A top Democrat told high school students gathered at the U.S. Capitol Thursday that climate change caused Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur, which led to the “black hawk down” battle between U.S. troops and Somali rebels.
 
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, also equated the drive for global warming legislation with the drive for women’s suffrage in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.
 
But one global warming expert from the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) told Cybercast News Service that such a remark reveals Markey’s ignorance on the subject of global warming.
 
“In Somalia back in 1993, climate change, according to 11 three- and four-star generals, resulted in a drought which led to famine,” said Markey.
 
“That famine translated to international aid we sent in to Somalia, which then led to the U.S. having to send in forces to separate all the groups that were fighting over the aid, which led to Black Hawk Down. There was this scene where we have all of our American troops under fire because they have been put into the middle of this terrible situation,” he added.CNS News

I guess the climate change faithful have become so desperate in their quest to convince others of their beliefs, despite a rising resistance against this junk science, that they just pull stuff out of their asses now and don’t even bother trying to get a scientific opinion.  What other reason could Ed Markey have for blatantly lying to a group of 25 high school students?  Is he so lacking on actual accomplishments in Washington that he must resort to fear mongering to keep getting reelected?

But Myron Ebell, director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at CEI, told Cybercast News Service that Markey’s remarks reveal his ignorance about the science of global warming. 
 
“Yes, that part of the world is subject to drought at times, but it has very little to do with global warming,” said Ebell. “It is subject to drought whether the global average temperature is going up, down, or staying the same. To say you know the conflict was caused by global warming is to show how really ignorant you are of the scientific issues involved.”
 
The students who testified at the event, most of whom had lived in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, described the difficulties they faced after the storm and blamed global warming for the disaster.

Of course they blamed global warming for it!  Our children have been getting brainwashed into becoming believers for several years now.  They are being taught in schools and by left wing politicians and presidential candidates that man made climate change is an indisputable fact and every single disaster that happens on the planet is a result.  Schools around the nation show Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” as if it’s a legitimate scientific documentary. 

As time has gone on the growing absurdity of claims have become comical, like those by Congressman Markey here.  I believe it’s the result of rising skepticism due to reality not coinciding with their claims.  2008, for instance, was one of the coldest winters on record.  This is visible in the believers’ slow shift from “global warming” to “climate change.”

CNN did a spot on how each income bracket would be effected under McCain’s tax plan and Obama’s tax plan.

They said they received their information from the Tax Policy Center, which they claim is a non-partisan organization. I don’t know anything about the TPC and like most Americans I am always skeptical about what I hear from the not-so-mainstream media, however if this comparison is accurate McCain ought to be adopting some of Obama’s tax policy. Instead of soaking wealthier Americans with higher taxes like Obama would do, McCain should continue his policy of sustaining the Bush tax cuts for everyone, but he should make additional cuts on middle and lower income Americans, more than Obama does. Hell, I’d even be as aggressive as eliminating income taxes entirely from people making less than $50,000 a year, just as an example. The Democrats would no longer be able to paint McCain as the second coming of W and his “tax cuts for the rich.” With rising inflation in just about every sector and the middle class being hit the most by it, this would bring a lot of swing voters solidly into McCain’s camp as well as some current Obama supporters.The second thing McCain should do is to change his stance on ANWR and support drilling there as well as off our continental shelves. The price of oil is the culprit behind a lot of the inflation we are experiencing and a lot more people in this country are getting behind expanding domestic drilling. McCain continues to be against drilling in ANWR and that is just stupid in the current political environment. He should claim that he will open the door to ANWR drilling as well as off the oceans and Gulf Coast and that rally voters behind him.

These are two fairly common sense issues in my opinion that would chip away at a lot of Obama’s popularity right now. There is no way that Obama would come back and try to one up him on either of these. These positions would provide the GOP with a solid platform to take to the voters and help not just with the Presidential race but also with Congress.

“Scientists” from all around the world are going to join ABC News in hoodwinking many gullible Americans into thinking that mankind is at the dawn of extinction from …. drumroll …… climate change!

But don’t press that button just yet. Read on.

Are we living in the last century of our civilization? Is it possible that all of our technology, knowledge and wealth cannot save us from ourselves? Could our society actually be heading towards collapse?

According to many of the world’s top scientists, the answer is yes, unless we take action now.

