Alexander One of Five Republican Senators Voted to Help the EPA Kill the Coal Industry

[mcurrier]

Alexander really does need to go!

http://visiontoamerica.org/10526/five-republican-senators-voted-to-help-the-epa-kill-the-coal-industry/

http://lonelyconservative.com/2012/06/five-republican-senators-voted-to-help-the-epa-kill-the-coal-industry/

"Because not only did these GOP Senators — Lamar Alexander, Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Kelly Ayotte — cross over to help the Democrats defeat the Inhofe bill, the fact that they crossed over allowed several Democrat Senators up for re-election to themselves cross over and pretend to be conservative and pro-growth without costing their Party the vote."

[Guest 6.8 AR]

The disgrace of a senator joined in with his peer

RINOs. I wonder if he's buying carbon credits

from His buddy Al Gore.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[greenego]

Another reason he must go.

[RobertNashville]

Alexander really does need to go!...

Surely you've known that for a while now, right?

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I don't much care for Alexander. Alexander legislatively has supported oil and nukuler, and opposed solar, wind, and biofuels, and seems neutral toward geothermal, though except in limited regions, geothermal is primarily an "energy saving" tech rather than an energy generating tech.

He at least can explain his views and may have some arguable points, as he explains in his 2009 WSJ oped (read the article if curious, I'm reluctant to quote due to copyright issues).

http://online.wsj.co...cleTabs=article

Some of his points make sense on casual examination. Alexander relies on Nature Conservancy data for some of his arguments. Nature Conservancy isn't the worst environmental org in the world. I used to quasi-approve of that org, but got skittish because their method of "saving the environment" is kinda like an international private non-profit equivalent of the national parks system-- Buy up land and "protect it in perpetuity" from human development. Which is OK to a certain degree, but eventually "if this goes on" it could result in a private non-profit controlling and withholding a bunch of the planet earth from peons who might want to extract resources or heavens forbid live on that land. Too much power in too few hands.

So anyway not all conservation is "evil" though a non-insignificant and difficult to define percentage is green bull-carp. The greenies are concerned about--

1. Pollution-- Nobody likes to breathe poison air or drink poison water.

2. Species die-offs from destruction of habitat-- It is easy to mock saving the purple polka-dotted mountain gerbil but on the other hand anybody who likes to go out in the woods and enjoy nature, wouldn't be happy if there ain't any woods left.

3. Everybody and everything eventually dies from global warming-- I'm agnostic about this. I don't think we are yet capable of accurately predicting what will happen to climate. I don't think we are yet capable of predicting what if anything people can realistically do to modulate the climate. I don't think we are yet capable of predicting the damage or possible advantages which might accompany predicted climate changes which may or may not happen. Spending lots of money buying a "pig in a poke", doing stuff that we don't know will work, to fix problems we don't know will ever happen, to avoid uncertain risks and consequences, doesn't seem at all sensible. Perhaps eventually enough will be "certain" that it might make sense to spend a bunch of money on global climate.

So anyway it is a fine line to tread. Ain't nothing wrong with research, Ain't nothing wrong with breathing clean air and drinking clean water. No sense killing off a bunch of species unless we have a dam good reason to do so. Draconian CO2 controls "at this time" might not be sensible (the EPA push to control carbon emissions) but OTOH I don't mind too much if EPA prevents a local factory from spewing arsenic in the river or whatever. Some things make sense and are cost-effective and some thangs don't seem to make a lick of sense "at this time".

I agree with Lamar that nukuler might make most sense from some views, might be best for the environment. Assuming nothing blows up. Japan doesn't seem so pleased with nukuler nowadays. Practical Fusion has been 10 years away since the 1950's, and still remains so. Some new nukuler fission designs promise to be simpler, cheaper and safer. Pebble bed reactors ferinstance.

I don't advocate "killing off" the population but it is possible that world population will flatten and gradually fall of its own accord, or maybe mother nature will get pissed and hurry the process along. Just sayin, we don't have infinite supplies of fissionables. Unless we get fusion sometime, if we replace all the coal and gas electric generation with nukuler fission, we'll run out of fissionables not too far off with the current population demands for energy. In fact, it needs to be a giant hierarchical industrial pyramid of nuclear breeding and reprocessing, and we need to start on a thorium fuel cycle pretty soon because we have a lot more thorium than uranium. Just sayin, even if there aren't any more earthquakes, terrorism, or massive accidents in that imaginary giant hierarchy of global-scale nuclear industry, we'll still start running out of fissionables in as little as 50 or 100 years with the current population load and energy demands. I LIKE nukuler but fission does have more than a few undeniable warts. On the other hand if we ever get practical fusion then maybe fusion will have unanticipated warts as well. We don't have any idea what industrial fusion will look like as of yet.

