Bless his heart, Ted Cruz didn’t get the memo. Again.
That would be the memo — the extensive reporting, in fact — shooting holes in industry predictions that if the Keystone Pipeline is allowed to be built from Alberta, Canada, down through the Midwest and over the Ogallala Aquifer, through Oklahoma, and on to Texas Gulf Coast refineries, we’ll all get lots of jobs. Sure, and gas will cost 75 cents a gallon, the environment will be saved, and no, of course, the NSA is not reading your e-mail. The truth: Creation of lots of jobs by the Keystone is as much a fantasy as the rest of that stuff. Plus, most of the toxic goop has already been pre-sold to China and other foreign countries, and when tar sands bitumen pipelines break — which they do at alarmingly high rates — you almost can’t clean up the mess because the stuff just sinks into the ground. What else? Oh yes: Having the stuff go through the international free-trade port at Port Arthur means the U.S. government won’t collect taxes on it either.
So: few jobs, no additional U.S. fuel, no U.S. revenue, and lots of future environmental disasters.
Nonetheless, there was our junior U.S. senator from Texas speaking at a Sept. 25 press conference supporting the building of the Keystone. “This is about jobs and yet … tens of thousands of people have been denied jobs. The president should approve this and allow those jobs to be created,” he said.
Cruz went on to discuss how the Keystone pipeline would make this country energy-independent and produce billions in additional tax dollars. He also said that rejecting the pipeline would mean the tar sands bitumen would be shipped to China for refining there and that China would refine it in a dirty way, ruining the environment. No kidding. He really said all that.
Last week, there was a lot of news suggesting a much different perspective on the Keystone. Carol Browner, former White House energy and climate czar, predicted that President Barack Obama will ultimately say no to the building of the line. She was speaking at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. At the same meeting, former Vice President Al Gore called the Keystone XL pipeline — the southern section currently nearing completion in Oklahoma and Texas — “an atrocity” and said approving the northern section of the line would be “a threat to our future.”
Meanwhile, Environment Canada, a Canadian government agency, announced that that country is nowhere near where it should be to meet its 2020 obligations, set by the Copenhagen Agreement, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At least part of the reason for that is the continuing mining of Alberta’s vast tar sands fields.
Here’s hoping Obama will take a long look and ultimately say no to the pipeline project. Static started to also voice the hope that Cruz would get some facts straight and stop spouting nonsense that was debunked years ago.
But then Static remembered that Cruz gets lots of financial backing from the Koch brothers and that the Koch brothers own the rights to about 2 million acres of tar sands in Alberta worth up to $100 billion.
Ah. Perhaps Cruz did get the memo.
What a piece of garbage article…
Can you elaborate? I would like to hear your arguments.
Don’t hold your breath.
The Fort Worth Weekly never met a good conservative or a bad liberal. Can’t wait to see how they characterize Obama’s “if you like your insurance you can keep it” promise, or how they reconcile liberals’ complaints that under abortion-restrictve laws “government gets between a woman and her doctor” with the fact that under Obamacare, government gets between EVERYONE and their doctors.
The problem American Republicans face is not the Fort Worth Weekly. Where do you live….do you read the paper… you on some kind of dope…you watch TV ? You hear about the Repugs and the Baggers shutting our country down? My country, our country, clearly is the laughing-stock of this planet. What on God’s earth are you blabbing about? Abortion restricted laws? What are you smoking? What do you eat? George W. Bush Jr. (if he would crawl out from hiding under his mansion in Dallas & read the paper) is even smart enough to see that Cruz is dumb as a rock. The hammer-headed Republicans in our Congress have brought us shame and disgrace. Good grief !!
I trust Ben’s remarks make perfect sense to a liberal.
‘Remarks make sense’ ??? You are familiar with American becoming the laughingstock of our galaxy, are you not? Have you read the paper…can you read? Parks closed up, paychecks for government workers not issued, heros graveyards unattended, Russkies & Chinamen laughing at America and slapping their legs, lifelong Repugs …who are able to read… both snarling and cursing the Baggers in Congress, workers without paychecks, families disconnected, airports shut down etc., etc., etc. Tea-bagging nit-wits were sent to Washington by local nit-wits, with both the insight and maturity of a stink-bug, to manage this great country of Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Kennedy. America became the dead-beat of the world, OUT OF BUISNESS! LOCKED DOWN. Thank you Tea-Bagger. You’re a real prize, I’m sure the Klan and your sweet Mama are proud of you. Take a bow. Then keep talking & dig yourselved deeper in the doo-doo.
I have to laugh, because I’ve outsmarted even myself. My enemy, my foe, is a pipeline. In order to conquer the pipeline, I have to learn to think like a pipeline. And, whenever possible, to look like one. I’ve gotta get inside this guy’s pelt and crawl around for a few days.
Joe must be a pipeliner or some sort liner. EVERYTHING in the article has been known as fact for awhile now come on Joe get your head out of the pipe or out of Sarah Cruzs rear end
Well, Static, you’ve clearly demonstrated just how much fun you have with the Cruzisms. Your editorials are truly adorable.
So you continue to tout the Weekly’s in-your-face bias. Fine.
For future reference, predictions by the former White House energy and climate czar and Al Gore at a Center for American Progress anniversary meeting does not amount to “alot of news.” However, I understand news takes on a different meaning inside your editorial department than elsewhere. Projecting estimated job growth for any industry is not a fact-based game and the estimates provided by any entity are not statements of fact.
You provided one quote from Cruz and it included an ellipses. Was that really the best you could do, Static? Is that all you’ve got?
Why don’t you tell us how much financial backing the evil Koch siblings give Cruz? Or do details escape your memory? Or is that just what you’ve heard around the liberal think water tank?
I have to assume the Weekly would celebrate government-implemented restrictions that regulate the amount of news stories and the type of news stories US media outlets can disseminate each week by law. I think that’s fair.
In closing, I’d like to take a moment for reflection with a few statements the Weekly has published on Ted Cruz:
“I know this counts as TMI, but I’m still experiencing an almost post-coital glow over the news that Tea Party bad boy Ted Cruz has a real birth certificate problem.”
“If the Tea Party is tired of the racism accusations, they need to use the authentic Cruz birther flap as a teachable moment and shut the fuck up about Obama being a foreigner.”
“For those who think Texans are know-it-all blowhards, The Cruz is reinforcing the brand.”
“A senator is not a broken-down cruise ship. But in this case, the smell is the same.”
My comments (as if you fucking care):
Why do you have to lie? Surely you are aware that the birther issue rests solely on the fact that our president released a falsified document to the US public and presented it as his authentic birth certificate.
No intellectually honest person can look at the evidence and claim that Obama gave us a real birth certificate. So I’d like to give you the benefit of a doubt and say you never looked at the many scientific analyses done on the alleged Obama birth certificate. If you had, perhaps you’d shut the fuck up about the birthers. If not, you never will because your pride is worth more to you than your honesty. You can gloat all you want but, at the end of the day, you’re the bona fide Texas blowhard.
Keep talking about the weather.
Bless your heart.