Harry Reid And the SUV

WASHINGTON —AP- The Senate late Thursday passed 65-27 an energy bill that imposes an average 35-mpg fuel efficiency standard for cars and sport-utility-vehicles by 2020.

A key compromise late Thursday cleared the way for new fuel efficiency standards for cars, trucks and SUVs — the first of its kind in U.S. history. The agreement orders automakers to achieve an average fuel economy standard by 2020 of 35 mpg while including mpg ratings for less-fuel-efficient light trucks and SUVs. The current fuel standard is 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.2 mpg for light-trucks and SUVs.

The problems with this, of course are numerous, not least of which the physics of the whole thing. There is no way that we are going to be able to avoid having to buy the little tin cans that the left has been trying to force us into for the last decade and longer. More, such standards would force us into paying upwards of $4,000.00 more for each vehicle. So the consumer pays more, and gets less… gee what a good idea. Let’s make it into law.

It gets even worse. The last time CAFE standards were so altered, it resulted in an additional 2600 fatal accidents on our highways, as a result of downsizing and down waiting the standard automobile. Sounds kinda like “Blood for Oil” doesn’t it? Indeed, that problem is precisely why Americans moved from cars to trucks. ….. Congress decides to march off on its own, regardless of what the American people really want.
If you ask me now, I will tell you, that this bill will not pass, and we’re not going to see CAFE standards altered this year. I mention this, only because I want to show you what the democrats have in store for us.

As for whether not the Democrats are willing to abide by their own rules, I’d like it look at something very closely. This is a picture out of today’s Roll Call, on page three.

The caption is a little blurry so I’ll read it to you;

Senate majority leader Harry Reid walks from his Chevrolet Suburban (left) to attend a news conference on energy efficiency Wednesday Upper Senate park. Reid rode in the sport utility vehicle from the capital to the event, which was across the street.

Are you getting the picture, yet, America?

Addendum: (David L) Dirty Harry on the Senate energy bill via Allah Pundit, Hot Air:

“They can take their rubber stamp and you know what they can do with it,” Reid said Friday. “We’re going to continue to do what we think is right for the American people.”

So why fer is it Dirty Harry that while driving a thirty-five mile per gallon Yugo is some how “right” for the American People, it not right for you?

OTB linkover

You know, I’ve been taking some mail of late on the subject of Trent Lott, as you may imagine. Most of it agreeing with me, but some cannot understand for the life of them why I’m upset with his actions.  Well, let me explain my anger, by relating a story to you about one of the members of the Continental Congress.

The subject, is John Dickinson. Now, unless you’re a student of American history, you probably don’t know the name.  I will attempt to give you a brief introduction.

Dickinson represented the Pennsylvania legislature to the continental Congress.  Dickinson was by no means timid man. He had in many ways become a leader. He was a natural in the role. He was born to a moderately wealthy family in Maryland.  He came by his abilities, naturally, his father having been the first judge to the court of pleas in Delaware.  He studied law at the Temple in London, which was the most prestigious of all schools of law at the time.

He was responsible for writing an important series of essays “Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer” which pertained to the import and export agreements against Great Britain.  Ben Franklin himself published these in London in 1768.  They were later translated to French and published in Paris. He, along with Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms. He was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1782 and served there until October, 1785.  He joined the constitutional convention in 1787, And was one of many readers of the day riding in the support of the new constitution.
Well respected, well spoken, indeed, he had a reputation as a top flight orator, he was…a leader, the likes of which we see all too seldom, today. And yet… well, watch.
The date was July 1 of 1776. The place was what has become known as Independence hall in Philadelphia. On that hot afternoon John Dickinson stood and argued strongly that the continental Congress should be reasonable people as regards disassociating themselves from the Crown.  When he spoke, the other members of the continental Congress listened, respectfully, with polite attention.

“I say, let us wait.  The timing is not yet ripe for proclaiming independence.  Instead of help from foreign powers it will bring us disaster.  I say we should hold back any declaration and remain the masters of our fate and fame.  All of great Britain is armed against us.  The wealth of the empire is poured into her treasury.  We shall weep at our folly. “

That was the position of the Pennsylvania legislature, such as it was. Both Pennsylvania and South Carolina were opposed to independence.

