Month: September 2009

The Energy Debate

The next great side show coming from Washington will be the energy bill….after the health debate runs its course then energy will replace it as the stuff lies are built on…will it be the same as the health debate?  Or will it be a civil discussion?  It will most likely be a lot of things but civil is not one of them.

I would like to help my readers be prepared for the song and the dance of the next “great” debate…..ENERGY.

But I will bet that you, my reader, is asking what is the debate going to be?  A good question and I have a good answer for you.  There are three plans that should be considered; one from the Dems, then one from the GOP and then l;astly the yellow dogs…oh my bad the Blue Dogs……

First, the Dems plan:

The most aggressive provision in the legislation aimed at curtailing U.S. oil consumption is language requiring auto manufacturers to build cars that use less fuel. But the language requiring an increase in corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards for vehicles and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020s is expected to face fierce opposition from Democratic lawmakers hailing from Michigan, home to the domestic auto industry.

The bill’s other significant provision would ramp up the federal renewable fuels mandate enacted in the 2005 energy bill and require 36 billion gallons of renewable biofuels to replace fossil fuels in the nation’s fuel supplies annually by 2022. The current standard sets a goal of 8.5 billion gallons per year in 2008.

The biofuels proposal would also move production away from corn-based ethanol, which was the big winner under the Republican-drafted biofuels agreement. The legislation would require cellulosic ethanol alternatives that rely on grasses and agricultural waste to be used to meet 60% of the increase in renewable fuel production in 2022.

The bill contains a host of other modest conservation and efficiency measures that would improve energy efficiency for light bulbs and home appliances, encourage research for so-called clean-coal technology, and set a national goal for reducing gasoline consumption.

The bill is also noteworthy for what it doesn’t contain — language addressing climate change and a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions created by burning fossil fuels. Democrats have steadfastly pushed for climate-change provisions in past Republican energy bills.

This bill is similar to the health bill and the financial bill…it is a tweak not a REFORM.

Then we move on to the plan of the GOP…..their proposal is called the American Energy Act:

Both the Presidential and Congressional moratoriums were lifted last year and the previous Administration published a draft leasing program to lease previously unavailable Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) areas. The current Administration has delayed the draft leasing program. This bill would put the leasing program in place immediately to facilitate the environmentally responsible development of these additional OCS areas.

Directs the Interior Secretary to establish a competitive oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic Coastal Plain to be conducted in an environmentally-sound manner. The bill repeals a prohibition against the production of oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Before conducting the first lease sale, the Secretary would prepare a NEPA impact statement with respect to the actions authorized by this subtitle.

Requires the Secretary to hold a lease sale within 180 days of enactment, offering 10 parcels for lease for research, development, and demonstration of oil shale resources, under the terms offered in the solicitation of bids published on January 15, 2009.

Allows the EPA Administrator to authorize financial assistance to facilitate the hiring of personnel with experience in fields relevant to consideration of Federal refinery authorizations. A Federal agency would also be able to provide technical, legal, or other nonfinancial assistance to a State or tribe to facilitate its consideration of Federal refinery authorizations.

Provides competitively awarded cash prizes to advance the research, development, demonstration, and commercial application of innovative energy technologies and new energy sources. The bill allows funding for the prizes to come from appropriated funds, provided by the administering entity, or funds raised through grants or donations. The bill prohibits the Federal government from being entitled to any intellectual property rights derived as a consequence of awarding a prize. The bill requires that a portion of the funds in the American Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund be available to carry out the prize program. Finally, the bill prohibits any prize money from being taxed by any Federal, State, or local authority.

Authorizes an accelerated regulatory process for new reactor applicants, which meet certain conditions, in order to cut the time needed to permit new plants by roughly 50 percent. Under the two-year program, eligible applications must:

Include a design already certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC);

Include a site at a location already licensed for operating reactors,

Be submitted by an operator in good standing with the NRC;

Have a full and complete Combined Operations and Construction License application; and

Demonstrate a financial commitment to secure long-lead components.

Expands an existing energy investment tax credit for renewable energy equipment to include nuclear and clean-coal equipment. The bill clarifies that no “double benefit” can be received by collecting both the investment tax credit and the existing production credit for nuclear power.

There you go Repubs are heavy on helping the oil industry retain its strangle hold on the economy and as usual, there is the proposal for tax cuts and incentives.  And as usual they are in the pocket of the nuke industry.

Even Obama is talking about clean coal….there is NO such thing….one can try to clean up the emissions but NO coal is clean burning.  The term “clean coal” is referring to the technology of controlling the emissions.

Analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which passed in the House, explained why the bill is so popular. Provisions in the bill designed to offset higher energy prices for typical consumers would reduce energy bills by $63 billion between 2012 and 2020, if implemented this year.
According to recent media reports, right-wing led business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) have financed congressional lobbying and national media campaigns to block the bill, claiming that controlling pollution would harm profit margins.

The impact of this multi-million dollar campaign has been felt. A Senate version of the climate change bill excludes mandatory renewable energy standards. And in a call for “bipartisanship,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., is pushing for a climate change bill far weaker than the bill he supported in the last session of Congress and that provides major exceptions for the coal and nuclear energy sectors.
A recent survey released earlier this month revealed that more than six in 10 voters in the home states of 16 Senators who may cast key votes on climate change legislation support a bill like the one already passed by the House of Representatives. Voters also said they would be likely to vote for their Senator in the 2010 elections if they voted for such a bill.

My point is when this debate heats up it will be an argument for  retaining coal or helping the environment…the health bill and debate may be a precursor to the next great debate…ENERGY.

Please…Give Them Time To React

As the Senate committee goes through the mark-up thing, tempers flair and the truth comes out.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) offered a defense of Bunning’s amendment by arguing that the 72-hour provision was critical because it provides time for senators to consult with health insurance lobbyists:

All the Senator from Kentucky is asking is for 72 hours to determine the cost. Senator Snowe has spoken eloquently about sunshine, and the openness, and the fact that the American people would support this 90 percent, 95 percent. But the thing that I’m trying to point out is we would have at least 72 hours for the people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation that we pass around here, and the regulations that we pass around here, to say “hey, wait a minute. Have you considered this?” And that’s all I’m asking for — is not only cost, but also the content of a bill. And that 72 hours, I think, is highly, highly important.

To be clear, Roberts is referring to health insurance lobbyists when he references the “people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation.”

How tacky!  He wants to give the very people that are fueling the fires of  misinformation time to reload and attack.  Do you think he is getting any money from the Insurance industry?

But there is a bright spot!  And for his actions and words, Sen. Jay Rockerfeller (D-WV) wins the “balls of Steel” Award for 2009.  He said:

If there’s anything which is clear, it’s that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup. […]

Thanks to thinkprogress.com for the excellent reporting.

All I can say about that is….BAM!….you nailed that.

The Senate will be the hardest part of the health bill…there are way too many taking the cash from the insurance industry…..but at least someone on the committee has the cajones to tell it like it is….thank you, Sen. Rockerfeller.

And The List Gets Bigger

Yet another name has been droped into the PAC game, you know those little sites that test the water for a presidential bid.

Poilitics In Minnesota is reporting:

It was only a matter of time until GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty formed a leadership political action committee to explore running for president in 2012 . The more interesting point is what he chose to name the PAC: “Freedom First.”

The naming of leadership PACs — particularly for lesser known candidates like Pawlenty — is not an inconsequential thing. The name connotes something about how the candidate views his or her candidacy, and it says a lot about the shape of the campaign the candidate means to run. Consider the names of the leadership PACs formed by the other Republicans looking to board Air Force One in January 2013. Recent Value Voters poll winner and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has “Huck PAC;” Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, “Sarah PAC;” and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, “Free and Strong America PAC.”

So the list gets longer…..everyone in the GOP is scrambling for the leadership role for the next nomination series.  Is Pawlenty all in or is this just a a ploy to check to see if he is attractive to the people?

Don’t you just love the names they choose for their PACs…”free and strong America” or “Freedom First” like it is some noble endeavor they are preparing for…..there is NO nobility in politics anymore…..scumbags all.

More Republican Health Proposals

The following is from a group calling itself “Republican Main Street Partnership” has offered up what it calls “Principles Of Reform:

1) Preserve, protect and strengthen the private system of healthcare and the private system of health insurance. To do so, we must oppose any proposal that provides for a “government option.”

2) Shift our emphasis from the current “treatment paradigm” to one that focuses on the prevention of illness and disease.

3) Work to lower healthcare costs across the system. We should make lowering the cost of healthcare a priority.

4) Eliminate fraud and waste in both the public and private healthcare systems. Fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid systems alone costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

5) Enact meaningful tort reform that protects patients but at the same time ends the abuse of frivolous lawsuits brought by unscrupulous trial lawyers. The current system fails both patients and providers.

6) Harness 21st century technologies and innovation. Health information technology, for example, can save money and save lives.

7) Encourage cutting edge research and the development of new life-saving and life-extending treatments by updating the research and development tax credit and making it permanent.

8) Empower individuals to have more control over their healthcare decisions.

9) Encourage competition across the healthcare system to help lower costs and improve quality of care.

10) Prioritize federal healthcare dollars – eliminate wasteful, inefficient or unrelated spending in Healthcare Appropriations bills.

These principles sound a lot like the proposals that were given out by the GOP in recent news releases.  But who are the Repubs Main Street Partnership?

Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP) is dedicated to promoting and building a pragmatic, thoughtful, fiscally conservative, and inclusive “Governing Majority,” where political debate is encouraged to promote solutions to improve the lives of all Americans. Embracing the full spectrum of center-right ideologies and values in order to build coalitions.

Impressive sounding bunch, huh?



2009 Anal-Ocity

Yes , there is stupid everywhere and unfortunately a lot of the anal statements come from those on the Right, politicians, pundits, media, etc.  Once again my friend , Bill O’Reilly has done it, bless his little black heart.

On one of his recent shows he, O’Reilly, was bitching about the other news media dudes and gals that “pick” on him and seem to single him out for criticism.  I found this comment by him to be a gem of a piece of anal verbiage.

“just drives me crazy that you can’t have be an honest dialogue in this country anymore.”

Bill—-Bill—of all people to make such a statement………

The Right’s talking heads just keep telling a story and it is seldom the whole story and in some cases it is a blatant lie.

I just had a scary thought….can you imagine the total BS that would come out of a roundtalk discussion that included Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Beck and Palin.  Talk about your intellectual license.  That is just plain scary!


The Christian Conservatives Meeting

A meeting is going on in Washington of Christian conservatives among those jockeying for position with this group is Pawlenty, Huckabee, Romney are the biggest names on the bill.  But some are not in attendance like Palin and Newt.  So just how explosive can the meeting be without the two biggest gas bags?

The WaPo is reporting on the meeting:

Conservative activists see exploitable opportunities in Obama’s policies and performance that also can stir more centrist voters, such as suspicions of “big government” and the almost uniquely American skepticism of global warming that prevails in much of the heartland.

“The idea that the healthcare plan takes away choice and freedom, people see their liberties at risk,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), the conservative Christian lobby group organizing the summit of self-styled “values voters.”

The Family Research Council also claims “Obamacare” will lead to federal funding for abortion — an allegation hotly disputed by the president and his supporters — and Perkins told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that this issue went “beyond the ranks of the pro-life movement.”

The religious right has been at the forefront of conservative efforts to rally public opposition to climate change legislation aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

Conservative Christian radio stations have spent the summer saying the legislation’s “cap and trade” provisions would represent the biggest tax increase in U.S. history. That has stoked opposition and could have an impact when the legislation, already passed in the House of Representatives, is considered in the Senate.

Opposition to abortion rights and gay rights long have been leading rallying cries of the religious right, but its activists also tend to follow broader conservative values such as low taxes and support for a strong U.S. military.

The “straw boss” of the straw poll at the meeting comes out as Huckabee and Romney an also ran.  Did Romney lose because he is a Moron?  Or is Huckabee more like the whackos at these meetings?

With all that reported,  there is too much BS in one location.  Like they are afraid of “big government” and they want them out of our lives, but in the same breath want condemnation of gays and abortion, two personal choices.  Hypocrites!

Beyond hypocrites, these dipsticks are LAIRS!  There is NO amendment in the health care bill that would allow for the funding of abortions….BTW it is against the law to use Fed money to pay for abortions….a fact they seem to want to leave out of their rants.  All in all a bunch of dipsticks that believe T. Rex had a saddle.

The whole conservative movement has all the trappings of a Jerry Springer episode….all the sex….all the drama….all back stabbing….and finally all the trainwreck amusement.

That is my take on the hot air coming from the Christian Conservatives meeting.

Overdraft Fees In Danger?

The bane to many worker stiffs is the dreaded overdraft fee when you spend a little ytoo much and do not have the funds to cover it…..you know the $30 you pay to the bank and the $25 you pay to the business….the very things that make your deposit smaller than it should be.

Well guess what?  Looks like the Congress will take up the plight of the consumer and his battle with overdrafts.  As reported in the WaPo:

A backlash is brewing on Capitol Hill against banks that charge large fees for overdrafts without asking or telling customers, the latest sign that the financial crisis is shifting the balance of power from banks toward borrowers.

Banks struggling to survive have become increasingly reliant on the fees, which could total $38.5 billion this year.

