-By Warner Todd Huston
Failed radio mouth and Senatorial candidate from Minnesota, Al Franken, told David Letterman on the set of the “Late Show” that the USA should reconsider approving the Kyoto Protocols because the treaty is good for the economy — Despite that the ruinous treaty was voted down by a unanimous Senate vote in 1997 for the very reason that it would harm the economy.
To a fawning audience and a rapt host, Franken attacked Bush over the treaty that was voted down before he ever got to office, saying “One of the dumbest things that this president has said — and that is a high bar — is that if we abided by the Kyoto agreement, it would be ruinous to our economy. The opposite is true.”
Franken went on to claim that the Protocols are actually good for the economy because cities that have voluntarily adopted the Protocols are seeing that “the air and water is cleaner and high-tech jobs were being created.”
With his simplistic one size fits all explanation, however, Franken did not elaborate upon how these isolated successes in scattered cities would translate to the entire nation nor did he discuss the fact that some cities might not be as effected by the economic restrictions as others.
Franken claimed that we need to focus heavily on renewable energies saying we need massive new government programs to create them, programs similar to the Apollo space programs of the 1960s.
“We need to do an Apollo project in renewable energy,” he said in reference to the NASA program that sent men to the moon. “We need to have biofuels, we need wind.”
“We need wind” he says? He seems to give us plenty of that.
Franken also voiced support for troop withdraws from Iraq, an idea that would give insurgents and terrorists reason for hope of their own eventual success.
Franken also said he supports the setting of a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in 2008. (Minn. Senator Norm) Coleman opposes a firm timetable for withdrawal, though he has criticized the Bush administration’s strategy on the war.
No news if, to be fair and balanced, David Letterman is going to give Senator Norm Coleman, Franken’s opponent in the upcoming election, the same amount of time and opposition free attention that he gave Franken to come on the show and voice his positions.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for that last one.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston