The Republic of T.

A light bulb burned out in our house last night. It popped when I turned on the light switch and — as dim bulbs usually do — burned intensely bright just before it went dark for good. That bulb reminds me of the Republican majority in the House, which is set to vote on a measure to repeal energy efficiency standards for light bulbs.

Republicans in Congress are pressing for a vote on one of the stranger elements of their environmental agenda a ban on the adoption of energy-efficient light bulbs.

If passed during Tuesday’s scheduled vote, a bill championed by presidential contender Michele Bachmann and others would repeal a law phasing out incandescent bulbs from 2012.

The beautiful irony of it is that the efficiency standard sponsored by a Republican representative and signed by George W. Bush himself.

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It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Republican Senators voted to protect oil subsidies — along with Democrats Mark Begich, Ben Nelson — and Mary Landrieu after getting big money from Big Oil. (How big? See here.)

On Tuesday night, Republicans in the Senate filibustered the majority’s attempt to repeal $21 billion in subsidies for the big five oil companies — the same companies that made over $30 billion in profits in just the first three months of 2011. While three out of four Americans believe ExxonMobil and the other oil majors should pay their fair share, instead of receiving taxpayer welfare,
the oil-friendly Senate split 52 to 48 to end the subsidies. Though the
majority of the Senate voted to repeal these oil tax breaks, the
procedural motion required a 60-vote threshold.

An analysis of campaign contribution records shows the gusher of dirty cash that fueled the filibuster:

A Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis finds that the 48 senators who sided with Big Oil received over $21 million in career oil contributions,
while 52 senators who sided with the American people received only $5.4
million in contributions. Each senator who voted for Big Oil received
on average more than four times as much oil cash as those who voted to end the subsidies.

After all, it’s just business. That is, if the first rule of your business is “Leave the money on the dresser,” and second is “No kissing on the lips.”

Last night, Parker asked me to show him some videos of what was going on in Japan. We were sitting on the couch, and I had my laptop handy, so I showed him some of the videos and explained to him what was going on in them.

There’s one or two that I made sure not to show him.

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They’ll never get it.

This:

Mike Beard, a Republican state representative from Minnesota, recently argued that coal mining should resume in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, in part because he believes God has created an earth that will provide unlimited natural resources.

“God is not capricious. He’s given us a creation that is dynamically stable,” Beard told MinnPost. “We are not going to run out of anything.”

Beard is currently in the midst of drafting legislation that would overturn Minnesota’s moratorium on coal-fired power plants, an effort that he backs due to his religious belief that God will provide limitless resources while ensuring that humans don’t destroy the planet trying to get them.

Drawing on his family’s childhood property in Pennsylvania, Beard explained to MinnPost his belief that while resource extraction might cause temporary agitation to the landscape, the effects wouldn’t be longterm.

Made me think of this, again.

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I’ll say it again. When progressives and conservatives talk about jobs, we are not talking about the same thing. Nor do we talk about jobs for the same reasons, it seems. The more I watch the ongoing floor debate in the House, over the nearly 600 amendments to Continuing Resolution (H.R.1) to fund the federal government through September — only one of which was explicitly concerned with jobs — the more obvious this seems.

When Republicans talk about jobs, it’s just another means of remaking our economy to more closely resemble the countries to which we export most of our jobs and from which we import most of our goods.

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Well, this has been quite a morning. I haven’t been able to keep up with the news, because we got hit with another storm this morning. The latest in a series.

Of course, we lost power again.

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Hey, everyone in the Rand Paul pile-on, make room for one more. I’m coming in for a landing!

I shouldn’t pick on the good doctor, though he makes it too easy. After all, his latest media train wrecks gave me a chance to resurrect a timeline of industrial disasters I started researching after the Deepwater Horizon event, in response to a lot of conservatives (Rand Paul included) defending BP and blaming everyone from unions to environmentalists for the disaster.

