AG Brown’s lawsuit against the EPA

I’ve neglected to cover the story so far. I just haven’t had the time to read up on the issues. But a blogger at Daily Kos has the following:

In the final days of 2007, the EPA–for the first time ever–denied Califorina’s request for a waiver to implement its own (stricter) laws to reduce greenhouse gases from vehicles. Since then, we’ve learned that the head of the EPA ignored his staff’s written findings which concluded that the waiver was appropriate, and that the House oversight committee has initiated an investigation into the matter. And now come the lawsuits:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for denying its first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, challenging the Bush administration’s conclusion that states have no business setting emission standards.

Other states are expected to join the lawsuit[...]

“There’s absolutely no justification for the administrator’s action,” Attorney General Jerry Brown said Wednesday. “It’s illegal. It’s unconscionable and a gross dereliction of duty.” (Bold added)

The state had already gotten by the auto industry. Where are the truly conservative new federalists when you need them?

More caucus notes

Okay, I have to get a lot of work done today, and even I’m starting to overload on this topic. But there are a few items of note on this caucus morn.

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Fred Thompson, the would-be Republican savior, has all but given up. Even his supporter is suggesting that after tonight “there’s no point in going on.”

So many people assumed he was going to be Reagan II by virtue of his television star status. The problem is that the primary audience of Law and Order is liberal. Its depictions of law enforcement and prosecution has not always been flattering, and the New York “edge” to the main series (watered down in the offshoots) turns many people off.

Gone is the optimism of months ago such as this post in response to a column suggesting Thompson’s political performance would be less than stellar:

Dream on. As Mondale campaign manager Bob Beckel has pointed out, Thompson’s communications skills make him a Democratic nightmare. As somebody who has been rooting for a Thompson candidacy since he made mincemeat out of the Democratic apologia for their attempt to steal Florida in 2000, I can only smile at those on the Left who are in denial about the one Republican who would clean the clocks of Hillary or Obama or Edwards in 2008.

Bob Waters, Des Moines, Iowa

Bob had better push hard for Thompson today.

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Meanwhile, other Republican campaigns are energized. Romney has an anti-McCain attack ad which proclaims that the next ten years “we’ll see more progress, more change than the world has seen in the last ten centuries.” The Slate folk are quite impressed.

You read that correctly. The next ten years will run roughshod over the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the formation of American democracy, the printing press, interchangeable parts, division of labor, the end of slavery, nuclear technology, antiseptics, the theory of gravity, the theory of relativity, the rise of communism, two world wars, universal suffrage, landing on the moon, and the Internet.

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Meanwhile, the pundits are mostly predicting an Obama win. Normally candidates don’t like those predictions because they don’t want to be perceived as flailing if they don’t meet expectations. They downplay their potential performance ahead of time. Well, Clinton has thrown that caution to the wind. MYDD quotes various Clinton campaign reps:

Hillary Clinton’s team has revised its turnout model. The same senior campaign source who projected a turnout of 140,000 voters is now predicting that 150,000 voters will show, and says that, according to the turnout model the campaign is employing, Clinton will finish a strong first on the strength of turnout from Democrats.

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What we’re hearing in the field is strong sustained enthusiasm…she’s getting great crowds everywhere she goes, usually more people than we expected…We’ve called back not just our committed supporters and our precinct captains, we’ve been calling people back who were leaning, we’re finding absolutely people aren’t moving, in fact they’re excited and enthusiastic…going into the caucus tonight I think we’re going to do well here.

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She said that there are 4,900 drivers (John Kerry, she said, had had somewhere between 200 and 500 drivers in 2004) and another 5,000 people willing to offer rides. There are more than 600 shuttles. And each Clinton field office has salt to melt the ice.

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The Clinton campaign is opening day care centers across the state, including three in Des Moines, and has enlisted a legion of teenage girls to render their tyke-watching services.

I have a hard time picturing “enthusiasm” for her. I remember the older caucus goers plugging for Kerry as the most winnable candidate last time around, but I don’t remember a lot of enthusiasm. I didn’t know Iowans got enthusiastic about anything.

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And as for predictions, Jerome Armstrong has this to say:

ARG polling has Clinton up by 9 percent, outside the MOE, and DMR has Obama up by 8 pecent, outside the MOE. Zogby finds Obama and Edwards with the momentum, with Obama overtaking Clinton. Edwards has the best final television ads….

I think if you are looking, you can find something that you like that says either of the three candidates will win tonight. One thing that’s not been talked about a lot is the social pressure that will happen tonight. This is the part that happens with the ‘undecided’ voters walk into the caucus room and… look for their friends and community leaders. This was a big deal-maker for Kerry in 2004. It’s something a poll cannot measure nor predict.

Addendum: The left icons are lining up behind Edwards. First Ralph Nader, then Michael Moore, and now media critic Norman Solomon.

Second addendum: Scratch the above analysis of Clinton. The campaign predicting second place now.

More blog notes

As Mark noted in the thread below, Shane has a blog. It’s about politics of course, the latest post about the impact of identity politics on the Democratic primaries.

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Ernie put a great deal of effort into a post in which he argues for a moral relativity when judging actions of people in history by our modern moral standards. The ultimate focus is the massacres of Native people on the north coast in the latter part of the 19th century.

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And Ecoshift noted yesterday that oil had hit $100 per barrel yesterday. It took a short term toll on the stock market. This all happened very quietly with all the other news. I’m not aware that any of the presidential candidates have even addressed it.

Where to watch the caucuses tomorrow night

If you’re a Hillary Clinton fan you can cheer her victory at Round Table Pizza at Henderson Center starting at 6:00 p.m.

If you’re a Barack Obama fan you can cheer his victory at the Lost Coast Brewery. Same time.

Both campaigns will offer opportunities to pester voters by telephone in the following days.

SF Bay Guardian dumbest moments and other random highlights for the new year

Amusing and dumb moments. Half of them taken up by their mayor.

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Somehow this blog managed to slip below my radar. Chocolate Covered Xanax.

Abba?

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And there’s the blog mostly likely to…

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Another political blog in The Wasp

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And the 49ers are keeping Nolan.