“No Man’s life liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session”.

- attributed to NY State Judge Gideon Tucker



Friday, June 22, 2007

More On Global Warming: Dissent !!!!!!

I learned, via CNBC this week, that the Drudge report featured this piece on global warming. Some excerpts include,


The fact that science is many years away from properly understanding global climate doesn't seem to bother our leaders at all. Inviting testimony only from those who don't question political orthodoxy on the issue, parliamentarians are charging ahead with the impossible and expensive goal of "stopping global climate change." Liberal MP Ralph Goodale's June 11 House of Commons assertion that Parliament should have "a real good discussion about the potential for carbon capture and sequestration in dealing with carbon dioxide, which has tremendous potential for improving the climate, not only here in Canada but around the world," would be humorous were he, and even the current government, not deadly serious about devoting vast resources to this hopeless crusade.

Climate stability has never been a feature of planet Earth. The only constant about climate is change; it changes continually and, at times, quite rapidly. Many times in the past, temperatures were far higher than today, and occasionally, temperatures were colder. As recently as 6,000 years ago, it was about 3C warmer than now. Ten thousand years ago, while the world was coming out of the thou-sand-year-long "Younger Dryas" cold episode, temperatures rose as much as 6C in a decade -- 100 times faster than the past century's 0.6C warming that has so upset environmentalists.

The Financial Post is a respected Canadian newspaper. Funny how they can manage to have an open mind about global warming, but a country to their south, with an order of magnitude more people and media outlets, can't.

How'd it get so easy for the liberal Democrats to brainwash America so quickly into taking global warming seriously, as if:

a) we know humans are the major cause, and
b) we know our planet does not, itself, experience cycles of warming and cooling that will dwarf in magnitude any effect mankind can manage to exert on the process?

I can hardly wait for various 'global warming' programs, mostly involving restricting carbon-based energy sources, to stoke more inflation, become a wallet issue at the polls in 2008, and rout a surprised Democratic Party from both Congressional House majorities, as well as keeping them from the Oval Office.

Frisco Nan's About Face on Earmarks

The Democrats in the House of Representatives have truly disgraced themselves these past few weeks.

David Obey, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, attempted to explain why he and his colleagues were reneging on Frisco Nan's promise to reform earmarking.

In and editorial in The Wall Street Journal on June 13th, Obey is quoted as saying, regarding examining earmarks,

"The only real opportunity you have to prevent something stupid from happening is to have the protection of the staff who know the most about these programs and can fight something if they think it smells."

Great. Government by staffers. Like any staffers will dare to take on some other Democratic Representative for whom they do not work?

Obey went on to 'reform' the earmark process so that no earmarks would be publicly discussed before voting.

In the same Journal article, the LA Times-Bloomberg survey reported that Congress' approval rating is now down to 27%, with 63% of voters saying it's "business as usual."

By the way, that 27% rating is lower than the President's.

Apparently, after pressure brought about by Republicans in the House, Obey and Nan finally relented on keeping earmarks secret prior to the House-Senate conference report.

So much for a new era of responsive government under a woman Speaker. Or Democratic Speaker. Guess the gender doesn't really matter, after all.