"We are cutting the science and warning systems that protect us from this kind of disaster."

This quote on CNN’s earthquake/tsunami coverage tonight from Jeffrey Sachs, an economist,  director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people:

“The Republicans are cutting the science and the warning systems that protect us from this kind of disaster … they’re making terrible decisions, this should be a wakup call to Congress to stop being so anti-scientific, to stop neglecting these powerful forces of nature.”

Make no mistake, the same type of shortsighted nonsense is brewing in Michigan’s legislature, fueled by the anti-government wing of same political party that once was home to proud conservation heroes like Teddy Roosevelt and Bill Milliken.

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GOP scuttles two-week pause on billions in tax breaks for Big Oil; and the Tea Partiers are outraged...um....well....not so much

I don’t see the Tea Party folks quoted in this story, but I’m sure they were screaming loudly about the billions in tax breaks for big oil that were maintained by a mostly party-line vote in the U.S. House. Probably, the reporter just left out their quotes, do ya think?

The next time Republicans trash tax breaks for clean energy industry industries like wind, solar and biomass, just remember what House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said about oil breaks: “… it would single out one industry "and increase their cost of doing business."”

I'm betting he won’t make that argument when it applies to an industry that might compete with the fossil fuel lobby. And I bet the Tea Partiers will be out in force then, given their impartial and principled interest in eliminating tax-break welfare.

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