Climate Change Bill (AKA- If Lieberman's the Sponsor, You Know Something Stinks)

Got an email from my blogger bud Menopausal Mick over at The Llama Ate My FlipFlops about an issue that we all, particularly us Texans, should be concerned with. It's regarding the Climate Change bill currently before congress, which includes massive nuclear energy subsidies and a proposed nuclear waste dump site for Texas. She writes:

...I'm desperate to get the word out.

...Tonight(Wednesday, 6/4) or tomorrow at the latest they are voting on the Lieberman and company last minute amendments to the Climate Change bill. This crap got added so late that even (Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chair, Barbara) Boxer didn't have a chance to read it fully before it was presented to the public.

The timing of this is guaranteed to have many blogger/activists focused on the convention. We need to make sure that enough people know this is happening that they can at least CHOOSE whether to raise a stink or not.

Basically the deal is that under the premise of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (the primary purpose of the Climate Change bill) nuclear power is being held up as the panacea for all things petroleum, and the industry is in line for some massive subsidies in this bill that all will come from the taxpayers pocket. This despite the fact that

...the overall “nuclear cycle” ­– which includes mining, milling, fuel enrichment and fabrication, and reprocessing ­ has significant greenhouse gas emissions that do contribute to global warming.

Moreover, nuclear power is enormously dangerous. Accidents like the Chernobyl explosion of 1986 stand to kill and leave many people with cancer. Nuclear plants routinely emit life-threatening radioactivity. Safeguarding nuclear waste for millions of years is an insoluble problem.

With gasoline at $4 plus a gallon, I think it's natural that people are clamoring for alternative energy solutions. But with a track record of radioactive material releases, and byproducts that remain deadly for 1 million years or more, why nuclear is the question. If we as a country are going to invest untold billions in an effort surrounding climate change, wouldn't it make sense to finally start looking at cleaner energy options like say solar, or wave, or wind?

It looks like the Climate Change bill is the spoon full of sugar to help this nuclear boondoggle pass through Congress, so consider yourself forewarned. If you want to do something about it, call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121 and register your disagreement.

Again, you can find more information here and here, and thanks MM for bringing it to our attention.

We Didn't Already Have This??

I wonder how many people were killed or seriously injured before our brilliant politicians finally decided to enact this law.

Victims of family violence, stalking and sexual assault may be eligible to participate in a new, state-sponsored anonymous address program to use on most government documents including driver's licenses, voter registration cards and court records.

Eligible Texans can register for a substitute address with the state attorney general's office, which will forward mail to the victims' actual addresses.

The program was created with legislation by Sen. Eddie Lucio last year.

May be eligible? I wonder what the eligibility requirements are. It seems like such a such a simple thing, so I all I can say is what took so long?

H1B(S)

I don't know about you, but I have a problem with this: High-tech firms playing visa lottery.

On Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services opened the five-day application period for the H1-B program for the 2008-09 fiscal year. ...The program is designed to import educated and skilled workers for jobs that American companies cannot fill. The visas are generally issued for three years, and renewable for another three.

Nothing against workers from anywhere, but someone please tell me that if this country is importing literally hundreds of thousands of technology workers, engineers, nurses, and teachers from around the world to fill in "gaps," why are there basically no efforts underway to increase the numbers of graduates in those specific fields from within U.S. high schools, universities, and colleges? Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Some white-collar American workers have protested the proposed expansion of H1-B. John Miano, a 45-year-old programmer who owns a New Jersey software consulting company, testified in Congress in March 2006 that the program lets companies replace Americans with foreign workers at lower wages.

"The H1-B statutes are the best legislation money can buy," he said in an interview Tuesday. "This law has been deliberately written to allow abuse to go on with impunity. This program is a cheap labor program. It contains loopholes that allow employers to legally pay H1-B workers ... significantly less than U.S. workers."

Really? No wonder so many of the major U.S. companies are all for it then. But while their profits soar, we're writing off American kids who should be more than capable of filling these jobs with the right education and training. Obviously, that's not the case. Not to mention that the end result of this process will eventually simply push more and more U.S. jobs and companies overseas, further limiting the options for our kids futures.

There are worthy programs that prepare young people for employment in the technology workforce that are basically being starved to death due to lack of funding. For those students that do things the right way and complete their educations, what assurances do they have that the industries in which they plan to work will hire them if the abundance of cheaper talent from overseas continues to be offered as basically a government subsidized alternative?

I'd sure like for someone to tell me how this ultimately benefits the American economy. The day may soon arrive when workers from this country will have to emigrate in large numbers to other places in order to sustain their families at home, much like what's happening here now.

Talk about the flipping the script.

Coming Soon - Thought Crimes

As a follow-up to the article I posted last week concerning the new "homegrown" anti-terrorist legislation, this is an example of the results that can be expected here.

Samina Malik Was Arrested and Jailed for Her Violent Prose and Visiting Terror Web Sites

If the pen is mightier than the sword, is violent poetry tantamount to terrorism? That was the judgment of British prosecutors after they read some of Samina Malik's poems titled "How to Behead" and "The Living Martyrs."

The 23-year-old store cashier, who called herself a "lyrical terrorist," became the first woman convicted under Britain's tough terrorism legislation last month after writing the poems and downloading material off the Internet. Her arrest and the time she spent in jail caused an uproar and is prompting a debate about the value of free speech versus national security, with some of her defenders saying that Malik was charged with a "thought crime," a scenario straight out of George Orwell's "1984."

In its potential threat to freedom of speech, some supporters have even compared the case to the detention of Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher jailed in Sudan for naming a classroom teddy bear Muhammad.

...Among her crimes was visiting terrorism sites on the Internet.

Although he said that Malik's crime was on the "margins" of the offense, ...the judge vigorously defended the legislation:"The Terrorism Act and the restrictions it imposes on the personal freedom exist to protect this country, its interests here and abroad, its citizens, and those who visit here. Its protection embraces us all."

OK. Any Questions?

Homegrown Terrorism?

Ahh, Freedom of Speech! As long as you don't say what we don't want you to say. The Homegrown Terrorism Bill is making the rounds through the House and Senate:

Both the House and Senate have introduced legislation entitled the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007". Positions on the bill range from calling it a "thought crimes" bill, to labeling it a redundant government program, to seeing it as an important tactic for preventing terrorism at home. The bill defines "homegrown terrorism" as

* the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Hmmm. Lots of room for interpretation there. What do you think? Will this bill help increase our security, or is it an infringement on free speech and freedom of thought? You can probably guess how I feel about it, but you can enter your opinion of this proposed legislation direct to your congressional representatives by using the links below.

Helps keep us safe
Violation of free speech