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The Democrats Lag on Warming


Reincarnated

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The Democrats Lag on Warming

The New York Times

Editorial

June 10, 2007

When Americans elected a Democratic Congress last November, they were voting to end politics as usual and special interest legislation. On the vital issues of energy independence and global warming they are not only in danger of getting more of the same but also, unless Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders step forward, winding up in worse shape than they were under the Republicans.

Exhibit A is a regressive bill drafted by John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat. For starters, the bill would override the recent Supreme Court decision giving the Environmental Protection Agency authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, a decision that even President Bush has reluctantly embraced. It would also effectively block efforts by California and 11 other states to regulate and reduce greenhouse gases from vehicles at a time when the states are far ahead of the federal government in dealing with climate change.

The bill's fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks are weaker than the president's proposals and weaker still than standards the National Academy of Sciences says can be met using off-the-shelf technology. And the bill would open the door to a new generation of coal-to-liquid fuel plants favored by the coal lobby that could double the global warming gases of conventional gasoline.

The prospects for useful energy legislation are better in the Senate, where the majority leader, Harry Reid, has cobbled together a package that, with strengthening amendments, could do much to increase efficiency, clean up power plants and enlarge the country's stock of renewable fuels. Mr. Reid must guard against backsliding. But his task is easier than Ms. Pelosi's. He starts with a half-decent bill. She has to play defense against a bad one whose resourceful architect, Mr. Dingell, while sound on most environmental issues, will do almost anything to protect his constituents in the automobile industry.

We have some advice for Ms. Pelosi that may not work, but is worth a try. Rewind this movie to 1989, when President George H. W. Bush and a Democratic Congress decided to strengthen the Clean Air Act by clamping down harder on the tailpipe emissions that cause smog and acid rain. The automakers said it couldn't be done, and Mr. Dingell - who had spent the entire decade trying to weaken the law - rose to their defense.

Then something odd happened. Mr. Dingell's colleagues reasoned with him. The technology existed to clean the air, they pointed out. People would breathe easier, trees wouldn't die, the companies wouldn't go broke. Mr. Dingell thought about it, and while he never became a convert, he stepped aside and let the forces of change roll on.

Could it happen again? Mr. Dingell agrees that climate change is a big problem. The task now is to persuade him that having served history once, he can do so again. The alternative is further unnecessary delay in dealing with warming - which would be bad for the Democrats and bad for the world.

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What happens when both sides are incompetent? :angry:

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we agree!

Now, the plan is to replace Everyone in congress and elect Ron Paul for president.

Then start disbanding overblown/unconstitutional government programs while the new congress gets rid of the entrenched unelected members of the beurocracy.

Current makeup of the court looks like this will give power back to the People, Us, and we can then make any local changes we want.

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we agree!
Why because I took a shot at Democrats? According to you, human influenced climate change is a myth so what does it matter to you anyways?
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Why because I took a shot at Democrats? According to you, human influenced climate change is a myth so what does it matter to you anyways?

Actually, this was a rather typical (anymore) case of a liberal newspaper taking a shot at Democrats for not being liberal enough...which of course is predictable and a clear sign that the Democrats did not get elected on their "merits", but because the republicans weren't doing what they should've been doing (i.e., vote for something else to send a message...whatever it is...not entirely wise, but typical). Congress' approval rating, currently lower than Bush's and the lowest it's been in decades, is reflective of that.

And THAT was also highly predictable.

I think it matters to Celumnaz in the same way that it matters to any rational thinking, feeling person:

The mythology of global warming, and the bereft thinking that leads so many people to believe this untenble and utterly unproven hypothesis, is dangerous. Why?

Because its transparent political motivation is a ploy to make people feel guilty enough about what they're doing to the environment so as to accept the premise of big...BIG government and expensive, fruitless, and draconian measures, which of course will mean higher (much higher) taxes, and a seriously weakened economy, as well as increasing restrictions on personal liberties.

This is a democratic agenda, and that is where this man-made global warming comes from. They've taken a well documented, long existing, and repeated process of nature which has to do with the Earth's orbital shifts and of course the power of the Sun in respect to them, and made it into a political tool to dupe the un-informed into accepting their plan.

That is dangerous, and anyone should be concerned about it.

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when both sides are incompetent , usually because of greed , you vote all of them out. and libertarians isn't the answer either.

there is however a grass roots group called Unity 08 - it's a mix of republicans and democrats and misc . who are sick of the way things are being done. Government is forgetting who they work for.

like when bush declared ' he is the decider.' no he's not. we are.

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Actually, this was a rather typical (anymore) case of a liberal newspaper taking a shot at Democrats for not being liberal enough...which of course is predictable and a clear sign that the Democrats did not get elected on their "merits", but because the republicans weren't doing what they should've been doing (i.e., vote for something else to send a message...whatever it is...not entirely wise, but typical). Congress' approval rating, currently lower than Bush's and the lowest it's been in decades, is reflective of that.

And THAT was also highly predictable.

