Karma?

Saving the World Can Be a Bitch.

"Senate Democrats May Pull Climate Bill:Week's Debate Has Been Contentious”

...The week has been marked by parliamentary maneuvers and bitter accusations over divergent estimates of the bill's future costs. On Wednesday, a group of GOP senators asked that the clerk of the Senate read the entire 491-page bill aloud, an extremely rare request. That took more than 10 hours.

Although parliamentary maneuvers could still extend the debate into next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) faced the prospect of failure in a bid to end debate on amendments to the climate bill this morning. In that event, he was expected to seek withdrawal of the entire measure, to the relief of some Democrats from coal-producing or heavy industrial states.

"We are going to have Democrats voting to end debate on what they call the most important issue facing the planet and Republicans voting to continue debate on it," said Don Stewart, communications director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Some Democrats were worried yesterday that the GOP might try to block withdrawal of the legislation to prolong a debate that many Democrats think no longer works to their political benefit.

The Democrats want to save the world but once again Poor Harry Reid gets outflanked by his opponents. What is amazing was the speed of the withdrawl. It seems to me that if you take the time produce 491 pages of legislation meant to prevent the world from coming to an untimely end you would at least put up some semblance of a fight. I personally think this legislation is the biggest boondoggle to ever come down the pipe but as Reid so impassionatly intoned in his speach on Monday ,"the Earth has a fever." If you truly believe that, at some point don't you have an obligation to stand up and fight. No one should be suprised that they don't.

This is the same party that said, "We really in this last election — when I say we, the Democrats — I think pushed it as far as we can, the envelope. Didn't say it, but we implied it — that we, if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war,” Kanjorski said in the video. “Now anybody who is a good student of government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts — and people ate it up." >Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.)

As Clark Kent will tell you, "Anybody can wear the stink'in cape, but when it comes to actually preserving truth, justice, and the American Way, the job can be a bitch." and the Democrats are not up to the task.

What Senate Bill 2191 Will Cost Iowans

As I wrote here, Washington has pronounced the climate change debate settled, and it is now time to act before its too late. As Harry Reid so monotonically put it yesterday, "That has caused the earth to have a fever – a fever that is growing worse, not better..." Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, particularly if you are using chemo for the common cold.

The Heritage Foundation has researched the economic effects of this Cap and Tax system and the charts below show the economic impact on Iowans if this bill becomes law.

Ben Lieberman at Heritage writes that the costs outweigh the benefits that this legislation will incur, he writes;

Lieberman–Warner is expensive, but what are the benefits? This bill is a solution only to the extent that global warming is a problem in the first place and only to the degree to which the bill reduces that problem. There are reasons to question both.

While a full discussion of global warming science is beyond the scope of this analysis, it is worth not­ing that science is now taking a turn away from alarmism. The release of carbon dioxide, a natural constituent of the atmosphere and a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion, has at least some warming effect on the planet, but the reality of global warming falls well short of being a crisis. Both the seriousness and the imminence of the threat have been overstated by environmentalists and politi­cians alike.
In particular, there is a growing realization that the extreme claims popularized in the media— most notably that a rise in sea level will inundate vast coastal areas and that deadly hurricanes like Katrina are linked to global warming and have become more common—are not well supported. The World Meteorological Organization and many scientists dispute such claims, and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Cli­mate Change (IPCC) projects a sea-level rise of approximately seven to 23 inches over the next cen­tury, not the widely publicized 18 to 20 feet in former Vice President Gore's book and documen­tary An Inconvenient Truth...

Furthermore, no matter how great a problem global warming may be, the Lieberman –Warner bill, assuming that it works as intended, would alle­viate only a small fraction of that problem...

Thus, the impact of Lieberman–Warner on over­all emissions trends is modest, given global emis­sions growth. By most accounts, even in the unlikely event that America meets the targets of this bill, worldwide emissions would continue to increase, only at a slightly slower rate...

