The White Supremacist Court Strikes Again!

If voting ever changed anything, they'd make it illegal... - Emma Goldman, it's funny how Anarchists always seem to empower Fascists...

Voting has always been a thorn in the side of the Republican Party effort to destroy the United States of America and replace it with a Neo-Conferderate Nation State built upon the twin pillars of White Power and Evangelical Zealotry.  
Enter the Supremacist Court and the elimination of the Voting Rights Act

John Roberts entire Raison d'être has been to eliminate the Voting Rights Act and to return America to the Jim Crow Era.

As a member of Gen X my first election I could vote in was 1992.  What I recall from the Republican efforts of the 1980s was voting was for squares.  Voting was for try hards.  Voting didn't matter.  Don't Vote it only Encourages the Bastards.  All the while elected Republicans have aggressively chosen to make voting harder at every opportunity.

Of course, while the general trend of whites voting Republican began in response to the now-defunct Voting Rights Act of 1965, after President Barack Obama's two election victories white people, overwhelmingly men but also women, went totally insane.  In response to President Obama's calm intelligence, reserved dignity, clear family values, white people demanded the chance to vote for the shittiest most despicable white man possible;  Donald J. trump stepped forward and declared I... AM... that Shittiest of White Men!

While Traitor trump indisputably galvanized and energized white bigotry and insanity he just came in at the most opportune moment to pluck the vile poisonous fruit of the toxic rightwing racist tree of white grievances which Republicans had cultivated for decades.

2020 was the first Presidential election since 1968 where over 60% of the eligible voters cast ballots.  We lost 5% off the 2020 percentage in 2024, as Republican controlled statehouses, and rightwing courts threw up every roadblock, removed access to ballots, early voting, and made it harder and harder to vote.  While Republican complicit corporate media allies took every opportunity to depress voter turnout and lie that Traitor trump and the treasonous Republicans were the better choice for grocery bills, gas prices, and work peace, while continually telling voters Democrats were lyin' about Project 2025, Trump's deportation schemes, and the madness of MAGA delusions once in power.

The Supreme Sinister Six

So now the White Supremacist Court has delivered the coup de grâce to the Voting Rights Act, Republican controlled states are taking extraordinary measures to ensure everyone of their federal districts is cracked and packed to ensure white voters get to pick Republican whites.  This isn't gerrymandering its' more akin the fracking the districts;

In Louisiana, Secretary of State Nancy Landry certified an emergency under state law, while Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order suspending the May 16 and June 27 U.S. House primaries. The Legislature is reviewing options for a new map.

Gov. Tate Reeves has called lawmakers back to Jackson for a special legislative session on May 20 to debate redrawing Mississippi’s three state Supreme Court districts. It’s unclear how lawmakers will redraw the districts, but several legislators predict they will be redrawn to make them whiter and dilute Black voting strength. 

When House members meet this month for a special session to redraw state Supreme Court districts, they will convene in the Old Capitol building, where Mississippi lawmakers once implemented Jim Crow and voted to secede from the Union over slavery.

Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators back to Montgomery starting Monday to approve contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the Supreme Court will let the state switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms. It's a move that Republican legislative leaders said would "give our state a fighting chance to send seven Republican members to Congress." The seven-member delegation currently has two Democrats.

In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee also announced a special session starting Tuesday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state's one Democratic-held House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis.

Hilariously, every single elected black Republican Congressman will be out of office in the next Congress; although rightwingers will still have Senator Tim Scott to point to in their defense.  Tim Scott has taken to his new role as a shameless Republican by lying about the Price of Gas by invoking 1984 and claiming trump and Republicans continue to lower the price of gas.

It seems clear Republicans believe they have with AI-assisted voter data and mathematical models to ensure they will never suffer an election defeat in their fracked congressional districts, and Republicans throughout the federal and state level governments absolutely believe they will never suffer any reprisals for their evil actions.

