Killing The Gulf Of Mexico With Kindness

Damn it people I'm sick of hearing about biofuels. So many world leaders are promoting the virtues of producing ethanol to power our cars, yet they are either too greedy or ignorant to realize that for the most part, it is a sham. It takes just as much energy to produce the fuels as it saves us in pollutants when people drive their cars on it. Now pouring your old vegetable oil in the tank is one thing, but mass production is another. There are so many negative side effects, but to the people that live around the Gulf of Mexico, they know the dead zone first and foremost.

From RawStory:

A planned increase in US ethanol production from corn would spell environmental "disaster" for marine species in the Gulf of Mexico, said a co-author of a science study published Monday.

A boost in corn production will worsen the Gulf's so-called "dead zone," an area with so little oxygen that sealife suffocates, said Simon Donner, a geographer at the University of British Columbia in Western Canada.

"Most organisms are not able to survive without enough oxygen," Donner told AFP. "All the bottom-dwelling organisms that can't move away are probably going to die, while fish will migrate if they can."

Donner and Chris Kucharik of the University of Wisconsin used computer models to conclude that growing enough corn to meet US biofuel goals set for 2022 would cause a boost of 10 to 34 percent in nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, which run into the Gulf of Mexico.

Not only do we need to focus more on clean energy (wind and solar) but the way farming is done must be changed. For two centuries or more our nation's farmers did not use the abusive chemicals that we see today in their soil. Those nitrates flow into the rivers and create the death zone in the Gulf that we know today.

Too many people think biofuels are the answer. I say direct your kindness of the environment in other directions and wakeup to the realities of ethanol.

Welcome To Washington Mr. Foster

And congratulations on your win this past weekend. You are a breath of fresh air compared to the last man that occupied your seat.

Was Client 9 Just A Bad Dream?

Could all of that yesterday just been a joke? Is Eliot Spitzer still our trustworthy Governor and all is well in the land of the Empire state? Sadly no, today is day two and he still is in office, tainted by a massive scandal. The Feds found suspicious activities through money transfers, the authorities thought he had done something far worse. No guys, it wasn't money laundering or shady campaign finance deals, just a way to pay for a prostitute. Yet it is still possibly illegal.

Now on the legal totem pole what Spitzer did isn't really high up there. Operating the ring certainly is but not being a client. So if this isn't so bad then why all the outrage? It is his personal life and if this were in Europe, no one would care, right?

Wrong.

This goes beyond him soliciting sex. Spitzer violated the trust of his wife and his family. If his family can't trust him, why should we? More so, this is a man that ran on cleaning up Albany and doing business a different way. So far it has been more of the same, the only difference is that this story is more salacious than others out there. That does not mean we excuse it.

Then there is the political aspect of this. New York Democrats are one, ONE, seat away from taking back the state Senate. Now there are two ways of looking at this. First of all if Spitzer resigns Paterson becomes Governor and Joe Bruno would be Lt. Gov. That would make him the deciding vote if we as a party only take one seat this fall. Now are we only going to win one seat? That is the question.

When the voters go to the polls less than eight months from now how are they going to make their decision? Of course the individual candidates matter but so does the state party as a whole. Will they see us as condoning Spitzer's hypocritical behavior or as a party that makes its leaders accountable. Besides, the Governor said it best yesterday, "I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good and doing what's best for the state of New York."

You already know what to do Mr. Spitzer, New York is waiting.

Vice President Schmezident

Hillary Clinton is making it an issue to subvert Barack Obama by mentioning him as a possible Vice-Presidential nominee, you know, to let him on the ticket below her. While Senator Clinton is so gracious to offer that to her opponent that is ahead in the delegate count, amount of states won and the popular vote, she might want to check that offer with what she was saying about Senator Obama just a few days ago. Or else he might just remind her himself.

From The NY Times:

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Senator Barack Obama implored voters here today to discount the political chatter about him joining the Democratic presidential ticket with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, declaring: “I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place can offer the vice presidency to someone who’s in first place.”

“If I’m not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?” Mr. Obama said. “Do you understand that?”

In a town meeting here, one day before the Mississippi primary, Mr. Obama sought to aggressively knock down the discussion stirred by Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton that the deadlocked Democratic nominating fight could be resolved by giving him the No. 2 position. It was the most expansive answer he has ever given on the subject, with his tone ranging from stern to mocking to sarcastic.

“With all due respect, I’ve won twice as many states as Senator Clinton,” Mr. Obama said, speaking over the applause of nearly 2,000 people who rose from their seats. “I’ve won more of the popular vote than Senator Clinton. I have more delegates than Senator Clinton.”

So um, Senator Clinton, if you want to start talking about Vice Presidential nominee selections, ya might want to think about putting your own name in the hat before throwing other people in. Oh and speaking of Vice-Presidential nominees (that endorse Clinton), wtf was Geraldine Ferraro using race for in that tirade of hers today? That leads me to my final question, why hasn't Clinton apologized and explained her dismissive comments about Mississippi? The Mayor of Hattiesburg (whose town is one of many voting tomorrow) still wants an answer to that.

Of course you can just keep ignoring these questions, and continue losing the vast majority of contests this primary season. Your choice.

This Is Gay Bashing

This could be your elected representative if you live in Oklahoma. Words really do matter, some inspire and then others well.....

Spitzer Blows His Career, Among Other Things

Barely into his second year of being Governor of New York and it looks like End Times for Eliot Spitzer. He should be giving a press conference momentarily about being a client of a prostitution ring that was recently broken up by authorities. This has to be one of THE biggest political scandal in New York history, and that is saying something. Whats worse? He has a wife and three young daughters!

From The NY Times:

Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.

The governor’s travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13.

What an ass****! And not only that, a hypocrite:

Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

“”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

And now you are associated with a prostitution ring Mr. Governor. So much for ethics and reform. Seriously, what a joke. The implications of this could be huge and not only affect Spitzer and his family. If I were Joe Bruno, I'd be jumping up and down right now with glee.

Update from the Gothamist:

I have acted in a way that violated the obligations to my family... I apologize first, and most importantly, to my family. I apologize to the public… I do not believe politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good and doing what is best for the State of New York. I am disappointed that I failed to live up to the standard that I accepted for myself. I must now dedicate some time to regaining the trust of my family. I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back to you in short order. Thank you very much.

Report back? That is rather vague Mr. Spitzer. Please follow through with the rumors and resign, for the good of the party and the state of New York.

The War On Cows, And Other Ridiculous Clinton Surrogate Sayings

There are many different metaphors used in speech across the spectrum of human communication, but today, Hillary Clinton's surrogate Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard went the distance. How you can compare milking cows to pulling out of the war is a question that not even I could answer. Apparently to Lt. Joe Obama can't milk the cow and pull out the troops from Iraq. Seriously, you can't make this up.

From The Huffington Post:

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard, a Clinton supporter, compared Obama's stance on Iraq to a person who could "recognize a cow" (ostensibly, the perils of the war) but not milk it (get the troops out? has conflict-management experience?).

"Just because you recognize the cow doesn't mean you know how to milk it," said Ballard, who was playing off his time among cows in Louisiana. "I think body of experience, learning what you have to do and how to do it, is very important... No one can tell you how to milk a cow; you have to do that yourself."

That wasn't all.

"No doubt in my mind he can probably milk a cow but his body of experience means he probably doesn't know how to milk one," continued Ballard, before getting a bit more specific. "When I look across the aisle at Sen. Obama, other than a great speech, I really do not see the same body of experience to deal with that issue. I see a statement that says I have a great staff that can advise me. I think you need a great body of experience to deal with the recommendations your staff is bringing to you."

Besides talking about dairy cows (perhaps a subtle pander to the dairy community of Pennsylvania) Ballard brought up that speech again the Barack made in 2002. Of course he is referring to Senator Obama's remarks that going in there is a bad idea. That speech was right on the money, while Senator Clinton endorsed and supported the war. So as far as judgment's sake goes, Obama wins right there and then. As for milking cows I suspect neither of them are very good at it, but I will trust Barack Obama to do the right thing by pulling the troops out, since he was right about the war all along.

