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Ear to the Ground

House Gets Busy Over the Weekend

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Posted on Aug 5, 2007

A flurry of legislative activity over the weekend left a mixed bag of progress and surrender. While the House voted to require clean-energy standards for the first time and cut oil industry tax breaks, enough Democrats caved to the White House to pass the president’s preferred FISA rule changes.


L.A. Times:

Pushing to chart a new national energy policy, House Democrats on Saturday passed legislation that would require the nation’s utilities to generate more electricity from clean-energy sources, such as the wind and the sun.

And in another indicator of the changed political landscape on Capitol Hill, they stripped the oil and gas industries of $16 billion in tax incentives and voted to apply those tax breaks to efforts to spur production of cleaner forms of energy.

The energy measures passed in a final burst of activity before lawmakers were to adjourn for their summer recess this weekend.

Late Saturday, the House also modified the Foreign Intelligence Services Act. The changes, a concession to the White House that was strongly opposed by liberal Democrats, would expand the authority of U.S. spy agencies to monitor overseas phone calls and e-mails. The measure passed 227 to 183—with Republicans providing 186 of the “yes” votes.

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By Douglas Chalmers, August 9, 2007 at 1:25 pm #

#93439 by PaulMagillSmith on 8/09 at 9:03 am: “...but they don’t think in terms of the future because the glorious ‘rapture’ is going to make a concept of future moot. Sheer lunacy by religious lunatics. .......... why don’t you all just off yourselves now, and get the hell out of the way of the sane people who would like to plan for a better future…...’

I wish the same for all of you archaic non-productive obstructionists, PMS. The Universe really has no further use for any of you.

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By PaulMagillSmith, August 9, 2007 at 1:03 pm #

RE: #92636 by Douglas Chalmers on 8/06 at 4:36 pm
(540 comments total)

Right on target, Doug, but they don’t think in terms of the future because the glorious ‘rapture’ is going to make a concept of future moot. Sheer lunacy by religious lunatics.

If you are so intent on seeing “Jeeesus” why don’t you all just off yourselves now, and get the hell out of the way of the sane people who would like to plan for a better future instead of being archaic non-productive obstructionists?

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By Douglas Chalmers, August 6, 2007 at 8:36 pm #

#92498 by PaulMagillSmith on 8/06 at 7:02 am: “...So what do they do, Doug? They take $16 bn from the oil companies, supposedly under the guise of funding ‘renewables’, and then give $25 bn to another energy source in decline…nuclear power. Even now there isn’t enough fuel to power the estimated 2,000 power plants necessary to meet the world’s power requirements and NUCLEAR FUEL IS A FINITE RESOURCE, TOO. It will run out, just like oil, and once it’s gone it’s gone for good…..... Why waste our precious resources on another power source that is not sustainable in the long run…?”

Exactly, PMS. Like all good ruthless exploiters and usurpers, they know that, even if uranium is not in short suppy, nuclear fission will be obsolete in a few decades anyway (replaced by nuclear fusion). Thus they are keen (desperate) to dig it up and build as many nuclear reactors as they can right now and to hell with the consequences.

Just like the current sub-prime mortgage disaster and infrastructure fiaso, though, it will inevitably become a hell for future generations. What is more, they will continue to obstruct research and development in the most advanced renewable technologies until their greedy wants and desires are met. If we are all still alive in 2040, they will then tell us how clever thay are and that they have just discovered something new - renewable energy.

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By wagonjak, August 6, 2007 at 12:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

A “mixed bag of progress and surrender”? This FISA legislation passed by both the House and the Senate was a TOTAL CAPITULATION of our elected Representatives to the WH cabal!

The cowardice of the Democratic Senators and Congressmen who voted for this evil bill will be forever enshrined in a Hall of Shame…

Meanwhile, the whole left blogosphere was having a heckuva time swilling margaritas and chumming the journalistic waters with their brothers and sisters in the MSM…

Shame on you all!

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By Mariam Russell, August 6, 2007 at 12:05 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Lets see how many of these jerks with the calloused knees are un-elected.

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By PaulMagillSmith, August 6, 2007 at 11:02 am #

#92461 by Douglas Chalmers on 8/06 at 2:38 am
(493 comments total)

“The other is that the oil industry is either at or past its peak and can’t do a thing about global warming while people are consuming more and more oil anyway. Subsisizing their investing in “clean” energy is a good opportunity for them to invest their profits in something sustainable and guaranteed profitable in the longer term.”

So what do they do, Doug? They take $16 bn from the oil companies, supposedly under the guise of funding ‘renewables’, and then give $25 bn to another energy source in decline…nuclear power. Even now there isn’t enough fuel to power the estimated 2,000 power plants necessary to meet the world’s power requirements and NUCLEAR FUEL IS A FINITE RESOURCE, TOO. It will run out, just like oil, and once it’s gone it’s gone for good.

Why waste our precious resources on another power source that is not sustainable in the long run?

If nuclear power is such a good deal (propaganda by big centralized power companies) why can’t they stand on their own feet without the taxpayer subsidies they have gotten now for decades?

It’s time to fund renewables the same way we have subsidized the oil & nuclear industries. The biggest obstacle is these industries haven’t figured out how to gouge the consumer with a windmill in his yard who doesn’t need them at all.

After all the effort it took to get a Democrat majority I am thoroughly disgusted at their behavior. The optimist in me hopes they will finally wake up; the realist in me says I should place large bets they won’t. It’s a bet I hope to lose.

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By farmertx, August 6, 2007 at 10:32 am #

A mixed bag indeed. The Democrat’s seem shell shocked over anything to do with terrorism or national security as defined by the Shrub.
It would seem that this next election, if Shrub doesn’t stop it, or if the Shootist doesn’t have other plans, would be the ideal time for an independent group to emerge.
The Republican’s have lost some support due to the Shrub. The Democrat’s, dammit, are losing support, as well, by pandering to the Shrub.
Regardless, no one candidate is going to solve all the problems that Shrub has created. Not to mention that it will take years to get the US back on track. And that is with a President and a Congress working as a team for the good of the country.
And when was the last time that happened?

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By Verne Arnold, August 6, 2007 at 9:58 am #

Well, for whatever it’s worth…here’s my answer to FISA: Every time I call my friends in America I always say clearly that “the fascist fuck Bush should be impeached.” 
“He is a moron and a war criminal and his neo-con buddy’s (including Cheney) should all be jailed for treason.”

Further; as to living under a military junta…frankly I prefer it, to living in Bushes version of “freedom and Amerika”.

I know full well I am being monitored by their “Predator/Scavenger (whatever)” computer programs because I call from outside of the Amerikan border with a cell phone.

Stupid…maybe…but that’s my civil disobedience and middle finger to this shit!

When are you guy’s going to wake up and “DO” something?  Why are you waiting for your duly elected, cloned, skin jobs, too do that which they will never do?

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By Kevin, August 6, 2007 at 9:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

One doesn’t have to wonder if King G II’s threat of holding Congress in session into August was all it took to get them to cave to his demands? Our government is no longer the example to be used by fledgling governments to follow. On paper, as it was drawn by the founding fathers, it was. But not anymore.

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By Emily Anne, August 6, 2007 at 9:03 am #

The weekend sessions were just part of an on-going farce. The Democrats lost all credibility long ago. The only reason they acted at all was because they didn’t want to miss out on their vacations. Maybe we don’t need a third party so much as a second party, one with guts, one actually dedicated to the people rather than to their pocketbooks.

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By PaulMagillSmith, August 6, 2007 at 8:31 am #

Who gives a hoot that the ‘House gets busy’ if what they come up with is counter productive? We would all be better off if they would just stay home on a permanent vacation.

Isn’t it the height of irony that after global warming runs its full course, initiated by greed of Bushies & those on the right, our once beautiful blue planet, seen from outer space, could eventially take on the red hue of Mars…a dead cold hunk of rock? Whomever came up with this whole red/blue thing sure had that pegged right. Instead of thinking of black as the color of death we should all start attending funerals dressed completely in red…much more appropriate.

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By Douglas Chalmers, August 6, 2007 at 6:38 am #

#92426 by PaulMagillSmith on 8/05 at 9:49pm: “...It is a sad commentary on this president that whenever he is happy about getting something he wants we can all know we have taken yet another Rodney King type drubbing….”

Oh, yes…. analysing the following quote:-

“And in another indicator of the changed political landscape on Capitol Hill, they stripped the oil and gas industries of $16 billion in tax incentives and voted to apply those tax breaks to efforts to spur production of cleaner forms of energy….”

Two things - one is that the oil industry is now making double the profits it did a year or so ago. Double the price of oil = double the profit at the same margin ($30 barrel @10% say = $3 profit but $70 @ 10% = $7 per barrel profit!). There are some ongoing costs in shipping with “war risks” but profit is still on top of that as well.

The other is that the oil industry is either at or past its peak and can’t do a thing about global warming while people are consuming more and more oil anyway. Subsisizing their investing in “clean” energy is a good opportunity for them to invest their profits in something sustainable and guaranteed profitable in the longer term.

Either way, they and the government don’t give a damn about you! Just line up to fill their pockets and salute the flag when its your turn…...

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By cyrena, August 6, 2007 at 2:51 am #

#92257 by Louise on 8/04 at 9:14 pm

Louise actually posted this on another thread on gonzo. I just thought it was appropriate to respond here.

•  In fact, Congress seems to be getting used to being flipped off! Seems they really don’t mind it at all.
When will we hear the order from the King to the congress, “bend over” and the response, “how far?”
Or have we already heard it ... just didn’t notice?
======================================
On this Louise, I think we’ve heard it. Been hearing it a while, and well…this weekend activity pretty much says it all. And yep, we’ve been sold so far down the river as to pretty much give up any hope of regaining any ground, because you’re right…gonzo won’t go, and the shrub can’t let him. And… the Congress is a “bunch a wimps”.

The spy thing has me in a tizzy. I’ve seen how they catch “terrorists” this way. Ordinary citizens spending countless hours trying to explain how they are NOT, whomever the government thinks they are, and neither is his or her dog. I swear, I do not exaggerate. Add this to his most recent executive order, (2 weeks after the one on potential violators of stability in Iraq) he’s now got another one for people who do the same thing in respect to Lebanon, and it seems like just any old thing would serve as an act of –anything- against the gov. of Lebanon.

Have a look:
.. Bush’s Executive Order on Lebanon Even Worse than the One on Iraq

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/04/2981/
Here’s an excerpt from it, explaining why he did it:

    “Syrian meddling in Lebanon constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” Bush asserted, adding, “I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”

So, there you have it. Somehow Syrian meddling in another country, Lebanon, somehow constitutes an –unusual and extraordinary threat- to OUR national security as well as OUR foreign policy, and so…he’s hereby declared a national emergency, (that would be for us) to deal with it.

And, dealing with it will involve freezing all of the assets of any person, (deemed by Gonzo and/or Mitchell) as being in violation of this order. And, that could pretty much be anybody they don’t like, or just whomever they need to steal money from, or a blogger that needs to be silenced. The IRS will tag the tiny pensioner, or just the kid bagging groceries. Just depends on whether or not you’re on any given number of “lists”, or if you have a funny sounding name, or if they key in the wrong 4th digit on the SS number. Anything goes with these guys. And, that was even BEFORE he bothered issuing any orders to this effect.

Can you tell I’m in a “state”? This dude is totally out of his mind, he’s showing out like a kid who needs his ass whooped, and the Congress is just going right along. Whatever you say King George.

I’m just wondering if it could be because cheney is so extra enraged about not getting his Iraqi Oil Law passed. The Iraqis won on that. Said they needed more time to look the thing over, especially the new stuff that they threw at them, back when Congress attached a new benchmark to the money. (as if that really meant anything).

Anyway, they have fared better than we did, at least on the political front. Seems like if they could withstand the steamrolling from cheney, our own Congress could have done a better job. Maybe we’re just a bunch of wimps.

Good News From Baghdad At Last: The Oil Law Has Stalled
The panic and distraction of the security crisis should not be used as cover for handing Iraq’s wealth to foreigners
by Jonathan Steele

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/03/2967/

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By kevin99999, August 6, 2007 at 2:14 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I will not vote for a Democrat even if that means putting Republicans back in the office. I will not submit to this triangulation strategy being practiced by the democrats. If Democrats want to run as a Republican light, they are not the party any I can support.

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By PaulMagillSmith, August 6, 2007 at 1:49 am #

It is a sad commentary on this president that whenever he is happy about getting something he wants we can all know we have taken yet another Rodney King type drubbing.

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By Don Stivers, August 6, 2007 at 1:24 am #

How can you impeach a law breaker when you change the law to legalize what was once illegal?  With the Democrats in majority, how did this happen?

Good by to you, Democrats!!!

Disgusted Republican.

Let’s vote all of the incumbents out of office.

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By Leefeller, August 6, 2007 at 12:24 am #

Why doesn’t Congress shove the Constitution up our arses, so we can all walk like Republicans. Yes Impeachment is off the table, selling out the peoples rights for what? Hitler would love what Bush has been doing, we seem to be loosing rights like clock work. By the time Bush is out of office, he may just not be out of office.

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By Enemy of State, August 5, 2007 at 11:08 pm #

Well yes, but a liberal style oil tax, I didn’t think that was possible before 09! (thats gotta hurt Bushes buddies). I suspect other not so good things snuch through, like the coal to liquids thing.

  The Demos were outmanuvered on the spying thing, had they gone against it, there’s no telling what sort of mayhem the brownshirts would have been able to wreak with that.

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By cyrena, August 5, 2007 at 9:47 pm #

A mixed bag - indeed.

I wish I was more impressed, because the clean energy bill is good, but it’s being toted as “progress”, when it’s more like collecting a little bit of a bad debt. Like, pennies on the dollar from what the oil companies have been ripping off the past 7 years.

And then there’s george’s expanded spying powers. The thing he was MOST insistent upon…

Now THAT, is the scariest of all…

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080307C.shtml

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By THOMAS BILLIS, August 5, 2007 at 9:20 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The Democrats are a joke.A President at 28% and they treat him like FDR.I guess the way to get legislation passed is to threaten to infringe on Congress’ vacation.I truly believe if Bush wanted to open concentration camps in America all he would have to do is propose it before a congressional vacation.Whether it be Republican or Democrat all they keep doing is pouring more power into the executive branch.Giving any crew in the White House the ability to circumvent the FISA show secret court is not going to protect our civil liberties.I know that they say it is going to be just foreigner to foreigner that comes through here.If you believe that I have some swampland in Florida you might be interested in.By the way do you think the terrorists who put together 911 are communicating openly on telephones.

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