C’mon Chuck Schumer, what are you doin for us anyway?

On CSPAN 5/21/2008: WASHINGTON, DC: 2 hr. 59 min.: CSPAN3 you will find Senate Judiciary Cmte. hearing on Rising Crude Oil Prices. The oil industry blames the rising price of consumer gasoline on increases in the cost of crude oil. Executives from BP America, Shell Oil Co., Chevron Corp., ConocPhilips Co., and Exxon Mobil Corp. testify today at a Senate Judiciary Cmte. hearing on unrefined petroleum production.
OK I get the Senate Committee are pointing their collective finger at the panel made up of oil executives, but aren’t the three remaining fingers on the Senate hand pointing back at them?  What is the Senate doing for us on this matter; and the House for the that matter?  Senator Schumer asked the oil compaines how much they are spending on alternative energy research, then said it was not enough.  Well Senator, I voted for you.  With regards to alternative energy research, what are you and your “buddies” in DC doing about alternative energy any way?

If you and your ole’ lady can’t take it,—get out!

Obama tells Tenn.’s GOP: ‘Lay off my wife’     What the fuck man, If you and your ole’ lady can’t take a poke at this point in the game—get out.  Remember all the crap Hillary had to deal with?

Not enough money to catch burglars

From the Daily Mail By MILES GOSLETT Last updated at 23:45pm on 17th May 2008 >>read more.      Police didn’t have the money to catch burglars who beat me with a crowbar     A businessman who was almost beaten to death by three crowbar-wielding burglars claims police haven’t carried out DNA tests to identify his attackers – because they can’t afford to pay for them. IT consultant Simon Pither, 36, was savagely beaten over the head when he interrupted the gang at his £300,000 home. The married father of two sustained such serious skull injuries during the assault that doctors told him he was lucky to be alive…

Persuasion vs. pollution

From the Baltimore Sun By Tom Pelton | Sun reporter May 12, 2008>>read more.     A survey finds metro-area people willing to work for clean water but not pay for it
More than 80 percent of Baltimore-area residents say they’re willing to do “a lot more” to prevent water pollution, but they don’t want to pay more taxes to solve the problem, according to a newly released opinion survey.     This suggests an ad campaign to educate people about steps they can take in their personal lives – picking up pet waste, using less lawn fertilizer and stopping littering – could help clean up Baltimore Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay, according to a pair of local environmental groups that commissioned the research.     Changing personal behavior could be more politically palatable than asking the city to pay millions to install trash filters in its storm-water drains to keep floating debris out of the harbor, leaders of the Herring Run Watershed Association and the Jones Falls Watershed Association said.     “People want to solve problems, but they never want to pay for them,” said Mary Sloan Roby, executive director of the Herring Run Watershed Association. “The issue has to impact people directly and personally. Are your children going to be safe to play in the water and eat the fish?”     The organizations, along with other groups in the Stormwater Action Coalition, hope to attract government and corporate donations to create an anti-pollution ad campaign.     One goal of the public education campaign is to end ignorance about what happens to rainwater when it washes over city streets.     Eighty-two percent of 800 Baltimore-area residents who were surveyed by phone last summer said they are aware that storm water from streets and parking lots flows into local waterways.     But 17 percent of the people falsely believed that the storm water was treated before it spilled into Baltimore Harbor. In reality, storm water – often full of trash, oil and other pollutants from the streets – flows untreated and mostly unfiltered into the harbor, which leads to the Patapsco River and then the bay.     And 38 percent of those polled don’t know what happens to storm water. Only 16 percent knew for certain that storm water is not treated, while 28 percent thought it was probably not treated but weren’t sure, according to research for the environmental groups by the Annapolis-based OpinionWorks polling firm.     “People don’t understand how watersheds operate, and they don’t understand the connection between their lawn and the harbor – but once they get that, they respond,” said Steve Raabe, president of OpinionWorks.      Eighty-three percent correctly replied that it would make a “big difference” in cleaning up local waters if they picked up litter and kept their local storm drains clear of debris. Three-quarters of respondents said picking up pet waste would make a “big difference” and 67 percent said that using less fertilizer on their lawns would help a lot.     Eighty-eight percent said they were “very bothered” by floating trash in Baltimore Harbor, which they said was hurting tourism and the economy. “People are emotionally upset about the condition of the harbor,” Raabe said. “Many people in authority may underestimate that level of antipathy and shame about the harbor.”     But 63 percent of those polled said they would be “very bothered” or “somewhat bothered” to pay more in taxes to clean up water pollution.     During interviews with focus groups concluded by OpinionWorks, several people thought that the floating trash in the harbor is being tossed by tourists – not washed from the streets of Baltimore, which is the source of most harbor trash, Raabe said.     Over the past six years, the city has spent more than $1 million installing filters to catch floating debris as it flows out of storm-water outfalls toward the harbor in Canton, Carroll Park, Hunting Ridge and the Carroll Camden Industrial Area.     New York City has trash-catching systems in its storm-water pipes, and Chicago long ago rerouted its storm-water pipes to direct most rainwater and trash away from that city’s waterfront.      Baltimore’s four new trash filters have had some success, catching 133,955 pounds of floating debris last year, according to city figures. But the filter in Carroll Park broke earlier this year when it was vandalized.     “If people didn’t litter, we wouldn’t need any of this” filtering, said Kurt Kocher, spokesman for the city’s Department of Public Works.

