As expected, California and 15 other states filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for blocking their authority to restrict carbon dioxide emissions. Even though the EPA had approved about 50 other waiver requests during the past three decades and its staff supported this one, the EPA administrator denied it, claiming that new federal fuel efficiency standards made the waiver unnecessary — which isn’t the case.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week called the denial “unconscionable†and said that the EPA is “ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming.â€
Expect the states to win this one.
In other global warming news, a new study published in the journal Nature reports that, while man is contributing to global warming, a natural energy shift in the atmosphere may be the main cause of the record-setting loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.
Mike Huckabee chose to cap off his Iowa push with a visit to Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show†Wednesday. He was engaging and even played bass with the band. But he had to cross a picket line to appear on the show, which he said earlier he wouldn’t do. Signs called him a scab and asked, “What would Jesus do?â€
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton appeared via tape on David Letterman’s “Late Show,†in which the writers are back a work.
Something for Iowa near no-show Rudy Giuliani to ponder as he watches the caucus returns tonight: “In the history of the Iowa caucuses, no candidate who has finished worse than third among the candidates has ever gone on to win the nomination,†reported ABC News. Then again, there has never been an election season in which so many big states are holding primaries so early. Super Duper Tuesday on Feb. 5 will include California, New York and other states in which Giuliani hopes to do well.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
While Iowa and New Hampshire are swimming in presidential candidates and media attention, the resentment is rising among the rest of the states about this kooky presidential selection system. Fewer than 1 in 5 voters surveyed by Associated Press and Yahoo News favor letting Iowa and New Hampshire vote first; nearly 80 percent said other states should have first dibs. (Not surprisingly, those surveyed in Iowa and New Hampshire like the status quo just fine; two Granite Staters even had the nerve to suggest the two states need more power.) May 2008 be the election that broke the primary system’s back and led to reform.
“No candidate offends so few, or is the acceptable choice of so many,†wrote New York Times columnist David Brooks about Mitt Romney in the GOP primaries. But Brooks argued that Romney’s consultant-tested candidacy, aimed at appealing to as many GOP primary voters as possible, would fail in the general election, because most of the public, particularly independents, is tired of the old Republican brand. “Romney is a decent man with some good fiscal and economic policies,†Brooks wrote. “But in this race, he has run like a manager, not an entrepreneur. His triumph this month would mean a Democratic victory in November.â€
Attendance at movie theaters was flat in 2007, after a slight increase in 2006 and three sharp years of decline before that, the New York Times reported. A big reason I don’t go that often is that there isn’t much playing locally that I want to see. I even have trouble finding anything at Blockbuster that I want to rent. Most of the highest grossing movies last year were sequels that are running out of gas — “Spider-Man,†“Shrek,†“Pirates of the Caribbean.†Big-name stars couldn’t save many movies, and most of the Iraq-related movies flopped.
It’s great that some Wichita schoolkids will get a chance to chat live with orbiting astronauts, thanks to a deal reached between Exploration Place and NASA.
The live video downlink from the International Space Station — the first ever for Kansas — will take place in February or March and let Anderson Elementary fifth-graders ask astronauts and cosmonauts questions for 20 minutes or so.
The event is a natural for Exploration Place to host, with its mission to fire children’s imaginations and inspire them to reach for the stars.
Kudos to Exploration Place for landing the NASA event. Hope it’s the first of many.
