Deep Blade Journal

Energy bill passes chamber of people’s deputies

They don’t care

The Energy Bill that just passed the US House of Representatives is yet another attempt to push through this travesty of a decorated Christmas tree of polluters’ pork that is void of progressive ideas like increased fuel economy standards.

If you want to know the details, please read the extensive analysis published last fall by the Boston Globe. They calculated that, “…entities with a stated interest in energy policy spent $387,830,286 lobbying Washington last year.”

What favors for industry and pork projects will we get from this bill? Drilling the arctic and lawsuit immunity for makers of the groundwater-polluting chemical MBTE are only the beginning. A cadre of rapacious land developers has hitched a ride aboard this bill in order to get the public to swallow in a laughable “greenbonds initiative” the all the risk for a plethora of dicey projects, including the $2 billion mega-mall project in upstate New York known as DestiNY USA.

Also on the dream list in the bill is an incredible $1 billion nuclear reactor/hydrogen fuel boondoggle for Idaho and its local pork dealer, Senator Larry Craig. Deep Blade blogged about this incredible proposal back in November 2003. Meaanwhile, the hydrogen car initiative the nuclear-hydrogen fuel program would support is seen as “bullshit” by House Resources chairman Richard Pombo, Republican of California.

And while they’re at it, they figure this is a good time to jumpstart the Enron economy by repealing the Public Utility Holding Company Act.

It’s all so sickening. We find our planet on its steepest downward trajectory since the first Earth Day 35 years ago in 1970. Maybe this year something will happen to help wake people up and turn this thing around. The HOPE Festival is in Orono tomorrow!!

If this is what the Democrats are doing, I’m through with them

DNC Chair Howard Dean screams support for Bush and the occupation of Iraq (Photoshop credit: Evil Pundit)

The one-time Democratic presidential front runner in the 2004 primary campaign declared before a crowd of 1000 at the Minneapolis Convention Center that, “Now that we’re there, we’re there and we can’t get out.”

Myth. There is nothing, zero, zip, nada that the US is holding together in Iraq, except for the resistance to its own presence. Removal of the US would allow Iraq to face its serious struggles (yes, they would be serious) as a sovereign country. It would do much better than any paternalistic American commentator suggests.

Dean went on to throw a big lollipop of support for President Bush, whose deceit incited the destructive war. Read more about the pathetic posture of Dean and the Democrats in this piece by Kevin Zeese.

Underscore that last post — this is not winning

Insurgents Down Civilian Helicopter Near Iraqi Capital: 6 Americans Among Victims; More Bodies Found in Tigris (Washington Post story, AP photo)

The Post story cited describes more horrors and makes clear the extent of resistance control of major routes:

On…Baghdad’s dangerous airport road, a bomb exploded Thursday, killing two foreigners and wounding three, Iraqi police said. The strike highlighted the inability of U.S. forces and their allies to prevent attacks on one of the most heavily traveled and most reliably targeted corridors in Iraq.

At least 15 people have been killed and 17 wounded in a week of bombings and ambushes by gunmen on and around the airport road….

Also in this report, there is evidence about how the resistance operates that illustrates perfectly the analysis of Steve Gilliard I cited yesterday. The Post story says:

In Ramadi, a western base for insurgents, a message posted early Thursday afternoon on the gates of a mosque that has served as a bulletin board for alleged insurgent statements asserted that an attacker with a shoulder-fired missile launcher had waited three days on a hilltop for his successful shot at a foreign aircraft.

The statement described the weapon as a Soviet-designed Strella heat-seeking antiaircraft missile, the insurgent statement claimed.

These guys are heavily armed.

Another Post story is well worth reading — an account of riding on patrol in a Humvee written by an embedded journalist. This is a harrowing experience by any stretch of the imagination — one thousands of US troops are having every day for months on end:

Horror Glimpsed From the Inside of A Humvee in Iraq

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 21, 2005; Page A01

… Within seconds, a powerful blast ripped into the Humvee a few yards ahead of us, shooting a cloud of debris high into the air.

McMaster swore loudly, then yelled, “Stop!” We braced for additional blasts. When they didn’t come, McMaster ordered Haycox to pull forward away from the area where the bomb went off and get into position in case of more attacks. The bombed Humvee swerved off the shoulder into a ditch and jolted to a halt. Two soldiers staggered out, one covered with blood. Seeing the men’s shocked faces, I instantly realized theirs was the vehicle I had been riding in 10 minutes earlier. The Humvee’s right rear door was ripped off, the surrounding metal burned black, and the gunner was sprawled face down on the side of the road….

My only reaction is to say our troops need to be brought home now. At the very least, President Bush should announce that the US has no intent for material control of any of Iraq’s resources or assets, and will withdraw on a firm, rapid timetable.