Bizarro World
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"-Bob Dylan
As the Republican Party continues to shrink (see charts above) the one clearest sign of a political sea change is the fact that business has surrendered in two great battles they have fought for years:auto emissions and climate change. Yesterday all of the major auto companies lined up behind the President in raising the CAFE standards for cars to 39 MPG. and in a sign of how desperate the Republicans are, they have decided to strike out at the energy utilities who have sided with Obama on Cap and Trade.
In a strategy memo obtained by POLITICO, Republican staffers for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works say Republicans should argue that Democrats are embracing "Wall Street traders," "polluters" and "others in corporate America" who are "guilty of manipulating national climate policy to increase profits on the backs of consumers."As one of the Utility lobbyists stated,"The GOP business model is probably busted forever."Of course for Republicans to continue to live in Bizarro World, where they are on the side of the little guy against corporations, they need a true leader like Michael Steele to tell them what's happening.
"The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done. The time for trying to fix or focus on the past has ended. The era of Republican navel-gazing? Done. We have turned the corner on regret, recrimination, self-pity and self-doubt. Now is the hour to focus all of our energies on winning the future.A Republican renaissance has begun!"You know I like a good political fight as much as the next person, but this is pathetic.
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Pathetic is a pretty good word, on the other hand, never forget the immortal words of PT Barnum.
May 20, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The republicans have nothing to worry about. They've already scared the spineless Dems into voting the gop way. With that kind of support, they don't need to be in the majority.
May 20, 2009 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
The democrats won't do any different than republicans. The entire government is in the tank for corporate America. Banks, insurance, military lobbyists, pharma and all the rest have the joint stunk up so bad there is just no fixing it. They are just bleeding the country dry and will leave it a rotting corpse. Pretty soon the Chinese will have enough money to call in all their U.S. debt and not care if they only get twenty cents on a dollar. And all the dumb bastards who sold us out, who are the same ones who gave us our current mess, can go to hell.
May 20, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're supposed to end such a comment with "Have a nice day."
May 21, 2009 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Somehow that doesn't help knowing that we've left this place in a big mess that is going to make it very tough for those who come after us. I'm quite sure they'll have far fewer 'nice days' than we had. For almost half of my sixty years we've been in some kind of war. Not a proud legacy to be passing on. And every day where that remains our legacy is not a nice day.
May 21, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was being sarcastic.
May 21, 2009 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. I know.
May 21, 2009 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, auto emissions and global warming are two issues that deserve attention, and it is a coup to have the Repubs realign themselves here.
But make no mistake, these issues are minor in comparison to the topics that drive their opposition. You will not see them concede on EFCA. One can conceivably convince a Repub that to tackle the greatest climatic threat is good for their own children, but nothing will divert them from their principal mission: slash that payroll.
Yes, we all live on Planet Earth, but only some of us must pay our workers. And to your average modern CEO, the worker is the enemy.
May 20, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
May 21, 2009 7:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
With the climate change that we are experiencing today. It is about time that the new administration will do something about it. Thank God!! At least, there are changes in CAFE standard. The CAFE standards, or Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, have been overhauled by President Obama, to drastically cut auto emissions around the U.S.A. The automobile industry might be doing less check cashing from sales of gas guzzlers, though – the new standard is for all cars (just cars, not trucks) to achieve an average of 35.5 mpg by 2016. It is currently at 27.5 mpg. That level of efficiency has already been mandated by the state of California, and the aim is to severely reduce emission of greenhouse gases. Critics point out that higher CAFE standards might save a payday cash loan at the pump, but smaller cars compromise crash safety.
May 23, 2009 2:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
In reality, both parties are equally bad. Both democrats and republicans are equally sold out to Big Business - I kind of doubt that anyone's going to be doing much with health care, especially with the permeating nature of Big Pharma. At any rate, it's still deliciously entertaining when the Republicans like to posit themselves as the great moral guardians of whatever, and then you have high profile scandals like Larry Craig, that guy from Nevada, and then Mark Sanford, it just keeps getting funnier every time. And of course the GOP is losing supporters: the most unpopular President in 30 years, a Republican, left office and the next candidate to take his place wasn't really much to write home about, and then Palin....what an embarrassment. She's a female Dan Quayle, only dumber. The thing about "a candidate you could have a beer with" is starting to lose it's appeal. The general air of the Republican Party has kind of become one of rich, white men that are opposed to just about anything that's good for anyone except the richest ten percent of the nation.
July 1, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink