Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Giuliani for president? Josh Marshall: "Perhaps this is something of an existential question. But do we really have to pretend that Rudy Giuliani has more than a snowball's chance in hell of getting the Republican presidential nomination? Or can we all just stipulate that a multiple adulterer, who supports gay civil rights and choice, has deep and on-going ties to mobbed-up and now-disgraced Police boss Bernie Kerik, has a largely unscrutinized (outside of New York) resume, and had the bright idea of locating the NYC disaster center in the already-once-bombed World Trade Center probably will have some rough sledding in Republican primaries?" "2008 pres" 7:07:26 AM

Gerrymandering backfires in Texas? Josh Marshall: "I sunk a lot of time three-plus years ago into reporting on Tom DeLay's corrupt, but ultimately successful mid-decade redistricting in Texas. So we shouldn't get too far past the 2006 election without noting that DeLay's work has turned out to be a pretty big disaster for his state of Texas. "The whole gambit was intended to solidify the GOP majority in the House. And it accounted for the meager Republican House pick-ups in the 2004 election. But now that the GOP House majority is no more, the 2003 redistricting plan has left Texas with virtually no one with much seniority in the new majority party. "As this piece in the Star-Telegram explained on Sunday, Texas would have been in line to have three committee chairman in the 110th Congress. Now it will probably have none." "2008 pres" 7:01:01 AM

Global warming? Aspen is taking on global warming in a big way, according to ABC News. From the article, "Under [John] Worcester's quiet leadership, Aspen's city government has already cut its planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 10.5 percent in only 18 months - a rare achievement. It was two years ago that Worcester, disgusted by a talk radio host calling global warming a hoax, set out to educate himself on the subject. What he learned worried him, and he asked a few neighbors for help. He gathered a local climate science analyst, an alternative energy executive, a ski slope manager, and a young resource efficiency expert. They called themselves and their nascent effort the 'Canary Initiative.' From Day 1, the goal of the initiative was to get Aspen on the road to being 'carbon neutral.' All homes, buildings, streetlights, water pumps, vehicles, even airplanes, would be powered with energy that was not created by burning coal, oil or gas. The burning of coal, oil and gas releases planet-warming greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air." Read the whole (longish) article. "2008 pres" 6:43:00 AM

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