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You are here: Home / What Possible Reason?

What Possible Reason?

by John Cole|  February 27, 201110:59 am| 145 Comments

This post is in: Teabagger Stupidity

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Think Progress has the list of ten disastrous policies the Wisconsin GOP are following, and they are the usual GOP slash and burn, for the most part. One, however, did catch my eye:

In late January, Walker introduced a bill that would ban wind-powered energy from Wisconsin and exacerbate the state’s dependence on out-of-state coal. If passed, it’s estimated that the law would immediately eliminate $1.8 billion in new wind power investments and jeopardize eleven currently proposed wind projects. After a public outcry earlier this month, Walker’s bill is (for now) dead.

I’m kind of speechless. For what possible reason would anyone ban renewable resources? I honestly can’t think of any reason why anyone would want to do this. I can’t think of any way in which this would even provide any political benefit to the GOP. Normally, with clean coal and the like, they at least pretend to be environmentally safe. Here, it’s just “Wind power? Fuck it.”

Even the “liberals are for it so I’m agin it” principle falls flat. I got nothing.

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Reader Interactions

145Comments

  1. 1.

    Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)

    February 27, 2011 at 11:01 am

    A governor with a large campaign contributor that is an oil company bans wind powered energy. Hmmm. Whoever could have guessed?

  2. 2.

    gypsy howell

    February 27, 2011 at 11:01 am

    I honestly can’t think of any reason why anyone would want to do this.

    Things go better with Koch…. for Walker, anyway.

  3. 3.

    meh

    February 27, 2011 at 11:02 am

    Gypsy and Bella both beat me to it…use ur noodle cole.

  4. 4.

    New Yorker

    February 27, 2011 at 11:03 am

    For what possible reason would anyone ban renewable resources? I honestly can’t think of any reason why anyone would want to do this.

    Because wind power doesn’t make any money for the people who have Walker in their pockets. SATSQ

  5. 5.

    Ash Can

    February 27, 2011 at 11:03 am

    My guess is that wind power is doing well enough in WI that it would be in competition with the utilities that would be handed off to the Koch brothers, and we couldn’t have that, now, could we?

    ETA (in new window — thx, techies): And I see that I’m simply piling on here. Great minds, etc.

  6. 6.

    dr. bloor

    February 27, 2011 at 11:04 am

    As his comments during his conversation with NotKoch made clear, Walker is a True Believer, which is to say he’s batshit insane. There’s no point in looking for any thread of rationality behind his decisions.

  7. 7.

    aimai

    February 27, 2011 at 11:04 am

    I’m just aghast at the sheer dictatorial awfulness of Walker–I mean I’ve lived under Republican governors even here in Blue, Blue MA and they often refuse to support good things, or undermine good things and support bad things–but the kind of outright attacks on a state industry? I’ve never seen that. We’ve been struggling for years to get wind power but the forces aligned for it and against it are not easily deconstructed into left/right but rather into environmental/corporate concerns. At any rate no Governor ever had the nerve to ban the Turbines–they let the struggle play out in the courts. If the site selected hadn’t been, in effect, public property there would have been no issue at all. I don’t get how this banning of wind energy isn’t seen as a totally fascistic interference with the free market even by Walker’s theoretical voters. Or are they just too dumb and misinformed to care?

    aimai

  8. 8.

    Hugh

    February 27, 2011 at 11:04 am

    Walker sure has earned his keep. Good boy.

  9. 9.

    BR

    February 27, 2011 at 11:05 am

    This reminds me: I’d love it if the next Balloon Juice reading group book is Eaarth by Bill McKibben. Probably the most important book on renewable energy / climate change / civilization written in the last decade. Came out last year and it’s a short book.

  10. 10.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:06 am

    I’m kind of speechless. For what possible reason would anyone ban renewable resources?

    Makes sense since his union busting budget bill also called for privatizing utility plants. This dude is pure corporate bag man, no more, no less

  11. 11.

    Emma

    February 27, 2011 at 11:08 am

    Forgot Deep Throat’s advice? Follow the money, Cole. Somewhere there’s money pushing all these measures. There always is.

  12. 12.

    aimai

    February 27, 2011 at 11:09 am

    Also forgot the key phrase: Mafia Bust Out.

    aimai

  13. 13.

    MikeBoyScout

    February 27, 2011 at 11:10 am

    The wind has a well known liberal bias.

  14. 14.

    arguingwithsignposts

    February 27, 2011 at 11:11 am

    can we punch him in the neck yet?

  15. 15.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:11 am

    @MikeBoyScout:

    you win

  16. 16.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:11 am

    Don’t you know those facististic green energy companies simply want to take over and ban the real powerful and efficient energy resources for their Soshulistic Green Facism? Don’t you see how Walker wants to save us from the hippies?! THE HIPPIES MAN?!!!!

  17. 17.

    Joel

    February 27, 2011 at 11:12 am

    Don’t worry, Bill H. will come by and explain how you’ve got this one all ass-backwards.

  18. 18.

    Bill H.

