WataugaWatch

Because, apparently, He justifies the actions of ... certain people.

Mark Sanford, the fornicating Guv of South Carolina, for example, sez God's on his side. And now we understand the whiteness behind the "white lie."

Rachel Maddow has had a segment lately spilling the only beans you need to know in this age of hypocritical self-righteousness: "It's okay if a Republican does it."

Labels: Mark Sanford, Rachel Maddow, Republican "brand"

After putting a hold on the confirmation of Tammy Duckworth, an injured Iraq war helicopter pilot whom Obama wants as an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and never giving a substantive reason why, except that it pleased him to delay her confirmation, Sen. Richard Burr has suddenly relented, saying just as inexplicably that he's now satisfied that Major Duckworth can proceed to a confirmation vote.

Might Burr's abrupt about-face have anything to do with the embarrassing publicity he suffered by inflicting his pettiness on a woman whose qualifications were summed up by Rachel Maddow: "...a decorated helicopter pilot, double amputee, experienced veterans advocate, supported by all the veterans service organizations, and nationally known for her work"?

We assume so.

It's one thing being a big jerk in the cloisters of Washington, D.C., where the home folks don't see your jerkiness. But when it leaks out into the public bloodstream ... well, now, that's another matter.

Same with Madam Virginia Foxx, who is currently rising in the Republican Congressional ranks by empowering her Inner Asshole ... apparently on the belief that her Fifth District home folks don't actually KNOW she's a Giant Asshole, don't stay glued to C-SPAN all day, and even if they did, they'd keep reelecting her particular breed of stink-eye until Jesse Helms arises triumphant from the dead.

Labels: Rachel Maddow, Richard Burr, Tammy Duckworth, Virginia Foxx

Major Tammy Duckworth lost both legs in Iraq when the helicopter she was piloting was attacked in 2004. She ran for senator from Illinois unsuccessfully in 2006 and subsequently became head of veterans affairs for the state of Illinois. President Obama nominated her to become the assistant secretary of veterans affairs in his government, but following her hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee N.C. Sen. Dick Burr decided to be a dick. He managed to delay a vote on her confirmation because he has unspecified questions that he feels haven't been answered adequately enough.

He's playing "petty partisan games," said a spokesman for VoteVets.org, "needling the White House for the sheer fun of it."

Rachel Maddow devoted a minute to denouncing Burr for riding the wrong high-horse.

Labels: Rachel Maddow, Richard Burr, Tammy Duckworth

I watched the segment last night with Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers on the Rachel Maddow Show. Interesting dude.

Interesting partially because he says he's in favor of "building a bridge" to sustainable energy and of zeroing out our dependence on fossil fuel and carbon emissions (Duke Energy, he himself admits, is the third-largest emitter of carbon particulates in the country, because Duke Energy mainly burns high-carbon coal). He says that he's in favor of the so-called "cap and trade" scheme of making polluters pay for permits to burn fossil fuel ... just not in favor of the up-front permitting proposed by the Obama administration. He warns that if he and Duke Energy has to pay for a permit to pollute, he'll have to pass along that cost to his customers.

Why not, instead, take a hit to your (enormous) profits, Maddow asked, since all the rest of us have been paying all along for your (also enormous) pollution? (And isn't it amazing that such a reasonable question can sound so radical?) Rogers essentially ducked the question.

Maddow was forward in her questioning precisely because Rogers has said he wants to wean the country off fossil fuels, and the rest of his recent biography might suggest a certain progressive streak to his capitalism: he's a self-professed "life-long" Democrat and gave some bucks to the Obama campaign.

So Rogers wants some of the same progressive goals that Obama wants. But Rogers doesn't want to pay for them. Smaller profit margin? Unthinkable!

Also unthinkable is limiting his ability to buy cheap strip-mined coal from Appalachia, like a bill currently being considered in the N.C. General Assembly would do. For all his public relations spin about "creation care," Mr. Rogers will do what he has to do to keep that cheap coal moving, harvested only by the wholesale destruction of entire mountains, and that would include leaning (heavily, and as a "fellow Democrat") on the Democratic members of the N.C. General Assembly.

That, and passing along the costs of pollution TWICE to his customers, rather than see any small dent in his massive profits.

So much for "building a bridge" to a sustainable energy future.

Labels: cap and trade, Duke Energy, Jim Rogers, mountaintop removal coal mining, Rachel Maddow