House Votes To Officially Deny Climate Change-- Really

This morning we started the day with a look at the irreversible catastrophe Global Warming has in store for Florida-- and how Florida congressmembers from districts that will wind up entirely under the sea-- like Dennis Ross, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart, Patrick Murphy, Bill Posey and Vern Buchanan-- have consistently voted against policies that would save their own constituents and for an agenda that will utterly destroy the very districts they represent. All of them are Republicans, although Murphy calls himself a Democrat and is one of the up-and-comers in the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Last Thursday West Virginia Republican David McKinley, one of King Coal's most abject servants in Congress, proposed and passed an amendment to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act (H.R.4923)-- "an amendment to prohibit use of funds to design, implement, administer or carry out specified assessments regarding climate change." Every single Florida Republican voted for the amendment-- which could have been called, "The Orlando Beach Front Property Amendment," and every Florida Democrat voted against it. It passed 229-188, the GOP's one moderate, Chris Gibson (R-NY), voting with the Democrats and 5 of the worst Big Energy whores from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party crossing the aisle and voting with the GOP (and against humanity and the Planet Earth):

• John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog- UT)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV)

Back in West Virginia, yesterday's Gazette-Mail explained McKinley's amendment as one to prohibit the U.S. Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers from carrying out any policies related to climate change and climate science.

Those “specified assessments” include the two most comprehensive reports on climate change, the U.S. government’s National Climate Assessment, five years in the making, and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The amendment would prohibit the agencies from participating in future versions of those reports and also prohibit them from acting on any of the recommendations contained in those reports.

The amendment was added to a $34 billion appropriations bill that would fund the two agencies, as well as parts of the Department of the Interior and other agencies. It also would apply to $80 million in funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission, which funds projects to improve job opportunities and infrastructure in the region.

“Spending precious resources to pursue a dubious climate change agenda compromises our clean-energy research and America’s infrastructure,” McKinley said on the House floor. “Congress should not be spending money pursuing ideologically driven experiments.”

Speaking against the amendment, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said it disregards the research of the overwhelming majority of climate scientists.

“The Republicans, in general, don’t seem to trust the scientists,” Kaptur said. “This amendment requires the Department of Energy to assume that carbon pollution isn’t harmful and that climate change won’t cost a thing. That’s nothing but a fantasy.”

Parts of the missions of the Department of Energy and the Corps of Engineers would seem to be inextricable from climate change and climate science. For instance, the bill authorizes $1.7 billion for the Corps of Engineers to spend on river and harbor construction, flood- and storm-damage reduction and shore protection.

Meanwhile, the National Climate Assessment reports that the global sea level has risen by eight inches since 1880 and is projected to rise another one to four feet by 2100. The global sea level rose about twice as fast in the years since 1992 as it did in the previous century, the report said.

The Department of Energy also is heavily involved with efforts to address climate change.

“We develop new technologies and reduce the costs of renewables, new nuclear, environmental protection in natural gas production, carbon capture and sequestration, really across the board,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a May teleconference, describing his agency’s actions on climate change.

“Addressing the effects of climate change is a top priority of the Energy Department,” the agency’s website says. “As global temperature rise, wildfires, drought and high electricity demand put stress on the nation’s energy infrastructure. And severe weather-- the leading cause of power outages and fuel supply disruption in the United States-- is projected to worsen.”

Rahall was one of only five Democrats to support the amendment.

Asked why the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers should not be able to consider climate change, Rahall emailed a statement saying that he supported the amendment to help block actions by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rahall did not respond when asked what the amendment had to do with the EPA.

Perhaps Rahall was talking with Florida teabagger Dennis Ross, an enthusiastic Climate Change denier, almost all of whose Tampa Bay area district will be inundated in the deluge scientists are promising. Blue America has endorsed progressive Democrat Alan Cohn as an ideal replacement for Ross. Yesterday Cohn marveled at Ross' incredibly backward posture towards Climate Change:

"There is a simple explanation," he told us, "why Dennis Ross would vote to prohibit the use of federal funds to assess the impact of climate change in this appropriations bill. It’s because he’s pledged his allegiance to the crazies who deny science and he doesn’t give a damn what the impact is on his constituents, his community, the economy, our state, and our planet. It’s no shock. Ross puts the interests of that small, belligerent group holding Congress hostage ahead of the rest of us when it comes to immigration reform, minimum wage, health care and countless other issues. When it comes to climate change, Ross recently told Think Progress 'I am not accepting all the theories that are out there that say climate change is what it is because of us.' Well, according to a recent study at the University of Florida (Ross’s alma mater) 'With a high degree of certainty, science tells us that human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere, increasing the levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.' The University of Florida says the science, in this case, includes the conclusions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2006, and included more than 2,000 scientists 'to provide... an objective source of information about climate change' based on 'the latest scientific, technical, and socio-economic literature produced worldwide.' According to the study 'Specifically for Florida, warming climate could raise sea level by one to three feet (or 12 to 36 inches) over the next century.' It goes on to says it will destroy our aquifers (our drinking water) flood our farm land, and destroy tourism, and wreck our economy. Dennis Ross says it’s all-good though. He says taking action on climate change is a matter of personal responsibility that can’t be legislated like gun control. Wow!"

