Finally, A Carbon Tax In The U.S.

Of course President Bush would never dream of such a plan to institute a carbon tax, but California is coming through anyways. The Golden state is going to cash in with a carbon tax slated to begin in the Bay Area as soon as the final vote occurs next month. This could possibly be a model for the entire nation.

From The San Jose Mercury News:

The fee - 4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide - would affect everything from oil refineries to power plants, and landfills, factories and small businesses like restaurants and bakeries.

The largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the Bay Area, the Shell oil refinery in Martinez, would pay $186,475 a year for its 4.4 million annual metric tons of emissions. The largest emitter in Santa Clara County, the Hanson Permanente Cement Plant in Cupertino, would pay $44,507 a year for its 1.05 million tons.

After years of voluntary measures, the fees, proposed this week by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, set a precedent as the first time that businesses and government agencies would face financial consequences for contributing to global warming. If successful, the fees could be copied all over the state and country, perhaps ultimately at much higher prices.

The higher the better I say. Companies must pay for their part in destroying the environment. These funds are necessary to fund clean energy and recycling programs in California and across the country. The industries that pollute the most claim that these taxes will only hurt the consumers, but consumers know that they hurt already from increasing prices based on the greed of industry, especially from the oil refineries. They know their time is limited, either by the fact that they use finite resources or the pressure from the public. Ultimately, I hope the public wins, before we all lose our planet.

You're Not Gonna Believe This One

President Bush, saying one thing and doing another.....over and over and over again.



It really does amaze me how Bush can talk tough about going after Iran for trying to obtain nuclear capabilities, while simultaneously funding their research. Wow.

High Speed Rail To Debut In America

For a mere $1.35 billion dollars, President Christina Kirchner has signed the contract to connect Buenos Aires with Cordoba and Rosario, cutting travel times by more than 2/3rd.

Oh were you expecting to hear about cities in the United States receiving this transportation upgrade? Think again, President Bush and Congress have barely given Amtrak enough to survive, let alone grow and perform on the par of Europe. I took the EuroStar last year and was amazed at how great train travel can be. On the other hand I have also transversed the United States by rail and there is no comparison. Out of three train tickets, only one was ontime, the other two delayed by two and eight (yes, eight) hours.

So get a load of what we're missing...and Argentina is receiving:

The contracts have been signed, and the first high-speed railway in the Americas will be built very soon - but not where you're thinking. Argentina's new President Christina Kirchner, wife of former President Nestor Kirchner, signed the papers last month with a consortium led by French company Alstom to connect the country's major cities by high-speed rail.

The $1.35 billion contract calls for a 440 mile (710 km) high-speed rail corridor to connect Buenos Aires with Rosario and Cordoba. A second line will connect Buenos Aires with Mar del Plata in the future. The train will cut down travel time between Buenos Aires and Cordoba from fourteen hours today to a mere three hours a couple years from now.

The is quite a step in Latin America, where rail service has been systematically mismanaged, neglected and dismantled in recent years, and bus service has become the standard for long distance journeys. Not to be outdone by its neighbor, Brazil is planning its own intercity passenger rail service, with a high-speed connection proposed between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Jealous? I certainly am. Instead of wasting all that money in Iraq, this could be one of the projects we incorporate into the budget to make America move faster and more effectively. Currently Amtrak touts the Acela, an overpriced ride with connections from Boston to Washington, D.C. that has a top speed of 150 mph. The only problem is that the tracks it runs on are owned by freight companies. So at most you shave an hour off the commute instead of the ideal two or three.

Good For You Hillary

I know I don't say it much, but I'd like to congratulate the Senator from my state for taking a principled action on behalf of her daughter today. You see, David Shuster's comments the other night about the Clinton family pimping her daughter out were out of line. His pathetic attempt at an apology wasn't much better. So Hillary took the right action and canceled her appearance on MSNBC for a scheduled debate.

From The Huffington Post:

SEATTLE — A distasteful comment about Chelsea Clinton by an MSNBC anchor could imperil Hillary Rodham Clinton's participation in future presidential debates on the network, a Clinton spokesman said.