Perhaps, they are correct.  These mid-term 2026 elections will provide a clue as the whether Republicans Project 2025 efforts to remake the United States into a Neo-Confederate state built upon the pillars of fascist repression and malicious prosectuion at home and capricious war crimes abroad will be successful. 

BP latest Lake Michigan Oil Spill more than twice as large as first reported, Republicans love Pollution

BP's oil spill from their Whiting, Indiana processing plant into Lake Michigan doubled in size. BP raised the "estimated" amount of oil spilled up from 600 gallons to well over 1600 gallons. But, in reality, this latest estimate is just a guess by BP, as well, and the final total and damage is sure to increase.

Lake Michigan, as one of the Great Lakes the repository of 21% of the World's Fresh Water, is the primary source for drinking water used by 7-12 million people.

Initially, BP claimed the cold conditions and ice on the water allowed them to collect the waxy oil spilled, which was characterized as small. However, Illinois Senators Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin made several public declarations and vowed to investigate the spills causes and effects.

Mark Kirk's refusal to slander Dick Durbin and his non-deference to BP has greatly angered the Illinois Republican Party and Conservatives, in general. Over at the fetid Hotair, Ed Morissey declares Kirk is a coward who won't go Nuclear on Durbin while commenters declare Kirk is a "crap weasel" with "no testicles". Meanwhile, the Illinois Republican Party is looking to implant Jim Oberweis another Corporate scumbag who will vote to eliminate regulations and unchain Corporations.

Just last week, US House Republicans voted to allow Coal Mining Companies to dump Coal Ash into lakes, rivers and streams. In 2011, US House Republicans passed H.R. 2018 to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972 and allow Polluting Corporations to do so with total impunity and immunity.

The vote last week by the Republicans was in response to President Obama's decision to empower the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to protect and defend 20 million acres of wetlands and river sheds from the Pollution Industry. So, the Republicans decided to look out for their constituents.

The Pollution Industry is a big money maker so, of course, Republicans will look out for the Corporations Interest and harm Americans because their job is to defend and empower Corporations at the expense of America.

US House Republicans love Pollution, vote to make dumping Coal Ash and mining waste into streams "Legal"

Faced with the massive toxic coal ash spills into waterways, US House Republicans decided to make the dumping of toxins into rivers, lake, streams legal. After all they won't be drinking, bathing or fishing in the toxic water. John Boehner called it a "pro-jobs growth bill". Because Fuck the EPA and all Regulations!

Congressional Republicans are evil. While an argument could be made the Republican Party contains some good people, any Republican you may have the misfortune to run into in Washington DC, is a villain worse than a mustache twirling caricature of evil. 

Throughout the Misadministration of George W(orst President Ever) Bush, Federal agencies ignorned the criminal polluting by Coal Mining Companies and in the December of 2008, Bush snuck through regulations giving them freedom to dump coal ash and other toxic waste products into nearby rivers, lakes and streams. Because Regulations are job-killers and the word Jobs is magic.

This last year has seen a number of Massive Toxic Coal Sludge Spills into Rivers rendering them not only undrinkable but untouchable.

Duke Energy followed dumping of 82,000 tons of coal ash and 27 Million gallons of contaminated water into the Dan River with another spill because Fuck the EPA and all Regulations! Duke Energy dumped 61 million gallons of coal ash wastewater into the Cape Fear River Basin from its coal plant in nearby Moncure, in Chatham County North Carolina. The vote by House Republicans would simply legalize these spills because Republicans are evil.

This vote is nothing more than a campaign promise Eric Cantor and Congressional Republicans has made to Corporations, 

"Whether it’s the EPA, the FDA, the FCC, the SEC, the CFTC, you name it, there is an acronym for a federal agency causing harm right now. We’re trying to pull that in." - Eric Cantor.

Republicans run this Nation for their Corporate Overlords. They don't care what happens to the Country so do you think they're going to care if your home's drinking water is contaminated? No, Republicans and their Moneyed Masters aren't going to be affected and they know their conservative base can be easily prodded into ignoring Republican Evil by yelling about President Obama's mom jeans or Benghazi!!1!11! who can be reliably counted upon to attack Liberals because condemning Pollution and the criminal negligence of Coal Companies is evil liberals/democrats punishing success.

