Volume 2 Issue 15
February 21, 2003
Melting Away
Why SUV's still suck, the Dems have their cattle call, and part of the South Pacific goes missing
So is everyone ready for part II of the Blizzard of 2003: The Flood? That's right kids, as we speak the rain is melting our foots of snow and overflowing the rivers and storm sewers. Should be a fun weekend!
Frequent readers have pointed out the discussions about SUV's the past few months, and I have made many negative comments about the most popular type of car in America today. Then we had our lovely blizzard, and all of the sudden articles started appearing to the extent of "so there!" , with SUV owners seemingly vindicated. That's nice isn't it? Except it's crap. OK, during a storm like this, it is nice when volunteers ferry around nurses and such in their SUV's, and they should be appreciated. And in areas like Alaska, where 2-foot snowfalls are weekly events, not once every 7 year events, I'm sure they're necessary. But not in the DC region. Let's look at why.
First, SUV owners would like to think that they were able to get around more than other drivers. Except, that's really not true. I saw just as many people digging out SUV's on Wednesday, which was 2 days after the snow ended, as I did regular cars. In addition, I saw more stuck SUV's than other cars. While your SUV may have been helpful during the storm itself, in the end there was just too much snow for most any vehicle. Secondly, SUV's were making the roads dangerous. During a storm like this one, the mantra from officials is always, "Stay home if you can." But SUV owners like to go out there and block roads, preventing plows from getting through. Last week Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich even threatened to fine drivers out joyriding with no real destination $1000 for blocking official vehicles. So, if you had no reason to go out, why do you need your SUV?
Third, after the storm, SUV drivers quickly again became the terrors of the roads. They sped through the streets, and then realized that,um...they couldn't stop. And then they started having accidents and rolling over. In fact, the Washington Times reports that almost every accident that has occurred since Monday has involved an SUV. (http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030221-32612402.htm) In Washington State, between 1993 and 2000, SUV's accounted for 9.1% of all fatal accidents, but 16.6% of accidents in snow or ice conditions. In the meantime, most streets are now easily passable to normal cars, and almost all front-wheel drive cars can navigate streets with a few inches of snow on them.
Finally, once again, one must point out the fallacy that SUV's are safe to begin with, despite their appearance. Even the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), who is a Bush appointee, said he would never put his family in one. And, you become the bringer of death when you drive one...if you hit another car, the driver of that car is 30% more likely to be killed if you are in an SUV. Yet today, more SUV's are sold in this nation than regular cars. And I'm not going to even go into the environmental and national security aspects of the damn things, with all the oil they eat.
Now, let me say I'm not crazy, many times SUV owners have legitimate reasons for owning the beasts. In TIME this week, there's an article defending them from some Montana Farmer. Exactly. Montana farms are where SUV's belong, not on the streets of San Francisco or Washington. No soccer mom is going to have to haul dirt or whatever around the farm, or go off-road on the way to pick up the kids at their private school. Perhaps the solution is a "practicability tax". SUV owners in areas over a certain population density would have to pay a substantial fee for anything automotive related, such as gas, service and repair, parking, getting it washed, whatever. That money could also go to help clean the air dirtied in part by the deathtrucks, and encourage people not to have them in dense urban areas where they are not necessary. Of course, exemptions could be made for people who actually use them, but not blanket exemptions like the one that Bush wants to give, that would allow small business owners to deduct their SUV's on their taxes even if they don't use them at all for their business. After all, we don't let other unsafe vehicles on the roads, it's time for us to either make the auto companies make safer SUV's (which is possible, they just don't want to do it, just as they resisted seat belts and airbags, and almost every other safety improvement of the past century), or get them off the road entirely. I'm sure there are hoards of flaws in the "practicability tax" plan...but we've got to do something...now on to the rest of the insanity!
Greg's Pick of the Day: Anyone Home? Apparently the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru has lost contact with the rest of the world, since their phone system collapsed in January. There is also apparently true anarchy on the island, and no one seems to know who's in charge. Also...it appears that the nation is flooded with illegal money too...this must be quite a place -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2787401.stm
Another Nightclub Disaster: In the second disaster in a week, over 85 people were killed in a Rhode Island nightclub fire. Many of these places are deathtraps, perhaps local officials will actually begin enforcing codes now. -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/national/21CND-CLUB.html
Some of the survivor's stories -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/02/21/nightclub.fire.re ax/index.html
Is Bush a Tax and Spend Liberal? He acts like one. Is he doing it on purpose, or is he just an idiot?
