Election 2008

Image: Caroline McCarthy

An angry State Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-LB) vowed yesterday to continue fighting for clean air, but won't be re-introducing legislation next year that would place a container fee on all freight using the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland to raise funds for clean air initiatives.  In a statement released to the press, Lowenthal blamed a Governor more interested in doing the bidding of multi-national corporations and Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin than in protecting thousands of Californian families from dangerous air pollutants.

With a few hours to go until what will be the season's first presidential debate, we're looking over a report from the Brookings Institution, which outlines each candidate's positions on transportation.

Having dispensed with the question of whether an African-American or woman will ever make it to the White House, conservative Culture Warriors have moved on to defining and dividing Americans over their chosen mode of transportation. These two images have been floating around the right wing blogosphere under the shrieky, all-caps headline, "THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW." Somehow or another this strikes me as a promising development.

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

Before VP candidate Sarah Palin crystallized her views on the future of US energy policy in her "drill or do nothing" speech to the Republican National Convention, we only had a vague idea of her record on transportation and development, gleaned mostly from her time as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla.

If there was any question as to where a John McCain-Sarah Palin White House would stand on transportation, the prospective VP's speech to the Republican National Convention left little room for doubt. Here's Palin from last night, via Grist:

John McCain may not be big on public transportation, but as mayor of a small town in Alaska, his running mate Sarah Palin secured millions in federal earmarks for rail and bus projects.