The Pollution-Industry is making huge profits and Republicans are working to make sure any costs they incur while raping the Nation and Planet will be passed onto the taxpayer and Working Class. Because Republicans job in Government is to ensure Profits and Privatized while Losses are Socialized.

Additionally, 2013 saw the amount of oil spill surpass the last 40 years combined;

Altogether, 800,000 gallons spilled from US railroads in the years from 1975 to 2010. That data, which comes from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, does not include records of Canadian spills, some of which are thought to surpass one million gallons spilled on their own. 

In part because of major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota, over 1.15 million gallons of crude oil seeped from train cars.

So, it should come as no surprise that BP at Whiting Indiana is back to polluting Lake Michigan again. Because Fuck the EPA and all Regulations. BP confirmed their plant, newly renovated to process Canadian Tar Sands, dumped a huge unknown amount of oil and tar sands sludge into Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan water is the primary source for drinking water for 12 million Americans in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

But, while all this is occurring duped and ignorant conservatives across the Nation are busy deriding President Obama for not doing something, something, something about Crimea instead of focusing on the Terrorists, Koch Industries, Duke Energy, BP, Murray Energy and so many others, in our midst. Just as their Republican Handlers and Plutocratic Masters intend.

What's Climate Change got to do with it? Climate Change Denial is a Conservative Psychosis

"I’m tired, I’m really tired of this attack on drilling. Because my little mom and pop drillers, all they want to do is if they don’t hit the well, they want to record that as an expense. That’s all this tax break for big oil is. If they don’t hit, they don’t count it as an expense. You can write it off as a business expense if you drill and you don’t hit the oil. That’s all it is. 

Now multiply that to a multinational corporation and it’s the same thing. If they go deepwater drilling and they don’t hit, should they not write that off as a business expense? Sure they should. Just like my mom and pop should do it locally." (from 2012) Republican Representative John Shimkus of Illinois believes American Gothic was painted with oil dug up by the farmer and his wife.

As Chicagoland digs itself out from yet another massive snowfall the 2013-2014 winter stands as the 5th heaviest snowfall since 1885 with a total accumulation of 66.8 inches thus far.

These blizzards have been preceded or followed by The Polar Vortex which has sent temperatures deep down into negatives nearly 50 degrees below freezing.

By, far this is the harshest winter in Chicago in my memory and the snowfall and deep freezes back me up. But, this is America and in the United States evidence and observation are trumped by Conservative Outrage.

First, it should be noted, snow plowing is Socialist. I'm sick and tired of conservatives stealing my tax dollars to plow roads for them to use. Instead of mooching off of me, why aren't conservatives buying winter radial tires and snowshoes and getting to work by themselves up out of the snow by their own bootstraps?

But, leaving aside right-wing hypocrisy, the reason Conservatives deny the evidence of Climate Change Nationwide and Worldwide is two-fold. One) Conservatives idolize the Rich, Adulation of the Plutocrats is a core component of conservative dogma, and; Two) conservatives would rather win an "argument" than help people. Seeing people suffer or be harmed is the favorite activity for right-wingers.

From 2001-2010 climate change denalism rose in the US. This coincides with the Bush/Cheney "victories" in 2000 and 2004 and the ascension of the Angry White Conservative Male.

Since then the Republican Party has engaged in full scale war against the American People, destroying protections for the poor, underfunding agencies designed to stop rapacious businesses, stealing Trillions of Dollars and channeling it to off shore and Swiss bank accounts and sending Americans to far away lands to die for the Egos of a group of Chicken Hawk Cowards.

But, while theft, rape and murder are always the end results of the election of Republicans it is not their end goal. Because the Modern Republican Party was created for the aggrandizement, protection and defense of the upper 1% who control the government and oppress the American people.

Thus, the real driving force behind Climate Change Denial is Massive Profits for the Big Pollution Industry.