(South Carolina, for its part, tended to follow whatever Pennsylvania would do, not wishing to offend it’s trading partner.) The New York legislature, in a precursor of what we’re going through with them for the last forty years or so, couldn’t make up its mind what it wanted to do.  New York’s representatives, with no clear instructions from their legislature, were nigh on useless to the process.

Back and forth, back and forth.

Finally, John Adams got up.  He certainly didn’t share Dickinson’s reputation as an orator.  Besides which, everything had already been said that he needed to say.

Only, this time, he said it better. What he lacked in the skill of oration, he made up for, in fire.  The result of his speech that day, is obvious.
When Adams was done, and the Congress left the building, John Dickinson, our Quaker friend from Pennsylvania went home.  He put on his uniform… (that of a brigadier general in the Continental Army…) …and rode off in the dark, to join his regiment. Dickinson, you see, if he was holding true to his purpose of representing the people could not vote for independence from the Crown.  He could, however, fight for it.
Dickinson, quite clearly saw his task as a member of the Continental Congress, as representing the people of Pennsylvania and their wishes.  As a human being, he saw his task differently, and once his duties to the Continental Congress were dispatched, he went about performing his duties as an American citizen, as he saw them.

Dickinson, in his duality, is providing us an excellent example of the duties of an elected representative.  He understands, and faithfully represents, the wishes of the people of Pennsylvania, regardless of his personal beliefs.

OK, enough for the short history lesson. Come up to modern day.

Trent Lott, provides a rather stark contrast to our lesson .  Despite all polling data to the contrary, Mr. Lott continues to support this abomination of an immigration bill, instead of representing the interests concerns and opinions of the people of his state. When called out on the subject, he blames ‘Talk radio” for “Running the country” and continues marching off in his own direction… not understanding, or perhaps ignoring that the people running the country are not in Washington.  We are forced to conclude that Mr. Lott is acting on his personal opinion of the matters at hand, not on the opinions and desires of the people that he was elected to represent.

That is a breach of the trust of those who elected him, …a corruption… on a level that is second to very few.

Corruption, you see, is usually viewed as a product of money having changed hands.  But there are other kinds of corruption.  Such as taking the will of the people, and your promise to represent that will, and running in exactly the opposite direction. That explains the anger, but not the degree of it. Certainly, others are equally guilty of this kind of corruption, in the current Congress.

But none quite so arrogantly.  And certainly, none of them were supposedly conservative. As Mark Levin said last night, (Nod to DavidL) I defended this schmuck, because I thought he was getting a raw deal. I still think so to this day. But given the level of representation the people of his state are getting, and for that matter conservatism as a whole, I wonder if that defense was worth it.
Do you begin to understand?

Susan Estrich is a cow, that it is to say gender feminist, with a chip on her shoulder.   In her column, “The Dregs Of Duke” she sees fit to bash every male on whiich she can get her keyboard, but has nary a harsh word to say about any woman.

There are no heroes and no winners in the Duke lacrosse case, unless you count the North Carolina Board of Bar Overseers, which clearly did the right thing in disbarring the rogue prosecutor.

“No Heros”, bunk!  Three innocent young men have been saved from judicial lynching and apparently won a settlement with a sexist and racist unversity.

Finally, there are the young men themselves. Make no mistake. They didn’t deserve what they got. But they were not drinking tea in church when this incident began. They had engaged strippers to entertain them while they drank and taunted them

Granted paying two young women what two hundred bucks to take off their clothes is not exactly the deed of a Boy Scout.  Yet taking said two hundred buck to strip off your clothes is not the deed of Girl Scout either.

No one has denied that racial slurs were uttered, that the girls were treated badly, so badly that they left but were later convinced to return for more abuse. No one has questioned the authenticity of an e-mail sent to the group by one of the uncharged teammates, promising to “skin” the girls next time he had the chance. No, it wasn’t rape, but it wasn’t respect, either.

No one is denying that the guys asked for white strippers and got two young black women instead.   What were the young women treated like?  Strippers.   Maybe the young men did learn something while attending Duke after all?   Estrich faults the young men for not respect these whores, strippers.   How much respect were these young working women entitled?   They got paid.   What else was due them?

