6. Oh! Oh! I know this game!

Let's see.

Mike Magner wrote a piece (hardly a puff piece) about long-retired nonagenarian republican senator Dole.
Lee Greenwood sang at Dole's birthday party
Right-wing extremists love Lee Greenwood
Right-wing extremists also love Ronald Reagan
Reagan was on film with Gerald Ford
Ford was in Frost/Nixon with Kevin Bacon

That's six... right? I win?

One wonders why you didn't document Magner's right-wing anti-environmental predilections by instead pointing to the right-wing treatise he wrote:

Poisoned Legacy: The Human Cost of BP's Rise to Power

Oh wait... we really don't wonder that... do we?

[madokie]

7. LOL

You got down on the floor with the premise of your OP
then got the floor wiped up with your ass.

Now that is funny

[FBaggins]

8. Your grasp on reality has not improved

But thanks for the entertainment.

[madokie]

9. You are funny

Tad insane too

Got the floor wiped up with your ass and you can't see that and then talk about my grasp of reality. lord almighty you are

[FBaggins]

10. Lol!

You seriously think that the author is a RWer?

[madokie]

11. what I think is you are/will carry water for the nuclear power industry no matter what

I didn't say anything about the author, try again

[FBaggins]

12. You didn't say anything about the author?

I didn't make any comments in the OP... the words were all his. Yet you claim that I "got down on the floor with the premise of the OP" then got "wiped up"

There's no rational defense for your nonsense... but the closest possible is either that the OP was wrong, or that I was wrong in pointing out that the author of the OP is no RW shill. He is, in fact, a liberal environmentalist.

Either way... you're attacking the author.

And either way, you look as foolish doing so as bananas did.

[madokie]

13. I was addressing what you said not what the author was saying

I was making reference to the fact that you are now and always have been carrying water for the nuclear power industry
If the picture hasn't been painted that shows to you that it is a less than safe way to produce electricity then you will never be able to see it. And that is why I laugh

[FBaggins]

14. In your imagination?

I was addressing what you said

I didn't say anything in the OP.

[madokie]

15. Didn't say you did

You've said a lot since the OP though and thats what I'm talking about