Corporations, like BP, Patriot Coal, Freedom Industries, Tesoro Logistics, Duke Energy, the Koch Brothers, Massey Energy and others have been enjoying massive government welfare and non-existent regulation, while they literally gouge the World and kill people for profit.

Their profits come from destroying the Nation and the Planet while also passing on any incurred costs of their pollution to the rest of us. Besides the massive criminal negligence we've seen with the Koch Brothers petcoke in South side Chicago and Detroit, BP massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico and from their Whiting Indiana plant into Lake Michigan, and the massive toxic spills into rivers in West Virginia and North Carolina the amount of oil spilled in the U.S. in 2013 surpassed the last four decades combined;

Altogether, 800,000 gallons spilled from US railroads in the years from 1975 to 2010. That data, which comes from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, does not include records of Canadian spills, some of which are thought to surpass one million gallons spilled on their own. 

In part because of major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota, over 1.15 million gallons of crude oil seeped from train cars.

Corporations are people but, personal responsibility ends when Corporate-hood begins... 

There's big money being made by the Pollution Industry and that money might end if Climate Change and anti-pollution regulation is adopted or enforced. So they've paid off the Republican Party and Pro-Business Democrats to protect them and rhetorically poisoned the already sick minds of conservatives to defend the Rich as they literally poison and destroy the planet.

Governor Quinn just angered the Koch Brothers because of their Petcoke dumping

Governor Pat Quinn has stepped up and issued an emergency orders for the management of petroleum coke (petcoke), a toxic, choking, foul, hazardous byproduct of oil refining which Petroleum Pigs like the Koch Brothers have been dumping upon the residents of Detroit and Chicago in massive open air piles.

Progress Illinois reports,

"We want to make sure that every neighborhood in the state of Illinois is protected from the hazard of petroleum coke," Governor Quinn said at a press conference Monday afternoon. 

Quinn delivered the announcement from the outskirts of KCBX Terminals’ 90-acre property, at 3259 E. 100th St., on the Southeast Side of Chicago. The company, controlled by the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, temporarily stores petcoke along the Calumet River for a nearby BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana. 

The rules will be submitted to the Illinois Secretary of State before the end of the week, Quinn said. The rules are expected to take effect before the end of the month, after a review by the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB), which has the option to host a 14-day public comment period on the issue. 

Back in October, BP Whiting was producing 6000 tons of Petcoke a day. Detroit’s Marathon refinery wasn’t producing petcoke before its expansion, but produced 1,720 tons per day throughout 2013, while the Phillips 66 refinery in Wood River, Illinois, increased its petcoke output from 1,300 to 5,700 tons per day.

In December, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan successfully won a lawsuit against Hammond, Indiana-based Beemsterboer Slag Corp., which operates a facility along the Calumet River. Beemsterboer Slag was accepting out-of-state petcoke residue and illegally storing it in and around the Calumet River.

Plutocratic Candidate Bruce Rauner has probably already called the Koch Brothers to tell them that when he is elected he'll undo Quinn's Emergency Orders and defund the Illinois EPA and allow the Petroleum Pigs the power to dump hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic Petcoke wherever they wish in Illinois. After all it's not being dumped inside the palatial estates of Bruce Rauner or the Koch Brothers.

Rauner's best buddy Mayor 1% (Rahm Emmanuel) quietly stopped Chicago Alderman attempts at outright banning the accumulation of petcoke inside Chicago.

You know who isn't mentioned in the Progress Illinois Report? Republicans. No comments about this from State Senator Jim Oberweis or Congressman Peter Roskam or US Senator Mark Kirk. And why is that? Because Republicans don't care where Corporations dump their pollution and toxic waste because it isn't being dumped in their backyards.

For far too long Republicans have been allowed to get away with the blanket assertion that 'Regulations are bad' and when a West, Texas Fertilizer Plant explodes because of Rick Perry's hatred for the EPA or Freedom Industries poisons the entire drinking supply of 300,000 people in West Virginia well who could have predicted that?!?

