Great satire

Bill Maher usually drives me nuts, but the second half of this is utterly fantastic. (There are some good moments in the first half, too.)

The danger of Sarah Palin

I really didn't want this blog to be too political because I don't think sustainability is, at its heart, a political issue, but I have to mention this: John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate signals a swerve toward dangerous environmental policy. Consider this:

• She denies that global warming is man-made. Bear in mind that no professional scientific organization disputes anthropogenic global warming.
  
• Her husband works for the oil company BP.
• She supports drilling in ANWR.

And this has less to do with global warming, but she's a creationist. Egads.

McCain's lobbyist friends

I made this:



Thanks to Progressive Accountability for its main source work in tracking down all of John McCain's lobbyists.

Are Gingrich and Hannity stupid, lying, or insane?

This clip is a few days old, but behold:



Think Progress has detailed how demonstrably wrong Gingrich is, but I'd like to address a larger question: are they stupid, lying, or completely insane? Consider this:

• Obama mentioned tire inflation not because it's his energy plan (it's not--warning, pdf), but because a little personal responsibility with our cars would effect the same change as drilling offshore for oil.
• After a few days of poking fun at Obama for mentioning tire inflation, McCain acknowledged that he "doesn't disagree," an odd construction that means, essentially, he agrees.
• For Hannity and Gingrich, high oil prices weren't an issue until they became a political issue, one that, unfortunately, most people aren't well informed about. Harping on the tire inflation "gaffe," which wasn't a gaffe, is simply noise that continues misinformation.

How could these wealthy people with immediate access to information possibly not know any of the above? And what's worse: knowing all of the above, as well as facing growing acceptance that global warming is real, they continue to advocate the worst kind of politics and energy ideas.