Are liberals stupid?

[jtk1519]

Please forgive the Ann Coulterish title to this thread, but I can think of no more appropriate title to be bestowed upon what you are about to read...

Jumping ahead of state and federal regulators, the Bay Area air quality district became the first in the nation on Wednesday to impose fees on businesses that pump some of the highest levels of carbon dioxide into the air each year.

The 15-1 vote by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District sets the stage for 2,500 companies and agencies - from supermarkets to gas stations to power plants - to pay 4.4 cents for every metric ton of carbon dioxide they expel, beginning July 1. The top 10 companies combined would pay more than $820,000. The fee for a large share of businesses would be less than $1.

The district took the historic step as federal and state officials mull how and when to reduce the gases that many scientists blame for pushing up the Earth's temperatures and changing weather patterns. As much as the regulation will create a framework for pursuing the biggest carbon polluters in the region, it also provided a chance for the district to make a statement on the speed with which its counterparts in Sacramento and Washington are tackling the problem.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/22/MNDN10QD6O.DTL

It is perhaps no surprise that the gorgeous bastion of hippiedom, the San Francisco Bay area, would be the first to institute a mandatory "carbon tax", but perhaps I am naive for thinking even the tree-hugging morons there would be smart enough to see the crippling effect this can and will have on consumers currently burdened by a struggling California economy.

These are the top polluting companies in the Bay area, those that will burden the steepest taxes...

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/05/22/mn_greenhouse22.jpg

Now, I'm no energy expert, but looking at that list, I see at least half of those companies and the top 3 are oil companies. This is where the ignorance of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (hence forth to be referred to as "STOOP") baffles me. Does STOOP really think the oil companies are just going to eat this tax? Does STOOP really not see a corresponding hike in the prices of products offered by these companies in order to cover this tax? These people are presumably smart enough to tie their shoes (or at least slide their Birkenstocks on the right foot) so I am assuming STOOP took all of that into account when they levied their tax. So, in a state whose economy is tanking because of home foreclosures, horrible government debt and already sky high prices, STOOP decides that burden isn't enough. STOOP decides they are going to do their part to raise gas and energy prices for a people already struggling to make it paycheck to paycheck.

http://www.peoplejam.com/files/u1811/GuinnessBrilliant.jpg

Seriously, is the "economic reasoning" gene absent in the genetic composition liberals? When will they realize that you cannot force change punishing people into it? Even the drool-covered freshman, sleeping in the back of psych 101 knows that you get more via positive reinforcement than you will with negative. Though, in defiance of all logic, this basic principal of society appears to be lost on STOOP and in their ignorance-induced hysteria, it is the struggling people of the Bay area that get kicked while they're down.

[svhorns]

bush league
bill

[yallerjacket]

Bushwick Bill

[FarmerFootballPlayer]

Good idea... five to ten years from now. Idiotic right now.

[t-long20]

Are they insane? Their tax will just trickle down to the consumer. Oil companies everywhere will just laugh at this.


Al Gore has won.

[GoOwls]

When you live in "Liberalville USA", you get what you ask for/deserve.

[WestPlano006]

lol, only in the Bay Area.

[HebronHawk]

Please forgive the Ann Coulterish title to this thread, but I can think of no more appropriate title to be bestowed upon what you are about to read...



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/22/MNDN10QD6O.DTL

It is perhaps no surprise that the gorgeous bastion of hippiedom, the San Francisco Bay area, would be the first to institute a mandatory "carbon tax", but perhaps I am naive for thinking even the tree-hugging morons there would be smart enough to see the crippling effect this can and will have on consumers currently burdened by a struggling California economy.

These are the top polluting companies in the Bay area, those that will burden the steepest taxes...

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/05/22/mn_greenhouse22.jpg

Now, I'm no energy expert, but looking at that list, I see at least half of those companies and the top 3 are oil companies. This is where the ignorance of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (hence forth to be referred to as "STOOP") baffles me. Does STOOP really think the oil companies are just going to eat this tax? Does STOOP really not see a corresponding hike in the prices of products offered by these companies in order to cover this tax? These people are presumably smart enough to tie their shoes (or at least slide their Birkenstocks on the right foot) so I am assuming STOOP took all of that into account when they levied their tax. So, in a state whose economy is tanking because of home foreclosures, horrible government debt and already sky high prices, STOOP decides that burden isn't enough. STOOP decides they are going to do their part to raise gas and energy prices for a people already struggling to make it paycheck to paycheck.

http://www.peoplejam.com/files/u1811/GuinnessBrilliant.jpg

Seriously, is the "economic reasoning" gene absent in the genetic composition liberals? When will they realize that you cannot force change punishing people into it? Even the drool-covered freshman, sleeping in the back of psych 101 knows that you get more via positive reinforcement than you will with negative. Though, in defiance of all logic, this basic principal of society appears to be lost on STOOP and in their ignorance-induced hysteria, it is the struggling people of the Bay area that get kicked while they're down.

Since all those businesses provide energy for the entire nation maybe the Californians figure this is a way to bring some Texas money (and other states) to the Bay area as the fees are added to production costs.

[rwilleby]

Yes...

[HebronHawk]

The basic problem with a so-called "carbon tax" is it legitimizes the pollution assuming that you can get your consumers to pay the tax for you.

Typical liberal, one world, bull ship, imo.

[slorch]

these are the same folks that think increasing minimum wage builds the buying power of the underemployed...

of course the employer is going to pass that added cost on to the consumer, therefore, maintaining the relative cost of living for the workers that are supposedly benefitting...

