Bad Deeds for 11-22-2010

 

Rick Perry, Who Doesn’t Like Federal Involvement, Wants the Federal Government to Invade Mexico – Speaking on MSNBC, Texas Governor Rick Perry said the United States ought to consider a military invasion of his neighbor to the south, Mexico, arguing that it was needed to fight the drug war as well as to secure the border between the two nations.

Perry, who is also the incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said the Mexican government would have to approve the invasion, but didn’t see this as a serious obstacle, adding that the new war might be an important part of immigration reform.

Yes, nothing says “immigration reform” like invading a neighboring country. And another military operation is exactly what we need in light of the deficit.

 

Republican Obstruction of the START Treaty Impacts American Credibility – From the moment the president signed the nuclear arms reduction pact with the Russians, Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), have “kept moving the goal posts…”

Max Bergmann briefly laid out the history of Kyl’s delay tactics within his Nov. 16 Wonk Room post.

…Last summer, Kyl was whining immensely that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) was rushing the process and that a committee vote should not happen until after the August recess. After the SFRC delayed, Kyl spoke to Reuters who paraphrased Kyl:

It could be difficult to satisfy his [Kyl’s] demands before November and thus the vote on New START might need to take place during the lame duck session if the Senate wants to vote on the treaty this year…

The vote was delayed, and Kyl’s demands were met, but…

In September, after the SFRC did hold its vote, Kyl and Senate Republicans argued that having a vote before the election was impossible because it would politicize the process and that a vote should happen after the election…

Predictably, now that the election has passed, Kyl and Republicans say there isn’t enough time in the Senate calendar.

Of course, for Kyl and the Republicans, that was the plan all along, as it has been with every White House initiative since Obama took office. Playing this game with foreign policy commitments, however, has broader implications than it has with domestic legislation.

The consequences are already presenting themselves. Steve Benen, author of Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog, has been on this all week. Regarding the risks Republicans are running, Benen wrote (11/17), “They expect this to hurt the foreign policy power of the United States, but they’re fine with that since there’s a Democratic president…”

When it comes to Russia, inspection of the country’s long-range nuclear bases will remain suspended indefinitely; the country’s hard-liners will be emboldened; and Russia’s willingness to cooperate with U.S. on Iran or on Afghanistan will likely disappear.

But in the bigger picture, countries around the globe will see this as a reminder that negotiating with the United States is pointless, since the country is burdened with a Republican Party that puts partisan hatred above the country’s interests. It hurts American credibility in ways that are hard to even gauge.

 

A potential toxic nightmare is probably in your community – The bulk use and storage of chlorine and other poison gases at large waste water and drinking water plants puts millions of Americans at risk of a Bhopal, India magnitude chemical disaster. Approximately 70 of these plants each put 100,000 people at risk, some of them each put a million or more people at risk. But some communities no longer face these risks because they switched to safer chemical processes. For example, Washington, DC converted their waste water treatment plant 90 days after the 9/11 attacks. Before 9/11 their use of chlorine gas put 1.7 million people at risk.

Both the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency is asking for this authority in S. 3598. The U.S. House of Representatives passed similar legislation on November 6, 2009. If enacted this bill will help eliminate these catastrophic risks at water treatment plants and it will also create jobs.

 

Facebook Building Coal-Powered Data Centers – Facebook has gotten a lot of people on its back lately due to its plans to build a data center in Oregon that will be primarily powered by coal. Over half a million people are pushing it to negotiate a cleaner, better deal. Now, Facebook has announced it is planning to build its second data center in North Carolina, a coal-heavy state. Facebook isn’t living up to the clean energy standards being set by Yahoo!, Google, Verizon, Dell and many others. It’s time that it does. Help push Facebook to get more of its electricity from clean energy by signing the petition at the link.

 

George W. Bush Says, “What Recession?” – Former President George W. Bush is being paid $100,000 to speak at the University of North Texas. The money will be taken out of student-paid activities fees in the midst of university system-wide budget cuts.

 

Proposed flow standards for the Trinity & San Jacinto Rivers/Galveston Bay area are massively deficient – Blue crabs in Texas’ Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake estuaries depend on the freshwater flowing from the Trinity, San Jacinto, Sabine and Neches Rivers. Crabs, shrimp and oysters require the mix of fresh and saltwater to reproduce. Furthermore, migratory birds could be left hungry when there are fewer blue crabs and other species on which they feed.

Right now, the Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers that flow into Galveston Bay, and the Sabine and Neches Rivers that flow into Sabine Lake are in line to receive much needed protections. But, the currently proposed “protections” for the Trinity and San Jacinto/Galveston Bay area are so weak that the rivers could be reduced to a trickle, putting many aquatic species, and the birds and wildlife that depend on them at risk. In fact, the proposed flow standards for the Trinity & San Jacinto Rivers/Galveston Bay area are massively deficient and simply do not come close to supporting a sound ecological environment.

 

Republican health care hypocrites – Incoming House Republican freshman Andy Harris is already complaining that the affordable health care coverage he gets as a Member of Congress — the same coverage that Republicans want to repeal for hardworking families — doesn’t start soon enough!

That’s right. Despite having his own health care paid for by the taxpayers, this incoming House Republican wants to tell hardworking Americans who are struggling to make ends meet that they’re on their own when it comes to affording coverage for their own families.

A thought …

We face a party that has proclaimed its intention to roll back regulations that protect the American people from future financial crises, to escalate income inequality, to undermine the rights of victims of corporate greed, to expand job-offshoring trade deals, and to clutch desperately to outmoded and unsustainable energy structures.

We must not allow dismay to fester into indifference or inaction.

Regards,

Jim