Democrat Goes XL Pipeline And Leaves A Question Of Why

Small image of the day!

The Progressive Influence has always taken strong and unyielding positions against the Keystone XL Pipeline. Our angst about the Trans Canada man-made structure across the heart of our nation was personified when we realized President Obama had previously approved the Southern Leg of the Pipeline. Some of us became outright indignant and outraged a few weeks back when we heard there is an existing Keystone Pipeline running north to south across the nation and Trans Canada simply wants an XL (much larger) version.

The following is asegment extracted  from a longer MSNBC segment with Chris Matthews, former Congressman Harold Ford, and Senator Sherrod Brown (D) Ohio. Towards the end of the segment, and embedded below, Ford’s comments about the XL Pipeline are particularly disturbing and perplexing. Disturbing for obvious reason; perplexing because we cannot understand motive from his remarks. As you view the video segments, know that Chris Matthews’ remarks about German rapid transit (rail),  airports and other infrastructure are dead-on.  I may not have been as attentive as I should have been, but I am not certain Brown added much at all to the discussion.

Democrats really should move the national dialog away from so-called scandals to forward-progressive issues that lead to jobs.  An improved employment rate and visible evidence of an improving infrastructure will go a long way on 2014. and that is the very reason the GOP will obstruct towards avoidance of those real improvements. 

U-Bahn at Jungfernstieg station in Hamburg

Electric multiple unit of Berlin S-Bahn

Click for Larger View

Listen to Harold Ford and wonder as do I about his motives.  Especially, as I consider the following information.

    

Keystone Pipeline and proposed XL project

Yes, the US already has a Keystone Pipeline. But, as is the case with all things “big business, big energy and big oil, nothing sits in a static state. Those with power to buy influence and wield political power musty have bigger (and by association more dangerous) . 

The Enbridge Pipeline (image below) rejected by British Columbia based on unanswered environmental questions.  If you have followed environmental and big oil news over the past few years  the question from British Columbia to Enbridge should be easy to guess.  The questions center on spills concerns and spill response issues/concerns. It seems British Columbia has their “ducks in order” when dealing with big energy.  Mother Jones reported on Friday. 

For those who don’t follow posted links, you might want to read this from Mother Jones before you view the rejected proposed “Northern Gateway” pipeline.

Excerpt

The Northern Gateway would have run from the heart of the tar sands in Alberta, through British Columbia, and to an export terminal in Kitimat. Anti-pipeline activists in the US are cheering BC’s Gateway decision as a win against tar sands development. 350.org founder Bill McKibben sent around a statement shortly after the announcement: 

For years the tar sands promoters have said: ‘if we don’t build Keystone XL the tar sands will get out some other way.’ British Columbians just slammed the door on the most obvious other way, so now it’s up to President Obama. If he approves Keystone XL he bails out the Koch Brothers and other tar sands investors; if he rejects the pipeline, then an awful lot of that crude is going to stay in the ground where it belongs.

Why dose the self-proclaim’ greatest nation of Earth trail other nations in handling matters that affect our infrastructure and issue sin dealing with big energy?  The answer is easy: money!

Harold Ford spoke in the video embeds above like the classic “Blue-Dog” Democrat.  He is so close to all things conservative he appears and sounds like a Fox News pundit.  A midst a productive conversation about how the Democratic Party succumbs to issues that accomplish nothing more than advancing the Republican agenda while freezing the nation in a state of infrastructure danger and embarrassment. As Chris Matthews makes great points about airports, high-speed rail and highway projects, Ford differentiates himself form “his party”, and mentions Keystone XL in the same sentence as the word “jobs.’

Jobs?

According to the Cornell Global Labor Institute Trans Canad’s claims of 20,000 construction jobs and 119,000 manufacturing jobs is, to be civil, inflated.  

Cornell GLI’s new report, Pipe Dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL (pdf)

Cornell University ILR School study highlights.

The report concludes that the job estimates put forward by TransCanada are unsubstantiated and the project will not only create fewer jobs than industry states, but that the project could actually kill more jobs than it creates. Main findings include:

• The project budget that has a direct impact on U.S. employment is between $3 and $4 billion or about half of what industry claims.

• 50% or more of the steel pipe, the main material input used for Keystone XL, will be manufactured outside of the U.S.

• Jobs will be temporary and between 85-90% of the people hired to do the work will be non-local or from out of state.

• The Perryman study, which estimates around 119,000 (direct, indirect and induced) jobs is a poorly documented study commissioned by TransCanada.

• Job losses would be caused by additional fuel costs in the Midwest, pipeline spills, pollution and the rising costs of climate change.  Even one year of fuel price increases as a result of Keystone XL could cancel out some or all of the jobs created by the project.

CBS Money Watch January 2012 “Keystone pipeline: How many jobs really at stake?”

Excerpt

Yet exactly how much work Keystone, a proposed 1,700-mile pipeline that would transport oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast, would generate remains in dispute. Transcanada (TRP), the energy giant bidding to build the pipeline, projects the undertaking would create 20,000 jobs in the U.S., including 13,000 positions in construction and 7,000 in manufacturing.  

That figure, based on a report by a consulting firm hired by Transcanada to assess the project’s economic impact, has been widely cited by Keystone backers on Capitol Hill. Other estimates advanced by supporters of the pipeline have been even more optimistic, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claiming it could create 250,000 permanent U.S. jobs.  

But subsequent analysis suggests that Keystone’s job-creating potential is more modest. The U.S. State Department calculated last year that the underground pipeline would add 5,000 to 6,000 U.S. jobs. One independent review of Keystone puts that number even lower, with the Cornell University Global Labor Institute finding that the pipeline would add only 500 to 1,400 temporary construction jobs. The authors of the September report also said that much of the new employment stemming from Keystone would be outside the U.S. 

 

Transcanada itself cast doubt on its employment forecast when a vice president for the company told CNN last fall that the 20,000 jobs Keystone would create were temporary and that the project would likely yield only “hundreds” of permanent positions. 

PolicyMic “Keystone XL Pipeline May Create Jobs, But At Too Steep a Cost to Be Worth It“

We carefully chose sources for reference that are generally viewed as credible sources of information. As a former Member of Congress,  Harold Ford has to have access to and knowledge of the same and more data related to the real of phony jobs prospects from the Northern Leg of the XL Pipeline.

You may have noticed we have focused solely on Ford’s claims of Jobs, jobs, jobs from the project. Environmental impact issues have not been addressed as we have addressed those issue many times. Also the theme of this piece was Chris Mathews apropos comments about the Democratic Party and “the differentiator” Ford’s claims of jobs. 

Libertarian Calls For Overthrow Of The US Government! Sedition?

Facts are stubborn things!

Other facts related to efforts to slow the proliferation of guns across the nation include the irrefutable.

Ninety-one percent of survey respondents indicate a desire for background checks for gun purposes.  

The US Government (Obama Administration) hasn’t uttered one word or offered syllable that indicates a desire to “take your guns.”  

Some gun facts websites are a bit dated, but the sites offer perspective on the extent and scope of gun ownership and related data. This link provides critical perspective as we consider people who boldly practice sedition against the US government and the American people. 

Mother Jones February 27, 2013 

Hover over the dots or use the search tool in the top-left corner of the map to go to a specific location. (Zoom in to see the Aurora shooting, located close to other massacres in Colorado, and to see other proximate shootings in Milwaukee, Seattle, and elsewhere.)

Linked

Sources: Research by Mother Jones. (With thanks to the Associated Press,  Canada.com, and Citizens Crime Commission of NYC.)

Washington Post, WONKBLOG,  December 4, 2012

Some posit the problem with rising deaths by gun is a matter of a people problem vs a gun problem. I agree with those opinions and remain a gun owner.  However, it is irrefutable the nut case who attacked Congresswoman Gifford, the Tucson Arizona mall shooting, could not have perpetrated the extent of his killing with knife or a bludgeoning weapon. He, factually, could not have killed the nine year old during his spree killing if he only possessed a 9 shot clip for his pistol. 

The data speaks for itself and a dangerous and developing scenario as many of the nations guns are owned by people who are influence susceptible regarding their weapons. They may also comprise a large group of people who are mentally inclined to take action based on their susceptibility to propaganda and effective demagogues.  

It is unfortunate, but many of those people are politically and socially inclined to the conservative Right. I include many libertarians in the grouping as I strongly feel a libertarian is no more than a conservative who may for some reason not care to be called a conservative. 

You are probably aware of one gun-totting anarchist libertarian, Adam Kokesh, called for full-armed protest march on Washington DC. The protest event scheduled for this July 4th has been cancelled. However, it could be useful to reviews how sedition thrives in the United States. 

______________________________________

The Progressive Influence introduces Adam Kokesh. 

Kokesh’s Facebook Page announcement of his ill-fated event.  First, review the nonsense insanity of his (false) event.

“We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.”

• • 

    Thursday, July 4, 2013
  • 

    9:00am until 5:00pm in EDT

• Washington, District of Columbia

• When a government has repeatedly and deliberately failed to follow its own laws, violated the fundamental human rights of its citizens, threatened the sanctity of a free press, created institutions intended to eliminate privacy of communication, waged war at the behest of special interests that threatens the public safety, killed hundreds of children with drone strikes, imprisoned and destroyed the lives of countless individuals for victimless crimes, stifled economic opportunity to maintain the dominance of the financial elite, stolen from the people through an absurd system of taxation and inflation, sold future generations into debt slavery, and abused its power to suppress political opposition, it is unfit to exist and it becomes the duty of the people to alter or abolish that government by whatever means necessary to secure liberty and ensure peace.  A new American revolution is long overdue. This revolution has been brewing in the hearts and minds of the people for many years, but this Independence Day, it shall take a new form as the American Revolutionary Army will march on each state capital to demand that the governors of these 50 states immediately initiate the process of an orderly dissolution of the federal government through secession and reclamation of federally held property.  Should one whole year pass from this July 4th while the crimes of this government are allowed to continue, we may have passed the point at which non-violent revolution becomes impossible. The time to sit idly by has passed, to remain neutral is to be complicit, just doing your job is not an excuse, and the line in the sand has been drawn between we the people, and the criminals in Washington, DC. While some timid souls will say that it is too early, that we can solve this problem through democratic means provided by government, that current levels of taxation are reasonable for the services provided, and that the crimes of this government are merely a tolerable nuisance; it may already be too late. While there is risk in drastic action, the greater danger lies in allowing this government to continue unchallenged. So if you are content with the status quo, stay home, get fat, watch the fireworks from a safe distance, and allow this Independence Day to pass like any other. But if you see as we see, and feel as we feel, we will see you on the front lines of freedom on July 4th 2013 for this: The Final American Revolution.

The libertarian radio host declared “The Final American Revolution.” It looks like Kokesh’s march on Washington DC has been cancelled with the anarchist libertarian exhorting complete overthrow of the US Government. We remind you of the definition linked above: sedition.

Think Progress posted a piece on May 29, that sums-up Kokesh and his false revolution.

After the Occupy Wall Street movement was squashed (at least physically removed from public habitation) via efforts of law enforcement including the FBI, is it possible the FBI and the Justice Department are as proactive in dealing with people like Kokesh?  

If we are to believe his choice of words Kokesh is an obvious threat to the cohesiveness and sanctity of the nation.  He is a danger not because of the seriousness of his demagoguery  he is dangerous related to kooks who actually believe and adhere to his demagoguery. 

If you have read this piece to this point, I have a question. Did you actually believe that Kokesh and his invisible army would actually perpetrate the march?  Another key point, sponsors who sponsor his radio show (if he has sponsors) should take action against his sedition. There is such a thing as enabling. Moreover, there is such a thing as culpability which is far more indicting and damaging for sponsors.

If you planned to attend the protest march, you should probably check status of Kokesh’s false event before journeying Washington DC. Of course, after you check-in your firearm (with local police)  you could visit some the Smithsonian, the Capital Building and the White House.  Well, not really, the “sequester’ has caused cancellation of White House tours until further notice.