The Cost of Free Speech? Five Grand if Lamborn Has His Way

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Talk's not cheap. Not if House Republicans led by Congressman Doug Lamborn get their wish.

Make no mistake, the sole purpose of the Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act, introduced by Congressman Lamborn, is to make it easier for oil and gas companies to drill on public land. In fact, so easy that a permit would be automatically approved if the Department of Interior failed to act in 60 days.  All this while recent polling reflects a much different mood in the West:  only 35 percent said that more public lands should be opened to “responsible energy development.”

It's what money buys today on Capitol Hill. 

The kicker?  If you want to file a protest, you'll have to pony up $5,000.00

But the Congressman didn't stop there: his bill also directs the Department of Interior to commence commercial leasing of oil shale – a practice banned since the days of Herbert Hoover - and not to be confused with the more common shale oil. 

Oh, how the Congressman longs for the days of Hoover.  It was just so much easier then for white men, hell-bent on burning that black gold formed millions of years ago to exert their dominion over the Earth. They poisoned an unsuspecting public the old-fashioned way then: with lead paint, PBB, PCB and dioxins, unencumbered by a skeptical and informed public or concerns over rapidly-depleting natural resources – or a collapsing climate. 

As our departed friend Randy Udall often said about the resource:

“there is three times more energy in a ton of Captain Crunch than there is in a ton of oil shale."

Political fortunes built on the back of oil titans and snake-oil schemes. Have we learned nothing in the last 30 years?

On second thought, things really haven't changed all that much at all.  While those like the Congressman yearn for how things used to be – the rest of us are dreaming of the new exit on the Ronald Reagan Highway – one named "The Future". 

Under your proposed legislation the government would be mandated to offer 10 leases on federal land in 2014.  Before 2016, they would be required to hold 5 commercial lease sales of federal lands for oil shale development, each, no less than 25,000 acres. 125,000 acres of federal land in total.

Interestingly enough, Colorado Springs encompasses 194.7 square miles, which equates to 124, 608 acres. 

Here's an idea Congressman: let's propose we turn your own city in to this national sacrifice zone.  We'll find someone to donate the 382 acres so that you're compliant with your 125,000 acre federal mandate. It only takes 3-5 barrels of fresh water to produce one barrel of oil shale.  You shouldn't have any problem pulling that off in your own back yard.

Oh, wait – Colorado Springs is in a Stage II water shortage, described by its City Council as a crisis.

It's hard to miss the irony that the epicenter of your Congressional District is a microcosm for the same water challenges that would befall the industry you're trying to revive.

I have a suggestion for you when you're home next week giving thanks: head up the hill to Woodland Park and spend 30 minutes over coffee with Eddie Sturman, one of your constituents that Amory Lovins calls one of the smartest men on the planet on energy issues, engine technology and fuel diversity. Complete with a technology facility that is like none-other on the planet.  It's right under your nose.

Stop wasting your district's precious human resources – and start acting like a man who represents one of the most beautiful cities in the Rocky Mountain West – a city worthy of a 21st-century energy vision. A city with the potential to be so much more. A military complex committed to a very different future -one that doesn't involve melting rocks.

Your region lacks nothing but a visionary leader – and a $5,000.00 check.  Stop looking back – we're not going that way.

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Doug Lamborn Joins “Barrycade” WWII Memorial Grandstand

Photo by Colorado Pols

As the Wall Street Journal's Allison Prang reports:

Veterans again visited the closed World War II Memorial, this time joined by lawmakers, at a site that is becoming one of the central symbols of the government shutdown.

The closure of the memorial — thanks to the images of elderly veterans disregarding the shutdown to enter the memorial on Tuesday — has captured the attention of Congress. Many lawmakers have publicly backed the veterans, and made trips to the memorial Wednesday.

“I’m here to support the veterans,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.), calling the yellow caution tape and barricades at the memorial “truly over the top.”

Members of Congress greet veterans entering WWII Memorial #shutdown pic.twitter.com/J79eQDuE3T

— Allison Prang (@AllisonPrang) October 2, 2013

Hearing about Rep. Doug Lamborn's visit yesterday to the site of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall (which has since sort of re-opened) to "support the veterans" visiting the monument during the government shutdown, Colorado Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio felt obliged to respond. 

"While Doug Lamborn was elected to represent the people of El Paso County, he has instead spent his time and energy representing the most extreme wing of the GOP," Palacio said

"Colorado Springs is the city most affected by this Republican shutdown, and has some of the highest numbers of active duty service members, veterans and federal workers of any Congressional district in our nation. A responsible elected official for a district like this would do anything within their power to avoid a shutdown, yet Doug Lamborn has advocated for it.

"Today, Lamborn was shameless enough to stand in front of a group of our nation's veterans at the WWII memorial and tried to shift responsibility to anyone but himself.

"Doug Lamborn should be as embarrassed of his disgraceful behavior as the people of Colorado are at his representation."

