Archive for the 'Climate Change' Category

It’s Been A Long Time Coming

Terri Whitehouse June 5th, 2008

Reading more national coverage about the posts below, it is clear that it’s not just us Kentuckians that are sick and tired of Sen. Mitch McConnell and his shenanigans. So I’d like to issue a little challenge for those of us who truly want to Ditch Mitch this November.

For every minute (~ 510) that it took a clerk to read the bipartisan climate change bill aloud, I’d like to urge you to to donate to campaign of Bruce Lunsford. At a rate of penny per minute, that would total a mere $5.10 donation. A nickel per minute would total $25.50. You get the picture. I know it’s not a great deal of money. But I think it would be a powerful gesture, regardless.

The people of Kentucky and of America are not pawns in Mitch McConnell’s political power games, and before we hit him at the polls, we must hit him where it *really* hurts - his pockets. The government’s business should never be political strategy. Not on my dollar. Not on my penny.

If you agree with me, please repost this blog entry wherever you think it may be welcome, and urge like-minded people to do the same. When a person such as Mitch McConnell makes it so crystal-clear that he has zero interest in representing the people of the Commonwealth, then we have no choice but to elect a person who does. And that person is Bruce Lunsford.

UPDATE: You can also sign up to volunteer for Lunsford’s campaign here. DO IT!

Godfather of Green My Foot!

Terri Whitehouse April 10th, 2008

Just thought I’d share this blast issued by the League of Conservation Voters about Sen. Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed “Godfather of Green“:

LCV Members Elect Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell the new Don of the “Dirty Dozen”

Self-proclaimed “Godfather of Green” Continues to Stand for Polluters while Standing in the Way of Clean Air, Clean Water, and Clean Energy

Louisville, KY – The members of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the independent political voice for the environment, today added Senate MinorityLeader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to its 2008 “Dirty Dozen” list.

LCV members voted online to decide which 2008 candidate had committed the most egregious offenses against the environment. 25,000 concerned citizens voted for the next member of the “Dirty Dozen,” and chose Sen. McConnell by an overwhelming margin.

“Our members know that Mitch McConnell has voted against our health and safety since he came to Washington. They know that he stands as an impassable roadblock in the way of a clean energy future for this country,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “They know that it is time to tear down this roadblock. That’s why Mitch McConnell, this ‘Godfather of Green,’ is the new ‘Don’ of the Dirty Dozen.”

McConnell’s lifetime LCV score of 7% is among the worst in Washington. In 24 years in the Senate, he earned an annual score of 0% twelve times, and in the last fourteen years, McConnell has cast only two pro-conservation votes. Since becoming his party’s Leader in the Senate, McConnell has served as the chief enforcer for Big Oil and other corporate polluters, leading efforts to derail and weaken legislation that would protect our families and keep America’s land, air, and water clean.

LCV’s trademark “Dirty Dozen” program targets current and former members of Congress – regardless of party affiliation – who consistently vote against the environment and are running in races where LCV has a serious chance of affecting the outcome.

“In 2006, our members brought down nine members of the Dirty Dozen, nine of the worst politicians in Washington. With that kind of record, this Dirty Dozen election may be the last vote that Senator McConnell ever wins,” Karpinski said.

McConnell joins Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), and former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-CO) on the 2008 Dirty Dozen. LCV will name the rest of the 2008 Dirty Dozen members in the coming months.

For information on LCV’s “Dirty Dozen” program, visit www.lcv.org/campaigns/dirty-dozen.

For more on McConnell’s voting record, visit www.lcv.org/mcconnell

In case you forgot, Sen. McConnell’s “Godfather of Green” claim stems from the fact that he secured pork-barrel spending for Louisville’s oustanding park system. And while I am a fan of parks, I’m also a fan of math. Louisville’s park system, great as it is, only occupies about one-half of one percent of all of the land in Kentucky, and is only about 3.5% of the size of our state park system, which of course doesn’t include national parks, municipal parks, private hunting and fishing areas, farmland, mines, land developments, etc. Parks are great places to spend time and are of real value to our communities, but as wonderful and important as they are, they are NOT the sole indicators of land, air, and water conservation.

One-half of one percent, folks. I’d say that’s probably a good number when measuring just how much Sen. McConnell really cares about Kentucky’s citizens. It is time to DITCH MITCH!

They Protest Him There, Too

Terri Whitehouse December 11th, 2007

The C-J’s James R. Carroll is reporting that a demonstration is being held at Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Washington office. Apparently, Kentuckians aren’t the only ones disgusted that Sen. McConnell (aka “Big Money Mitch“) is in the pocket of the coal industry:

One of those sitting in McConnell’s Russell Senate Office Building suite is Ted Glick, coordinator for U.S. Climate Emergency Council, a Washington-based non-profit group that supports efforts to combat global warming and to promote cleaner energy sources.

Glick said he and as many as 20 others have been staying in the office and have demanded a meeting with McConnell.

…

Glick’s group and others want Congress to keep strong provisions for renewable fuels in the comprehensive energy bill. The House passed the bill last week, but the Senate did not, and Glick faults McConnell.

People are pretty fed up with your obstructionism, Senator! And we’re just itching to vote you out of office next year!

Well, That Was a No-Brainer

Terri Whitehouse June 21st, 2007

How’s this for an obvious headline: “Senate Republicans block tax hikes for big oil companies”? Meanwhile, Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning are wanting to funnel more money to Peabody Energy.

Energy Baron Says, “McConnell Sleeps With Your Boss.” Constituent says, “Eww! TMI!”

Terri Whitehouse April 10th, 2007

In a Media Matters story, Kathleen Henehan reports that Murray Energy Corp. CEO Robert Murray openly mocked Al Gore on CNN’s The Situation Room. CNN correspondent Carol Costello says of Murray and his stance on Gore’s climate change agenda:

If all of these emissions controls are being put into place all at one time, he fears that’ll be too expensive for companies to absorb. And what happens when that happens? They lay off workers.

Indubitably! Because everyone knows that the well-being of their employees is always the number one priority of coal companies. Am I right, ya’ll? No? Well how the hell was I supposed to know that? It is CNN after all, it’s not like they have the resources and qualified journalists to research topics and guests prior to filming or anything. If I wanted to do homework I wouldn’t watch TV.

Henehan rebuts:

Despite Murray’s purported sympathy for miners, the Pittsburgh office of the National Labor Relations Board issued a formal complaint against Murray and an associate in 2001 because they “[t]hreatened Union officers and its employees with reprisals for publicizing the labor dispute between the parties” and “[t]hreatened its employees with the loss of jobs, and the loss of wages and benefits if they failed to select new Union officers and because of their support for the Union,” according to a 2002 United Mine Workers Journal article.

But wait, it gets even grosser, says Henehan:

An October 20, 2006, article in Kentucky’s Lexington Herald-Leader described Murray as “a huge donor to Republican senators” and reported on a meeting at a Mine Safety and Health Administration [MSHA] office in which “inspectors confronted him [Murray] about safety problems at his mines.” During the meeting, Murray reportedly made reference to his connections to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and McConnell’s wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao: “Shouting at a table full of MSHA officials … Murray said: ‘Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and the last I checked, he was sleeping with your boss,‘ according to notes of the meeting.” The article added: “Murray, in a recent interview, denied that he referred to McConnell ’sleeping with’ Chao.”

I think I need to take a shower now. Full text of the Media Matters report can be found here.

Gore will move climate change concert to NYC

Matt Gunterman April 5th, 2007

It appears that Senator Mitch McConnell’s efforts to block Al Gore’s free climate change concert from the grounds of the Capitol have worked.

That’s okay. We have to keep a long-term view of what this maneuver will mean for Sen. McConnell’s ultimate legacy. In the time of half a generation, Sen. McConnell and his goons will be seen for what they really are, and it’s efforts like this on their part that will help us make certain that Kentucky never forgets the sad, sad tenure of Sen. Mitch McConnell.

We’ll be writing Sen. McConnell’s horrid history long after he’s departed this earth for whatever hell awaits him.

Unfortunately for us, we’ll still be dealing with the consequences of the sorry state he left it in.

N.Y. venue possible for ‘Live Earth’ event

NEW YORK, April 5 (UPI) — With staging of one of Al Gore’s “Live Earth” concerts in the nation’s capital apparently falling through, New York has offered three possible venues.

Shea Stadium, Randall’s Island and Prospect Park are three potential sites that could handle the estimated 40,000 people expected to attend the global warming-focused event scheduled for July 7, Variety reported Thursday.

“We’re just waiting to hear back from them on what they want to do,” a spokesman for the New York Parks & Recreation Department said.

Organizers for the event, one of seven to be staged around the world the same day, said New York was always under consideration, along with other U.S. cities such as Philadelphia. They initially sought to hold it at the National Mall in Washington but that spot was already taken. A proposal to hold it on the front lawn area of the Capitol has been held up in the Rules Committee by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans.

“It is unfortunate for the American people that we are being blocked from staging the U.S. concert in our nation’s capital,” event spokesman Chad Griffin said in a statement. “The show must go on.”