Parrish for Treasurer, Lockyer is a Jackass

Unfortunately, current Attorney General Bill Lockyer is the favorite, and he is such a jackass. Why is he a jackass? Read on:

(at this point, you might want to play “Corona” (The “Jackass” TV show theme song) by The Minutemen, some of you can probably hum it in your head)

Two months ago, now Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced that he was going to sue automakers in order to get them to pay for the damage caused by global warming.

Here is the line of his argument: Cars emit carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases cause global warming, global warming will turn the entire California coast, from Coronado to Crescent City, into an underwater community, so therefore, the automakers should pay the California government money. He called automobiles “a public nuisance” because people drive them to work to feed their families, and because people drive them from all over the United States to vacation at Disneyland or Sea World, and because, while all these people are doing all of these heinous things, the world is allegedly getting warmer.

Let’s leave the debate over whether global warming is actually occurring aside. We won’t even discuss the idea that, even if it is occurring, it may not be occurring because of human activity. (You remember the dinosaurs. The whole world was pretty warm then, and there wasn’t one single automobile, airplane, or politician spewing hot air anywhere).

Speaking of the 1970’s again: do you all remember back then when the “climatologists” were claiming that we would experience “global cooling” and “a new ice age” caused by fossil fuel burning that would put too many sunlight blocking particles and cool water vapor into the atmosphere? If I remember my Chemistry formulas right, Burn 4 parts gasoline or kerosene jet fuel and you get about 5 parts water vapor along with your exhaust. Look at the pretty cloud trails the jet planes leave behind.

Now why was Lockyer the jackass doing this? Not too long ago, the Public Policy Institute issued a poll which showed that somewhere around 60% of the people in California think that global warming is actually occurring. This poll was done in July, one of the hottest months on record, and released in August, one of the coolest (relative to August) months ever. This summer proves that you can never count on the weather to prove or disprove political positions.

Due to the hot weather in July, the Capitol building in Sacramento was treated to the emission of tons of greenhouses gases in August, as politicians spewed out their tripe about the importance of doing something about global warming. Governor Schwarzenegger got into the act, and ultimately signed AB 32, which will usher in one huge new “carbon dioxide” bureaucracy.

I adamantly disagree with the Governor on the issue, but I cannot fault his process. He followed the constitutionally mandated way of dealing with the issue, and, as flawed as the legislation is, it at least followed the appropriate procedure as it passed through the Legislature. I suppose that the real remedy for the passage of AB 32 would be to get a new Legislature.

What Attorney General Lockyer did, however, was a pure publicity stunt. He read the poll, and, not to be outdone by the Governor, decided to get in on the political action. He drafts up this questionable lawsuit, spends your tax dollars on the lawyers to go after the automakers, holds a big press conference to show that he is “fighting” global warming, and hopes that you will vote for him for State Treasurer. He claims that the “public nuisance” law allows him to do this (it doesn’t, but hey, it’s worth a try), but he is really making a mockery of the law, the state, and the judicial system by filing this lawsuit.

To use our legal system and our tax dollars to claim otherwise is simply an abuse of our legal processes, and a publicity stunt that deserves condemnation. Attorney General Lockyer should have been busy catching bad guys and putting them in jail. And this jackass now wants to be Treasurer? Nope, time to send the thankfully term limited jackass back to his law practice, and out of state office.