Senate Democrats outlined a $15 billion energy bill Tuesday that would pay for oil-spill programs and new rebates for natural-gas vehicles with a higher tax on oil companies.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans an initial vote on the bill this week. The legislation doesn't include a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions, which proved too unpopular in the Senate.
The natural-gas vehicle incentives would help pay for 200,000 trucks at a cost of $3.8 billion, according to Democrats and industry officials.
The program was popularized by T. Boone Pickens of Dallas, a major investor in natural gas who forged close ties with Senate Democrats to win allies for his plan. Pickens spent more than $60 million promoting his plan through television and print ads, speeches and other events.
Yet its passage is far from certain, given opposition from Republicans, who will insist on offering amendments including measures to lift the Obama administration's moratorium on deep-water drilling. The bill may be the last chance to pass legislation responding to the gulf oil spill before the midterm elections in November.
Reid has "gotten himself in a terrible position with such limited time," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "This is a serious topic that is worthy of serious discussion and deliberation. Other people are going to have ideas."
Democrats say the bill would hold BP PLC and other oil companies accountable by removing a $75 million cap on economic damages that can be assessed against them as a result of offshore spills. Under the Reid bill, there would be no cap.
Industry officials say removing the cap would make insurance unaffordable for all but the biggest oil companies, eliminating smaller producers from offshore activity. bolding brought to you courtesy of Exxon-Mobile
When a Republican says that "other people are going to have idea's," check your wallet and make sure they guy doesn't have your Social Security Card.
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Jeebus Christ! Now we have a Pepper Spray Lobby?
Sorry, but I'm going to need to see video on this one...
This just seems a bit too convenient for me. (Although, I normally wouldn't call charging grizzlies convenient)
Celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna tells hikers to carry pepper spray, and he has seen for himself how useful that advice is during a run-in with three grizzly bears.
The Columbus Zoo keeper and frequent David Letterman guest says he was with his wife and other hikers in Montana's Glacier National Park on Saturday when they saw the mother bear and two large cubs coming toward them. Hanna and the others moved slowly back up the trail to a clearing and stood still while the mother and one cub passed by.
Hanna says the other cub, weighing about 125 pounds, charged toward the hikers. He pulled out pepper spray got the bear in the face, causing it to flee.
Hanna recently filmed a message for the national parks encouraging people to carry pepper spray when hiking. bolding courtesy of Yogi Bear
Hey, Boo Boo? In reality, Momma Bear would've stuck that can of pepper spray up Jack's azz...
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The intense financial world of hurt that is beginning to pull the walls down around the ears of the politicians in Arizona won't be felt immediately by all citizens, but give it a few months. These jackasses are going to rue the day they decided to remove a million or more consumers from their state via police or just the fact that the undocumented workers are leaving for greener pastures.
Oh, BTW, wingnuts? Be careful what you wish for...
Arizona helped deport thousands without new law
Without the benefit of their state's strict new immigration law, officers from a single Arizona county helped deport more than 26,000 immigrants from the U.S. through a federal-local partnership program that has been roundly criticized as fraught with problems.
Statistics obtained by The Associated Press show that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office was responsible for deportations or forced departure of 26,146 immigrants since 2007.
That's about a quarter of the national total of 115,841 sent out of the U.S. by officers in 64 law enforcement agencies deputized to help enforce immigration laws, some since 2006, under the so-called 287(g) program.
The tens of thousands of immigrant arrests show local officials already have a significant amount of authority to enforce immigration laws and help remove illegal immigrants from the country.
But with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio the top law officer among all those deputized, questions remain about what's in store when Arizona gives more officers the power to enforce immigration laws. The federal government already is under fire for doing a poor job of keeping watch on local officers enforcing immigration laws and ensuring safeguards for protecting civil rights are in place.
Arpaio is under federal investigation on allegations of civil rights allegations, which he denies.
If Arizona's new law takes effect Thursday, many more of the state's officers will be asking people to prove they are legally in the U.S. The state law requires officers to ask for a driver's license, passport or other identity document if they reasonably suspect a person is not allowed to be in the U.S. They must do so while enforcing other laws or ordinances.
The federal government is trying to block the Arizona law, arguing it usurps its authority. The Justice Department said in its suit challenging the law that the 287(g) federal-local partnerships are one way Congress allowed states to assist in enforcing immigration laws.
"At the pragmatic level, if local police are already allowed to do this and are allowed to do this with federal cooperation with the state, then why do they need the (new Arizona) law?" said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the New York office of the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration think tank.
"I don't know what the big hype is going on with this law," Arpaio said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "We've been doing it for three years."
There are several other ways local officials can assist, including Secure Communities, a more widely used program that allows local officials to check the fingerprints of anyone they book into their jails against FBI and Homeland Security Department databases.
But the 287(g) program gives officers the most direct authority to stop people on the street, in their cars or in their communities and check whether they are in the country illegally. Federal watchdogs have been critical of the job the Homeland Security Department has been doing in running the program.
The department's inspector general reported in March that the 287(g) program was poorly supervised and provided insufficient training to officers, including on civil rights law.
Local officers have operated outside their agreements dictating the limits of their authority, the report said. In all, the inspector general made 33 recommendations for overhauling the program, some of which have not yet been resolved. It was the second critical report for the program. The Government Accountability Office had criticized the program in July 2009.
As Ronnie James Dio once stated so succinctly:
Fool, fool!
You've got to bleed for the dancer!
Fool, fool!
Look for the answer!
Fool, fool, fool!
Wrong answer, schmucks...
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UPDATE:
A federal judge blocked the most egregious parts of the Arizona "show me your papers" law today!! Hurray for OUR SIDE!
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown.
The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents - including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.
The judge also put on hold parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that the controversial sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues.
The ruling came just as police were making last-minute preparations to begin enforcement of the law at 12:01 a.m. Thursday and protesters were planning a large demonstrations to speak out against the measure. At least one group planned to block access to federal offices, daring officers to ask them their immigration status.
The volume of the protests will be likely be turned down a few notches because of the ruling by Bolton, a Clinton appointee who suddenly became a crucial figure in the immigration debate when she was assigned the seven lawsuits filed against the Arizona law.
Lawyers for the state contend the law was a constitutionally sound attempt by Arizona - the busiest illegal gateway into the country - to assist federal immigration agents and lessen border woes such as the heavy costs for educating, jailing and providing health care for illegal immigrants.
Suk on it, wingnutz!
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