The DCCC isn't going after many of the real villains in the Climate Change wars-- particularly not Steve Israel crony and House Energy Committee chair Fred Upton (MI-06). They are trying to defeat Chris Gibson though, the one Republican who votes with the Democrats on Global Warming. And much of their resources are spent on anti-EPA Climate Change denier incumbents like Nick Rahall and John Barrow. Needless to say, Israel has nixed helping Alan Cohn against Dennis Ross. That's part of reason Blue America is asking our supporters to step in and contribute to Cohn's grassroots campaign.

Every inch of land on this map will be underwater or uninhabitable before the end of the century

There Is "Bipartisanship" And Then There Is Bipartisanship-- West Virginia And California

Evan Jenkins was a very right-wing Democrat who followed his opportunistic instincts to switch parties recently and run against a right-wing Democrat who hasn't switched parties, Nick Rahall. Jenkins' TV spot above has a couple of lines I want to call special attention to:

"Nick Rahall-- a lying politician, just like Obama. A better choice: Evan Jenkins-- the backbone to defend our way of life from Obama's 'War On Coal.' Jenkins puts West Virginians first, not politics. Work with both parties, create jobs… That's Evan Jenkins."

"Work with both parties?" By calling Rahall and Obama liars, making up noonsense about a "war on coal?" Demonizing Democrats? Jenkns may mean he's willing to work with the Republican Party and the Tea Party when he says "both parties." But one thing is sure-- none of these corporate whores from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party are willing to represent the interests of ordinary working families-- not in the valleys of West Virginia and not in California's Silicon Valley. We'll get back to Ro Khanna and the Republican wing of the Democratic Party in Silicon Valley in a moment.

First, let's take a look at some real bipartisanship from one of Mike Honda's biggest California supporters, Nancy Pelosi. Last week, the Democratic House Leader responded to a letter from both Democratic and Republican governors, most of whom really are more interested in solving problems than in scoring political points. House Republicans and right-wing candidates like Jenkins may oppose renewing emergency unemployment insurance for millions of workers but governors understand that for their states to succeed, their people have to succeed. Republicans in the House are too immersed with political game-playing to even ever consider that. Pelosi's letter, in part, to Lincoln Chafee (D-RI) and Brian Sandoval (R-NV):

I have received your letter of April 11 expressing your support for the bipartisan measure to renew emergency unemployment insurance overwhelmingly passed out of the Senate last week.

…It is unconscionable that the House has not acted to renew emergency unemployment insurance. But as you know, House Republicans have blocked the House from considering this desperately needed legislation each and every time Democrats have moved to hold a vote.

Never before has Congress allowed emergency unemployment insurance to expire while long-term unemployment rates have remained so high. Failure to restore this lynchpin of economic security for the long-term unemployed is costing us 240,000 jobs this year alone. House Republicans' refusal to extend emergency unemployment insurance is callous, shortsighted and immoral.

House Democrats will continue to push for a vote to extend emergency unemployment insurance, and to advance the bipartisan Senate legislation in the House. Your bipartisan letter, together with those from other governors, and the countless letters from Americans reeling from the loss of their unemployment insurance, reminds us just how critical this work is.

Thanks you for your support in this effort, and I look forward to working with you to pass this vital legislation as soon as possible.

So… bipartisanship. 38 crackpot Republican obstructionists in the Senate, who would rather see America and Americans fail than see Obama succeed, voted NO, but both Nevada senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Dean Heller voted for the bill. Sandoval must have been relieved. Of Nevada's 4 House Members, though, there is a split-- a party line split, the two Democrats, Dina Titus and Steven Horsford, want to pass the Senate bill, while the two Republicans, Mark Amodei and Joe Heck, are too scared to break with Boehner and support the efforts. In West Virginia, Rahall wants to vote for the Senate bill but, of course, Evan Jenkins would like to get into Congress and oppose it… "defending our way of life?"

