Lost in the kerfuffle over whether or not new Republican frontrunner Herman Cain's tax plan actually proves that he is the anti-Christ (as hinted by Michele Bachmann) was some much more serious business.
Members of the House of Representatives have been casting a string of votes of staggering recklessness and cupidity. The House voted to delay EPA's authority to regulate toxic air pollutants from cement kilns, but it also voted, in a virtual partisan lockstep, to defeat a series of amendments designed to retain at least minimal protection for the public health. The House voted 246-166 to prevent the EPA from limiting emissions from cement kilns even if the emissions caused learning disabilities or harmed brain development. It voted 253-166 to prevent the EPA from acting even if it was essential to improve children's health. It rejected several amendments that merely required Congress to admit that mercury and other cement-kiln emissions cause premature deaths, heart attacks, asthma, and brain damage. The House even voted, 254-169, to reject an amendment by Representative Henry Waxman that conceded that the rules, if allowed to go into effect, would reduce the amount of mercury deposited on land and water.
Then the House turned its machete to EPA standards designed to protect the public from toxic emissions from industrial boilers. Once again, when the Democrats proposed that regulations go into effect if they were essential to protecting health, Republicans voted them down. Even if these regulations were needed to prevent brain damage, House Republicans said, they should be blocked. Even if the nation's ten most polluted cities -- no way.
These are by far the worst environmental votes cast in any Congress in American history. Yet they are drawing almost no attention. And it's not because the public wants to be poisoned.
These votes were all cast at the insistence of the House Republican leadership, with dozens of House Republicans from districts where EPA protections are very popular (including districts carried by Barack Obama in 2008) going along with the Koch Brothers and polluting industries.
The Obama administration made it clear that it would veto this legislation if it ever arrived on the president's desk. New polling by CERES shows that the public strongly supports the EPA in its efforts to protect the public health. In fact, the CERES poll showed that 62 percent of Republican voters want Congress to let the EPA do its job. More striking, over the past year, as congressional Republicans and Fox News have mounted the most intense assault ever on the fundamental principle that the federal government should protect the health of all Americans, public support for EPA scientists as the right people to make decisions about pollution standards has increased.
The more Americans realize that the alternative to letting the EPA protect their health is to count on members of Congress or (even worse) polluting industries, the more they like the EPA. And voters are not alone. Over three-quarters of small business owners, the people in whose name the Republican leadership likes to attack public health protection, favor EPA regulations and think that they are good for business and jobs. In fact, polling shows that the public thinks that even the Obama administration is coddling polluters and exposing Americans to unacceptable health risks by slowing down the EPA's proposed new health standards for smog.
It's hard to avoid the impression that the media have simply abandoned their role as public watchdogs, and have settled down to just do "color commentary" like sports announcers. But at least on Monday Night Football, they give you the score!
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Joe Peyronnin: The Bickersons, GOP Style
I have no desire to semi-starve in a cave in a world which runs on extortionately expensive green energy, and there is absolutely no need to. Eventually we will come up with a variety of cheap, renewable energy sources. Until we do, however, we all still have to work and live.
Humans are at the top of the food chain for a reason.
Plus, change is possible. I talked this afternoon with someone who is about to start producing something in the alternate energy field that will make it more abundant and less expensive. I also am involved with a project that will make solar energy one third the price it is now and also work after dark, and use less roof space. Surely others are also working on improvements that will make your opinion obsolete very soon. They will bring good manufacturing jobs and less expensive renewable energy. In the meantime, why poison us all?
Anyway, so in my opinion global warming is a conclusive fact, proven time and time again by international independent research. The thought that there's some kind of sinister conspiracy by whoever is absurd; who in the world would profit from that? The highly influential solar energy industry? Retirement home interest groups that want to stop their residents complaining about car noises?
It's not even about that though, if you consider the real issue at hand. I mean who could be against cancer prevention? Are there really people out there who are not convinced of those dangers? Big corporations are not led by great humanitarians. Stuff like this needs to be regulated, no matter who you vote for. Otherwise you might as well stop governing altogether.
But like every thing that is too good to be true, it had to end. And it did. We are now in debt up to eyeballs and we find all our politicians on both sides are bought, our supreme court is bought, our media is biased or bought and now the masters are pulling the strings.
The question is what do we, or can we do about the state of affairs? It just may be too late. But at least some of us are saying that we are not going to be bought any longer and that we need to change, even if this means dramatic changes to our lifestyles.
We need to end globalization. America is our home and we need to homestead it. We need to learn to live within our borders and live sustainably.
Water is a toxic substance if it gets above your nose.
LOL. How old are you? Come back when you grow up.
The idea that you think and state out loud "science can't be trusted", shows your clear ignorance and lack of critical thinking ability. It's astounding the depths of the right-wing/conservative/tp/Republican ignorance and willful delusion.
Coffee is bad for you.
Coffee is good for you.
Coffee is bad for you.
Eggs are bad for you.
Eggs are an excellent source of omega 3 oil. (the cholestorol warning on eggs was a politcal decision of the Johnson administration in an attempt to manipulate the price of eggs. Eggs are no higher in cholestorol than other meat protein)
Sorry, there was more than one email, and they discussed how they altered the data that supports AGW theory. Without data its just theory. I can theorize that the moon is inhabited by the lost tribes of Israel, it doesn't make it so.
Science can't be trusted when you insist on trusting theory, and alter data to support your theory.
The normal state of this planet for the last 1 or 2 hundred thousand years has been ice age. The only reason mankind has advanced as quickly as it has over the last 10 thousand years is mild climate. To suggest that 100 years of industrialization will wreck the climate is absurd. Especially since the Progressives have "managed" the economy to the point where we may soon not be able to afford to produce significant "greenhouse gasses". Maybe that is the plan?
In their minds the GOP/Tea Party think the huge campaign money they have from corporate interest will allow them to continue to buy the elections with media adds. Well America has a message for you not this time. Since you won't work for our country, and you won't do what is right for the majority of Americans we will vote you out. Your strategy will fail because WE THE PEOPLE are not as dumb as you think we are. VOTE and make sure everyone you know votes, drive, baby sit, do what it takes to make a change in Washington on both sides of the isle and send the message WE THE PEOPLE will not tolerate you games any more. VOTE knowing the facts and the records.
On the other hand, I believe people like you have given up hope, if you ever had it, and no longer know any honest, rational, thoughtful people in your lives. Thus, you have come to the conclusion that all people are liars and all people are corrupt and not a single person on earth or particularly in politics works for the improvement of America as a nation.
I on the other hand, know that Democrats work to make things better. They work within the system to affect change. And yes, this is a vast generalization, but it applies in very general terms.
As opposed to Republicans, who decided from the moment Obama took office, that they would work to slander him and make him fail at all costs, even if it hurt America in many ways.
You have bought into the Republican game. Republicans claim government doesn't work, and prove it every time they get elected.
There is an almost endless disconnect in the reporting on the relationship between GOP pols and GOP voters that ensures that decent, thinking people never get the full story on that simbiotic relationship
Yet like a fool you keep living in the past thinking Democrats are the answer. You keep thinking there are two distinct parties. Obama just signed another set of free trade deals. Hello?! And he wants amnesty for all illegals. Hello!? As our labor market continues to be flooded, as unemployment continues to run high, as wages fall and prices rise...do you think ANYONE will be in the mood to hear your little talk about the environment? No. They will want jobs and corporations will promise them jobs in exchange for more deregulation. And the US government plays along with deficit spending to create the illusion it's all working.
We have been playing this losing game for 30 years. Are you ready to admit you have failed? Are you ready to admit both parties are owned? Are you ready to make hard choices, stand up for Americans, and the
The Republicans are attempting to destroy environmental protections, and the Democrats aren't.
Party-line votes are a sure sign an issue is partisan.