When Republicans use this kind of language discussing the War on Terror, they’re accused of fear mongering.

This September, in Earth 2100, a dramatic ABC News 2-hour broadcast, the greatest minds across the globe will join together in a countdown to the year 2100 to tell us what we must do to survive the next century … And what may happen if we don’t.

The time to act is now, says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute.

“The 21st century is going to be the century which determine[s] whether we live or die as a sustainable species,” Gleick said. “As populations grow, as our use of resources grows, I think we get closer and closer to that edge.”

Experts say that extreme changes in climate, combined with dwindling resources, famine, war and disease have the potential to create a post-apocalyptic world in less than a hundred years. Harvard University and Woods Hole climatologist John Holdrens says we cannot continue going down the same path.

“If we continue on business as usual, we are going to see more floods, more droughts, more heat waves, more wildfires, more ice melting, faster sea level rise,” Holdren said.

“We really have less than a decade to start getting this right. If we’re still dragging our feet in 2015 I think it really becomes at that point almost impossible for the world to avert a degree of climate change that we simply will not be able to manage without intolerable cost and consequences.”

In order to avoid this chilling future, we have to first imagine it. In an unprecedented Internet event, ABC is inviting people from around the world to bring the future to life.

ABC News

It’s unprecedented! Well, not really.

I would like to direct you to the June 24, 1974 edition of TIME magazine.

In Africa, drought continues for the sixth consecutive year, adding terribly to the toll of famine victims. During 1972 record rains in parts of the U.S., Pakistan and Japan caused some of the worst flooding in centuries. In Canada’s wheat belt, a particularly chilly and rainy spring has delayed planting and may well bring a disappointingly small harvest. Rainy Britain, on the other hand, has suffered from uncharacteristic dry spells the past few springs. A series of unusually cold winters has gripped the American Far West, while New England and northern Europe have recently experienced the mildest winters within anyone’s recollection.

As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F. Although that figure is at best an estimate, it is supported by other convincing data. When Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and his wife Helena analyzed satellite weather data for the Northern Hemisphere, they found that the area of the ice and snow cover had suddenly increased by 12% in 1971 and the increase has persisted ever since. Areas of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, for example, were once totally free of any snow in summer; now they are covered year round.

Sound familiar? According to those quacks I should be living in an igloo right now here in the southern U.S. Of course this isn’t the first time that “mainstream” accepted theory has been wrong. Remember when Galileo brought forth the idea of heliocentrism? It didn’t go over real well.

I mean, every scientist and scholar knew that Earth was the center of the universe and sun revolved around us. How dare Galileo not accept the truth!These so called scientists and the leftist media continuing to perpetuate a theory as absolute truth is dishonest and shocking at the lengths they will go to in order to jam this crap down our throats. The accusations of those supporting this idea in attempts to link it to normal occurrences are getting more pathetic and desperate as time goes on. For instance, the Secretary General of the U.N. claimed the slaughters going on in Sudan were due to global warming. They claimed that Katrina was the result of global warming and every year since have predicted even worse hurricanes than that. The last three hurricane seasons since have been about as wild as a Pennsylvanian Quaker.As shown, the scientific community is not all seeing. Hell, they can’t even tell me what the weather is going to be like two days from now and be accurate half the time. I’m supposed to believe them on climate change? And what of these 31,000 scientists who recently signed a petition disputing man made climate change? Are they to just be ignored?

Besides, if these guys at ABC were half as smart as they think they are, they would know that we don’t even have until the 22nd Century. The world is going to end on December 21, 2012. Mayan scientists said so, after all. Duh!

WASHINGTON — As hurricane season begins, Democrats in Congress want to nationalize a chunk of the insurance business that covers major storm-damage claims.The proposal — backed by giant insurers Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., as well as Florida lawmakers — focuses on “reinsurance,” the policies bought by insurers themselves to protect against catastrophic losses. The proposal envisions a taxpayer-financed reinsurance program covering all 50 states, which would essentially backstop the giant insurers in case of disaster.

The program could save homeowners roughly $500 apiece in annual premiums in Florida, according to an advocacy group backed by Allstate and State Farm, the largest writers of property insurance in the U.S.

