"Sip your coffee like a normal human being. We’re trying to save the planet here.”

Can we just fire everyone in Washington and start over from scratch? These idiots are having hearings on steroids in Major League Baseball and now want the cafeteria to be environmentally friendly and serve gourmet food.

"Newly ascendant Democrats may have hit roadblocks on Iraq and fiscal issues, but they have revamped congressional menus, replacing fatty, pre-made foods with healthier, gourmet alternatives. The once dreary congressional cafeterias now abound with haute cuisine. The menu transformation is part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “Greening the Capitol” plan to make the House campus more environmentally friendly and socially progressive."

"There is pan-roasted Chesapeake rockfish with sweet potato fennel hash and yellow pepper relish. Pears with Stilton cheese and watercress. Cumin-scented leg of lamb with almond couscous."

"Coffee cups have been replaced by “ecotainers” and drink cups by “greenware” made from corn starch. The napkins emerge from their dispenser one at a time, making it impossible to grab a whole stack. Nearly everything is biodegradable. And the recycling stations, oh, the recycling stations! They are veritable shrines to a renewable Earth, with four differently shaped slots to sort garbage and lengthy directions on proper sorting. Soup containers go into the square-shaped “compostable” slot, but soup lids end up in the rounded “landfill waste” slot. There are other enviro touches, too. The new salad bar was constructed from “green materials.” The seafood is “sustainable.” The fruits and vegetables come from local growers when possible. Energy-efficient vending machines sport a 6-foot-tall illuminated image of trees. A poster trumpets the existence of a “pulper,” a big machine that mashes up waste into little cubes that go to compost centers, where, eventually, they biodegrade into dirt. "

"some people have complained that the compostable straws can melt in hot liquids...Ventura said customers would have to change their behavior to accommodate the environmentally friendly products. “We have had a few people observe that [straw] phenomenon and we had to tell them, ‘Sip your coffee like a normal human being,’” Ventura said. “We’re trying to save the planet here.”

Read the full story here