Wednesday, May 23, 2007

A grayer shade of green


My Republican father (otherwise adorable) gave me a fright this weekend upon telling me he rates Dubya as his favorite president. After the sputtering and ranting subsided I began to see why he would foster such a sentiment. Coming from a background which honors male authority figures, my Dad has always lauded authority. The pastor of the church, policemen, government officials. Matter of fact, Dad reads like the demographic bible for southern left wingers. Luckily, not everyone thinks as he does. Former president Carter lambasted the Bush administration calling it the "worst in history". Amen.

California governer Arnold Schwarzenegger laid into the adminstration for it's dismal environmental policy. It gets even better, Arnie said his administration will sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it fails to act quickly on the state of California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said the EPA would "move expeditiously, but we are going to be moving responsibly." Read that as we'll take our own freaking time, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, on the East coast Mayor Bloomberg stated in 5 years the entire fleet of New York taxicabs will be hybrid. The most logical republican around made this comment, "These cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes." The fuel efficient hybrids get 36 miles to the gallon whereas the standard yellow cab vehicle, Ford Crown Victoria performs to a measley 14 mpg.

By the way, my Dad drives a Toyota Corolla but he once owned a Crown Victoria. Proof that there's always hope for change.

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