Bathroom break
In the market for a new toilet? If Republican representative Marian McClure gets her way in the Arizona Legislature, your new bathroom could get a tax break. HB 2126, introduced last week, would give a tax credit to any Arizonan who installs a water-saving “”dual flush”” toilet, equal to 25 percent of the toilet’s cost – up to $100 per privy and $200 per household. Dual flush toilets have separate levers for disposing of solid and liquid waste, and some use as little as a third as much water as their thirstier one-push peers. That makes them ideal for Arizona’s parched desert climate, and a smart choice for consumers concerned about green living and greenbacks alike. Encouraging more people to conserve with their commodes is a worthy idea, and a rebate is a better solution than a toilet tax or an outright ban. But lawmakers will likely have more important things to pooh-pooh over during this legislative session – Arizona’s billion-dollar budget deficit could prevent the crapper credit from making it out of the House at all.
Don’t say the ‘T’ word!
Canada’s foreign ministry agreed Saturday to remove the United States and Israel from a government list of nations where prisoners may be abused or tortured. The list, published as part of an internal training manual handed out to Canadian diplomats, caused an international flare-up last week when it was leaked to Amnesty International. U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, told the Associated Press Saturday that it was “”absurd”” to put the United States in the company of nations like Syria, China and Afghanistan. The embarrassed Canadian government has already issued a statement that the list “”wrongly includes some of our closest allies,”” and promised to take the U.S. off the index, but we’ve got a better suggestion – just shuffle us on over to the “”forced nudity, sleep deprivation, stress positions and waterboarding”” list instead.
Primary cullers
This weekend’s biggest news came from the campaign trail – both the Nevada Caucus and South Carolina’s Republican primary took place Saturday, leaving an uncertain presidential primary season about as unpredictable as it was before. Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney took the top spots in Nevada with 51 percent of the vote, followed closely by Barack Obama (45 percent) and not-so-closely by Ron Paul (14 percent). In South Carolina – where Republicans go to the polls a week before the Democrats, a resurgent John McCain was victorious in the state that derailed his last presidential campaign, winning a 33 percent plurality. Although the latest victories are evidence that competition among the frontrunners is as fierce as ever, the actions of the candidates left in the dust will be as important as the next round of primaries. John Edwards, trailing Clinton and Obama by a large margin, is set to hang on through South Carolina and Super Tuesday, but his exit from the Democratic race and support of another candidate could seal up the final nomination. On the Republican side, lagging candidates like Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani (remember him?) are set to soldier on, too. Culling the candidate fold could bring some certainty to a wide-open primary season – but don’t get your hopes up.
