Caltrans conflates clean air and water with alleged CO2 endangerment, the latter just a gimmick for organized crime and the UN

California government is devoted to demonizing the American middle class, taking away their automobiles, relocating the selfish rubes to highrises, and leaving most of California bare to be overrun by those who deserve it more such as Mexican drug dealers. It's not bothered that so many people are starving in California with so many billionaires there.

4/14/11, "Straw Man Environmental Alarmism 101, California Style," American Thinker, Chuck Roger

"Course Description: Learn to craft false statements that appear factual and to justify "fixes" for imaginary problems. The student learns how to apply said fixes to an agenda which addresses environmentalists' most precious issue:

• human-caused global warming

Course Instructor: An associate transportation planner with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

The Caltrans website contains a section which almost comically could have been prepared for this fictitious course. An article titled "Turning a More Vivid Shade of Green: Caltrans Takes a Stand on Climate Change, Global Warming" states:

• "The world may be exhausting its supply of petroleum, but the larger question now has to do with an abundance of fossil fuel-generated greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that threaten the planet we call home."

The article's author seems eminently qualified to teach "Straw Man Environmental Alarmism 101," what with the obvious skill for packing two falsehoods stated as facts into a single sentence. How many times must it be proved that the world is not close to "exhausting its supply of petroleum" before environmentalists stop making the claim? And as Americans are realizing in greater and greater numbers, there is no objective support for the shrill claim that "greenhouse gas emissions... threaten the planet we call home."

But the Caltrans article's falsehoods continue.

• "The relationship between transportation and climate change resulting from GHG emissions is fairly well understood. ... Emissions of GHG and the related subject of global climate change are emerging as critical issues for the entire transportation community."

It takes a thick pair of reality blinders to call something as complex and hotly-contested as climate change science "well understood." We can picture the author, apparently a proud member of the "transportation community," pounding away at the keyboard while imagining a noble role for all members of the planet-saving collective.

"Turning a More Vivid Shade of Green" warns California residents of a global warming-decimated future plagued by flooded "tunnels, coastal highways, runways and railways, buckled highways and railroad tracks, and submerged dock facilities." The article praises California Assembly Bill 32 for dictating a "cap and trade system" and a 40 percent reduction in California residents' share of greenhouse gas emissions within nine years. Rumor has it that Caltrans will offer horse and buggy skills training, no-emission, tofu-powered lawnmowers, and souped-up hand sheers with built-in carbon sequestration devices for capturing stray emissions from unenlightened neighboring states.

Our Caltrans associate planner boasts that "California is leading the national climate change battle" with actions like price-expanding, horsepower-reducing, economy-killing fuel efficiency standards, governmental planning of "more efficient communities," "sustainable communities strateg[ies]," and development of a "transportation system... capable of withstanding climate change in the future."And watch out, because Caltrans has realized that roads "consume energy in many ways, including lights, water pumps, traffic signals, controllers, and signage." If the agency's "upgrades [of] traffic signals from high watt incandescent lamps to low energy light-emitting diode fixtures" is an indicator of things to come, and some enthusiastic, promotion-seeking employee switches off roadway water pumps, then what's left of California's residents could be in for dark, wet, free-for-all roadway adventures.

The Caltrans vision of a "More Vivid Shade of Green" wraps up on a particularly uplifting tone. The agency

• "...believes that creating a sustainable transportation system will yield other benefits, including more efficient use of transportation resources, reduced dependency on fossil fuels, greater energy security, improved mobility and travel options, and more livable communities.

Caltrans is proud to be at the forefront of taking on the climate change challenge, and the Department sees this moment as an opportunity to transform the way we do business, moving toward clean and sustainable technologies to ensure that all Californians can enjoy clean air, unpolluted water, and a healthy environment."

Then the angels sang. They were the most vivid green angels that anyone had ever seen."

(The writer is a physicist and former high tech executive)

Everyone wants clean air and water. So they sell CO2 endangerment-which does not exist to begin with except as a multi-trillion dollar crime against humanity--along with clean air and water. And most people don't know the difference. ed.
=======================================

The organized crime CO2 racket rests on the theory that all Americans are criminals. It says CO2 (carbon dioxide) is a poisonous and murderous substance caused mainly by criminal Americans who must pay billions to UN grifters, hedge fund thugs, and equatorial dictators who will use our money like others at the UN do,

• to redecorate their summer homes.

4/8/11, "Global Warming Alarmism's Long March through State and Local Institutions," American Thinker, Peter Wilson

----------------------------------------------------

"A victim of a famine machine that is entirely man-made...by greens."... 12/28/10,

• "Fresno, Zimbabwe"

"...Fresno, Calif., stands as the de facto capital of California's mighty Central Valley, the breadbasket of America." But

• 24.1% of Fresno's families are going hungry."...

======================================

"“Sustainability has less to do with the environment, and everything to do with economics. It is an attack on capitalism, and

• an attack on America’s middle class lifestyle.”" Enabled by weak politicians who have already transferred billions of US tax dollars to global grifters for 'social justice' purposes.
• ----------------------
  

2/26/11, "Agenda 21 Part III: Maryland County Abolishes Agenda 21 – Now it’s Your Turn," Big Government, James M. Simpson

"For those unfamiliar with the sustainable development agenda, this might not seem like much,

• but it is huge.

If you have been following my recent series on the subject, you will know that local Sustainability offices, under the auspices of the ICLEI’s Local Governments for Sustainability, are the

• tiny, visible tip of the monstrous Agenda 21 sustainable development iceberg,

the ultimate goal of which is to transform American society from the bottom up into a socialist ward of UN global governance. [See detailed public UN documents written at numerous global conventions. Obama UN appointee Susan Rice is currently attending a UN 'sustainability' conference as opposed to attending meetings in NY about Libya]. As of today, there are

• approximately 600 local governments in the US

who have signed on to this Trojan Horse.

• Minus one."....

.

Wal-Mart employees given special screening of Al Gore movie in 2006, Wal-Mart even made friends with SEIU shake down artist Andy Stern, all for naught

4/13/11, "Gore store no more," Telegraph.com.au, Tony Blair

"Former Al Gore senior aide Leslie Dach dared to dream:

In July 2006, Dach was installed as the public relations chief for Wal-Mart. He drafted a number of other progressives into the company, seeking to change the company’s way of doing business: its culture, its politics, and most importantly its products.

Out went drab, inexpensive merchandise so dear to low-income Americans. In came upscale organic foods, “green” products, trendy jeans, and political correctness. In other words, Dach sought to expose poor working Americans to the “good life” of the wealthy, environmentally conscious Prius driver.

How did that all work out?

After suffering seven straight quarters of losses, today the merchandise giant Wal-Mart will announce that it is “going back to basics,” ending its era of high-end organic foods, going “green,” and the remainder of its appeal to the upscale market. Next month the company will launch an “It’s Back” campaign to woo the millions of customers who have fled the store.

Further from the Wall Street Journal:

Starting in May, Wal-Mart shoppers in the U.S. will see signs in stores heralding the return of fishing tackle, bolts of fabric and other ‘heritage’ merchandise that Wal-Mart reduced or cut out altogether as it attempted to spruce up its stores "...

=============================

Why has the non-political act of treating our environment well turned into a shakedown racket of bullies including admitted liar Al Gore and his faked movie? Wal-Mart hired political operative and longtime lobbyist Leslie Dach and made him a multi-millionaire. (last paragraph)

1/28/08, "Wal-Mart's Leslie Dach on "The Company of the future," TreeHugger, Lloyd Alter

"Leslie Dach used to do government relations work for Environmental Defense and served on the Audubon Society board. He was an advance man for Senator Edward Kennedy in his failed run for the nomination in 1980, and, later, as communications director for Michael Dukakis’s campaign in 1988, (according to the New Yorker, he says he was thousands of miles away during the famous tank moment), and now he is the Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations for Wal-Mart and "reports directly to CEO Lee Scott and also manages communications, government relations and the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club Foundation for the company.""...

