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Experts Say That Battle on Keystone Pipeline Is Over Politics, Not Facts
Experts Say That Battle on Keystone Pipeline Is Over Politics, Not Facts
WASHINGTON — In 2009, the Obama administration approved a 986-mile pipeline to bring 400,000 barrels of oil sands petroleum a day from western Canada to the United States. Almost no one paid attention. Construction on the pipeline, called the Alberta Clipper, was quietly completed last year.
In that same period, the administration considered construction of a similar project, the Keystone XL. So far only in the blueprint stage, this pipeline has become an explosive political issue that Republicans are seizing as their first challenge to President Obama in the new Congress.
The Republican-controlled House is set to pass a bill to force approval of Keystone on Friday and the Senate is expected to pass the measure in coming weeks. Republicans say the pipeline will create jobs and spur the economy while environmentalists and some Democrats say it will destroy pristine forests and create carbon pollution. Mr. Obama has vowed to veto the bill.
ekathimerini.com | No more lies
ekathimerini.com | No more lies.
We have become accustomed to cynicism and lies that we have are immune to anything that is said. Various people come up with comments like: “Come on, SYRIZA is all talk, it won’t actually carry out what it says; I’m certain of it. It will do an about-face.” This position is not adopted by voters alone. Opposition officials are reassuring representatives of the establishment that they have nothing to fear with regard to what’s on the party program as it is not binding in any way.
Of course this was also the case with the previous opposition and the one before that. They promised one thing in public, another in their program and ended up delivering something completely different in the end. This is something of a political disease in Greece. In a normal country citizens would not elect anyone who so blatantly showed that what was said during the pre-election period was merely a gimmick to attract votes. Sure, we put up with it in the past and still do today. It’s a populist tradition that began with the tough-guy attitude of Andreas Papandreou. Remember the US military bases issue? We glorified Papandreou as a political maestro as he fooled people with promises of closing the bases and then fooled them again by keeping them open. We ended up giving legitimacy to lies and accepting hypocrisy as a legitimate tactic used by our leaders. Despite the crisis, this tradition stands today. Politicians utter big words for the public with a wink to those in the know, a tip that they will not do as they say.
End to federal per-vote subsidy looms as parties ready for lengthy 2015 campaign – Politics – CBC News
Canada’s political parties are going to have to find new ways to finance themselves in 2015.
This year, the parties will have to get by without the per-vote subsidy — the payment each political party receives from the federal government to reflect their share of the popular vote.
- Political parties in a fundraising frenzy as year draws to a close
- Analysis: Trudeau’s Liberals led in 2014, but what does 2015 have in store?
The payments, which have been phased out over the past few years, will end entirely.
They parties have known for three years this day was coming, and they’ve been beefing up their fundraising pitches to supporters.
But that doesn’t mean they like it.
Things To Do In 2015 When You’re Not Yet Dead – The Automatic Earth
Things To Do In 2015 When You’re Not Yet Dead – The Automatic Earth.
America has managed to construct an entirely one-dimensional political system. There’s no discernible difference left between left and right, other than in spin language pre-cooked for the sole purpose of faking the concept of elections. There’s very right and ultra right. America is living proof that once money is allowed into politics, the accumulation of it, and of the power it can buy, will and eventually must fully control a democratic system, which in the process, of necessity, suffocates and dies a painful death.
What once was a proud American democracy has been turned into a circus that rolls into town every four years, filled with clowns that pretend to fight each other with over the top grotesque contraptions, but sleep in the same bed once the show is over and the audience has gone home.
In Europe that process has not yet been completed, but with the inception of the EU it is well on its way. It is a predictable process, in that the concentration of power, and of money, is irreversible as long as it’s allowed to continue its course, and the system succeeds in making people believe they still have a say in their own lives. As long as that belief is in place, it’s just an ongoing – relatively – slow corrosion that sets in and then takes its time, but never stops.
Bahrain arrests main Shia opposition leader — RT News
Bahrain arrests main Shia opposition leader — RT News.
Bahrain’s main opposition group says its leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been arrested after hours of interrogation.