    February 27, 2011 at 11:13 am

    Apparently Walker loves birds. Wind turbines kill birds. Not really very many birds, but birds. Coal, on the other hand, kills people, many of whom are Democrats.

  19. 19.

    Ash Can

    February 27, 2011 at 11:14 am

    @aimai: Also, Lakeshore Technical College, north of Sheboygan, has one of the nation’s leading wind power technology programs, so Walker would get a two-fer with this bill — he’d get to whack both wind power and an educational institution.

  20. 20.

    B W Smith

    February 27, 2011 at 11:14 am

    C. Reiss Coal Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries is the largest distributor of coal in Wisconsin. Payback to Walker’s benefactors, pure and simple. On their website they brag about how they invented a machine to clean the tires of their trucks to keep coal dust off the streets; as if that is the major problem of using coal.

  21. 21.

    beltane

    February 27, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Wouldn’t banning wind power be an infringement on corporate freedom to make and sell energy in whatever way is most profitable? It’s like the teabaggers want to force everyone to waste and pollute as much as is possible. What’s next, a bill that bans the consumption of broccoli and mandates that we all eat a diet of nothing but hydrogenated fats and high-fructose corn syrup?

  22. 22.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:15 am

    Scott “The Sting” Walker

  23. 23.

    steviez314

    February 27, 2011 at 11:15 am

    D’oh:

    Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities throughout Wisconsin, including in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan.[29]

  24. 24.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:15 am

    @Bill H.:

    Why kill a couple birds who fly into the turbine? I mean, that’s just horribly inefficient and doesn’t take the long view into effect. Best just to burn more and more oil and coal, and then the air will be so bad birds can’t fly anymore! And maybe as a bonus some sea life including gulls and such will get trapped in backwash from the offshore drills! See, why kill a few at a time when you can plan to kill all of them at once!!

  25. 25.

    Disraeli

    February 27, 2011 at 11:16 am

    Wind blows.

  26. 26.

    BerkeleyMom

    February 27, 2011 at 11:16 am

    Walker just didn’t have the patience to wait some interval before his paymaster got his payback. He wanted to show he was the second coming of Reagan asap but he’s just the next Bobby Jindal.

  27. 27.

    Gravenstone

    February 27, 2011 at 11:16 am

    As I mentioned here when someone first brought this up a few weeks ago, WI already has wind farms. There’s a rather large one about 30 miles from where I write. And on top of that, our local tech school offers a program in the installation and operation of wind turbines. So it’s not as if this industry doesn’t already exist here. Rather, moron boy just wanted to prevent its expansion on behalf of his coal driven benefactors.

  28. 28.

    arguingwithsignposts

    February 27, 2011 at 11:17 am

    I think i have resolved that neck-punching is too good for this dumbass. anyone got other suggestions?

  29. 29.

    Cat Lady

    February 27, 2011 at 11:17 am

    We’ve gotten to the point where really the only way to move forward is for all of us liberals all the way up to Obama to pretend to really really want things like pollution, food poisoning, sick and uneducated children, mass starvation, pestilence and dead brown people everywhere in the world. Maybe that would work.

  30. 30.

    beltane

    February 27, 2011 at 11:17 am

    OT, but there’s a nice takedown of McMegan in Crooked Timber this morning. She even responds in the comments. Why doesn’t she ever respond in the comments here?

  31. 31.

    Valdivia

    February 27, 2011 at 11:18 am

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Angry birds?

  32. 32.

    jwb

    February 27, 2011 at 11:18 am

    @Joel: Now look what you’ve done.

  33. 33.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:18 am

    @Gravenstone:

    Prevent its expansion? According to the bill, he wanted to ban the whole fucking shebang outright. As in, ‘make even the existing wind farms illegal’.

    Maybe there’s some coal or oil underneath those farms and they can’t drink the wind farm owners’ milkshakes.

  34. 34.

    beltane

    February 27, 2011 at 11:19 am

    @arguingwithsignposts: Submersion in a giant vat of hot tea?

  35. 35.

    ppcli

    February 27, 2011 at 11:20 am

    It was over-determined. Even if Walker wasn’t bought and paid for by Oil interests, etc. – which of course he is – he would have scrapped wind power for the same reason that Reagan made one of his first actions as prez the removal of the solar power cells on the White House roof. Because they have in their minds an imagined paradigm Liberal. That Liberal drives a Prius (or, according to Sarah Palin, a Subaru), listens to NPR, eats organic vegetables and shops at a local Co-op, believes that there is global warming and it is largely the result of human actions, says “Happy Holidays” toward the end of December, etc. And this imagined boogeyman Liberal just luvs wind and solar power.

    A fundamental political imperative for the Walker crowd is that anything that boogeyman Liberal likes must be destroyed, even if that destruction brings no tangible benefits and some, or even lots of, tangible costs.

  36. 36.

    Gravenstone

    February 27, 2011 at 11:22 am

    @Kryptik: Well now, that’s some real forward Republican thinking,isn’t it? I mean, it’s not as if there hasn’t been massive investment in getting the existing farms installed and on the grid. Why not just shutter the whole thing and point to it as “another Democrat [sic] folly”?

