Amtrack Subsidies Might be Cut But Not Derailed In Michigan

The Detroit News: Michigan may cut Amtrak subsidies

Michigan may cut subsidies that keep Amtrak running along two of its three passenger rail lines in the state, a move critics say sends the wrong message because President Barack Obama is promoting high-speed rail.

The state is paying Amtrak $7.3 million a year to offer roundtrip daily service linking Grand Rapids to Chicago and Port Huron to Chicago.

Funding would drop by half to about $3.7 million starting in October under a budget passed by Senate Republicans. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and House Democrats want to reduce the subsidy to about $5.7 million, a 22 percent cut.
. . .
The Wolverine line from Pontiac to Chicago isn't subsidized by the state and wouldn't be affected by the cuts.

"People have grown very attached to both of these lines. We hear from passengers," Michigan Department of Transportation spokeswoman Janet Foran said.

So I'm sure these fond riders wouldn't mind paying full price for it now would they, given their attachment?

The article doesn't mention it, but the Chicago Breaking News Center in its coverage of the story states that

Riders boarding the Grand Rapids-Holland-Bangor-Benton Harbor-Chicago route are on pace to be down 7 percent from last year's 111,000 riders.

But ridership still is up about 0.5 percent on the route linking Chicago, Niles, Dowagiac, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, East Lansing, Durand, Flint, Lapeer and Port Huron. More than 136,000 people rode that route in the last budget year.

Assuming these are distinct individsuals (which is questionable, each rider may repeat this journey multiple times and count as multiple riders - no idea how they did these stats) - we have 247,000 riders each getting a portion of the subsidy of the 7.3 million - or $29.55 per trip. With the Republican proposed cuts, they're only being offered a $14.97 discount on every trip they take.

Given that an adult ticket from Grand Rapids to Chicago is $61.50 (thanks to a quick check of Amtrack website -- quite a bargain as it includes a bus ride to Kalamazoo to get you on the train!) then with the proposed Republican cut to the subsidy it would rise to $76.47 -- except of course it wouldn't be a guarranteed government payment so Amtrack may threaten to close the line in toto rather than depend on a revenue stream from its customers that depends on service and their happiness with the company.

I'm reasonably sure that most people in Michigan would prefer the money go to prevent State Police layoffs and keep other core functions of government maintained rather than subsidize someone else's train trips.

From the Department of Security Leaks

From Jolly Olde England, where we thought they knew better:

Wife exposes chief spy's personal life on Facebook

It is always a case of some considerable concern when a lady reveals too much on Facebook. The site has standards, after all.

The lady in question this time is Lady Shelley Sawers, the wife of Sir John Sawers, the new head of British spy agency MI6.

According to reports in the Mail and numerous other media outlets, the fair lady may not have been quite aware that Facebook can be seen by a rather large number of people if you don't specify that you want to keep your information vaguely private.

Lady Sawers saw fit to wander onto the site and reveal where their London apartment is located and where their children are. This might not appear to be the wisest course of social action if your children happen to be the offspring of the head of an international spying network.

One would think that MI-6 would have given the wife of the head of MI-6 a little information security briefing or something.

Then again, this is the agency that had a Soviet agent running their anti-Soviet Intelligence section.

Yet another reminder that what goes on Facebook doesn't stay on Facebook.

Happy Independence Day!

An excellent Independence Day celebration indeed.

Morning was spent with the kids having a play date and making homemade ice cream with the kids helping to pour ingredients and stir the mixture and it came out great.

We then went to my friend Jeff's house in the afternoon to visit him, his lovely wife (who was sleeping -- deservedly so), and his very new baby Emma, who at 5 lbs and a few ounces is a little tiny baby full of new baby cuteness.

Then home to have a BBQ with the neighbors.

Once it was dark we enjoyed an impressive display of fireworks, both professional and enthusiastic amateurs. It appears a lot of the neighbors in our subdivision must have traveled to Ohio to get the good stuff -- Michigan is pretty restrictive on what sorts of fireworks you can buy and many of our neighbors gave this government edict the respect it deserved on Independence Day -- many a Roman Candle, Show cake and big firecracker was set off, and some of the well-to-do people across the lake apparently had a professional put on a display as they had the pro-grade stuff and it was impressively well done.

Then a few hours of poker into the wee hours and good friendship.

A great way to celebrate our nation's independence.

Happy Independence Day!

Accident in Iraq

A recent accident report from Iraq:

A U.S. Marine squad was marching north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious. On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state. The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened. The Marine reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent."

We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.

I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable, lowlife scum bag who got what he deserved.

He yelled back that Barrack Obama is a dumb, good-for-nothing, left wing liberal faggot who doesn't know how to drive.

So I said that Osama Bin Ladin dresses and acts like a frigid, mean-spirited lesbian!

He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well, so does Hillary Clinton!"

"And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."

Was it Misfiled Under "I"?

Rare print of Declaration of Independence Found in British National Archives

A rare copy of the American Declaration of Independence has been found hidden in a file at the British National Archives.

The Archives say that the print, known as the Dunlap print after the printer who commissioned it, is the 26th copy of the document to be found. The last Dunlap print found was sold at an auction for $8.14 million in 2000.

Archives spokeswoman Katrina McClintock said today that the file was found by a researcher looking through late 18th-Century files for something unrelated. McClintock said it was discovered months ago but not revealed to the public until it could be extracted and cataloged.

Given the size of govenrment archives, it is not surprising that things are rediscovered after they have been misfiled or miscategorized (sometimes deliberately). You can imagine the archivist's excitement when he or she realized what had been found, a great find and one wonders how many other documents of great historic significance remain to be found as they sit moldering away silently in many a nation's national archives.

Belle Isle Blues

Another "Jewel" of Detroit is in the news again: Belle Isle's two faces: Island jewel, lawless landmark

Quite simply the island is a very pretty patch of parkland and greenery connected by a bridge to the City of Detroit and that is where the problems lies. During the day its apparently relatively safe and a nice spot to visit, but at night the hood rats come out to play.

Chess boards and folding tables are replaced by SUVs with open hatches that function as impromptu speakeasies with loud sound systems, the clothing becomes a little more revealing, the scent of marijuana sometimes fills the air and the easy crawl of traffic morphs into custom-car gridlock with occasional halts for drag racing.

....

That's about the same time Sakina Ali, 18, and her girlfriends arrived. "It's really all about the boys," sad Ali, who lives on the east side of Detroit. "There really is nowhere else to go in this town."

Ali's car was nearly sandwiched between two beefed-up vehicles vibrating from the pulse of the sub-woofers and the traffic.

"Hmm, he looks good," said her friend Carla Davis, 19. "Maybe I can find someone decent."

Ah, the cultural mores of homo Detroitus. A quick clue -- if you're looking for someone "decent" then the contents of two stereo-blasting vehicles in a parking lot in the dark probably is not the ideal spot for a meet-n-greet.

Sounds like a place you want to take your kids to and enjoy the evening right?

We want this to remain a city jewel," said Alicia C. Minter, the city's recreation director.

She described the island as "not dangerous ...but dicey" and said the uptick in attention is to "make it inviting for everyone."

Of course, the City could cut down on some of this diceness and raise money for the upkeep of Belle Isle at the same time by charging a de minimis toll fee to travel on the bridge, say $2 a car or $1 per occupant, which would probably cut down on people coming in to goof around and you'll probably keep the decent folks coming. Of course every time htis is proposed its shouted down, folowed by worries that Belle Isle is starved of funds and the city can't afford to run it.

Instead of the toll, they're thinking of posting some signs:

The group is working to install signs, such as those that list park rules.

"If people just knew what was allowed and what was not, it could make a difference," she said.

Ok, if your visitors are so clueless to not understand and already know that rowdy behavior, public drunkeness and marijuana use along with drag racing is not allowed, the signs really aren't going to help much.

A Riddle, wrapped in a Con(yers) inside the Michigan Democratic party?

The Bribery investigation that led to Monica Conyers guilty plea continues to reveal a complex web of corruption among the political power set in Detroit and among the Democrats in Michigan.

From Conyers to Sam Riddle - Papas defends Riddle's hiring as legitimate

Greektown businessman Dimitrios (Jim) Papas on Tuesday acknowledged hiring Detroit consultant Sam Riddle at the request of then-Councilwoman Monica Conyers, but said Riddle’s hiring was not a trade-off for help from influential U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Monica’s husband.

Riddle at the time was Conyer's chief of staff and it is beginning to look like John Conyers knew at least something of this or there is a very interesting coincidence going on.