A Vote For McCain Is A Vote For Bush's Third Term

If you want another four or eight years of the misery we have experienced since 2001, McCain is your man:

Councilman Avella Speaks Out Against Tibet

If you had to put the adjective "reformer" next to a noun like "New York City Councilmember," you would likely come up with Tony Avella. Tony has fought against the horse drawn carriages in Central Park and now he is appealing to the corporate sponsors of the Olympics based here in New York to boycott the Beijing summer games. Many people have heard about Steven Spielberg dropping out of his Olympic role, well now NYC's Avella is engaged and will be participating in today's protest against the Chinese government for their atrocities perpetrated on the Tibetan people as well as commemorating the anniversary of the 1959 uprising.

From The Gothamist:

City Council member and probable 2009 mayoral candidate, Tony Avella, is the latest politician to ask for America's withdrawl from the Beijing Olympics if China will not grant Tibet independence. Under China's rule for over 50 years, Tibet has made no headway, even with the support of human rights groups, activists...and Richard Gere. When we interviewed Robert Thurman, co-founder of the Tibet House, earlier this year he touched on the Olympics, saying:

The thinking is that if you give them a big P.R. thing to do like the Olympics, they won’t want people to see how they’re beating up the Falun Gong or whatever it is they’re doing lately. This is a fallacious concept but within that it’s true that the Chinese are trying to clean up their act so they won’t be embarrassed during the Olympics. Unfortunately, what the Chinese consider ‘cleaning up their act’ is to wipe out people who might do human rights protests; they don’t mean stopping the human rights violations.

Today a rally in Manhattan is taking place commemorating the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against China. Avella is in attendance and will most likely use this event to introduce his resolution, which demands New York City-based corporate sponsors boycott the 2008 Olympics, and that the International Olympic Committee move the games from Beijing. He stated, "That's the only thing that will make them do anything — international pressure."

If we were able to boycott the 1980 Olympics, we can do it in 2008. Bush may not care about the plight of the Tibetan people enough but many Americans certainly do, especially when they resonate with what the citizens of Tibet want.

Thank you Councilman Avella for the principled stances you take and to show you our support, I'd like to ask anyone who is free at 11:30 AM on Thursday, March 13th 12 PM Friday March 14th to show up at the steps in front of City Hall to help him in his other quest, for clean elections here in New York. I'll be telling you about it again, so if you forget today don't worry.

The Popularity of Hate

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups has been on the rise, and so have violent, race based crimes. Particularly evident is the rise in crimes and groups that are dedicated to stopping immigration from Latin America. For the most part the public image of groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform is quite professional but the ugliness lies below the surface. Take for instance the debate between the two aforementioned groups.

From The Houston Chronicle:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a report titled The Year in Hate, said it counted 888 hate groups in its latest tally, up from 844 in 2006 and 602 in 2000.

The most prominent of the organizations newly added to the list, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, vehemently rejected the "hate group" label, and questioned the law center's motives. FAIR said the center was using smear tactics to boost donations and stifle legitimate debate on immigration.

"Their banner may be 'Stop the hate' but it's really 'Stop the debate,'" said FAIR's president, Dan Stein. "Apparently you can't even articulate an argument for immigration reform without being smeared."

The law center's report contends there is a link between anti-immigrant activism and the significant rise in hate crimes against Latinos in recent years. According to the latest FBI statistics, 819 people were victimized by anti-Latino hate crimes in 2006, compared with 595 in 2003.

"The immigration debate has turned ugly and the result has been a growth in white supremacist hate groups and anti-Latino hate crime," said Mark Potok, director of the law center's Intelligence Project. "The majority of anti-Latino hate crimes are carried out by people who think they're attacking immigrants, and very likely undocumented immigrants."

People who fear immigrants is nothing new in this country. It has been going on since immigrants arrived at the shores in the early 17th century, particularly worsening in the 19th century. Regardless of what year it is, as long as people are taught to fear someone based on their country of origin or skin color, that fear is more than likely able to translate itself into anger and possibly violence. So as long as leaders put the fear out there, we will continue to see groups with misleading names like FAIR.

Go Wexler!