Like I said earlier, Nancy Pelosi has been one of Mike Honda's most steadfast backers in his battle against Ro Khanna and the Republican wing of the Democratic Party trying to take his seat. Though Khanna has been a major conduit for Indo-American money into the Democratic Party and Pelosi knows him well, she helped persuade the entire California congressional delegation to back Honda. "Congressman Mike Honda's life," she said when endorsing him, "has been a tribute to the quintessential American ideals of equality and opportunity for all. From a childhood spent in an internment camp, Mike has risen to the heights of American leadership-- as one of the top Democrats on the powerful Appropriations Committee and a critical voice for fairness, the rights of LGBT couples and all families. Mike is a bold and effective leader who understands the needs of Silicon Valley and the 17th District, ensuring American competitiveness and fighting for American manufacturing, comprehensive immigration reform, STEM education and technological innovation. We need his continued leadership for our nation in the House of Representatives, and I am proud to endorse him."

Honda has been a champion for ordinary working families and Khanna has a long, clear and shameful record of deceit and cheating going back many years. Lately he's been howling about a "bipartisan" approach. But his bipartisanship is much like Evan Jenkins'. Jenkins has already switched to the GOP. Khanna's donors are Republicans and if voters in CA-17 were, he would have switched as well. Last week, his response to Mike Honda's vote against the toxic Ryan budget and for the more responsible, progressive alternative budget was a slimy OpEd in the San Jose Mercury News blaming "both sides," as though progressives like Honda standing up for working families equates with the sociopathic and obstructionist Republicans doing the bidding of their (and Khanna's) avaricious donors. Khanna calls for "compromise," meaning cutting Social Security-- he backs Chained CPI, for example, a method of cutting seniors' cost of living increases-- and cutting back on Medicare, although what he talks about in his OpEd are teaching computer coding and programming in schools, something Honda has long championed. Khanna, like Jenkins, is a joke. If he wins the June primary, though, the joke will be on us. You can help Mike Honda beat back this conservative challenge here at the Blue America incumbents page.

Just Why Exactly Did Bernie Sanders Endorse Paul Clements In Michigan-- When Steve Israel's DCCC Refuses To?

West Virginia Blue Dog Nick Rahall is never going to be endorsed by Blue America and we often note that he acts in concert with the GOP more than almost any other House Democrat-- there are a few who are worse. Example: only 9 Democrats refused to sign the discharge petition to force Boehner and Cantor to bring immigration reform to a vote. Every Republican and those 9 shameless Democrats refused to sign and, predictably, Rahall was one of them. But that hasn't stopped him from being targeted and attacked by Republicans and their predatory allies. In Rahall's new TV spot above, he attempts to defend himself against a withering barrage of Koch-financed advertising against him, despite the fact that he has been more supportive of the anti-family/anti-environment/anti-democracy Koch agenda than just about any other Democrat in Congress.

This morning, writing at Huff Po, Senator Bernie Sanders asked Who are the Koch Brothers and What do They Want? He doesn't go into their virulently anti-American, fascist-oriented family tree but he does point out that trying to undermine American democracy by buying the Republican Party isn't their first foray into electoral politics and not the first time they've tried imposing fascism on the United States.

In 1980, Libertarian vice-presidential candidate David Koch ran on a platform that called for abolishing the minimum wage. Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of 1 percent of the American people. Today, not only does virtually every Republican in Congress oppose raising the $7.25 an hour minimum wage, many of them, including Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell and John McCain, are on record for abolishing the concept of the federal minimum wage.

In 1980, the platform of David Koch's Libertarian Party favored "the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs." Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of one percent of the American people. Today, the mainstream view of the Republican Party, as seen in the recently passed Ryan budget, is to end Medicare as we know it, cut Medicaid by more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade, and repeal the Affordable Care Act. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "Under the Ryan plan, at least 40 million people-- 1 in 8 Americans-- would lose health insurance or fail to obtain insurance by 2024. Most of them would be people with low or moderate incomes."

In 1980, the platform of David Koch's Libertarian Party called for "the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system." Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of 1 percent of the American people. Today, the mainstream view of the Republican Party is that "entitlement reform" is absolutely necessary. For some, this means major cuts in Social Security. For others who believe Social Security is unconstitutional or a Ponzi scheme this means the privatization of Social Security or abolishing this program completely for those who are under 60 years of age.

In 1980, David Koch's Libertarian Party platform stated "We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes ... We support the eventual repeal of all taxation... As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately." Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of 1 percent of the American people. Today, 75 Republicans in the House have co-sponsored a bill that Paul Ryan has said "would eliminate taxes on wages, corporations, self-employment, capital gains, and gift and death taxes in favor of a personal-consumption tax."

Here is what every American should be deeply concerned about. The Koch brothers, through the expenditure of billions of dollars and the creation and support of dozens of extreme right organizations, have taken fringe extremist ideas and made them mainstream within the Republican Party. And now with Citizens United (which is allowing them to pour unlimited sums of money into the political process) their power is greater than ever.

And let's be very clear. Their goal is not only to defund Obamacare, cut Social Security, oppose an increase in the minimum wage or cut federal funding for education. Their world view and eventual goal is much greater than all of that. They want to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick and the most vulnerable in this country. Every piece of legislation!

The truth is that the agenda of the Koch brothers is to move this country from a democratic society with a strong middle class to an oligarchic form of society in which the economic and political life of the nation are controlled by a handful of billionaire families.

Our great nation must not be hijacked by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers.


For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we must fight back.

One incumbent carefully cultivated and supported by the Koch brothers and their affiliated groups is House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman, Fred Upton. In return, he has allowed the Koch agenda too become the Energy and Commerce Committee agenda-- with no variation… none… ever. His opponent this cycle, in a very winnable southwest Michigan district (R+1) is Paul Clements. As we've mentioned before, DCCC chair is as dedicated to protecting Upton as DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is to protecting Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In March the Sierra Club endorsed Clements and yesterday, so did independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Blue America endorsed Paul last year, in part because of his determination to stick up for working families, for equality and for sustainable, healthy environmental policies-- i.e., the polar opposite of the Koch agenda. And, unlike Nick Rahall, when Paul gets bombarded with negative ads paid for by the billionaire Kochs, he will have earned them!

This afternoon, he told us that "The Koch brothers illustrate clearly how unregulated big money has corrupted our politics and undermined our democracy. Billionaires spending fractions of their net worth to tip the scale in our democratic process goes directly against the inclusive democracy that generations have worked to create. We already have billionaires paying lower tax rates than their secretaries. If we want government of the people, by the people and for the people we need to keep standing up to the big money that is corrupting our politics and push bold solutions for working families-- as I promise to do if elected to Congress."

If you'd like to help Paul Clements replace Fred Upton in Michigan, and thwart the toxic Koch agenda, please consider a contribution to his grassroots campaign here at the Blue America ActBlue page. There are no contributions that are too small when we're fighting for our country.

Stick With Nick

If you read this blog much, you've probably noticed we sometimes express a bit of antipathy towards ConservaDems, New Dems and Blue Dogs, generally speaking, the Republican wing ofd the Democratic Party. Over the years Blue America has even helped defeat some of the worst of them, particularly Al Wynn (MD), Tim Holden (PA), Chris Carney (PA) and Bobby Bright (AL). We've had John Barrow (GA), Jim Matheson (UT) and others like them in our sites for years. But one long-time conservative Democrat who we never really went after has been Nick Rahall (WV). His voting record is conservative, a lifetime ProgressivePunch crucial vote score of 65.57 in fact. But…

Of all the conservative Democrats who say that they vote their district, Rahall makes the most persuasive case. In fact, is votes considerably to the left of his district. California fake progressive Julia Brownley has approximately the same voting score, 65.73 but she represents a Democratic district (D+4) where Obama won with 56% in 2008 and 54% in 2012. A political coward, she follows a Beltway Establishment line that makes her far worse than Rahall who's district's PVI is R+14 and where Obama scored only 42% against McCain and a startling 33% against Romney. For someone who represents a district that red, Rahall, votes as well as he can-- and far more frequently with the Democrats than Members with MUCH safer districts.

Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sanford Biship (D-GA), Jim Cooper (D-TN), Dan Maffei (D-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Bill Foster (D-IL), Filemon Vela (D-TX), Jim Costa (D-CA), Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Joe Garcia (D-FL), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Collin Peterson (D-MN), to name incumbents in perfectly safe seats, vote far more conservatively than Rahall, who actually resisted joining the Blue Dogs for years and years and did it a few months ago as the noose tightened around his neck and the Koch brothers started pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars in a coordinated smear campaign into his district.

His voting record is as good as it can be without an act of overt political suicide. I would't say that about any other conservative Democrat in Congress, which is why we rarely attack him and why we have some sympathy for his predicament. Above is the newest ad the Democrats are running to counter the barrage of Koch-crap being thrown up against him. New polling-- although from an untrustworthy GOP fake polling firm (Tarrance)-- released this morning shows Rahall down by double digits against far right state Sen Evan Jenkins. It would be a miracle if he actually wins. We're not endorsing him or raising money for him but if there's one Blue Dog in the whole country worth rooting for, it's probably Nick Rahall. This graphic from Primary Colors will give you an idea of just how much better he actually votes than one might expect from the political contours of his district.