So California has adopted some more stringent fuel standards that several states (NY, VT, RI) have also adopted. Car companies are obviously trying to block this in federal court, even thought he recent EPA v. Massachusetts case takes some of the wind out of their sails. The Court basically said that EPA CAN regulate the emissions of greenhouse gases from cars, but did not say they had it. The Court sent the case back to district court to determine whether EPA had a valid reason not to.
This brings us to a case in Vermont where the car companies are challenging the California emissions standards. They are arguing the usual: can't be done, will actually increase emissions, etc. Some of my favorite lines from the article are:
Because those companies have been in the passenger car market? They have been the most resistent to making good small vehicles. They are years behind Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and the others. Maybe if they started focusing on making fuel efficient vehicles that people want to buy they would not be in the financial troubles that they are.
An expert hired by automakers said, according to court filings, that DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor and G.M. “will need largely to exit” from the passenger car and small truck markets.
LOL. This is classic which came with an even more classic response from the Sierra Club:
Among other points, the industry says more fuel efficient cars could be dangerous, because they will be cheaper to drive and lead people to drive more and potentially have more accidents.
“Everybody’s getting a good laugh out of the safety claim,” said David Bookbinder, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, which is a party to the case. “Detroit is saying it’s a bad idea for everybody to drive more.”Just suck it up and make more fuel efficient cars and trucks. It will be better for your companies financial health and that of the country. If we do not break our oil addiction in the next couple of decades (if not soon) our economy is going to be in big trouble because the price of gas will be 10+ dollars a gallon and your companies will be bankrupt.
I found this method of administering the nomination of Electors to the Electoral College very intriguing: The state of Maryland Senate has passed a bill that would compel the Electors chosen to cast their vote for the candidate who wins the majority vote in the country. If passed by the house and signed by the governor (who said he would) this would take effect once states representing at least 270 electoral votes. It will be interesting to see if many people pick up on this and other states try to pass similar statutes. This would effectively eliminate the Electoral College without a Constitutional Amendment. Roll that one around in your head for a bit.
Presidential Elections have always been one of those things I have had a problem with. I do not like that the popular vote of the country could significantly vary from the controlling electoral vote. I have gone through a several versions of ways states can improve it, such as dividing votes by who wins congressional districts (done by Maine and Nebraska) or dividing up electoral votes based on a percentage of the popular vote won (my most recent favorite). I will be watching the
While I know that throwing money as something will not always fix it, how about a little extra money for improving our VA Hospitals, get more staff, and retain better staff.
Two Ideas to pay for it:
1. 25% tax on all non-medically necessary plastic surgery.
-These people were injuried (at least in theory) to protect your right to get a nose job. We should make sure they are getting proper treatment before you get your nose job.
2. 100% tax on a doctor's income over $250,000.
-This tax is would be waived if a doctor participates in a program where they rotate into a VA hospital for 2 months out of each year, 3 months out of each year when we are engaged in military conflict.
There is no reason that those injured in combat should get substandard treatment with the amount of money we spend on medical treatment each year.
A very nice article from the Washington Post about how Al Gore has done the impossible by rehabilitating his image after the 2000 Election and helped awaken a large portion of the population to the thPublishreats of Global Warming.
Whether his raising awarness has been enough and will really have an effect on global climate change I do not know. Only time will tell, but I still think we will be faced with some very harsh times economically and environmentally in the near future due to climate change already occuring or soon to occur.
His being at the Oscars tonight as raised speculation that he may announce his candidacy for President. While most insiders and politicos find this highly unlikely (as do I); I do think it would be one of most fantastic political moves of my life-time. Regardless, one can still hope he would run for President. Check out this site if you agree.
Update 2/26/07: Damn!
It is absolutely horrible what Delta Zeta did to one of their chapters. They basically kicked over half the sisters in the chapter because they were not "committed" enough. It just so happens that the sisters who were asked to stay were traditionally attractive and the ones who were asked to leave were not. How DZ thought they could get away with something like this in todays society, I have no idea.
It is stories like these that really make everyone think: "Oh, greek life is so horrible." For the most part it is not. I was in a fraternity. We were the not so cool fraternity on campus. We did not have the football or baseball players, we had the engineers, scientists, and video gamers. But we did do some good; raising money for Habitat for Humanity and working with kids at the Boys and Girls Club. We did educational events in our house and I made life long friends who have been there for me when things got really bad. We fell low on membership at one point but we did not need our national chapter to come in and kick out the "uncool" or "unattractive" guys in the fraternity. Had they done that, I and several of my brothers would have left as well.
Thank you Delta Zeta for continuing to sully the view of Greek Life.
Virginia has banned teens from using cell phones while driving. I think that this is a good idea. I know when I was a teenager I was an idiot when it came to driving and I was really one of the better ones in my area. Too many kids around my age died or were seriously injured in car accidents.
It is probably going to be difficult to actually enforce since the police need a primary reason to pull someone over, not just because they are using a cell phone. It is a good thing I am not a cop in Virginia. I would see a teen on his or her cell phone and pull them over for going 56 in a 55 zone.
Now states just need to start enforcing the usage of hands free devices.
It appears that Congress is finally seriously considering a paper trail for electronic voting.
This is something many voting rights groups have strongly felt has been needed since to proliferation of electronic voting machines. I had to vote provisionally in the last election so I have not had the opportunity to use our new electonic machines. I was somewhat glad for that because the lack of a paper trail concerns me.
I miss the times I was voting in the Boston area (not just because my polling location was literally 200ft from my front door). My town used the optical scanning machines. I would fill out my ballot with a pen, check it over to make sure it was correct and then slide it into an optical scanning machine that would count the votes and drop the paper ballot into a lock box. It was relatively simple, but I felt confident my vote was being counted.
Hopefully there is enough support to get some sort of paper trail requirement for Federal Elections.
I have to say, the fact that there are now two Independents in the US Senate is encouraging to me. I have always been anti-two party system and the fact these two have been able to run without national party support is a good sign. I don't know whether such independence can endure or even expand, but I for one hope it does. We need more people who are not quite conservative or liberal, or too conservative or liberal for the two national parties to run more. People in this country want more, and independents and 3rd parties are a way to give people more.
You know, I think for one year, I would like to see the world the way Ann Coulter does. I really don't know how she has such pent up aggression and hate for the other side. She lives to argue and take character shots. People talk about what is wrong with this country? It is not the liberal media, it is people like her and Rush who insist on trying to polarize this country even more than it is.
Also, check out this website. I wonder if he could actually win? I would vote for him, just for the cabinet.
The democrats took back the house. They may or may not take back the Senate (ok, they won't). No matter what happens, Nancy Johnson is no longer in congress.
Chris Murphy, please do a good job.
To all newly elected congresspersons and senators (or relected ones): Work with the opposing party. Listen to you constituents, not your largest campaign contributors. Do what is best for the American people, not what is politically expedient. Listen, compromise, and realize there is more that unites us than divides us.
Oh how she boils my blood sometimes. I'm really glad to know that every Republican or Conservative I know dismisses her as being as crazy as the people she accuses of being crazy in this column. She seems to imply that focusing on anything but the War on Terror and the War in Iraq would be absolutely insane. There are other things in this country we need to be concerned with. Least of all is budget management which seems to be pretty low on the priority of the fiscally responsible Republican Party. Yeah, we are in a war, but we have been in a couple and I don't seem to remember having such a huge disparity in spending and income during those wars. You know why? Because in order to pay for those wars, the government raised taxes, especially the estate tax in order to pay for those wars. Previous leaders of our country understood that everyone has to give a little bit more in a time of war.
As a law student, I am obligated to take this quiz.
See previous post.
Now we even have a leading British Government Economist saying that it makes good economic sense to protect the environment and take measure to prevent climate change.
He predicts that if we do not prevent global climate change, world economic growth will begin to slow considerably. While he concedes that it is not certain that this will happen, he finds the economic risks far outweigh the uncertainty. He believes there is a need for the world governments to set regulations to encourage a move away from a carbon based economy through taxes or carbon trading. He also believes this can be done for as little as 1% of the global economic output and will create enormous opportunity for investment, not kill investment like some say.
In my view, there is a more pressing economic risk of staying depending on carbon based fuels, specifically oil:
Eeek! Nicaragua has joined 2 other Latin American Countries as being the only countries in the Western Hemisphere that completely ban abortion. No exception. Not even for rape or incest. Glad to know we are SO much more progressive than these countries...a complete ban could NEVER happen here.
I LOVE these guys. They provide a bit of entertainment, though their views a little ummm......scary.
This is good. To be honest, I watched this first thing in the morning and didn't realize the analogy for like half the video.
Parent's using children as weapons and now 13 year olds bringing AK-47s and Bombs into school.
Now my question: Where does a 13 year old get an AK-47? His parents had one. Why? Because they need to protect themselves from skunks.
There is no reason an AK-47 should be anywhere a 13 year old boy (or girl) could reach it. For that matter there shouldn't be any reason a 13 year old has access to any sort of weapon unless properly supervised by a parent. I am not against hunting, I am against guns in the hands of kids without proper adult supervision. I also do not think there is any reason why anyone should have an AK-47!
I will share something scary a bit closer home.
This is very disturbing.