This man has to be one of the most passionate advocate of real oversight and reform in Congress.

Welcome To The Light Congressman Rohrabacher

I could hardly believe I was reading an epiphany of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's (R-CA) this weekend. The Congressional record, as it always records, took down his speech from February 26th of last month. Now for the most part, Republicans tend to commend their party's President, for the war, the economy and whatever else they see as good in their deluded little heads. Yet, on February 26th, something different happened for one deluded head, it saw a little bit of light.

From AfterDowningStreet:

Madam Speaker, I come to the floor tonight with a
heavy heart. The nature of the allegations I make speaks poorly of this
administration. In my heart of hearts, I have always wanted this
administration to succeed, but the issue at hand is of such magnitude
that the American people need to know what is being done and what
precedents are being set.

In my tenure as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, both as chairman and ranking member of an investigative
subcommittee, I have witnessed firsthand behavior by the Bush
administration which I find deeply troubling.

The disdain and uncooperative nature that this administration has
shown toward Congress, including Republican Members, is so egregious
that I can no longer assume that it is simply bureaucratic incompetence
or isolated mistakes. Rather, I have come to the sad conclusion that
this administration has intentionally obstructed Congress' rightful and
constitutional duties.

Obstructed Congress you say? Violated the separation of powers clause in the Constitution you say? Well Congressman, congratulations, you have entered the realm of reality. Do you have anything else to add while you are rightfully condemning George Bush?

In the last Congress, I was chairman of the Oversight and
Investigations Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In
that capacity, I learned that in the time immediately leading up to the
bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, convicted Oklahoma
City bomber and murderer Terry Nichols had been in Cebu City in the
Philippines. His stay in Cebu City coincided with another visitor to
that city, al Qaeda's terrorist leader Ramsey Yousef. Interestingly,
both Nichols and Yousef used similar bombs and methods just 2 years
apart to blow up two American targets. Yousef was the mastermind of the
first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Nichols was a
coconspirator in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in
1995.

By the way, I would like to acknowledge that today happens to be the
15-year anniversary of that first devastating attack on the World Trade
Center.

These individuals, one American and one Arab, were responsible for
planning two of the most lethal terrorist attacks on our countrymen in
our history. We are to believe that by coincidence they ended up in an
off-the-beaten-track city in the Southern Philippines? One doesn't have
to be a conspiracy nut to understand that this coincidence is certainly
worth looking into.

I started an official congressional investigation sanctioned by Henry
Hyde, then the chairman of the International Relations Committee, to
see whether Terry Nichols or his accomplice, Timothy McVeigh, had
foreign help in their murderous terrorist bombing of the Alfred Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City.

In light of the fact that Terry Nichols and Ramsey Yousef were both
in Cebu City at the same time prior to hauntingly similar terrorist
attacks, it was no stretch for a congressional investigative committee
to be looking into this matter. However, the Bush administration felt
quite differently. To those I had to deal with, it was ``case closed,
don't bother us.'' They had looked into the matter, and Congress should
simply and blindly accept their conclusion that there was no Nichols-
Yousef connection. ``Don't bother us.'' This was at times bureaucratic
laziness, and at other times it was clearly based on a disdain for
congressional investigations and authority.

During my investigation, I secured Ramsey Yousef's cell phone
records. The records were part of the phone calls that he made when he
was in that New York City area in the months just prior to the bombing
of the World Trade Center in 1993.

The phone records show that Ramsey Yousef made at least two phone
calls to a row house in Queens, New York.

Well how about that, someone in the GOP Congressional caucus wanted to conduct an investigation into a possible link for the GWOT and was denied by the White House. Denied. I disagree with your first premise Congressman about the laziness. I do agree with your second premise however, that the White House has a disdain for Congressional authority because they believe that the Executive branch should be higher than the Congress and is not co-equal. You could be a Democrat, Republican or a Communist, but they aren't going to treat as their equal if you are anywhere but inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Even then, some people can be disregarded as well.

I don't know what kind of connection Ramsey Yousef had with Terry Nichols, but if the White House has their way, we'll never know. Now Congress, you should know what to do about this (*cough* impeachment *cough*) but I'm not holding my breath.