If the CO2 and global warming isn't of concern, we have more coal than oil or fissionables. TN alone, if all the TN coal were converted to gasoline-equivalent fluids, has more petroleum-equivalent reserves than Saudi Arabia. Assuming you don't mind chopping up all those purty mountains up to get at it. It would be lots of TN jobs ripping the place apart anyway.

The estimates depend on population and demand. I distinctly recall 1960's estimates that we have 1000+ years of coal reserves. Modern estimates, due to the increase in demand, have whittled it down to less than half that. We still have about the same amount of coal but the estimated demand has risen.

All energy options involve various flavors of skunkworks. Ole Alexander might see nukuler fission a little rosier than it deserves, and he might be seeing coal wind and solar thru green-tinted glasses. Some of his legislation is aimed at eliminating gov energy subsidies, which may not be a bad thang assuming it is even-handed and doesn't try to pick winners and losers. Its not like nukuler has never been subidized by the gubmint. If Alexander wants to subsidize oil/nukuler while removing subsidies on other energy tech, its just an alternate flavor of big gov.

So anyway I'm gonna go pollute the atmosphere with burned nitrates and pollute a berm with lead before it gets too dark today.

Edited June 23, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[enfield]

Alexander and Corker voted for Obama's stimulus. That was enough to convince me that they either were ignorant of the Constitution or didn't give a damn about it.

[leroy]

I'ts a shame that the people of tennessee were foolish enough to elect Alexander. The problem is that he has built so broad a a fan club that i dont think he can be beat. The demorats would be worse (...incrementally, i think...). The republicans cant successfully challenge him. He is exactly where Howard Baker was when he was in office. Maybe he'll retire soon and Bill (...the Snozz...) Haslam can take his place.

Sad leroy

[Garufa]

Alexander continues to hold office, as well as Corker and others of their ilk for the simple fact they are Republicans. I guess you gotta take the the good with the bad.

[Guest ThePunisher]

Didn't Alexander announce sometime back in the winter that this will be his last term as senator?

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I think he did. My guess is he plans on being crowned.

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Edited June 24, 2012 by 6.8 AR

[kieefer]

OK, so who should be their replacements??

[Guest Lester Weevils]

OK, so who should be their replacements??

There's got to be a hereditary politician with name recognition somewhere in TN. Maybe Al Gore III will step up to the plate and provide a life's worth of "public service" in the senate.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

OK, so who should be their replacements??

We're deep in the Republican side for congressional candidates. I just don't know any of them.

diane Black might be one to take a run next time. That's purely speculation from me, but if I recall, that

primary had several R's that would have made decent House members. There are several entering state

races that may need looking at. tennessee may be starting to see the end of the Baker/Alexander era,

unless Haslam takes over Alexander's seat. That wouldn't be good, either.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

We're deep in the Republican side for congressional candidates. I just don't know any of them.

diane Black might be one to take a run next time. That's purely speculation from me, but if I recall, that

primary had several R's that would have made decent House members. There are several entering state

races that may need looking at. Tennessee may be starting to see the end of the Baker/Alexander era,

unless Haslam takes over Alexander's seat. That wouldn't be good, either. The Tea Party crowd may be

making inroads in Tennessee politics. I sure hope so, anyway.

[JohnC]

I'm just sick of voting for Republicans thinking I'm going to get a Conservative and instead keep getting undercover Liberal and Progressive Democrats. When the heck are we ever going to get real Conservatives or a Libertarian in these positions?

[leroy]

I like Ed Bryant. He ran against Bob Corker last time in the Requblican Primary for the senate seat corker holds.

leroy

[kieefer]

We have to keep our ears open to who wants the seat bad enough and has the money to overcome the machine.

LW, anyone with a Gore last name is out of the question.