The Bahraini Interior Ministry said in a statement issued earlier that Salman was questioned about “violating certain aspects of the law,” but did not go into any further details.
The Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society said on Sunday that its leader was arrested after 10 hours of questioning by criminal police.
Salman was re-elected on Friday as leader of the Shia opposition group.
His lawyer, Abdullah al-Shamlan, said that Salman had been accused of “inciting hatred against the regime and for calling for its overthrow by force.”
Al-Wefaq said that the detention of its leader is “a dangerous adventure that will complicate the political situation in Bahrain.”
The majority of Bahrain’s population are Shias, but the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is ruled by a Sunni minority.
In July, a Manama court suspended al-Wefaq’s activities so that it could correct its legal status, and later banned all of its activities in October. In November, the opposition movement said it was boycotting parliamentary elections.
The Cradle of Democracy Should Defy the Autocrats & Kleptocrats | StealthFlation
The Cradle of Democracy Should Defy the Autocrats & Kleptocrats | StealthFlation.
On the old continent, this December 29th, a succinct political showdown is scheduled to take place which may well become a defining moment for our entirely unsettled new millenium. What is at stake is none other than the prosperity of the common man pitted against the privilege of concentrated power. Lamentably, this deliberate dogmatic divide has relentlessly defined human civilization for the ages.
What is at hand isn’t so much about lofty ideals. It’s not about Socialism. It’s not about Capitalism. It’s not about Communism. It’s not about being a progressive, or a conservative or a liberal. It’s not about left vs right. Forget all those dumbed down dichotomies. It’s much more fundamental than all of that. Quite simply, it’s about People vs. Power, that’s it, nothing more. Those that have and wield institutional power, and those that do not. It’s as elementary and base as that I’m afraid.
Take a good look around, I defy you to point to a single socioeconomic construct in our supposedly enlightened and advanced society of today which is not essentially determined by that crude polarizing characterization. Whether it be our bought and paid for Political Class, our rapacious Banking Sector, our entitled Multinational Corporations, our entrenched Governmental Agencies, our marauding Military Industrial Complex, our fleecing Healthcare Providers, our muzzled Free Press, our hijacked Justice System, or our grossly overpaid CEOs, Athletes, and Entertainers, they all have one thing in common, and I assure you that it’s not the common good that they share. What they seek above all else is to expand the existing institutional dominion and their own privileges within it.
MYEFO: Australia set to emerge from once-in-a-century resources boom with little to show for it – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
“It’s the economy, stupid.”
That famous phrase, uttered by advisor James Carville in 1992 to then presidential hopeful Bill Clinton, has resonated across the globe.
It doesn’t matter how successful a leader is at foreign policy, infrastructure, social policy or education. If the economy tanks, and voters end up worse off, you’ll soon be an ex-politician.
It makes little difference to an electorate that your government may have done better than all the others, or that it had to contend with a crisis.
The hip pocket is paramount.
So for the past quarter of a century, it has been de rigueur for prime ministers, presidents and treasurers globally not only to boast their economic credentials but to give off the illusion that they actually run the show.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Role of Cities in Moving Toward a Sustainable Economy « Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
I encounter many young adults who are discouraged by America’s failure to respond to big issues affecting the future of Planet Earth and human civilization. They do not see much opportunity to make major changes, especially at the governmental level. But empowering examples can illustrate how significant changes can be made in governance at many levels. Cities can and have provided some model changes, but we will never get to a sustainable, steady state, true-cost economy when major energy and land-use decisions continue to take us in the opposite direction.
Cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), and Chicago have led the way with enlightened environmental and economic policies. In Washington, DC, I served on Mayor Gray’s “green ribbon” panel to help fashion a comprehensive green plan for the nation’s capital.
This post focuses, however, on a lesser known city, Austin, Texas, that made big economic decisions that changed the dynamics in energy, transportation, land-use, and self-reliance.