Darfur Cause Aims for Paris Hilton-Like Publicity

From AdRANTs by Steve Hall May 5, 2008>>read more.     Forrester Senior Analyst Jeremiah Owyang has written a concise summary with insightful commentary on the Louis Vuitton brand-jacked Darfur t-shirt situation. Briefly, an artist, Nadia Plesner, created a t-shirt showing a Darfur child holding an LV bag and a little dog.     Imagery sound familiar? It should and that’s Plesner’s point who explains, “My illustration Simple Living is an idea inspired by the media’s constant cover of completely meaningless things [ie. Paris Hilton]. My thought was: Since doing nothing but wearing designer bags and small ugly dogs apparently is enough to get you on a magazine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention.”

A ski jump? A toboggan run? A water slide? What’s got everyone talking?

From LA Times by Steve Lopez May 4, 2008:>>read more.
The design of L.A. Unified’s new arts high school is convoluted and costly.     “What is it?” Kelly Charles asked as he walked to his job as a custodian in downtown Los Angeles and gazed up at a rather odd construction project. “A roller coaster?”     As I wandered the neighborhood, other guesses were: A ski jump.     A toboggan run.     A water slide.      What’s got everyone talking is the odd-looking tower that rises 140 feet above the 101 Freeway, directly across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The futuristic metallic edifice, with a wraparound spiral Dr. Seuss would love, is not part of a theme park. It is the signature adornment on a new arts-oriented public high school that will cost roughly $230 million.     That’s far more than the going rate for a more conventional school, but district officials argue that they already owned the site of the former L.A. Unified headquarters. Sure, but aren’t these tough times for public schools? Aren’t school districts facing huge cuts? Aren’t many aging schools in disrepair?     You have to wonder how this will sit with parents who are being asked to contribute several hundred dollars per student to cover programs and staff members that tax dollars used to fund.     David Tokofsky, a former school board member, said he isn’t opposed to a bit of a flair on an arts-oriented campus. But given all the budget problems — not to mention the flailing administration of L.A. Supt. and Navy Adm. David L. Brewer — the project “just looks like an absurdity,” in Tokofsky’s words.     Personally, I thought the big log flume was the latest improvement on the disastrous employee payroll system in L.A. Unified. Weekly pay could be sent down the chutes to teachers below, and whatever cash doesn’t blow over Chinatown or fly into Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s belfry could be pocketed by teachers.     Come to think of it, stringing a tightrope from the school tower to the cathedral wouldn’t be a bad idea. Priests and administrators accused of wrongdoing or coverups could creep across the treacherous divide. Those who land safely in the cathedral’s reflecting pool shall be considered saved.

1970’s Oil Embargo: We Didn’t Learn a fuckin thing

As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Are Flocking to Small Cars
From The New York Times By BILL VLASIC Published: May 2, 2008>>read more.  Image.
DETROIT — Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.     How the Industry Fared In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.     The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles has been building in recent years, but has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles have dropped sharply.     In another first, fuel-sipping four-cylinder engines surpassed six-cylinder models in popularity in April.     “It’s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,” said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for the Ford Motor Company.     The trend toward smaller and lighter vehicles with better mileage is a blow to Detroit automakers, which offer fewer such models than Asian carmakers like Toyota and Honda. Moreover, the decline of S.U.V.’s and pickups has curtailed the biggest source of profits for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.     Once considered an unattractive and cheap alternative to large cars and S.U.V.’s, compacts have become the new star of the showroom at a time when overall industry sales are falling.

Beijing bans smoking in public places

What the Fuck!? It’s been Two Years, Where is our Gov’t?

From NPR’s All Things Considered, April 30, 2008 ‘Katrina Cottages’ Wait to Become Homesby Audie Cornish>>read more and listen • After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit land, Congress gave FEMA $400 million to design an alternative to the trailers that the agency distributed along the Gulf Coast. The result – known as the “Katrina Cottage” – is kind of a cross between a trailer and a house.     But more than two years since Congress approved the funds, barely 2,000 of them are in use.

P&G Asks Customers to Weigh in on Gay Kiss

From AdAge BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) By Jack Neff Published: April 29, 2008 click to read more.  see related post —P&G Lets Consumers Act as Media Planners Asks Customers to Weight in on Gay Kissing and Hip-Hop Programming     The nation’s largest advertiser is inviting consumers to weigh in on its controversial media decisions.     Last week, Procter & Gamble set up an option on its main consumer toll-free line in response to a drive from a coalition, dubbed Enough Is Enough, that was urging the company to stop sponsoring hip-hop programs on MTV and BET laced with profanity, liberal doses of the “N word,” and scenes the group believes degrade and objectify women.     This week, P&G set up a second toll-free option asking callers to register support or criticism of the “story line” on “As the World Turns,” from P&G Productions, which featured fairly passionate kisses between daytime TV’s only gay couple.     Not just one group weighing in While it’s natural to expect complaints to outnumber support on such lines, that may not necessarily be the case. The American Family Association, which asked people to call P&G to protest the gay kissing scene, isn’t the only one weighing in on Luke and Noah’s love life.