------------------------------------------
12/7/2006, "A Look Behind the Wal-Mart PR Machine," Wall St. Journal, Kris Hudson, republished on ReclaimDemocracy.org

"He (Leslie Dach) went on to play prominent advisory roles for Democrats in five of the next six presidential campaigns. He prepared Al Gore for debates in 2000 and handled publicity for Democratic efforts in 2004 to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot in several states."...(paragraph 15 in link)...

In July, Mr. Dach arranged for former Vice President Al Gore to speak about environmental issues and screen his global-warming movie "An Inconvenient Truth" at a quarterly meeting of Wal-Mart employees and environmental groups. Mr. Gore's camp initially had concerns about Wal-Mart's sincerity on the issue, but Mr. Dach helped allay them. "Leslie brings some credibility and integrity," said Roy Neel, Mr. Gore's chief of staff....(3rd paragraph from end)

In hiring Mr. Dach, Wal-Mart granted him stock then valued at $3 million and nearly 169,000 options. The retailer allows him to split his time between Bentonville and Washington , D.C., with Washington remaining his primary residence. He also gained oversight of the $1 billion Wal-Mart Foundation, a charitable group. "I'm convinced Wal-Mart is changing and the change is real," Mr. Dach wrote in an email to friends announcing the move." (last paragraph)

==================================

3/28/2007, "Buddying up to Walmart," The Nation. SEIU boss Andy Stern strangely cozy with Walmart

"Last week, in a remarkable interview with the American Prospect magazine's Ezra Klein, SEIU president Andy Stern, normally one of the more articulate leaders of the American labor movement, was unable to form a single persuasive sentence on the subject of his recent partnership with Wal-Mart on health care policy reform. Klein pressed Stern pretty hard, asking what exactly Wal-Mart has committed to do, in exchange for all the positive publicity the company gets for working with unions on this issue. Stern hemmed and hawed and finally said that if the partnership doesn't work, he was "gonna eat a lotta crow." Looks like that feathery chow-down may occur sooner rather than later....

Now, Wal-Mart's "co-option" of SEIU may not work as well as Wal-Mart would like, in that SEIU probably

• will continue to attack and criticize Wal-Mart."...

--------------------------------------------

7/2/2007, "Labor Head Andy Stern Has Some Unusual Corporate Bedfellows," The Nation, Liza Featherstone

"SEIU President Andy Stern heads one of the strongest unions in the country, yet he's stood on stage to campaign with anti-union CEOs like Wal-Mart's Lee Scott. Why is he so cozy with corporations?"...

"Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association (which competes with SEIU to organize nurses), bluntly calls Stern "the neocon of the labor movement.""...(p. 1, end)



via Climate Depot

Communist China cannot 'go green' without political change- NY Times, 2007

8/26/2007, "As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes," NY Times, J. Kahn, J. Yardley

"(Chinese) Provincial officials, who enjoy substantial autonomy, often ignore environmental edicts, helping to reopen mines or factories closed by central authorities. Over all, enforcement is often tinged with corruption. This spring, officials in Yunnan Province in southern China beautified Laoshou Mountain, which had been used as a quarry, by spraying green paint over acres of rock. (p. 2 of 6) ...

"Beijing also insists that it will accept no mandatory limits on its carbon dioxide emissions, which would almost certainly reduce its industrial growth. It argues that rich countries caused global warming and should find a way to solve it without impinging on China’s development....(p. 2 of 6)

"The toll this pollution has taken on human health remains a delicate topic in China. The leadership has banned publication of data on the subject for fear of inciting social unrest, said scholars involved in the research. (p. 3 of 6, bottom)

"Senior leaders are either too timid to enforce their orders, or the fast-growth political culture they preside over is too entrenched to heed them....

China’s authoritarian system has repeatedly proved its ability to suppress political threats to Communist Party rule. But its failure to realize its avowed goals of balancing economic growth and environmental protection is a sign that the country’s environmental problems are at least partly systemic, many experts and some government officials say.

China cannot go green, in other words, without political change....(p. 5 of 6, bottom)

"Today, a culture of collusion between government and business has made all but the most pro-growth government policies hard to enforce."...(p. 6 of 6. 2nd para.)

"Officials have rejected proposals to introduce surcharges on electricity and coal to reflect the true cost to the environment. The state still controls the price of fuel oil, including gasoline, subsidizing the cost of driving. (p. 6)

"Energy and environmental officials have little influence in the bureaucracy. The environmental agency still has only about 200 full-time employees, compared with 18,000 at the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. "...

================================

It's taboo to mention that Communist China is a source of other countries' pollution problems. (sub-head, 'Chinese air pollution goes abroad')

7/20/2007, "Huge Dust Plumes From China Cause Changes in Climate," NY Times, Robert Lee Hotz

"On some days, almost a third of the air over Los Angeles and San Francisco can be traced directly to Asia. With it comes up to three-quarters of the black carbon particulate pollution that reaches the West Coast, Dr. Ramanathan and his colleagues recently reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

This transcontinental pollution is part of a growing global traffic in dust and aerosol particles made worse by drought and deforestation, said Steven Cliff, who studies the problem at the University of California at Davis."...

.

Obama former Green Job Czar Van Jones cites Tea Party as man-caused reason for stall in 40 year man-caused climate industry

Van Jones was among speakers at Fortune Magazine’s Brainstorm Green Conference in early April.

4/11/11, "Routed Greens Retreat," GlobalWarming.org, Marita Noon

"Climate change legislation has been the holy grail of the environmental movement—but the climate has changed. Now the green movement is playing defense.

This change of climate is not from carbon emissions—though it is manmade. At the same conference, former green jobs czar, Van Jones, didn’t “blame the environmentalists or the policy concept itself.” What brought about the change? How’d the debate get reframed and cause the death of cap and trade? Something, Jones pointed out, no one in the room had heard of twenty-four months ago—“a right-wing populace movement” that the carbon emission supporters failed to take seriously:

• “the tea party.”

Man changed the political climate in just two years. After forty years, environmentalists are now on the defense because of some under-estimated

• “upstarts.”...

Greens have other ideas and word games on tap such as "Renewable energy standards" (RES):

"The RES should be seen as the “reinvention” of cap and trade—another approach. According to the New Mexico Independent, “The plan would allow energy suppliers to buy credits from other producers who produce renewable energy and allow producers to ‘bank’ the credits for up to four years

• and borrow credits for up to three years into the future.”"...

via Tom Nelson

Suggested 'global anthem' for dotty 1 world types which European submissives will no doubt think is swell

4/7/11, "German Elitists Unveil “Master Plan” For The “Great Transformation” Of GLOBAL Society. Call For “Bonus-Malus Solutions”," No Tricks Zone, by P. Gosselin

"Hans Schellnhuber’s Master Plan for the “Great Transformation” of society announced in a Spiegel interview is now out.

If there was ever a document out there certifying someone has no clue about economics and democratic principles, this is it! And it’s as remote from reality that anything can get. Only reality-isolated, pointy-headed academics could come up with such a thing.

It even tops my wildest expectations. You can now read it here: A World In Transition – A Social Contract For Sustainability. This is what he and his enviro-kook academics, who never worked a day in their lives in private industry, recommend for changing society – to save us from junk science-based global warming.

To accomplish this so-called Great Transformation of society, the authors of the master plan advocate 10 bundles of measures to take.

Bundle No. 1: Improve the Proactive State with Extended Participation Opportunities

In the German they call it the “Designing State”. Here they call for a strengthening of the state and advocates “bonus-malus” solutions. That means: let’s make the state even more powerful, and if you don’t do what it tells you, then you get whacked.

Bundle No. 2. Advance Global Carbon Pricing.

