Yes, The Battle Between John Kerry and John Kerry Continues -- This Time Over Gas Prices Gas prices are too high, says Kerry. And it is the result of the "failed policies" of GW Bush the oilman, he says. Yet is this not the guy environmentalists are going to vote for? Do not Euro-wannabes lament that gas taxes are not high enough and we should have even more taxes on gas? To cut consumption and give us more money to spend on crucifixes dipped in urine? But when prices are high because of mid-east dictatorships rather than taxes, suddenly they want to take action??? Against mid-east dictators? I don't get it. No one gets it. Iraq was "all about oil" the radical lefties claim. Yet their guy is wanting to make American foreign policy all about oil. Foreign policy hawk and macho unilateralist Kerry says he would pressure oil-producing nations to increase production and temporarily suspend filling the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, campaign aides said. And he chose to make that statement in San Diego. Does he have a clue why CA gas prices are so high? I'll tell him. Because taxes on gas in CA are the highest in the country is the first reason. The second reason is that the population in CA has gone up by millions in the last few decades but environmentalists have protested any plans to build or expand any refineries in CA. It is virtually impossible to do. So even though CA has the Alaska pipeline coming right into the state and should have no dependence at all on OPEC, CA still has to import gas from other states. Now let's compare macho unilateralist foreign policy hawk Presidential candidate Kerry with Senator Kerry. Senator Kerry consistently has advocated higher taxes on gasoline in order to increase government coffers and cut gas consumption. I'm sure Senator Kerry would be thrilled if poor people were forced to take jobs that were only on bus routes while he gets chauffered in a gas-guzzling limousine. But macho unilateralist foreign policy hawk Kerry is looking out for the little guy. The poor people. Who are burdened by high taxes. "A Kerry administration would act immediately to exert pressure on OPEC to abandon its cut in output quotas and instead increase oil supplies," his aides said. Now this is consistent. Senator Kerry, after all, supported and voted for pressuring a mid-east country unilaterally. But Presidential Candidate Kerry said that involvement in Iraq was a bad idea. I think the Democrats actually have a shot at winning this election if they can keep the two Democrat candidates focused on Bush and not attacking each other. Article Here

EU Waffles On Kyoto Sometimes I get the feeling that this whole Kyoto thing was rigged against the US all along. Germany got a target year of 1990 - the last year of East German existence - so all they had to do was close some Soviet-era factories that were belching toxic death and they met their target. France switched to more nuclear power so they easily met their emissions target while risking nothing except nuclear destruction - good luck getting that stunt by American environmentalists. It seems there are only 4 countries in Europe meeting their Kyoto goals. So Kyoto ia pretty much pancaked before it even gets going. So now Europeans have to decide how important the environment is to them. Germany is still the largest emitter of "greenhouse" gases in Europe. Yet Germany was slapped around by France when they asked to defer the timeline for their final plan. The French can be smug because they switched to environmentally friendly nuclear power - and by environmentally friendly I mean they ship their nuclear waste to Africa. So what is the solution? I say encourage more cheating. The EU wants to set up an official trading system that would allow companies to buy and sell permits to emit greenhouse gases, starting in 2005. Each government would be given emission allowances which could be traded in a market system. A company could either meet a target or else purchase a "credit" from cleaner companies and keep on polluting. This sounds like a terrific idea because clean companies, like software makers, could sell their pollution credits to the polluters. Is it good for the environment? Not at all ... but this is about slapping around the US, dammit, not the earth. Article Here