I just saw the following short news item on yahoo.

I propose moving the sculpture to America.  In fact, why not just make copies and place them in ever major city in the United States to show our solidarity with the victims of the tyrant Bush's war crimes?  It would be a worthy reminder that what continues to unfold in Iraq was not a necessity but a crime against humanity ordered with malice aforethought by an illegitimate tyrant. 

We could adopt the shoe as a symbol of our opposition of the myriad crimes committed under the tyrant Bush and of our demand that those crimes be investigated and prosecuted.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_shoe_sculpture

I'm glad to see the President moving quickly to allow the states to establish their own tighter emissions standards.  It's a good initial step toward combatting climate change, but it's a relatively small step.  We need much, much more if we're going to get serious about reducing our emissions to a point where we can have some hope of saving the earth for the generations to come.

The number one controllable source of greenhouse gases in America is our automobiles.  The President should not delay in mandating that a large percentage, let's say at least 50% for the sake of argument, of all vehicles sold in the United States be zero emissions vehicles within 8 years.  The Federal government had a requirement back in the 90's that was not that stringent which was gutted by the automobile and oil interests.  That's how we got the much inferior hybrid vehicles.  Another not so great benefit of corporate centrism amongst Democrats.

Things are far more serious now and require dramatic action.  Hybrids are better than nothing, but they aren't the best that can be done and they still use lots of oil that creates the gases we can't afford to be producing any longer.  The need for oil in hybrids also keeps us beholden to foreign oil interests and benefits terrorists who profit from oil.  The President should move with all deliberate speed on this now while his popularity is high and the special interests haven't gotten their tentacles too far into his administration.  We have the technology right now for zero emissions electric vehicles.  We had it in the 90's.  But that baby was allowed to be smothered in it's crib due to the greed of Detroit and big oil along with the lack of resolve in the Clinton administration to stick to it's guns on the issue.

The time is now long passed for half-measures and tiny incremental steps.  The ice caps are melting right now.  They aren't waiting for some distant future to disappear.  It's happening and that means life on the planet is at risk.  Requiring a dramatic level of zero emissions vehicles will be more effective than almost any measure the President could take to save this planet.  Citizens should be demanding this be done and not wait for Washington.