TheAgitator.com
No, I Meant To Do That
Monday, January 12th, 2009Recently-elected Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) recently conducted an odd stunt to promote some electric car technology apparently being developed in his district. He wanted to drive an electric car from his district to his swearing-in at the Capitol in D.C. Problem is, the distance between those two points is out of Massa’s range. So here’s what he did:
Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.
So Massa wasted several times the amount of energy he needed for 300-mile trip . . . in order to make a point about the importance of conservation and alternative energy.
I predict Rep. Massa will find quite a bit of success in his career as a congressman.
A perfect example of what we have come to expect from congress, all style with a destructive substance.
Sometimes only Mencken will do:
“Suppose two-thirds of the members of the national House of Representatives were dumped into the Washington garbage incinerator tomorrow, what would we lose to offset our gain of their salaries and the salaries of their parasites?”
the end justifies the means- whatever it takes to appear to be right.
hopefully, we’ll get some video of him debating Rep. Paul about all the fabulous benefits of electric cars and why the taxpayers should foot the bill for them…
I’m sure he’ll champion CFL bulbs too, despite the fact that it requires a lot of energy to import them from China, they contain mercury, and there is no way in hell that most of the home users who buy them will recycle them rather than chuck them into the regular trash (where the mercury will leak into the ground and water).
Hmm…he could have taken Amtrak from Rochester for just over $100, and used the 9+ hours to bone up on math and thermodynamics.
He said “bone up.” He he, he.
/butthead
And nobody pointed out the lunacy of his brilliant plan? No aide, secretary or deputy said, “hey, that’s a stupid idea!” Not even his wife?
This is depressing.
Also, I’m going to need a helmet if there’s going to be this much facepalming this year.
Maybe his heart is in the right place; promoting an idea to others can be more helpful than acting on it directly. But real environmentalism suffers when people like Massa promote efficiency as a fashion statement independent of actual efficiency. So we have people using compact flourescent bulbs without thinking about how to dispose of them, retiring older cars to buy something more efficient without thinking of the overhead of manufacturing either, and driving miles out of their way to fill up with cleaner-burning fuel.
Not that you shouldn’t use green bulbs, cars, or fuel. You should do it when it makes sense to, not when it doesn’t.
Chevy Tahoe Hybrid (the tow vehicles)… ~ $50,000 (each).
First year congressman’s salary … ~ $170,000.
Unintentional irony … priceless.
I would say he needs to fire his PR person but I’ve got the feeling that this stroke of brilliance was all his own. Bullshit stunts like this just aren’t going to work anymore. Too many eyeballs out there.
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
- Mark Twain, a Biography
Boy…….the next two election cycles are going to be two for the history books………..
I suppose we should be encouraged that Mr. Massa is only a member of congress. If he had a real job, he might actually be dangerous…
Mike T:
The CFL mercury line is a myth. Please study your facts before spouting off like that. Do some research.
And nobody pointed out the lunacy of his brilliant plan? No aide, secretary or deputy said, “hey, that’s a stupid idea!” Not even his wife?
This is depressing.
I’ve quoted this before from George Carlin, but it bears repeating. Of course no one told him it was a bad idea, because…
“Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain’t going to do any good; you’re just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here… like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There’s a nice campaign slogan for somebody: ‘The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.’”
I bet we could get him to wipe twice with the same swatch of tp.
I like it. I’m gonna run for congress and promote a national abstinence program…
@#17: I’m sorry, but abstinence actually makes logical sense (if a woman does not have sex, barring medical intervention of some kind, she will not become pregnant), so that’s too close to being effective for you to be elected as a congressman, unless your position is that the abstinence program will stop teenage boys from trying to have sex with teenage girls, in which case your election is virtually assured.
I heard Massa on a local radio show talking about the planned trip. The trip was sybolic, to draw attention to other kinds of power alternatives, such as the hydrogen fuel cells that power the car he drove. It was not about efficiency and conservation, per se. The switch had to be made because there were no refueling stations along the way.
The catch, because you know there is one, is that GM’s hydrogen fuel cell research facility is located in Massa’s district. It is a good thing for a congressman to support the business in his district, the problem occurs when he tries to legislate advantages for those businesses.
He is a 1st term congress person, he might still have some idealism left in him at this point.
@ #18, I think you missed the point.
Uh… Is a hydrogen fuel cell car electric? Was this a typo in the article, or was he actually driving a hydrogen fueled car to promote electric cars?
Graingood!?
Why is it that every article on the Internet, I have seen goes on about the mercury in the CFL bulbs? Do you have an references? Not that I would not believe something like this could happen. It is just what we have been fed. Sad thing it is on the Internet where we should be able to get more reliable news information, according to many.
#21,
Yes, fuel cell cars are electric. The fuel cell replaces the battery and is used to generate electricity to turn the electric motor.
Graingood, I’m not certain where you’re getting your facts, but CFL bulbs DO contain mercury vapor. Not in individually dangerous quantities, but I believe Mike T’s point was about the result of large scale accumulation in waste.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Mercury_emissions
@ #18 John
Uhhhhh…actually my position was a tongue in cheek statement that considering that the congressman’s ploy to promote green vehicle use by using 4 times as much fuel…my abstinence program would consist of me getting laid as much as possible therefore demonstrating the ludicrous demonstration….ahhhhhh nevermind.
@#20: Nope, I was just looking for an opportunity to be funny.
#21
I just wanted to clarify something about the hydrogen fuel cell cars. While it’s engine runs on electricity, the electricity is produced by the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cells, not stored, as in other electric car’s battery bank. It actaully has water as an ‘exhaust’.
Suffice it to say there is a difference between a battery car and a hydrogen fuel cell car.
But the REAL point is that Massa is an amazingly quick study to do something this stupid ON THE WAY to his swearing-in.
This is exactly the kind of thinking that resonates with the idiots running our country. The only point Massa made is that he is just stupid enough for congress.
http://www.rightklik.net/
Anyone else reminded of the “gas crisis” when all the congresscritters drove to the nearest Exxon to make a point about saving gas… even though the nearest Exxon is well within walking distance of the Capitol?
He should have hitchhiked.
While I agree with the absurdities pointed out very nicely in the above comments, I would like to point out one more.
Towing with a Hybrid SUV is really oxymoronic thinking. That vehicle is a V8, so that it can have towing and full-size 4X4 capabilities. Well, when towing, you are using the V8. The fact that it is a Hybrid just means it is a much more expensive SUV! It may be argued that the Hybrid Drive engages on downhills, but I don’t even know if that is the case. (Honestly don’t know much on hybrid technology, just a lot on cars and trucks in general.)
Oh, and a minor point. To the person who says it was about publicity on alternative energy… it failed at that because it pointed out that it is impractical because he had to make the switch!
psion,
Looks like I can still trust the Internet information! And, Graingood has his own disinformation campaign going on!
And #23,
Is a fuel cell the same technology that exploded on Apollo 13?!
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I served in the Navy with this clown. He knows everything and is always right. He is an idiot. It’s funny that after nearly 20 years, he is still an idiot.