Fighting The Inevitable? Do the Math.

Several times over the last few years we've kept you up to date with the skirmish over installing the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska - and over the world's largest underground freshwater body of water, the Ogallala Aquifer. Polls have proven what we already knew - a majority of Nebraskans do NOT want the pipeline where the oil company wants it to be. TransCanada, the company trying to drive the pipeline through Nebraskans seems confident that they'll succeed in jamming the pipeline through. There are even indications some State Department personnel may have acted as internal lobbyists - and may have possibly been bought off.

In theory, the State Department is supposed to be listening to what Nebraskans want or don't want from the pipeline, at two hearings scheduled this week in Lincoln and Atkinson.

Many don't believe the State Department is listening at all. Contrary to the rosy picture some media outlets are attempting to propagandize with, the pipeline won't create very many jobs for Nebraska workers. Labor unions have been duped into thinking Nebraskans will get long-term stable, good paying jobs from this project. Most welders and installers will be brought in by the TransCanda corporation from outside the state, just as they've done elsewhere. Even IF the pipeline is allowed to be built, once the initial construction is completed - in little more than two years - those jobs will all go away.

Any claims that the Keystone XL pipeline will generate energy for the U.S. for years to come are also a load of bull. When oil is sold on the world market, it isn't labeled 'American' or 'Saudi'. Companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron sell any oil pumped in America at the going global rate - a rate determined mostly overseas by OPEC - and America doesn't get a discount because it's buying oil that was pumped here.

Further, as we already noted earlier this year, if there is an oil spill that gets into the Ogallala Aquifer we could be making the Great Plains an uninhabitable wasteland. Farmers, ranchers, and everyone else living in an area from North Dakota to Texas, and from the Rockies to the Missouri River could be forced to find a different source for drinking water and agricultural irrigation if tar sands oil leaks into the aquifer.

If you go to the meetings this week, we don't recommend trusting TransCanada's assurances about how safe they can be. TransCanada's rival, Enbridge, still hasn't cleaned up their "small" oil spill in Michigan from last year - the same kind of incredibly toxic tar sands oil TransCanada wants to pump across the Ogallala Aquifer. Formerly pristine Michigan wetlands that were perfect for hunting and fishing are still damaged, and don't look to be cleaned up in the forseeable future.

The disaster on the Yellowstone River in Montana that TransCanada promised would be safe is even more serious. That oil pipeline has now been turned back on after being reburied deep enough so that when it leaks, no one downstream is likely to know for years. Folks in every state along the Missouri and lower Mississippi would be wise to test their water quality far more often than they do now.

All of this unnecessary risk over an energy source that won't do anything to curb America's addiction to oil, makes little sense.

Meanwhile, the Chinese expect to grow their solar power use by over ONE THOUSAND PERCENT in the next four years. Chinese government officials are literally laughing at America's failure to jump on board the green energy technology explosion. Back at home, right-wing extremists continue desperately trying to claim Solyndra was a failure of the Obama Administration, even though much of its support and loan money was authorized under the Bush regime.

Regardless of what the paranoid idiots claim, the mathematical facts regarding the U.S. energy situation haven't changed.

Solyndra was only ONE of forty alternative energy companies our government supported - and the others have all succeeded to various degrees. The green economy will easily overcome Solyndra's bankruptcy. Meanwhile, an oil company responsible for both major and minor oil disasters in the last few years is supposed to be given a hands-off approach to endangering the primary water supply for millions of Americans living in the center third of the country? That doesn't compute.

When you add up the risks of endangering the food and water security of America for generations while possibly depopulating the entire central United States, against a few hundred short-term jobs that might not even go to Americans who live in the area where the work is planned, we just can't see the benefits.

Do the math, folks. Kill the pipeline, before it kills us.

Friday Funday: Autumn, A Season Of Change

As we began looking at topics of interest for today, we had to laugh - heartily - at Paul's cartoon. Rarely has there been a more succinct statement of where our country sits on the issue of taxation these days. It's a massive change from the sane policy position of an America long past where - instead of peddling themselves as a speaker at a political event for one party or the other - Supreme Court judges might impart a simple bit of wisdom like, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society."

As we head into Autumn - the season of change - we're noticing how many more things around us also keep changing.

