Murkowski Thwarted – Plan to Cook Planet Must Wait
We last left our Senator, Lisa Murkowski deep in her underground cave compound, somewhere in a very tall mountain range far above sea level and potential flooding, rubbing her hands together and chuckling about her latest diabolical plot. For the purposes of this story, we will think of her as a small evil genius with a giant head and a lab coat. She looks nothing like this, of course, but metaphorically, if the evil genius lab coat fits…
So, we can imagine her sitting there in her tiny black chair with her feet not quite reaching the floor, in semi-darkness surrounded by a hemicircle of large glowing screens displaying images of maps of the world here, and film loops of melting glaciers, dry lake beds, and human conflict there. A polar bear hide adorns the back wall. The temperature in the room is a comfortable 115 degrees Farenheit in preparation for the blissful roasting of the planet that is to come.
Eventually, something interrupts the prolonged bout of chuckling, and pressing together of fingertips. A small red phone jangles in its rocker.
“Helloooooo? Yeeeesssss….. They what?! They WHAT?! Noooooooo!”
That last “Noooooo!” is a long protracted noise that fades away and degenerates into a small episode of fist pounding, and sobbing and the giant head resting on one of the panels of the evil genius work station.
The plot to cook the planet will have to wait for another day.
The Senate declined to take up Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s effort to limit for a year the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, factories and other stationary sources of pollution.
Murkowski had sought to amend the Interior Department appropriations bill being considered Thursday by the U.S. Senate, but was blocked from bringing forward her proposal.
It would have forbidden the EPA from working to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and large manufacturers while the Senate continues to work on its own global warming proposal. It would not have prohibited the agency from continuing work on emission standards from mobile sources, such as automobile emissions.
And of course the real Lisa Murkowski says that of course we need to regulate emissions, just not through the Clean Air Act. And she doesn’t really like to fry eggs on the sidewalk, its just she really likes all her pals who make their living from fossil fuels. We all feel heaps better now.
“The Senate today stood with the vast majority of Americans who want the government to take action on global warming and reduce pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks,” said Joe Mendelson, director of Global Warming Policy for the National Wildlife Federation. “We need action to reduce global warming pollution, repower America’s economy with millions of clean energy jobs, and break our dependence on oil.”
And just like any good cartoon, our villain has not been foiled for good. S/he’ll be back to fight another day. Just not today.
AKM, your description of Lisa in the cave reminds me of the “Pinky And The Brain” cartoons. Thanks for the laugh!
CougInPortland @1 – I was thinking more “Rocky n’ Bullwinkle”.
Has Murkowski been asked to explain her thoughts about limiting regulation to things with wheels?
I’m glad that there were no delays, in the decision to move forward. The Pollution is really killing people.
She tried. She’ll still get her campaign contributions. That’s all that matters.
Cool!!!!! Hope is back! Email the committee folks and thank them!!!!!
Y E A H !!!!!!
Good piece Muddy….keep on rockin…!!!
Lisa is a slippery, slimy, eel. Just like her Daddy, but she’s just more discreet about it. She’s owned by the same Corporate interests which she justifies to herself by her wacko religeous fundamentalism of the same ilk as Palin. Progressives need to mount a hard hitting campaign on her and take away her Senate seat in a few years.
It’s Simon Barsinister from the Underdog cartoon, I LOVE it, perfect image.
Good one AKM! chalk one up for us.
Did you hear Mondale spoke out agreeing with Carter about the ‘racial and hatred’ that is apparently still out there.
He also had a good piece of advice for the President.
“He has to learn how to push a little harder,” Mondale said. “When there are big issues, the president has to get personally and intensely involved in order to move the Congress.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27520.html#ixzz0S3kKxzKw
this says it all
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090924/ice_melt_090924/20090924?hub=SciTech
now if my government would do something about the tar-sands
At the recent UN meetings about global warming, India sent a child up to the main podium to plead for progress. (Yes, India isn’t really doing all that much to curb emissions-just like us!)
The point being, that tomorrow’s adults aren’t going to be very pleased with their “dinosaur” parents’ lack of foresight!
Great news! Murkowski is pissin’ me off – she’s been pretty good to Rural Alaska but this kind of crap, and the health care crap she pulled is showing us that she’s willing to sell out Alaska to the big bucks. I don’t know how long she’ll really be supportive of Rural AK at this rate.
BuffaloGal–because the people who drive things with wheels don’t give nearly as much in campaign contributions as the people who own and run the big stationary polluting sources…
Next, perhaps she’ll try a moratorium on eating vegetables. Why Alaskan’s put up with their politicians’ nonsense is beyond any type of understanding. Throw them out, don’t elect them.
“Curses! Foiled again!”
Yes, twain12, that would be a good thing. Unfortunately, we have the Province of Alberta + Alberta interests at the highest level of our federal government. I just hope they never find oil sands in New Brunswick…we would be destroyed by it.
Good piece, AKM. I sent a letter to her against this, saying learn from the mistakes we’ve made in CA. Not that I think it helped, but I got it off my chest.
Wonderful analogy, Thank You and KUDO’s to who turned her down.
You saved me from a grim week. Like nswfm CA, I too, sent a scathing email to Senator Murkowski, though I do not live in Alaska. When I read what she intended to do, I had to let her know how I felt. The decisions of federal Senators and Representatives effect us all. They have a responsibility not only to their home state, but to all states.
Thank you for writing in such a way as to lighten my load on this issue. It is so easy to lose the ability to step back and laugh at people like Senator Murkowski. It is admittedly easier to laugh because she lost on this. Still, many thanks for providing the safety valve by right casting her as the ineffectual villain.
