An Energized Electorate

With the big election next Tuesday, Lake County voters are chomping at the bit to get to the polls and cast that deciding ballot on the one question that really matters to anyone, the electricity referendum. According to the Sun-Times ...

Thirty-one Lake County communities -- including Lake Forest and Lake Bluff -- will vote on electric aggregation referendums March 20 that for the first time will give residents and small business owners the right to shop for electricity in a free market, just as you do for groceries. "It's all about saving money on your electric bill," according to Grayslake Mayor Rhett Taylor whose village has already successfully implemented an electric aggregation program that is very popular cost-saver with local residents.
Voters to decide power suppliers

It goes without saying that any ballot referendum that promises something for nothing is going to draw voters to the polls like bugs to the zapper. Smart operativess will tailor their GOTV efforts accordingly. But smarter ops will recognize a big-buck opportunity waiting to be plucked, and its name is electricity. With all those voters primed to sign up for free electrical service, the climate is ripe for the fastbuck artist who can throw together a PDQ business plan for generating electricity. Here are 10 tips for creating that flybynight power company in anticipation of the goldrush:

Ten Sure-Fire Schemes to Sell Electricity in Lake County

Hook up that exercise bicycle to a generator. No exercise bike? Then invest in 500 hamsters & wheels from PetSmart. Tornado season means big bucks out of that backyard wind turbine. Connect your car battery to the grid. Call AAA for a jumpstart every day. Comb + Hair = Static Electricity 2 words: Potato Batteries That 3-prong socket on your neighbor's garage is a source of cheap renewable energy. The radio waves from your iPhone can be converted to AC. 1 word: Nuclear Run a 220 line into Wooster Lake. Stock Wooster Lake with electric eels.

Look for your LakeCountyEye, singing the body electoral.

Cadge & Release™ Recurrent Issues

Those old enough to have lived through the Great Lake County Derecho of 2011, will recall the global-warming fuelled monster storm that rendered the county powerless for a week. The situation got so bad that the County Board Chair was forced to declare a state of emergency to create an impression that something was getting done. Well, the Daily Herald thankfully now reports that ...

The final two customers left without electricity after last week's storm had power restored early Sunday morning.
Power restored to last of customers cut off by storm

And as readers of this blog are currently aware ...

The Lake County 2011 Power Vacuum

your LakeCountyEye was one of the storm's victims, and despite promises of free beer, the ComEd repair truck could not be enticed into the LakeCountyEye compound. Furthermore, your LakeCountyEye can provide eye-witness & first-hand confirmation that at least one of those final two customers indeed had their power restored early on Sunday.

No sooner were the lights back on, that the LakeCountyEye eMail-Server crashed from the volume of queued Viagra spam tips that came flooding into the the LakeCountyEye Inbox. It's been that kind of week.

Among those tips was this week's winning Cadge & Release™ entry, submitted by frequent contributor e.e.comed. (Fittingly the e.e. stands for Electrical Engineer.) e.e.comed notes that the e-mails reproduced below are responses to requests for assistance sent to government representatives.

The Cadge (1): Storm Update from Senator Suzi Schmidt July 17, 2011 Dear [Redacted], I have been in frequent contact with Emergency Management officials and the ComEd representative for our area. I have been receiving information from those of you still out of power and forwarding that information to ComEd via Emergency Management and our ComEd representative. If you are still out of power, please contact me by email with your address. If you have already contacted me, please let me know if they have been out to restore your power. ComEd is aware of most, if not all, of the pockets that are still without power and working with multiple extra crews to get those situations resolved, but we are happy to reiterate addresses without power. As always, thank you for the opportunity to serve you, and please don't hesitate to contact me if you need assistance. Suzi Schmidt State Senator 31st District

The Cadge (2): JOIN MY NEWSLETTER I have been in frequent contact with Lake County Emergency Management officials and now have contact information for the the Commonwealth Edison representative for our area. I have been receiving information from those of you still out of power and forwarding that information to ComEd via Emergency Management. If you are still out of power, please contact me by email with your address. If you have already contacted me, please let me know if they have been out to restore your power. ComEd is aware of most, if not all, of the pockets that are still without power and working with multiple extra crews to get those situations resolved, but we are happy to reiterate addresses without power. As always, please don't hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns at jnewton@lakecountyil.gov or call me at (847) 807-9767. Sincerely, JIM NEWTON Lake County Board - District 3

Sharpeyed Ops™ will notice that this week's winner is all Cadge and little Release. That is because neither iteration is believed to be an original. Your LakeCountyEye suspects that neither the State Senator nor the County Board Commissioner commands the resources necessary to produce an email form-letter that could just as easily have been downloaded from the office of a ComEd PR Flack. The first operative to find an original will be named grand prize winner. In the course of their investigations, operatives may encounter an opportunity to promise free beer. They can certainly fare no worse than your LakeCountyEye.

The Lake County 2011 Power Vacuum

Still waiting for the ComEd truck to arrive, your LakeCountyEye has been subsisting on portable generator power since Monday's seiche inundated the county. Note to operatives, those downed trees make for excellent firewood if you are running a steam-powered generator. (Your LakeCountyEye has discovered that stolen yardsigns do as well -- provided they are cardboard.)

Speaking of ineffective outdoor mass marketing, not unnoticed were the humorous hand-painted signs:

Free Beer for ComEd!

These numerous signs were to be found at homes hoping to solicit some preferential service out of their power company. Not to be outdone, your LakeCountyEye posted this humorous hand-painted sign in front of the LakeCountyEye compound:

Ha Ha -- Free COLD Beer for ComEd!

The next day there was a ComEd post-it note on the sign:

Ha Ha, if your beer is cold, call us when your power is out.

In times of adversity like these you could do worse than recall the political advice of one uber-operative, whose name escapes your LakeCountyEye at the moment:

"Never let a serious crisis to go to waste."

For instance, operatives are challenged to blame the outage on Obamacare or the debt ceiling or some junk like that. In that spirit, your LakeCountyEye has compiled a list of ten opportunities to take advantage of before the lights come back on.

Ten Must-Do's in a Power Outage

The red light cameras are down -- run a red-light. This is a perfect time to "rewind" the power meter. Lights out at the tanning salon? Time to buy that battery powered tanning-bed. No video poker? Then play Internet poker. Is the a/c kapoot? Treat the family to a round of frappés. Enjoy those energy inefficient incandescent bulbs 100% guilt-free. That rack-of-lamb on reserve in the sub-zero freezer for that special occasion ... now is the time to toss it on the Weber. Drive down to Barrington Hills for some awesome outdoor lighting displays. Take the opportunity to declare an emergency; seize dictatorial powers. (Applies only to County Board Chairs.) Lincoln surfed the web by candlelight. So can you.

Don't look for your LakeCountyEye, not without a flashlight.