Year: 2007

Florida Power Company to Build Huge Coal Plant in the Everglades

Trish

It’s not just because I finally watched “An Inconvenient Truth” this weekend that I find the news that Florida Power & Light is planning to build one of the country’s largest coal-fired generating plants in the Everglades so infuriating.

The plant would emit 16 million tons of climate- changing carbon dioxide, making it the largest single source of global warming pollution in the state.

It’s also the unmitigated gall of a company that sucks every last dime of profit from its customers while feeding at the public trough. Floridians will be a long time forgetting how FPL used hurricane damage as an excuse to raise rates and then asked the state legislature for money to fix its equipment and lines. And got both.

But this latest news takes the cake.

Florida Power & Light’s rush to build one of the largest coal plants in the nation sets back the state’s efforts toward a clean energy future and dramatically increases global warming pollution…

The proposed coal plant would be a 5,000-acre industrial facility constructed in the heart of the Everglades, in the city of Moore Haven in Glades County, and would emit harmful pollutants 24 hours a day for more than 50 years.

The pollutants include: sulfur dioxide, that would acidify lakes, rivers, and the Everglades; nitrogen oxide, which is a precursor to smog and exacerbates respiratory diseases like asthma; soot that has been scientifically linked to lung cancer and cardiac arrest; and mercury, which is a potent neurotoxin that has already contaminated every major water body in Florida, leading to fish consumption advisories by the Department of Health. Lastly, the plant would emit 16 million tons of climate-changing carbon dioxide, making it the largest single source of global warming pollution in the state.

FPL does not talk about the emissions from the plant and its effect on our health and environment but rather on the low cost of coal as compared to other fuels.

It also talks, on its web site, about what a great friend to the environment it is.

We strive for more efficient operations and improved performance with less impact on the environment.

…Our commitment to reduce emissions has yielded important dividends for air quality.

…We look for ways to improve our operations to minimize impacts on wildlife near our facilities.

If, like me, you can’t let this plan stand, contact FPL and tell them what a bunch of money-grubbing hypocrites they are. As you might expect, they make it hard to give them feedback by requiring names and addresses in an online form but make something up. And give them an earful.

Novakula: GOP Rats on Capitol Hill Deserting USS Bush

Jon Ponder

Robert Novak says Pres. Bush has lost GOP support on Capitol Hill:

The I-word (for incompetence) is used by Republicans in describing the Bush administration generally.

With nearly two years remaining in his presidency, George W. Bush is alone. In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress — not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment…

The I-word (for incompetence) is used by Republicans in describing the Bush administration generally. Several of them I talked to described a trifecta of incompetence: the Walter Reed hospital scandal, the FBI’s misuse of the Patriot Act and the U.S. attorneys firing fiasco. “We always have claimed that we were the party of better management,” one House leader told me. “How can we claim that anymore?”

…A few Republicans blame incessant attack from the new Democratic majority in Congress for that image. Many more say today’s problems by the administration derive from yesterday’s mistakes, whose impact persists. The answer that is not entertained by the president’s most severe GOP critics, even when not speaking for quotation, is that this is just the governing style of George W. Bush and never will change while he is in the Oval Office.

Nothing to Fear But the War on Terror

Jon Ponder

The timing of the Sept. 11 terror attacks couldn’t have been better for al Qaeda and worse for us. When they launched the attacks, Osama Bin Laden and his henchmen were probably not aware that a radical coalition of neo-cons and Christian nationalists had gained control of the United States government — just as most Americans were not aware of the true natures of Dick Cheney, George Bush and the cabal that surrounded them.

A normal president would have rallied the public to conquer their fears and shoulder on after such a horrendous attack.

A normal president would have rallied the public to conquer their fears and shoulder on after such a horrendous attack — as people have done in Britain, Israel and other places for decades. But this group of radicals operating out of the White House did the opposite.

Using carefully crafted rhetoric (and even a color-coded chart), they instilled a fear of terror in the public and then used it as a throttle to ratchet public paranoia up and down to suit their own politicals needs. The most dastardly bit of messagemeistering in this, however, was the way they aggrandized the attackers, raising them in stature from the ideological gang of street thugs that they are to warrior priests and adversaries worthy of the United States and its “global war on terror,” which they are not.

Here’s Zbig today in the Post:

The “war on terror” has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration’s elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America’s psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.

The Bush cabal could not have succeeded without a propaganda tool like the fear of terror. Bush could not have won reelection without his ability to terrorize voters — gay bashing would not have been enough on its own.