4 ED Says:
September 24th, 2009 at 12:03 PM
She tried. She’ll still get her campaign contributions. That’s all that matters
————————————
I agree. She probably knew very well that her amendment didn’t have a chance…… but just proffering it went a long way in “proving” her loyalty to her supporters. “Gee, guys. I tried.” And so goes the game….
Excellent post, AKM.
Good one, In Juneau.
OT Scarey Thought. That clicker AKM put up in the upper right hand corner about Americans who have lost their healthcare in the last two years is about to pass 4 million. Probably tonight.
4,000,000.
This is not exceptable. We’re so much better than this.
acceptable
Thanks, Moose Pucky! Sadly, it’s all too true…
As the saying goes, follow the money. In her time in the Alaska legislature, Murkowski amazingly survived despite a reputation as that most endangered of all Alaskan political species: a moderate Republican. She appeared thoughtful and civil in a legislative body better known for its locker room humor and baseball caps proudly proclaiming their status as “corrupt bastards”. With the tumble of King Ted from grace, Murkowski now finds herself the senior US Senator from a state that has $33 billion in the bank but is still the most beholding of any state for federal pork. What is a girl to do? ….. Murkowski needs to deliver the pork or she will be joining her dad in retirement. A Democratic administration and congress isn’t going to hand it over to her, so she’s lined up with the only game in town that gives her of hope of opening the federal money spigot. She has worked her way into the Republican inner circle and taken up their program, lock, stock and oil barrel. Despite the shocking need for medical care in Alaska, her position is to “go slow”. Despite the fact that many Alaskan coastal villages are being lost to a rising sea, she wants to “go slow” on climate change regulation. No suggestions, no initiatives, just “go slow”, which is just another way to say “no” – as in the Party of No. The issue is that she will continue to trade on that former image of being a thoughtful, civil moderate. She is no longer any of those things. She’s a full fledged member of McConnell’s not-so-merry band of obstructors – the Party of No. If poor Alaskans don’t get medical care or some villages get washed away, so be it. The important thing now is to screw over a Democratic President and get back in pork … er, I meant power.
I’m in the treehouse, all by my ownself!
Any and all e-mails I have sent to congressional people have come back as robo e-mails because I am not from their state ,so no time is taken to even read the e-mail whether it was a thank you or not.
Excellent! Keep the pressure on. Been awhile since I posted, but it’s good to see attention on any Repug in power, especially when their harmful policies are defeated. I can thank Palin for my new full-throttle activism against the Right. I was willing to give the Right the benefit of the doubt, but they’ve gone off the deep end over the last year and deserve no compromise. The cost is too high because if they get in power again, Palinism could very well become the new mainstream. Bush came dangerously close, and look where that landed us. I only consider libertarians to be the rational opposition, and until the MSM abandons Repugnicans as a viable, sane party we have to fight. Or do we want the Cantors, McConnells, Perrys, and Bachmanns back in the driver’s seat when they have no ideas beyond either corporate greed or outright insanity?
I never would have thought, even a year ago, I’d be the guy with the bullhorn. Like Obama, it’s permanent campaign time…
Is Murkowski Boris or Natasha?
@jojobo1: I did get a response from Murkowski’s office. I pointed out that-although I am not a constituent- her amendment would seriously impact all of us. I told her to travel to the Four Corners area and see the damage power plants have done to our national parks; even Rocky Mountain NP shows damage from pollution.
When is Lisa speaking in Hong Kong?
I betchah that the RepoTaliban thinks she has had such a good idea that they try it out on the nation. Just control private autos, lawn mowers and the like and all will be whole again.
good
23 A Fan From Chicago Says:
September 24th, 2009 at 3:36 PM
OT Scarey Thought. That clicker AKM put up in the upper right hand corner about Americans who have lost their healthcare in the last two years is about to pass 4 million. Probably tonight.
4,000,000.
This is not exceptable. We’re so much better than this.
Depend on the definition of “we.” The SC is about to decide whether “we” include big business (next they’ll an Equal Rights Amendment). So WE will rule what little of the governmet they don’t already as “we” are screwed.
I think that there would have been some benefit to a brief stand-down on the matter…but before you flog me, let me explain. One of the biggest questions in my mind relating to the regulation of emissions from power plants was: how will this affect the many, many small diesel-powered plants in bush Alaska? Will they be required to undertake costly upgrade to meet goals more appropriately tailored to larger power plants? Who would pay for these upgrades? Village ratepayers (even with the benefits of Power Cost Equalization) can hardly afford to shoulder these additional costs. Maybe there are already provisions and considerations made for these “special” circumstances, but I’m not aware of them (but I’m far from an expert). Maybe things like this weren’t part of her rationale…I don’t know.
YES, it would/will be great to go to more efficient and cleaner sources of power generation everywhere including in the bush…but something like this should be a little more thought out first.
Co almost native maybe the robo e-mails were because I sent them to Washington not to their home state.At least Lisa will answer. McCain and some other never did answer back even a robo-email and those I sent to their state.Of course after I told him he should be ashamed of himself for bringing palin down on the lower 49 ,I should not have expected an reply.Some of yo e-mails were thank you for supporting the public option and explaining that I was not from their state but how they voted affected all of us.
Hold up.
I never liked Lisa Jong-Il, but she never used to be like this. What has happened?
Actually, she’s Murkowski Jong-Il to Franks’s Murkowski Il-Sung. Or maybe Baby Murk.