Yet Another Scary SCOTUS Case

One problem with the distribution of wealth in this country is that rich people and corporations can afford the best lawyers in the country while the rest of us are forced to stick with what’s left.

Like today, when the Court announced it was taking on a case that was challenging whether or not the EPA has the authority to regulate CO2 emissions from stationary sources like power plants.

Come on.  Are you serious.  97% of scientists agree that climate change is real and happening now.  That means that the percentage of scientists who deny global warming is about 1/7th of the percentage of Americans with a favorable view of the Republican Party.  (Of course that’s not exactly persuasive for Republicans who live in a cloud that more people like the Republican party).

There is good news: the Court could have gone further in their challenge but decided against it, which proves that SCOTUS is not as bad as Congress.  (Antonin Scalia/Clarence Thomas or Darrell Issa/John Boehner/Ted Cruz?)

Three things are clear:

1. If Anthony Kennedy is truly a moderate, he’ll side with the liberals on this one.
2. This is the perfect time for Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia to have a heart attack so they can be replaced with a true moderate who doesn’t believe corporations are people.
3. We need to bring science back into politics and our court system.

Please Read: A Gun and Environment PSA

I’m Internetact12; and I wrote, sponsor, and approve this message:

Let this stand as a testimony to the unmatched political power of the National Rifle Association.  On September 10, 2013, voters in two Colorado senate districts will go to the polls in recall elections for senate president John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and state senator Angela Giron (D-Pueblo).  The reason is not lying, bribing, or cheating on their spouses.  It is that following such tragedies as those in Newtown and Aurora, they passed more gun control.

The reason is deplorable, but the National Rifle Association gets what it wants.  That is why you can’t sue gun-makers for the injuries they cause; and why Universal Background checks, with 90% support from the public, did not make it out of the Senate for crying out loud. 

This is a show of the treatment only the NRA receives.  No other lobbying group is this influential.  If Planned Parenthood was pushing for a recall election, the right would be outraged.  When the NRA pushes for a recall election, the left turns their backs.  

As a citizen of the United States of America, I am going to put this out there.  The environment is currently the greatest threat to our nation’s well-being.  I am recommending a recall election of the following for having a zero percent record from the League of Conservation Voters in 2012 (Zero percent, okay?  I’m only going for the worst of them all.  Here are all the ratings from 2012):

• John McCain (R-Arizona)
• Dan Coats (R-Indiana)
• Rand Paul (R-Kentucky)
• Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania)
• Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)

Outraged?  Unlike the NRA, who got away with this at the state level, 97% percent of scientists agree with ME that climate change is real and caused by humans.   Who should be making you angry?  Not me.

Thanks for your time.  I invite you to share this information.

Why the Hell is the Right so Obsessed with Stupid Pledges?

I [undersigned] pledge to

ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and

TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

First it was Grover Norquist’s No Tax Pledge, above.  There’s another one, courtesy of right-wing billionaires David and Charles Koch.

I, ______________________, pledge to the taxpayers of the state of _______________ and to the American people that I will oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.

There is a common theme here.  They are not pledging to support building bridges, repair roads or create jobs.  As a matter of fact, they are pledging just the opposite: to stop change and prevent America from becoming better.

Congressional inaction has become a theme of the 113th Congress to the point that Barack Obama’s climate change package was mad up entirely of things that could be accomplished solely with executive power.  In other words,  Obama knew that Congress wouldn’t do a thing about this issue, so his emissions reductions plan focused solely on things he can do without Congress’s help.  And although Rush Limbaugh doesn’t know it, there are limits on the president’s power.

The most important thing this pledge is stopping would be a Carbon Tax, a tax with benefits I could write a whole post about, most notably that it would encourage innovation that would grow the economy and create jobs.

Although the Koch brothers have an apparently limited knowledge of science (David once said about climate change that “The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food.”), they will also benefit monetarily from a lack of legislation.  Only one percenters will.  The rest of America will be crippled as the effects of pollution and global warming become clear.  Yet Republicans in Congress do not seem to care about the fate of working America (and not surprisingly, as they tend to be rich themselves with a poor knowledge of science).  That, my friends, is extremism.