With the shutdown of the federal government now in its third day, the narrative of responsibility for the situation, and unpleasant effects like the closure of national parks and monuments, is pretty well set. Public polling overwhelmingly blames Republicans for the shutdown, and just as overwhelmingly says a shutdown isn't the right way to oppose legislation passed three years ago. Much like the contrived photo of Republicans sitting across from prop empty chairs, the public just isn't buying the idea that Republicans are the good guys in this fight. Most Americans, even those who support what the GOP is doing, do understand that the shutdown is a strategy deliberately chosen by conservatives to compel the Obama administration to delay or even scuttle health care reform. It quite logically follows that the effects of the shutdown House Republicans, including all four GOP representatives from Colorado, have forced are their fault. It's not a partisan judgment call, it's simple logic, and if Republicans weren't willing to own those consequences, they shouldn't have chosen this strategy.

The latest talking point in circulation suggests that the administration is "maximizing the pain" by closing the parks and monuments, but you can't plausibly argue that parks and monuments are an "essential" function of government. Believe us, we and the entire population of Estes Park, Colorado wishes that weren't so.

On a certain level, though, you can't blame Lamborn, Michele Bachmann, and the other Republicans grandstanding at the World War II Memorial for doing what they can to reverse this now-set narrative. In the last government shutdown of 1995-96, parks and monuments also closed, and that became a major headache for congressional Republicans–who, like today, were overwhelmingly blamed for what the public considered to be a needless tantrum. With all that in mind, Lamborn probably should be apologizing to those Honor Flight World War II veterans for the inconvenience.

But that, of course, is not going to happen.

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Doug Lamborn Muddles Through Obamacare Shutdown Debate

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs).

As the Colorado Springs Gazette's Tom Roeder reports, Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs is sort of worried about the consequences of a shutdown of the federal government in his party's increasingly desperate battle to kill the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. After all:

A government shutdown should be avoided, Lamborn said. In his military-heavy 5th Congressional District, as much as 40 percent of the economy is based on Pentagon spending.

The Defense Department has warned that a shutdown would delay paychecks for troops and payment on contracts. It would be the first time since the Revolutionary War that the military has delayed pay during wartime.

"No one wants a government shutdown," Lamborn said.

With that said, gentle reader,

[H]e might embrace a shutdown if it puts a wooden stake in Obamacare.

"As bad as a delay of pay would be, we have to remember that Obamacare is causing tremendous turmoil in the economy," Lamborn said. [Pols emphasis]

We seriously doubt the soldiers and defense contractors in his district would agree with that tradeoff. But the fact is, Lamborn's boilerplate rhetoric, and his party's endless fiscal brinkmanship, has always conflicted with the massive economic dependency of the 5th District on government funding and spending. It's a conflict that has been thrown in sharp relief over and over, from Lamborn's hypocritical disaster relief requests–after accusing the administration of using disaster relief to curry political favor, and voting against Hurricane Sandy relief–to the local business Mitt Romney toured last year that received a pile of stimulus money.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously wrote that "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." If Rep. Lamborn is any guide, Fitzgerald was mistaken–we don't know anybody who'd call him a "first-rate intelligence." At the very least, Lamborn is not living up to the "ability to function" part.

Which is, of course, the part that matters.

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Lamborn vs. The “Morning After Pill” (Again)

Plan B.

Reports the Colorado Springs Independent:

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn has reintroduced legislation aimed at banning "morning-after pills" from school clinics. The bill would prohibit federal funding to schools whose clinics provide emergency contraception, which is currently available on drugstore shelves to anyone who wants to buy it.

In a press release, Lamborn argued that school clinics should not carry the pill, citing various risks. The pill has long been targeted by conservatives who claim it can cause a fertilized egg to abort…

More from Rep. Doug Lamborn's press release:

"Schools should not be giving these powerful drugs to our children. In addition to the emotional and behavioral risks associated with these drugs, these drugs can do serious physical harm. The manufacturer of one of these drugs warns of the increased possibility of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke. Parents must be involved in important choices like this for their children, and school-based health clinics exclude parents from the decision. [Pols emphasis]

"This is outrageous and must stop. We owe it to our young people to protect them from exposure to these dangerous drugs."

…The bill would prohibit federal funding of any school that distributes or provides emergency contraception (such as the "morning-after" pill) or a prescription for such contraception on the premises or in the facilities of an elementary or secondary school.

While Rep. Lamborn seeks to crack down on availability of the so-called "morning after pill," the FDA announced in June that the medication will be made available over-the-counter–the end of a long battle over expanding access to the drug. Although conservatives warn of health effects, the primary objection according to most public health experts has always always religious in nature–concerns based on the religious concept of "life" beginning at conception, and supposed erosion of personal morality standards in the face of easy contraception.

Lamborn's press release notes that this is the fourth time he has introduced this legislation, so much like the perennial backers of the "Personhood" abortion ban initiative in Colorado, his arguments are well-rehearsed! Unfortunately for Lamborn, the prospects beyond the GOP-controlled House for this bill aren't much different.

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