The Wall Street Journal

The program could save homeowners $500 a year by pushing the cost on to the rest of us who don’t live in hurricane prone areas. This another example of government involving itself and making the situation worse. Read on.

The proposed plan is roughly analogous to the National Flood Insurance Program, which has been criticized for encouraging construction in risky floodplains. Nevertheless, in recent weeks the Senate voted to renew the flood-insurance program, and also to forgive $17 billion in debt incurred after Hurricane Katrina.

Critics cite that debt forgiveness as an example of how states with little or no hurricane risk can end up footing the bill for damage in flood-prone areas. “For years, federal flood-insurance backers told us the program was financially sound, but the storms of 2005 left it $17 billion in the hole,” said Steve Ellis of nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Even some analysts hired by lobbyists for the federal program acknowledge it has its risks. “If you charge something less than the private-market cost for homeowners’ insurance, that creates a potential incentive to increase exposure on the coast” — in other words, to build in risky or flood-prone areas — said David Chernick of Milliman Inc., an actuarial firm hired by ProtectingAmerica.

Naturally. One of the reasons it’s so expensive to live on the Florida coast, other than being prime real estate, is the cost of insuring a building. Hurricanes hit Florida every year. It’s not a matter of if a hurricane will hit. It’s going to happen. So, if the costs of having a home or hotel or some kind of resort goes down and everyone knows that if a big disaster hits the Federal government will be there ready to bail them out with our tax money, of course it will encourage more risky development! This is just common sense.

Florida lawmakers and Republican Gov. Charlie Crist are pushing hard for the federal program. Florida is currently the only state with its own reinsurance fund. That fund, created in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew, has lowered insurance costs for state residents, but would be stretched by a big hurricane this year. The federal program would assist the state’s fund while also providing political cover for state politicians, some of whom say claims from a major storm this year could trigger the largest tax increase in state history.

“I’m calling on the voters in both parties to demand that the nominee of their party publicly support a national disaster fund,” said Florida state Sen. Steven Geller, an uncommitted Democratic superdelegate. “If they won’t, vote for the other party.”

So Charlie is right out there front and center demanding that we all pay for the natural disasters, which are a foregone conclusion, that hit his state every year. Will a Federal earthquake insurance program be next for Californians?

If you buy a house in Florida, or along any coast line in the southeast, you know the risk factors of what can happen. That’s a chance you’re taking and you need to be responsible for it on your own. Expecting others to pick up the costs of your chosen lifestyle is unconscionable.

And as for these pathetically pandering politicians like Charlie Crist and this State Senator Steven Geller, maybe next time a hail stone hits your car or a tornado blows through and busts a window or two, just send your bills down to those two clowns requesting they send you a check to cover your costs.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is working with American Solutions for Winning the Future to rally up Americans across the country to start pushing Congress to end the bans on domestic drilling in places like ANWR and offshore areas in both bordering oceans.

There is an online petition you can sign to add your voice to the 154,000 people that have already signed in support of the drilling. I have been told before that Congress doesn’t care about online petitions and that they don’t do any good, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe someone who has recently or currently works on Capitol Hill can comment on that.

The below video features Gingrich talking about the drive. He also reminds everyone to call your representative and Senators and tell them to vote no on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill. It is important that bill not pass! Please do this!

The Club for Growth is working diligently to stave off what will be an economic disaster of gargantuan proportions should it pass the Congress and come to fruition. I am speaking of the Lieberman-Warner Climate bill which is nothing more than a claptrap of anti-Capitalist crap in the name of passing feel good legislation to placate the environmental alarmists and the masses they’ve managed to brainwash with their hype. Below is a press release from CFG. Also, The Heritage Foundation has a state by state breakdown of the economic damage that will be done to each state.

Club for Growth Unveils Ad Campaign to Combat Economy Crushing Climate Change Legislation

 

Calls Legislation another Mammoth Washington Exercise in Wealth Redistribution at the Expense of Consumers and Taxpayers

Washington - Today, the Club for Growth unveiled a four-state television and radio ad campaign, highlighting the inordinate costs imposed and dubious global benefits gained by pending cap-and-trade legislation, America’s Climate Security Act. The ad also urges Senators in those states to oppose the bill (radio ad can be heard here).Next week, the Senate is scheduled to consider legislation, sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman and John Warner, mandating steep reductions in carbon emissions. Known as a “cap and trade” scheme, the legislation would cap carbon emissions at 2005 levels by 2012, and then gradually lowers the cap until it hits 70% below 2005 standards in 2050. If passed into law, companies will be granted credits permitting them to emit a fraction of the CO2 they need. In a massive redistribution of wealth, other credits will be granted to states and ancillary government programs. NGOs and other non-emitter “entities” are also positioned to receive free credits. Since most companies will need to emit more carbon than the credits they are given allow, they will have to buy additional credits supplied by the government, other companies, or third party entities at potentially huge costs.