But congressional Democrats, who pushed through new restrictions on credit cards this spring, now are promising a crackdown on overdraft fees, using words like “criminal” and “rip-off” to describe the practice of letting people overspend and then charging them fees without warning. Most overdrafts are now incurred on debit card transactions.

The attack on overdraft fees comes as Congress is considering a fundamental overhaul of financial regulation. The Obama administration has proposed the creation of a new agency empowered to write and enforce rules protecting consumers in financial transactions, removing that power from banking regulators. Dodd also favors the creation of a single agency to oversee the health of banks, consolidating a responsibility held by four agencies.

Moebs Services projects that the industry will make $38.5 billion off the fees this year, up from $18 billion in 1999, in part because the average fee large banks charge for each overdraft has climbed by $10, to $35.

Industry groups argue that customers are responsible for monitoring their account balances, that overdrafts should not happen unintentionally and that overdraft loans — the money advanced automatically to cover the overdraft — are a service that banks offer.

So far not much has been out there about this issue, but I see it becoming a heated debate, especially if banks see one of the sources of revenue drying up.  Of course this will be part of the “new” financial reform bill, but it will be interesting to see how this will play in the media and therefore in the debate that will follow.

More On ACORN

By now all the people that hate ACORN are applauding loudly at the possible demise of the much hated organization.  But there is more to the story than FOX has reported and any other news media for that matter.

The authorities in Baltimore are beginning to look into the whole situation.

State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy has ordered an investigation of right-wing operatives James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, who posed as a prostitute and pimp and illegally videotaped two ACORN receptionists at the group’s Baltimore office. The ACORN staffers are shown on the video advising the two tricksters dressed in outlandish garb on how to set up a brothel in the city.

Maryland law forbids taping people without their prior consent. Jessamy issued a statement Sept. 11 announcing that in response to numerous inquiries from the public she has launched a probe to determine if O’Keefe and Giles violated Article 10-402 of the Annotated Code of Maryland.

When the vid surfaced I made mention that I thought it was odd that a filmmaker took the tape to a right wing website instead of the authorities.

The media has sadly left this fact out of the reporting, that what the people at ACORN did was reprehensible but the fact that it was a hidden camera that it might not have been a legal thing to do.

With the possibility of the demise of ACORN, which organization that helps the poor will the conservatives go after?  If they no longer have ACORN to blame for all their problems, where will they look next?

2009 Anal-Ocity

The health care debate has given me an endless supply of anal statements….but this time it has come from the recent Christian Conservative Conference in Washington.  This time it comes from the chief of staff for Sen. Tom Coburn:

“all pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.”

Wait!  All porn is gay porn?  Apparently, I am not watching the stuff this idiot is…..or maybe he has NO idea what he is talking about…I would think it is the latter.

You would think that a chief of staff for a US senator would be a little better informed……we are talking about Washington…..




“You Lie”!

The shout heard around the world….and with that shout Rep. Wilson has started a whole new conversation on race in the US.

Racism?  Again?

Yep, we are having that conversation all over again…..is it?  Or was it?  Or was it not?  On and on…..pundits saying yes and then those that say No….on and on….

I was gonna ignore this whole circus of BS, but it has gone on for more than a week and nothing is being said about the reality of the shout.  South Carolina’s Rep. Joe Wilson just had to shout out at the president during his speech before the joint session of Congress….just had to…..but why did he feel he had to do so?

Was it racism?  I cannot speak for Wilson, but he is from the part of the country that voted for McCain, at least the whites did…..I live in that part of the country and in the last election only about 11% voted for Obama….take that for what it is worth…..but that is circumstantial evidence.  If that is not why, then what was his motivation?

He did call the president shortly after the speech to apologize, but was that a real apology or theater?  To me. it was political theater…Wilson knew exactly what he was doing and why.  His shout was a breach of protocol and as such he needed to apologize to the president, the country, his state and his party.  Instead of getting his 15 minutes of political fame, he could have gone on the floor of the House and made a short apology, if he was truly sorry for his indiscretion.  Instead he went on as many TV shows as would have him to make a big deal about he had apologized to the pres and that he would make no more.

Wilson’s outburst, “you lie” was anything but spontaneous; it was a well thought out and choreographed political move.  Rep. Wilson, please stop acting like you are a victim or something….you brought this upon yourself….deal with the accusations as they come.

I will give him props for accomplishing what he set out to do and that was to change the subject away from substantial health debate to the BS that the 24 hour news media desires.  Mainstream media should be proud of themselves…they can dictate what is news and that usually means BS over truth.