Keystone Cops - government on the move

[Lamplighter]

We were out of town for the day, so let me get today's events straight....

• The environmental studies of the Keystone Pipeline project are not yet complete.

• Most of the environmental studies that were started or proposed have been shut down or discontinued.

• There is no route yet approved for the Keystone Pipeline thru any U.S. state.

• Nebraska and South Dakota both have lawsuits against TransCanada to stop development of the pipeline

• Once the pipeline were completed, there would only be about 50 new, permanent jobs.

• Obama threaten to veto any bill requiring the Keystone Project to proceed

• The Keystone Pipeline is of such huge and monumental importance to the G.O.P.
  they passed a bill in both the House and Senate requiring the Keystone Project to proceed
  that was tied to the annual budget bill for the entire Dept of Homeland Security.

And what happened ? Benghazi ? Obamacare ? No !
Obama just vetoed the bill, as he said he would.

Well, duh. What now ?

These "legislators" are either bat-shit crazy or so damned r-----st, they would rather provoke
the GOP-caused another government-shutdown than to see Obama win another legislative battle.

.

[Lamplighter]

Now, the GOP has even ticked off the Sioux...
Quartz - 2/25/15

Not on my rez

“As a woman, I’m a waterkeeper. That’s part of my culture,” Tara Houska explained.

...In a press release issued in response to the [2/24/15] vote,
Rosebud Sioux tribal president Cyril Scott said,
“Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people.”
It was a statement intended to stoke passions, and perhaps rightfully so,...

The Rosebud Sioux, also known as the Sicangu Lakota,
reside on a reservation that includes all of Todd County,
South Dakota, and additional lands in the four adjacent.…

Only in 1934 were the Rosebud Sioux officially recognized as a self-governing nation
—see the Indian Reorganization Act—and thus formally allotted ownership of land that,
prior to the arrival of European colonists, had been their’s for centuries….

Keystone XL brought this hard-won spirit of sovereignty under threat.

The plan to expand an existing oil pipeline system, linking oil-rich tar sands
in the Canadian province of Alberta with refineries and distributors across the U.S.,
would essentially bisect South Dakota, cutting straight through Rosebud Sioux tribal land.

A longtime topic of concern for environmentalists, the Keystone XL pipeline raised hackles,
being yet another instance in which the American government attempted to
circumvent Native sovereignty in the pursuit of economic gain...

Of course, some those bald-headed white men in D.C. may not worry about their scalps.
But others should.

ETA: Yes, I realize that last remark is racist.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Only in 1934 were the Rosebud Sioux officially recognized as a self-governing nation —see the Indian Reorganization Act—and thus formally allotted ownership of land that, prior to the arrival of European colonists, had been their’s for centuries….

Good for them, they should stand up for their rights, with every tool available to them... including righteous indignation.





However, a point of order. "Been theirs for centuries" is misleading to contemporary readers who likely envision a group of first graders having their lunch taken away by high school bullies. The Sioux by tradition didn't feel they owned the land and there was no legal system issuing deeds and protection. They occupied that land only because they were strong enough to take and hold it. Had there been a neighboring tribe who were strong enough to take and hold it, the Sioux would have been gone. The "colonists" (I think a strange term for the interlopers of the time, but I'll go with it because it contains colon and the Sioux did get it up the ass) took possession because they were strong enough to take and hold it.

Ironically, the "colonists" also established rule of law and deeds to keep a stronger tribe from taking away their land, after the compassionate, benevolent, colonist successors, couldn't think of a better use for it in 1934. But the Sioux must face the reality that you and I do, which is we only have a deed and protection of the law, until someone with more money and suck wants it.

If you have a little time you could go to the Smithsonian's online collection of Lakota Sioux Winter Counts. The tribes had a tradition of oral history which would naturally fall to the elderly to keep and teach to younger people... between yelling at the whippersnappers to get away from their Teepee, and trying to find their glasses. But since the cavemen, humans have known memory is a fickle beast, so the tribe would keep a hide or piece of cloth where once a year they would record the most important thing that happened during the year. This document was a cheat sheet of sorts. used as kind of a calendar to keep memories of events in their proper year. They used events like Meteor Showers to jibe the winter counts of different tribes.

Let's see now, I stole that young maiden after the year, One Cheyenne and twenty Crows were killed by Dakotas at Bear Butte(1830-31), but before the year, An Uncpapa Dakota Medicine man was killed by Rees(Indians). (1834-35).

[Lamplighter]

xoB, that's a good find. I've seen quite a few tribes and nations using
the internet to document their existence and history.

Of course we ("whites") tend to think of their cultures in terms of
battles and killings and reservations and stereotypes therein.
But the tribes are changing too, and are using "our" legal
and belief systems as part of their modern day weaponry.

One thing I find really of interest is that Native Americans have taken
one of our basic legal foundations - Freedom of Region -
using it as a formidable tool in their arsenal.

As just one example, here in the Pacific Northwest,
when the tribes are in negotiation/fight over salmon,
they couch their rights in terms of "religious practices",
not in terms of historic ownership.

I think a similar and ironic situation is the gambling casinos that are taking
large sums of $ from whites, and using the $ to provide health care for their people.

In sort of a "turn your enemy's strength into their weakness", or visa versus,
legal status and rights and courts-of-law and land grants
have replaced the bows/arrows and guns/bullets.

And in the case of the Keystone Pipeline, a Sioux challenge in
federal and state courts could be extensive and very effective.
.

[Lamplighter]

UT might be pleased to learn that the GOP leaders read our postings.

Today, Speaker Boehner must have been referring to my post above,
when he said to the Press: "People think we are crazy."

So for now, the GOP battle cry is not "Obamacare !" or "Benghazi !" or "Keystone !".
For the next 3 weeks, the GOP whoop will be: " IMMIGRATION ! "

Instead of shutting down the Dept of Homeland Security over the Keystone Pipeline,
the GOP will now set about shutting down the D.H.S. over
the President's Executive Order for prioritizing "Immigration".

Now to be straight... The President's Executive Order has already been stopped by that Texas judge,
so there is no Executive Order for the GOP to stomp into the muck. But damn the torpedoes,
they are going to fight it anyway.

In other words, the GOP has now declared they would rather fight than win.
.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

xoB, that's a good find. I've seen quite a few tribes and nations using
the internet to document their existence and history.

Ah, so they've learned to use revisionist history, I didn't realize they were republicans.

[Lamplighter]

Back to the Keystone Cops...

This article is about GOP House Speaker Boehner vs. his fellow House Republicans.

LA Times - Lisa Mascaro - 2/27/15
Boehner plan for stop-gap bill funding Homeland Security runs into trouble in House

House Speaker John A. Boehner's plan to approve a three-week stopgap bill
to keep the Department of Homeland Security fully operating ran into trouble
among his fellow Republicans on Friday, prolonging a standoff as a midnight deadline loomed.

House leaders had hoped to hold a vote on the bill early Friday afternoon,
but postponed it amid fears that they lacked votes for passage.

Earlier in the day, the Senate overwhelmingly approved funds for the department,
dropping an effort by Republican conservatives to use its budget as leverage
to try to force changes in President Obama's immigration policies <snip>

I don't quite believe it's a matter of the "other side" trying to show they can’t govern.
The GOP is doing so all by themselves.

And one more thing... Today, one of the choices for the GOP Presidential candidacy
made a remarkably clairvoyant statement to his fellow Republicans...

Jeb Bush said: "I hope you find me your second best choice."

[xoxoxoBruce]

But if I fall on my face, it has to be because my nemesis tripped me, even if he was out of town, and I have three toadies employees who will swear to it.