Scott Walker, The Kochs and Wisconsin are the Vanguard of Fascism

Leading the Way towards Fascist America is Scott Walker the personal valet for the Koch Take Over of the Nation.

At the moment that the "normal" police and military resources of the bourgeois dictatorship, together with their parliamentary screens, no longer suffice to hold society in a state of equilibrium - the turn of the fascist regime arrives. - Leon Trotsky 27 Jan 1932.

Up in Northern Wisconsin, a mining company named Gogebic Taconite was approved by the Republican Wisconsin Legislature to engage in a massive mining operation which will devastate and befoul Lake Superior and the surrounding pristine Northwoods environment. Protests have been staged, so Gogenic Taconite hired Bulletproof Security to stalk the area in pseudo-military vehicles carrying semi-automatic rifles and wearing fully decked out camo uniforms.

Duped Conservatives and apologists for Corporate Malfesance defended the Walker and the Parliamentary Screens when they passed legislation which allowed Plutocrats to buy up Wisconsin's public utilities and public resources for whatever price the Plutocrats wanted as long as the Wisconsin Republican got a nice little kickback.

While everyone is focused on slimy Scott Walker's Independence Day Rape Wand Signature, and rightly so, the Corporate Overlords are ensuring they get to extract money, power, and resources from Wisconsin at rock bottom prices.

The Rich are interested in maximizing their profits, the Great Lakes be damned. Another Wisconsin/Michigan based company Lake Michigan Carferry uses the last coal-fired ship on the lake, the S.S. Badger which as it travels from its home port of Ludington, MI, to Manitowoc, WI, it dumps 509 tons of coal ash into Lake Michigan each year – a quantity greater than the total waste dumped annually by the 125 other largest ships operating on the Great Lakes.

“The S.S. Badger, the filthiest ship on the Great Lakes, has been given two more years to dump hundreds of tons of dangerous coal ash into Lake Michigan.  The millions of people who live, work and play in and around this beautiful Lake should be outraged that this filthy ship will continue to operate,” said Senator Dick Durbin.

But, Senator Durbin the Rich run the US Government. So the flithy owner of the S.S. Badger, Robert Manglitz, used his connections and legalese to bypass and ignore laws. Manglitz got the S.S. Badger originally a barge whose keel was laid in 1953 and was later refitted to transport cars, declared a "historical site" in both Michigan and Wisconsin.

Manglitz has called Coal Ash "Harmless Sand" though I doubt he's ever relaxed on a sunny beach made out of it.

Destroying the Teachers' Union was a step, eliminating Public Service Employees Collective Bargaining powers was a step, selling off public resources to whichever company gives the Corporate Owned Politicians was another step, allowing Companies which rape and despoil the environment, to field paramilitary squads threatening to gun down protesters while defending Corporate Crimes is another step.

The Koch Brothers like to style themselves Libertarians, but you can know them by their true name Fascists. Like their Plutocratic brethern on Wall Street, the Kochs have set up multiple avenues of attack to deter and confuse the American People from identifying their true enemy the Koch Brothers themselves and the Capitalist Bourgeoisie.

Through the fascist agency, capitalism sets in motion the masses of crazed petty bourgeoisie and bands of declassed and demoralized lumpenproletariat - all countless human beings whom finance capital itself has brought to desperation and frenzy. - Leon Trotsky, What is Fascism?

Wall Street, the Rich Plutocrats and the Banking and Finance Industry brought the economy to ruin through their legerdermain, degenerate gambling and rampant criminal theft and then turned around and blamed the Poor and Unions.

Then they unleashed their hordes of duped and battered conservative drones to blame other middle and working class peoples for the devastation wrought by the Banksters.

Exactly, as Trotsky wrote 80 years ago, The fascists find their human material mainly in the petty bourgeoisie.The latter has been entirely ruined by big capital. There is no way out for it in the present social order, but it knows of no other. Its dissatisfaction, indignation, and despair are diverted by the fascists away from big capital and against the workers.

