“I was asked to draw a state highway map that would win the votes of a majority of the members by placing roads [so] they could take them home with them as pork wrested from Portland…. This map ran in front of the farm homes of enough legislators that . . . 37 representatives joined in introduction of the bill…. It took all day . . . to get the map changed so a majority of the Senate would vote for the bill…. My poor map was almost unrecognizable, but it served its purpose.”
– C. C. Chapman, “father of the gasoline tax,” on Oregon’s passage of motor-vehicle fee in 1917, which became a gasoline levy two years later.
History informs the public policy debate. Generally, messy politics contradicts the textbook ‘romantic’ view of government as being a high-brow exercise of selfless leaders weighing the common good to help the rest of us.…
“We built the 1,700 mile Alaska-Canadian Highway (ALCAN highway) through some of the world’s most rugged terrain in less than a year. We built the Empire State Building in 410 days; the Pentagon, we built it in 16 months. Mr. President, there is NO reason that Keystone should have been studied for six years.”
Mr. President, today I stand in support of the Keystone Pipeline Project.
As an Alaskan, I feel it’s important to talk about this bill and the importance of American energy infrastructure. I live in a state with one of the world’s largest pipelines. In 1973, after bitter debate, similar to the debate about Keystone, Congress passed a bill that led to the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system– what we in Alaska call TAPS.
It almost didn’t happen.…
“It is time to welcome the good news about climate science–the exaggeration of warming and harm by too-hot climate models. It is past time to hurl ad hominem at those intellectuals who reject neo-Malthusians on theoretical and empirical grounds.”
“Ad hominem—is that all you got? I happen to hold my views because I believe in them. Is there something wrong with that?” Such was my response to a professor who complained about an opinion-page editorial I published in the Daily Oklahoman: “Rob Bradley: Is Sourcewatch wrong? We simple folks in Oklahoma just like to know who butters your bread.”
And another comment:
…So no bias at there being your boss is Koch, huh? Sure. we TOTALLY believe you are not carrying water for the Koch brothers and that if you had a totally different opinion, you wouldn’t loose that kushy job… I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in.