Cheney Hearts Evil

How else do you explain this?

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's office was behind a push to censor congressional testimony that global warming poses a danger to the public, a former Environmental Protection Agency official told Congress.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control testified to a U.S. Senate panel last year about the public health effects of climate change in testimony that was heavily edited by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Until now, Mr. Cheney's office hadn't been publicly linked to the efforts to keep information about climate change out of the public eye.

"The Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of the Vice President were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony," Jason Burnett, formerly an EPA associate deputy administrator, wrote in a letter dated July 6 to U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.).

Apparently Cheney can only survive in an atmosphere filled with poisonous gases.

Elections have consequences. Vote the crooks out.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

So says the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged China to drop tariffs on environmental equipment, saying trade barriers are hindering efforts to clean up a nation that has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities.

``There's something that doesn't seem economically sensible and morally right'' about charging a tariff on clean technology, Paulson said after his speech today on energy and the environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

The only things that are economically sensible and morally right in Paulson's book are those that make him and his buddies more money. See Bear Stearns, where American taxpayers will bear the brunt of their losses if they exceed $1 billion. Based on Tuesday's subprime loss league table, their losses will.

Congestion Pricing Passes NYC Council

The controversial proposal to charge drivers in the busiest parts of Manhattan took a major step forward on Monday, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Speaker Christine C. Quinn wrenching approval from the City Council by an unusually slim margin.

Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito, left, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer and Speaker Christine C. Quinn after the congestion pricing proposal was passed.

Under intense pressure from the mayor, Ms. Quinn and their allies that continued almost until the voting began, council members approved the plan to charge most drivers $8 to enter a zone below 60th Street by a vote of 30 to 20, with no abstentions and one absence.

Onto the state legislature.