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078870/
Stagflation Returns? The CPI was up last month as well...are we entering another period of stagflation? -
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Economy.html
Keeping with the energy shortage, an oil tanker exploded off of Staten Island today, knocking out a refinery. I think that now $2 a gallon gasoline nationwide is a sure thing by Spring, and California may hit $3 this summer -
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyregion/AP-Refinery-Fire.html
Speaking of Gas: Nick Kristof got to ride in one of those newfangled Hydrogen cars. His conclusion? The technology is way too far from coming to market. Shame Bush is ignoring those hybrid cars...Kristof's lucky he didn't blow up. Oh, also, it was interesting that this car is "fly by-wire", which means instead of moving a wheel and turning gears and such, everything is controlled by computer. Some jumbo jets have been like this for years with mixed results, it will be interesting to see if its introduced in cars -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/opinion/21KRIS.html
Look Who's Running for President...the big event: The DNC is meeting this weekend in Washington, and this is the first big-time even for the "Eight is Enough" eight. Will one candidate be able to come out and wow the crowd? Will the sheer number of candidates make those "considering" opt out? Or urge them to jump in? Dan Balz previews -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37756-2003Feb20.html
The New York Times has a piece today on Donna Brazille, the uber-Democrat from DC. This is a disturbing piece, not because of her friendships with Republicans, but because despite her denials, she appears to be becoming one. My suspicions of her grows daily...how could someone want to get rid of the height limit on buildings in DC? That's just perposterious...it's looks like she may have stopped caring and moved toward making money. That's not bad, but you can't play yourself as an activist once you've cashed in. -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/politics/21BRAZ.html
Bill Saletan asks why we harp on the "black vote" and not the "white vote" -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078961/
By the way, some have asked where the periodic "Look Who's Running for President" scorecard has gone. We're working on making it a permanent part of the website, so stay tuned for that next week! Remember, if you're only reading the Swamp in your e-mail, you're only getting part of the Swamp! http://www.fromtheswamp.com
And now on to the candidates...
Look Who's Running for President: Florida Senator Bob Graham apparently also had a bypass operation, not just a valve replacement. There is some confusion on why he didn't disclose this earlier. He still is considering running for President though... -
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/21/State/Graham_also_had_doub l.shtml
Look Who's Running for President 2: John Edwards is having trouble because of his support for the Iraqi war -
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/Main.asp?SectionID=25&Sub SectionID=378&ArticleID=74159
And now for your bad John Edwards photo of the day:
"You laugh at me Lieberman!? Then I'm going to peck you in the neck!"
Look Who's Running for President 3: The Wesley Clark boom continues, fueled by his appearance on Meet the Press last week. Matthew Miller is one of the new converts -
http://www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?catid =1104&custid=67
Here's the transcript for those of you who didn't see the show -
http://www.msnbc.com/news/873682.asp
Look Who's Not Running for President: John McCain announced that he will run for re-election to the Senate in 2004, which pretty much ends any hopes among Democrats that he would run for President -
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/5231888.h tm
The First War: In case anyone forgot, we're still fighting that war against that terror group that kinda brought down the World Trade Center. Our newest theatre in that war is in the Philippines, where troops headed this week -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37451-2003Feb20.html
The Second War: So we're going to have a real live viceroy in Iraq after the war! That is, if we actually decide to rebuild it, which is still up in the air -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37949-2003Feb20.html
But of course, we're not going to rebuild it. Did you know that the Bush administration forgot to put money to rebuild Afghanistan into the 2004 budget? Shows where our priorities are. The most dangerous foreign policy in the world. If Bush gets a second term, we'll all be lucky to live through it -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/opinion/21KRUG.html
Still pouring money down the drain: That missile defense program is still in progress. No, they haven't made it work yet. -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078882/
Medical Mistakes: Despite a successful 2nd transplant, it seems that the 17-year old girl in North Carolina does not have a good prognosis. If Duke had admitted its mistake earlier however, perhaps she could have been saved. States need to really crack down on these things...just slapping the place on the wrist won't change a damn thing. And people wonder why malpractice insurance is so high -
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Transplant-Error.html
Still! The DC area is still not back to normal from last week's storm -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37910-2003Feb20.html
Of course, you need to find a place for all that snow. So where do you put it?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37494-2003Feb20.html
And the damn subway still doesn't work! What the hell is wrong with these people?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37686-2003Feb20.html
What would it be like to live where schools never closed for snow?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38165-2003Feb20.html
New Sports Programming: ESPN now is airing a morning show about fishing. See Fish On! on ESPN2, mornings. No joke. -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078994/
And who would have thought FOX would lie to you? The runner-up from FOX's "Joe Millionaire" is pissed -
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/61371p-57343c.html
Have a great weekend!