The WBGU believes that carbon pricing is the most important political measure for decarbonisation, and a necessary element of any regulatory framework for the transformation into a climate-friendly society. However, the price of carbon has to be set at a level that is high enough to achieve the transformative impact called for, i. e. it must be substantially higher than the current European emissions trading price level.”

Here we see this is remote of free market economy and it is all about state control. In the german version they call for a carbon price that must be “many times higher”.

Bundle No. 3. Expand and Deepen the Europeanisation of Energy Policy

That is what the title of the Bundle 3 is in the German version.

The goal of a common European energy policy should be the decarbonisation of the energy system by the middle of the century.

Here they propose the rapid expansion of renewable energies, energy storage systems and involving non-EU countries to help, such as Norway and Africa (i.e. $1 trillion solar plant in the Sahara called Desertec). That means becoming dependent on unstable North African countries like Libya. Forget that consumers can’t afford it.

Bundle No. 4. Accelerate promotion of renewable energies on a global level through feed-in tariffs

The transformation speed that needs to be reached to protect the climate and avoid the imminent risk of path dependencies on fossil energy technologies can only be achieved by accelerating and increasing the use of renewable energies.”

This is what they call for after a host of countries have just stopped subsidies because they are too expensive. But economics have never been a concern for reality-remote academics in ivory towers.

Bundle No. 5: Promote sustainable energy supply services in developing and newly industrialising countries

These countries need support with guaranteeing all of their people access to the basic essentials of a modern energy supply by 2030. They need support that allows them to establish a sustainable energy infrastructure.”

Like we don’t have enough to pay for already with our own huge deficits, demographic disaster, proposed super-expensive renewable energy supply system. Now we are also expected to pay for these systems in for the rest of the world. And then we should expect these poor folks to be able to pay for these pricey renewable energies. I’ve already read enugh to be convinced that these “wisemen” belong in group therapy of some sort. This is as remote from reality as it gets.

Bundle No. 6 Steering the World’s Rapid Urbanisation towards Sustainability

For currently rapidly growing urban structures, for example in Asia, high-carbon path dependencies must be prevented, as they would hinder low-carbon development for many decades.”

Hey Asia! (and the rest of the world), you’re going to build your cities the way we tell you to.

Bundle 7: Advance Climate-Friendly Land-Use

Priority of any globally sustainable land-use policy must be securing the food supply for just under a billion mal- and undernourished people. Furthermore, demand for agricultural produce is going to rise because of the growing share of animal products and the increase in biomass production for energy and industry.”

The modern agriculture that has done so much under the free market system is supposed to go back to failed Soviet style management. In their rush to rescue the planet from a hypothetical extreme climate change, they are proposing to rush a real destruction instead.

Bundle 8: Encourage and Accelerate Investments into a Low-Carbon Future

State policies must therefore aim to make investment into low-carbon technologies more attractive, and to abolish current disincentives and investment barriers.”

That means topple the free market system. Let the government run it. But which government?

Bundle 9: International Climate and Energy Policy

…a climate protection scheme that is limited to the more prosperous countries cannot solve the problem. Global cooperation is therefore necessary to ensure that the requisite funds for climate-friendly development are also available to poorer countries, and that all countries have access to climate protection technologies and the respective expert knowledge. International climate and energy policy is the forum for achieving a global consensus on transformation targets and ambitions.”

That means the rich countries are going to have to pay for the poor ones. Redistibution! The whole thing is a high risk economics experiment. Not to see if it’ll succeed, but to see how fast something can fail.

Bundle 10: Pursue a Revolution in International Cooperation

The world desperately needs a higher level of international cooperation if climate- and environmentally-friendly global development is to be achieved in the long-term.”

No. The world needs cooperation to tackle today’s real problems that are killing millions right now, and not fantasy problems 100 years from now. Pouring trillions into flakey energy systems while neglecting the poor is immoral."

