She was sent to Huron Hospital Tuesday night after a police officer in Cleveland Heights saw her swerving in her car. When the officer tried to pull her over, her car started to roll across the lanes of oncoming traffic.

It seems, reading the Times today, that Obama is going to sell permits to companies that pollute. Presumably, they will then be free to continue to pollute since they have purchased the pollution permit.

It is then expected that the companies that pollute will pass the cost of the permits on the consumers - us. But that will be OK because the government will give tax relief to the consumers.

So - to sum up: Companies will be able to continue to pollute. They will pay the government. They will then pass the permit charges on to us and the government will give the money that they got from the polluters to the consumer.

That would seem to add up to companies being able to continue to exceed pollution emission caps. The rest of the equation is simply taking money from one of our pockets and putting it in the other (maybe).

Here is an actual quote from the Times:
"The president will also propose, in the 10-year budget he is to release Thursday, to use revenues from the centerpiece of his environmental policy -- a plan under which companies must buy permits to exceed pollution emission caps -- to pay for an extension of a two-year tax credit that benefits low-wage and middle-income people."

But we know it's not about safety, it's about extorting revenue...or making up reasons to stop a person the man don't like the look of.

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Anyway, what I really am interested in is people's opinion about this measure before Congress right now about DC representation in Congress.  While in theory, I believe DC residents should get full representation, I think the side that says DC is not a "state" and as such, is not entitled to representation, based on the wording in the Constitution that says "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states."

Putting aside the constitutional argument for a moment, if you give DC representation like a state, then doesn't it follow that the way it's set up and run should be like a state, and not dependent on Congress for its financing?

I don't buy the "cede the land back to Maryland and they'll have representation" argument  - this would have to take another constitutional amendment since Article I, Sec. 8 specifically provides for a federal district for the nation's capital, separate from any one state.

I was thinking about this since I work in DC and after reading this article this morning.

Seems like the Obamas have decided on a breed.  The Potuguese water-dog.  Still working on the name though.

DENVER - The Rocky Mountain News will publish its last edition Friday.

More circus antics to come.  Pass the popcorn!

Senate Democratic leaders said Thursday they were prepared to seat Al Franken as soon as the beginning of April, regardless whether Republican Norm Coleman files legal appeals.

"We're feeling pretty confident," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said when asked in a news conference if he was prepared to make Franken a senator.

But Senate Republicans are already threatening to filibuster any attempt to seat Franken, who would represent the 59th Democratic vote in the Senate.

"Nothing could unify Republicans better than any attempt to try to seat Al Franken," said Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer of New York added that, while the party would allow Coleman to appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, he expected the election dispute to be wrapped up by the beginning of April.

Then Reid turned the knife.

"Norm Coleman should have a five-minute conversation with [Nevada Sen.] John Ensign," Reid said.

Reid explained that, in his 1998 Senate race, Ensign decided to concede defeat to Reid rather than pursue a recount.

"John Ensign wound up as a real hero in Nevada," Reid said.

Cornyn also said Republicans have a parliamentary tool to oppose Franken - they could argue against seating him if he doesn't have a certificate of election, which he may not have as long as legal appeals are pending.

"I don't know why [Democratic leaders] want to turn the Senate into a circus," Cornyn said.

The Obama administration has notified Congress that Chas Freeman has been appointed chairman of the National Intelligence Council, demonstrating a willingness to rebuff pro-Israel activists and an embrace of a more realist foreign policy line.

Link

A number of news outlets have been focusing on a statement by President Obama in support of the automobile industry in his State of the Union Address: "I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it." (One example is here.)

A number of them are citing the Library of Congress as having definitively asserted that the car was actually invented in Germany. As is often the case, the truth is sometimes more elusive than what one might think.

The media's likely source for this Library of Congress factoid is from our "Everyday Mysteries" site, which presents history in an engaging Q&A format.

While the answer that is given regarding who invented the car is indeed "Karl Benz," it is more accurate to say that "it depends on how you define an automobile."

The webpage itself has this disclaimer right beneath the given answer: "This question does not have a straightforward answer." It also includes this less-than-definitive statement: "If we had to give credit to one inventor, it would probably be Karl Benz from Germany. Many suggest that he created the first true automobile in 1885/1886." (Emphasis added)

The page points out that self-propelled road vehicles powered by steam or electricity in France and Scotland predated Benz' invention. It also credits Americans with having invented the first car to combine "an internal combustion engine with a carriage," along with having set up the first company to manufacture and sell automobiles.

The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Blagojevich's administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state's housing authority Sept. 10 -- about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.

Please, I say this latter part with a giggle and laugh, but try to keep serious with instincts that America is in a period of understanding. We have a partisan economy, a political party that has been beaten, the Republican Neo-Con's, they are imploding. They don't like it. The money game that was played for several decades is over; let's call it the Obama moment, and hope it will last longer than a moment. Some call it spreading the wealth or socialism, from my view it is a simple reapportion, or of that golden rule of proportion that is the aesthetics that likely meets fair play in social evolution.

Be sure even a lot of Democrats that parade around are on the take with Republicans. It's only my gut feeling that types like Joe Lieberman or John Edwards are falling stars that are sweet on both sides that give the Bush pirate profiteering, what ever it needs, while exclaiming what America needs. Is that a laugh or what?

Well America is on the highway of change and is exampled by the Mainstream Media not only veering across the line but many times cutting off American's for political and economic reasons. Including abusing the Constitutional right of free speech, which morphed into public propaganda transforming into public media prosecution heavily dosed with professional contextual sword fighting, bait and switch. I would suggest including the culture bias by "commercial sound bite" that reinforce delivery.

Rush Limbaugh knows that he is one of the masters at public confusion, a leader in the Neo-Con messaging machine built through the decades that is collapsing. Limbaugh is the spirit of hate radio with his legions of cronies, Hannity or Savage, Levin among them, adds the muster to road rage and maybe even timed for effect.  Limbaugh advocates screwing the school system let alone hoping Obama's plans fail. From my view Limbaugh while driving in the wrong direction causes everyone to get out of his way forcing crack ups all while saying he has more fun than a person should have. Sheesh.

In closing I salute you for your efforts serving as one of the principal trial lawyers for Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City Bombing Case. From my view he should never have been executed, at least given life. For those in the know terminated this guy to bury secrets that would likely expose huge violations in the Constitution and political pirate profiteering Bush is getting away with.

For me the same reflection can be made with this Blagojevich Burris thing. Its only an instinct I can not prove but Patrick Fitzgerald is not partisan is a crony for the Neo-Con to the highest degree aiding in a fierce battle for control of the Senate seating. The tip off for me was the grandstanding in the Media Blitz arresting Blagojevich along with the rant of public prosecution over cable political analysis. Blagojevich could have been given the respect to surrender but was not.