Minnesota, the White House lobbied to clear the GOP field for St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman to challenge Sen. Paul Wellstone, who broke his term-limit pledge to run for a third term. GOP polling has them running even.

Curiously, globalization has become the latest cause celebre of left-wing activists. These First-World demonstrators self-righteously pose as defenders of Third-World peoples, even as they advocate leaving the latter destitute.

If the Kyoto treaty is meant to address CO2 emissions, then it must allow for CO2 sequestering. If the production of CO2 is bad, then the absorption of CO2 is thereby good and must be rewarded. All the CO2 absorbed by plants in the United States should count toward America's CO2 emissions status. But this implicitly allows that CO2 production itself is not bad providing it can be "cleaned up" later by planting more trees and the like, and this is not the message that the EU is interested in sending with the Kyoto treaty.

When one looks at the EU's proposals, one clear belief shines through: The United States is morally wrong to produce and consume so much, and we must be punished.

We don't need a single day to celebrate, nor an excuse to pretend that we have some special appreciation for the earth. In fact, April 22, Earth Day, has become something of an embarrassment. There are always those would-be do-gooders, who think chaining themselves to someone else's tree, or hanging a stupid banner from the top of a water tower -- is going to save the planet.

Those who need this kind of celebration actually need to be re-tested, or to get therapy, or both. Neither their words delivered from a podium, nor their antics delivered to the media, can help or hinder the planet. They are simply activities that provide the practitioners some temporary justification for their existence.

I invite those people who get hopped up over Earth Day to get a life. Invest a tomato plant in the land and it will yield dividends far beyond the fruit.

Of 40 delegations assembled for preparatory political talks ahead of a resumption of full negotiations in Bonn in July, "all parties but one, the United States, declared themselves very strongly in favor of the Kyoto Protocol," according to meeting chairman Jan Pronk who is president of the ongoing climate negotiations.