Author: hankkalet

I remain shocked that anyone takes Newt Gingrich seriously. The pseudo-historian and disgraced former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has managed to maintain his perch among the political elite over the years despite a willingness to play fast and loose with the facts and to manipulate those he accepts to make them mean what he wants them to mean.

The latest example occurred yesterday, when the erstwhile Republican presidential contender weighed in on the death of Trayvon Martin. Martin was shot to death by a Neighborhood Watch leader who has claimed self-defense under Florida’s absurd “Stand You Ground” law, which allows citizens to use deadly force if they feel threatened. The threat posed by Martin, who was armed only with a package of Skittles and an iced tea, apparently was his race. He was killed because he was black and walking down the wrong street at the wrong time.

On Friday, President Barack Obama responded to the shooting with a personal reflection that acknowledged the race issue (though not explicitly):

“When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids,” Obama told reporters when asked about the case during a Rose Garden press conference.

“I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative to investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together – federal, state and local – to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened,” he said.

He added:

“I think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” Obama said. “And that means we examine the laws, the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident.

“But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin: If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are gonna take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”

A strong statement, but not one you’d call inflammatory or divisive — unless you happen to be a politician with a complete disregard for truth.

Here’s Gingrich:

What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful. It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background.

Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it didn’t look like him. That’s just nonsense dividing this country up. It is a tragedy this young man was shot. It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban or if he had been white or if he had been Asian American of if he’d been a Native American. At some point, we ought to talk about being Americans. When things go wrong to an American, it is sad for all Americans. Trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. I really find it appalling.

Of course, the president is not saying that a shooting of a white or a Latino would have been OK. Obama was making it cllear that what happened in Florida was not an isolated incident,. And he was right to make the racial connection, given the obvious racial animous expressed by the shooter.

And Gingrich damned well knows this. He just doesn’t care.

Gov. Chris Christie won numerous endorsements from the state’s environmental community when he ran against Jon Corzine in 2009. Jon Corzine, who was expected to be a friend of the environment, had turned out instead to be a failed green.

The endorsement did two things: It stripped any pretense left that Corzine was a progressive and, perhaps more importantly, it softened the conservative image of Christie. Christie won and, two-plus years into his term, he’s proven to be one of the most least environmentally friendly presidents in memory.

His latest move — a new rule that allows the state Department of Environment to “waive regulations on a case-by-case basis if: they are considered “unduly burdensome,” the exception has a “net environmental benefit,” the regulations conflict with other agencies’ rules, or there is a public emergency” — will make it easier for builders to build in sensitive areas or encroach on other green efforts.

NJ.com described the changes this way:

The waiver rule’s broad reach and vague language could overturn decades of land, water and air protections — putting strip malls in wetlands and condos in flood plains.

And with cloudy terms such as “unduly burdensome” and “net environmental benefit” left open to interpretation, the waiver rule creates enormous potential for corruption.

Christie and DEP chief Bob Martin say the legislation just streamlines procedure and cuts away red tape. The environment will continue to protected. But, as NJ.com points out,

In New Jersey, the nation’s Superfund leader, environmental regulations are no mere red tape. Every regulation fixes an environmental wrong. Protecting air, food and water must be an acceptable cost of doing business.

Environmental protections should be tough. When the rules can be ignored because they are inconvenient, what are we protecting?

So, green groups are suing, accusing the governor of exceeding his authority — something a court already took him to task for. Hopefully, the suit will succeed and the rule will be shelved. In the meantime, the Legislature should make it clear that the waiver rule violates the legislative intent of the protections it already has created.

We were driving through western Illinois just outside of Princeton, doing about 68 or 69 mph in a 65 when I saw a cop sitting in the median on Route 80.

I slowed a couple mph and passed a second cop, who proceeded to pull out and follow us for about a mile, then turned on his overhead lights and pulled us over.

“You were clocked at 70,” he said. “In Illinois it’s 65. I’m going to write you a warning to slow you down.”

We’re surprised, to say the least. There is not a police officer in New Jersey that’d pull you over for less than 5 mph over (or so I’m told).

The cop comes back, asks if we have anything illegal — guns, drugs — and where we’re going to and coming from. He tells us we came back clean and then explains that he’s part of an interdiction team — any car exceeding the speed limit from out of state, especially from the East and West coasts, is going to get pulled over.

He then let’s us go, telling he doesn’t want to ruin the great time we had at the bar mitzvah. (We were at a bat mitzvah in Iowa.) He then pulls out and pulls over another car with out-of-state plates.

So, we’ve been profile — East Coast represents!

It appears Chevron is going to be held accountable for a leaking oil rig off the Brazilian coast.

A Brazilian judge has banned 17 employees of the American oil firm and drilling-rig operator Transocean from leaving the country “as authorities prepare to file criminal charges in days in connection with an offshore oil spill involving the companies,” according to The New York Times.

The ruling by Judge Vlamir Costa Magalhães, issued late Friday night, adds to Chevron’s woes in Brazil, which began last November when oil was found to be leaking from an offshore field controlled by Chevron. Prosecutors have already filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages of 20 billion reais, or about $11.2 billion, from the company.

What’s worse, as the Times reports, “Brazil’s Navy and Chevron said Friday that they had detected a new oil sheen from the field where the earlier spill occurred.”

The spill off Brazil’s coast is just the latest example of the dangers of drilling in deep waters — and the broader dangers that extractive technologies will pose as we seek to sate our thirst for cheap energy.

Drilling and mining — and not just for oil, but for natural gas, coal and uranium — pose serious threats to our oceans, rivers and farmland, our drinking water and the stability of the ground on which we stand.

We are going to hear a lot about gas prices in the coming months, along with calls for more drilling — off the coast, in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska — even though the drilling will have no effect on prices. The BO and Chevron spills, the polluted water near gas drilling sites and the Ohio earthquakes need to be a part of this discussion, as well.

Drill, baby, drill is as inane a solution to our energy woes as it is a simplistic and sophomoric slogan.