In sum, America's Climate Security Act of 2007 promises significant economic pain for little envi­ronmental gain. The costs are simply out of line with the benefits. Our analysis puts the cost of preventing carbon dioxide emissions at $49 per ton in 2015 and $68 to $88 by 2030, amounts that are generally in line with five other analyses of this bill. (See Table 1.)

But according to several prominent resource econ­amists, that is more than the dollar value of the harm that each ton does to the environment in the form of increased global warming. One analysis puts the cost of damage at $7.4 per ton of carbon dioxide and rising by about 2.5 percent per year, a fraction of what Lieberman–Warner costs per ton.If true, this bill would prove a textbook example of a solu­tion that is worse than the problem.

It is at this point where I would normally make an impassioned plea to write your senator and tell them that this bill is economic suicide, but our own Senator Harkin is a co-sponsor of this legislation and as Harry Reed declared yesterday, those that disagree are essentially head in the sand naysayers. It is doubtful that you will persuade any of them that this is an act of lunacy now that they have their eyes on the revenue stream this scheme will produce.

Also see: The Five Myths about global warming legislation.

Krauthammer On Global Warning

Yesterday I discussed proposed Global Warming legislation making its way through Congress. The Markey bill is not alone however. On the senate side similar legislation by Leiberman and Warner is also pending. While I agree that efforts to reduce pollution are necessary and reducing our dependence on foreign supplies are in our national security interests these bills are overzealous in their scope and potentially damaging to our economy.

From Charles Krauthammer, "Confessions of a Global-Warming Agnostic; The Church of the Environment needs a nuclear Reformation"

I’m not a global-warming believer. I’m not a global-warming denier. I’m a global-warming agnostic who believes instinctively that it can’t be very good to pump lots of CO2 into the atmosphere, but is equally convinced that those who presume to know exactly where that leads are talking through their hats.

Predictions of catastrophe depend on models. Models depend on assumptions about complex planetary systems — from ocean currents to cloud formation — that no one fully understands. Which is why the models are inherently flawed and forever changing. The doomsday scenarios posit a cascade of events, each with a certain probability. The multiple improbability of their simultaneous occurrence renders all such predictions entirely speculative...

Yet on the basis of this speculation, environmental activists, attended by compliant scientists and opportunistic politicians, are advocating radical economic and social regulation. “The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity,” warns Czech President Vaclav Klaus, “is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism.”

The New Carbon Tax

You can call it a investment, call it a lease, call it an auction, but whatever you call it companies that produce CO2 emmisions are in for substatial increases in the cost of doing business. Congressman Edward Markey (D. Mass) has announced a plan to penalize those companies that do not meet his future government mandates for greenhouse gasses.

Markey prefers to portray his plan an investment and as he describes, “The bill is called the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act, or iCAP for short, the small “i” a tip of the cap to the technological potential of clean energy. The bill also proffers a new paradigm in global warming legislation: the Cap-and-Invest system. The bill caps pollution at 85 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. It then uses an auction system that sets a price on carbon, and allows companies to compete for reductions, or buy or trade credits within the system.”

In a roll out of his bill at the Center for American Progress Markey noted that his bill is fashioned after the European plan but where they went wrong is they gave away carbon credits to the various industries FOR FREE. We won’t be that foolish. Instead we are going to auction carbon credits to industries to the tune of 8 Trillion Dollars.

It takes a little Orwellian imagination to call a tax an “Investment” but that is essentially what he has done as the Economic Policy Institute explains; “For example, a lease for 10 tons of carbon dioxide could be sold at auction to an electricity producer. The lease would entitle the purchaser to release 10 tons of carbon over the life of the lease (say five years), but it would also require, for these emissions, a fixed per-ton payment, which would be set in advance by the terms of the lease. Businesses would thus have an upfront cost to obtain the permit at auction (though less than in a cap-and-trade regime), and then they would be responsible for the annual payment for polluting. This payment would act like a carbon tax, increasing incentives to reduce emissions while adding predictability to the market and costs.”

