[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank O'Donnell
President
Clean Air Watch

It’s a lovely Friday in our nation’s capital, but it’s being marred by the emissions of a new lobbying blitz by car companies and car dealers. They held a press briefing today. The target here is any attempt to reinstate the right of California and other states to set greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles.

There they go again! The same companies that literally fought for decades against better fuel economy standards now claim new standards enacted by Congress are just peachy.

They are being extremely disingenuous. They are spending on lawyers and lobbying instead of better engineering. And, if they have their way, consumers will suffer. (Note, by the way, that in Canada, the car companies are calling on the government to raise gasoline prices! Keep that in mind when you hear them whine that all they care about is the consumer!)

The car lobby got to the Bush administration (you will recall the administration’s decision to reject the California standards amid a hail of lies, despite the legal and technical advice of EPA’s professionals). But now they are trying to seal the deal with Congress.

A couple of quick thoughts:

The car companies and car dealers continue repeating several big lies:

by DFA Staff [courtesy of Blog for America]

The Washington Post reports on Washington, DC's handgun ban and the Supreme Court case which will be argued this week:

Despite mountains of scholarly research, enough books to fill a library shelf and decades of political battles about gun control, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity this week that is almost unique for a modern court when it examines whether the District's handgun ban violates the Second Amendment.

The nine justices, none of whom has ever ruled directly on the amendment's meaning, will consider a part of the Bill of Rights that has existed without a definitive interpretation for more than 200 years.

"This may be one of the only cases in our lifetime when the Supreme Court is going to be interpreting the meaning of an important provision of the Constitution unencumbered by precedent,'' said Randy E. Barnett, a constitutional scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center. "And that's why there's so much discussion on the original meaning of the Second Amendment.''

Danny
Communications Director

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Full Disclosure: I would really like to marry my partner. For reals, though.

The good folks at Equality California have been working on their "Let California Ring" campaign for several months now. To the right, you'll see their video that they've been featuring on their website. It's pretty powerful. I would say very powerful, but they have "I Know" by Dianne Ferris, and that pretty much takes you out of the realm of "very powerful" in my book.  

Anyway, they are now sending an open letter to the Governator just in time for Valentine's Day next month. Here's the money quote from that letter: