Chupacabra Report

News that gets my goat..

-The California Jobs Iniative is one of the latest astroturf creatures to crawl out of the muck that is their initative and referendum process. -Does anything honest ever make the ballot this way? The CJI is a joint effort by the petrochemical industry and the Howard Jarvis Foundation to forestall measures scheduled under the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, specifically a greenhouse gas cap and trade system that is to come online in 2012. This caught my eye when I read that Valero Energy has donated $500,000.00 to the effort. I’ve written here to encourage people to trade with Shell and ConacoPhillips because they have been involved with identifying and promoting best practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Valero, a San Antonio company that sells gas under their name and through Diamond Shamrock, are on the other side of the issue. I suggest that you take your business elsewhere and let them know why.

-The NYT reported last week that General David Petraeus has ordered increased clandestine military activity in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and other mid-east countries to “penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy” al-Qaeda and other “terror” groups and prepare for attacks by US or local military forces. My question is, remember “blowback?” The history of US covert operations is rife with examples of such moves back-firing, with great loss of blood, treasure and international good-will; with successes being few and far between.

-AP reported last week that as part of its new sanctions against the North, South Korea has been blaring western music across the border. Let’s hope they’re using country western music, that should have them crying into their Taedonggang beer in no time.

-General Electric ran full page newspaper ads across the country last week urging Congress to approve contracts for them to supply a second engine model for the F-35 joint strike fighter presently supplied by Pratt & Whitney. The House complied with a rare bi-partisan vote to spend $485 million on this boondoggle. Defense Secretary Robert Gates may ask President Obama to veto the entire $568 billion defense bill to stop this.

-And Paleolithic pundit Charles Krauthammer wrote last week that “environmentalists must share blame for gulf oil spill.” His angle is that if the oil companies didn’t have to drill so far offshore, they wouldn’t have to drill such deep and dangerous projects. Disingenuous. The Gulf of Mexico already has hundreds of near-shore rigs operating, and since the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress there has been little requirement that operators be prepared to contain or clean up spills. For further explanation, I’ll refer you to James Thurber’s fable “The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble.”