Economically speaking, anytime the government takes money out of the system there is going to be an equal and opposite reaction. In this case the cost of energy and most other products is going to have to go up or businesses that are able are going to go overseas. But don’t fear. To make the plan palatable to the masses Markey is going to throw you a bone. He states “More than half of the funds from the bill goes directly back to low-and middle-income American families to offset any increases in energy costs from the transition of the economy to low- or zero-carbon energy.” As Soapy Smith used to say, “We steal from the other guy and pass the savings on to you.”

It must be noted that former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta testified before Markey's congressional commitee, along with former Clinton advisor Ian Bowles, and Markey choose to make the announcement at Podesta's Center for American Progress.

Oil and Waters Don't Mix

During an empassioned attack on oil executives Rep. Maxine Waters offered a chance to peak into the heart and soul of the left and thier agenda. In the democrats view the oil industry should be under control of the government. We should not be suprised, Senator Clinton has openly stated the same senitments. It was interesting that to Waters's right Democrat Steve Cohen nods approval to Waters statement until he comes to the realization that she had let the cat out of the bag. The rep to the right of Cohen also realizes that Maxine has stepped in the poo.

Link: sevenload.com

Liberalism and Multiculturalism

A couple good videos. The first is a presentation by Evan Sayat, comic, writer, and pundit, describing modern Liberalism. Run time is about 40 minutes.



The second is Mark Steyn on the obsurdity of Multiculturalism. Run time 10 minutes.

End Derangement Syndrome

It’s time to retire “Derangement Syndrome” from the blogging lexicon. First coined by Charles Krauthammer to describe the Left's unhinged hatred of George Bush (BDS), the term is now widely applied to anyone that disagrees with the position of one candidate or another.

Anyone that has spent any time in the left wing blog “o” sphere has encountered BDS to varying degrees. Those most affected, such as the two subjests pictured, through a mental process akin to “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”, can track any bad event in the world back to, "President Bush stole the 2000 election." Your milk has gone sour? Milk comes from cows. Cows live on ranches. There are ranches in Texas. Bush has a Texas ranch. Presto, Bush stole the 2000 election.


Of course without the imagination to coin a catchy pejorative of their own, (further evidence by their continued use of the term fascist for anyone that is not a socialist) the Left glommed onto the phrase and wrongly applied it to persons that dislike the Clintons (CDS) or Hillary in particualr (HDS). I say wrongly because the basis of derangement syndrome lies in a tendency to blame the president for virtually every ill in the world. It also refers to opposing a position advocated by the president just because he supports it, regardless if the president’s actions may have merit. i.e. The surge.

The Right certainly wasn’t against President Clinton’s policies, because for the most part they were positions co-opted from the Republicans. (See Krauthammer) Republicans also didn’t lay every ill in the world at the White House steps. Instead what you see is a loathing of the Clintons as a life form. A hatred of their machine, their tawdry affairs, their no holds barred, any means justifies the end style. Filegate, Travelgate, Monicagate, gates ad nauseum. More recently there is a whacked Bill Clinton performing damage control on his legacy with a willingness to say and do anything to get back into the seat of power which only adds to the revulsion. ( See Bill Shribman "Clintons Sybil Syndrome" Fortune Magazine 1996) Personally it is the fact that the man, or his wife we're not sure which now, led with a finger in the air checking the political winds and was unable or unwilling to respond to Al Queda.

What brought me to the conclusion that “Derangement Syndrome” has outlive it’s usefulness is the fact that now the term is being applied to certain Republicans that are not thrilled that John McCain (MDS)may be the nominee. The term has begun to loose all meaning. Perhaps Dr. Krauthammer can diagnose a disorder for the next resident of the White House. I suggest "Political Dementia Disorder." (PDD), We know we hate your guts we just can't remember why.

Sign of the Times

Freedom of Speech...As long as you don't offend anyone.