  37. 37.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:22 am

    @ppcli:

    A fundamental political imperative for the Walker crowd is that anything that boogeyman Liberal likes must be destroyed,

    Well, yes, but there exists no godly reason wingnut can’t make a profit in the process, also too.

  38. 38.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:24 am

    @Gravenstone:

    No, seriously, why not? It pisses off the hippies, they’re pretty sure to be able to convince a good chunk of the people that wind power was an expensive boondoggle, and why not stick with something proven to work, they’re already working on tarring the EPA as American-hating anti-capitalist bureaucrats, and hey, it means more money and land for the Kochs as well!

    In other words, that seems to be precisely what they’re trying to do. It pisses off the Dems and the Hippies, so it must be an absolute good.

  39. 39.

    cleek

    February 27, 2011 at 11:24 am

    @beltane:
    why do people spend so much energy on that woman ?

  40. 40.

    Ash Can

    February 27, 2011 at 11:26 am

    @BerkeleyMom: At this point, I’m thanking heaven that the Koch boys’ Manchurian Candidate in Wisconsin is as obviously inept as he is. Its pockets of Deliverance-style areas notwithstanding, Wisconsin is a beautiful and civilized state, with decent people and great places. There’s a special place in hell reserved for Scott Walker for what he wants to do to Wisconsin.

  41. 41.

    Sad Iron

    February 27, 2011 at 11:27 am

    Why? Because Walker is a complete butt nacho. My drive to work takes me through Wisconsin windfarms, and it has always been great to see. Not to mention, people who have turbines on their land (your average farmer) can sell their extra power back to the utility company for a profit. It’s a win-win. Well, back to protesting here…

  42. 42.

    Linda Featheringill

    February 27, 2011 at 11:27 am

    A fundamental political imperative for the Walker crowd is that anything that boogeyman Liberal likes must be destroyed, even if that destruction brings no tangible benefits and some, or even lots of, tangible costs.

    I can understand their antipathy towards us lefties. After all, we elected a black president, didn’t we? Who knows what else we’ll try to do?

  43. 43.

    ppcli

    February 27, 2011 at 11:28 am

    @ppcli:
    Or, alternatively, Walker might be a mole, planted by foreign wind turbine interests. That would be the Danes, I suppose, since they are the heavy hitters in this industry.

    If any of you are ever close to Walker, say “Pas på! Kig bag dig”, and see if he looks over his shoulder. That would give him away.

  44. 44.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    February 27, 2011 at 11:28 am

    @General Stuck: I live in Texas, the state that produces the largest amount of energy via wind turbines (absolute, not percent of consumption). Even our wackos here know that there’s money to be made off of wind.

  45. 45.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:28 am

    @Sad Iron:

    You see! You see! It’s all about those green power fascists bilking the working man for all they’re worth and trying to destroy true blue collar coal!

  46. 46.

    Graeme

    February 27, 2011 at 11:31 am

    Call it anything you like, but it is not conservative.

  47. 47.

    fucen tarmal

    February 27, 2011 at 11:32 am

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    koch punch, satsq and a double pun.

  48. 48.

    S. cerevisiae

    February 27, 2011 at 11:32 am

    Godalmighty, where did Wisconsin find this wingnut? He makes Pawlenty look like a moderate.

    I fear for Wisconsin (and the rest of us).

  49. 49.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:32 am

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    Depends of which wackos are in which pocket of which plutocrats.

  50. 50.

    andy

    February 27, 2011 at 11:32 am

    This is another Reagan Moment for Walker. Just like Reagan had President Carter’s solar water heater torn out, this is his way of pissing on the liberals, what with all their faggy planning ahead and exploring options shit.

  51. 51.

    Warren Terra

    February 27, 2011 at 11:33 am

    I would have liked to have read the story to see just what was being attempted in the bill – I mean, what kind of sick fnck just says “let’s ban wind power!”? – but those half-bright folks at “Uppity Wisconsin” have installed some sort of “mobile-friendly” version of their website, looking very pretty and no doubt a significant investment, that kills the incoming links and absolutely destroys the site’s functionality. Slick move there, fellas.

    Still, assuming the bill really was a ban on wind power (and not something I’d still dislike but less overtly crazy, such as removing subsidies), I’m assuming the motive was a simple “Suck On This, Libtards”. Walker seems like just the fellow who’d make pcy decisions that way.

  52. 52.

    iriedc

    February 27, 2011 at 11:33 am

    in addition to what everyone else has already said about Gov. Walker being bought and sold by Koch, Inc. I’m thinking that this is the logical extension of rabid climate change denialism. I’m sure Sen. Inhofe is working on his own national ban now.

  53. 53.

    gypsy howell

    February 27, 2011 at 11:34 am

    Even our wackos here know that there’s money to be made off of wind.

    David Koch – T Boone Pickens Cage Match!

  54. 54.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:34 am

    NO money speaks louder than old money

  55. 55.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @General Stuck: Real wingnuts are sufficiently broke and drunk on Jesus that they’ll never see daylight and don’t care, because the Rapture.

    Or they’re so stinking rich, — and diversified — that they’ll make the money back elsewhere, with interest, either now or when the liberal rollback is complete. The money they’re not making on wind is seed money. It’s buying future elections, via hippie-bashing — it’s an investment.

    They’re both content to play the long game, because the payoff’s better later.

  56. 56.

    Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)

    February 27, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @MikeBoyScout: FTW.

  57. 57.

    Jonathan

    February 27, 2011 at 11:34 am

    GE is a pretty large employer in Wisconsin with much of their US GE HealthCare in Milwaukee, and it would seem you wouldn’t want to piss GE off anymore than you’d want to make gains for the Koch brothers.

    It’s pure Cronyism. It has nothing to do with whether or not it’s good policy.

  58. 58.

    numbskull

    February 27, 2011 at 11:35 am

    @aimai:

    Or are they just too dumb and misinformed to care?

    Yes.

    Or more specifically: 1. Yes, they are too dumb to understand the issues and 2. even for those who #1 is untrue, they are too misinformed by the MSM, the GOP, and in some cases, the Democrats, to understand how these issues that affect their lives.

  59. 59.

    J

    February 27, 2011 at 11:36 am

    I’m speechless too. But the question that really defeats me is how people like Walker, and he is far from unique, get elected. Poll after poll shows that lots of Americans, to be sure, in a vague and woolly-minded way, have decent impulses, yet we are overrun from coast to coast, and have two houses of congress full to the brim, with ineffably awful, palpably loathsome, elected Republicans. What gives?

  60. 60.

    Navigator

    February 27, 2011 at 11:37 am

    We’re used to the term “bought and sold” referring to politicians seeking enrichment after their terms are over, however far away that may be. With Walker’s election, though, that baseline corruption of a Lincoln, Nelson or Dodd has been eclipsed by the political equivalent of a berserker. Walker is an employee of the Koch machine. He does not care if he’s able to work with Wisconsin Democrats after this. He does not care if he’s recalled. He’s a guided missile, on a ” fire-and-forget” trajectory.

  61. 61.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:38 am

    @iriedc:

    Yeah, like I’ve been alluding to in my snark the past few posts, there really is a mentality of ‘GREEN FASCISM!!!’ and acting like the only reason to stop using fossil fuels is because Climate Change policy is really anti-capitalism bent on destroying the working people by eliminating honest energy sources.

  62. 62.

    Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)

    February 27, 2011 at 11:39 am

    @General Stuck: Actually, old money speaks “lower and slower,” and thus commands the greatest attention. But I’m just quibbling about details with you, Stuck; your point is correct.

  63. 63.

    BGinCHI

    February 27, 2011 at 11:39 am

    Wind, how does it fucking blow?

  64. 64.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:40 am

    @J:

    Policies don’t matter, Labels do. And the Labels tell us that Republicans and Conservatives are the real Americans and grownups, while Democrats and Liberals hate America and want to spend all our money like a drunk in a liquor store.

    It doesn’t matter that Dems tend to promote policies most Americans actually approve of when you can provoke a visceral reaction in more than half the country by simply telling someone ‘it’s a LIBERAL policy’.

  65. 65.

    arguingwithsignposts

    February 27, 2011 at 11:40 am

    I’m thinking Angry Birds is too good for him. Where are those rusty pitchforks?

  66. 66.

    mellowjohn

    February 27, 2011 at 11:41 am

    because the koch brothers don’t own the wind and the sun.
    yet.

  67. 67.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:42 am

    @Davis X. Machina:

    The union busting is desperation, not really a long game. It is impulse in the presence of electoral danger, so was Citizens United, from a last chance mind set, IMHO. Of course, part of the motivation is to spit in liberal faces, always has been, but a truly long game would have done that from an angle, when the country was looking away. This is the work of a bully, surrounded by the inevitability of equal status, if not a minority one. The black dude in the WH, put the fear of baby jeevus in them, as to that inevitability. They are responding by leading with their chins, and devil may care the consequences.

  68. 68.

    Brazilian Rascal

    February 27, 2011 at 11:43 am

    He is just following the Gipper’s footsteps. The White house had a solar heating system that saved up to 30% of the energy used for water heating, installed during the Carter administration. One of reagan’s first deeds in office was to go through the work and expense to tear it down.

  69. 69.

    meh

    February 27, 2011 at 11:48 am

    well it will be entertaining a year from now when the unions are pushing a Recall Initiative on his ass…

  70. 70.

    Nethead Jay

    February 27, 2011 at 11:50 am

    @ppcli: You just made me howl out loud with laughter. I’m in Denmark, working in the IT department of Siemens Wind Power, so you can probably understand why.

    I’m kinda curious, are you descended from the Nordic immigrants that are spread out over the upper midwest. I was sometimes taken for such back when I was in the US :)

  71. 71.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:51 am

    @Nethead Jay:

    Translation for us not versed in Scandinavian languages?