Lou Ann Zelnick may be another one to watch? http://votelouann.com/home/

Steve Gill (1510AM) usually keeps up with the movers and shakers, Ralph Bristol (99.7FM) also has a good ear.

I haven't heard about any Libertarians running in TN, clue me in if there are.

Anyone heard of Bob Ries?

.

Edited June 24, 2012 by kieefer

[Clod Stomper]

I talked to this lady at a recent Knoxville gun show. Brenda Lenard http://www.facebook....lenardforsenate

I've been following her on Facebook and I believe she was at the machine gun shoot in Hilham, TN this weekend. Her political philosophy seems to be sound. Don't know about her experience.

Don't know if she has a chance, but she's trying pretty hard

I have heard of Bob Ries, but I believe he's running for a House seat.

Will

Edited June 24, 2012 by Clod Stomper

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I'm just sick of voting for Republicans thinking I'm going to get a Conservative and instead keep getting undercover Liberal and Progressive Democrats. When the heck are we ever going to get real Conservatives or a Libertarian in these positions?

The only way you can undo the rig in the system is get involved in the process.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I talked to this lady at a recent Knoxville gun show. http://www.facebook....lenardforsenate

I've been following her on Facebook and I believe she was at the machine gun shoot in Hilham, TN this weekend. Her political philosophy seems to be sound. Don't know about her experience.

Don't know if she has a chance, but she's trying pretty hard

I have heard of Bob Ries, but I believe he's running for a House seat.

Will

If she is for real, I hope her message gets out and she succeeds. It would be nice to see the apple cart upset,

once in a while.

I like Ed Bryant, also. Getting rid of Alexander is necessary, even if it means getting a "Doug Jackson" kind

of democrat in there for a while.

[zapfbroad]

i follow Lou Ann Zelenik on facebook, she was at the machine gun shoot in Hilman also. Her about..

"Graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Engineering. Business owner in heavy construction for over 20 years. Past Chair and Vice Chair of the Republican Party of Rutherford County, Leader of the Middle Tennessee Tea Party. Candidate for Congress TN 6th District. Former Executive Director Tennessee Freedom Coalition. International Preserving Freedom Conference: The Constitution or Sharia."

she's running against diane black again who beat her by 1% last time in the nearly 3 way republican primary

Edited June 24, 2012 by zapfbroad

[Guest 6.8 AR]

It's sometimes a problem when Republicans trip over each other in some races. i wish Lou Ann could occupy

a different position. That was a tight race. Black's ad stating she has a 100% conservative voting record is

a tough thing to break. I just don't know much about her.

[zapfbroad]

Ralph bristol had zelenik on the radio lastwk. Them gals hate each other. Somebody needs to move..

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[Guest Lester Weevils]

LW, anyone with a Gore last name is out of the question.

Hi Kieefer. I was joshin. Heriditary politicians bug me. Statistically, intelligence and talent of offspring tends toward the mean. If pappy is exactly average then the probability of a son smarter than dad is equal to the probability of a son dumber than dad. Though it is baffling why we would ever elect daddy if he was merely average.

The more above-average the daddy-- The higher odds that sonny will be dumber than dad and the lower the odds that sonny will be smarter than dad. If daddy happens to be real dang smart then it is NOT IMPOSSIBLE that sonny could be at least as smart as dad, but it is more likely that sonny will turn out dumber than dad. Lightning occasionally strikes twice though it is rare. It doesn't have to be a drastic difference. If dad has an IQ of 150 and sonny has an IQ of 140 then it would satisfy the probabilities and sonny would still be smarter than the average bear, though not quite up to snuff compared to dad.

Anyway it will take awhile for the Ministry of Truth to finish web-washing so that Al III's stoned high speed prius driving is no longer searchable from google. If it never existed on the internet then it never happened. [joking]

Though that didn't hurt GW's chances and OBummer boasted of drug use. Luckily Bill Clinton didn't inhale and he never had sex with that woman either. At least neither Clinton nor OBummer are hereditary politicians. Romney is Yet Another Hereditary Politician though Alexander is not a hereditary politician as far as I can tell.

On second thought, considering the mediocrity of Al Jr's intellect, Al III might have good odds at being brighter than dad.

[kieefer]

I figured you were.

Al da'3rd sounds like a shoe-in for the next democratic rising star one day. I'll keep my fingers crossed.