The Guild 1-30-2003 Whiney Enviroweenies

Philip Clapp, president:
“This is the first time President Bush has mentioned the environment in a State of the Union, and the reason is simple: his poll numbers with the swing voters he needs in 2004 — women, independents and suburban voters — are dropping. This was window-dressing pure and simple.

“After two years of rolling back environmental protections, he has discovered there’s a cost. “President Bush’s environmental promises always come with a “Buyer Beware” sign. “His air pollution plan actually allows power plants to pollute more, for a decade longer, than the current Clean Air Act allows. “His forest plan allows timber companies to cut down 3,000 truckloads a year of the great trees in the Sequoia National Monument. [snip]

Daniel Becker, global warming and energy program director:
“Fuel cells are an important part of a clean energy future, but the president’s rhetoric does not match the reality. President Bush’s FreedomCAR program is built on the flawed Partnership for A New Generation of Vehicles, which squandered billions of taxpayer dollars in research and development but did not bring a single hybrid vehicle to the marketplace. Similarly, the FreedomCAR program funnels millions to Detroit without requiring that they produce a single fuel cell vehicle for the public to purchase.

“The auto industry is using the promise of future fuel cells as a shield against using existing technology to dramatically cut our oil dependence, and pollution, today. This technology is sitting on the shelf while Detroit dithers. Honda and Toyota are producing hybrid vehicles today, the big three are not. Honda has stated that it is using the electric motor of its hybrid as the basis for the fuel cell cars which it is beginning to produce. Meanwhile, FreedomCAR is re-inventing the wheel. Refusing to demand that the Big Three use modern, gas-saving technology is irresponsible. [snip]

David Hawkins, climate director:
It’s surprising how brazen the president is being at taking what are rollbacks and delays and claiming that they are initiatives. Both of the activities (Clear Skies and Healthy Forests) that he featured in his statement last night are prime examples of that.”

“Having a program to accelerate the use of hydrogen fuels is a good idea but the president talked of a car that would be available in 16 years. We need something to deal with the next 16 years ... such as improving the fuel efficiency standards.” [snip]

It goes without saying if clintoon had proposed all this the enviroweenies would have made him a hero.

This is a brilliant piece by John O'Sullivan in today's National Review. He proposes a bold initiative Dubya should offer to Tony Blair while he's at the WH today. Basically, making Britain the centre of an Atlantic Alliance involving the European signatories to yesterday's letter...plus Turkey. It would work like Nafta with Nato as the military power behind it (no EU army!).

Here's the conversation he imagines out on the WH grounds....

Look, Tony, I can't thank you enough for the support you have given America on liberating Iraq. Everyone here knows it has cost you scarce political capital, and until last week I was intending to reward you with strong support against the French, the Germans and the British Tories in your battle to put Britain "at the heart of Europe."
But this Iraq crisis — and all new alignments are hammered out on the anvil of crisis — forces us both to choose. We in the U.S. will no longer give mindless support to anything called "European integration." So, we will no longer support a common foreign policy that is likely to be a Franco-German device for forcing our European friends to oppose us — or at least not to help us. But we will back free trade and free movement of capital in Europe — and across the Atlantic.
I will therefore be announcing a major U.S. drive for a Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) after Baghdad is liberated. It will include NAFTA, the EU, any European country that wants to join, and of course Turkey. And it will create a Euro-American free-trade community to match the Euro-American defense community of NATO.
Let's be candid, it is America that has kept the peace in Europe through NATO for 50 years — not the EU. So I will also ask our European friends to make NATO the sole European defense organization and not to continue with their divisive EU army — at least until they have met all their obligations to NATO which on current expenditures will be many years hence.
The French and Germans may not like that. So I will gradually start moving American bases out of Germany and into Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and other new friends. We think they are more reliable when the chips are down.
Now, Tony, we here think that Britain could play a pivotal role in this new Atlanticism — if you make the right choices today. The first choice is to back our plans for TAFTA and NATO — and to lead those EU members that don't want to be governed by Paris, Berlin, and Brussels into pushing them through. You made a great start yesterday.
Your second choice, Tony, should be to exploit the discussions on the proposed new European constitution as an opportunity to redesign Europe. We should both want an "a la carte Europe" so that France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and others can forge a new federal superstate if they wish — but Britain, Italy, Spain, and the other five nations can retain free trade while getting rid of the excessive regulation, the costly agricultural cartel, and all the rest of that Old Labor socialist baggage.
With TAFTA and an a la carte Europe, Britain would then be at the heart of an Atlantic civilization, politically stable but economically vibrant, guaranteed by and supporting U.S. power, in which the Franco-German bloc with its old-fashioned regulatory interventionism and structurally high unemployment would constitute the "slow lane."
One more thing, Tony. We don't forget our friends. If you choose Atlanticism and then lose the fight in the EU, there will be a safety net for you and Britain in the form of membership of NAFTA and free trade with the U.S. — and also for the other European nations that reject the EU's neo-socialism. What do you say, pardner?"

OR...Dubya could just say:

Yo, Tony, let's screw France & Germany!

Here's the ORIGINAL ARTICLE...it's worth reading!

Well,

It looks like we're not out of the woods yet with this Fifth's Disease virus. DH & I went to the specialist today. We found out that this baby is definitely a boy, and all of the physical body properties look good; however, the doctor said that the baby definitely shows signs that he has had the virus.

There was no swelling around the heart and the heart itself looked fine, but when he measured the bloodflow in the brain, it was elevated. Apparently, that is a sign that something is going on with the bone marrow, which is what the parvovirus affects. I asked him if this could cause brain damage to the baby, and he said absolutely not. What happens is, if the anemia is left untreated it causes the baby to go into heart failure. So, it was a positive sign that the baby's heart looked good, but that we have to be very cautious b/c the baby is showing signs of having the virus attack his bone marrow.

He told us that his gut feeling was that the baby was coming off the infection and that we had seen the worst of it, but so much depends upon when exactly I was infected with the virus. I go back to see him next Wednesday, and that will give us a better picture if the baby is getting over the infection or heading into the worst of it.

If the baby begins heart failure, then we do a blood transfusion. The specialist said he did one just yesterday, so I guess it's a bit more common than what I thought. He didn't think that this was headed in that direction, but he's concerned enough to have me come back next week for another ultrasound.

Please keep the baby in your prayers.

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