Fueled Up, Ready To Go

The Obama administration is today having the EPA lay out major new rules for cleaner gasoline with less sulfur.  Big energy companies are screaming it will "dramatically" raise the price of fuel by 9 cents a gallon, the reality is it'll add less than a penny and be the equivalent of taking about 12% of the nation's 250 million plus cars off the roads in reducing emissions.

While gasoline sulfur itself does not pose a public health threat, it hampers the effectiveness of catalytic converters, which in turn leads to greater tailpipe emissions. These emissions — nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and fine particles — contribute to smog and soot, which can cause respiratory and heart disease.

The proposed standards were first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday afternoon and confirmed by the administration Thursday night.

The regulations are supported by environmental advocates, state regulators and even automobile companies, who would prefer uniform sulfur standards for fuel nationwide. But oil industry officials and their congressional allies say it will cost up to $10 billion to upgrade refineries and an additional $2.4 billion in annual operating costs.

Both public health advocates and the administration say the ultimate cost would be much lower because of provisions giving refiners flexibility in complying with the standards. The EPA estimates annual health benefits of up to $23 billion by 2030.

The agency surveyed 111 U.S. refineries and found 29 already can meet the sulfur standard or come close to it, 66 can reach it with modest modifications and 16 would require a major overhaul.

Time to invest those record tens of billions in profits back in your businesses and into the health of your customers, energy companies.  Of course, Big Oil knows it can jack up the prices whenever it feels like and they can continue being the most profitable companies on Earth, so I have no sympathy for them.

But the Obama EPA is doing the right thing here for all of us.  More of this, please.

Ohio Comes To Carolina

Back home in North Carolina, the Zandarparents inform me that new GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and the Tea Partified legislature are on a roll now that Democratic Gov. Bev Purdue is gone. She was the only thing standing between the Tarheel State and nonsense like this.

Two bills filed by Republican lawmakers seek to cut back early voting and eliminate same-day registration in North Carolina.

Senate Bill 428, filed by Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, would cut the early voting period from two weeks to one and would eliminate same-day voter registration.

House Bill 451, filed by Rep. Edgar Starnes, R-Caldwell, goes even further. In addition to cutting early voting and same-day registration, it would also outlaw early voting on Sunday and straight-ticket voting.

To recap, Republicans are happily running in NC on "We want fewer people to vote, and fewer people to be allowed to vote." Nobody apparently sees the problems with this. They're not even trying to hide the fact that it's voter suppression anymore.

Democrats say such bills are intended to make it harder to vote and will disproportionately affect low-income, working and minority voters – groups that traditionally favor Democrats.

The Sunday ban, in particular, would affect popular "Souls to the Polls" voting drives at African-American churches.

"I think Sundays just should be – some things you just shouldn't do on Sundays, so I am just opposed to voting on Sunday," Starnes said.

You can practically see the hidden "those people" before the word "voting" in that sentence there. But again, Republicans are actively saying A) we make it too easy to vote in North Carolina, so we should probably put an end to it, because if you can't vote during banker's hours on a Tuesday, you don't deserve to be a part of the body politic.

Tillman said his bill isn't meant to be partisan, noting all voters would still have equal access to the polls.

Meanwhile, he said, keeping early voting sites open for two weeks costs money that could be better spent elsewhere.  "We're paying people for two weeks to run those election centers," he said. "Let's cut it to one week, and we can do the same thing. It's not to disenfranchise anybody."

Why should representative democracies spend money on stupid crap like "voting", anyway? GOP learned their lesson in Ohio, and that lesson is "if the minorities can vote, we lose." Gotta actively legislate the end of that, call it non-partisan, and say God didn't want you to vote on Sundays anyway, plus why are we spending money to hold elections? Let's take the difference and cut some taxes for some one percenters, and they'll create votes instead!

StupidiNews!

• North Korea's response to US B-2 Stealth bombers is to place rockets on standby to attack US bases, with Kim Jong Un declaring that it's time to "settle accounts" with the West.
• Maine may become the next state to legalize and tax marijuana, as at least 35 lawmakers are interested in giving the state revenue from sales of pot.
• The Mexican war on drug cartels moves to Reynosa, Mexico, the city of 600,000 is now ground zero for the battle between the Mexican army and cartels along the border with Texas.
• Harvard, Yale, and Columbia universities recorded some of the highest rejection rates in school history, with 7.3% or less of freshman applicants accepted this fall.
• Video game designer Jason Rorher has buried his latest creation somewhere in the Nevada desert, where it may take centuries to find.

Last Call

To recap, "GOP savior Marco Rubio" just signed up with Rand Paul to block all Senate gun control legislation.

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (FL) and Jim Inhofe (OK) have signed on to a letter threatening to filibuster new gun legislation, according to Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) communications director. 

Sure.  This will help the GOP.

Reverse Energy Poll-arity

Seems Americans are nothing more than filthy eco-hippie commie pinkos who actually care about the environment and getting more clean energy, particularly solar power.


 What's this?  Over two-thirds of Republicans think we should put more emphasis on solar power?  Three-quarters of independents?  But that means we should build infrastructure to encourage solar projects, what about FREEDOM and LIBERTY and DON'T TREAD ON ME and stuff?

What about King Coal?  Well, if you're not in Kentucky or West Virginia, it turns out no, it's even less popular than nuclear power.

At the same time, Americans seem to think natural gas (and fracking!) is a pretty good idea...but not as good as wind or solar.  Go figure.

Ashley, Alison, And The Turtle, Part 3

As I have been telling folks, I would have loved to have seen Ashley Judd run and win, but there wasn't any way she was going to survive King Coal, Kentucky Blue Dog Dems, and Bill Clinton.

Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate.I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months ~ — ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013

So while it's increasingly looking like Alison Lundergan Grimes will run, because six more years of Turtle is going to give me a heart attack...

BREAKING: Sources: Alison Lundergan Grimes has spoken w DSCC, plans to file for #KySen exploratory committee @alisonforky — Joe Arnold (@joearnoldreport) March 27, 2013

So is a Blue Dog better than Mitch? We'll see by how much. Here's a hint, it won't be by a lot, as Yellow Dog reminds us.

I trust Mitchie-poo is suitably grateful to the Kentucky conservadem establishment, the DINO Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Bill Clinton and his buddy Jerry Lundergan (father of Alison) for sabotaging the only chance Kentucky had to get rid of him.

It's going to be damn hard for Lundergan Grimes to inspire liberals in the state to come to her aid when her positions on mining, labor, the environment and the state's badly needed safety net aren't any different from Mitch, and that's where Judd would have been clearly different. On the other hand, Mitch's plan if he wins in 2014 is simple: to take health care away from tens of millions of Americans by repealing Obamacare, including hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians. On the gripping hand, King Coal still runs this gorram backwater hellhole, and all the other supposedly top-line Dems (Gov. Dinosaur Steve Beshear, Lt. Gov. Dan "The Coal Man" Mongiardo, AG Jack "I lost to effing Rand Paul" Conway, and Rep. John "Deep Blue Dog" Yarmuth) all ran screaming from this race like the cowards they are. So yeah, we're down to the daughter of the state's former good ol' boy Dem party chair and a huge, long-time Clinton backer. Thrilled about that, just thrilled. All that might be enough to get Grimes the win. I don't honestly know. Better than Mitch? Yes, but with serious reservations. We'll see.

StupidiNews!

• The US says it sent B-2 Stealth bombers from Missouri to South Korea and back as a military exercise and reminder to the increasingly belligerent North Korea.
• Former Florida GOP state chairman Jim Greer will spend 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of fraud, theft, and money laundering.
• Ashley Judd will not be running for the Senate in Kentucky, putting an end to months of speculation.
• After almost two weeks, Cypriot banks will reopen today with strict cash withdrawal limits and transfer restrictions in effect for at least the next week and a half.
• A study of Pacific island fossils suggests as much as 10% of Earth's bird species were wiped out by human colonization over 3,000 years.

Last Call

Dear Wal-Mart: When you cut hours, cut employees, cut wages, cut cut cut to the point where there's not enough people in the store to keep things stocked and clean, people don't care about your "everyday low prices" being a few cents cheaper and they head to your competitors.

Margaret Hancock has long considered the local Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) superstore her one- stop shopping destination. No longer.

During recent visits, the retired accountant from Newark, Delaware, says she failed to find more than a dozen basic items, including certain types of face cream, cold medicine, bandages, mouthwash, hangers, lamps and fabrics.

The cosmetics section “looked like someone raided it,” said Hancock, 63.

It was raided by the heirs to the Walton family fortune.  They're worth billions and they gotta have more, you know.

Wal-Mart’s loss was a gain for Kohl’s Corp. (KSS), Safeway Inc. (SWY), Target Corp. (TGT) and Walgreen Co. (WAG) -- the chains Hancock hit for the items she couldn’t find at Wal-Mart.

“If it’s not on the shelf, I can’t buy it,” she said. “You hate to see a company self-destruct, but there are other places to go.”

It’s not as though the merchandise isn’t there. It’s piling up in aisles and in the back of stores because Wal-Mart doesn’t have enough bodies to restock the shelves, according to interviews with store workers. In the past five years, the world’s largest retailer added 455 U.S. Wal-Mart stores, a 13 percent increase, according to filings and the company’s website. In the same period, its total U.S. workforce, which includes Sam’s Club employees, dropped by about 20,000, or 1.4 percent. Wal-Mart employs about 1.4 million U.S. workers. 

That's right, during the Great Recession, the nation's biggest retailer and employer cut 20,000 jobs but added more than 450 stores.  Why do you think the company's lobbyists are pushing to rid the country of minimum wage?  If the nation's biggest single private sector employer could cut wages to $5 an hour, don't you think they would?  What would hundreds of thousands of "associates" do in this economy, quit?

Wal-Mart is the biggest single employer of minimum wage workers in America.  Think about that for a second.

Then refuse to shop there anymore.

The Long Derpy Arm Of The Law

Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert is still a little fuzzy on the whole "Lawmakers are subject to laws" thing, apparently.

Outspoken Tea Party Republican Rep. Louis Gohmert (TX) got into a late-night altercation with U.S. Park Police over a parking ticket earlier this month. According to Politico, Gohmert attempted to pull rank with the police officers to get out of the citation.

A National Park Service (NPS) police report said that Gohmert’s black Ford SUV was cited at 11:00 p.m. on March 13 for parking in a spot reserved for NPS vehicles at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial. Gohmert, said the report, was “rude and irate” in his confrontation with the officers.

“I was issued a ticket and I am a congressman and parked my vehicle in the NPS parking only because I have a Congress placard, see,” Gohmert said to one officer. “I am going to a meeting on the Hill and I am the one who oversees the National Park Services and Natural Resources.”

Another officer described Gohmert as “ranting.”

“Oversight of Park Service is my job!” he shouted. “Natural resources! Thus the Congressional Plate in the window.”

Telling an officer he “did not have time” to deal with the issue, Gohmert left his business card with the officer holding his ticket, but insisted that he would not pay it. He then drove away.

He's way too important to deal with the likes of the US Park Police.  Expect a bill cutting funding for US Park Police by say, oh, 95%.  That's how the Tea Party rolls, you see.  YOU have to obey liberty and religious freedom, but not Louie here.

Keep that in mind.

Please Hemp Me I'm Falling

Kentucky's legislative session is wrapping up for the year (yes, Kentucky legislators work for approximately 3 months out of the year) and two last minute actions require attention:  first, the much maligned help bill is a go.

Legislators reached a last-hour deal Tuesday to pass a bill to license Kentucky farmers to grow hemp.

The deal between House Democrats and Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, will allow hemp licensing by the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission under the control of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

Who would do the licensing had been a big snag for House Democrats, who apparently buckled under public pressure.

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said the bill will leave the hemp commission with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. The research functions will be performed by the University of Kentucky.

The House voted 88-4 and sent the bill back to the Senate where it passed 35-1.

Only one small problem:  the federal government has to stop treating hemp as a restricted schedule II drug, there's no difference between hemp and cannabis under DEA protocols right now.  Until that changes (and Kentucky's congressional delegation is pushing for it) this bill's dead in the water anyway.

And speaking of dead in the water, so is logic here in the Bluegrass State.

The Kentucky General Assembly voted Tuesday night to overturn Gov. Steve Beshear's veto of controversial legislation known as the "religious freedom" bill, which was opposed by many human and gay rights groups and leaders of some of Kentucky's biggest cities.

The override passed the Democratic House 79-15 and the Republican Senate 32-6.

Rep. Bob Damron, D- Nicholasville, sponsored the bill after the Kentucky Supreme Court issued a ruling last year upholding a state law requiring the Amish to display bright orange safety triangles on their drab buggies so motorists could better see them. Several Amish men in rural Western Kentucky felt so strongly that displaying the triangles violated their religious belief against calling attention to themselves that they went to jail rather than comply with the law.

The legislation protects "sincerely held religious beliefs" from infringement unless there is "a compelling governmental interest."

The bill means that laws in Kentucky now must have a "compelling governmental interest" or you can simply claim that it's conflicting with your First Amendment rights and you shouldn't have to follow the law.  Lawsuits from this are going to cost the state millions, but FREEDOM so hey, let's all join in.

I'll tell you what, the Creation Museum conflicts with my beliefs.  Show me a compelling governmental interest in keeping the place open, right?

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/26/2575323/kentucky-house-votes-to-override.html#wgt=rcntnews#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/26/2575185/hemp-bill-still-alive-if-barely.html#storylink=cpy

StupidiNews!

• As tensions continue to mount on the Korean peninsula, North Korea has cut off military communication with the South.
• San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has come to an agreement with Medbox, Inc., manufacturer of marijuana vending machines, for use in a few locations in the city.
• The First Fan welcomed LA's two 2012 champion teams to the White House on Tuesday, the NHL's Kings and MLS's Galaxy.
• President Obama has signed into law the continuing resolution that locks in sequestration cuts in order to keep the government operation through October 1.
• British scientists have taken the fiber out of fiber optics, leaving cables that can move data at 99.7% the speed of light.

Last Call

Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSBlog covers today's Supreme Court oral arguments on Prop 8, and where things go from here.

The Justices seem divided on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 on ideological lines, four to four – i.e., all the members other than Justice Kennedy.  For the more liberal members of the Court, there was no clarity on how broadly they would rule.

But Justice Kennedy seemed very unlikely to provide either side with the fifth vote needed to prevail.  He was deeply concerned with the wisdom of acting now when in his view the social science of the effects of same-sex marriage is uncertain because it is so new.  He also noted the doubts about the petitioners’ standing.  So his suggestion was that the case should be dismissed.

If those features of the oral argument hold up – and I think they will – then the Court’s ruling will take one of two forms.  First, a majority (the Chief Justice plus the liberal members of the Court) could decide that the petitioners lack standing.  That would vacate the Ninth Circuit’s decision but leave in place the district court decision invalidating Proposition 8.  Another case with different petitioners (perhaps a government official who did not want to administer a same-sex marriage) could come to the Supreme Court within two to three years, if the Justices were willing to hear it.

Second, the Court may dismiss the case because of an inability to reach a majority.   Justice Kennedy takes that view, and Justice Sotomayor indicated that she might join him.  Others on the left may agree.  That ruling would leave in place the Ninth Circuit’s decision.

(The puzzle will be what judgment the Court will enter if there are, for example, three votes to dismiss as improvidently granted, two to find no standing, three to reverse, and one to affirm.)

