Daily Briefing - 1/10/07

We're running late again! At least blogger seems to be running okay today. Instead of the normal DB debrief, I think it might be fun to quickly recount the festivities at last night's New Member Reception held by members of the green community.

Set in the heart (ahem, down a bunch of stairs and waaaaay in the corner) of the Capitol, the reception turned out to be an unbridled success. It was ran for the most part by LCV, but supported by National Wildlife Action among others. Throughout the event, the reception room was filled with members of the environmental community (from interns to Presidents of organizations), Members of Congress, and their many staffers. If I had to guess, I would say that roughly 20 Members stopped by and mingled, a nice showing for the once neglected enviro community.

While most Members came in, made their rounds, and graciously left, some stuck around for quite awhile engaged in numerous discussions with the interested crowd (most likely fielding way too many questions on their committee assignments). Rep. John Hall (D-NY19) came early, left and came back. He even suffered through two quick conversations with yours truly about Westchester County and Indian Point. A certain attendee even asked him, "Weren't you naked on one of your album covers?" To which he answered, "No! We were wearing pants."

A certain intern tried his best to impress Members by first asking Senator Cardin about his former fraternity (which he mistakenly thought they shared), and second by talking up Rep. Jason Altmire about his FSU football days, only to be outed by a mean-spirited coworker as a UF grad.

Aside from the occasional funny and awkward moments (such as another attendee almost getting into a precarious situation with Rep. Keith Ellison by running into him chest first), most of the night was filled with enthusiastic discussion and light-hearted mingling.

On to the briefing...

MW
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Daily Briefing – 1/10/07
663 days until the NEXT election… and global warming is an integral part of our nation’s agenda!

Key Issues in the News
Global Warming
- 2006 is hottest year on record for U.S.
- EU challenges world with new target
- Thomas Friedman is jumping on the clean coal bandwagon
- Schwarzenegger orders cuts in emissions
- NOAA affirms human influence on climate
- Using supercomputers for research
- The advantage for weeds
- The effect on natural gas and oil stocks
- Editorials on the Administration’s decision to list the Polar Bear as endangered:
o L.A. Times, Kansas City Star, Baltimore Sun, Albuquerque Tribune, Appleton Post-Crescent
- Does global warming cause El Nino?
- Grist: Green progress and state climate plans
Washington/Legislation/Politics/People/etc.
- Nancy Pelosi: Grandma with a gavel
o And she put an end to smoking in the Capitol
- Senator Obama has introduced a not-so-climate-friendly bill
- Senator Johnson’s condition improves
Potential ‘08ers…
- Clinton (NY’s best-dressed), Brownback (irking Romney), Romney (defended by Mass. Activists), McCain and Romney (vying for supporters in the House), Vilsack (comes out against ‘surge’ plan), Gilmore (still exploring), Clinton again (deciding where to run her base), Giuliani (a new book about him is coming out),
Other News from the Media
- U.S. to raise royalty rates for new oil and gas leases in the gulf
o President lifts ban on Alaskan drilling
- Dell offsets its impacts by planting trees
- Finding the green in building renovation
-
…and the Blogosphere
- From The Hotline: Presidential hopefuls on CAFÉ standards
- Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver walks the walk as he reintroduces his CLEAR Act
- Grist:
o Where have all the urban nature writers gone?
o Drillin in the green river valley, from above
Miscellaneous… or just plain weird
- Soooo cool… Apple’s new iPhone
- A woman with a perfect memory
- Fmr. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), “one of the fathers of the modern internet”
- Rick Santorum will be at the head of America’s Enemies… uhhh, I mean he will head the America’s Enemies program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center
- O’Reilly and Colbert to trade appearances
- Maybe lack of underwear played into it? I dunno, just a guess
Quotes O’ the Day
“Stop looking at it.” Sen. Barack Obama to reporters asking questions about his shirtless photo