The climate change bill, better known as cap-and-tax, was unveiled this week in the Senate. Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are still determined to push this idiocy even though South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham recently walked away from the compromise they had crafted over the course of several months. The bill would tax large emitters of carbon emissions at $12 per ton, and it includes a mish-mash of regulations and subsidies for industries and transportation systems. Kerry and Lieberman yanked out the provision that called for expanding offshore drilling, hoping to make it more attractive in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. Investor’s Business Daily has a chart of new programs, studies and reports created by Kerry-Lieberman. It’s extensive. Without Graham on board, though, the bill won’t find nearly the support it could have previously received, so chances for passage are much slimmer.
Barack Obama has called for legislation that would raise the cap on damages for which oil companies such as BP would be responsible in the event of a spill or other accident. Currently at $75 million, bills in the House and Senate would raise the cap to $10 billion. Fortunately, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) blocked the Senate bill Thursday. But the president also wants to punish BP and other oil companies with an unconstitutionally retroactive one-cent-per-barrel tax hike to help pay for the cleanup of the Gulf. Of course, we all know who will pay that tax in the end — consumers at the gas pump.
Republicans are vigorously fighting Democrat attempts to restrict free speech by nullifying the Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision that struck down certain corporate restrictions on political campaign advertising. The Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, which has been introduced in the House and Senate, seeks to force corporations and major donors to make on-air endorsements of political ads they fund. The bill would also place new measures on coordination of candidates and outside supporters.
In a frightening assault upon law-abiding citizens exercising their constitutional right to free speech and assembly, the Terrorist Expatriation Act (and here we thought TEA stood for “Taxed Enough Already”) was introduced in the House and Senate, stirring a vigorous debate that blurs the customary partisan lines on the issue. The bill, which has bipartisan sponsorship in both chambers, would allow the government to revoke the citizenship of Americans who ally themselves with “terrorist organizations.”
Supporters indicate that any American who signs up with a “terrorist group” basically rescinds his rights as a citizen in any event. Of course, why then should they be Mirandized? Revoking citizenship would block American “terror suspects” from (legally) re-entering the United States, and it would also make them eligible for military rather than civilian prosecution just when the Obama administration is moving real non-citizen terrorists into civilian courts. Concerns have arisen about the constitutionality of the measure, and skeptics believe that suspects would need to be convicted of a crime before their citizenship could be revoked. Since the Obama administration has already labeled conservative groups as “terrorist organizations,” TEA partiers and the like should check their visas.
Tags: climate change bill, Faux Science, News, Politics, tea party, terrorists
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 
May 16, 2010 at 10:58
There is indeed a terrorist organization building and it is headquartered in Washington. Leave the Obama crew and their supporters in office and any form of disagreement will soon be a criminal act and America will have its own system of gulags to deal with dissenters. The favored tactic of a “boot on the neck” so gleefully described by the President’s press secretary will be enthusiastically applied to a growing segment of Americans who resist this usurpation of our God-given rights.
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