Saturday, August 22, 2015
Scott Walker flip flops on birthright citizenship. Blames tiredness.
"Scott Walker said he accidentally took a position on [citizenship] because he was 'tired'"
https://t.co/BBMDYMZQJo pic.twitter.com/vqBv0rSU8b — Billmon (@billmon1) August 21, 2015 At the Iowa state fair, Walker was for elimination of birthright citizenship. By Friday he had “no position” on it. “I’m not taking a position one way or the other,” Walker said in an more »
Friday, August 21, 2015
Safe Streets Pioneer Deb Hubsmith Has Died
Today the Streetsblog Network is mourning Deb Hubsmith, who died this week at age 45.
If you’ve advocated for or cared about safer streets in the last 10 to 15 years, chances are you’re aware of or have been influenced by Deb’s work, even if you don’t know it.
From the League of American Bicyclists:
She dedicated her career to bicycling and walking advocacy at the local, state and national levels.
She began her advocacy as the founding executive director of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, where she helped develop the county’s Safe Routes to School pilot program. She championed the nation’s first statewide Safe Routes to School program in California and also a nationwide program, which passed the U.S. Congress and resulted in more than $1 billion for Safe Routes to School programs across the country.
She also brought the Safe Routes to School National Partnership from an all-volunteer organization to a coalition with 750 partners, 30 staff and a $3 million budget.
Deb was director of the partnership for nine years. You can read the partnership’s tribute here.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Marquette U. Poll of Wisconsinites: 39% approve of job Walker is doing as Guv, 57% disapprove
The most significant bit of news in this poll, in my opinion, is the fact that Wisconsinites are taking a dim view of Scott Walker’s performance. His 39% “job approval” rating is down 2 points from where it was in April when 41% approved of his performance as Governor. Walker’s doing much worse than Obama more »
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Keystone XL review drags on 5 times longer than average
Graphic by PBS NewsHour
WASHINGTON — For six and a half years, the White House has had a quick comeback to questions about its yet-to-be-announced decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline: Talk to the State Department.
Under a George W. Bush-era executive order, oil pipelines crossing U.S. borders require a presidential permit, setting off a government-wide review that the State Department coordinates. President Barack Obama, in no rush to anger either environmentalists or energy advocates, has deflected criticism about the long-delayed decision by arguing that his administration is merely carrying out his Republican predecessor’s directive in the ordinary way.
But an Associated Press review of every cross-border pipeline application since 2004 shows that the Keystone review has been anything but ordinary.
Since April 2004, when Bush signed his order, the federal government has taken an average of 478 days to give a yes or no to all other applications — less than a year and a half. The company hoping to build Keystone has been waiting for a decision for nearly 7 years — or more than five times the average.
And while the State Department does bear responsibility for reviewing potential pipelines, former Bush White House officials who helped craft the policy say it was never intended that the final decision would be outsourced. After all, it’s called a presidential permit. The revamped process Bush created was intended to speed up, not slow down, permits for major infrastructure projects, those officials said.
“It was seen as the most routine, boring thing in the world,” Robert McNally, Bush’s senior energy adviser at the time, said of approving pipeline permits.
For whatever reason, Keystone emerged as a political flashpoint, elevated by supporters and opponents alike into a proxy battle over climate change and U.S. energy policy. Republicans and energy advocates have pressed Obama to approve the $8 billion project, but environmentalists say it would promote dirty tar sands oil and risk dangerous spills.
The company first applied in September 2009 for a permit to build the 1,179-mile pipeline, which would connect Canada’s tar sands with crude oil refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. When Congress in 2012 gave Obama a deadline to make a decision, he rejected the permit on grounds he didn’t have enough time to thoroughly review it, but allowed TransCanada Corp. to reapply.
The administration has declined to say what’s taking so long, or to offer insight into the deliberations.
“This is under a review process at the State Department. That particular process is a process that predates this administration, so I’m not going to have any update for you from here,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters recently. With a flat “yes,” though, he did promise a decision sometime before Obama leaves office.
Under Bush’s executive order, the State Department receives permit applications and circulates them to agencies like the Commerce Department, Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. Those agencies have 90 days to offer their opinions. If the State Department decides to grant approval, it notifies other agencies, which have 15 days to object before a permit is issued.
The final call comes down to whether the project is in the nation’s interest. In a major climate change speech in 2013, Obama established a litmus test, saying Keystone wouldn’t move forward if it was shown to significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions — a matter still hotly contested.
More than 16 months have passed since the State Department’s 30-day public comment period closed. The State Department hasn’t disclosed whether any federal agencies have objected to the pipeline, but has said it’s continuing to review the application “in a rigorous, transparent, and objective manner.”
The process doesn’t typically drag on for so long. The first permit issued after Bush revised the process in 2004 took less than four months from application to signature. Express Pipeline, L.L.C., was expanding a crude 785-mile pipeline crossing the Canadian border from Hardisty, Alberta — the same town where the proposed Keystone XL would start.
Even the pipeline that took the longest to approve — the 435-mile Vantage Pipeline Project, approved during Obama’s tenure — took fewer than three years, despite requiring complex negotiations with multiple Native American tribes concerned about historical preservation. The 1,000-mile Alberta Clipper Project, which drew legal challenges from Earthjustice and other groups, took 25 months to approve.
“When we brought the Alberta Clipper suit, nobody was really paying attention to pipelines,” said Sarah Burt, an Earthjustice attorney. “It hadn’t become this big bargaining chip, this symbolic ask of the administration that Keystone became.”
Not including Keystone XL, eight applications for new or significantly upgraded petroleum pipelines have been processed since April 2004. The AP’s review excluded permits reissued for existing pipelines due to change of ownership.
Piecing together the record of presidential permits is complex because there is no single repository for applications and pipeline decisions. To come up with an average processing time, the AP culled data from the Federal Register, State Department records, congressional correspondence, Congressional Research Service reports and data provided by pipeline owners.
The post Keystone XL review drags on 5 times longer than average appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
John Doe developments: Walker was target in 2011, Appeal impending
Eagle Scout integrity: “Gov. Scott Walker was under criminal investigation in 2011 for misconduct in office — even as he insisted he wasn’t — over a proposed real estate deal when he was Milwaukee County executive, according to records filed Wednesday in federal court” Source: Despite denials, Scott Walker was target of probe in 2011 more »
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Proof: Scott Walker’s aide Archer lied. Maltreatment she claimed rec’d during #JohnDoe raid refuted by newly released recording
Recorded audio from the FBI-assisted raid of Cynthia Archer’s home has been released. “The audio of the raid is being released now in an attempt to rebut claims Archer makes in her suit. For instance, she said in her filing that officers stormed into her house “throwing the (search) warrant at her without giving her more »
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Milwaukee Bucks arena is product of bizarre and bipartisan bedfellows
It takes an incestuous bipartisan pile of snakes to foist this expense upon Wisconsin when only 9%* of the Wisconsin public wants to help fund it AND when the administration is slashing public education funding. Steve Horn and Michael Arria have a long and interesting piece out on Truthdig that exposes backroom bipartisanship and public more »
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