From a Riddle in a Con(yers)to being wrapped in an invesitigation of a Riddle of deal with the Dems -- Riddle: FBI probed $50K deal with Dems

Political consultant Sam Riddle says federal investigators have questioned $50,000 he received in 2006 from the Michigan Democratic Party-- payments he described as election year "hush money."

In a recent interview with a Detroit News editor, Riddle said the Democrats paid him not to say negative things about Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who faced a challenge from Republican businessman Dick DeVos in the November election that year.

FBI agents also questioned Riddle about connections between Granholm and business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick, the father of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said Riddle, the former chief of staff to Councilwoman Monica Conyers.

Granholm and Bernard Kilpatrick worked together in the administration of the late Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara in the 1990s. Federal agents have been investigating payments made to Bernard Kilpatrick's consulting firm, Maestro Associates LLC, by companies seeking contracts with the city of Detroit while his son was mayor.

The Michigan Democratic Party defends the payment it made as being for "Media Consulting"

Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the $50,000 contract with Riddle's Meridian Management Systems of Flint was for media consulting and was not specifically related to the gubernatorial campaign.

"I can't be responsible for what Sam now says about the contract," Brewer said. "The contract was for media consulting services, and we did in fact consult him about appropriate messages and people to talk to for the fall campaign.

As Nolan Findley of the Detroit News points out, in Detroit media and political consultants and their contracts are often conduits for bribes to politicians:

Details are still emerging of how the corruption worked in the case of Detroit City Council President Pro Tempore Monica Conyers, who pleaded guilty Friday to federal bribery charges.

But here's how it was explained to me:

Conyers very early in her council career learned that her vote had value far beyond making the city work.

She could make some people a lot of money depending on how she cast her vote. That became even more true once she got on the city's cash-rich pension board.

Why shouldn't she be rewarded for her service?

So she started to think about how to make politics a bit more lucrative.

At the pension board, she noticed that hardly anyone gets a loan unless they're walked in the door by a consultant. The icebreaker is often someone with close ties to a trustee or a big shot at City Hall. Sometimes, he's even a relative of a very important person.

As it happens, she had a consultant, who she was tight with. He shaped her career, and she doesn't make a move without his advice. But she can't pay him what they both think he's worth.

She hatches a plan to take care of both problems without the risk of dirtying her hands.

When someone comes courting a vote on a city contract or a pension fund loan, Conyers suggests the process would go a lot smoother if the vote seeker hired her consultant to help navigate the city's quirky politics.

The consultant takes over from there, negotiating a retainer, say $10,000. He is also assigned to take first-class trips to exotic locales to weigh the worthiness of the request. Sometimes, he even gets a fancy watch as partial payment.

He knows who's buttering his bread and is grateful. Since the councilwoman got him the work, he feels moved to pay her a finder's fee, say $5,000, or half the retainer.

So, how far does this tale of corruption go?

How many Democrats in Michigan are enmeshed in this web of consulting payments and contracts that for a quid pro quo so that businesses could get approval for their plans?

How many businessmen understood or were made to understand that unless they hired the right consultant they would never get approval for their development plans?

With luck the FBI will continue their investigation wherever it goes and we may begin the solve the Riddle after all.

Update: The BlogProf has a detailed update including audio of a radio station interview with Riddle that is well worth reading/listening to, and he puts more pieces of the puzzle together with his excellent-as-always analysis and commentary.

Detroit Police Dive Team to Recover 15+ Cars from the Detroit River

Perhaps they'll find Jimmy Hoffa?

The Detroit Free Press:

Divers working a case in June discovered the 15 sunken cars in the murky water near West Jefferson and Junction. The Detroit Police Underwater Recovery Team, starting at 9:30 today, will begin recovering the vehicles over a two-day period.

The Detroit News has more:

Police pulled a '70s-era, blue pick-up truck and a moped out of the Detroit River near Junction on the city's southwest side as part an effort to remove as many as 14 submerged vehicles.

Police say this is the most cars they've ever taken at one time from the river.

A crew of 10 divers from the Police Undercover Water Recovery team took pictures of the vehicles under the water to mark locations and to connect steel cables and cloth straps so that the vehicles can be pulled out of the river by a large tow truck. No bodies were immediately visible.

The area where recovery is taking place is just off the shore of the river where it touches city water department property.

