Entries for July 2007

Democrats' hoped-for summer legislative swan song will be a package of ethics reforms that, it goes without saying, won't clean up Washington; nor will it please the naysayers and perfectionists. But if these changes become law, they will give the public more information about the way Washington works nonetheless.

The bills would "provide for increased disclosure requirements for lobbyists who serve as hubs, or conduits, for bundled campaign donations."

The American public is coming around to demanding a more fuel-efficient homegrown fleet. The Pew Campaign for Fuel Efficiency released a poll this week of almost 4,000 likely voters in seven U.S. states showing that almost 90 percent of "likely voters surveyed favor requiring the automobile industry to improve fuel efficiency...and...favored a 35-mpg standard over 32 mpg and said the changes should take effect by 2018," according to the Detroit News.

The Pew Campaign for Fuel Efficiency, by the way, describes itself as a Washington-based interest group that supports higher fuel-efficiency standards.

This is a turnaround of such historic proportions that we should sit down and take note. Our Hummer-loving, SUV-driving, speed-boat-hugging American public actually supports a law that would require more of us to drive fuel-efficient cars? And that unctuous, oil industry denizen of a president of ours even directs the federal government to consider higher fuel efficiency standards for new cars (which he did in May)? Is this Mars or the good old U.S. of A.?

Droughts in the Southwest and mid-Atlantic United States. Floods in Texas, southern England, China, Pakistan, Colombia, and, of all places, Sudan.

India's selection this past weekend of Pratibha Patil as its first female president was a landmark of sorts and a reminder of another sort.

The beginning of the end of family-values politics? As sex scandals plague top Republicans, Democratic presidential candidates promise attacks on antiabortion and abstinence-only funding, and more states reject federal dollars to teach abstinence-only in public schools, one wonders whether all this put together signals the beginning of the end of family-values politics.

Hummers shouldn't be vandalized, but why should we all have to pay more for gas because some must drive a screaming symbol of American excess?

While I've never been a fan of ecoterrorism or terrorism of any sort, this news item is bound to make the environmentalist in each of us react by thinking some version of, "If ever a car owner deserved it..."

Sometimes the free market really does work for the betterment of society. One such example is Marriott's recent decision to scrap plans for a women-only floor at a luxury hotel the chain will open in September in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Marriott took note of the surge in female business travelers (now more than 40 percent of the business travel market) and thought it would mimic the setup it launched 2 1/2 years ago in Bloomington, Minn.