The upshot of either scenario is a modest step forward for gay rights advocates, but not a dramatic one.  The Court would stay its hand for some time for society to develop its views further.  But combined with a potentially significant ruling in the DOMA case being argued tomorrow, the Term will likely nonetheless end up as very significant to gay rights.

In other words, the court really seems to want to punt.  Both liberal and conservative justices appear to be saying that a narrow ruling that would only affect California is not in the cards, so a tie or a punt would effectively be SCOTUS getting a ruling that would only affect California without having to actually make it.

But the ruling on DOMA won't be as easy to duck, it being a federal law and all.  Still, SCOTUS could conceivably punt there too and say that a call this big has to be made by the people through the legislative and executive branches.

My gut feeling says they're ducking Prop 8 because the big money decision is on DOMA.  We'll see what the Justices have to say tomorrow.

Shot In The Back

Once again, the GOP (and my senator in particular) believe they know better then the overwhelming will of the 91% of Americans who support reasonable background check legislation.  They instead serve a tiny percentage of the the leadership of the NRA, itself less than 2% of the population in total.  Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee don't care:  they will block all firearms regulations regardless because FREEDOM.

Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are threatening to filibuster gun-control legislation, according to a letter they plan to hand-deliver to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office on Tuesday.

“We will oppose the motion to proceed to any legislation that will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions,” the three conservatives wrote in a copy of the signed letter obtained by POLITICO.

In other words, they are confident they can block the measure, period.  They are confident you will let them, and that you will throw up your hands and say "It's Congress, what can you do?"

You can do a lot.

Sen. Ted Cruz's office is (202) 224-5922.
Sen. Rand Paul's office is (202) 224-4343.
Sen. Mike Lee's office is (202) 224-5444.

Especially if you live in Texas, Utah, or Kentucky (like myself) let them know just how many people support universal background checks for all gun sales.

Let then know.

Coming (Out) To America

Will Portman, son of Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman, explains his side of the story about coming out as gay through his father's change of heart on same-sex marriage.  Sure, it's political as hell and Democratic senators have politically convenient changes of heart too and appear to be coming out of the woodwork in Portman's wake, but the younger Portman lays out a good case.

I worried about how my friends back home would react when I told them I was gay. Would they stop hanging out with me? Would they tell me they were supportive, but then slowly distance themselves? And what about my friends at Yale, the “Gay Ivy”? Would they criticize me for not having come out earlier? Would they be able to understand my anxiety about all of this? I felt like I didn’t quite fit in with Yale or Cincinnati, or with gay or straight culture.

In February of freshman year, I decided to write a letter to my parents. I’d tried to come out to them in person over winter break but hadn’t been able to. So I found a cubicle in Bass Library one day and went to work. Once I had something I was satisfied with, I overnighted it to my parents and awaited a response.

They called as soon as they got the letter. They were surprised to learn I was gay, and full of questions, but absolutely rock-solid supportive. That was the beginning of the end of feeling ashamed about who I was.

I can't fault the guy.  It still take courage to come out, and the fact that Rob Portman, while a senator with many positions I vehemently disagree with, was and remains a supportive father for his gay son Will.  That's a point in his favor.

As Bon said last night, the pendulum is indeed swinging.  The question of same-sex marriage goes before the Supreme Court this week, with a ruling expected in both the California Prop 8 and federal DOMA cases in late June.

We'll see how fast and how far that arcing swing is in a matter on months.  More on the SCOTUS arguments later on tonight in Last Call.

StupidiNews!

• Italy's Supreme Court has ruled that American Amanda Knox must be retried for the crime of murder in the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher.
• The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today and tomorrow in two landmark same-sex marriage cases.
• The controversial George W. Bush Presidential Library is set to open to the public on May 1 at Texas's Southern Methodist University.
• The BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are set to approve their own international development bank at a summit this week in Durban.
• A new study by the Federal Trade Commission finds that video game retailers have the best compliance records in keeping kids away from products rated for adults.