"Green" Madness

I am as much of an environmentalist as anyone. We live on 20 acres in a pristine area of Central California - we recycle everything, we provide water for the local wild animals and even feed them leftover vegetables and bread, we quietly pick up even the smallest pieces of trash along our local roads, and even grow our own grapes to make wine (not "green" wine - just red and white). But I don't think of myself as being "green"...really, what does that mean other than sounding cool?

Much has been published about the Democrats planning to have the "greenest" convention in history in Denver this fall. You can go to the Internet and view the complete protocol describing everything they are doing:

- expanded bike lanes for the delegates who can use the 1000 "free" bikes the city will provide for them (I can picture Barney Frank and Gerald Nadler cycling into town for dinner),
- "green" menus at the many restaurants which will serve organic and vegetarian fare on biodegradable dinnerware,
- reusable water bottles so those nasty plastic water bottles will not have to be used by the delegates, and the city will provide "refilling" stations so delegates can fill their bottle with pristine Denver municipal water.

These efforts are all based on good intentions, but in this writers opinion it reeks of political posturing. Believe it or not, the DNC has hired a "Greening" Manager to oversee all aspects of the Convention's environmental impact. They have also hired a "Carbon" consultant that will evaluate the carbon footprint of everything they do. In addition each delegate can get a personal carbon footprint evaluation if they wish. I wonder who will evaluate the carbon footprint of the delegates airplane flights to Denver, especially those like Al Gore, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and all those Democrat VIPs who will arrive on private jets? These private jets will probably spew more carbon into the atmosphere in 20 minutes than these high priced consultants will save during the entire Convention.

Here are some of their other "greening" efforts:

- each delegate will get a list of only "green certified" companies in Denver that they should do business with (who does the green certification?),

- restrictions will be placed on ordering materials from companies that might have to drive long distances to deliver products or services to the Convention, and therefore emit too many carbon emissions (good luck getting the tofu for those organic meals),

- no fried food at any DNC sponsored meals (I don't think the Southern Delegation and Black Caucus were consulted on this decision),
- all balloons used in the Conference Hall for celebrations must be biodegradable (they are even testing the proposed balloons in compost piles to ensure that the supplier is complying) - why not be a true environmentalist and forget the balloons?
- all meals served must be low fat and have food that has at least three colors - the DNC has supplied a list of colors that are acceptable (I don't understand this one),
- and finally the DNC has specified that the baseball hats and fanny packs for the delegates must be made from organic cotton, and made in the USA, by union employees. Unfortunately the supplier has informed them that there were no such manufacturers in the USA.


I'm sure I will hear from some of my environmentalist friends who read this blog, but frankly these "rules" are humorous, and in my opinion "green madness". I also believe the average American is getting fed up with all this "green" BS.

Although many of these green rules by the DNC are laughable, and fun to write about, if they do this for a convention I can't help but wonder how the Democrats might try to regulate our lives if they gain control of the Senate, House, and Presidency this fall.