Daily Archives: February 7, 2010

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was never a good policy. There is no evidence that sexual orientation has any bearing on the ability or willingness of men and women to serve as soldiers or to perform their duties as ordered and required. The only impact has been to deny highly qualified individuals the opportunity to serve, and deprive the military of their services.

The argument that sexual orientation will disrupt unit cohesion has largely been put to rest, both by the study of unit cohesion in militaries that do not discriminate against gays and lesbians (Britain, the Netherlands, and Israel, for example; 20 of NATO’s 26 member countries allow open gays and lesbians to serve in the military), and by the increasing flow of anecdotal evidence from American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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A perfect storm of factors are massing against continued coal burning, and given the catastrophic consequences of current and future climate change, it’s coming none too soon. After more than a century of coal mining, the most accessible supplies of US coal reserves are now gone, so mining further coal will be more difficult and expensive, and many of the top coal-producing states have already passed their peak production, says Leslie Gulstrom of Clean Energy Action. Meanwhile, as medical studies show the costly damage that pollutants from coal burning wreak on human health and thus our economy, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing legislation to regulate such pollutants, including sulfur dioxide. This will mean costly retrofitting of coal plants that will decrease their efficiency and up their fuel usage, ultimately doubling the cost of coal to consumers. And no “clean coal” break-throughs, let along economical ones, appear to be showing up anytime soon. In a further blow, President Obama fiscal 2011 budget includes cutting coal subsidies.

Clean renewable energy will finally have a chance at the energy market!! We shall all join hands, dance in the Elysian Fields, and — okay, before we start unfurling the rainbow, there’s just one little thing: getting the right legislation through a polarized Congress to make the transition real. Coal states, both blue and red, have senators and representatives that can all too easily block or gut any meaningful legislation. And some lawmakers from Kentucky, the state with the fastest growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions, are already vowing to block the cut in coal subsidies.

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As Washington is paralyzed by the “snowpocalypse,” images of the city’s majestic monuments in a sea of white snow bring back fond memories of my years there. Eventually Mother Nature or the D.C. government will clear away the snow, but even then Washington will remain paralyzed by something far less endearing than even yellow snow — Republican nihilism.

Last week, Senator Shelby (R-AL) used a parliamentary tactic known as a “hold” to block confirmation of all 70-plus Obama nominations currently pending — including key national security positions. This tactic is not even in the Senate rules but has long been used by Senators to block a single bill or nomination and can only be overruled by 60 votes. The use of a blanket hold for all nominations is unprecedented, having been used only one once before by former airport bathroom tap dancer Senator Larry Craig (R-ID).

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Challenger to Rep. Diane Watson supports Cherokee Nation

By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji)

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Anyone who has followed the Senate’s handling of health care reform can’t help but be impressed (or depressed) by the glacial pace at which things move in that place. In fact, it appears that Senate sloth contributed mightily to the failure of reform (by comparison, the House is a model of streamlined efficiency).

But the Senate can and does move with dispatch when it wants to (or is unable to resist the pressure to move). Sometimes a President can get the Senate to move as quickly as he wants. FDR and LBJ were famous for that. More often than Presidents, powerful interest groups can light a fire under the self-proclaimed “world’s most deliberative body.”

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As a competitive swimmer of the river of consciousness

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Wanda Sykes took on CBS this week, mocking the fact that the network is going to allow a pro-life ad to run during the game, while squashing a gay dating site’s commercial. Sykes recommended that Man Crunch make their ad more conservative, by bashing abortion, in order to appeal to the network’s censors.

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