Talk About Dogma!

Latest:  The Senate in a late hour roll call is passing the compromise stimulus spending package after the modified bill passed the House earlier today.  One of the items cut during the negotiations was the $50 billion program to finance more nuclear power development (see below).  The flawed economics of nuclear power do not justify investing more taxpayer money when cleaner and cheaper energy alternatives exist.  Green activists played an influential role in convincing lawmakers to ax the unjustified subsidy for the nuclear power industry.  An example of the Repugnants' hysteria over the passage of the largest domestic spending bill ever was illustrated by their mythologizing about the salt marsh harvest mouse [photo].  Minority Leader Boehner blasted the charming rodent (Reithrodontomys raviventris) in his speech on the House floor claiming that $30 million was being wasted to protect it.  But like so many other Repugnant claims, it is not true. The money according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office is for federal restoration of wetlands none of which are in the Speaker's district.

{first post 1/29/09} In a stunning display of Bourbon intransigence the GOP minority in the House did not give President Obama a single vote in favor of the stimulus package that passed on a strict party line vote (244-188) .  This, despite cocktails with the President to enlist some bipartisan support. Obama agreed to remove certain items that offended conservative dogma such as funds for family planning and included others like more tax cuts for business.  It was a wasted effort. GOP leaders must be pleased when discussing the degree of rigid conformity that exists in their ranks of Herbert Hoover impersonators.

Update:  The Senate Appropriations Committee, during the night of January 27th, put in a provision to 44's economic stimulus package that would provide as much as $50 billion for loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors.  Although the language of the provision is ambiguous, the provision's backers, Senators Robert Bennett (R-UT) and Thomas Carper (D-DE) are clear that the provision is intended to fund new nuclear reactor production.  This stealth funding attempt arrives in the face of a CBO report that predicts a 50% default rate by nuclear utilities using the money.  Also, a recent report by the Nuclear Information & Resource Service exposes the practice of disposing radioactive wastes (radioactive scrap, asphalt, concrete, plastic, wood, chemicals, soil and equipment) into ordinary landfills. Tennessee is leading in licensing waste processors that can release radioactive materials from nuclear facilities without public knowledge of the disposal.  It is also possible that some of the radioactive waste could be recycled into everyday consumer products.  The investigators researched seven sites including DOE headquarters: Oak Ridge, TN; Rocky Flats, CO; Los Alamos, NM; Mound & Fernald, OH; West Valley, NY; and Paducah, KY.