Kerry Reducing His Own Carbon Emissions

I’m no fan of Senator John Kerry, and I disagree with his opinion on global warming…but…I’ll give him credit for not taking a private plane to the Global Warming Summit in Copenhagen.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will travel to the United Nations global warming conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on a commercial airliner, a senior Kerry aide told CNSNews.com.

“The senator expects to travel commercially as he has to past climate conferences,” the aide said, adding that the details of Kerry’s travel arrangement were contingent upon the Senate’s schedule.

Published reports have indicated that many public officials have been arriving at the Copenhagen in private jets, meaning they are emitting more carbon into the atmosphere than they would if they traveled on commercial airliners. Carbon emissions produced by human activity, global warming theorists believe, cause global temperatures to rise.

Kerry will join a large U.S. contingent at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, including President Barack Obama and several members of his cabinet: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

At least 15,000 delegates, 5,000 journalists, and 98 world leaders are expected to attend the conference, which started Dec. 7 and ends on Dec. 18. The Telegraph reported that more than 1,200 limousines and 140 private planes are being utilized by the attendees.

And even still… if attendees really want to practice what they preach, how about using some online web conferencing tools so no one needs to increase their carbon emissions while getting the benefit of “attending” the conference.

I guess the parties after the conference wouldn’t be quite the same…

Like Kennedy, Like Kerry

It appears that the new senior Senator of Massachusetts suffers from the same kind of familial substance abuse problems of the former senior Senator of Massachusetts.

Sen. John Kerry’s eldest daughter was arrested early this morning for driving under the influence, Los Angeles police confirmed.

Alexandra Forbes Kerry, 36, was pulled over in Hollywood for a traffic violation and was arrested for DUI at 12:40 a.m., Officer Sara Faden said.

Kerry posted $5,000 bail at 5:20 a.m.

She is due in Los Angeles Municipal Court on Dec. 10, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office Web site.

While Faden would not confirm Kerry’s blood alcohol level or what substance she was under the influence of, gossip site TMZ.com reported that Kerry’s blood alcohol was .06, just below the .08 legal limit. Prosecutors can still go after drivers below that level if they are operating erratically, the site reports.

How fast will this get brushed under the rug?

Not a Joking Matter

Senator John Kerry has stooped to a new low, making a joke in exceptionally poor taste.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry must have been channeling his inner Letterman yesterday.

The Bay State senator was telling a group of business and civic leaders in town at his invitation about the “bizarre’’ tale of how South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had “disappeared for four days’’ and claimed to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail, but no one was really certain of his whereabouts.

“Too bad,” Kerry said, “if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.”

Excuse me, Senator…since when is person going missing a joking matter? Political rival or not, that kind of joke is inexcusable, and shameful to come from the mouth of a United States Senator. Would you still be joking if the story of Governor Sanford turned out worse?

I’m sure Senator Kerry wouldn’t be laughing if someone joked “too bad it couldn’t have been the other Senator from Massachusetts with the brain tumor,” so perhaps he ought think twice about joking about such serious matters.

I hope we get something resembling an apology from Senator Kerry. Until such time, I hope Governor Sarah Palin knows that the rest of us in the Commonwealth, at least, those of us with some class, apologize for the behavior of our junior Senator.

John Kerry To Join Obama Administration?

…okay, there are no reports saying he’s planning to, but now that the IRS says he owes over $800,000 in back taxes, that probably puts him on the short list for some administration position.

The Internal Revenue Service has filed a $819,848 tax lien against Sen. John F. Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, but Kerry on Wednesday blamed IRS clerical error for the claim and said his campaign owes no tax penalties.

The Massachusetts Democrat said the IRS mishandled payroll tax forms that he said were correctly filed by his campaign in 2005.

The Kennedy Pork

It’s outrageous–a bill that was supposed to be free of earmarks not only is riddled with them, but contains millions to “help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.” What?!?!

More than one out of every five dollars of the $126 million Massachusetts is receiving in earmarks from a $410 billion federal spending package is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.

The bill includes $5.8 million for the planning and design of a building to house a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate. The funding may also help support an endowment for the institute.

The bill also includes $22 million to expand facilities at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum and $5 million more for a new gateway to the Boston Harbor Islands on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a park system in downtown Boston named after Kennedy’s mother and built on land opened up by the Big Dig highway project.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Kennedy, who at 77 is battling brain cancer, said he hadn’t requested the money for the library and institute, and that there are dozens of other earmarks in the spending bill for homeless services and community health centers.

The $22 million JFK library earmark was sponsored by fellow Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, who is also a top sponsor for the money for the Kennedy Senate Institute. Kerry defended the library project, which he said is needed to upgrade the facility.

“This National Archives project will eliminate the worst archival storage space problem in the presidential library system and it will facilitate six years of work to expand the library,” Kerry said in a statement. “This shovel-ready project will also bring much-needed jobs to the area.”

Meanwhile, nearly every tax, toll and fee that exists in the Commonwealth is about to go up–but that isn’t stopping John Kerry from introducing a bill to bloviate the Kennedy legacy rather than do more to help those of us who did not marry ketchup heiresses.