The post is about what a hippy flower-child was able to do in Austin by getting elected to the city council. Max Nofziger left his family’s farm in northwest Ohio over 40 years ago and went to live in Austin. He was a hippy and initially made his living selling flowers on street corners, but managed to get elected to the city council and his persistence and rationality helped lead the way for some significant changes.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Big government, big opportunity for rent-seekers – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Big government, big opportunity for rent-seekers – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
The more a government does, the more opportunities are presented for rent-seeking. Rent-seekers thrive in the minutiae of policy detail, writes Chris Berg.
In the 2012-13 financial year, the Australian Labor Party received $55 million in donations. The Liberals received $73 million. The Greens and the Nationals attracted around $8 million each.
Name a large corporate in Australia and their name is almost certainly somewhere on the Australian Electoral Commission’s donations register. Lots of firms even donate to both sides. And of course the Labor Party has a healthy union donor base as well.
But that’s only a fraction of the total amount of money spent on trying to influence government. Federally, Australia has 590 registered individual lobbyists representing 1,708 corporate and non-profit clients.
Then there’s all the money firms spend lobbying with their in-house government affairs staff (who don’t show up on the lobbyists register).
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Fate of the Turtle | KUNSTLER
The Fate of the Turtle | KUNSTLER.
Anybody truly interested in government, and therefore politics, should be cognizant above all that ours have already entered systemic failure. The management of societal affairs is on an arc to become more inept and ineffectual, no matter how either of the current major parties pretends to control things. Instead of Big Brother, government in our time turns out to be Autistic Brother. It makes weird noises and flaps its appendages, but can barely tie its own shoelaces.
The one thing it does exceedingly well is drain the remaining capital from endeavors that might contribute to the greater good. This includes intellectual capital, by the way, which, under better circumstances, might gird the political will to reform the sub-systems that civilized life depends on. These include: food production (industrial agri-business), commerce (the WalMart model), transportation (Happy Motoring), school (a matrix of rackets), medicine (ditto with the patient as hostage), and banking (a matrix of fraud and swindling).
All of these systems have something in common: they’ve exceeded their fragility threshold and crossed into the frontier of criticality. They have nowhere to go except failure. It would be nice if we could construct leaner and more local systems to replace these monsters, but there is too much vested interest in them. For instance, the voters slapped down virtually every major ballot proposition to invest in light rail and public transit around the country. The likely explanation is that they’ve bought the story that shale oil will allow them to drive to WalMart forever.
The Politics of Fracking: Polarization in New York State » EcoWatch
The Politics of Fracking: Polarization in New York State » EcoWatch.
In September, The Earth Institute hosted Tanya Heikkila and Chris Weible of the University of Colorado Denver for a seminar on The Political Landscape of Shale Gas Development and Hydraulic Fracturing in New York. The seminar was attended by students, faculty and staff from across Columbia, and members of the local community. Professors Heikkila and Weible presented the results of their study, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, looking at fracking perceptions in three study sites: New York, Texas and Colorado. The following is an overview of the results.
Hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking,” is the process of injecting high-pressure water, sand and other chemicals into shale rock formations in order to extract oil and gas. Fracking has been around for some time, but only in the past several years has the issue come into the public eye. It’s a highly contentious political issue because of the high volume of water it uses, the types of chemicals used and the unknown health and environmental impacts. In fact in New York, there was a pause on gas drilling permits that utilize fracking. This has become known as the “de facto moratorium,” and has put the state in somewhat of an area of uncertainty. There have been a number of debates at the local level around fracking, the moratorium, and what should be done next.
…click on the link above to read the rest of the article…
Three things must change for a healthier democracy – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Three things must change for a healthier democracy – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
There are three drivers in Australian politics – the parties, the voting system and the media – that are all connected and self-supporting. And all are conspiring to hollow out our democracy, writes Tim Dunlop.
To listen in on any halfway serious discussion of politics these days is to eavesdrop on a cacophony of dissatisfaction. Issues come and go, but the underlying unease remains no matter how much we vent or how many logical arguments we make about a given issue.
The reason the whole kabuki is so unsatisfactory is because we spend too much time worrying about the day-to-day issues rather than addressing the underlying drivers of our problems.
…click on the above link for the rest of the article…