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• I sympathize, Billy, but I have to wonder about the longer term consequences.  Doesn’t the argument you’re making, sound like the argument being presented against security cameras, and traffic light cameras, being placed in public places?  Also, the way the question is put, someone’s going to start screaming “McCarthy”. I must admit there is a similarity there, in the tactic.  You see, I have a great deal of difficulty, adjusting a standard to accommodate whom the standard is being aimed at.  It’s either applicable to both sides of the fence, or it’s not valid.
• Ace Gets into it, over the recent reporting as regards to political donations from the various newsrooms.  Powerline does, too, as do National Review, CBS News, The Jawa Report, Hot Air, Redstate, NewsBusters.org, michellemalkin.com, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and JammieWearingFool . As an example of some of the chatter, Ace mentions that MSNBC notes loudly beginning of $5,000.00 to a Republican political action committee by somebody working for Bill O’Reilly, but says nothing about the idea that even at Fox most of the journalists giving money , give to Democrats. I mentioned Bernie Goldberg, last evening, because of the new book he’s got out.  I’m still reading one of the old ones.. “Arrogance”… or, more correctly, re- reading it. Among the many other points that he makes in that book is that those liberals in the media, are not so much being dishonest with us, as they are being dishonest with themselves.  They consider themselves to be “Centrist”. I know it sounds bizarre, but there it is.  They consider themselves to be a political center of the country.  On that basis, anything they spew out that supports leftism, cannot possibly be biased. At least, in their mind.  In the end, freedom of the press, as was famously stated years ago, is only able to be exercised by those who own one.  Which, perhaps, is why the mainstream media has such a problem with web sites like this one.  Think about it. In reality, Having those other voices, is the only chance at balance the “press” as a whole, ever has.  Limbaugh likes to say that he is balance.  Know what?  He’s right.  So is Neal Boortz, Roger Hedgecock, Glenn Beck and a host of others.  And so is the rightosphere. So, when the Democrats who run Congress, start making loud noises about controlling the one sided voice of talk radio, what they’re really trying to do is remove the only chance of balance the media ever had. And of course they get useful idiots like Trent Lott, on their side.  And don’t think for a minute, that the Internet will not also be so regulated, once talk radio is out of the way.
• Speaking of which, it would appear, Trent Lott can’t seem to keep his loafers off his tongue.  It’s time for Trent Lott to go bye bye. Past it, in fact.
• Honorable mention in the OTB Caption Contest. Been showing up there quite a bit of late. Of course, I have an advantage. I used to be a PROFESSIONAL wise-ass. (Chuckle)
• An interesting situation popped up this afternoon.  Picture it this way: New Truck. Hail Storm. Me parking said truck under a bridge to avoid a fate worse than dent. Yikes!
• A crazy day for site traffic. About a 200% increase in one day, 300% in a week. Such things are always transient, of course, but I won’t deny my spirits were a little higher than usual as a result of the numbers.  Inbound traffic from places like the Wall Street Journal, Hot Air, Surber’s place(s), Money@AOL, The Watchers (Of course) a lot of people forwarding our posts via Email… discussion groups, apparently… All amazing to watch this thing build.
• Something I found whilst jumping around on the net, is this essay by John Quincy Adams entitled “Christianity and Islamism” I read this essay, some years ago and had forgotten about it, frankly, and now I am annoyed that I had.  It has much to say to our current situation.  I commend it to your reading.

Bit has not exactly been a member of the Trent Lott Fan Club,   Well maybe, well maybe not, Mark Levin has been reading Bit.   Well maybe just the news.   What ever the case, Mark gives Lott the Full Levin Treatment (not for delicate ears).   Lott should remember never to pick a fight with a lawyer with access to Lexis/Nexis and his own radio program.

H/T photo:  77 WABC

WASHINGTON —AP-  A federal judge on Thursday upheld former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry’s probation in a criminal tax case, meaning the longtime politician will avoid the possibility of prison.

Barry, 71, and now on the D.C. Council, pleaded guilty in 2005 to misdemeanor charges for failing to file tax returns from 1999 to 2004. As part of his plea bargain, he agreed to file future federal and local tax returns annually.

But prosecutors accused Barry of missing deadlines for filing federal and D.C. tax returns for 2005. They argued in court filings that Barry “has not acted like a person who has been given the opportunity of probation and should not be treated like one.”

In deciding to uphold Barry’s probation, Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson ruled that prosecutors did not prove that Barry willfully failed to file his returns even if he was aware that he missed the deadline.

Back in 06, Barry was singing a different tune: 

“I take full responsibility,” said Mr. Barry, 70. “There’s no excuse and no reasons that anybody could give why anyone would not pay.”

Under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Mr. Barry also acknowledged failing to file returns in 1999 and from 2001 to 2004.

In case you’re curious where you’ve heard the Judge’s name before, she was the one who dismissed the case against Iran for the Khobar Towers attack.  Gee… something of a pattern, brewing, here.

COLUMBUS, Ohio —AP- Bob Evans, whose quest for quality sausage to serve the truckers who filled his 12-stool, 24-hour-a-day steakhouse in southeast Ohio led to the creation of a restaurant chain that bears his name, died Thursday, Bob Evans Farms Inc. said. He was 89.

Evans died at the Cleveland Clinic about 12:30 p.m., Evans’ family told the company. Bob Evans Farms Inc. said last week that he was being treated at the hospital for pneumonia.

Still one of my favorite breakfast stops, that.

Cost is a function of supply versus demand.   The Senate democrat energy biil literally does nothing to increse the supply of energy.  However the bill has specific plans to disincentive energy production.  From the Hill:

“These guys made whatever record profits in the hundreds of billions, so taking 24 of their incentives out that were given to them and putting them towards green technology — I think there’ll be a lot of support for that,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) said.

If you take away the incentive to produce energy, you will have less energy produced.  It ain’t rocket science but it sure is too complicated for Maria Cantwell.   Contact Senator Cantwell and inform her that she is a moron, email, or by phone.

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I mean, didn’t he die recently?

Democrats, I’ll bet, would wish so. The Politico’s Roger Simon notes:

Ralph Nader says he is seriously considering running for president in 2008 because he foresees another Tweedledum-Tweedledee election that offers little real choice to voters.

“You know the two parties are still converging — they don’t even debate the military budget anymore,” Nader said in a 30-minute interview. “I really think there needs to be more competition from outside the two parties.”

Apparently, Ralph hasn’t noticed that the only Republican given any serious consideration by the primary voters, is the one who is not “converging” with the Democrats… Fred Thompson.

Picture from PoliticalHumor.about.com

Nader would have little or no chance of winning the presidency should he run, but he doesn’t need to win to affect the outcome: Many Democrats still blame Nader for draining enough votes away from Al Gore in Florida in 2000 to elect George W. Bush.

Perhaps.  But based on the numbers I’m seeing just now, the bottom line is the democrats will not need the help from Nader to lose the election.  And just in case we have forgotten what a nutjob Nader is…

While Nader praised two candidates who have almost no chance of winning their party’s nomination — Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Mike Gravel — he was severe in his criticism of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“She is a political coward,” Nader said. “She goes around pandering to powerful interest groups on the one hand and flattering general audiences on the other. She doesn’t even have the minimal political fortitude of her husband.”

It interests me, that the people he picks to praise, are the ones with the most dubious connections to reality.  As to his observations about Hillary Clinton, well….. See also, blind pig, acorn, lunch. When even Nader knows Hillary Clinton is a fraud, what do you suppose the rest of the country is going to do?

Captain Ed, noting the same story, says:

Nader didn’t do enough damage to John Kerry to get the blame for George Bush’s relection, but he kneecapped Al Gore enough in Florida to cost the Democrats the White House in 2000. Ever since, he has plagued the party in two ways — by presenting an alternative for disaffected Democrats in the elections themselves, and by providing a rallying point for the hard Left between them. Democrats keep declaring him politically dead, but he seems to keep resurrecting himself just enough to remain painfully relevant.

To the Democrats, perhaps… but nobody else, Ed… to nobody else.

Well, now, there’s something you don’t see every day:

COLUMBIA, S.C. —AP- Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths.

The bodies were found on the road by a passing cabdriver around 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex. Their identities were not released.

“It’s too early to rule out anything,” Columbia police Sgt. Florence McCants said, but McCants said a preliminary investigation didn’t show any sign of foul play.

