Pawlenty knocks it out of the park.
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May 2010 Archives
President Obama has been very made clear that his top domestic priorities are health care and global warming. We all know what happened on health care. Now the date is set for the key Senate showdown on global warming: June 10. That's when the Senate will vote on a resolution introduced by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (S.J. Res. 26) that would overturn the EPA's global warming regulations. It's not subject to filibuster. There is no place for weak-kneed senators to hide. In just two weeks we'll know where every member of the Senate stands.
As I've previously discussed here in the Fox Forum and documented on www.ObamaChart.com, the Obama administration is not waiting for Congress to enact a national cap-and-trade program to move ahead with its global warming agenda.
Under the watchful eye of White House Climate czar Carol Browner (who originally developed the legal theory of using the 1970 Clean Air Act as a global warming law, bypassing Congress) the EPA is moving forward on a staggering regulatory power grab that includes about 18,000 pages of appendices and will eventually regulate nearly every aspect of the U.S. economy.
When evaluating in an honest way all factors that contributed to the current pollution of the Gulf, we must ask why BP was drilling in 5,000 feet of ocean when there are so many other accessible and safe alternatives. There are large deposits of oil shale in Western Colorado that could easily and safely be extracted as it is now in Western Canada. We have all heard of the huge deposits of oil in ANWR, on Alaska's North Shore. Because of improved drilling technology, all available oil in ANWR can be extracted by using only 2,000 of its roughly 19,000,000 acres.
BP now drills in 5,000 feet of ocean because these better alternatives have been foreclosed to the oil industry. Environmental groups have effectively stymied this safe and relatively easy production of oil in the name of some higher but more nebulous good. Where they once rationalized their campaign against oil companies based upon the threat of environmental degradation, environmental groups now use the increasingly dubious claims of global warming to justify their obstruction.
Rest of the article.
$6 million study is used to lobby for cap-and-tax
With public faith in the global-warming myth on the wane, leftist zealots are desperate to spin a new tale - and they're spending your tax money to do it. Three years ago, Congress appropriated $5,856,600 for the National Academy of Sciences to complete a climate-change study. This bureaucratic attempt to cook the books, which was completed last week, may be too late to save this dying religion.
The academy now offers the taxpayer-funded research for download in three separate sections for $44 each. The first volume presents the case that human activities are warming the planet and that this "poses significant risks." A second report urges that a cap-and-trade taxing system be implemented to reduce so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The final section of the study explores strategies on adapting to the "reality" of climate change, meaning purported "extreme weather events like heavy precipitation and heat waves."
None of the big-government recommendations are worth the 1,089 pages of presumably recycled paper on which they are to be printed if planetary warming is actually a phenomenon beyond human control, so the first volume is of primary interest. "Advancing the Science of Climate Change" asserts that the Earth's temperature has risen over the past 100 years and that human activities have resulted in sharp increases in carbon dioxide. The coincidence of these facts on their own, of course, proves nothing. The Earth has been as warm or warmer in past periods, such as the medieval and Roman warm periods, long before the internal combustion engine and coal plants were around to take the heat for a particularly sweltering summer day.
By Elmer Beauregard
ABC put out a hit piece last Sunday basically saying that skeptics are racists.
ABC in this piece uses the same logic that was used in developing the Hockey Stick Chart.
If you find one tree whose rings are Hockey Stick shaped, then all tree rings must be Hockey stick shaped.
ABC in their piece found a white supremacist who is a Global Warming Skeptic, so therefore all Global Warming Skeptics must be white supremacists.
Continue reading ABC Uses Hockey Stick Logic.
By Elmer Beauregard
The Telegraph has published a story stating that Global warming is making it harder to climb Mount Everest.
"Rising temperatures have melted much of the ice on the steep trail to the summit and climbers are struggling to get traction on the exposed rock surface, according to the 49-year-old Sherpa, known only as Apa."
I would think it would be the other way around, that Global Warming would make Mount Everest easier to climb.
You would have less of a chance of freezing to death.
A lot of past climbers have died from the extreme cold, some have lost toes and fingers and even noses due to frostbite.
With Global Warming you could climb Everest in a Hawaiian shirt and sandals, which would be a lot more comfortable than a parka.
Aren't rocky surfaces easier to walk on than icy surfaces?
The main complaint from Apa is that Crampons don't get very good traction on rocky surfaces. Well with Global Warming YOU DON'T NEED CRAMPONS!
Of course, the article mentions the now debunked IPCC report and says that Himalayan glaciers will all be gone in 32 years.
He discusses his new book Power Grab plus other recent events on the Alex Jones Show.
Attorney and author Christopher C. Horner, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Mr. Horner has represented CEI as well as scientists and members of the U.S. House and Senate on matters of environmental policy in the federal courts including the Supreme Court. He writes for legal and industrial trade journals and online opinion pages. Mr. Horner is the author of two best-selling books: Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism, which spent half of 2007 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Power Grab: How Obama's Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America
Listen to his radio Interview here.
Source: SPPI
For what is believed to be the first time ever in England, an audience of university undergraduates has decisively rejected the notion that "global warming" is or could become a global crisis. The only previous defeat for climate extremism among an undergraduate audience was at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, in the spring of 2009, when the climate extremists were defeated by three votes.
Last week, members of the historic Oxford Union Society, the world's premier debating society, carried the motion "That this House would put economic growth before combating climate change" by 135 votes to 110. The debate was sponsored by the Science and Public Policy Institute, Washington DC.
Serious observers are interpreting this shock result as a sign that students are now impatiently rejecting the relentless extremist propaganda taught under the guise of compulsory environmental-studies classes in British schools, confirming opinion-poll findings that the voters are no longer frightened by "global warming" scare stories, if they ever were.
Continue reading Oxford Union Debate on Climate Catastrophe.
Instead of providing encouragement for the graduates of the University of Tennessee, Al Gore takes the opportunity to promote his doomsday global warming scenarios. Take action and stop the global warming power grab at RegulationReality.com
Investigation "prudent" says A-G
No infringement on academic freedom
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Wednesday the investigation by his office into the research activities of a former UVA scientist is about possible fraud and is in no way an infringement on academic freedom Cuccinelli said that he is not investigating Dr. Michael Mann's scientific conclusions and that the legal standards for the misuse of taxpayer dollars apply the same at universities as they do any other agency of state government.
The Attorney General stated that it was not normal policy to comment on open investigations for the sake of the individuals involved as well as the investigative process. The Office had sent a Civil Investigative Demand to the University of Virginia to obtain documents related to the work of Dr. Mann who is a leading researcher in climate change and was part of the University's faculty between 1999 and 2005.
The C.I.D. was made public on The Hook website by someone other than the office of the attorney general though they have now confirmed the documentation is authentic.
A statement issued said: "The revelations of the so-called Climate-gate indicate that some data may have been deliberately manipulated to arrive at pre-set conclusions. The use of manipulated data to apply for taxpayer-funded research grants in Virginia is potentially fraud. Given this, the only prudent thing to do was to look into it."
"The same legal standards for fraud apply to the academic setting that apply elsewhere," said Cuccinelli. "The same rule of law, the same objective fact-finding process will take place."
U.Va. has hired a law firm to explore legal options - agreed to by the Attorney General - signaling a possible fight regarding the demand.
According to the C.I.D., the equivalent of a subpoena, the Attorney General is investigating the possibility Dr. Mann is in violation of the Fraud against Taxpayers Act because he may have presented false or misleading data relating to climate change while seeking state-funded research grants.
Continue reading Cuccinelli says climate change probe is about fraud .
Bethany Stotts, AustralianConservative.com
WASHINGTON: Pennsylvania State University professor and climatologist Michael Mann recently threatened to sue a group for its video satire of his climate science entitled "Hide the Decline."
The video, created by Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW) refers to an email from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit director, Phil Jones to Prof. Michael Mann and two other scientists. "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie [sic] from 1981 onwards) amd [sic] from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline," writes Prof. Jones in the November 16, 1999 email.
This could be good news for M4GW because everyone would have to link to us because we are the only Pro Global Warming Blog out there.
Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet.com
Cass Sunstein, who wrote a white paper calling for "conspiracy theories" to be banned, wants to legally force Americans to "do what's best for our society" and dilute their own free speech
Disturbing audio has emerged of White House information czar Cass Sunstein, who in a previous white paper called for banning "conspiracy theories," demanding that websites be mandated by law to link to opposing information or that pop ups containing government propaganda be forcibly included on political blogs.
In an audio excerpt of an interview which was posted on the Breitbart.tv website today, Sunstein discusses how conservative websites should provide links to liberal websites and vice versa or even how political blogs should be made to include pop ups that show "a quick argument for a competing view".
Sunstein said that if this system couldn't be implemented voluntarily, "Congress should hold hearings about mandates," which would legally force people to dilute their own free speech. The Harvard Professor also said that blogs should be forced to list a random draw of 25 popular websites, such as CNN.com.
Continue reading Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites .
Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet.com
McConnell highlights yet more evidence of Supreme Court nominee's alarming disdain for the First Amendment
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senator Mitch McConnell pointed out that Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan once argued that the government should have the power to ban books and censor political pamphlets, as yet more alarming information on Kagan's hostility towards the First Amendment comes to light.
During the Citizens United vs. FEC case, Kagan's office was asked by Chief Justice John Roberts if the government could ban publications it they were paid for by a corporation or labor union.
