The Guild 1-30-2003 Whiney Enviroweenies

MSNBC ^ | 1-30-2003

[BigWaveBetty]

National Environmental Trust

Philip Clapp, president:
“This is the first time President Bush has mentioned the environment in a State of the Union, and the reason is simple: his poll numbers with the swing voters he needs in 2004 — women, independents and suburban voters — are dropping. This was window-dressing pure and simple.

“After two years of rolling back environmental protections, he has discovered there’s a cost. “President Bush’s environmental promises always come with a “Buyer Beware” sign. “His air pollution plan actually allows power plants to pollute more, for a decade longer, than the current Clean Air Act allows. “His forest plan allows timber companies to cut down 3,000 truckloads a year of the great trees in the Sequoia National Monument. [snip]

Sierra Club

Daniel Becker, global warming and energy program director:
“Fuel cells are an important part of a clean energy future, but the president’s rhetoric does not match the reality. President Bush’s FreedomCAR program is built on the flawed Partnership for A New Generation of Vehicles, which squandered billions of taxpayer dollars in research and development but did not bring a single hybrid vehicle to the marketplace. Similarly, the FreedomCAR program funnels millions to Detroit without requiring that they produce a single fuel cell vehicle for the public to purchase.

“The auto industry is using the promise of future fuel cells as a shield against using existing technology to dramatically cut our oil dependence, and pollution, today. This technology is sitting on the shelf while Detroit dithers. Honda and Toyota are producing hybrid vehicles today, the big three are not. Honda has stated that it is using the electric motor of its hybrid as the basis for the fuel cell cars which it is beginning to produce. Meanwhile, FreedomCAR is re-inventing the wheel. Refusing to demand that the Big Three use modern, gas-saving technology is irresponsible. [snip]

Natural Resources Defense Council

David Hawkins, climate director:
It’s surprising how brazen the president is being at taking what are rollbacks and delays and claiming that they are initiatives. Both of the activities (Clear Skies and Healthy Forests) that he featured in his statement last night are prime examples of that.”

“Having a program to accelerate the use of hydrogen fuels is a good idea but the president talked of a car that would be available in 16 years. We need something to deal with the next 16 years ... such as improving the fuel efficiency standards.” [snip]

It goes without saying if clintoon had proposed all this the enviroweenies would have made him a hero.

[lodwick]

Wow - Denmark steps to plate while the frogs and the krauts cower in the dugout.

[lodwick]

Good information - thank you.

[Carolina]

Woo hoo!

To our very own Poet Laureate

[BigWaveBetty]

Super Bowl party hosted by Bill and Chelsea Clinton

Reading that creeped me out. Shouldn't the author have separated the two with something like, Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea hosted... ?

It's just too close to, well, you know. eewwww.

[lodwick]

It is not possible to do anything with yo mouf full of meatloaf except chew the stuff and pray it stays down.

[BigWaveBetty]

Awwww, thanks, I'm humbled I tell ya!

[Carolina]

Yeah. But when a Poet Laureate says it, it's soooey-blime!

[BigWaveBetty]

VP Dick Cheney on FNC right now!

[habs4ever]

My local MP, Bonnie Brown, was prominently featured in today's National Post, revealing all she knows about Iraq and why Bush is no more than carney barker on Terror.Yup,and when i look out my window, I see her constituency office staring back at me.Last time I went in, two pathetic office workers snidely got huffy when i expressed my anger at our PM for his lame response two afters 9/11.My MP is insane and has to be deafeated.Canada's wealthiest town has an MP who is a borderline Marxist.We'd never elect such a thing to the Ontario legislature, but Federally, she's been in 10 yrs....*shudder*

I am disgusted beyond belief at the comments from the Liberals debating War yesterday.They have never got beyond the '60's in their knee jerk radicalism and anti-American hatreds and pettiness.One amusing story in today's paper was that the CFO of the TD Bank said that Canada is a screwy country as a PM can veto a bank merger on a whim.Finally, a business executive that will call the PM and his toadies the corrupt boobs they are.

[MaeWest]

These are also countries that have, over the years, felt resentful of French and especially German domination of the European continent

Thank goodness there are countries in Europe we can still vacation in.

[mountaineer]

France and Germany long have been my favorite European destinations, but I'm willing to revisit Britain, Spain or Hungary, or visit our other allies for the first time! Take that, France and Deutschland!

[MaeWest]

I have no answer to the blank inequity of a four-year-old dying of cancer. I saw her on TV and wept with my mouth full of meatloaf.

The kid is dying because there is no cure yet, a direct result of our "poet laureate's" liberal policies syphoning away money that could have gone to legitimate medical research.

She ought to choke on her meat loaf.

[Utah Girl]

The Czech Republic is also a lovely place to visit, Prague is one of my favorite cities on earth. Hungary is on my list of favorites also.

[MaeWest]

Hmmmmmmm...thanks for the travel tip. Hungary sounds interesting. It is going on my list of 'wannasee' destinations.

[MaeWest]

Ooops...make that the Czech Republic.

[Endeavor]

I saw a report on CNN last night stating that Pakistanis are making a bee-line for the Canadian border from the US. Since they were just recently listed by the US as having to register with our government, they are afraid to do so (I guess because they are here illegally) and so have decided to become Canadians. All you need is more people to support, huh?

Maybe Canada will start to look at tightening its immigration policy. Meanwhile, thank you for taking these illegal aliens off our hands.

[mountaineer]

On the topic of the Hollywood goofballs, here's an interesting essay comparing the Hollywood response of the WWII era to the present day, When Hollywood Knew Our Enemies.

[mountaineer]

I visited Hungary in 1987, when it still was a Soviet satellite. The spooky thing was pulling into the train station in Budapest and seeing several trains full of USSR soldiers just sitting there, staring out the windows. The guards who checked passports and the like were pretty scary, too. The people of the town all seemed so depressed (gee, I can't imagine why).

[Utah Girl]

I visited Berlin in the late eighties, before the wall fell. One man on the tour had the most awful passport picture. I'll bet the soldier checking the passports on the bus took a good 15 minutes, checking the guy's face against the passport. Very intimidating. But the local people always knew we were Americans and were very friendly.

[mountaineer]

The truth about the World Economic Forum in Davos (more than just champagne and pigs-in-a-blanket):

But the biggest celebrity of all was a man vanquished from power two years ago, a guy who's still pretty much out of work: former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

His mesmerizing charisma intact, Clinton on Sunday afternoon briefed a few dozen journalists, myself included. He kept us waiting over an hour (none of us left, even after hearing he may have been taking a "nap") and then unleashed a litany of insights. As he talked he made intense eye contact with individual listeners, locking his gaze onto mine myriad times. It gave me butterflies--until I realized that a stunning blonde was sitting just in front of me to my left; his piercing blue eyes may have been aimed at hers. [LOL]

Clinton said a lot of things I can't tell you about Iraq and North Korea and al-Qaeda. I can't tell you because the session was entirely off the record. (Much of the pontificating in Davos is off the record, especially when it's interesting.) But, having come under Clinton's thrall, let me now posit that, um, North Korea and al-Qaeda are more imminent threats than is Iraq. But delaying an invasion could be difficult because it's costly to let 150,000 soldiers languish in the desert. And besides, President Bush may know of some really dire data justifying an immediate invasion, but he can't reveal the secrets because informants would be killed the next day. Sources say this is how it was for one former president in Davos. full story, Forbes.