Last week, we lamented the failure of this G-O-TEA plagued 113th Congress to accomplish anything other than the usual and unnecessary manufactured crises. But now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) is making another effort to break past the gridlock and accomplish something. And here's where it gets really interesting.
Remember ENDA (or the Employment Nondiscrimination Act)? Senator Reid does. This past May, he made a personal revelation when he spoke of the need to finally pass federal legislation to curb workplace discrimination against LGBTQ Americans. And now, Senator Reid is matching his words with action.
Gays and lesbians should not be fired from their jobs just for being themselves. Senate will soon work to #PassENDA.
Earlier today, Senator Reid announced that ENDA will finally get a Senate vote late next month. Congress took on this bill before (in 2007 and 2010), but this time it looks like a solid bipartisan majority has emerged in the Senate. After all, 2 of the current 54 Senate cosponsors are Republicans (Susan Collins [R-Maine] and Mark Kirk [R-Illinois]). And conservative pro-equality groups are promising an aggressive lobbying effort to win over more Republicans, such as Senator Dean Heller (R).
This really shouldn't be a difficult choice. After all, happy and fear free workers make better workers. This is why 16 states (including Nevada) have already passed comprehensive ENDAs, and why nearly all the Top 50 Fortune 500 companies have already banned anti-LGBTQ discrimination in their respective workplaces.
So equal rights at work is the right thing to do as well as good for the bottom line. So why is it so difficult for this to become federal law? Sadly, the G-O-TEACrazy Caucus cares more about impractical ideology than lucrative & innovative policies. And as we've seen all too often in the (112th &) 113th Congress, Republican "leaders" tend to coddle the crazy rather than curb it.
But now, they have another chance to prove they can drop the "Culture War" nonsense and move into the 21st Century. Will Republicans take this golden opportunity Senator Reid is giving them? Or will they just screw up on both this and comprehensive immigration reform (CIR)?
It's up to Congressional Republicans now. Will they seize golden opportunities like ENDA & CIR? Or are they willing to throw their own party into the demographic dustbin of history just to hurt people for a few more years?
So the election is now over. We know at least 99% of who won and who lost. So does this mean we're all done with the political drama of 2012? Not quite. Let me explain.
First, we must flash back to August 2011. Remember the debt ceiling debacle? Because Republicans in Congress refused to a sensible solution, we got "The Supercommittee". And because "The Supercommittee" oh so predictably failed (see above), we got a "trigger" (of budget cuts and tax increases that no one wants to be implemented entirely) that is about to be set in January if an agreement is not reached in the next six weeks.
To keep the economy afloat, the White House cut the deals it felt it had to. Many, such as Obama’s agreement to extend all of the Bush tax cuts in 2010, were poorly received by Democrats. Now comes the payoff. The expiration of those cuts and the automatic reductions set to take effect at year’s end—the so-called fiscal cliff—mean that Obama and the Democrats can gain a huge source of new revenue by doing nothing at all. Republican priorities are the ones suddenly in peril. The combination of tax increases on the rich, higher capital-gains taxes, and sharp cuts in defense spending have congressional Republicans deeply worried. To mitigate these, they’ll have to bargain.
Despite their post-election tough talk, Republican leaders have dealt themselves a lousy hand. Obama can propose a “middle-class tax cut” for the 98 percent of American households earning less than $250,000 a year—while letting the Bush tax cuts expire for those earning more—and dare the Republicans to block it. If they do, everyone’s taxes will rise on Jan. 1. It’s true that going over the fiscal cliff, as some Democrats believe will happen, would set back the recovery and could eventually cause a recession. But Democratic leaders in Congress believe the public furor would be too intense for Republicans to withstand for long.
Going over the cliff would also weaken the Republicans’ greatest point of leverage: renewing their threat to default on the national debt. Right now, the Treasury expects to hit the debt ceiling in February. But if the cliff can’t be avoided, tax rates will rise and government coffers will swell, delaying the date of default—thus diminishing the Republicans’ advantage. Alice Rivlin, the founding director of the Office of Management and Budget and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says that “as quickly as the IRS began changing the withholding schedule, the date would be pushed back.”
While everyone fears "The Fiscal Cliff", there's far more for Republicans to lose if it comes to pass in January. After all, it includes military spending cuts, tax increases that hit high-income brackets the hardest, and a whole lot of federal funding that would be stripped from their states. Basically, it's pure political poison. And Congressional Republicans are having deep regrets over this very "Fiscal Cliff" that they agreed to in August 2011.
So once again, President Obama and Harry Reid hold the upper hand. But this time, it's far more obvious. And this time, it's Republicans who fear what will happen if no deal is cut by the end of this year. And with Republicans now poised to lose some seats in both houses of Congress in January, do they really want to see what happens if our country is forced to jump "off the cliff"?
The very thing that makes the National Championship Air Races so popular — the thrill of vintage airplanes roaring wingtip-to-wingtip at 500 mph within yards of a cheering crowd — is the thing that may doom the 48-year-old event.
Friday’s crash so far has claimed 10 lives, left two people missing and scores of spectators injured, seven critically. Reno’s oval pylon-to-pylon air race, a sport pre-dating World War I, is the last such competition in the nation.
Local and federal officials said the race should be made safer. But an air race historian, who called Friday’s crash the worst accident in the history of American air racing, said that probably isn’t possible.
“You can move the crowd further away, you can move the course to a remote location, but that defeats the purpose of the races,” said Don Berliner, president of the Society of Air Racing Historians and a former Reno Air Races official. “But you can’t have an air race without spectators. Who is going to want to see it from a distance?”
Safety could be the main issue in determining the race’s future. Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority officials said Monday that, as owner of the Stead Airport, they will be examining the federal investigation of Friday’s crash to determine whether further safety requirements can allow the event to continue.
It's something that will have to be considered as the NTSB continues to investigate what happened and why. There are already threats of law suits being made, which is understandable considering the latest update on casualties from Friday's tragic crash.
Honestly, I'm still trying to sort all of this out for myself. This has been a Northern Nevada tradition for half a century. But this time around, that tradition turned fatal. This won't be an easy decision for any of the folks who will have to determine the future of the Reno Air Races. And this certainly won't be easy for the families who loved aviation so much, then lost their loved ones last Friday at this event.
Elko County Commissioner Warren Russell said groundwater pumping will “create real desert areas,” and he called the proposed pipeline “a big sucking monster moving north.”
He also testified he is concerned about the attitude that the water authority could start the drawdown and “see what’s happening” in terms of impacts.
Yvonne Prescott, who grew up in Lincoln County, said the proposed pipeline would have a drastic impact on White Pine and Lincoln counties, and the water drawdown will create a dust bowl.
She also said the counties wouldn’t reap economic benefits because most construction workers would come from Clark County, and neither Lincoln or White Pine has housing for workers.
“I see all negatives for the people, animals and the land,” Prescott said.
Former Assemblyman John Carpenter of Elko testified he has had a lot of time to study the proposal over the years, “and the more you look at it, the less desirable it is.” He also questioned whether the water would at some point come from Elko County.
Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea (R-Eureka) even rose to speak of his concern about pumping 175,000 acre feet of groundwater out of rural communities with no chance of recharge. He also asked why SNWA isn't asking California for a pipeline to desalination plants, but the increasing controversy over ocean desalination probably makes that just as difficult for them. So we're back at Square One. To pipe or not to pipe? That is the $3.5 billion question.
Among the 30 participants in the public hearing was Randy Parker, CEO, Utah Farm Bureau.
Rupert Steele, a member of the Goshute Tribe, told BLM officials that the draft EIS does not address the recharge rates of the aquifers if 177,000 acre-feet is pumped out of them per year as proposed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
"Taking water resources away from its source should not be allowed," Steele said. "This will leave a sad legacy of environmental destruction."
Pumping water out of aquifers that feed Utah’s west desert will lead to increased air pollution along the Wasatch Front, said Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon.
"Groundwater drawdown can generate dust and pollution," he said. "We already live in a non-attainment area in Salt Lake County. The federal government has already told us our air is not clean enough."
The BLM’s draft EIS estimates the pumping project would add 24,122 tons of windblown dust a year into the air during the project’s first 75 years.
The draft EIS also estimates that groundwater discharges to surface evaporation and transpiration by plants would be reduced by 28 percent in Snake Valley during the first 75 years of the project.
But [Steve Erickson, of the Great Basin Water Network] said he believes the draft EIS underestimates the impacts of the 306-mile pipeline project that Southern Nevada Water Authority says will cost some $3.5 billion.
Farmers and ranchers in Eastern Nevada and Western Utah depend on their local groundwater supplies to survive. So do hunters and wildlife. So do local Native American tribes. The stakes can't be any higher, and neither can the emotions on both sides.
Rural farmers and suburban Utahns direct their rage toward Pat Mulroy and her plans to steal their water, while Mulroy directs her rage right back at them for wasting so much water in the desert.
SNWA claims this is only about our survival. After all, Las Vegas is right in the heart of the Mojave Desert. Clark County will very soon have 2,000,000 people living here, and even as future growth is expected to slow, we'll still need water to survive. So how can we get the water?
So why is there "need" for this pipeline to rural Eastern Nevada and Western Utah? That's what many are asking, and Pat Mulroy continues to insist that Lake Mead and conservation are not enough. She demands that we prepare for the possible instead of hoping for the probable.
Meanwhile, opponents are quietly content over a draft environmental impact statement finally released by the bureau in June, after six years of input from the Water Authority, residents, tribes and a litany of federal agencies.
The prose is turgid and reserved, but the environmental conclusions are often stark:
• “... likely result in windblown dust emissions due to drying of hydric soils and loss or reduction of basin shrubland vegetation.” People in Utah, downwind, are particularly alarmed by this prospect.
• “... risk of subsidence of the ground surface as a result of the withdrawal of the groundwater.” This means the pumping could cause the ground to sink several feet over hundreds of square miles, causing buildings, transmission lines and roads to be structurally unstable.
• “... risk of invasion by invasive ... species.”
• The pumping could affect surface water, such as ponds, lakes and streams, which would obviously adversely affect the species that rely on that water for drinking, foraging, breeding.
• “Drawdown poses long-term risks to the agricultural sector in the rural areas...”
And is this really the end of it? I doubt it. As climate change worsens and drought conditions reappear throughout America, expect The Water War to get uglier.
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had an emergency conference with President Obama this morning to try to reach some kind of accord on the present fiscal year’s budget, but emerged with no agreement. In fact, with only three and a half days left on the clock, they seem to be moving further apart.
It seemed, at the start of the week, as if Democrats and Republicans had at least agreed upon a number -- $33 billion -- to cut from spending, if not how and where they would meet that goal. But Boehner now appears to be backing away from that agreement.
So Congressional Republicans are throwing a temper tantrum... And we're the ones who will suffer for it should no agreement be reached within the next 48 hours.
[... A] closer examination of the at least 81 riders [to HR 1, the federal budget bill] from OMB Watch reveals that many would have the opposite of the GOP’s intended effect and actually increase federal spending. For instance, a CBO analysis of Sec. 4017 of H.R. 1 — which would strip funding for any provisions in the Affordable Care Act — argues that partially defunding the law increases costs “by $3.1 billion in fiscal year 2012 and by smaller amounts in each of the fiscal years 2013 through 2021.” The same may be true for the following riders:
Sec. 4013 — Prohibits funds to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America: Planned parenthood provides services more efficiently and each dollar spent on contraception saves taxpayers multiple dollars down the line. For instance, it’s estimated that pushing contraceptive care patients from Planned Parenthood to other clinics would “cost the government an additional $174 million a year.”
Sec. 1591 — Prohibits funding for needle exchange programs: As an example, the cost to prevent a single HIV infection by needle exchange “has been calculated at $4,000 to $12,000, considerably less than the estimated $190,000 (listed in 1997 dollars) medical costs of treating a person infected with HIV.”
Sec. 4020 — Prohibits funds to take any action to effect or implement the disestablishment, closure or realignment of the US Joint Forces Command: Closing the Joint Forces Command, which “employs more contractors than troops” and which Defense Secretary Gates says is no longer necessary, could save up to $240 million per year.
Sec. 4051 — Prohibits funds for implementing a provision specific to the State of Texas in the “Education Job Fund”: This provision prevents Texas from collecting money from the education jobs bill passed last year unless it maintains its own rate of current education funding. Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has previously stuck federal education money into his state’s Rainy Day Fund. Blocking the provision amounts to giving Texas more than $800 million with no oversight.
Sec. 4012 — Bans funding for the Department of Education regulations on Gainful Employment: These regulations would restrict federal funding for subprime schools, many of which make 90 percent of their revenue from the federal government, while accounting for nearly half of student loan defaults.
[Emphasis mine.]
See that? Republicans are whining about "wasteful spending", yet their proposed budget includes a hell of a lot of wasteful spending! And if the federal government is forced into shutdown, there will be even more costs associated with all the mayhem of so many people forced into furlough and so many departments and essential services closed.
So we have 48 hours to wait and see if Congress and President Obama can agree on a budget. Obama has already said he wants a fair deal, but let's see if the GOP really wants to drive us all over the edge.
When David Byerman says no other state in the union has more to gain than Nevada in the 2010 Census, he means it.
Nevada ranked No. 1 in growth from 1990 to 2000 when the Silver State's population mushroomed by 66.27 percent. While growth has slowed this decade, Nevada's growth rate is still the highest in the country after a one-year loss to Arizona, based on census estimates.
All those new bodies -- about 1 million more since the last census in 2000 -- mean more federal dollars in local and state grants, if they are counted.
"No state in the country has more to gain from the census than we do here, given how much this state has grown," said Byerman, chief liaison to Nevada for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He oversaw census preparations for 2000 in Nevada and is again in charge for 2010.
"I look at this as the highest possible stakes," he said. "A lot of money is parceled out by census data."
That money is needed for schools, roads, social services, and much more. And considering how much our state government is struggling to pay the bills, all that new federal money will really come in handy in 2011.
Yeah, I know. I'm also wondering what's going on. But apparently, even Mr. "I don't like brown people!" had to laugh at Maggie Gallagher's incoherent defense of such blatant discrimination happening at the federal level thanks to DOMA.
Oh yes, and legal eagle Tobias Wolff was fabulous in revealing the total stupidity of everything "The Queen of NOM" had to say to try to make up look like down and right look like wrong. DOMA is unconstitutional and discriminatory. Simple as that.