Republicans want to Kill Chicagoans via Lead Poisioning

Yes, Republicans entice their conservative drones to shoot Liberals but this is the more prosaic poisoning.

From the Chicago Tribune story,

EPA researchers tested samples from 29 Chicago area homes and at least 1 liter in the first 12 tested in 15 of the 29 homes exceeded 15 parts per billion of lead. The current procedures require only the first liter out of the pipes be tested. The current procedures, obviously give an inaccurate account of the lead levels as the higher levels were registered in the proceeding water.

The EPA says there is no safe level of lead exposure, especially for vulnerable populations including children, pregnant women and infants who drink formula made from tap water. Miguel Del Toral notes that lead is the only substance other than carcinogens for which the EPA exposure goal is zero.

But, Republicans know that by simply eliminating the EPA the Lead levels will effectively drop to zero because no agency will be measuring for them!

As I related with my post Peter Roskam called me the other day about the Job-Killing EPA in which I asked Representative Roskam why the Republicans overwhelming support the idea of eliminating the EPA and federal clean water standards HR 2018, A Republican House bill in which 223 of 236 (94.5%) of Republicans voted to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972. The answer is always that the EPA harms jobs.

"Whether it’s the EPA, the FDA, the FCC, the SEC, the CFTC, you name it, there is an acronym for a federal agency causing harm right now. We’re trying to pull that in." - Eric Cantor, famous Republicon Hit Man for the Plutocracy who demanded disaster relief for Tornado victims in Joplin, MO only be appropriated from cuts to Medicare.

Oh, but don't worry Corporations have your best interest at heart, they certainly will voluntarily reduce their toxic pollution! It's the Myth of Self-Regulation.

As we have seen with every deregulation and privatization scheme Chicago and Cook County residents would face the prospect of tainted water with little to no remedy to face giant Corporate Criminals who regularly violate EPA and State rules now and would pollute and poison Americans with absolute impunity if the Republicons succeed in their efforts to dismantle the EPA.

Peter Roskam called me the other day about the job-killing EPA

While relaxing at home one evening, my antiquated landline rang. Why whomever could it be calling me on this line? I wondered. It was Republican Illinois House member Peter Roskam conducting a Telephone Town Hall Meeting

Roskam does these phone call "town halls" where the listener can listen to Roskam speak to people or, if they are so inclined, press the pound key to be transferred to a staffer to screen a question for Representative Roskam. I did so and told the nameless staffer I'd like to ask Representative Roskam a question about his yes vote for HR 2018, A Republican House bill in which 223 of 236 (94.5%) of Republicans voted to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Representative Roskam took my question. I told him in light of the egregious and on-going dumping problem by the BP plant at Whiting Indiana how did he feel it was a responsible position to vote to eliminate the Federal Government's power to regulate and stop Corporations from polluting and put that power in the hands of the States, when his constituents' drinking water was directly affected by another State Government's decision.

For reference, the Indiana State Government voted to allow BP to ignore the EPA and the Clean Water Act on the amount of Mercury it dumps into Lake Michigan. Mercury is toxic substance to humans that once it enters the human body can not be gotten rid of and leads to heavy metal poisioning*. The reason we Chicagoans can not eat Lake Michigan fish? Too much Mercury. The BP Whiting Indiana plant also dumps a dozen toxic byproducts of oil refining, including benzene, toluene and suspended solids containing mercury, lead, nickel and vanadium

The BP Whiting Indiana plant has a history of flouting EPA regulations and dumping huge amounts of toxic pollutants into our air and drinking water. And while in 2007 the Indiana Government was paid off to state BP would self-regulate and was working within Federal guidelines, the truth is BP was blatantly polluting the Lake.

In 2009, BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone (2008), the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

So, faced with the fact that his vote would allow a Corporation based in one state, in this case Indiana, to flout laws and regulations and directly harm the citizens of other states, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan all draw water from Lake Michigan, how could he justify it?

Well, here's how all Republicans justify their actions, by anecdotal analogy. Peter Roskam related to me a story about how some nice small business in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois was hampered in their mechanical engineering designs by the over regulation of the EPA, which demanded they produce an engine type which they could not possibly produce thus causing the small business to fail. If there is one thing the Republicans do well it's stay on message.

The Republicans have been proclaiming the EPA kills jobs, and obviously Roskam's folksy aw shucks small business anecdote was unassailable and proved the Republican message. Plus this being a telephone conference, I was not allowed to ask a follow-up about his vote about the Clean Water bill, but that is to be expected.

Now, Representative Roskam seems like a nice moderate conservative, but it's his type and his willingness to go along with the Michele Bachmann's of the Party and their crazy, fringe, plutocratically controlled views, in this case "The Job-Killing EPA" and vote overwhelmingly for bills which are clearly harming the American people.

* - Sir Isaac Newton most likely suffered from mercury toxicity due to his early alchemical work.

Cholera Water for the Poor, $350-A-Bottle Pinot Noir for Republicans

The Republicans hate the EPA and are wholly owned by Corporations. As such, 223 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to eliminate the power of the EPA and the Clean Water Act of 1972, by passing H.R.2018 The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011. It would eliminate, wholesale, the EPA's power to supersede individual states' water pollution rules. Because as we all learned last year with BP, TransOcean and Haliburton and the Gulf of Mexico Spill companies can be relied upon to regulate themselves and if something does happen Rick Perry or some other Republican Stooge can blame it on god.

This is a Joe Barton before the fact apology to polluting Companies. Quite simply by doing this the Republicans are allowing Corporations more leverage by allowing them to face individual States as oppossed to Federal Power.

BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone (2008), the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

The EPA said in November the modifications caused "significant increases" in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide emitted from the refinery.

Near Charleston West Virginia American families no longer have clean water to drink because the Bush Administration gleefully allowed Coal Companies to violate EPA standards and pollute the water table so badly that families are drinking a toxic sludge which is eating away at their bodies:

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times.

But, like all things Republicans if you have $$$ you can have Clean Water or even better if you have money and are poised to ensure all Government Spenidng is directed at protecting and transferring wealth to the Rich while undercutting and killing the Poor you can be Pinot Noir swilling Paul Ryan, Serious Budget Wizard!

This is Dastardly stuff the Republicans are pulling. If you aren't not a Hedge Fund Manager or a high ranking official for a Multi-National Oil Company or own your own Private Jet the Republicans do not give a shit about you. And Republican bureaucrats passing this type of legislation don't care about water pollution because they know they'll be rewarded by these same polluting companies with huge dollar amounts.

But conservatives don't care. Republicans and Conservatives love when Americans die, the sound of Americans suffering is music to the Republican ear.

Pollution-oution what's the Solution?

Drill Baby Drill...

Is the Right Wing attack on Climate Change also an attack on Pollution laws and enforcement?

Most on the Right are utterly convinced that Global Climate Change is some kind of fraud or hoax. I have my doubts about man-made Climate Change but they are always tempered by the knowledge that those who vehemently deny Climate Change also just as vehemently deny Evolution. There is something in the conservative brain which makes them utterly convinced of their positions, doubtless and so stubborn that no amount of evidence is ever enough to change their views. Indeed to a conservative changing one's views and having an mind open to new ideas is anathema. Conservatives prefer slavery and idiocy to new thoughts. Indeed most Conservatives and Republicans think Slavery is a wonderful idea.

But, while the mass of conservatives lap up Sean Hannity's nightly garbage they are also sucking down filthy water, air and food because under the catastrophic Bush/Cheney regime the EPA was bridled, enforcement of pollution laws was curtailed or ignored and Companies felt free to rampantly violate all pollution standards in pursuit of a few extra dollars.

BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone, the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

The EPA said in November the modifications caused "significant increases" in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide emitted from the refinery.

Near Charleston West Virginia American families no longer have clean water to drink because the Bush Administration gleefully allowed Coal Companies to violate EPA standards and pollute the water table so badly that families are drinking a toxic sludge which is eating away at their bodies:

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times.

But conservatives don't care. Republicans and Conservatives love when Americans die, the sound of Americans suffering is music to the Republican ear.

And when Americans voice their sorrows or concerns Conservatives like Beck, R. Limbaugh, M. Malkin and Laura Ingraham make fun of their suffering or the Right trots out horse mouthed (or is that jack-ass mouthed) Michelle Bachmann with her odd body language, excessive blinking, frozen faced smile, vacant wide-eyed stare and stilted speech patterns punctuated with strange arm and hand gesticulations to declare the planet was saved already!

Other people Suffering is a Conservative Value. Republicans and Conservatives want you to die so they can make money.

Related:
Here is EPA Interactive Enforcement and Violation Database for reference.

Companies keep 17,000 potentially harmful chemicals secret in order to maximize profits [Washington Post]
The law exempts from public disclosure any information that could harm their bottom line. The Obama Administration objects but Republicans love the law because it kills Americans whom Republicans hate and want to die.

Science Jokes

"This bizarre incident has given them their Yuri..." - Kevin Costner's, No Way Out

Guess what else is a joke? "Climate-Gate".

According to the AP the stolen University of East Anglia emails do not purport to show Wild-eyed Lying Scientists concocting a Great Big Conspiracy to create Climate change.

The 1,073 e-mails examined by the AP show that scientists harbored private doubts, however slight and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about climate change. However, the exchanges don't undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

But, the Fox News led Terrorists on the Right and the Anti-Human, Anti-Science, Anti-Education Republicans don't care they have a staggering supposed controversy (their Yuri...) which even when debunked and repeatedly shown to be a lie will only serve to strengthen the resolve of the nose-breathing teabaggers who hate humanity and have been conditioned by the Republican Party to hate science and learning...

And yes I am aware that in the film No Way Out, Costner is, in fact, a Soviet Agent (just like Orly Taitz) thus leading to the possible conclusion that Global Warming is not true. Which is a possibility, I am not 100% certain that Man-made Climate Change is occurring, and am willing to look at evidence to the contrary, unlike the conservatives, their Republican fondlers and the Right Wing Terrorists. They have absolute certainty their positions concerning every issue are infallible. And because they start out with their conclusions they engage in thievery, deception and blatant intellectual dishonesty in order to ensure the "evidence" they acquire conforms to their preconceived ignorance.

And what I do know is that the Bush/Cheney Regime allowed companies to flout pollution laws because violently stupid Republicans like Michele Bachmann believe the planet to have been saved already and that the earth and it's inhabitants exist for the sole purpose of providing the Republican Party with money and luxury...

Dylan Ratigan Steals From My Blog

Last September I wrote:

What we have is a lousy kleptocracy were members of the government collude with industry and work hand in hand in order to ensure Socialism for them and cut-throat Capitalism for the rest of the plebeians, Profits are Privatised and Losses are Socialized.

Well, while that's true, the Corporate Powers are the stronger members of the Kleptocracy and dictate orders to their marionettes in Government. The Punk Ass Bitch Republican Party take their orders and carry them out faithfully.

Any way MSNBC New Guy, Dylan Ratigan highlights (video at Crooks and Liars) how Corporate Communists (his phrase) have control over Washington and use their position to Socialize their losses and Privatize their Profits. Ratigan states, "a system that takes resources from the citizenry and redistributes it to a tiny elite."

Right Wing Punk Ass Bitches like to claim the Free Market and Corporations would produce excellent products if left alone from the evil Government's interference. Well, it's not true. if left alone without Government Regulations, persons at various levels in Corporations will get away with whatever they can and would passively or actively allow Americans to die from the creation of their products; By doing shit like this:

BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene.

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by making modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit. The EPA said in November the modifications caused "significant increases" in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide emitted from the refinery.

And at the top CEO's, who get Billions from the Government, lobby to undermine and de-teeth legislation designed to curb their voracious appetite for profit over people.

Related:
Dylan Ratigan: The Cost of Corporate Communism