  72. 72.

    kdaug

    February 27, 2011 at 11:51 am

    @Gravenstone:

    Why not just shutter the whole thing and point to it as “another Democrat [sic] folly”?

    Because, incidentally, Texas has the largest installed wind generation capacity of any state.

    Plenty of money to be made. Just not if you’re a coal refiner.

  73. 73.

    iriedc

    February 27, 2011 at 11:52 am

    @Kryptik: “Green Fascism.” Ah, yes. I’m gonna be using that more. Thanks, I think…

  74. 74.

    kdaug

    February 27, 2011 at 11:53 am

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Beat me to it.

  75. 75.

    celiadexter

    February 27, 2011 at 11:53 am

    Simple — the Koch brothers don’t want it (guess why). End of story.

  76. 76.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2011 at 11:54 am

    @General Stuck: I didn’t say it was a competent long game.

    Look at the Pittsburgh Pirates. They have a plan — it’s just that it doesn’t work.

  77. 77.

    Ash Can

    February 27, 2011 at 11:54 am

    @J:

    What gives?

    In the case of Walker, it appears to me that he was simply elected on false pretenses. He said all the right things and never gave away just how dangerous he was, and the voters took him at his word. As far as I’m concerned, Walker is an honest-to-goodness fits-the-description-to-a-T Manchurian Candidate.

  78. 78.

    Mike in NC

    February 27, 2011 at 11:55 am

    @Navigator:

    Walker is an employee of the Koch machine. He does not care if he’s able to work with Wisconsin Democrats after this. He does not care if he’s recalled.

    True enough. Never heard of this clown until the union-busting became national news, but no matter his political future, he’ll always be entitled to a comfy leather chair in the Koch Industries boardroom.

  79. 79.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2011 at 11:55 am

    @J: Team spirit.

    People don’t vote policies, and they don’t even vote personalities down-ticket, they vote for teams.

  80. 80.

    Ron

    February 27, 2011 at 11:56 am

    Just reading this stuns me. Sure, I expect all sorts of stuff from the right, but given that their mantra has been “deregulate,deregulate,deregulate” how on earth do they come up with “oh, here, regulation is a Good Thing(tm).”? Usually the hypocrisy is slightly less blatant than this.

  81. 81.

    asiangrrlMN

    February 27, 2011 at 11:56 am

    @S. cerevisiae: And look how close MN was to electing Emmer, who would have made Walker look like a genius. I am with you on the fear.

    @arguingwithsignposts: Got them right here. I was thinking the same damn thing. You bring the tar and feathers.

  82. 82.

    General Stuck

    February 27, 2011 at 11:58 am

    Koch coal refineries, and this from Kthug

    And then there’s this: “Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).”

    Fuck a bunch of hippie wind when there’s millions to be made the old fashioned way.

    edit – “no bid contracts” where have we heard that before? It’s The Wisconsin Provisional Authority.

  83. 83.

    Bill H.

    February 27, 2011 at 11:58 am

    @Kryptik:
    Yeah, well. There is a company that wants to put a desalination plant in San Diego, but an environmental group is blocking it because fish get killed when they get sucked against the intake screens. Meanwhile, those same environmentalists don’t care that the Salmon have all but disappeared because we have overfished them, that the Colorado River no longer reaches the Gulf of California because we drain it dry… Why worry about the big problems when you can get all caught up in the little ones.

    Like saving the few birds that fly into turbines instead of worrying about the whole fucking planet heating up due to burning coal.

  84. 84.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 11:58 am

    @Davis X. Machina:

    The more I see things, it more it feels like the GOP is the Yankees rather than the Pirates. Dump money into the short term, you’re always competitive because you bought out most of the high talent, and the long game doesn’t really matter since you can always sink more and more money into it the next year. Everyone hates the Yankees except their devout followers, and you can just never be rid of them since they have so much money they just never go away.

  85. 85.

    Nethead Jay

    February 27, 2011 at 11:59 am

    @Kryptik: Translation: “Watch out! Look behind you”.

  86. 86.

    KCinDC

    February 27, 2011 at 11:59 am

    Is there some message in the fact that the BP ad covers up your last paragraph so I can’t read it? Is that ever going to be fixed?

  87. 87.

    A commenter on a blog, (formerly Jay C)

    February 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    SATSQ:

    Walker’s proposed wind-power restrictions/effective ban, while nominally inexplicable – unlike his high-speed rail rejection, which had at least some vaguely rational (if highly questionable) financial basis – can be seen in real simple terms:

    A) Protection of future revenue streams for his corporate-crony paymasters.

    B) “Justifiable” by stock Republican hippie-environmentalist-punching.

    Believe me, if the Koch Brothers had major investments in a renewable-energy company, there would be a giant friggin’ windmill on the roof of the State Capitol by year’s end.

  88. 88.

    Superluminar

    February 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    Something is rotten in the state of Denmark…

  89. 89.

    scarshapedstar

    February 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    Even the “liberals are for it so I’m agin it” principle falls flat.

    Not really. WIND POWER IS FOR FAGS!