I have been following the case of Canadian publisher Ezra Lavant who facing charges by the Canadian Civil Rights Commission on a complaint from a person "offended" that Lavant had the courage to run the Danish Muhammed Cartoons in his magazine. Lavant has posted video of the proceedings in defiance of Commission rules against such action. It is an interesting exercise in bureaucracy vs. citizen and Lavant makes an excellent case for his right to free speech and the right to offend a prophet that has been dead for 1400 years.

On the lighter side, the Iowahawk has searched the dumpster outside the Canadian Civil Rights Commission office and found a duplicate of the Official Investigative Hearing Report.

A New Years Eve Funny

Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2, is famous throughout the entertainment industry for being more than just a little self-righteous. At a recent U2 concert in Glasgow, Scotland, he asked the audience for total quiet. Then, in the silence, he started to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds. Holding the audience in total silence, he said into the microphone, 'Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies.' A voice with a broad Scottish accent from the front of the crowd pierced the quiet... 'Well, foockin stop doin it then, ya evil bastard!'

Thx Rick

A Dr. Seuss Surprise

I don't do book reviews here so to the following about a child's book is really off the beaten path for me.
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My four year old daughter received a number of Dr. Seuss books from relatives in Ohio and last night she and her mother snuggled onto the couch to read her new books before bed. Half way through the first one my wife suggested that I read "The Butter Battle Book" and what I found was a little shocking. This was not his cute rhyming kids fare you find in works like "Green Eggs and Ham" and I don't know what age group Dr. Seuss was aiming for but this was not a what I would call a children's book.

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In his early years, Seuss gained fame as a political cartoonist and a collection of his WWII work can be found at "Dr. Seuss Goes to War". (I tried to include examples that you may find relevant to today)

This book, written in 1984 during the era of Reagan's military build up, is a metaphor for the cold war. Two sides are at odds over which side their bread should be buttered on and live on opposites sides of a long low wall. An act of aggression by one side starts an arms race that eventually ends in both sides standing atop a now very tall wall holding the new "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo." (I got the impression that this was probably a take off of the Little Boy bomb of WWII)

Besides the fact that it was not age appropriate for a four year old, the premise that the cold war was some small disagreement between the US and the USSR was shallow if it was targeted at an older audience. Also the ending left the two sides looking at each other without a resolution. If as I suspect Seuss was a part of the disarmament movement of the day, he could have shown what mutually assured destruction would look like. Or if he would have had the foresight of Reagan he could have pictured the wall coming down.

Flotsam and Jetsam: Swimming in the Shallows

Joke of the Day.....
My husband, being unhappy with my mood swings, bought me a mood ring the other day so he would be able to monitor my moods. We've discovered that when I'm in a good mood, it turns green. When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a big fucking red mark on his forehead.Maybe next time he'll buy me a diamond. Dumb ass.

Thx Nette.



Thx Amy.


A Day in the Life of a Beluga.

"This is so humiliating, I bet the Orcas don't put up with this shit."

Swimming in the Shallows

This found its way to the Inbox.....

Many of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, almost exactly 60 Years ago, witnesses claim that an unidentified flying object (UFO) with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and other federal Agencies and organizations.

However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of March 1948, nine months after that historic day, the following people were born:
Albert A. Gore, Jr.
Hillary Rodham
John F. Kerry
William J. Clinton
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Dianne Feinstein
Charles E. Schumer
Barbara Boxer

See what happens when aliens breed with sheep?
I certainly hope this bit of information clears up a lot of things for you. It did for me.

Thx Rick

And this...


Thx JJ

Common Sense Bill of Rights

We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed wetters.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights.

ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone - not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you happen to stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.

ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.

ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.

ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, ***** intentionally ***** or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.

ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII: You don't have the right to demand that our children risk their lives in foreign wars to soothe your aching conscience. We all hate oppressive governments and won't lift a finger to stop you from going to fight if you'd like. However, we do not enjoy parenting the entire world and do not want to spend so much of our time battling each and every little tyrant with a military uniform and a funny hat.