My aim was to illustrate what Rand Paul exemplified in his most recent remarks on mine safety: the right-wing defenders of BP, Massey, and just about every other corporate polluter or regulation-dodger don’t know much about the history of industrial disasters, the negligence that caused them, or the regulations and reforms they sparked.

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American Conservatives from Joe Barton to Rand Paul and Sarah Palin have expressed outrage that the President Obama would use the the power of his office to hold BP accountable to the residents of the Gulf Coast. They are outraged because they believe this is something the government should not do: help Americans who are out-matched by corporate wealth, power and influence get some measure of justice.

Conservatives haven’t quite reduced government to “the size where we can drown it in the bathtub”. Not yet, but they keep trying because they believe government shouldn’t do what people cannot do themselves. So, if only to see what kind of world they have in mind, it’s worth looking at what happens when government doesn’t act to hold corporations accountable and protect people from the consequences of corporate negligence or malfeasance, and what happens when it can’t.

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Ed. Note: Since this piece was written, Barton (or a Barton aide) has tweeted and deleted a “retraction of the retraction” of the original apology.

Andrew Reinbach is right. Deservedly or not, the political gods continue to smile on the Democrats, gifting them with an opposition so predictable and caricatured — from punishing the unemployed, to defending Wall Street — that they seem to be straight out of central casting. Now, the GOP has morphed into The Party of BP. After Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP, you’d think they would worry about being cast as “The Party of BP.” Instead, they’re actually embracing the role.

David Broder says that Barton’s comments only “highlight the GOP’s propensity for gaffes.” He wishes. Broder may yet earn a nomination for the Peggy Noonan Award for Sanity in Conservative Commentary. But here’s the thing. Barton just stuck to the script. He only said what 114 of his fellow caucus members, and other conservatives already believe. In fact, Barton is starting to gain supporters.

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Bob Herbert’s latest New York Times column, "Our Epic Foolishness," could (and perhaps should) serve as the introduction to a book about how America got into the various messes we’re in — from the ongoing ecological disaster in the Gulf, to the unrepentant and un-remedied recklessness of Wall Street, and beyond. Herbert, a featured speaker at America’s Future Now!, deftly puts into context the considerable crises facing the country, hitting the high (or, perhaps, low) points of a long, depressing story that still more voices would tell in greater detail.

It is the story of a great nation whose people for too long placed the reins of government in the hands of those who did not — and do not — "believe in" government, and left the public interest in the care of people whose primary interest was— and remains — profit.

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The only things more astounding than conservatives’ record of failure, are their denials of "personal responsibility" for the ensuing disasters, and their attempts to blame somebody — anybody — else. Their response to the growing ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is taken straight from Bart Simpson. "I didn’t do it, no one saw me do it, there’s no way you can prove anything!"

Despite their latest attempt at dodging accountability, the Deep Horizon disaster is just the latest collision of corporate failure and conservative failure — and its roots go back to the previous administration and its conservative ideology.

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Far be it from me to criticize anyone in government. (Yeah. Right.) But there’s something that’s been on my mind ever since people started piling on the auto industry, and this comment from Rahm Emmanuel brought it back to mind.

The president’s chief of staff criticized U.S. car companies Sunday for relying too long and gas guzzlers and not investing enough in alternative energy vehicles.

Rahm Emanuel also said the automakers have an outdated health care cost structure. He said the companies are making the kind of changes now that many people long had told them to make.

President Barack Obama’s auto industry task force is trying to restructure General Motors (GM) and Chrysler by a March 31 deadline. If the Obama administration fails to approve their turnaround plans, earlier loans could be called back and the companies could be forced into bankruptcy.

…”They never invested in both alternative energy cars. They got dependent on big gas guzzlers. They didn’t do — they have a health care cost structure that’s outdated,” Emanuel said, repeating the administration’s premise that health costs must come under control or else risk breaking all other pieces of the budget.

OK. I’ll be the first to say the auto industry has made some huge mistakes and some horrible business decisions. (I still haven’t figured out how or why it is that equally destructive decisions and business practices on Wall Street didn’t get half as much of an angry response as the auto industry.) But this is one they have some help with.

Help from the U.S. government, that is.

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The winding down of the dark age of W feels like something like a long night’s journey into day. (Apologies to Eugene O’Neill.) Granted, Republicans are doing everything they can on their way out to make sure the light at the end of the tunnel is indeed a train. (More on that later.) But the world’s response to the incoming Obama administration is a nice reminder of what it’s like to live in a world where people are actually glad to see us when we show up.

As John Kerry put it when he dropped by the United Nations’ climate conference.

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OK. It’s too late for Thanksgiving, but there’s at least one other somewhat turkey-centric holiday coming down the pike. (In the gastronomic sense, at least.) So, I gotta do this.

I’m not sure why this article, which is over a year old, showed up in my RSS reader today, but what kind of vegetarian would I be if I didn’t remind people that eating your veggies is good for you and the planet?
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I’ve got some stuff in mind to post, but first I have to get lunch and do any number of things. And I might not get around to posting anyway.

Since a big portion of my day job is promoting other people’s writing, I might as well do the same here. Besides, I come across more worthwhile content than I have space to promote at work. And if I’m not creating any content myself….

Anyway. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading this morning.

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I’ve been so focused on other issues lately that I haven’t done much blogging about religionand politics. (With one exception.) But I’ve been filing away stories I thought I’d blog about at the time they happened. I didn’t the, but a couple of recent stories jogged my memory.

It’s something, I think, when Southern Baptists shift positions on global warming, considering how many objections to the idea of global warming are based on literal readings of the Bible. (Basically, global warming isn’t in the Bible, so it can’t be real.)

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He “lost” the presidency in 2000, has won an Oscar and an Emmy since then, and now Gore just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming.

…The former vice president said he would donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to The Alliance for Climate Protection, a U.S. organization founded by Gore that aims to persuade people to cut emissions and reduce global warming.

…The Nobel committee praised Gore as being “one of the world’s leading environmentalist politicians.”

He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,” said Mjoes

The Nobel caps a series of prestigious awards associated with Gore, including two Oscars this year for the documentary film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which followed him on a worldwide tour publicizing the dangers of climate change.

Last month he also picked up an Emmy — the highest award in U.S. television — for “Current TV.” The show, which Gore co-created, describes itself as a global television network that gives its viewers the opportunity to create and influence its programming.

In all this, it’s natural to speculate whether Gore will announce a run for president, whether he should run, and whether he could win. I can’t blame people for hoping for all three. After all, can anyone who supported him in the 2000 race, and has rued the outcome for the past seven years not help feeling vindicated? Can we help comparing the president we have to the president we could have had?

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, current events, politics, al gore

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What out for the exploding heads of wingnuts. I saw this on The Blue State when I started my reading this morning, only to have it confirmed later. Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Former Vice President Al Gore was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday.

“A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference,” Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press.

Brende said he joined political opponent Heidi Soerensen of the Socialist Left Party to nominate Gore as well as Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier before the nomination deadline expired Thursday.

Oh, boy. This ought to be good. To give you an idea of how good, I posted earlier about one objection to Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth being shown in Washington state schools.

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I’ve picked on SUV drivers before, for overcompensating and hybrid-hating. I guess I shouldn’t since at least a couple of people in my extended family drive SUVs, but being a city-dweller I can’t look at one without asking “Where do you park that thing?” and “Can you at least spray some mud on it if you’re never really gonna go off-roading?”

I think what roused my ire was a post-9/11 SUV commercial that featured billowing American flags and a chorus enthusiastically singing “Keep on Rolling! Keep on Rolling! Wooooooo, hooooooo, hoooooo!” in what I figured was some kind of crass attempt to piggyback Dubya’s exploitation of “Let’s roll”, while also sending the not-so subtle message that if Americans don’t stop buying SUVs then the terrorists have won.

Or something like that. Well, apparently the terrorists are winning now. Americans are buying fewer SUVs.

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Maybe global warming will cook the red states, maybe not. If it does, maybe that's the way they want it.