"Once the vehicles are out of the water, police will check and see if the vehicles are stolen or have been used in other crimes," said Detroit Police Inspector Don Johnson.

"A nearby petroleum company asked police to clear a vehicle from the water about a month ago," Johnson said. "During that process, divers discovered other vehicles, and plans were made for their removal," he said.

The recovery team divers will spend the next two days probing the Detroit River for sunken autos.

There's lots that has been thrown into the Detroit River over the years and lots of things waiting to be found there. Many of these vehicles may have been sunk there to hide evidence of crimes, for insurance fraud, or simply to dispose of the vehicles on the cheap.

Should be interesting to hear the results of the recovery operations and I hope the Freep and News cover the operation as it goes.

Update: Yes, the Detroit News follows up with a report that so far 5 cars and a moped have been recovered - Police fish dumped vehicles out of river complete with pictures of a Toyota Celica being lifted out of the water.

Happy Canada Day

To all my Canadian Readers - Happy Canada Day!

To all my felow Americans who have no idea what Canada Day is about here's a quick primer on the customs of our neighbor to the north on this day:

1. Canada Day, known commonly as "Eh Day" (the appropriate greeting from one Canadian to another on Canada Day is "Nice Day Eh?") was officialy proclaimed in 1982 in a fit of understated Canadian nationalism. Actually it was passed in a panic that most non-North Americans couldn't tell America and Canada apart and that Canadians were watching too many American TV shows and listening to too many American musicians and that simply wouldn't do.

2. Canada Day is when hundreds of Canadians pour out into the streets in a very orderly fashion, line up to watch government-run fireworks shows, and chant (quietly) in unison "We're not Americans, We're not Americans, eh." (always one Canadian, typically from Newfoundland then pipes up and says you mean were not? - shush.) This is followed by singing O Canada, again, quietly.

3. This is followed by an understated chant of "We have Universal healthcare, we have legislated bilingualism, we have French on cereal boxes, we have gun control, we have Alanis Morrisette, so we have a distinct culture really we do, neener, neener, neener."

4. Americans visiting Canada during Canada Day should be warned that seeing an American license plate on this day turns many a Canadian quite daft. They're likely to pour maple syrup into your radiator when you're not looking. You have been warned.

Happy Canada Day!

Energy Bill Costs

Unsurprisingly the Democrats weren't very upfront about both the potential costs of this loathsome bill and its potential benefits.

Thankfully, Kenneth W. Chilton in The Detroit News gives a good estimate of both:

The Costs:

Fortunately, a back-of-the-envelope" estimate for the costs and benefits of greenhouse gas reductions provides a pretty clear picture. On the cost side, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that any cap-and-trade bill that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent could cost the average household roughly $1,600 (in 2006 dollars). Further, "The rise in prices would impose a larger burden, relative to income, on low-income households ...." (Households in the lowest income quintile spend 21 percent of their income on energy-intensive items compared with 4 percent for the highest one-fifth of American households.)

A Heritage Foundation analysis finds that Waxman-Markey would, by 2035, raise electricity rates 90 percent, gasoline prices 74 percent, residential natural gas prices 55 percent and an average family's monthly energy bill by more than $100.

The (dubious) Benefit:

One estimate by Paul Knappenberger, an environmental scientist with 20 years experience as a climate researcher, concludes "by the year 2050, the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill would result in a global temperature 'savings' of about 0.05 degrees Centigrade ... about two years' worth of warming." In short, this legislation creates very high costs for American households and produces NO discernable benefit!

There you have it, every American household can expect to pay lots more for gasoline, electricity, home heating and every single product manufactured or grown that uses energy as an input (Here's a clue - that is pretty much everything you purchase these days).

All to save a measly projected .05 degrees worth of "Climate Change" in 41 years. Any rational person or congresscritter after reading the CBO analysis would have voted no on this abomination. Rationality is always in short supply in politics, but on this bill it it may have skipped town completely or is as scarce as Astatine.

On the other hand the representatives that voted for this bill clearly realized this will increase the cost of both tar and feathers and are trying to avoid people being able to afford both and apply same to their tender hides.

Detroit City Council Corruption Continues

So Monica Conyers, the former President of the Detroit City Council has accepted a plea deal in the Synagro bribery investigation and has resigned from the City Council, effective July 6 (why wait - holiday pay?).

However the Synagro bribery rabbit hole continues, with a paralegal in the Detroit US Attorneys office being suspended for possibly passing information about the investigation to Sam Riddle, a former top aide to Detroit City Council President Pro-Tem Monica Conyers and now a "political consultant".

From the Detroit News:

People familiar with the investigation said the controversy arose about a year ago, close to the time that news of the Synagro Technologies Inc. bribery scandal became public. Riddle had dated Greene and federal officials suspected he got information from her relevant to an ongoing federal investigation, sources said.

One source said officials suspected Greene told Riddle about a search of someone's home conducted in connection with the Detroit City Hall investigation. Search warrant affidavits are normally sealed. An investigation related to Greene is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Grand Rapids because it was seen as a conflict of interest for Greene to be investigated by the office in which she worked, sources said.

It will be interesting to see how far this corruption investigation reaches and how far down the rabbit hole of Detroit city politics it goes.

You will notice that you have to play "name that party" for the political affiliation of Mrs. Conyers. On the other hand, it is probably pretty clear to all by now that Detroit is run by 100% Democrats so naming the party must seem superfluous. The question as to how many of them may still face indictment in this corruption investigation is still open however.

Obama as the Anti-Polemarchus

In the Republic Socrates questions Polemarchus on Polemarchus' comncept of justice and Polemarchus states that justice is helping one's friends and harming one's enemies

Obama in contrast seems to think that justice requires harming one's friends and helping one's enemies(some great observations of Obama's foreign diplomacy at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion)

Now to see if the Teleprompter Of The United States can handle the Socratic method....

Highland Park Michigan BBQ ban has residents fuming

Passed in time for the Fourth of July weekend.

From The Detroit News: The ban prohibits BBQing and the

placement of any barbecue cooking or equipment ... in the front of a dwelling, on a front porch, or on the side of a dwelling shall not be permitted in the city," the ordinance reads. "For a corner dwelling or building, any barbecue equipment must be 12 feet away from a public right of way."

While backyards are not specifically named in the ban, the ordinance prohibits placing barbecue equipment in any fenced yard which is closer than 20 feet from a public right of way.

This of course could prevent most people from legally BBQing on their property in Highland Park this weekend. Violation is a misdemeanor with up to $90 days in jail or a $500 fine.

The City claims it is due to the bbq fires being a hazzard in the city but even a city fireman cited in the article can only remember on fire caused by an outdoor bbq in three years.

Hopefully this wasn't done out of some misguided attempt to cut down on carbon emissions in the city or worse because some councilperson is annoyed with a neighbor grilling.

Next maybe the City Council will propose ticketing people for parking on their driveways....

SCUBA Book Review - Diving Into Darkness

Diving Into Darkness: A True Story of Death and Survival by Phillip Finch is a great read about some of the most extreme diving ever performed. As can be expected by the title yest there is the loss of a great diver and another diver survives by the thinnest of margins.

The book tells the tale of the two main protagonists, David Shaw and Don Shirley and their quest in 2005 to recover the body of Deon Dreyer a young diver who had died in 1994 at the Bushman's Hole site in South Africa and whose body was never found or recovered until it was encountered by David Shaw during a deep dive expedition into Bushman's Hole.

It was 270 Meters deep to the body (that's 886 feet!). The book gives depth in meters and sometimes it doesn't sound quite so bad, but once you realize that you have to multiple those depths by about 3.3 times to convert to feet you realize it is a whole different ballgame.

Without revealing the entire plot, a team of divers set out to recover the body, with David Shaw going solo from to 270 meters to recover the body then to meet back with Don Shirely at 220 meters. Unfortunately Shaw didn't return alive.

He suffered a cascading failure at great depths - carbon dioxide buildup from working to strenuously to place the body in a transport bag at depth, out-breathing his rebreather and getting his canister light head caught in the guideline to the surface (We're taught in GUE and UTD to clip everything, including lights off when not in use, he on the other hand was trained, or used to wrapping the cord around his neck, and on this dive for reasons explained in the book he let it dangle and it got caught in the line - this incredibly minor mistake at depth when combined with the other problems caused his demise). Could these problems have been avoided if he wasn't diving solo? Probably as someone else could have freed him from the entanglement, bailed him out onto a different breathing gas system or pushed him to call the first attempt in time. The problem is there's incredibly few divers that can handle that kind of depth so dive buddies are few and far between. Both Shaw's and Dreyer's bodies were later recovered as they had risen to a recoverable depth.

Even more incredible is what happened to Don Shirley on the ascent stage of the dive - having descended past 250 meters to try and help Dave Shaw, as he ascended he suffered an inner ear hit that left him suffering vertigo, nausea and a complete lack of balance - with hours of decompression to go and a broken rebreather he had to operate manually. Think of retching with nausea for hours - now picture doing it underwater for hours while hanging on a guideline that if you left go you'll spin off and be unable to find your way out. Incredible skill, concentration and guts doesn't begin to start to describe what Don Shirley had to posses to survive that ordeal.

This is a great, well-written book about some of the most extreme diving ever attempted and the risks and consequences of diving to such depths where even the most minor mistakes can snowball to disaster brutally quickly.

Energy Bill passes - Local Democrats help to turn out the lights in Michigan

No doubt you've heard by now that the Waxman cap-and-trade energy bill, complete with its last minute 300 page amendment passed by a vote of 219-212 in the House.

And our local Michigan Democrat representative, Gary Peters, the freshman Congressman who made a name for himself doing an Inspector Renault "I'm shocked simply shocked to find AIG Salary bonuses here" shtick, bonuses which was inserted by a Democrat, in a bill passed by Democrats and signed by a Democrat president, decided to further along Michigan's decline by voting for this bill that he hadn't even read.

Peters won his seat in just this past election defeating Knollenberg in what used to be a Republican area. Here's hoping people wake up to the damage he and the Democrats are doing to the economy of this state from this bill among others and vote him out promptly.

Other Michigan Democrats further voted to help put a nail in Michigan's industrial coffin (make no mistake the bill, seeking to cut carbon emissions to 1800s levels will be a manufacturing job killer- jobs need energy and most reliable energy sources these days does give off carbon emissions. As the bill didn't mandate the construction of a new nuclear reactor in every state I doubt they're aiming to keep energy production at current levels but to force it to be cut which will cause it to become more expensive (ever heard of supply and demand? - its not just a good idea, its a law!).

These Democrats included-

Democrats Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Detroit, Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township and Mark Schauer of Battle Creek had considered voting against the bill, but ultimately voted yes.

Cheeks Kilpatrick (Mommy of Kwame) by the way is now under investigation for violating House Ethics rules for a little junket trip to St. Maarten that was sponsored by some corporations for her.

Indeed the Democrats had to scrape up every vote they could find:

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to an administration post, put off her resignation from Congress until after the final vote on the climate change bill.

And indeed the Democrat leadership had to scrape some from inside the bottom of some whiskey barrels apparently:

And Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., who has been undergoing treatment at an undisclosed facility, returned to the Capitol to support the legislation. He has said he struggles with depression, alcoholism and addiction, but has not specified the cause for his most recent absence.

Can a congressman vote while under the influence, or just being influenced by Pelosi, lobbyists, and the White House?

Of course, the Eight Republicans who voted for this execrable bill, which would not have passed without them (it passed 219-212 -- had they voted no it would have been different) deserve their own special recognition -

Eight Republicans voted in favor of the legislation. They are: Mary Bono (CA), Mike Castle (DE), Mark Kirk (IL), Leonard Lance (NJ), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), Chris Smith (NJ), John McHugh (NY), and David Reichert (WA). Nicely done indeed. (Thanks to Powerline for the line-up - they've got some great stuff on the shenanigans that went into this bill)

. On the upside, one Michigan Republican showed some backbone:

Vern Ehlers of Grand Rapids, a research physicist who has pushed environmental legislation, was one of a handful of Republicans the Democratic leadership had hoped to win over, but he voted no.

Thanks to representative Van Ehlers for standing firm for what's right.

This bill, a lobbyist's dream for cap and trade, for an unproven problem of global warming, will drastically harm our state's and the nations economy, and increase the price of everything while it does so. Hopefully the Senate will find the backbone to kill this abomination because the House just sold America out for a mess of green potage.

Thanks so much for further moving Michigan into economic decline. For Michigan Democrat Representative Schauer to say this bill will create Michigan jobs is beyond ridiculous - unless you count new hires for lobbyists from Michigan's power plants to go plead with congressmen for energy credits so they can keep the lights on here a little longer as new and desirable jobs for this state.