Al Gore spoke at the World Business Summit on Global Change, urging CEOs to invest heavily in technology to reduce greenhouse gasses, despite the worldwide economic downturn. He spoke with urgency, passion and conviction, pressing the corporations to make their decisions. You can’t blame him. The time for action is now. His fifteen minutes in the candlelight is just about up.
His employment in companies that will benefit financially from his huckstering of global warming may seem a little self-serving, but a guy’s gotta make a buck somehow, and the Government pension barely pays his electric bill.
Outside the summit anti-globalization protestors marched against multi-national corporations They believe that the wealthy few hold too much power, and both wealth and power should be distributed among the poor. Gore believed that too, until he found a way to become wealthy and powerful. Now his political philosophy is “I got mine, and I’m going to get yours too.”
The Speaker of the House now avoids reporters and refuses to give any more statements on the CIA torture issue. She’s decided she’s said enough, and she’s right. If you want to know what happened, you now have a choice of half-a-dozen versions from which to choose.
The Vice President was relieved, though, to have some of the media attention for gaffes taken from him for a while. It gave him a chance to soak his feet before putting them back into his mouth.
The GOP has been enjoying the epidemic of Democratic Foot-in Mouth disease lately. They consider it payback for eight years of Democrats making fun of President George Bush and his Bushisms. But observers caution the Republicans from trying to take advantage of the moment. Already there is a legislation proposed that would prohibit making fun of Democrats. It is an amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Detroit City Councilperson JoAnn Watson paid just $68 in property taxes on her downtown property, provoking an investigation of the Assessor’s office. Similar properties average $2000 to $6500 in taxes. Ms. Watson said she thought the drop in the assessment was due to damage from a tornado she said hit in either 1993 or 2002. Well, either that or something else that might have happened at some point, somewhere around here. Um…she’ll get back to us on that some time….maybe.
State governments are looking hard for new sources of tax income to help salvage busted budgets. California is considering legalizing marijuana and Reuters is reporting they envision a $50 an ounce tax on the weed. Oregon, not to be outdone, is contemplating a $98 an ounce tax.
Kinda makes the cigarette taxes look generous, doesn’t it?
Sin taxes are a favorite target for strapped state and local governments. Georgia is looking at a $5 tax on stripper fans, Virginia might begin taxing hotel movie rentals and California increasing sales tax on porn. What are they trying to do, put sex back into the privacy of one’s own home?
Authorities in Alaska are cracking down on Charley Vandergaw, the recluse who has been hand-feeding bears at his isolated cabin for twenty years. The Anchorage District Attorney has charged Vandergaw with twenty counts of illegally feeding wild game.They’re afraid the man will end up like former wildlife advocate Timothy Treadwell, who, along with his girlfriend, were eaten by the “tame” bears they communed with. But Vandergaw isn’t worried. He’s counting on the individualistic Alaskan public to support his cause against the intrusive government. And, failing that, he’s got a plan for escaping jail- if he can only train one of the bears to drive his getaway car.
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