Proponents of the cap and trade legislation argue the bill is crucial to combat global warming, but they don’t tell you that the legislation will impose tremendous costs on businesses, consumers, taxpayers, and workers, and that it will not likely impact climate temperatures in any meaningful way when viewed in a global context. While the new mandates and taxes included in the legislation would require major economic sacrifices from all Americans, rapidly developing nations such as China and India have made clear they have no plans to adopt similar measures - arguably negating the global impact of any emission decreases in the U.S.

“While the benefits of the Lieberman-Warner bill are dubious at best, the costs to our economy will be massive,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “If this legislation passes, Americans can look forward to fewer jobs, lower income levels, rising electricity prices, and higher fuel bills. Congress has a tendency to pass feel-good bills without adequately considering the tremendous costs to American businesses and families. We hope these ads will encourage people to contact their Senators and tell them the country simply can’t afford the Lieberman-Warner bill.”

According to a recent SAIC study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), the domestic economic impact would be severe. National findings include:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) losses of $151 billion to $210 billion by 2020 and $631 billion to $669 billion per year by 2030
• Employment losses of 1.2 million to 1.8 million jobs by 2020 and 3 million to 4 million jobs by 2030
• Household income losses of $739 to $2,927 per year in 2020 and $4,022 to $6,752 per year in 2030
• Electricity price increases of 28% to 33% by 2020 and 101% to 129% by 2030
• Gasoline price increases (per gallon) of 20% to 69% by 2020 and 77% to 145% by 2030

“At a time when our economy is already struggling, the Lieberman-Warner would simply add a heavy drag on growth, giving our global competitors a significant competitive advantage courtesy of the U.S. Congress,” continued Toomey.

The Club for Growth’s $250,000 ad campaign will run in Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Carolina starting today, and in Montana starting next week. The ads call on Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Jon Tester (R-MT), and Max Baucus (D-MT) to oppose this harmful legislation.

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.”That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added.

AFP

Oh, is that so? I’ve got news for Mr. Obama. I will drive whatever car I want. I will eat whatever I want and I will heat my house to whatever temperature I desire and I’ll be damned if some two bit, empty suit politician is going to tell me it isn’t going to happen. I don’t care what France thinks about it. It sounds to me like Barack Obama is running to be dictator of a police state, not the president of a free nation, and millions of fools are out there cheering him on.

Can it get any more absurd?

With oil prices hitting record highs and pretty much every state now over $3.00 per gallon for gas, Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are again attempting legislation to successfully open up ANWR for drilling.

ANWR is an area approximately the size of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island combined. The area we would be drilling in would be about as large as the Charlotte International Airport, a mere speck. It is absurd that our government continues to block access to our own natural resources, but we have China drilling off the coast of our nation.

Alternatives to oil are inevitable in the long run, but in the short term we need to be increasing the supply available to bring down the high prices. If the Democrats truly cared about the poor (the only thing they care about is their vote) then they would stop standing in the way of this every time it is brought up. Opening up ANWR would also be a financial boom to Alaska and create lots of jobs. This should be a decision left to the people of Alaska, not a bunch of bureaucrats from 49 other states.

It’s time the Democrats and a hand full of RINOs stop this reactionary pandering to extremist environmental groups and do the right thing for the American people.

Remember in the past year how egomaniac Michael Bloomberg who in his anti gun crusade got into trouble for sending his spies down into Virginia and South Carolina to see how easy it was to buy a gun in our states? Well the authoritarian fringe of the extreme left strikes again:

CHARLESTON — Attorneys general from eight states have signed a letter asking South Carolina environmental officials to deny a permit to build a coal-fired power plant.

The group says the plant, proposed by Santee Cooper, would release millions of tons of carbon dioxide in the air, hindering efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.

The state-owned electric utility wants to build two 600-megawatt generators along the Little Pee Dee River near Johnsonville.

The letter sent to DHEC was signed by attorneys general from California, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The State

I can’t think of a time where an Attorney General or any other public official of any “red” state has sent off a letter to another state expressing concern over how they run their piece of land, yet the extreme left seems to have no problem telling everyone else what to do.

I hope we build this coal plant. In fact, I hope we build ten of them and then when we’re finished we build a great big fan and point it straight to New England so we can blow all of our smoke straight up the behinds of those granola munching Kum Ba Ya hippies in the People’s Republic of Vermont and the rest of their northeastern elitist brethren.

Your maple syrup sucks and so does Tom Brady!

After writing a comment listing my beef with Sen. McCain and Gov. Huckabee here, I found an article by Mark Levin at National Review Online reminding conservatives how much Sen. McCain has ticked off conservatives, lest we forget:

The McCain domestic record is a disaster. To say he fought spending, most particularly earmarks, is to nibble around the edges and miss the heart of the matter. For starters, consider:

McCain-Feingold — the most brazen frontal assault on political speech since Buckley v. Valeo.

McCain-Kennedy — the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history.

McCain-Lieberman — the most onerous and intrusive attack on American industry — through reporting, regulating, and taxing authority of greenhouse gases — in American history.

McCain-Kennedy-Edwards — the biggest boon to the trial bar since the tobacco settlement, under the rubric of a patients’ bill of rights.

McCain-Reimportantion of Drugs — a significant blow to pharmaceutical research and development, not to mention consumer safety (hey Rudy, pay attention, see link).

….
As chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, McCain was consistently hostile to American enterprise, from media and pharmaceutical companies to technology and energy companies.
McCain also led the Gang of 14, which prevented the Republican leadership in the Senate from mounting a rule change that would have ended the systematic use (actual and threatened) of the filibuster to prevent majority approval of judicial nominees.

Levin also takes on Sen. McCain’s “saving grace,” his defense strength, and points out significant flaws in his approach in this realm as well.

Conservatives beware. If nothing else, just remember how ticked off you were in 2007 about the Senate and President’s attempt to circumvent the clear wishes of the American people and pass a reckless “comprehensive” immigration bill, with McCain leading the charge.

I have been in Portland, Oregon the past few days and will be here for a couple more. If you’re unfamiliar with Portland it is a bastion of hippies and beatniks, but also a very interesting city nonetheless. The people here are environmental extremists so it wasn’t much of a shock when right near my hotel in Lake Oswego I came across a car dealership that is actually selling smart cars.

While I have seen smart cars all over Europe, I have never seen one in the U.S. They are the ugliest automobiles ever made, even uglier than the Gremlin. I haven’t actually seen anybody driving one, but if this place is selling them there must be a market here. I am an environmentalist, but a sensible one. I may very well buy a hybrid when I replace my current car, but there is no way you will ever get me in a smart car. I’ve seen kids driving cars in soap box derbies that are bigger than these things.

For an AIDS-scary world, there is some good news. AIDS may have been one of the biggest epidemics, but scientists now believe that the size and the course of the disease have been grossly over-estimated over a decade.In what could be a stunning revelation, the United Nations top AIDS scientists will soon acknowledge the ‘mistakes’, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, say media reports.

Reports say new studies have even shown that United Nations has cut its estimate of HIV cases in India by more than half.

The revisions amount to at least a partial acknowledgment of criticisms long levelled by researchers who disputed the UN version and reports about “an ever-expanding global epidemic”, reports said.

The new estimate put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year’s estimate, reports said quoting the UN statement.

Total number of people infected worldwide with HIV — estimated a year ago at nearly 40 million and rising — now will be reported as 33 million.

Rediff News

Well, what do you know. Those UN scientists were mistaken, yet when discussing man’s supposed contribution to global warming there is simply no disputing the consensus of these same UN scientists that we are bringing about the end of humanity with our SUVs and coal power plants.

Or is there?

Critics, the reports said, also said that UN officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support to combat AIDS.

“There was a tendency toward alarmism, and that fit perhaps a certain fund-raising agenda,” said Helen Epstein, author of “The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS’

“I hope the new numbers will help refocus the response in a more pragmatic way.”

Well, I am just aghast that the UN might possibly exaggerate their “scientific” claims in order to push a preplanned agenda through. But no, that’s just simply not a possibility when it comes to global warming. They must be telling us the truth because they are so trustworthy. No agenda there.

Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), once a skeptic of global warming, got a hint that the political winds might be shifting when a long-time supporter warned that he might vote against Inglis if he “didn’t clean up his act on the environment.”

The warning came from Inglis’s eldest son, Robert Jr., now 22.

His daughter was no less blunt about the congressman’s refusal to embrace the view that global warming was being caused by human actions and that a serious response is needed. “I have three more kids coming up—and they seem to share the same view,” said Inglis.

Family pressure worked. Inglis traveled to Antarctica and, most recently, to Greenland to witness the effects of rising CO2 levels and temperatures. He now believes the science behind global warming. And he believes the politics are equally conclusive: Republicans will “get hammered” if they do not reckon with the issue soon.

The State

First off, I am going to correct the author, because the bold part in the above passage should read “witness the ALLEGED effects of rising CO2 levels,” because that is a theory, not a fact, and not everyone in the scientific community subscribes to it.

Secondly, I am sorry for Inglis that his children are so easily brainwashed, most likely from their college.

Having said all of that, I don’t think anyone with any sense denies that global warming is occurring. I certainly don’t. The winters today are noticeably warmer than when I was a kid. However, that doesn’t mean I am falling into the clap trap of believing we have anything to do with it. Global warming has occurred before as well as global cooling. They have been natural cycles of the earth. For groups like these U.N. “scientists” and nut balls like Al Gore to force the idea on all of us that our lifestyle is destroying the planet while completely excluding the past occurrences of this phenomenon is dishonest. Hell, the founder of the Weather Channel just came out and said that man made global warming is the greatest scam in history. (Maybe other than Y2K)

Remember, these people are the same ones that told us 30 years ago we would all freeze to death from global cooling.

Don’t get me wrong, I am an environmentalist. My next car will likely be a hybrid because less pollution is just good overall and we need to end our dependence on importing oil from people who want us dead. But, one thing I won’t be is hoodwinked by the perpetrators of the modern day Inquisition.

From Jim Wooten in my hometown newspaper:

The Senate bill, grandiosely and falsely dubbed the Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007, should come with a section prohibiting price gouging — by Congress. The legislation “could result in significantly higher prices for gasoline consumers,” according to Heritage Foundation researchers. “A review of S. 1419, including the just-completed section on tax changes, reveals that the bill could increase the price of regular unleaded gasoline from $3.14 per gallon (the early May national average) to $6.40 in 2016 — a 104 percent increase,” write Heritage Foundation researchers William W. Beach and Shanea Watkins.

“Gas consumers can expect to pay between $3.16 and $3.79 a gallon for gas in 2008 after adding in the estimated impact of the Senate energy bill. By 2016, all states can expect gas prices in excess of $6. As a result of S. 1419, consumers would spend an average of $1445 more per year on gasoline in 2016 than in 2008,” they write.

With the the concurrence of the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Charles Grassley of Iowa, and others (Gordon Smith of Oregon, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Pat Roberts of Kansas, all Republican), the committee is proposing $29 billion in new taxes on oil companies. The tax is to subsidize wind and solar power, hybrid vehicles and biofuel. The bill calls for a sharp increase in the use “renewables,” including heavily-subsidized ethanol, up from 8.5 billion gallons next year to 36 billion gallons by 2022. And it requires, too, that utilities would be required to buy at least 15 percent of their energy from wind, solar and other “renewable” sources.

Ethanol requires more energy to produce than it generates as fuel, to say nothing of the water required for irrigation in areas like drought-stricken South Georgia. It’s subsidized by taxpayers with a 51-cents per gallon tax credit, and it’s subsidized again at the pump with a 54-cents-a-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. Go figure.

Don’t procreate.

This has been a hell of a year for the Global Warming Nazis. You can barely turn on the television without inviting them into your living room lately. It seems every time we turn around we see the UN caterwalling and Al Gore telling us we have ten years to live (which he’s been saying for about five years now).

Unfortunately for the Fuhrer, the reality we live in doesn’t coexist with their propaganda.

Charlotte:

The polar air outbreak that began Thursday reached the bottom this morning, when temperatures dropped to 21 degrees at 7 a.m. at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

That not only broke the low-temperature record for the date, but it was the coldest for any April day in Charlotte history.

Charlotte Observer

Augusta, GA:

Ear-muffs and mittens, parkas and fleece…the patrons of Augusta National looked dressed for skiing rather than the third round of the Masters on Saturday.

Reuters

Nashville:

In Nashville, Tenn., a forecast low of 22 degrees Sunday would beat the current record set on March 24, 1940, when the morning temperature was 24 degrees.

“We’re going to be in record territory, for sure,” said Jim Moser, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville.

Myway

Minnesota:

Easter Sunday’s high temperature will struggle to make 40 degrees, barely higher than Christmas day. In fact, we haven’t seen April temperatures like this in almost 60 years.

KARE 11 News

There are have been other record setting days across the country over the past few months and let us also not forget the two global warming summits in D.C. that got canceled because of bad weather. Don’t you dare question the Global Warming Nazis, though, lest you face the Spanish Inquisition.

I wrote a story in this Friday’s issue of The Bulletin that covered a new zoning survey released by the University of Pennsylvania.

The Situation:

The survey compiled a database of zoning and land use lands in 227 communities in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area and discovered the following:

• The densest areas experienced the least amount of housing cost increase over the last decade.
• The suburbs were more regulated than the City of Philadelphia (Chester County was the most, Delaware County the least).
• 57% of the surveyed communities experienced housing cost increase above the rate of inflation over the last decade.
• 60% of the surveyed communities had two or more forms of approval required for a development project.

What we can infer from the study:

• Excessive land use and zoning regulation deters some developers, places additional cost on consumers.
• Environmental and open space preservation drives up values of surrounding properties, reduces supply of available land while demand increases.
• Communities must choose between the competing interests of environmental and open space preservation and affordable housing.

I investigated Chester and Delaware counties and found the following:

• Chester County allocates 1/3rd of the cost for an open space project, municipalities and land trusts fork the rest. Delaware County only provides 5% of a given project.
• Chester County allocates $13 million a year for open space preservation (using property taxes to drive up the value of properties); Delco only allocated $820,000 in ‘06.
• Half of Chester’s 73 municipalities levy taxes earmarked for open space preservation.
• Delaware County hired urban planners for its 27 southeastern municipalities in 2002 to update their zoning codes, which were decades out of date, thereby reducing the amount of variances developers needed.

The Dilemma:

As conservatives, we’re against excessive regulation and rely on market competition to drive costs. Land trusts, conservationists, non-profits, foundations, and private entities can raise their own money to preserve open space without taxpayer subsidies.

However, when housing becomes more affordable, Democrats from Philadelphia move in and continue to vote Democrat– as was the case of the massive exodus of Philadelphians into the surrounding counties during the 90’s.

Are we fostering our own decline in the electorate?

Related:

The Count Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania released their 2007 agenda, calling for the General Assembly to give counties the authority to levy a realty transfer tax (a property sale) for the purpose of open space preservation. I wrote about that here.

Ah the environmental movement. The new haven for every displaced communist, socialist, and anti-capitalist.

The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to “Holocaust Deniers” and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists.

The Weather Channel’s (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program “The Climate Code,” is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their “Seal of Approval” for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

So those who worship at the global warming alter want to squash dissent and they want to try them Nuremberg style.

In addition, Cullen’s December 17, 2006 episode of “The Climate Code” TV show, featured a columnist who openly called for Nuremberg-style Trials for climate skeptics. Cullen featured Grist Magazine’s Dave Roberts as an eco-expert opining on energy issues, with no mention of his public call to institute what amounts to the death penalty for scientists who express skepticism about global warming.

Not exactly what I would call adhering to the scientific method.

h/t: Drudge

UPDATE! Check what out James Spann, operational meteorologist for nearly 20 years, has to say on his blog.

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story. Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem. For many, global warming is a big cash grab.

*The climate of this planet has been changing since God put the planet here. It will always change, and the warming in the last 10 years is not much difference than the warming we saw in the 1930s and other decades. And, lets not forget we are at the end of the ice age in which ice covered most of North America and Northern Europe.