Hopefully, you have better things to do on this beautiful day than watch senators bloviate on CSPAN. However, you should know that the Senate is spending six hours today debating whether or not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can regulate greenhouse producing emissions under provisions of the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court says they can, but Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, whose state suffers most from global warming but also is totally dependent on the oil and gas industries, has introduced a resolution to take that power away from the Executive Branch. So far, I’ve noticed that Democratic senators Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, and Jay Rockefeller plan on supporting the measure.
What’s most remarkable about the debate, however, is not that a few Democrats support the resolution. What’s remarkable is that one Republican after another is taking to the floor to dispute that global warming or climate change is occurring at all, that it wouldn’t matter if it was occurring, and that we’re powerless to do anything about it anyway.
I mean it’s not about debate a policy, but a debate about whether science counts for anything. As Bernie Sanders asked on the Senate floor, if all our science-producing agencies are producing inaccurate information, then why are we funding them?
But that’s the problem with the current incarnation of the Republican Party. They don’t have any grounding in reality. And, even the few who do are perfectly content to pretend they don’t. How can a political party run our government and all its agencies if they won’t accept their findings?
I’m telling you, this is why I have decided that the biggest threat facing our country is the mentality of the Republican Party and the prospect that they might take power again and try to implement their twisted version of reality on the nation and the world. You thought the Bush administration was bad? You thought Tom DeLay was a nut? Just wait for the next group. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
I’m actually excited about the republican presidential primary. That’s gonna be a helluva freakshow. Let’s assume Palin is in (she’s already the PPOF). Doesn’t that become the greatest reality-tv moment in history? Assuming she’s the nominee, there are two options: 1) She represents the historical coup-de-grace for the right wing, gets absolutely creamed by Obama, the right is discredited and humiliated for a generation, and the increasingly leftward movement of the nation is ratified.
2)If she wins, America is finished as a nation, probably, but the rapid implosion of the federal government and consequent gutting of the country is something we’ve had coming for a while anyway. We kind of deserve it with our outrageous imperial wars, corporate vampirism, and indiscriminate destruction of the biological basis of our existence.
So it’s a win-win.
but she won’t be the nominee. 1. she has no staying power to get through the primary (“it’s hard work”) and 2. Mittens will surely block her any way he can.
I agree. If she runs, she is going to do it in a totally unconventional way. She’ll ignore all the Iowa County chairs and the newspaper boards and the executive boards and most of the chicken dinner circuit and just run her campaign on facebook. It should be interesting.
Yeah, rationally, it’s impossible. But I just don’t know. Our country is so weird and screwed up, I can talk myself into.
I think she can win the primary. Why? Her fans are dedicated. They are rabid. Look at the Teabaggers now. They are a small minority but they are causing havoc in the Republican party. Why should Palin do anything different then she is doing now? The TradMed just laps it up.
imploding though it may be, I think the Rep party still has some party structures that will block her, not to mention Mittens. otoh maybe the tea party will run her – that would be good.
Sanders’ comment scares me. The Republicans are making hay out of their anti-science stance. They’d love to cut funding for science.
It’s all marketing — and that’s what the GOP does.
Want to cut science funding? “Science” is the guys who brought you Toyota’s braking software, and won’t let you eat red meat.
Want to increase science funding? Now “Science” is the guys who brought you Viagra, and the DVR.
Five bucks says Glennsanity and El Rushbo are queuing up Sanders’ comment now to say that we should do just that.
It was always going to get worse before it got better. The GOP has been backed into a corner, and that’s when animals are the most dangerous.
On my better days I agree with you. This dynamic of insanity has to spin apart on some point. Maybe Job #1 is to keep the current GOP out of power, as Booman says, only until they collapse from the impossible weight of their reality denial. And nothing is more of a reality check then a massive electoral beatdown.
See, I thought that’s what the last election was.
No, they still have an apparatus, which is only now beginning to eat itself. Don’t underestimate the power of having serious cash and a 24/7 propaganda network pulling for you.
But notice that FOX is starting to split at the seams. Wallace has slipped up a couple times, outright admitting it’s a conservative network. Glenn Beck is a stain on the place, losing them money hand over fist and bringing serious attention on what they really do there. What tiny bit of reporting does get done there gets pointed at with mocking, noting how rare it actually happens. And who is next? Who’s the next Glenn Beck? If they had more flamethrowers in reserve, they’d have pulled them out by now and shuffled Glenn off the stage. But they don’t. They are running their C-squad, fringe con artist lunatics in the hopes of just tarring Obama to the point of a comeback…and it’s not working all that well. Some, sure, but not nearly what they need it to.
The RNC is going broke. Rival money groups are now fundraising around them, undermining it’s very existence. The establishment choices are being slaughtered in primaries by people like Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, and Sharron Angle. Even if some of these jokers win…the GOP can’t control them. You think Rand Paul is going to take orders from Beohner? God no.
The crazy is going full tilt because it’s, like I said before, a wild animal in the corner. It’s painful. It’s frustrating. It’s infuriating. And it’s that way because the Press really helps keep the GOP going, when it’s really apparently they don’t exist to make this country any better. But make no mistake…McCain-Palin started flailing wildly at the end of the campaign, praying something could work at the last minute to save them. That’s where the entire GOP is getting to right now.
My contention has been that Dems just need to hold serve this year. Keep any losses at a minimum, be smart with their money and outreach. A push this year would be devastating to the GOP. In 2012…it’s going to be Obama’s turnout operation vs. some GOP bench warmer (no legit challenger is dumb enough to run in 2012). Dems will take another big bite out of the GOP hide, and by then redistricting may have taken place as well. I’m not sure what the electoral landscape looks like in 2014, but I do know that come 2016 we’ll have a Dem candidate (not Biden, too old) who will be running for President with this group of people out there campaigning for them: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Al Gore. And who will Republicans have to counter that…they sure aren’t going to trot out Bush or Cheney. Bush Sr?
Rant ending…
The wave started after 2004. From 2006 through 2018, this year will likely be the toughest November Dems will face – barring something drastic happening, of course. The GOP knows it, they are back on their heels, and swinging wildly. It’s still going to take YEARS to force the GOP to fundamentally change, but it’s moving in that direction. Again…it was always going to get worse before it got better.
Well, Rand Paul would theoretically take orders from Mitch McConnell, not John Boehner. But quibble aside, I find your analysis very intriguing, and lord willing, spot on.
I’m scared. I think that the show of Tea Party candidates winning primaries is a bad sign. We may be sitting here poking fun at them, but they have proved that people out there are listening to what they have to say, insane or not.
The Republican party is without a true leader right now. But if they get their collective shit together, find one who has the right “look” and says the right things, the Democrats are in a world o’ hurt.
All they have to do is point fingers at the Obama administration’s lack of progress (in spite of the fact that progress HAS been made) and say, look, no jobs! no education reform! new health care is stealing from us! immigration is killing us! oh, and that BP thing is totally Obama’s fault, too.
I shudder to think of what’s coming.
I’ve mostly assumed that we’re going to be screwed anyway on this issue. I still advocate for doing something, but I just don’t see us being able to stop it.
Take away the fact that we’d need to seriously act like right now to stop it for a second. What person in developed nations is willing to give up their relatively luxurious lifestyles? We’re consuming too many resources: metals, water, fish…we’re literally draining this planet, and it’s not just what we’re emitting into the air or spilling in the Gulf.
The ones in the WH are scary enough for me!!!! Black-facced Booooooshie and sidekick, Rahmie the warwhore.
What the hell kind of comment is this?
bannable, I hope.
Exactly.
There’s no incentive for them to believe in reality.
Bullshit pays in that party. Being full of it really pays.