  90. 90.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    @Kryptik: With this additional parallel — the Yankees also suck.

  91. 91.

    J

    February 27, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    @Kryptik: I guess that’s as good an answer as any, but the question it raises in its turn is: how did we get to this pass? Years of mendacious propaganda, virtually unopposed by voices of sanity? The fact that the Democratic party, which for all its faults is the only party which offers any hope, has been struck in deer in the headlights mode for over a decade now? Time for everyone’s favorite quotation from Yeats: ‘Wider and wider in the circling gyre…’.

  92. 92.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Well, yes, I thought that much was obvious even left unsaid. Just because they suck though doesn’t mean they don’t win. Which is entirely why politics depress me more and more. The GOP and their policies and planning suck, but they still fucking win almost all the fucking time, simply because of the country’s tendency toward Hippie Punching above all else.

  93. 93.

    Chris

    February 27, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    This article blames it on the realtors.

  94. 94.

    BGinCHI

    February 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: I wish the Cubs sucked as bad as the Yanks…..

  95. 95.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    @J:

    Pretty much. Republicans gaming the refs, DLC folks reaching out to the other side while kicking their own side in the nuts, all for the sake of ‘bipartisanship’, and the general tendency of the GOP to promote their crazies while the Dems run from anyone deemed ‘crazy’ as fast as they can. I mean, Glenn Beck basically acts as the voice of the GOP while the Dems couldn’t denounce Michael Moore fast enough. That’s not even a fair comparison and yet it still demonstrates the mendacity and the fecklessness that have lead to this point.

  96. 96.

    BGinCHI

    February 27, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    @Chris:

    “This legislation would pretty much kill any large wind turbine project in Wisconsin, and even a one- or two-turbine project could be defeated by one neighbor who doesn’t want to look at a turbine,” said Wes Slaymaker, a Madison-based wind developer.

    If a guy named Slaymaker can’t get it done, I’m really worried.

  97. 97.

    Kryptik

    February 27, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    Slaymaker, on the other hand, sounds like an awesome name for a Pro Wrestling finisher or a fighting game attack.

  98. 98.

    Ash Can

    February 27, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    @J: The complicit mass news media have played a huge role as well.

  99. 99.

    asiangrrlMN

    February 27, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    @J: And, the Republicans have the advantage of being able to flat-out lie. It makes things simpler. Plus, they appeal to the lizard brain. “Cut taxes. Get the ebil gubmint outta your bizness”, etc. “Government is evil” is a pretty easy message to push and swallow.

    @Ash Can: Ooooh, ooooh, this, too. A liberal heavily invested in pushing the status quo doesn’t help the Democratic (yes, capital D) cause, either.

    ETA: Ha ha, FYWP! I have gotten around your dastardly “cannot edit” shenanigans.

  100. 100.

    iriedc

    February 27, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    @Kryptik: Hey…Leave my damn Yankees outta this, seez this native NYer…

    Now, if you replace “Yankees” with “Dallas Cowboys” I’m with you.

  101. 101.

    A commenter on a blog, (formerly Jay C)

    February 27, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Ha ha, FYWP! I have gotten around your dastardly “cannot edit” shenanigans.

    Plz share.
    kthx.

  102. 102.

    The Raven

    February 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    Koch Industries sells coal.

    Next question, please?

    I’ll offer this bit of unasked explanation: in Walker you hominids are looking at a level and kind of corruption that has not been common in the USA for nearly a century: he is a bought man, plain and simple.

  103. 103.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    @J: A political party predicated on people’s worst instincts begins every election half-a-lap ahead.

    The GOP has, as the Democrats had back in the days of the Dixiecrats, a substantial tailwind in the form of the inherent depravity of mankind.

  104. 104.

    jwb

    February 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    @Kryptik: The GOP didn’t just game the refs, and that was never the main goal, which is one reason that fighting back against it has been so ineffectual. The gaming was a mere distraction that veiled the structural shift below. What radical conservatives and their fellow travelers actually did was buy off the refs. More can be explained by the changed ownership of media properties than by simply working the refs. Then, too, they also invested heavily in think tanks to produce and reproduce talking points and used these to flood the media channels so that the distracted audience would get the same “information” from a wide variety of sources. This gave the talking points the illusion of coherence and veracity, because they seemed not to come from one source.

  105. 105.

    suzanne

    February 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    The only not-completely-nefarious (but still stupid) reason I can think of is that some people really hate the look of the wind turbines and often try to make it difficult to build them near real estate of any significant value. But I can’t imagine wanting to block wind expansion altogether. Fucking ridiculous.

    This guy makes Governor Brewer look like a paragon of sanity.

    Thank you, Wisconsin, for replacing Arizona as the national punchline.

  106. 106.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    @A commenter on a blog, (formerly Jay C): Right-click on ‘click to edit’ — and open in a new tab…

  107. 107.

    FlipYrWhig

    February 27, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: Also, practically half the elected Democrats are _also_ against many traditional liberal policy preferences, because they’re still concerned with trying to demonstrate–either because it’s true, or because it helps get them elected–that they’re nothing like the ’68ers.

