Good people of Clusterville,

It’s been a terrible week and a long night with the loss of three icons near and dear to so many of us in rapid succession.  Their passing in the same week hits the emotions like a train wreck… 

It’s understandable to reflect on times gone by when Ed McMahon heralded in the Tonight Show each weekday night singing out – Heeeeeerrrrrrrs Johnny!!!!  He played the consummate straight man to so many memorable skits that kept us laughing to well past midnight… and trying to remember all the great jokes the next morning at work.

Then there was Farah Faucet who took the lead in Charlie’s Angels and burst into everyone’s thoughts with stunning beauty, incredible grace, and captivating smile…   And… if we guys could close our mouths and stop drooling long enough… we realized she really could act.

And then there’s the one and only, the King of Pop…  Michal Jackson…  He rocked with us through so many nights and so many days…  He captured our attention in a flash singing songs that froze us in place and that still remind us where we were when each song hit the airwaves on radio…   And then he blew us away, thrilling us with his dancing and singing on videos… and doing the unbelievable moon-walk backwards across the stage…

There’s a time to morn…  a time to reflect,…  a time to realize that none of us get out of this thing called life alive… and a time to move on because we’re still here and life goes on...

Doing so today is particularly important if you reside here in the United States.  The reason why follows…

I realize CH.com is a forum where we meet to exchange information on our cluster headaches and that many of you see no room for political discussions.  Having said that, members of the House of Representatives are going to vote on a piece of legislation today called H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 This is a piece of legislation will easily become the topic of many posts if passed into law as it will represent the single largest tax increase in history of the United States...  And it will affect all of us not just the rich and the evil corporations.

It’s also too much like the stimulus bill that Congress passed without reading.  The House leadership even sent out a 300 page amendment early this morning to appease the party faithful with weak knees… 

Even one of the bill’s sponsors, Representative Waxman admitted on TV that he had not read the bill and that it was written by climate change “experts.”  One of the most shocking admissions is none of the bill’s supporters know what it’s really going to cost us…  Yet they’re trying to push it through the legislative docket faster than the stimulus bill…  You can download a pdf copy from the following link like I did:

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Make no mistake…  this is a bill designed to produce revenue by taxing you and nearly every thing you do one way or another. The government will use this bill as public law to tax every activity that consumes fossil fuel.  In short it’s a carbon tax.

If the Democrats in the House of Representatives want this Energy Bill so bad, and so fast, my thinking was it’s got to be terrible… so I stopped reading reviews and comments by others and began reading the copy I downloaded.

I’ve been reading it since yesterday and the words “frightening” and “terrible” are a gross understatement…  Just say “NO!” is my overall reaction.  You may see it differently and think it’s a good bill…  That’s your right.

If you want to see comments and estimates of the impact this legislation will have on our lives, the things we do and much of what we buy, please take the time to go to the following links or look up links on your own:

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Once you’ve done this, and if you see this legislation as a threat our economy, our freedoms, and the way we live as I do, make the time to call your Congressman’s office this and tell him or her you OPPOSE The American Clean Energy And Security Act,, H.R. 2454, a.k.a. “Cap in Trade” and “the Waxman-Markey Bill.”   

You can contact your Representative to the 111th Congress through the following link.  Send an email or a fax and take the time to call:

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Calling the local office in your district rather than the Washington DC number will save time and money.  The DC operator is overloaded.  If you want to add emphasis to your call, politely tell the assistant to inform you Representative to seek employment elsewhere come election time if he or she votes in favor of this carbon tax.

Thanks and take care,

V/R, Batch

I heard that the powers that be are rather pleased as the vote for it was supposed to be only one or two votes apart.

As for not reading bills. Notning new there. It's been that way on both sides ever since I can remember. They count on summaries....not a good idea but they do. You have to wonder what the tradeoff is. To be sure there's something afoot. Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Charlie

I confess that the big part of my ambivalence toward the bill is money. The are supposed to build one of these bizarre "carbon capture' power plants here in Jamestown. The mayor has a real hardon for it. Everybody knows that it would significantly raise our electric rates. Jamestown has about the cheapest power around. My bills average between 25 and 30 dollars thanks to Niagara Falls and our own system that we use very little most of the time.

Finding places underground to pump CO2 seems a bit strange too.

Charlie

There's supposed to be one of these things in Norway, I think. No doubt that it's Svenn's fault..

Charlie