“Open for Business” is the embarrassing state motto of West Virginia, introduced by a Republican governor.

Best Democracy Money Can Buy as Greg Palast said.

Evil, stupid *and* greedy. What a package.

53K is a bargain. That our congresspeople are corrupt is bad enough, but that they are so cheap is depressing. What to do?

Jane Hamsher “Evan Bayh is once again going to act as Big Oil’s best friend in the Senate, refusing to commit to passing renewable energy standards.”

GOOD!! I hope they don’t. Renewable energy is not a viable option. If it were viable option don’t you think those evil, greedy big businesses and republicans would have exploited it for (dare I say it?) a profit by now. Besides Jane, like it or not you need oil more than oil needs you.

I suggest holding politicion to a standard of writing their own legislation. Not only are they cheap dates, but they cannot hold their drinks, pass out after a few thousand dollars and let their suitors have their way.
(a more literate sort could say this without mixing metaphors so sloppilly)

how do big energy’s contributions to bayh compare with other members of congress?

even more important, imo, is that it’s such a shame the dems can’t propose some better legislation. i had some real hope that the war on science would be over with the dems in charge.

stupid me.

just shoot me now.

just shoot me now.

I have a better idea….

“… a better idea …”?

Do tell …

;~D

my better idea isn’t mine – it’s hansen’s: carbon tax and rebate.

Big, greedy, evil energy companies such as TXU, AEP and FPL *are* exploiting renewable energy, even here in big, greedy, evil Texas.

http://www.infinitepower.org/projects.htm

Sounds like a genuine, reasonable and rational, ‘plan’.

Thank you, selise, for the linky.

DW

Facts do not cause deviations in the wingnut storyline.

Can anyone say “TERM LIMITS”?

There needs to be a wholesale cleaning of all these”CAREER”politicians.

and look who’s backtracking on mountaintop removal!
hint: his name rhymes with Dahlak Yomama.

thanks to kirk james murphy at oxdown for sounding the alarm.

how many backtracks does this make?

you’re welcome.

it breaks my heart to see the what the dems are doing:

1. financial crisis: bailout the banksters.
2. health care crisis: subsidize insurance companies
3. climate crisis: create a financial energy instrument to trade while destroying the climate and screwing over poor developing countries.

and just so the mic isn’t left out, 4. escalate the war in afghanistan.

in each case, it’s ordinary people getting fucked over in order to service the greed of the rich and powerful.

It would be nice to publish a list of signers of “The Contract With America” who remain in office, having chosen to not self-limit their terms.

A third party just might be a viable option in 2010. The 2 wings of the Corporate Party don’t seem to be making anybody happy except the ruling elite capitalists.

It’s only 1Q.

Ya mean the “Contract On Amerika” dontcha?

well, i’m certainly not going to play their idiotic game of let’s-pretend-this-is-good-legislation-because-it’s-the-dems-who’ve-written-it

what’s that orwell quote? something about telling the truth in times of universal deceit?

p.s. alank is adding more to kirk’s diary on big coal:

tp://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5323#comment-45145

“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.”

Those donations are pretty small potatoes and could represent just a single individual donor from GE, Vectren, etc. Compare with Bayh’s donations from FIRE and he’s being influenced on the cheap here.

Looks like only one PAC maxed out at $5k.

As an aside, it wasn’t Secrets that was coming last week, it was a new Java programming textbook. Secrets scheduled for arrival this week. Senior moment. *g*

thank you.

LOL!

i haven’t yet read any more of it yet. galbraith is this sunday.

Gosh golly and gee whiz, selise, I’m gonna bet you won’t be cheered by the NY Times magnanimous suggestion that 36% ‘interest’ charges on credit-card ‘debt’ is just swell, but that it is ‘enough’?

I think Obama IS ministering to those Too Small To Matter.

I’m certain he hasn’t forgotten ‘the people’, they simply must patiently await their ‘turn’. “Fair is fair”, after all … even if there is ‘nothing’ left, it is the thought that counts.

Ain’t that ‘right’?/S

DW

;~(

Back to the cesspool for a bit. Had to take friend Joe to the eye doctor for Blind Services exam for cataract surgery.

Hey, DW. Nice to see ya. Got 2 new tigers and borrowed a camera this mornin’ so pix later this evening.

we get the hope. the economy, health care, climate and war belong to them.

I’m looking forward, SD, to said pix.

‘Tis always great to cross threads with you.

;~D

Emotion seconded

woo hoo! looking forward to seeing the pics. and good luck to your friend.

i’m off too. peace to all.

Worth repeating

“A third party just might be a viable option in 2010. The 2 wings of the Corporate Party don’t seem to be making anybody happy except the ruling elite capitalists.”

It is called “Hope a Dope”

Great job.

LMAO.

I don’t see a third part as NATIONALLY viable unless we persuade unions and the Black Caucus to follow. This is why we’re getting killed on coal. UMWA is following the UAW’s playbook.

Below is a comment I left on the Kirk Murphy, M.D. thread that selise linked to above.

Seconded.

Everything I’m reading is that Enhanced Geothermal is here right now. Drill baby drill three, four five kilometers down ALL OVER THE US, not just where there are hot springs.

Shoot unheated water down. Let it flow over the hot rocks. Suck it up another pipe It doesn’t have to be boiling, because you’re using a binary turbine. The liquid inside the turbine has a lower boiling point than water. Are coal plants using this technology on their turbines?

The hot rocks only last for ten or twenty years. Then you have to give that well a rest, but it will come back, because the earth’s heat is a constant. All that drilling is a lot of VERY SUSTAINABLE work for the United Mine Workers Geo Thermal Drillers.

It’s not perfect, because you can bring up some nasty gasses from underground, but unlike wind, it’s a stand alone replacement for coal right now. It carries only a fraction of the environmental impace that coal has. GeoThermal spread out over enough wells is very reproducible.

In the summer you can run the turbine faster, by adding some solar heat in spring, summer, and fall. Enhanced GeoThermal runs better in the winter (especially in northern states), because the air is cooler.

The bulk of your costs up front are in the drilling and mud logging.

I’m not against wind or solar, but until the battery technologies improves, they are not stand-alone replacements for coal in much of the US.

Just as the GOP has become the old Confederacy, I think STATE-run third parties MIGHT be viable in some of the old abolitionist states.

Fifty-four thousand bucks is all it takes? Hell, the Sierra Club could afford that; what’s stopping them?

If someone doesn’t like the cap & trade bill they have an obligation to show their improvements. Otherwise they might as well become Republican. I mean, if they don’t recognize their president (of their party) as the leader on national issues and they vote against his policies, then what are they.