  108. 108.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:Coalition politics — it’s a fact of life that has to be dealt with.

  109. 109.

    GregB

    February 27, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    Wingnut hive mind in action.

    Looking at a wind turbine is unsightly.

    Drinking poisoned fracked water is good business.

  110. 110.

    Joel

    February 27, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    @Bill H.: Man, why’d you have to go and make me look silly in the very next post!

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    February 27, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Hippie punching: it’s not just for breakfast anymore.

  112. 112.

    TJ

    February 27, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    This is rhetorical, right? The whole pointof crony capitalism is that cronies get all the money.

  113. 113.

    shortstop

    February 27, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    I like to kid myself that I’m all sophisticated and cynical and shit about craven political moves, but this one’s put what can only be described as a slack-jawed expression of incredulity on my face.

    Not withholding tax incentives from the wind industry. Not stacking the deck against the wind industry via corporate giveaways to fossil fuel producers. Not even mounting a public information campaign against wind power. Not those things. No, an outright freaking BAN on wind power. The ballz.

  114. 114.

    Frank

    February 27, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    J @59 ~ What gives? I’ve wondered about this myself. I asked my sister, a high school history teacher in red southern California (she’s a Dem) what percentage of people are irretrievably stupid. She thought about 30% of our citizens meet that definition. On dark days, I think that figure may be more like 35-40%. Anyway, what gives is that a chunk of informed, well-intentioned voters stay home; an angry swarm of tea party pinheads and such do vote, and a wide swathe of people who feel compelled to vote but not compelled to properly inform themselves vote for whoever has had the slickest, most compelling, perhaps more dishonest campaign. That is my best guess. Or maybe they vote for whoever Dad said Rush said was the best. “… the worst are full of passionate intensity…” — Yeats

  115. 115.

    jaleh

    February 27, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    “I’m kind of speechless. For what possible reason..”

    Don’t the Republicans make you feel this way EVERY day?

  116. 116.

    Ray

    February 27, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    Wind turbines have just as much corporate backing as coal plants; landowners get $5000 per year per turbine. Walker’s proposal was IIRC was to increase setbacks for turbines, not forbid them. It might be helpful to know that (amazingly) the largest contributor to Walker’s campaign was not the Kochs but the state association of realtors.

  117. 117.

    aimai

    February 27, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    @Navigator:

    Yes, that’s an excellent description. He’s like the apotheosis of Bush’s “I don’t negotiate with myself.” He sees no need to negotiate with the democrats, or the voters, because he doesn’t actually plan on having a relationship with them. He’s a wholly owned subsidiary of his own ambitions and the wealthy.

    aimai

  118. 118.

    ppcli

    February 27, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    @Nethead Jay: Not a Dane by descent. I worked there for a couple of years when I was out of high school. Out in the countryside, where people don’t speak English as well as they tend to in Copenhagen. So I learned the language pretty well. Well enough to be able to pronounce “Rødegrøde med fløde” and Rødby havn” correctly, anyway. Which is half the battle.

  119. 119.

    ppcli

    February 27, 2011 at 12:51 pm

    @Kryptik: Wasn’t Lemmy in Slaymaker before he formed Motörhead?

  120. 120.

    Dennis SGMM

    February 27, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    @Ray:
    As I understand it, a setback had already been established after a long series of negotiations by the various stakeholders. Walker wants to substantially increase the setback with the result that just if a property owner wanted to have just one turbine he would need to have over 51 acres of clear space around it.

  121. 121.

    Elia

    February 27, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    Don’t understand how anyone could think the answer to the question doesn’t involve the Kochs or at the least other relevant energy industry players. Amazingly bald-faced, this level of corruption. But I guess during the darkest days of the first Gilded Age, things got about this crude as well.

  122. 122.

    J

    February 27, 2011 at 1:07 pm

    @Frank: Thanks @asiangrrlMN: @Davis X. Machina: Thanks! I’m feeling more than usually distressed and beleaguered by all this. Solidarity helps a little.

  123. 123.

    Nerull

    February 27, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    It did increase the seback. It increased it so far that, given the population density of WI, it would make it really hard to build wind turbines anywhere. The reasoning given was that people don’t like living near them.

    I’ve lived near the campus heating and cooling plant, which is coal fired (Through they’re changing it over to natural gas now). It was loud, noisy, and dirty. I didn’t like living near it. I don’t see Walker campaigning against coal.

  124. 124.

    Common Sense

    February 27, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    The GOP is nothing like the Yankees. Has anyone bothered to count the number of Yankees with a Hispanic surname or dark skin?

  125. 125.

    Nethead Jay

    February 27, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    @ppcli: Hehe, cool. I took the opposite trip, living and working around the USA for some time, so it’s become sort of my 2nd country. You’re quite right that the pronunciation is half the battle. Funny thing, we’re actually building a very big offshore wind farm not too far from Rødby…

  126. 126.

    BillinChicago

    February 27, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    Another example of Koch-In-His-Mouth Syndrome?

