Among the many excellent writers who have spent time on Daily Kos, a few stand out as simply being, in addition to whatever else they are, incredibly good investigative journalists. I'm thinking of people like Troutfishing and emptywheel, whose ability to investigate and tell a story within their beats is stunning. If there's one such citizen journalist, though, whose diaries I can confidently recommend even before reading them, it is Dennis Greenia, whom you know as dengre.
dengre was the top journalist in the country when it came to nailing down the various abuses of Jack Abramoff and his ties to politicians -- including John McCain -- throughout the nation.
A little under a month ago, dengre published a diary that got some attention but has since slipped away from notice. As we head towards today's VP debate, it's time to re-read it.
If you go to dengre's page linked to above, you'll find a series of great diaries on Abramoff -- including stories about how McCain mimed oversight while stifling the investigation on him in the Indian Affairs Committee he chairs. (My hope is that when McCain unleashes his expected "Wright and Ayres" line of attack later this month, the Democrats will beat him over the head with his Abramoff ties. Maybe that's too much to hope for.) But that's not what prompts be to write today.
Instead, I hope that you'll look at this diary and this follow-up. Respectively, that is "ALERT: Palin’s Pipeline is a Climate Crisis Acceleration Machine" and "Fresh Hot Lies: McCain & Palin’s Pipeline to Doom."
In fact: just put this diary aside for a while -- dengre's diaries tend to be long -- and read those two first.
Not willing to do it yet? OK, let me whet your appetite.
We are going to be hearing a whole lot from Sarah Palin tonight about her great accomplishment in bringing Alaska's natural gas to the Lower 48 with a spiffy new pipeline. dengre will explain to you how, in his words:
almost nothing that Sarah Palin, John McCain or any of their sycophants have said about this pipeline and Palin’s "energy" record has been true. Really, it is all bullshit designed to keep your eyes off of the billions of gallons of oil embedded in the Alberta Tar Sands.
Let's start off with a few questions that Gwen Ifill might ask Sarah Palin -- or that Joe Biden might use to rebut her claims.
Will the natural gas pipeline from Alaska deliver natural gas to the "Lower 48" United States?
"Well, of course it will," I hear some of you laugh nervously. "They wouldn't really have the gall to promote a pipeline that sent gas to another country, would they?"
Yes, they would. (I told you to read dengre's diary, didn't I?)
The gas pipeline, as you will see in a lovely chart in dengre's second diary on the subject, DOES NOT REACH THE UNITED STATES. Repeat:
PALIN'S NATURAL GAS PIPELINE DOES NOT REACH THE UNITED STATES.
dengre will offer you various other reasons why this pipeline in horrible in its effect on Global Warming, Native American rights, etc., but my concern here is practical politics -- hammering home that point that righteously outrages the most people to the greatest extent -- so I want you to savor this one for a moment:
PALIN'S NATURAL GAS PIPELINE DOES NOT REACH THE UNITED STATES.
That is to say, when she talks about bringing natural gas to Americans, what she is really talking about is taking natural gas out of America -- Alaska is still part of the nation, no matter what secessionists like Todd Palin might prefer -- and deliver it to Canada.
Where in Canada?
A part of Canada so remote that you can't even find mention of a town there in Wikipedia: Boundary Lake, Alberta.
I'm not being cute when I say that the pipeline stops in Canada. Boundary Lake has no provision to pipe gas into the United States.
"WTF?", I hear you non-abbreviate in your mind. "Why does Sarah Palin want to contract with TransCanada, a Canadian oil company, to build a Pipeline to ... Nowhere?"
Well, there is something there: Alberta's Tar Sands.
Yes -- all of that Alaskan natural gas is going to run a Canadian operation to extract oil from tar sands, which can then be sold to the United States at market prices.
Wait, I can put that more deliciously, for those who love the savor of a good scandal:
Sarah Palin is making Alaskan taxpayers pay $500 million, while borrowing $18 billion from the U.S. federal government, to build a pipeline that will send Alaskan natural gas to Alberta allow Canadians to get rich selling oil to Americans.
Now, there are other reasons to oppose this boondoggle. It is, as Canadian environmentalists say, The Most Destructive Project on Earth. It tramples on the rights and welfare of Native peoples -- which unfortunately is seldom a vote-loser in our political culture. It uses up great amounts of energy to process energy that will crank up global warming. It will lead to enormous pollution. It will require defoliating an area the size of Florida.
Read dengre's diaries if you want to see all of that.
My concern here is simple and primal. Palin and McCain are getting away with a lie -- and voters will consider the truth about this project damning.
So, let's tell the truth about it. Take this message with you tonight when you watch the debate, spread it far and wide, and make "energy expert" Sarah Palin choke on the lies she will tell tonight.