Global Warming Awareness Thanks to GOP, desperate Republicans, Democrat Busted, Stealing from kids, Bushed and Molly Ivans.

I wanted to start with Republicans, cause they're fun. But after reading Sebastian Mallaby's great piece in the WaPo on how the GOP's attitude is helping boost Al Gore's new movie on global warming, I'll start with important stuff.

If you have any doubts or questions regarding the validity of global warming, read this article. It's well researched and easy to understand. I wish that I that I'd written it.

Republican dishonesty reaches its extreme on the issue of global warming. Yes,
climate science is complex, and nobody can forecast the earth's temperature with
complete confidence. But the fact that scientists don't know everything isn't a
license to ignore what they do know: that the earth is warming, glaciers are
melting and sea levels are rising at an accelerating pace -- and that these
changes are driven at least partly by fossil-fuel consumption. The U.S. National Academies have confirmed this; their foreign counterparts have confirmed this;
and so has the world's top authority on the subject, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change . None of this is controversial.

He even mentions my Senator, Jim Inhofe.

Meanwhile, others have been vocal. James Inhofe, the Republican who ironically
chairs the Senate environment committee, has described global warming as the
"greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." He avoids scientists
who might put him right: His star witness at a hearing last year was Michael
Crichton, a science-fiction novelist.

Forget Iraq, the economy, high gas prices and stagnant wages, the only things that are important to Bush and the Republicans are fund raising and this fall's election.

For the 29% that think Bush is spending all his time protecting them from terrorists, you should know that,

Bush has turned his attention to the campaign. Six months before the election,
he has made 36 fundraising appearances, more than at this point in 2002. He
spoke at a party gala last week that broke off-year records for hard-money
fundraising and later attended events in Virginia and Kentucky. Vice President
Cheney has been even more active, making 62 fundraising appearances, including
one in Nashville on Saturday, and he plans three more in California in the next
couple of days.

They plan to crank out the vote by appealing to those who think discrimination is the key to Heaven's gate.

To address conservatives, who have been key to his election victories but have
grown disenchanted with the administration, Bush and Senate Republicans are
reviving their fight with Democrats over judicial nominations and last week
voted out of committee a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to
set up a floor vote next month.

And this is just funny.

"...I think we've turned this thing around and he has two more years to get some
things done," said Ron Kaufman, who was White House political director under
George H.W. Bush and remains close to the former president. A Republican loss of
the House, on the other hand, "makes the next two years that much more
difficult."

These guys just don't have a clue. It's the things they've already done that have their poll numbers in the gutter. Do they really think we want them to do more?



While I dislike corrupt, lying Republicans (and not all of them are), I realize that money is their prime motivation. It's like turning a two year old loose in a candy store. It's no big surprise.

When it's someone in my party, I take it personally. Rep. William Jefferson D-LA, has been denying that he's taken any bribe money. Denial is a good thing, unless the FBI has a tape of you accepting $100,000. William Jefferson, one man the Democratic party should be glad to see the back of.

Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), the target of a 14-month public corruption
probe, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia
investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit
released yesterday.

More on William Jefferson: 1, 2, 3



It seems that the$70 billion tax cut for the rich also raised tax rates for teenagers with college savings funds. It's not hard to see where these guy's priorities lie.

The $69 billion tax cut bill that President Bush signed this week tripled
tax rates for teenagers with college savings funds, despite Mr. Bush's 1999
pledge to veto any tax increase.

Under the new law, teenagers age 14 to 17 with investment income will now
be taxed at the same rate as their parents, not at their own rates. Long-term
capital gains and dividends that had been taxed at 5 percent will now be taxed
at 15 percent. Interest that had been taxed at 10 percent will now be taxed at
as much as 35 percent.

We won't forget the 15 Democrats that made this possible: John Barrow, Melissa Bean, Dan Boren, Ed Case, Bud Cramer, Henry Cuellar, Lincoln Davis, Harold Ford, Bart Gordon, Jim Marshall, Jim Matheson, Mike McIntyre, Charles Melancon, Collin Peterson, John Salazar



Bush is starting to smell.

WASHINGTON - It's not just the way he's doing his job. Americans apparently
don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either.

"The American people like this president," White House political guru Karl
Rove said last week.

"People like him. They respect him. He's somebody they feel a connection
with. But they're just sour right now on the war. And that's the way it's going
to be. And we will fight our way through.

Wanna bet, Karl?



And Molly Ivins: Can Things Get Any Worse?

AUSTIN, Texas—Looking at the wreckage of the Bush administration leaves one with
the depressed query, “Now what?” The only help to the country that can come from
this ugly and spectacular crack-up is, in theory, things can’t get worse. This
administration is so discredited it cannot talk the country into an unnecessary
war with Iran as it did with Iraq. In theory, spending is so out of control it
cannot cut taxes for the rich again; the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bushies
is already among its lasting legacies.