ARTICLE IX: You don't have the right to a job. All of us sure want all of you to have one, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.

ARTICLE X: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to pursue happiness - which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an overabundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

(Attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA.)

DREAM Act Smackdown

I guess I may have paniced yesterday when I heard that Harry Reid was going to bring the Dream act to the floor of the senate for a cloture vote yesterday. Turns out the head count Harry made was a little off. It's one thing to get punked by the republicans but he didn't even get the vote count right on his own side of the aisle. Captains Quarters has a recap of the action here.

Alien Amnesty Act

Once again the open border crowd is attempting to give amnesty to people that have entered this country illegally. Harry Reed plans to submit the "DREAM" Act to give amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. It is time to once again fire up the immigration noise machine and deposit this bill in the shit can of bad ideas. Let your senator know that this plan is as unacceptable as that last piece of Immigration madness they tried to ramrod down our throats. In Iowa you can contact and Senator Grassley by email here or by phone at 202-224-3744.
Senator Harkin can be contacted by email here or by phone at 202-224-3254. You may want to remind the senator of his reversal in the last immigration bill. "Quite frankly, I'm hearing from a lot of Iowans," said Harkin after switching his stance on the legislation let him hear from us again.
NumbersUSA has a description of the legislation here.

The Single Payer System

In a recent alcohol fueled debate with a friend of mine about the absurdity of socialized health care I argued why stop at health insurance, I demand socialized auto insurance. Why should I have all the advantages of first class auto repair whenever the hood of the Dodge Ram 4x4 climate heating heathen decides to pop open while speeding down Highway 30 at 70 per. Certainly everyone should be entitled to be made whole again whenever something pops up and smacks them in the windshield of life. Deductibles? There wont be no stinkin deductibles.
Jim Bass has taken my argument a step further in "Embracing My Single Payer Life".

Gay Marriage Legal In Iowa!

Hehe! Just kidding. The Polk county judge that found the states marriage law unconstitutional had a chance to sleep on his decision ,or sobered up, and stayed his own decision pending appeal.
Dafydd at Big Lizards has all the details here.

General Reid, "Bugler Call Retreat"

McConnell (adj) prudent: possessing or displaying shrewdness, tact, or cunning

From Hugh Hewitt @ Townhall

After Democratic leader Harry Reid’s MoveOn.org all-night session Tuesday night, a move that resulted only in helping unify the weak-kneed Republicans who were peeling away from continued support of the Petraeus surge in Iraq, McConnell, the Republican leader, served notice to anyone watching C-SPAN that he now runs the Senate.
After a couple of Republican amendments failed, Mitch McConnell took to the floor and offered his own amendment, which was a Sense of the Senate that Guantanamo detainees not be allowed released or moved to U.S. soil. To conservatives, this obviously makes sense. To liberals, especially California’s Dianne Feinstein, one of the chief proponents of the effort to close the detention center at Gitmo and relocate these detainees into the American justice system, especially when tagged onto a student loan and grant bill, you’d think this measure would go down in flames. Except a funny thing happened. The bill was titled in a way that you had to vote yes to vote no, and no to vote yes. The final vote was 94-3, officially putting the Senate on record as saying terrorist detainees shouldn't be moved to the U.S. Before the Democrats, who clearly hadn’t read the amendment, realized they screwed up, the vote was recorded.

The Democrats slowly realized that they had just had their heads handed to them. As a diversion Reed sent out pit bull Ted Kennedy for one of his tired tirades as a diversion while his forces regrouped. Reed then attempted a full frontal assault, but the agile McConnell quickly parried and responded by sweeping the enemy's flank, forcing the ever effervescent Harry Reed to pull the bill and once again depart the senate floor in a full retreat.

I predict a coup for the Senate leadership is in the offing.

The Night Mitch McConnell Became Leader of the Republican Party.