Another Lincoln legend, Barry's Bar and Grill, is closing after the Husker Football season closes. It's a place we've enjoyed many times over the years, both during football season and other times of the year.It wasn't that long ago that Barry's was rated as the #2 best bar in the nation for pregame football festivities. We've even held our North Central Chapter National Cartoonists Society meeting in Barry's Outback. We thank Lou Mary, Mike, and the Hambeltons for allowing a bunch of crazy cartoonists to take over their bar on a weekend when the Huskers weren't playing at home.

The changes aren't just happening in businesses, the weather, and the trees. Online, one of the tools we use - Facebook - is changing once again. Many people, including our own web monkey, aren't exactly thrilled with that development.

Sadly, a rock radio station we've enjoyed in DC also recently changed formats - temporarily - to another right-wing talking head repeater. We're aware the change is due to radio companies buying each other out, and not because right-wing talk radio is doing well (it's not). Still, it's not a change we're in favor of.

Not all changes are bad, though.

Apparently, household income in Nebraska grew slightly between 2009 and 2010 - which is an improvement for Nebraska. After nearly a decade where the income of middle class Americans fell by almost ten percent, we'll cheer a positive change in the status of working people any where we can find it.

Even the perception of beer as unhealthy has been changing. A group of scientists and brewers in Europe has apparently just released a study that says beer can be good for your health.

Of course, this last story of change came from one of our readers who lives in Denver, where the Great American Beer Festival is going on this weekend - so we're not quite convinced he's pointing us to an unbiased study.

Still, as seasons go, while we might complain and grumble a bit about the changes we see, the autumn rains, or even the chill in the air, we generally like fall. Our staff in our Palm Beach location even tells us they wish they could come back up to DC or Lincoln and enjoy the colors and brisk weather of autumn.

We'll see if they're still so intent on coming up and enjoying the weather when January comes around.

Excuses

We've never been big on excuses here at The Daily Felltoon. If we screw up, we'll cop to it - and if someone or something else fails in our production chain, we'll let you know about that too.

Sadly, we know we're not the norm these days when it comes to that kind of integrity. There are examples-a-plenty, from DC, New York, and many areas across the Northeast today.

The excuses from DC are sadly the exact same ridiculous problems, caused by the exact same arrogant and ignorant politicians, that almost blew up the world economy at the beginning of August. Once again, the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have purposely tanked another Continuing Resolution (in Washington-speak, a "C.R.") - and once again have put the Federal government on the verge of shutting down.

Long and short, Democrats wanted to help their fellow Americans in the Northeast who are still trying to recover from Hurricane Irene and the unusual earthquake near DC. Republicans, meanwhile, were trying to use the temporary spending bill to push ideological measures down everybody else's throats.

Of course, this is after the top Republican "leaders" in Congress tried to bully Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke into doing NOTHING to help the economy.

These are the same DC Republicans who excuse their own abusive and destructive actions with the same lies they've been telling for years.

To add injury to insult, in addition to dealing with the usual excuses and lies coming from that corner of Washington, folks in the Northeast may find themselves paying more this year for pumpkins for their jack-o-lanterns, or for pumpkin pies.

Hurricane Irene didn't just leave flood damage from New Jersey to Vermont She also destroyed a large number of pumpkins in the Northeast - meaning Northeastern produce buyers have been desperate to find pumpkins anywhere else in the country they can bring in.

Maybe they should try growing them in trees, like they do in Iowa.

Sadly, while these stories have all received some media coverage over the last twenty-four hours, the national media - which is primarily based out of New York City - has almost completely ignored a massive story right on their own streets - literally.

The Occupy Wall Street protests are now going into their fifth day - yet there's been no major media exposure for an event that most of the national networks could cover by sticking a camera out their sixth- floor studio windows. So far, the event has turned out considerably smaller numbers than the twenty thousand that protest organizers had hoped for. Still, the numbers for this protest are already far bigger than many ridiculous Tea Party protests that major media outlets have blanketed before - and the protestors are vowing to camp out indefinitely.

All this, yet... all that the major media outlets are giving the public on this story are excuses why they're not covering the story.

There are many things we can excuse in life - like the possibility that we may not be able to enjoy pumpkins in our DC location this Halloween.

However, the actions of Republicans in DC or the inaction by major national media in New York are things we just can't excuse - and we hope you don't either.