Politics Plus

We have no friends better that the earth herself.  Without her, we shall not survive.  Nevertheless Republicans are not letting up in their ongoing campaign to allow their greedy, criminal corporate cronies to despoil our environment.  They have already introduced three new bills to TeaBugger the EPA.

Republicans have wasted no time in using their new majority in Congress to try to block the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to act on climate change.

In their first full day in the new Congress, Republicans outlined three different bills – encapsulating three different strategies – aimed at limiting the powers of the EPA. It also shut down a house committee that had tackled energy and climate issues.

The first, introduced by Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, would declare that greenhouse gas emissions are not subject to the Clean Air Act – even though supreme court ruled in 2007 that they are.

The second, introduced by Ted Poe of Texas, would block funding to any government agency associated with cap-and-trade.

The third, introduced by Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, is relatively modest, seeking a two-year delay in EPA regulation of carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

But that could make it the most likely to succeed. In the Senate, a Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia, Jay Rockefeller, has been calling for a bill to delay EPA action on climate change.

The EPA began the process of regulating greenhouse gas emissions under new rules for major power plants and oil refineries that went into effect this month.

But as last November’s mid-term elections made clear, environmental regulations have become a favourite target of the conservative Tea party movement… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

The reason Republicans oppose environmental regulation is simple.  One of the costs of production is the cost of the prevention or repair of effects of that production that damage others.  When corporate criminals can pollute freely without preventing or cleaning up their mess, they transfer those production costs to those who pay for them through decreases in their quality of life.  For example, a fisherman cannot feed his family, if BP has despoiled his fishing grounds, or people who get cancer from breathing polluted air.  Republicans care nothing for the common people who get hurt, as long as the millionaires and billionaires they represent make more money.

Yesterday, I watched in disgust as John Boehner became Speaker of the House.  Nancy Pelosi handed him the biggest gavel I have ever seen, and quipped that it was the one he had chosen for the occasion.  Sigmund Freud chuckled in his grave, and I imagined that Agent Orange has wanted something that big in his hands ever since he was a young man in his family’s bar, wondering why the girls whose numbers were inscribed on the men’s room walls hung up on him alone.  Then Boehner started lying.  Lets take a look at how some of those promises were broken within hours.

Just hours after taking control of the House, Republicans passed a sweeping set of rules promising transparency and reform.

But the new majority is already showing these promises aren’t exactly set in stone.

After calling for bills to go through a regular committee process, the bill that would repeal the health care law will not go through a single committee. Despite promising a more open amendment process for bills, amendments for the health care repeal will be all but shut down. After calling for a strict committee attendance list to be posted online, Republicans backpedaled and ditched that from the rules. They promised constitutional citations for every bill but have yet to add that language to early bills. (See: GOP backpedals on committee attendance rule)

Republicans say there are subtle reasons for these moves and that they certainly will follow their own rules throughout the 112th Congress. But the hedging on some promises shows just how hard it will be to always match the sharp rhetoric of the campaign with the ugly and complex work of running the House. (See: The era of Speaker Boehner begins)

The promise of full debate in committees, for example, was inspired by Republican complaints that Democrats abused their power in bypassing regular debate. Republicans such as Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Rules Chairman David Dreier of California all have complained that Democrats in the last Congress didn’t bring a single bill under a process called the open rule — a mechanism that allows for nearly unlimited amendments and debate. None of the bills that will be brought to the floor this week will be brought under open rules. When asked directly whether he would bring the repeal bill to the floor under an open rule, Cantor dodged the question. (See: House to vote on health repeal next week)

“The repeal bill is going to be a very straightforward document,” Cantor said this week. “It is going to reflect what I think most people inside the Beltway and outside the Beltway understand about the health care bill that was passed. It is a job-killing health care bill that spends money we don’t have, and we need to repeal it and replace it with the kind of health care that most Americans expect.”

Regarding the failure to put the constitutional citation into bills, Republicans say that typically will come when a bill hits the floor. The three bills that Republicans plan to introduce this week — one to cut the congressional budget, one to repeal the health care bill and another to instruct House committees to present new health care legislation — were posted on the Rules Committee website with plenty of time for review, but none had the constitutional citation for similar review… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Politico>

I will point out here that there is a valid reason that the Constitutional citations are not in the bills.  This morning’s reading of the Constitution in the House may well be the first exposure most Republican legislators have ever had to that document, so that can’t yet cite what they don’t know.

Chris Hayes and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky talk about these lies and more.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In conclusion, the batch of Republicans that took control of the House have only one difference from that batch that did so in 1994.  They are even less competent.

We knew all along that the reasons for the Deepwater Horizon blowout and the catastrophic effects on the environment that followed were corporate greed and insufficient oversight, and the report from Obama’s probe into the matter confirm that.  What is not in the report, however, may be more telling.

Decisions intended to save time and money created an unreasonable risk that triggered the largest offshore oil spill in US history, which could happen again without significant reforms, reported the top-level panel probing the BP blowout.

The commission findings – the result of a probe requested by President Obama after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion – described systemic problems within the offshore energy industry and government regulators who oversaw it.

Poor decisions led to technical problems that the commission, and inquiries by BP and the US Congress, have identified as contributing to the accident that killed 11 people and led to more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing from BP’s well a mile under the Gulf of Mexico.

BP, Halliburton and Transocean, the three key companies involved with the well and the rig that exploded, each made decisions that increased risks of a blowout, but saved significant time or money.

But ultimately, the Deepwater Horizon disaster came down to a single failure – management. When decisions were made, no-one was considering the risk they were taking… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Scotsman>

What the report does not mention is that Dick Cheney, at the behest of these very companies, gutted regulations that would have prevented this disaster, that the Republican Party gutted the oversight agency’s finances, preventing enforcement of the regulations that did exist, and that Obama appointee, Ken Salazar did nothing to correct this abuse of power.

What the report does not mention is that the technology to plug a blowout and contain the oil is thirty years old and completely inadequate.

What the report does not mention is that we are in just as much danger of a another blowout as we were when Deepwater Horizon exploded.

That mist be changed!

Barack Obama has appointed William Daley, son of Richard Daley (infamous for the police riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention), to be the next White House Chief of Staff.