Obama Vs. Bob the Builder
February 11, 2008
A friend recently forwarded me a video that’s received a large amount of traffic on YouTube. (Nearly 3,000,000 views as of this morning) Put out by artist Will.I.Am, the video features various B level celebrities singing along to an Obama campaign speech. If it sounds corny, it is. After watching it, another song came to mind. You decide which one is best.
Vs.
BioFuels HURT the Environment
February 8, 2008
First things first: I don’t believe in mad made global warming. The amount of C02 humans put into the atmosphere each year is minuscule compared to that put out by rotting plant matter and oceans. When lefties and the uneducated claim that human output of C02 is somehow driving climate change, I feel like slapping my forehead. If you’ve done any sort of research into the issue of climate change, it’s fairly obvious that humans have little to no effect on climate change. For those who don’t believe me, check out junk science, or buy a copy of The Great Global Warming Swindle.
Simply put, the underlying reason for using ethanol is flawed. I’m all for ending American dependence on foreign oil. The sooner we cut off the mullahs and Kings/Princes the better, but its tough to watch lefty politicians talk about about how corn based ethanol is going to help us become energy independent. It just doesn’t add up. Plus it’s driving beer prices higher. The costs of corn based ethanol outweigh the benefits and it seems that the press is starting to wake up and smell the diesel. Scientific American has more. I’ve got snippets up from the article, but be sure to read the whole thing.
Biofuels Are Bad for Feeding People and Combating Climate Change
By displacing agriculture for food—and causing more land clearing—biofuels are bad for hungry people and the environmentConverting corn to ethanol in Iowa not only leads to clearing more of the Amazonian rainforest, researchers report in a pair of new studies in Science, but also would do little to slow global warming—and often make it worse.
“Prior analyses made an accounting error,” says one study’s lead author, Tim Searchinger, an agricultural expert at Princeton University. “There is a huge imbalance between the carbon lost by plowing up a hectare [2.47 acres] of forest or grassland from the benefit you get from biofuels.”
Growing plants store carbon in their roots, shoots and leaves. As a result, the world’s plants and the soil in which they grow contain nearly three times as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. “I know when I look at a tree that half the dry weight of it is carbon,” says ecologist David Tilman of the University of Minnesota, coauthor of the other study which examined the “carbon debt” embedded in any biofuel. “That’s going to end up as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when you cut it down.”
Remember this next time a liberal spouts off about the burgeoning corn based ethanol industry and how great it is for the environment.
Scientific American: Biofuels Are Bad for Feeding People and Combating Climate Change
Hooley is Out
February 7, 2008
The Oregonian is reporting that Darlene Hooley will NOT be running for re-election.
Rep. Hooley will not run for re-election
by The Oregonian
Thursday February 07, 2008, 9:55 AMWASHINGTON - Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., told The Oregonian today that she will retire from Congress when her term expires at the end of this year.Hooley, 68, who spent time in the hospital in November, said health was not a reason for her decision not to seek a seventh term. “I’ve never felt better,” she said in an interview.
Instead, she said it was the cumulative effect of arduous travel, the relentless demands of fund-raising and 32 years of public service that converged into a decision.
“At some point in everybody’s life you have to decide, how much longer do I want to do this?” she said.
“It’s time to move on.”
Ironically, in a year when Democrats are expected to gain seats in the House, Hooley said she would have won if she ran and that political considerations factored into her decision.
“I think it will be easier to elect a Democrat this year, and I don’t know about two years,” she said.
Even so, Hooley said that when she informed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of her decision, both pressed her to reconsider.
“They did ask if there was anything that would change my mind,” she said. “I told them ‘no.’ ”
Hooley’s successor would be the first new member of Oregon’s congressional delegation since Republican Greg Walden and Democrat David Wu were elected in 1998.
Welcome to Red Oregon
February 5, 2008
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