The attacks worked out so perfectly for them that it’s easy to see why some people believe 9/11 was an inside job. (It wasn’t.The Bushies are operationally incompetent and could never pull off such an elaborate fake.)

If our grandparents had been as easily terrified in the 1930s as Republicans are today, they would have watched in horrified silence while the Germans conquered Europe, and hidden under their beds when they came after us.

We need national leaders who call on us to be both brave and smart in combating terror. Using the military to fight terrorism, as I have said before, is like using a chainsaw to perform an appendectomy. The British army did not stop the Irish terrorists after decades of attacks, just as the Israeli army will never stop the terrorist attacks from Palestinian insurgents.

Stopping terrorism requires starts with street-level intelligence and a population on alert, but it also will require understanding the enemy in all its dimensions, not the cartoon characters presented to us now.

Hatch Said He Supports Gonzales ‘Unless He Lied’ – After New Evidence of Lying Was Revealed

Jon Ponder

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, revealed himself this weekend to be either the biggest fool on the Hill or a political hack who has sold himself out by shilling for the Rove machine. After a long silence on the federal prosecutor purge, Hatch came out with a statement of support for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday:

When Hatch issued his statement yesterday, was he aware of the stark new evidence produced the night before that Abu was caught on tape lying about his involvement?

“He has always been straightforward and honest with me … So, unless there is clear evidence that the attorney general deliberately lied or misled Congress, I see no reason to call for his resignation.”

Less than 24 hours before Hatch issued this statement, a Friday-night document dump by the Dept. of Justice revealed new evidence that Gonzales has lied about his role in the firings.

On March 13, at his “mistakes were made” news conference, Gonzales said:

I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood.

But records from DOJ’s Friday-night dump show that Gonzales was directly involved in planning the purge:

The records show that Gonzales approved plans to fire the prosecutors at an hourlong meeting Nov. 27, less than two weeks before the dismissal of seven of the prosecutors.

When Hatch issued his statement yesterday, was he aware of the stark new evidence produced the night before that Abu was caught on tape lying about his involvement?

If not, Hatch is a fool for putting his trust in anyone in Bush’s inner circle (and one who is poorly served by his staff who should have known about it). On the other hand, if he knew about the new evidence when he made the statement, he is a political hack of the first order.

We’ll see which is which in fairly short order.

Clinton, Bush I and Reagan Fired All US Attorneys

Jon Ponder

Rightwingers can’t seem to grasp this:

Presidents Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Reagan replaced the 93 U.S. attorneys at the beginning of their administration as part of the normal turnover involved in the alternation of power. A report issued on Feb. 22 from the Congressional Research Service revealed that between 1981 and 2006, only five of the 486 U.S. attorneys failed to finish their four-year terms, and none were fired for political reasons. Only three were fired for questionable behavior, including one on “accusations that he bit a topless dancer on the arm during a visit to an adult club after losing a big drug case.”

In brief, Bush’s firings were unprecedented…”

We’re Letting Abramoff Out of Jail Early

Trish

Jon provided some background on the highest-ranking former Bushite convicted so far in the Abramoff scandals.

But while Jack is implicating others for doing the crime, it looks like he himself won’t be doing much more time.

I don’t know about you but I must have missed the meeting. Had I been there, I would have voted to throw away the key.

Federal prosecutors took the first steps toward reducing the prison sentence of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, currently scheduled for release in 2011 for a Florida fraud conviction.

Documents filed in federal court say Abramoff has provided “substantial assistance” in a separate Washington corruption scandal investigation and continues to work with investigators from his prison cell in Cumberland, Md.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul F. Schwartz did not recommend how much Abramoff’s sentence should be cut.

We’re guessing a whole bunch.

Abramoff, in case you forgot, was sentenced to six years for his role in defrauding the owner of the SunCruz Casinos gambling boats and other investors of $20 million, which was leveraged into a staggering $60 million in financing.

Unlike Jack, the fleet’s former owner could not provide incriminating evidence against Abramoff or his partners in crime because of an unfortunate hail of bullets delivered by a mob hit man.

“Federal prosecutors,” as we all know, means the ones who are designated “the United States” anytime it’s “The United States versus, say, Jack Abramoff or Some Other Lowlife Criminal.” So that’s you and me, folks. We evidently decided to let federal inmate No. 27593-112 out of jail early.

I don’t know about you but I must have missed the meeting where we agreed to do that. Had I been there, I would have voted to throw away the key.

Oops, Rudy’s Wife Did It Again

Trish

Oh no, she di-ent say that: Turns out Rudy Giuliani’s third wife is mathematically challenged. She — like her current husband — is currently on her third, not second, marriage.

Rudy’s third wife commenting on their six marriages: “It makes you appreciate marriage a little bit more”

She kind of forgot the five years she was married to some guy in the ’70s. These things happen, but the good news for Republicans is that the Giulianis really respect the sanctity of marriage.

“Rudy and I both have been married three times,” Judith, 52, told the New York Post.

“I’d honestly like to say we got it right the first time around,” she told the paper. “But that was not to be … and so what that has done for us is, I think, it makes you appreciate marriage a little bit more.”

She and Rudy are appreciating the heck out of marriage, with six total between them. And counting…

Bolton: Damned Proud of Blocking Israel-Hezbollah Cease-Fire

Buck Banks

Lest we forget: The Bush administration’s hard-on for Israel has a name: John Bolton. The former U.S. envoy to the United Nations has spilled the beans to the BBC in an interview where he pretty much says that U.S. interests were best served by Israel dropping shitloads of cluster bombs on Lebanon during last summer’s dust-up.

Please either read the whole thing or at least drop down to the end where it gets into the disparate casualties on the Lebanese side versus the Israeli side, keeping in mind that whole thing was supposedly over a couple of Israeli soldiers who were kidnapped.

Mr. Bolton, a controversial and blunt-speaking figure, said he was ‘damned proud of what we did’ to prevent an early ceasefire.
(Emphasis added)

Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah’s military capability.

Mr Bolton said an early ceasefire would have been “dangerous and misguided”.

He said the US decided to join efforts to end the conflict only when it was clear Israel’s campaign wasn’t working.

Israel was reacting in its own self-defence and if that meant the defeat of the enemy, that was perfectly legitimate under international law. The former envoy, who stepped down in December 2006, was interviewed for a BBC radio documentary, The Summer War in Lebanon, to be broadcast in April.

Mr Bolton said the US was deeply disappointed at Israel’s failure to remove the threat from Hezbollah and the subsequent lack of any attempt to disarm its forces.

Britain joined the US in refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire.
The war began when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, but it quickly escalated into a full-scale conflict.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says the US-UK refusal to join calls for a ceasefire was one of the most controversial aspects of the diplomacy.

British, US and Israeli ambassadors at the UN, August 2006
The UK, US and Israeli were alone in resisting an early ceasefire
At the time US officials argued a ceasefire was insufficient and agreement was needed to address the underlying tensions and balance of power in the region.

Mr Bolton now describes it as “perfectly legitimate… and good politics” for the Israelis to seek to defeat their enemy militarily, especially as Hezbollah had attacked Israel first and it was acting “in its own self-defence”.

Mr Bolton, a controversial and blunt-speaking figure, said he was “damned proud of what we did” to prevent an early ceasefire.

Also in the BBC programme, several key players claim that, privately, there were Arab leaders who also wanted Israel to destroy Hezbollah.

“There were many not – how should I put it – resistant to the thought that the Israelis should thoroughly defeat Hezbollah, who… increasingly by Arab states were seen as an Iranian proxy,” said UN special envoy Terje Roed Larsen.

More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and an unknown number of Hezbollah fighters were killed in the conflict.

Israel lost 116 soldiers in the fighting, while 43 of its civilians were killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Poll: Bush Is Killing the Republican Brand

Jon Ponder

Pew Finds 15 Percentage Point Drop in Self-Identified Gops

A new Pew poll has detected a “dramatic shift” in party identification over the past five years:

[In 2002] Republicans and Democrats were at rough parity. Now, 50 percent of those surveyed identified with or leaned toward Democrats, whereas 35 percent aligned with Republicans.

What’s more, the survey found, public attitudes are drifting toward Democrats’ values: Support for government aid to the disadvantaged has grown since the mid-1990s, skepticism about the use of military force has increased and support for traditional family values has decreased.

While Bush’s devastation of his party has isolated the rightwing’s base — a coalition of paranoid fringe types, Christian nationalists and Dittoheads who have nowhere else to go — it has not swelled the ranks of the Democratic Party.

A sizable group within the 15 percent who have moved away from the GOP are socially liberal, fiscally conservative suburbanites — many of whom felt burned by the Republicans’ impeachment of Pres. Clinton over a sex lie but gave the GOP no less than three more chances, voting for Bush in 2000, the GOP Congress in 2002 and Bush again in 2004. As you can imagine, these folks have had it with the Grand Old Party.

And yet it appears they are giving Rudolph Giuliani his current lead over John McCain. Still, it’s theoretically possible they might be convinced by Hillary Clinton or maybe even Barak Obama, providing they keep their distance from the moonbat left.