On this second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, here is video footage from “storm chasers” Mike Theiss and Jim Reed, extreme weather photographers who went into the center of the hurricane as it struck Gulfport, Mississippi.
** SCHWARZENEGGER MEETS TOMORROW WITH GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON CLIMATE CHANGE. While negotiations over California policy on redistricting reform, health care, and water continue, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will meet tomorrow morning in the state Capitol with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the federal republic’s equivalent of the US secretary of state. Steinmeier, who will have just been in Norway, is coming to discuss climate change strategy with Schwarzenegger.
Germany’s new conservative Chancellor (the German title for prime minister) Angela Merkel pushed President George W. Bush hard on climate change issues at the recent G8 summit in a German resort. Schwarzenegger will be a key participant in next month’s UN meeting on climate change in New York.
** OUT OF CONTROL. Another sign the Permanent Campaign is getting out of control. Ignoring the sanctions against Florida, Wyoming’s Republicans just said they will go first in the country in the 2008 presidential race. With presidential caucuses on January 5th. Nine days before first-in-the-nation Iowa. Please give it a rest.
** FRED THOMPSON PICKS FAMILIAR FACE TO CALIFORNIANS AS COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF: TODD HARRIS. Apparently at last on the verge of announcing his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, former Senator and Law & Order star Fred Thompson today named Todd Harris as his communications director. Harris was deputy communications director for John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, and a top spokesman for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was elected governor of California in the wild 2003 recall campaign. He continued to work for Schwarzenegger through 2005 as a partner with strategist Mike Murphy in the DC Navigators firm.
** SCHWARZENEGGER CALLS FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION AS CALIFORNIA POWER USE SPIKES. California’s summer has been much more mild this year than last, when a sustained heat storm pushed the electric power grid to new records of peak demand that had not been anticipated for at least another five years.
But today and tomorrow, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking Californians to look to their power use with an eye toward conserving. Not wanting to repeat anything like the scores of deaths caused by last summer’s heat storm, he’s declared heat emergencies in several counties around the state, and the grid manager, the California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO), has declared a power alert.
Here you can track the system’s peak electric power demand in near real time.
** MCCAIN LEAD NARROWS IN HOME STATE ARIZONA. A new Arizona State University poll shows Senator John McCain’s lead in the Arizona Republican presidential primary is down sharply. It’s McCain 24%, Mitt Romney 19%, Rudy Giuliani 18%, and Fred Thompson 17%.
McCain became the first Republican senator to call for the resignation of Idaho’s Larry Craig, who pled guilty to “lewd conduct” in a Minneapolis airport men’s room. Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman became the second. Craig has resigned from all his Senate committees, but not from the Senate itself.
** RUDY PLUGS A GAP. Despite his stature as hero of 9/11, former New York Mayor and Republican presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has come under fire repeatedly from the firefighters union and some other 9/11 first responders and victims for allegedly overstating his role and for making a series of mistakes. Giuliani recently had to back away from what he called a misstatement regarding how much time he’d spent at Ground Zero, former site of the World Trade Center.
Today in South Carolina his presidential campaign unveiled a new group, First Responders for Rudy. Its national chair is Howard Safir, who previously served as both Police and Fire Commissioner for New York City. Joining Safir on the national team are U.S. Congressman David Reichert (R- Washington) and So9uth Carolina State Firefighters’ Association Executive Director Jim Bowie.
Reichert, the former sheriff of King County in the state of Washington, will serve as national chair of Law Enforcement for Rudy. Bowie, who worked at the South Carolina Fire Academy for 16 years, will serve as national chair of Firefighters for Rudy. Others are joining as co-chairs, and state chapters of the group are being organized, especially in the early states in next year’s nomination contest.
This is obviously designed to counter the criticism of Giuliani, which strikes at the heart of his appeal. It will be interesting to see how successful it is. Safir, a former veteran federal agent who once headed the Witness Security program, was appointed to both his posts in New York City by Giuliani.