WIS/10 in Columbia is saying:

The man and woman, 21-year-old Brent Tyler and 21-year-old Chelsea Tumbleston, were both servers at Wild Wing Cafe in Columbia’s Vista.

…

Police Chief Dean Crisp said it appears they fell from the roof of 1812 Lincoln Street. The roof is pyramid-shaped metal, likely slick on a damp morning.

Ummmm… Yeah. OK.

Addendum: (David L) Bit, pulled from comment section, in reference to condoms:

When properly deployed, it doubles as a parachute.
Or so the pig told me, last night

It just so happens we may have a video of that pig.  Viewer discretion advised, link.

Rebutal, with yet more discretion advised, language, link.

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A Memphis televisoin station breathlessly reports that a man fought-off , and averted, a would be robbery.  Breitbart has the video.

Yet strangely missing from this report is just how this would victim fought-off an attemped armed robbery.  Did an unarmed citizen simply bite the would be robber, or more likely was the citizen armed?  I suspect the latter.   The MSM loves to report when firearms used for bad purpose but simply refuses to report  benificial uses of firearms.  Wonder why?

Uh-oh. How to explain this?

Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.

This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973.  The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994.

Does anyone recall what happened in 1994?

Oh… and just for counter-balance, Tammy Bruce offers a little tidbit:

Congress is now nestled at the bottom of the list of Gallup’s annual Confidence in Institutions rankings, along with HMOs. Just 15% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in HMOs. (By way of contrast, 69% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military, which tops the list. 

That last line as a little aside for the freaking Moonbats out there who think Congress being at the bottom of the list has something to do with being in Iraq, or what the military is doing, or because American is Imperialistic or something, Get an Effing Life.

So, Newsflash for Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and every other fat, puffy white bastard up on Capitol Hill:

Military: Top of the List

Congress: Bottom of the List

Any questions?

My estimation of Fred Thompson continues to rise.

So .. .the battle is joined.   Liberals feel threatened by talk radio.  They tried to succeed with their Air America, and all the George Soros and embezzled funds in the world didn’t help them.  So, in the liberal world, if at first you can’t succeed, use the government to destroy your opponents.

So says Boortz… in an extended article posted today. He’s correct, of course, and I said it all in yesterday’s Ramble

Interesting discussion going on over supposed global warming issues, at Q&O. My response to one of the commenters will give you a taste:

-1-

The problem arises when trying to make the same argument for the current warming – the reason the climatologists get excited about the current warming is the simple fact that the initial parameters are so different than before.

So in other words, we are being asked to make all these changes to our lifestyle, throw a monkey wrench into our economy and so on, all because a group of scientists doesn’t understand something?  We’re being asked to respond in panicked tones and hushed, alarming words and predictions, because they don’t KNOW?

(Alarm bells going off)

And, as Neo points out, what of the cure? Has the science been worked out so that we understand what we’re subjecting ourselves to by way of the cure? It seems unlikely, since they haven’t even nailed down all the variables for the cause, as yet.

And this, we’re told, is unarguable science ?

Finally, the political causes for this argument cannot be overlooked. Interesting for example that the vast majority of those who sign on to the ‘man made global warming” argument are mostly those who have been seeking and working toward a way to limit the power and influence of the west for decades, now, while ignoring the pollution coming from places like China… who won’t sign on meaningfully to any treaty involving CO2 in any event, and who just yesterday was being reported as the leading CO2 producer in the world.while I believe that there are many who honestly hold such views, without political purpose, that can be said for any political movement. Mona Charen has an appropriate title to confer on such people.

And Neo speaks correctly yet again, when addressing the cure of just stepping back and letting things take their course. Clearly, the situation is destined to sort itself out, anyway… with or without the ‘help’ of leftist pols…. And he has it right, here, when he suggests that the goal is to have the enviro-wacko creed written into the culture… something that they simply cannot do, if the situation takes care of itself.

Forgive me if I’m unimpressed with the guesswork… sorry… “science”…. supposedly detecting the problem, much less the solutions being demanded. In short, we stand about as much chance of controlling our global environment, as I have of directing all Internet web traffic to my website, by use of my museum piece IBM XT computer.

And given the politics, I won’t even mention the honesty of the lot raising these arguments.-0-