United States News Digest

LaRouche: Democratic Party Has To be Totally Reorganized

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—The Democratic Party, as it currently exists, is dead meat, Lyndon LaRouche stated in discussions today. The only prospect for survival is that the leadership be taken away from the current crowd. That prospect is aided by the fact that the current Democratic leadership is deeply, hopelessly divided.

By the Spring at the latest, LaRouche elaborated, the Democratic Party has to be reorganized as an element of a viable political process. The whole idea of being a "team player" doesn't function. Team loyalty is what is killing the Democratic Party. At this time, more than ever, patriotism must trump team loyalty. This is a crisis, not a jock sports event.

LaRouche continued: The Democratic Party has to reemerge as a voice for a policy, that can engage in dialogue with other voices, to act in the national interest. Just look at how many Americans are now self-described as Independents. Either we revive a Democratic Party in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt, to work on policy with a Lincoln-oriented Republican Party, or we are all dead meat.

Bill Introduced Against EPA Regulation of CO₂

Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), in a press release yesterday, touted a bill he introduced last month that would repeal the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s ruling that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant. "Regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the current provisions of the Clean Air Act is irresponsible and just plain wrong," he said. "That is why I introduced the Save Our Energy Jobs Act which would stop the EPA from moving forward with its proposal. I am not about to let some Washington bureaucrat dictate new public policy that will raise our electricity rates and put at risk the thousands of coal-related jobs in our state."

According to Politico, an earlier draft of Pomeroy's release described the EPA ruling as "boneheaded," and the Washington bureaucrat as someone "who does not know squat about North Dakota's energy sector." Pomeroy's bill not only prohibits the EPA from regulating so-called greenhouse gases, but also includes a "sense of the Congress" resolution that climate change regulations must only be enacted at the direction of Congress.

It will be recalled that the issuing of the ruling by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was really a unitary executive dictatorship move by the Obama White House, ahead of the subsequently failed Copenhagen global warming conference.

Obama Wants U.S. To Lead the World—Into a New Dark Age

Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—In a statement made today, with no questions taken, President Obama announced $2.3 billion in tax credits for "clean energy manufacturing"—windmills and solar panels—under the Recovery Act. The delusional President claimed that "the Recovery Act has been a major force in breaking the trajectory of this recession," and babbled that this initiative will help break our dependence on foreign oil, and "combat the threat of climate change."

British-agent Obama complained that the U.S. is being outpaced by others in "clean energy"—and he wants the U.S. to catch up in the British-sponsored race to a new dark age. "China has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient," he said. "We spearheaded the development of solar technology, but we've fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it."

"I want the United States of America to be what it has always been, and that is a leader—the leader—when it comes to a clean energy future," Obama chattered. In fact, what Obama calls 'clean energy' is totally uneconomical, costing more than it produces. The real leaders in the energy field are those investing in massive expansion of nuclear power—as are the Chinese.

Wave of Resignations: Voters Hate Obama and His Policies

Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—With Democratic elected officials announcing their resignations left and right, including Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Byron Dorgan (N.D.), after only a brief glimpse of voters' anger during the Christmas holidays, Lyndon LaRouche said the resignations show the depth of mass strike protest against the Democrats over the fascist Obamacare bill. "Dorgan has been one of their strongest leading representatives," LaRouche said. "Obama is not hated—he is so despised by the voters, they don't hate him yet. People hate the Members of Congress who've betrayed them. Most of the population are against Obama and his policies. So they're against the Democratic Party, for supporting him and carrying out his policies. The Democratic Party is dead meat."

In addition to Dorgan and Dodd, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter announced that he won't try for second term in 2010; Ritter was a Democratic "rising star," now set, who hosted Obama's signing of the "stimulus" bill in February. Ten Democratic Reps have given up on re-election (along with 14 Republican incumbents). In the Senate, at least five other Senators—in Nevada (Majority Leader Harry Reid), Ohio, Arkansas Pennsylvania, and Colorado—like Dodd and Dorgan, find themselves facing reelection with less than 40% support against actual or likely Republican opponents in 2010. Notes MSNBC's "First Read," "The biggest story with these retirements? The effect on President Obama. He's the head of the party, and to see so many Democrats in one day decide they don't want to run while he's the leader—at the very time when he's trying to strongarm Dems to give him health care and other major domestic achievements."

In the Massachusetts Jan. 19 special Senate election for the late Ted Kennedy's virtually perpetual-Democratic Senate seat, Scott Brown, a Republican who's running on a promise to vote "No" on Obamacare, is polling very close to Attorney General Martha Coakley, putting the Democrats into a panic. The Kennedy seat is decisive for Reid's 60 vote majority.

Northeast States Sign Energy Suicide Pact

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—In a move that would further jack up energy prices, expand regulatory balkanization, and give speculators another cap-and-trade outlet, 11 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic U.S. states have committed themselves to establishing a "low carbon fuel standard" by early 2011. The move is opposed by the American Petroleum Institute, and backed by the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a speculators' club initiated at the first Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations in 2003.

A "low carbon fuel standard" doesn't just measure emissions from the final user of the fuel, but tries to calculate emissions generated during the fuel's production, transportation, and use in vehicles, industrial sites, homes, and offices. These calculations are said to favor so-called renewable energies and "advanced" biofuels. No mention, of course, of nuclear.

The stated aim of the Northeast initiative is to lower carbon emissions by 80% from 1990 levels.

The 11 states which have joined the suicide pact are Pennsylvania, and the ten states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade operation aimed at power plants: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The RGGI program already sets a limit on the amount of carbon that each state can release into the atmosphere, and requires power plant operators to bid on permits to offset their emissions.