I think it matters to Celumnaz in the same way that it matters to any rational thinking, feeling person:

The mythology of global warming, and the bereft thinking that leads so many people to believe this untenble and utterly unproven hypothesis, is dangerous. Why?

Because its transparent political motivation is a ploy to make people feel guilty enough about what they're doing to the environment so as to accept the premise of big...BIG government and expensive, fruitless, and draconian measures, which of course will mean higher (much higher) taxes, and a seriously weakened economy, as well as increasing restrictions on personal liberties.

This is a democratic agenda, and that is where this man-made global warming comes from. They've taken a well documented, long existing, and repeated process of nature which has to do with the Earth's orbital shifts and of course the power of the Sun in respect to them, and made it into a political tool to dupe the un-informed into accepting their plan.

That is dangerous, and anyone should be concerned about it.

Save it for the conspiracy section. :sleepy:
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The Democrats of old would have shoved all their issues down everyone's throats at the same time....this generation of Dems can't get anything done because they have this blind hatred for Bush...that is all they can see. Destroy Bush...that's the agenda...the ONLY agenda

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The Democrats of old would have shoved all their issues down everyone's throats at the same time....this generation of Dems can't get anything done because they have this blind hatred for Bush...that is all they can see. Destroy Bush...that's the agenda...the ONLY agenda
Bush already commited political suicide. They don't need global warming, they were handed a victory.
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Save it for the conspiracy section. :sleepy:

The comments had nothing to do with conspiracy. They speak to tranparent facts.

...to the astute observer, anyway.

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The comments had nothing to do with conspiracy. They speak to tranparent facts.

...to the astute observer, anyway.

Human influenced climate change is not a myth, it is fact. No matter what degree of influence you think we have, it's real and it exists. The real question is not "what if", it is "how much".
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Aaand you're surprized that the Dems are wiffling worse then the repubs on this?

Both sides need a major overhaul and a reality check.

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Dems Who Lost Their Minds

By Frank O'Donnell

June 14, 2007

Frank O'Donnell is president of Clean Air Watch, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization aimed at educating the public about clean air and the need for an effective Clean Air Act.

An ingenious Democratic political strategist might have concocted the following scenario:

Recent polls show not only heightened public concern over global warming, but much more confidence that congressional Democrats would do a better job on this than President Bush.

So global warming could be used as a wedge issue going into the next elections. Democrats should take action that would capture the moral high ground and accentuate the differences. Try to pass something tough, and force the President to threaten a veto or get polluter-friendly Republicans such as Jim Inhofe to filibuster.

But key House Democrats have exploded that fantasy amid a festival of special-interest pandering. Indeed, they seem to be trying to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot by promoting parochial concerns over those of country and party. Meanwhile Republican leaders are laughing their heads off at internecine Democrat warfare. (Clean Air Watch, for the record, is nonpartisan.)

Consider, for example, legislation drafted by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality. Buried within the fine print of the draft are nefarious provisions that not only would overturn the recent Supreme Court decision, which verified that the U.S. EPA does indeed have authority to limit global warming emissions from motor vehicles, but would take away the right of states like California to limit them as well.

Boucher is a genial and usually thoughtful lawmaker who has represented a generally conservative southwestern Virginia district for a quarter-century. He is perhaps best known for his leadership on Internet-related legislation (he originated the House Internet Caucus) and for being a stalwart pro-choice advocate.

But it came as a shock that Boucher would promoting a policy that could have been written in the boardroom of General Motors. Boucher has argued that his plan is needed to straighten out "confusion" prompted by the Supreme Court decision.

But in a scathing editorial, the Roanoke Times pointed out that Boucher's argument is "nonsense."

"California has long had stricter standards for different emissions than the federal government. The auto industry has not seemed confused by that," the paper noted.

Boucher's plan not only drew the ire of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - imagine her embarrassment if this blatant attack on California succeeded! - but of numerous state attorneys general, state environmental officials and at least a dozen Democrats on his committee.

Though he hasn't said so publicly, Boucher appears to be taking the heat for the real author of this shameless, special-interest deal, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee and a longtime car company advocate. Dingell, though a terrific force for environmental progress on many fronts through his dogged oversight, was nicknamed "Tailpipe Johnny" in the early 1980s by former Rep. Ed Madigan of Illinois because of his slavish devotion to alleged car-company interests.

Dingell tangled with Pelosi earlier this year when she first raised the idea of creating a special committee to deal with global warming. Eventually they compromised with a plan that did set up a select committee, chaired by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., but vested it principally with hortatory powers.

Dingell's response then was understandable, since it involved defense of all-important congressional turf. But it's harder to defend siding with the car companies against his House leader.

Dingell has defended his stance by asserting to public radio's "Living on Earth" program that "I wrote the clean air law," and thus was justified in trying to change it. Note to chairman Dingell: if former Senator Ed Muskie, the genuine author of the law, were still alive, he'd take you to the woodshed for that resume enhancement.

Promoting the interests of car and coal companies is sometimes described as appealing to "blue-collar" constituencies. But the antics of Dingell and friends conjures up the adage by brilliant blue-collar comic Ron White: "You can't fix stupid."

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