Thursday, August 31, 2006

Towards a carbon-free CA ;)

So California is passing a law to put tighter restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions. The reason being that “We’d all like to see California one day be carbon free." according to Mr. Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat. hmmm...

12 Comments:

Blogger Qian said...

And in other California news, Caltech Physicists Successfully Split The Bill.

I hate to link to the Onion in every other post like I own stock in the damned thing, but this reminded me of our Clam floor outings too much. :)

9/05/2006 11:02:00 AM  
Blogger Vincent said...

T-shirts!... especially this one.

9/08/2006 12:29:00 AM  
Blogger mwal said...

One of the physicists in the Onion article picture is actually Paul Martin. His main claim to fame is that he was once a Prime Minister of some country or another.

9/08/2006 04:00:00 AM  
Blogger Vincent said...

Your comment crams an incredible amount of insight into that last sentence, mwal. :-)

9/09/2006 01:09:00 AM  
Blogger mwal said...

Of course, I learned that from an email list I'm on... There's no way I would recognize Paul Martin on my own.

9/13/2006 04:56:00 PM  
Blogger Justin said...

Does Canada really count as a separate country? I thought it was going to be the 51st state one of these days :-)

Oh well, at least it's more independent than Great Britain :-P

9/14/2006 05:52:00 PM  
Blogger Vincent said...

Canada's still independent, but Harper is learning Bush/Rovian media techniques.

On a tangential topic, are you in ID-01 or ID-02, Justin? I've probably asked you before, but I can't remember what your answer was.

9/15/2006 12:25:00 AM  
Blogger Justin said...

I'm in MI at the moment. I'd have to look at my voter registration card to know which district I'm in, though. Are you thinking House or Senate?

9/15/2006 12:07:00 PM  
Blogger Vincent said...

House. I was wondering what the word on the street in Idaho is regarding Larry Grant.

9/16/2006 12:24:00 AM  
Blogger Justin said...

While Grant has a shot at the seat, I'm hard-pressed to believe that Sali is going anywhere but up after a bruising primary. I wouldn't put money on the race being close when the republican party decides that it has to, eventually, close ranks and support their candidate, despite the warts.

I'm also not sure that it's in the democrat's best interest to pick up a lot of seats in conservative districts (assuming it's in their best interest to win back the House). Whoever Idaho elects is going to vote conservatively-- a D-ID that joins the republicans periodically tends to increase the perception that the dems lack party loyalty, and plays up the republican's solidarity. That sort of thing is not exactly conducive to party building, since it constantly cuts the knees out from under the party leadership.

9/19/2006 03:32:00 AM  
Blogger Vincent said...

Yes, it would take a real Republican revolt against the candidate and/or leadership to elect a Democrat in ID-01. But with MT-Sen looking like a Dem pickup and WY-AL more competitive than one would have thought, it seems that there's something in the water in the upper mountain West.

I disagree with your second point. A phase change occurs at D +15 seats in the House, when majority status changes. Since the majority party sets the agenda (both in the House as a whole and in committees), many divisive votes would be avoided altogether. And even if the House stays in GOP hands, they've developed a really tin ear for what roll call votes to politicize. (Remember the minimum wage vote, which was a minimum wage cut in disguise for tipped wage earners and was bundled with a massive cut in the estate tax? Republicans at the time gloated about "outfoxing" Democrats on the vote, but that's not how it played in the sphere of public opinion.)

9/20/2006 11:57:00 PM  
Blogger Justin said...

Unless the magical Democratic voter fairy appears throughout the nation in November, there is no possible way that the Dems get to the D + 15 tipping point. Not a chance.

Given that the House is going to be close and the Senate is probably still going to be Republican, it's not obvious that getting a few Western dems helps as much as it hurts. Yes, the majority has some room to control the agenda, but the dems aren't going to control both houses, so that power is somewhat limited. Yes, there will be a few wing-nut votes that can be avoided, but that's going to cause the Republicans to focus on wedge issues that can separate Western democrats from the more liberal members of the party, particularly when doing so generates left-wing tantrums. Watch how quickly the environment gets to be a hot button issue, since Western dems will vote with the Republicans most of the time driving left-wing dems absolutely nutty, ensuring that every TV talking head can warmup the old chestnut of the disjointed, undisciplined Democrats. Given that nothing interesting ever passes in the last 2 years of a President's second term, do you really want to go into a wide-open '08 sharing blame for Congress's problems with little leverage to actually fix them?

9/24/2006 11:45:00 AM  

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