Republican House Committees: Dead End for Climate Legislation

Climate Change Deniers Run House Committees (via Red Green & Blue)

I’ve recently been writing for a blog called Red, Green and Blue, part of Important Media Network…check it out!!)

Surprised?  No. But there was some part of me that held out just a little hope that someday, somewhere out there, a reasonable Republican congressman (HA!) would find him or herself in a position of power to do something about, or at least, support, some small effort to mitigate climate change. Alas…

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Massachusetts Senate Race – Climate Policy Battleground

Reason #7,162 not to Vote Republican: James Inhofe (via Red Green & Blue)

(I’ve recently been writing for a blog called Red, Green and Blue, part of Important Media Network…check it out!!)

The Massachusetts Senate race has just become a battleground in the fight against climate change. In the debate between Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren and incumbent Republican Scott Brown last week, Warren brought up a great point about the consequences of voting for Scott Brown (and by extension…

Climate Change…Real, Dangerous…Hilarious?

Romney Mentions Climate Change in Convention Speech…For Laughs (via Red Green & Blue)

(I’ve recently started writing for a blog called Red, Green and Blue, part of Important Media Network…check it out!!)

It was a strange night at the Republican National Convention in Florida, what with Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair… “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans — [pauses for audience laughter(!)] — and to heal the planet. MY promise is to help you and your family.” HAHAHAHAHA…

March Madness

Just because I haven’t been posting, doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading.  Its been a little more challenging to see the routine slime oozing through American politics,  when we are daily confronted with the devastation and sadness of the situation going on in Japan right now.   Nevertheless, here are a few recent gems from our dear friends on the other side of the aisle:

• More fun from the state of Kansas: Kansas State republican representative Virgil Pecker Peck suggests the solution to illegal immigration is simply to get in helicopters and shoot them like pigs.
• Do we really need more reasons to hate this guy? Rush Limbaugh thinks Japan’s natural and nuclear disaster is simply hilarious.
• Oh, this will get us where we need to go: Every single republican member of House Energy Committee denies existence of climate change.
• Robin Hood he a’int: Michigan governor Rick Snyder raises taxes on families living below the poverty line, and then lowers corporate taxes by 86%….because, why not?
• Perhaps taking the abortion debate a bit too far: Nebraska ‘s republican-dominated legislature wants to legalize the murder of doctors who provide abortions.

Ahhhhhh…republicans.  Thanks for being the voice of evil in our lives.

The House of republicans

Ahhhhh…just finished basking in the warm glow of the holidays, the exuberance of New Years’ Eve and the (relative) triumphs of the lame duck, post-“shellacking” 111^th congressional session – DADT Repeal, 9/11 Responders Health Care Bill, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, Middle Class Tax Cut (oh right, and Uber-rich Folks Tax Cut too).  Nice…

But today is a new day.   This is the first week of the “new” republican-controlled House of Representatives.  Yes, the forces of Mordor have seized control, ushered in by a remarkably forgetful voting population, riding the Tea Party/lunatic fringe wave…and they’ve got a mandate…well, kind of.

So here’s some good times to watch for in 2011:

1.  Health Care Reform:  Weeper of the House John Boehner’s (r-TX) top priority – deficit reduction.  First order of business – repeal health care reform…at cost of $230 billion.  Wait for it…”H.R. II – Repealing the Job Killing Health Reform Act”…yeah, that’s the official name…

2.  Global Warming: Since incoming chairman, Jim Sensenbrenner (r-WI), voted against the creation of the House Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and led a “delegation” of global warming skeptics to climate talks in Kyoto and Copenhagen, the committee was disbanded on the first day of the new session.  Second order of business:  don’t let the EPA regulate greenhouse gases (and never mind the 2007 Supreme Court decision granting the EPA that authority).  So, if you thought we didn’t make much progress in the last two years…you a’int seen nothing yet.

3.  Darrell Issa (r-CA): Stay tuned for EVERYTHING-Gate.  With the prospects of his chairmanship of the House Oversight Committee looming large in late October, Issa told Rush Limbaugh that Obama is “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.”  So, get ready for an onslaught of investigations, and hearings…we’re talkingWikiLeaks-Gate, Fannie Mae-Gate (why didn’t Obama blame the poor?), Regulation-Gate (why all the job-killing environmental, health and safety regulations?), Afghanistan-Gate, walking-the-dog-Gate, playing-with-the-kids-Gate, Quitting-Smoking-Gate…

4.  Steve King (r-IA): Just wait until this guy gets started.  Yes, the new head of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law is a tad on the scary side.  Some notable quotes:

• “Every time we give amnesty for an illegal alien, we deport a liberal.”
• We should electrify the border fence because “we do that with livestock all the time”

5.  Louis Gohmert (r-TX):  New chairman of Subcomittee on Crime Terrorism and Homeland Security.   Terror Babies…need I say more?

And that’s just a small taste of what’s to come…oh my, its going to be a fun 2 years!!!

The going gets weird…

Wait a second…what’s this?

Quote today from Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, “I think the term ‘cap and trade’ is not in the lexicon anymore.”

Almost simultaneously, Barack Obama gave the middle finger to U.S. environmentalists and progressives by opening large swaths of the coastline to offshore oil drilling.

Yayyyyy…

In the immortal words of The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy: “What is this – Bizarro-world?”  Is Obama now following the ridiculously misinformed “Drill-baby-Drill” mantra of former VP-candidate/annoying twitterer Sarah Palin?  Are we “pulling a single-payer“, where we give up tons of ground to the right (known, of course, as “compromising”) in advance of hoped-for bipartisan legislation that, in the end, will fail to gain a single republican vote?

What is the strategy here?  Environmental groups (Helllooo Democratic party base!) are alienated.  The right scoffs and demands more concessions…before they collectively DON’T vote for any future energy plan (I’m looking at you, John “I’m a big baby” McCain).  And this, right after an admittedly huge win on health care.  Back to the bipartisan drawing board…oyyyy…STOP THE MADNESS!!!

I can’t help but be cynical…and stop me if this sounds familiar…but I see a long, protracted battle where Democrats are “forced” to give more and more ground to republicans, until we have, AT BEST, a VERY centrist bill with only moderate, uninspired public support, on an issue of monumental importance to our country and the world at large, with lots of right wing lunatics (encouraged by politicans and weeping TV personalities) screaming their heads off about the end of their country and their freedom and blahblahblah…and maybe someone brings a gun or two (again…encouraged) to a “climate town hall”…that ends, possibly in defeat, with no republicans willing to cross the aisle…and a terrible November for Democrats.

PLEASE, tell me I’m wrong.

Republicans boldly defend America from progress

When he’s not busy insisting the sun revolves around a flat, 6,000 year old Earth, republican knucklehead Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma leads the crusade against global warming.  This moron is so anti-environment, so against everything good and sane, that sometimes he’s even too extreme for his party.

So next month, to protect us all from…whatever…he’s off on an anti-American (yeah, thats right, I said it) mission to Copenhagen to present “the truth” about global warming during the upcoming global climate summit.  Because what’s more American than a member of congress trashing the President on foreign soil?

You know why we got NOWHERE under the Bush Administration?  Why we have such travesties of environmental legislation as the “Clear Skies” initiative?  Its because this asshole was in charge of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Well, now its our turn.

So, what do cry-babies do when they’re out of power?  Why, throw a temper tantrum, of course!  And now, Seargent Dork Senator Inhofe is leading (his sheep) a republican boycott of committee hearings on the Boxer-Kerry “cap-and-trade” bill to address carbon emissions.   Ahhh…republicans…

Who are these guys?  Do they have anything to offer?  ANYTHING AT ALL?

I’ll tell you, just as soon as little baby stops pouting…

[BREAKING NEWS:  VOINOVICH (r – OH)  IS LONE REPUBLICAN AT MARKUP HEARINGS]