In a conference call with reporters, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson on Friday excoriated MSNBC's David Shuster for suggesting the Clinton campaign had "pimped out" 27-year old Chelsea by having her place phone calls to celebrities and Democratic Party "superdelegates" on her mother's behalf.

Wolfson called Shuster's comment "beneath contempt" and disgusting.

"I, at this point, can't envision a scenario where we would continue to engage in debates on that network," he added.

I wouldn't want to go on MSNBC either, especially when you have buffoons like Chris Matthews who can't keep that misogynistic bullshit to himself and insists on continuing to attack Hillary for being a woman. Damnit Chris, there are plenty of reasons to go after her, but leave that stone age man thing at home. Then when you tack on David Shuster and Andrea Mitchell, the bloviating opinions would be too much for anyone to bear, even Mrs. Clinton.

Now if she would rescind her request to debate on Fox News, that would be real progress for her.

Daaaa-ngah!

Does anyone still believe this buffoon?



Sounds like he's a danger to himself

George's Bouncy Ball Is Full Of Lead

The State of the Union is usually a chance for a President to increase his approval ratings, with all the applause and grand ideas laid out before the Congress and the nation. The touching and heartfelt appearances by someone in the audience that is or could be affected by plan A or B is always nice icing on the cake. However this was Bush's last S.O.T.U. address and hardly anyone likes him, so could this be his last chance to win some people over?

Nope:

The dour public mood seems to chiefly reflect distress over the doddering economy, which has seen job cuts, financial market slides and real estate losses stoke recession fears. Bush's approval for handling the economy dove to 29 percent, a slide of 4 percentage points in a month and matching his low on that issue, with noticeable slumps among middle-income people, Southerners and city residents.[...]

Yet Bush's acceptance by his own party is at bottom in the AP-Ipsos poll. Just 61 percent of Republicans gave Bush positive reviews; his previous low was 65 percent last month. Only 28 percent of them expressed strong approval.

About one in 10 Democrats and three in 10 independents gave Bush positive marks.

Wow one in ten Democrats approve? Who are these people and what rocks do they live under?

As Unions Fall In Line Before Bruno, Aubertine Plans To Keep Jobs Upstate

Sadly, the AFL-CIO became the latest union to cower before Bruno and endorse the anti-union candidate in Senate District 48 upstate. Will Barclay is Joe Bruno's horse in the race and if he doesn't win, the rumor in Albany is that Joe will just retire and not run for re-election. He knows that without holding the majority, there is no reason to stay in office because all of his power will evaporate and then he can't make all the sweetheart deals (with those unions for starters) that he has grown accustomed to.

So what is challenger Darrel Aubertine doing in reaction to all of this union drama with Joe Bruno?

Darrel's plan starts with efforts to retain jobs in the 48th Senate District, by protecting New York workers and promoting New York products.

Remove Benefits for Outsourcers: Darrel promises to work toward Senate adoption of the State Financial Incentive Protection Act. This would prohibit companies that cut jobs due to outsourcing from receiving taxpayer-funded incentives (A11682, 2004). While similar legislation was defeated in the Senate this January, Darrel believes public support for this idea is strong and he will sponsor it in the Senate.

Promote New York products: There are several ways to promote products made by New York companies. One way is to inform consumers about which products are made locally. Darrel authored a bill in the Assembly that would require country of origin labeling on food products (A1999, 2007). Another way to promote New York products is to ask companies that receive grants from New York to first consider New York-based companies as primary suppliers.

Legislation that did just that with University-related economic development programs (A389, 2007) passed the Assembly last year but died in the Senate. The COOL bill faced the same fate, passing in the Assembly only to stall in the Senate. As Senator, Darrel will work to make sure both bills become law.

If these unions that are involved with Bruno had a clear conscience, they could see the easy choice for who will protect upstate NY's economy. Of course they aren't, and are desperately trying to hold Bruno in his position to keep whatever deals that have going on indefinitely. Woe is Albany....time for a change!

Fox News' Shep Smith Gets Nasty When His Network Gets Called Out

Check out this exchange:



Shephard cut her off at the end, but if you didn't quite hear it, Naomi mentioned that 18yr olds are still someone's babies. Smith may not think so, but try getting a mother of a teenager to agree with him....not gonna happen.

Bush: We Must Keep White House To Prevent Peace And Prosperity

Yesterday when Romney dropped out he claimed it was to prevent the surrender to terror that the Democratic party would allow. Today President Bush will go even farther, claiming that "Prosperity and peace are in the balance, so with confidence in our vision and faith in our values, let us go forward ... fight for victory ... and keep the White House in 2008." I'm not quite sure what he meant by that, but it sure sounded like he's anti-peace and and anti-prosperity.

Outside of George Bush's bubble there is no peace for America, as dozens of soldiers die needlessly every month in Iraq. The death and destruction that we helped bring over there is far greater to the innocents. Bush currently threatens war with Iran and nothing is going well over in Afghanistan. He knows peace hangs in the balance, so we must stay at war and a Republican in office will ensure that.

The issue of prosperity is a little trickier. Perhaps he meant to keep up the prosperity for an extremely small amount of wealthy people in America. There is no way he was referring to the rest of us, the economic conditions are going down the crapper faster than.....eh, nevermind. So as our nation heads closer and closer to a recession while the war saps our treasury, remember that George Bush wants us to keep conditions for peace and prosperity as they are.

So if you think our nation is acting peacefully and Americans are by and large prosperous, then go ahead and vote GOP in November. If you happen to live in reality, well then you have your choices. Do you want more of the same that we got in the last eight years, or a chance for change.

Donna Karen Gets Her Just Reward

In a uncouth and ridiculous manner, DKNY sought to promote their brand for the much-hyped (in NYC) fashion week by placing neon orange bikes around the city. At first they looked like a smart way for people to lock up their bikes so as to not get stolen (at least during the day). Then the news came that it was marketing technique. As odd as that is, DKNY is shown to be completely tasteless when you compare them to the Ghost Bike campaign, an organization that memorializes those that lost their lives while riding.

By illegally chaining some of these orange bikes to city property, not only do they get hauled away by NYC, but it also increases the chances that NYC will crack down on Ghost Bikes as well. So what did DKNY have to say for themselves?

From The Gothamist:

Curious about the fate of all those orange bikes with the DKNY website that were locked up around town? The ones the police didn’t cart away (some were illegally chained to trees) are being picked clean for spare parts. The tone deaf Fashion Week publicity stunt was presented by DKNY as an effort to promote cycling in New York, and the company did help raise awareness by, uh, distributing bicycle maps in their stores. Oh, and their website for the campaign has a photo of models riding a bike, though they’re too cool for helmets, of course.

The neon orange DKNY bikes drew heat from cyclists because the aesthetic is all-too-similar to the nationwide “Ghost Bike” campaign, which memorializes killed cyclists by locking an all-white bicycle near the scene of the accident. In an email sent out earlier, a DKNY rep wrote “we are very sorry if our well-intentioned ‘Explore Your City’ program offended anyone.” That's touching, but 'sorry' doesn't get these eyesores off the sidewalks.

DKNY has not responded to our questions about when the bikes will be removed, but it seems others are doing the job one piece at a time.

Who's Maverick Is McCain?

Here are just a few of the Senator's fans:



Of course they fail to say exactly how he can claim this status, the answer to that is anyone' guess.

Lieberman Gets Stripped

Finally the Democratic establishment mustered the stones to strip Lieberman of his super delegate status in Connecticut. This two-bit traitor has been nothing but a farce for several years now and this is a good first step in extricating him from the Democratic party. It is great to see the shearing of his sheep costume begin.

From The Hartford Courant:

Thanks to Zell Miller, there is a rule to deal with Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman's endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.

Miller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention.

The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said.

I wonder if Harry Reid is reading this same article, because it should give him some clue on what to do with Lieberman the Senator. Lieberman may caucus officially with the Democratic party, but he by no means votes as a Democrat. I know that Reid claims to keep him on to retain the razor thin majority we have in the Senate. Nonetheless if he doesn't vote with the caucus or the will of the people of Connecticut, then he has no business being allowed to have committee assignments. Memo to Reid, finish the stripping of Holy Joe and banish him to Indy land or the Republican dominion if he so wishes, but just get him outta there now.