==================================

And now let me propose Bundle No. 11 – to round out the “Master Plan”:

Bundle No. 11: A suitable global anthem



=========================

This sounds like the plan the perverts at the UN have for us kids here in the US. Emotionally disturbed globalists, with the help of seedy European monarchs, have Europeans under their control. Globalists are mistaken if they think their mind control game will beat Americans. A very big ocean separates us from Europe. We will see them in jail or a mental hospital before they take over here. ed.

===========================

"Lord Monckton's Mexican Missive #3" posted on WattsUpWithThat

• 12/9/10, "From The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Cancun, Mexico, Dec 9th, 2010

"The central intent of The Process no longer has anything to do with the climate, if it ever had.

• The objective is greatly to empower and still more greatly to enrich the international classe politique at the expense of

• the peoples of the West, using the climate as a pretext....

I usually add some gentle humor to these reports. Not today. Read this and weep. Notwithstanding the carefully-orchestrated propaganda to the effect that nothing much will be decided at the UN climate conference here in Cancun, the decisions to be made here this week

• signal nothing less than the abdication of the West.

The governing class in what was once proudly known as the Free World is

• silently,

• casually

letting go of liberty, prosperity, and

• even democracy itself.

No one in the mainstream media will tell you this, not so much because they do not see as because

• they do not bl**dy care...."

==============================

Reference: "Federal prosecutors in New York City were forced to drop criminal and civil cases because the U.N. officials have immunity,"...

4/16/09, "Report: U.N. spent U.S. funds on shoddy projects," USA Today, Ken Dilanian

"Investigators found that UNDP withdrew $6.7 million from a U.S. line of credit without permission in 2007, months after the project had ended. UNDP has

yet to explain what happened to that money, the report says....

"Due to the refusal of the United Nations to cooperate with this investigation, questions remain unanswered."...




via Climate Depot

Ethanol is mother of corporate welfare programs. 1700 gallons of water are required to produce 1 gallon of ethanol

""The increased use of ethanol accounted for about 10% to 15% of the rise in food prices ""...and subsequent deaths from starvation. "It takes about 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. Each acre of corn requires 130 pounds of nitrogen and 55 pounds of phosphorous. Increased acreage means increased agricultural runoff that is creating aquatic "dead zones" in our rivers, bays and coastal areas."...

4/8/11, "Defund Ethanol," Investors Business Daily Editorial

"Energy Policy: A GOP senator and a Democratic congressman want to end the poster child for pork-barrel spending. Unfortunately, the road to the White House runs through the cornfields of Iowa.

It's easy to lampoon federal spending on turtle tunnels, bridges to nowhere or cowboy poetry readings. It is harder to deal with subsidies and tax credits for things that do real damage to our collective bottom line. Case in point: the tax credit for and mandated use of ethanol, the corn-based additive to gasoline that was supposed to save the earth and gasoline

• and pave the way to energy independence.

It has achieved neither, and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is trying to end this mother of all corporate welfare programs. He is joined in the effort by Rep. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Charles Koch of the famous Koch brothers. He is opposed by just about every presidential contender and conservatives such as Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.

Norquist says ending the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, which provides a 45-cents-a-gallon tax credit to ethanol producers, without an offsetting tax cut elsewhere, amounts to a tax increase that violates the no-new-taxes pledge he and his group demand from candidates.

Coburn disagrees, and so do we. Ending a tax credit is not a tax increase but rather the elimination of one of many distortions in the tax code that try to pick winners and losers, favoring this industry at the expense of that one. He notes that Citizens Against Government waste supports his position and his amendment to a small-business measure.

Ethanol is protected by a federal mandate that requires the production of 13.95 billion gallons of alternative fuels this year and 36 billion gallons by 2022. Without that mandate and a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on foreign ethanol from the likes of Brazil, ethanol could not compete in the marketplace. To suggest the tax credit's a good deal for consumers and taxpayers is bogus.