According to Firebird, liberals care more though. That's the difference.:rolleyes:

[ktCarl]

How do they come up with the figure of 4.4 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide?

[slorch]

How do they come up with the figure of 4.4 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide?

take your hand and move it to the back of your pants. You're getting warmer...;)

[dragonsdaddy]

there has yet to be a tax proposed, for any reason at all, that doesn't please a liberal. and like all taxes, a liberal would never vote to do away with one, unless another, more onerous tax is there to take its place.

[yallerjacket]

How do they come up with the figure of 4.4 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide?

Al Gore

[grayowl60]

"Bay area gay community to be taxed for....." Never mind

[mad_fan]

...in comparison to???

This thread???

:rolleyes:

[cougmantx]

We have not begun to see the crash that is coming if global financial markets callapase. Carbon release into the atmosphere is a severe problem that only those wishing to stick their head in the sand can deny. I don't agree with this tax but I do believe that we have to start looking for a long term solution and make a more intense effort into developing new technologies to improve our energy options. We can do it, I have no doubt but first we have to quit allowing ourselves to be distracted by non-arguements concerning the very real possiblity that we are destroying our enviroment. Even if you don't agree with global warming you have to agree that an America less reliant of fosil fuels and Middle Eastern Oil is a worth while and liberating goal. The sooner the better.

[Dawg Fan]

We have not begun to see the crash that is coming if global financial markets callapase. Carbon release into the atmosphere is a severe problem that only those wishing to stick their head in the sand can deny. I don't agree with this tax but I do believe that we have to start looking for a long term solution and make a more intense effort into developing new technologies to improve our energy options. We can do it, I have no doubt but first we have to quit allowing ourselves to be distracted by non-arguements concerning the very real possiblity that we are destroying our enviroment. Even if you don't agree with global warming you have to agree that an America less reliant of fosil fuels and Middle Eastern Oil is a worth while and liberating goal. The sooner the better.

direct from the "tree huggers handbook":rolleyes:

We are just one strong earthquake from not having to worry about what happens in San Francisco and that won't have a damn thing to do with carbon release.

[RedRage00]

direct from the "tree huggers handbook":rolleyes:

We are just one strong earthquake from not having to worry about what happens in San Francisco and that won't have a damn thing to do with carbon release.

And TX is just one strong hurricane away from something similar.

[cougmantx]

direct from the "tree huggers handbook":rolleyes:

We are just one strong earthquake from not having to worry about what happens in San Francisco and that won't have a damn thing to do with carbon release.

I beg your pardon, I have never hugged a tree :D

[cougmantx]

And TX is just one strong hurricane away from something similar.

So true... Let a hurricane Katrina come up the Houston ship channel or into Corpus Christi and you will hear the crying throughout the country. I expect to be paying 7-8 dollars a gallon of gas this year if and when a hurricane it's. Even if it doesn't do much damage to the refineries, the speculators will drive up the price of oil to $250.00 overnight.

I guess the right wing of this country is going to have to have Chinese and Middle Eastern shackles on them before they will be willing to take appropriate actions to remain a free and democratic country.

Some people are their own worst enemies when it come's to voting for the best interest of this country. I say, free my country from the tyrancy and mediocraty of the right, wing radicals and facist...:eek:

[mad_fan]

I beg your pardon, I have never hugged a tree :D

and I was going to beg for a copy of the handbook...:)

[jtk1519]

Carbon release into the atmosphere is a severe problem that only those wishing to stick their head in the sand can deny.

Agreed and this tax will do NOTHING to stop these companies from releasing this carbon into the atmosphere. They will simply pay the tax by raising the prices of their products to cover it. If you want these companies to stop emitting carbon, don't tax them, but offer them an incentive for every ton of carbon emissions they drop.

Even if you don't agree with global warming you have to agree that an America less reliant of fosil fuels and Middle Eastern Oil is a worth while and liberating goal. The sooner the better.

Again, agreed, but we could achieve that by building more clean nuclear plants, refineries and drilling off our own shores for oil until wind, hydrogen, solar, bio fuels, etc. catch up to the point where they are legitimate, cost effective alternatives to oil. Problem is that liberals oppose these things which means liberals oppose lower energy prices and freeing ourselves from foreign oil. This tax will do absolutely nothing to address the issues and goals you outlined in the above quote. What STOOP is doing is like cutting off your arm to fix a broken finger. It makes no sense, does no good and serves no purpose other than to put more money into the hands of an atrociously poor state government that can't handle the money they do have.

[slorch]

Agreed and this tax will do NOTHING to stop these companies from releasing this carbon into the atmosphere. They will simply pay the tax by raising the prices of their products to cover it. If you want these companies to stop emitting carbon, don't tax them, but offer them an incentive for every ton of carbon emissions they drop.and give the evil corporations more money?:eek::Censor::mad:



Again, agreed, but we could achieve that by building more clean nuclear plants, refineries and drilling off our own shores for oil until wind, hydrogen, solar, bio fuels, etc. catch up to the point where they are legitimate, cost effective alternatives to oil. Problem is that liberals oppose these things which means liberals oppose lower energy prices and freeing ourselves from foreign oil. This tax will do absolutely nothing to address the issues and goals you outlined in the above quote. What STOOP is doing is like cutting off your arm to fix a broken finger. It makes no sense, does no good and serves no purpose other than to put more money into the hands of an atrociously poor state government that can't handle the money they do have.

It's obvious that you do not understand how much liberals care for us...

[dragonsdaddy]

It's obvious that you do not understand how much liberals care for us...
and in the inemitable way of the liberal- at least they are doing something. i wish they would go back to just wringing their hands.