Posts from — December 2007

This post on Illinois Review drew my attention today: “Do nothing,” global warming skeptics say.

The blurb is is related to the the U.N. Climate Change Conference going on in Bali, Indonesia this week and the Chicago-based Heartland Institute’s attempts to nose its way into the news surrounding the conference by claiming that the U.N. is trying to silence it’s panel of “dissenting scientists”.

The Heartland Institute is a self-described “nonprofit research and education organization”. Its mission, according to the website is to “discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies”. Based on that alone, we know that it is not a scientific organization. This is a marketing/lobbying organization.

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RICHARD DUNN and LARRY BODINE

Democratic Candidate Democratic Committeeman

DuPage County Board, District 4 Precinct 45, Glen Ellyn

Invite you to the

Meet the Candidate Fundraiser

and Reception for

Col. Jill Morgenthaler

Democratic Candidate for US House of Representatives

Sixth District of Illinois

Friday, December 14^th 2007

7:00 - 9:00 PM

691 Wingate Road

Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

All Democratic Candidates for office in DuPage County are invited.

$20 Suggested Contribution

For more information contact

Larry Bodine at 630.942.0977

or Richard Dunn at 630.605.1019

Contributions to political campaigns are not tax deductible.

You know that all is not right in the world when you wake up, as I did this morning, to hear George Bush congratulating the Democratic majority in the Senate for doing the right thing.

If Democrats continue to cave the way they did yesterday on the AMT, they will accomplish that which they are hoping to avoid - lose our votes. Democatic leaders need to muster some courage and be willing to fight hard for what they believe in. If they fail to do so, they risk becoming indistinguishable from the loathsome Bush administration.

One good way they can fight is to put impeachment back on the table. This week’s relevations about Iran intelligence and the CIA destruction of interrogation videotapes provider further evidence, as if any were needed, of the malignity and incompetence of the Bush presidency. If you want to be assured of our votes, do the right thing and bring down this shamelessly corrupt adminstration.

Ellen of the 10th has a nice post about “The Speech“, Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America“ address at the George Bush Presidential Library on Decmber 6th. I agree with Ellen. The speech was disturbing.

Romney identifies religious liberty as the topic of his address and then sets out to pledge fealty to the establishmentarians of the Christian right while trying to channel John Kennedy in the hopes of appearing statesman-like.

Romney insists that “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone”, and further “Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government”. Religious liberty for Romney is not liberty at all. And our Constitution, which explicitly prohibits an established religion is of no consequence to him.

If it weren’t bad enough that Republicans like Romney are trying to establish their religion, the religion they want to establish is just so creepy. Basically it amounts to just toeing the line regarding abortion and homosexuality and institutionalizing Christian observances to remind ourselves what a great godly nation we are. Then they’re justified and can go out and invade sovereign nations in the name of God and Freedom and maim and kill their people. And they can ignore all the inconvenient parts of Jesus’ message and engage in their main project of making the rich richer at expense of the poor.

Peter Roskam sided again today with corporate interests and with George Bush and voted no on a major Democratic initiative to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve the fuel efficiency of the cars we drive, and begin to address the problem of global climate change which is threatening our very existence.

Roskam and most of his Republican colleagues voted against the Energy Independence and Security Act because it provided for the repeal of a tax break with which the Republicans had gifted Big Oil back in 2005 when they were in the majority. Roskam’s vote was yet another “rubber stamp” of George Bush’s policies (Bush has threatened to veto the bll if it is approved in the Senate) and the latest example of Roskam’s pattern of consitently favoring corporate interests over the welfare of his constituency.

The bill, which passed in the House despite Roskam’s vote, would if enacted into law:

• Raise overall automotive fuel efficiency standards to 35 mpg for cars, trucks, and SUVs by the year 2020, a 40% increase over present rates
• Require electric utilities to generate at least 15% of their power output from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy, also by 2020
• Require the increased use of biofuels such as ethanol
• Provide tax breaks for energy efficiency and for the use of renewable fuels
• Offset the cost of those tax breaks by repealing previous tax breaks given to big oil companies by the Bush Administration and the previous Republican Congress
• Provide assistance to small businesses in conserving energy
• Train workers for jobs, such as retrofitting of buildings, that promote greater energy efficiency
• Begin to address the threat of global warming by increasing efficiency in our use of fossil fuels

An analysis of the proposed renewable energy standards for utilities prepared by the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that the standards could save U.S. consumers as much as $18 billion in energy costs each year, in addition to the $24 billion in savings from improved automobile fuel economy.

The Republicans still hope to stop the bill in the Senate, perhaps using a filibuster. If not, Bush will likely veto the bill, then try to blame the Democrats for not getting any thing done. This is their game plan, obstruct then accuse. But these guys are in the pocket of the oil companies and I think most Americans will be smart enough to recognize it.

A news flash today from the web site of Peter Roskam: ROSKAM INTRODUCES HISTORIC LEGISLATION HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF CONGRESSMAN HENRY J. HYDE.

Please. This is liable to put me off my feed.

Henry Hyde was born. He became a politician of some talent. He occasionally used that talent to benefit humanity. And then he died.

Along the way, Henry used all of his powers to cover-up the real corruption of a President of his own party, Saint Ronald Ray-gun, aiding and abetting his waging of a campaign of terrorism against the people of Nicaragua, financed by illegal arms sales to Iran (Iran!!!) and CIA-assisted drug trafficking in the U.S. And did I mention, they sold arms to friggin’ Iran!

He later used all his powers to persecute another President of the opposing party based upon some phony charges invented out of thin air by Richard Mellon-Scaithe and his cronies, all the while moralizing about that President’s extramarital adventures, despite Hyde’s own history as a serial adulterer.

He became an extremist in the cause of restricting the right of women to control their own reproductive systems, even to the point, as Bridget in the 6th has helpfully pointed out, of legislating against freedom of spech and of the press.

And he found time to become embroiled in a major Savings and Loan Scandal.

During his twilight years he worked unceasingly in Congress to enable the many wonderful blessings that the George W. Bush administration has brought to us. Boy, have we been blessed.

And now we’re being asked to beatify Henry. Well I’m sorry, but I find very little to celebrate in Henry’s legacy.