"If it's a 500-page book, and at the end it says, 'and so vote for x,' the government could ban that?" Roberts asked, to which Kagan's deputy, Malcolm L. Stewart, said the government could censor such information.
Justice Roberts blasted Kagan's argument at the time, reports Newsmax.
"The government urges us in this case to uphold a direct prohibition on political speech. It asks us to embrace a theory of the First Amendment that would allow censorship not only of television and radio broadcasts, but of pamphlets, posters, the Internet, and virtually any other medium that corporations and unions might find useful in expressing their views on matters of public concern," he wrote.
Continue reading Senator: Kagan Argued Government Could Ban Books.
Regulations: Call it cap-and-trade or bait-and-switch, but John Kerry and Joe Lieberman continue to tilt at windmills with a bill to restrain energy growth in the name of saving the planet.
The bill introduced Wednesday and sponsored by the two senators is called the American Power Act, an Orwellian phrase if ever there was one. Like President Obama's offshore drilling program, for every "incentive" there is a restriction. It's as if Hamlet were to be appointed Secretary of Energy.
The legislation has little to do with developing America's vast domestic energy supply. It's cap-and-trade meets pork-barrel spending. It's about regulations, restrictions and research. It does not deal with exploiting America's vast energy reserves but with finding ways to mitigate their alleged harmful effect.
Rest of the article.
By Roger F. Gay, mensnewsdaily.com/
It's official. Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman have signaled the end of their political careers. The two have introduced what they've titled the "American Power Act." Yep, it's a global warming bill - Cap-n-Trade, Cap-n-Tax, etc. The premise for this bill is that the industrial emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) are causing global temperatures to rise and to prevent global catastrophe the industrialized world must reduce its emissions of CO2.
A pork and power bill based on global warming propaganda has been a priority for the Obama administration. Given that it has already been established, absolutely, that predictions of catastrophic man-made global warming are a scam, you might question the two senators' sanity for introducing one. But new benefits to Israel have recently been negotiated, which might be all it takes to make Joe Lieberman happy. And it's very easy to imagine a chat between John Kerry and Al Gore that ends with Al Gore saying, "Yah, but the money is good."
Kerry's term isn't over until 2014, when he will be 71 years old, so retirement isn't an unreasonable choice anyway. Lieberman is about the same age with his current term ending two years earlier.
Investor's Business Daily describes the bill as "cap-and-trade meets pork-barrel spending." It's about regulations, restrictions and research. The bill creates some 60 new agencies and projects to eat up our tax dollars and buy support.
By Elmer Beauregard
The problem with the Senate's New Climate Bill is that it still uses the word "Climate".
This bill was written with the false assumption that CO2 is responsible for Global Warming and we now know that it isn't. 12 out of 13 scientists don't believe in Global Warming anymore but Kerry and Lieberman still do. They must get their news from NPR.
The Kerry and Lieberman's bill aims to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020, and ultimately, 80% below those levels by mid-century. Doing this will have no effect on the climate, but it will put a burden on the U.S. economy based on a fictitious problem.
The bill does have some provisions for nuclear plants and offshore drilling to lure conservatives into supporting this bill, but the main thing this bill does is install an Enron style form of Carbon Credit Trading or "Cap and Trade".
The bill also allows states to opt out of offshore drilling in their own waters if they wish, but it doesn't allow states the autonomy to drill on their own dry land if they want to.
To avoid disasters like the oil spill in the Gulf, I think states like Alaska should be allowed to drill for their own oil on dry land and maybe use American companies, instead of having foreign companies drilling in our waters a mile deep.
If our Government would have allowed drilling in ANWR, we wouldn't need any oil from the middle east and the Gulf disaster could have been avoided. Plus, it would have a smaller footprint than one wind farm or solar plant.
Reminds me of the Yo-Yo Master if you ask me.
Continue reading Earth Friendly Yo-Yo Tricks.
By Brian Sussman, American Thinker
Cap-and-Trade Is Back
On Wednesday, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) plan to introduce legislation designed to inflate the cost of energy, strain family budgets, and decimate America's manufacturing sector -- all in the name of supposedly saving the climate.
Kerry and Lieberman have been revamping legislation that narrowly passed the House of Representatives last year. The House bill imposes oppressive limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and establishes a complex cap-and-trade scheme in which the federal government determines how much CO2 a business may emit. If a business exceeds its allowance, it may purchase additional "carbon credits" from an exchange, where the credits will be traded like a commodity. Rules for the exchange of carbon credits, including the trading of carbon derivatives, are addressed in the House bill, and my sources tell me that the Senate version will include these same stratagems.
n an e-mail sent to the media last week regarding their plans, Kerry and Lieberman said, "We can no longer wait to solve this problem which threatens our economy, our security and our environment."
My insiders also say the new Kerry-Lieberman proposal will keep the House bill's goal of attaining a 17-percent reduction of greenhouse gases (below their 2005 level) by 2020. Apparently the Senate bill will allow cap-and-trade to hit power companies first, and then within six years include the manufacturing sector.
Rest of the article.
I think a problem with alternative energy is not its "carbon" footprint but its actual footprint.
On a strip of California's Mojave Desert, two dozen rare tortoises could stand in the way of a sprawling solar-energy complex in a case that highlights mounting tensions between wilderness conservation and the nation's quest for cleaner power.
Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy has been pushing for more than two years for permission to erect 400,000 mirrors on the site to gather the sun's energy. It could become the first project of its kind on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, leaving a footprint for others to follow on vast stretches of public land across the West.
The construction would come with a cost: Government scientists have concluded that more than 6 square miles of habitat for the federally threatened desert tortoise would be permanently lost.
The Sierra Club and other environmentalists want the complex relocated to preserve what they call a near-pristine home for rare plants and wildlife, including the protected tortoise, the Western burrowing owl and bighorn sheep.
"It's actually a good project. It's just located in the wrong place," said Ileene Anderson of the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental group.
Continue reading Greeny Weenies Conflicted Over Solar Sight.
By Elmer Beauregard
There used to be 2,500 scientist who believe in Global Warming now there are only 250.
Today in a desperate attempt to restore their reputations a mere 250 scientists came forward to do damage control from the hacked emails that exposed their Ponzi scheme last fall.
The open letter, signed by only 11 Nobel laureates, and published in the May 7 issue of the journal Science, reads, "When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action, it is the same as saying society should never take action."
It seems they have also created a new category of scientist, they call themselves "Climate Change Scientists". Which I think makes them seem more like a political group then a scientific one, because they are already assuming the science is proven and are moving on with a political agenda.
On the other side of the debate 31,000 regular old "Scientists" have signed a petition saying they don't believe in Global Warming.
So let's see, that means 123 Out Of 124 Scientist DON'T Believe in Global Warming!
By Paul Chesser, American Spectator
Virginia attorney general Kenneth Cuccinelli II has filed an exhaustive investigative request with the University of Virginia, seeking records pertaining to research grants obtained by Climategate scientist Michael Mann. The Washington Post:
Meanwhile over the weekend the alarmist group PennFuture hosted a global warming conference (called "Creating a Climate for Justice") in Pittsburgh, where Mann was a featured speaker. The Pennsylvania Coalition for Responsible Government decided to show up with some signs and, with help from Milloy, were able to park a 12' by 30' truck sign in front of the reception hall, to provide an appropriate welcome for the decline hider.
Entire article
Thanks to prisoner6
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Al and Tipper Gore greatly expanded their carbon footprint with the purchase of their fourth luxury home. The 'global warming' business has been very, very good to the Gores.
Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal... The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
Given the ocean-view, Gore really can't be too concerned with rising sea levels
BTW If you look closely at the lamps in the lighting fixtures they ALL appear to be incandescents!
(Reuters) - Organizers of a California ballot measure that would suspend the state's landmark climate change law, possibly for years, said on Monday they had enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot.
The initiative would put the state's Global Warming Solutions Act, signed into law in 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, on hold until the state's unemployment rate falls below 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters.
Currently the state's unemployment rate is 12.6 percent and hasn't dropped below 5.5 percent since 2007.
The Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as AB 32, is one of the most ambitious climate change laws in the United States in the absence of federal legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It also figures to be a key part of Schwarzenegger's legacy as governor.
Organizers of the California Jobs Initiative say they have submitted more than 800,000 signatures to the state's Registrar of Voters -- or nearly twice the 435,000 needed to get it on the ballot.
The Registrar of Voters has until June 24 to count and certify the signatures.
Continue reading California may vote to freeze landmark climate law.
FOXNews.com
A legal battle is heating up faster than the planet for embattled climatologist Michael Mann
A legal battle is heating up faster than the planet for embattled climatologist Michael Mann.
First word emerged that the inspector general for the National Science Foundation would look into the Penn State panel reviewing the climate scientist, who is currently director of the school's Earth System Science Center. Now the attorney general for his old employer the University of Virginia is planning an investigation, too.
According to a report in Charlottesville weekly The Hook, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has asked the University of Virginia to produce "a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann's receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research" conducted while Mann was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.
Should the AG uncover evidence of impropriety, the school could be commanded to return the funds, and pick up the cost of the AG's investigation.
The paper, tipped off by anonymous sources, has posted a PDF of Cuccinelli's formal request, a legal document called a civil investigative demand. In that letter, he demands production of information and documentary material relating to three papers Mann authored while at UVA, using a total of $484,875 of state grant money.