** HURRICANE KATRINA PLUS TWO. On this second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush is in New Orleans, the only American city in the modern era nearly destroyed. While he talks things up, thousands of people still live in FEMA trailers and most of the schools aren’t ready for the new school year. The trial balloon around the appointment of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department presided over the debacle of disaster assistance, to replace Alberto Gonzales as US attorney general, appears to have been shot down.
You’ll enjoy the video footage from the storm chasers above. There is a network of people who literally chase after big storms, going inside them and measuring and documenting them. Expect this to become more of a phenomenon along with the phenomenon of extreme weather. It was presaged in the 1994 novel “Heavy Weather” by Bruce Sterling.
** CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE REFORM. WHERE NEXT? Not surprisingly, as has been previously discussed on NWN, Republican legislators have no intention of voting for fees or taxes or whatever one wants to call them on businesses and medical providers to finance universal health care in California. That was reported first yesterday on NWN after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders held their “Big 5″ meeting. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau reports that 20% of Californians have no health insurance. When they get sick and get health care, we nonetheless pay for it through emergency rooms.
If there is to be a dramatic expansion of health coverage in the Golden State, unless Schwarzenegger has a great trick up his sleeve, it will be done with legislation that requires only a majority vote of the Legislature. The first half of Schwarzenegger’s funding plan, the employer mandate that can be satisfied if the employer does not provide health insurance by paying an in lieu fee, requires only a majority vote, as the history of John Burton’s SB 2 shows. (It was enacted in 2003 and knocked out very narrowly by referendum in November 2004 only following Schwarzenegger’s late intervention against it.) But the Legislature’s lawyers say that his fee on medical providers requires a two-thirds vote as a tax. So that is the question. Is that assessment correct? If so, only some version of the Democrats’ plan, which is not universal and does not have the medical provider fee, is doable.
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. American troops are now in the midst of a 107th day of searching for the remaining two US soldiers captured by Al Qaeda in an ambush south of Baghdad. They have had no luck so far. A video put out by Al Qaeda forces in Iraq claims that all three men were executed after being captured. But, with the exception of the Californian found floating in the Euphrates River, that claim can’t be confirmed. The US high command in Baghdad has revealed that ID cards for the other two American prisoners were found in an Al Qaeda safehouse on June 9th.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have risen to the $70 to $73 per barrel range.
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| Comments (121) |
Same as Bill Clinton: 2
It’s not the end-all be-all of coolness then.
Brasky…that looks EXACTLY like Bush in college at Yale The dude, apparently, NEVER paid for his own booze.
Brasky…that looks EXACTLY like Bush in college at Yale The dude, apparently, NEVER paid for his own booze.
OK, OK, all this Republican bashing.
I want to see some Democratic bashing, er, bashing of Democrats.
What about that guy who took the bribes and kep the money in his freezer or whatever?
Congressman William Jefferson has a Bacon Number of infinity.
As a good Democrat, I was shocked when I heard he was keeping thousands of dollars of bribes in a freezer.
I mean, think of the carbon footprint! He should have stuck it under a fair-trade mattress made of recycled hemp.
Sadly, corruption and dishonesty exist at all levels of government. I would love to see a political honor code enforced — “I will not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.”
The last part would have Republican party leaders dumping Craig immediately, regardless the nature of his offense or the political consquenses. He, like Doolittle, Jefferson, Lewis, Miller etc. should simply resign as a matter of honor, recognizing they are not the best representative for their constituents.
Well…its appropriate to mention Jefferson…a political hurricane in his own right.
Ya know, Jefferson used to be this quiet guy on the Hill who did his job with reasonable effectiveness without much fanfare. Unfortunately, when I was in New Orleans, there was always something people were saying, within the New Orleans political clubs (there are some very famous old-line political clubs in the city). Hell, its like a sport in that place going all the way back to the founding of the state.
Its just the way they operate down on da Bayou.
Heckfire, former Governor and, now Louisiana State Penitentiary Resident #348965, Edwin Edwards was a bigger criminal than any of the Long’s. In fact, Edwards was once asked by Mike Wallace on “60 Minutes” if he, Edwards that is, had actually paid a Vegas gambling debt with a suitcase full of cash that was sitting in the foyer of the Governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge. The story goes that Edwards had lost a crapload of $$$ playing poker or something at the Caesar’s. A couple of guys from the Caesar’s show up at the mansion two weeks later and collect the debt on behalf of the casino.
Edwards did it right in public view and didn’t seem to care who know it — just handed over a suitcase full of cash. And he had no problem admitting it on 60 Minutes.
Wallace asked him point blank: “Governor, where do you get $300K in cash in a suitcase. I mean, you generally, as the Governor of state, don’t have the kind of money lying around, do you?
Edwards’ response:”Actually Mike, I do…”
Needless to say, Wallace needless to say was f*(&)(*ing flabbergasted … and that is no mean feat given that Wallace has interviewed some colorful characters in his day.
Re: Dems acting stupid
The most idiotic thing the Dems could possibly do…is that stupid statement Edwards made today asking Americans to give up their SUV’S.
Edwards is flying around in private jets and bitch’en about my ride! What a jerk! I can compare that to a conservative Reep from Idaho having sex in a public restroom.
…if he is flying a few trips commercial during the campaign, it doesn’t count!
Carole…actually Edwards flys 95% of the time on commercial flights. Trust me on that. The other times I can tell you that he flys private jets only when absolutely necessary.
Now, to be fair,Senator Clinton flies some private jets — but that is usually necessary b/c of security concerns — particularly in her case. The same can be said of Senator Obama, I imagine sometimes does for the same reason.
And they have all made similar statements about giving up SUV’s. Arnold has said it as well — although not as direct.
Now, I don’t know what the “carbon footprint” on a Gulfstream V is relative to a Boeing 737-800 but I gotta figure that it is lower. But its all relative when you only have 10 or so passengers versus 200.
Edwards is right. Until we get new engines or fuels, SUVs are real bad news. Do you offset all the carbon dioxide they put in the air?
Edwards fumbled the question. He should have said something about raising CAFE standards or regulating carbon emissions instead. Leave it to the automakers and consumers to decide how SUVs fit within a more fuel efficient auto fleet. Hopefully he’ll be more articulate on the mater in the future.
Tagging the guy for the jet thing is weak. Arnold has a carbon footprint like Sasquatch, but he’s still pro-environment.
Dems acting stupid:
A field campaign director that works for a Nevada Cat House.
The real challange is:
Name a stupid political stunt from an Independent candidate?
carole w – do you want a Ross Perot highlight reel?
If you want the carbon prints to go down stop passing gas. When was the last time one of my fellow bloggers picked up five car pool kids in a Pirus?
Car pool kids in Bradley’s Jag, (smearing chocolate on the leather seats,screaming and yelling, complaining about too much homework)…
Yeah thats what I want to see.
Reality for the average American voting family:)
Brasky,
You have me there!
Ranting is good, very good!
Hey, there are a lotta cars with plenty of room that don’t get 9 miles a gallon.
Capitol Boy,
I drive a tank and I get 18 MPG! I need protection from those wild drivers out there that drive over 100 MPH (pretending like we are all in Europe):)
Yes, a modern v-8 305 HP that gets 18 MPG!
For all NWN readers who are scientifically inclined, remember F=MA?
I will pay more for gasoline and whatever carbon tax anyone wants to impose so long as I can drive my safer, heavier vehicles. Life is too valuable to be crushed in a Prius. Sorry, just the facts.
For all NWN readers who are scientifically inclined, remember F=MA?
I will pay more for gasoline and whatever carbon tax anyone wants to impose so long as I can drive my safer, heavier vehicles. Life is too valuable to be crushed in a Prius. Sorry, just the facts.
Actually, the safety of the SUV is largely a myth.
I’ve driven them and they are top heavy and far less maneuverable than most vehicles. Then there is the psychological factor, which gives people a false sense of security.
In my rather extensive observation, some of the worst drivers on the road drive SUVs.
While it is true that the Connolly leather in the Jag will be smeared with chocolate only by a foolish child, it’s also true that there are many nice sports wagons out there.
And while it is true that my car has always been green in the sense that it is, well, the color green, it’s also true that all its greenhouse gas emissions — and it is driven less and has good mileage — are offset.
The cult of the SUV, which I first noticed among women, who were not hauling around children, on the West Side of LA around 1990, is something worthy not just of a column or 40, but a book.
>Car pool kids in Bradley’s Jag, (smearing chocolate on the leather seats,screaming and yelling, complaining about too much homework)…
Yeah thats what I want to see.
Reality for the average American voting family:)
Aug 29, 2007 04:40 PM
Large vehicles are safer than small ones in crashes, all things being equal.
SUVs tend to be less safe than similarly sized cars and vans, all things being equal.
And since we are on the Unsafe at Any Speed topic, Ralph Nader has a Bacon Number of 2.
Carol, you can add Nader to Perot and (I just remembered) Cindy Sheehan as a list of Independent wack-jobs.
All things are never equal.
SUVs have poor centers of gravity. There is a tremendous number of rollover accidents.
Add to that the quite false sense of invincibility they generate among many of their drivers and you have a problem.
The only vehicles I find more annoying to deal with than SUVs are the long-haul truckers.
Just the other day, I was driving over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, where, quite a few years ago as a high schooler, I drove my first car 125 miles per hour. At night, with no traffic.
I didn’t think I’d be able to go that fast in light traffic during daylight hours. But i thought I’d be able to get well over 100.
Yet I couldn’t. Because some yahoo in a BMW X5 saw me coming and decided to block the fast lane, going only 70.
When she finally got out of the way, as the bridge came to its regretable end, I zoomed her by 2 feet. But this is typical. Being in that huge pickup truck with amenities made the driver feel powerful.
Rip those monstrosities!
Bill scribes:
Yet I couldn’t. Because some yahoo in a BMW X5 saw me coming and decided to block the fast lane, going only 70.
When she finally got out of the way, as the bridge came to its regretable end, I zoomed her by 2 feet. But this is typical. Being in that huge pickup truck with amenities made the driver feel powerful.
——
Was it Senator Migden????
SUVs have no style.
“SUVs have poor centers of gravity. There is a tremendous number of rollover accidents.”
Yup – that’s what I said. Rollovers tend to be a real problem with younger drivers.
Still, bigger is better in an actual crash. Large sedans and station wagons do great in crashes and hardly ever roll-over. .
The only cases when an SUV MIGHT be safer than a car is when very high bumpered SUVs (like an Excursion) meet very low cars. Then the bumper of the larger vehicle “jumps” directly into the safety cage, which is very bad. NHTSA was supposed to address this, but I doubt if anything has been done.
I’d punched it back up to 85 by the time I passed, so I don’t know.
>Was it Senator Migden????
Aug 29, 2007 05:50 PM
SCHWARZENEGGER CALLS FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION
This morning I went to a panel including one of Schwarzenegger’s appointees to the CPUC, Dian Grueneich… She is quite keen on efficiency.
Actually, the safety of the SUV is largely a myth.
Yep. All things being equal, size is protective. But all things aren’t equal — SUVs are, as you said, top-heavy. And then there’s another factor in play: All things being equal, mass is dangerous, and SUVs have way more mass than regular cars. If you can make a larger car, without making it more massive, it’ll get safer. Which is why when Tesla eventually comes out with a family car, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that the density-reducing tech they’re using will put it on par with Volvo’s best.
Oh, and if you want safety with current tech — get a station wagon.
“Harris…continued to work for Schwarzenegger through 2005 as a partner with strategist Mike Murphy…”
A good pickup for Fred Thompson. An interesting choice for Harris.
BTW, what happened to Mike Murphy?
I thought Migden had her license suspended.
What do you mean by “zoom?”
What do you mean by “zoom?”
Ann: I’m sure Bill is observing the California Vehicle Code and common sense safety pre-cautions and all of his sppeds are actually listed in KPH…
Zooming is dealing with a driver who has proved to be difficult by pulling up alongside for a moment or four, and then accelerating past.
I believe that’s correct. But I wasn’t focusing on ID’ing the driver at speed.
>Brasky :
I thought Migden had her license suspended.
Aug 29, 2007 06:04 PM
If I’m not distractec by conversation or the blackberry in various modes — i.e., NWN comments, press releases, tips, etc. — my driving is rock steady at any speed. I actually have a bit of a gift of precognition about what other cars are about to do.
>Brasky :
Ann: I’m sure Bill is observing the California Vehicle Code and common sense safety pre-cautions and all of his sppeds are actually listed in KPH…
Aug 29, 2007 06:32 PM
Aside from complaining about my coverage, I don’t know what’s new with Murph.
He actually came off really well in the Schwarzenegger biopic I was one of the producers of.
But in context, as a very key part of a high-level ensemble in the 2003 recall campaign. Which is what he was, notwithstanding the LA Times’s over-glorification of him because they were shut out of Schwarzworld.
And, hence, in need of a source.
>Brasky :
“Harris…continued to work for Schwarzenegger through 2005 as a partner with strategist Mike Murphy…”
A good pickup for Fred Thompson. An interesting choice for Harris.
BTW, what happened to Mike Murphy?
Aug 29, 2007 06:03 PM
A station wagon will not tow a 6500 pound boat.
If you put 22 inch tires on your SUV, you pretty much eliminate, the top heavy control issue.
Having been through two driving schools, I haven’t (yet) rolled a vehicle and hopefully never will. I AM very worried about being rear ended( which happened to me in college).
What I need is an SUV type vehicle with a electric motor, that will tow, handle in the snow and perform in high elevation.
I hope everyone saw Keith Olberman’s reenactment of the airport bathroom incident?
…. and I already test drove the BMW 535xi…it still won’t tow a 6500 boat.
In a sedan or station wagon, the screaming children are seated too close to the old crabby lady driving.
I don’t think we’re going to be designing a sustainable world to haul huge boats everywhere with huge SUVs.
Carole W – I don’t think anybody is bashing people who need a big truck to do big truck stuff.
Fact is, most of us don’t, but we have big trucks anyway.
And I doubt YOU will roll your SUV. Most SUV roll-overs occur when the driver attempts an evasive maneuver (like changing lanes or swerving around a chipmunk) at high speeds, starts to go into a slide/spin or tips slightly. They then over-correct and flip the vehicle in the opposite direction. This usually happens to inexperienced/distracted/impaired drivers.
That said, tire size is only part of the problem of SUV center of gravity issues.
The most sensible way to manage the issues of global warming and reducing or fossil fuel dependence is by raising the fleet average fuel economy. Large cars/trucks will still be there for those who need them (with some redesigns). A large group of medium sized efficient vehicles will be available for the masses and a smaller group of super-efficient itty-bitty cars will be there for everyone else.
BTW, you can get a modern station wagon to tow 3,800 lbs (tongue weight), which is pretty good.
Didn’t see that re-enactment, but Slate has one too. FUNNY stuff.
Oh, and hybrid technology has been used successfully for DECADES in hauling heavy loads – freight trains. Since a lot of towing is dealing with peak needs (getting up to speed, grades, etc.) hybrid technology would work very well in a towing vehicle, should someone care to develop it. You could build something the size of Honda Pilot with the peak towing capacity of a Suburban or maybe a larger F series.
Speak for yourself. SUVs are for wannabees and dummies.
> Brasky :
Carole W – I don’t think anybody is bashing people who need a big truck to do big truck stuff.
Fact is, most of us don’t, but we have big trucks anyway.
Capitol Boy: Attacking people’s lifestyles in the name of environmentalism is a sure way to get more Republicans elected and thereby destroy the planet.
I’m not an “environmentalist.” I also don’t need some huge, unsafe, POS to feel good about myself.
Wannabees and dummy…lol.
You young folks are cute. I can’t wait till your butt sags and you fill your first prescription for “The Little Blue Pill”.:)
OK, gang, here is the future of the SUV.
New Technology.
There will be new engines and new fuels.