Friday, November 10, 2006

Rep. John Dingell - 'No' To Fuel Efficient Cars


The new head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell, has voiced that increasing fuel efficiency in automobiles is not part of his agenda. From MSNBC:
Rep. John Dingell, who has been a U.S. lawmaker since 1955... gave a strong indication of what he did not plan to do: raise fuel-efficiency standards for U.S. automobiles.
“I’m not sure that there’s any urgent needs for us to address those questions,” Dingell told CNBC in an interview.
Is this part of the "New Direction for America"? It sounds an awful like the "Old Entrenched Paid For By Big Oil America" that we just threw out of Congress. Maybe Rep. Dingell didn't get the message. Please contact Rep. John Dingell to let him know your concerns regarding our current low fuel-efficiency standards and that we expect the new congress to enact tougher standards.




Molten Carbon

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Americans Voted Their Values - Senator Tester

From DailyKos:
It's about time the Senate has someone that looks like Montana.

Calling McCaskill, Tester, Webb

Molten Carbon is calling all three remaining senate races in favor of McCaskill, Tester, and Webb. The most likely fight will come from Allen's team and will include a very expensive all-star litigation team from RNC headquarters. That's our prediction anyway and we're sticking to it.




Calling McCaskill, Tester, Webb

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Sunday, November 05, 2006

1999 War Games Predicted Problems In Iraq

The Associated Press broke a story today about war games conducted in 1999 which were focused on overthrowing Saddam and the ensuing outcome. The following conclusions resulted, and were ignored for the subsequent real War in Iraq:

  • A change in regimes does not guarantee stability

  • A number of factors including aggressive neighbors, fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines, and chaos created by rival forces bidding for power could adversely affect regional stability

  • Even when civil order is restored and borders are secured, the replacement regime could be problematic — especially if perceived as weak, a puppet, or out-of-step with prevailing regional governments

  • Iran’s anti-Americanism could be enflamed by a U.S.-led intervention in Iraq

  • The influx of U.S. and other western forces into Iraq would exacerbate worries in Tehran, as would the installation of a pro-western government in Baghdad

  • The debate on post-Saddam Iraq also reveals the paucity of information about the potential and capabilities of the external Iraqi opposition groups. The lack of intelligence concerning their roles hampers U.S. policy development

  • Also, some participants believe that no Arab government will welcome the kind of lengthy U.S. presence that would be required to install and sustain a democratic government

  • A long-term, large-scale military intervention may be at odds with many coalition partners

This could be a copy from the pages of the Bush Administrations 'Lessons Learned' manual. Unfortunately for us, they aren't reading this manual and didn't bother to read the intelligence and assesments that had already been prepared. Why do we pay our intelligence agencies billions of dollars annually if the President isn't going to follow their advice?


Molten Carbon

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Republican Candidates 2006

--UT-Sen: Senator Hatch

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert