POLITICO: Congressional Jets May Be Scrapped. “The new congressional jets may be getting scrapped. After an uproar over a proposed purchase of new executive jets for use by senior government official, including members of Congress, the top Defense appropriator in the House has offered to eliminate funding for the planes – but only if the Pentagon, which operates the jets, agrees. . . . The controversy is not going unnoticed in the Senate Democratic leadership circles either. Senate insiders said the Senate Appropriations Committee is unlikely to approve the additional plane funding, although Sen. Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii), the chairman of the panel, was unavailable for comment on Monday. Yet when the Pentagon-spending bill was taken up by the House, first in the Defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, then the full committee, and finally on the chamber floor, the executive-plane provision attracted no notice and no opposition emerged from either side of the aisle.”
Whatever. I don’t want to hear any more sanctimony about carbon footprints. I’ve got nothing against private jets, but when it comes to global warming, carbon emissions, and the like, those who fly on ’em instead of going commercial, should — what’s the President’s phrase? — oh, right: “Don’t do a lot of talking.”