It's the mandated use of ethanol that has imposed a hidden tax on consumers. Coburn points to a CBO report that states: "The increased use of ethanol accounted for about 10% to 15% of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008. In turn, that increase will boost federal spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp program) and child nutrition programs by an estimated $600 million to $900 million in FY 2009."

So the ethanol tax credit increases federal spending and the burden on taxpaying consumers. Food prices are climbing apace with the mandated use of ethanol. It's a politically motivated albatross on the American economy, and even Al Gore admitted he supported it due only to his own political ambitions.

According to the Hoover Institution's Henry Miller and professor Colin Carter of the University of California, Davis, "Ethanol yields about 30% less energy per gallon of gasoline, so miles per gallon in internal combustion engines drop significantly."

Motorists end up filling their tanks more often at ever-higher prices and raising the percentage of ethanol in gas, just as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wants to do with his plan for more E-83 pumps for gasoline that's 85% ethanol.

It takes about 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. Each acre of corn requires 130 pounds of nitrogen and 55 pounds of phosphorous. Increased acreage means increased agricultural runoff that is creating aquatic "dead zones"

• in our rivers, bays and coastal areas.

Ethanol has never made much sense environmentally or economically, but it makes a good deal of sense politically. If Alaska, not Iowa, were the first presidential contest, we might be drilling for more oil, not trying

• to stuff ears of corn in our gas tanks."

via Lucianne.com

Now it's Washington State against Democrat Gov., hippies and SEIU do sleep-in in Capitol demanding Gov. Gregoire stop budget cuts-17 arrested

Washington State Democrat Governor needs to cut $5 billion.

4/7/11, "17 arrests as rowdy protesters block governor's office," KOMO News, Bryan Johnson

"Seventeen people were arrested Thursday afternoon outside the governor's office as protests over statewide budget cuts grew noisier and more boisterous, witnesses said.

• • View photos »

The arrests came as labor groups converged on the Washington state Capitol for a third day of demonstrations to call attention to budget cuts they called "immoral."

The 17 protesters were arrested following a pushing and shoving match between protesters and Washington State Patrol troopers.

Demonstrators were blocking the entrance to the governor's office and chanting "We want to see her!" when state troopers ordered them to disperse.

Many of the protesters retreated down a hallway, but a group of people locked arms and refused to move. Sixteen of the protesters were cited for disorderly conduct and released. The seventeenth protester was taken into custody and booked into jail on suspicion

• of assaulting two troopers.

Before the arrests, hundreds of people were already on the scene Thursday morning. Many of them spent the night on the hard marble floor of the main legislative building.

The Washington State Labor Council said the protests would focus on proposed cuts to state-funded health services, and demonstrators urged lawmakers to close tax loopholes rather than making cuts in the budget.Members of the Service Employees International Union, which represents caregivers for clients with special needs, claimed there are some 567 tax loopholes in Washington state that could be closed to prevent drastic budget cuts.

As the legislative day began Thursday, state troopers dragged about a dozen protesters from the House gallery after they started reading aloud what they called "personal histories" of disabled clients affected by budget cuts. There were no arrests in that incident.

Meanwhile, another large protest group numbering in the hundreds massed at a downtown Olympia park and marched to a Chase Bank branch.

The demonstrators claimed that Chase Bank is receiving millions of dollars in tax breaks from the state that it inherited after taking over Washington Mutual. Protesters called for the elimination of the tax breaks.

Later, a group of protesters gathered in the Rotunda and ended up marching toward the governor's office, where the shoving match and arrests took place.

• "This is our house, and I'm not backing down, not one bit," shouted one demonstrator. "My house, our house, everybody's house. And this is how we get treated. No more."

Labor groups promised even bigger demonstrations on Friday, when thousands of protesters are expected to converge on the capitol.

Meanwhile lawmakers are continuing their efforts to close a looming

• $5 billion budget deficit.

House lawmakers are expected to vote this week on a budget plan that would slash state spending by $4.4 billion for the 2011-2013 budget cycle. The Senate will follow

• next week with its own budget proposal."

via Big Government, photos from KOMO