  127. 127.

    asiangrrlMN

    February 27, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    @Yutsano: Hi, you. How you be? I’m sick. Ugh.

    @A commenter on a blog, (formerly Jay C): As noted, right-click on edit and open in another tab/window. Then, you can haz edit!

  128. 128.

    Yutsano

    February 27, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: Oh and your mom just happens to be available to make black chicken soup for you. How lucky you are!

    I was thinking last night, and there is no way a gubmint shutdow gets avoided. Boehner doesn’t have the wherewithal to line up the teabaggers and they will not compromise on anything evah. So I’m stocking up on food ans settling in for a long forced vacation starting next week.

  129. 129.

    Pangloss

    February 27, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    Get ready— there will be many more Walkers in the next decade or two. This is what home schooling gets ‘ya— indoctrination of radical right wing policies at the existential level, total lack of questioning of belief systems, authoritarian impulses, etc.

  130. 130.

    Quiddity

    February 27, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    Is this accurate? From Think Progress:

    In late January, Walker introduced a bill that would ban wind-powered energy from Wisconsin …

    That was a near-verbatim copy of something written at Uppity Wisconsin (blog). I followed the links, and all I saw was this:

    Currently, turbines must be built at least 1,250 feet from nearby homes. Walker wants to push that back to at least 1,800 feet away.

    While I think Walker is a bad guy, I also think we should be accurate when discussing what’s happening out there. I don’t think it’s right to say he wants to “ban” wind-powered energy.

  131. 131.

    Corpsicle

    February 27, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Perhaps it’s time for an advertising campaign, to let people know about other things progressives like. Since the rightards automatically reject everything we think is a good idea, we might be able to improve the gene pool a little.

    Looking both ways before crossing the road
    Eating fruits and vegetables
    Not using a hair dryer while in the bathtub
    Flossing teeth
    Using seatbelts
    Getting regular exercise

  132. 132.

    Msskwesq

    February 27, 2011 at 2:40 pm

    http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011102250329

    The above link to the Des Moines Register is very telling article on the early life of Scott Walker. Seems that he is the son of a very conservative Baptist Minister in a small town in Iowa (think Steve King)….

  133. 133.

    PanurgeATL

    February 27, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    @shortstop:

    Well, that’s the thing. You yourself have just admitted that Scott Walker has ballz. Well…People like ballz. If you want to stop the likes of Scott Walker, don’t describe him as someone with ballz.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    February 27, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:
    A little more satisfying.

  135. 135.

    Alan in SF

    February 27, 2011 at 4:38 pm

    It’s absolutely to piss off the liberals. They would ban recycling, Priuses, and low-sodium canned soups if they could. They’re already trying to prevent bicycling and trains. The only surprise is that Obama hasn’t tried tpo pre-empt them by proposing a 40 percent cutback in wind power usage.

  136. 136.

    shortstop

    February 27, 2011 at 7:26 pm

    @PanurgeATL: It’s not a universal compliment.

    Good: “Yes, indeedy, that guy’s got balls.”
    Not good: “The fucking balls on that guy!”

  137. 137.

    TenguPhule

    February 27, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    Perhaps the greatest flaw of American Democracy is that we had no enshrined tradition of removing corrupt politicos no matter how blatent they are.

  138. 138.

    bob

    February 27, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    Now in easy to digest graphic format:

    http://cdn.other98.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/walker-final.jpg

  139. 139.

    DPirate

    February 27, 2011 at 10:05 pm

    It is quite stupid to just ban wind turbines from an entire state. There are valid reasons to ban them on a situational basis, though. They can be loud, they can mar the landscape, and the interruption of sunlight by the vanes/fins can cause problems for people or livestock in the shadow area. They need to be locateds remotely and in agreement with the local population.

  140. 140.

    scarshapedstar

    February 27, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    @DPirate:

    They blot out the sun! Up next on the existential threat list: TREES.

    the interruption of sunlight by the vanes/fins trunks/limbs can cause problems for people or livestock in the shadow area.

    CUT ‘EM ALL DOWN BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

  141. 141.

    JW

    February 28, 2011 at 12:03 am

    @New Yorker: Correct

  142. 142.

    Andy Olsen

    February 28, 2011 at 12:06 am

    Yes, the Realtors had a hand in writing this bill and openly admit they support it. The bill increases setbacks from property lines where turbines may be put to the point that it makes wind power development impossible.

    In addition, the bill allows the restriction to be waived with agreement by neighboring land owners – but only if a licensed real estate broker or attorney sign off on it.

    So, IOW, it creates numerous avenues to sue the industry as well as giving Realtors a big chunk of the business.

    It’s about as crass as it gets around here. First the train defeat, then wind power then the union-busting. It’s almost as if Scott Walker can’t quit the Koch line, you know?

  143. 143.

    Pat

    February 28, 2011 at 4:53 am

    Everything that this governor is doing is for just two people – the brothers Koch. Believe your lying eyes.

  144. 144.

    Surly Duff

    February 28, 2011 at 10:37 am

    All Wisonsin windmills tilt to the left.

Comments are closed.

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