In Case You Need More on Copenhagen...

Gullible eager-beaver planet savers - Mark Steyn - Macleans.ca: "I’m always appreciative when a fellow says what he really means. Tim Flannery, the jet-setting doomsaying global warm-monger from down under, was in Ottawa the other day promoting his latest eco-tract, and offered a few thoughts on “Copenhagen”—which is transnational-speak for December’s UN Convention on Climate Change. “We all too often mistake the nature of those negotiations in Copenhagen,” remarked professor Flannery. “We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case. The negotiations now ongoing toward the Copenhagen agreement are in effect diplomacy at the most profound global level. They deal with every aspect of our life and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society.”"

...“The environment” is the most ingenious cover story for Big Government ever devised. You float a rumour that George W. Bush is checking up on what library books you’re reading, and everyone goes bananas. But announce that a government monitoring device has been placed in every citizen’s trash can in the cause of “saving the planet,” and the world loves you.

...At their Monday night poker game in hell, I’ll bet Stalin, Hitler and Mao are kicking themselves: “ ‘It’s about leaving a better planet to our children?’ Why didn’t I think of that?” This is Two-Ply Totalitarianism—no jackboots, no goose steps, just soft and gentle all the way.

As usual, Mark Steyn's entire column is both entertaining and enlightening. Read it and weep.

Sign Up to Oppose "Carbon Reparations" and Violation of US Sovereignty

Unfortunately, with the current administration in power, it is necessary to go on the record for positions that used to be obvious:

1) The US should not cripple its own economy to fight fictitious global warming, particularly when giants like China and India have no intention of playing along (a position affirmed 95 - 0 by the Senate when presented with the Kyoto Treaty)

2) The US must not and cannot cede its sovereignty to any world body for any reason

3) US citizens must not ever be made liable to pay taxes to any world body, for any reason

All of the above are currently contemplated by the Copenhagen treaty

Follow the link above to take a stand against this monstrosity.

Watch Out - Now Global Warming Is A Security Matter...

Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say."

...a growing number [growing from 1 to 3? ;-)]of policy makers say that the world’s rising temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to the national interest.

[comment in brackets mine]

...And we know how much the left cares about national security. This might be a potent argument for crap and trade except that:

1) evidence points more strongly to us being in a global cooling than a global warming
2) a warmer planet is a richer planet
3) no serious link has been made between global warming and "violent storms"
4) even if there were evidence of 1 and 3, above, you would also have to believe that:
a) man is causing global warming
b) US carbon reductions, though more than offset by massive carbon output increases in the thrid world, will materially impact global warming

We are all nearly consumed with the health care debate. But we need to spend the recess debunking crap and trade as well.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs???

The Associated Press: SPIN METER: 'Help Wanted' counting stimulus jobs: "PORTLAND, Ore. — How much are politicians straining to convince people that the government is stimulating the economy? In Oregon, where lawmakers are spending $176 million to supplement the federal stimulus, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program's first three months.

But those jobs lasted on average only 35 hours, or about one work week. After that, those workers were effectively back unemployed, according to an Associated Press analysis of state spending and hiring data. By the state's accounting, a job is a job, whether it lasts three hours, three days, three months, or a lifetime."

This is even worse than Obama's dissembling via the words "new jobs." As Dennis Prager often points out, government can always create "new jobs" by fiat. But they can't create net additional new jobs unless the actions of the government are neutral or stimulative to the creation of jobs elsewhere in the economy.

This is well illustrated by Spain's experience with "green job" creation, commented on last month in this blog. In Spain, the "creation" of each new green job is calculated to have come at the cost of 2.2 other jobs.

Stop - Don't Confuse Us With Facts

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Ignoring Science: "The true believers will not be moved by the peer-reviewed findings of Chris de Freitas, John McLean and Bob Carter, scientists at universities in Australia and New Zealand...

Their research, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, indicates that nature, not man, has been the dominant force in climate change in the late 20th century.

'The surge in global temperatures since 1977 can be attributed to a 1976 climate shift in the Pacific Ocean that made warming El Nino conditions more likely than they were over the previous 30 years and cooling La Nina conditions less likely' says co-author de Freitas.

'We have shown that internal global climate-system variability accounts for at least 80% of the observed global climate variation over the past half-century. It may even be more if the period of influence of major volcanoes can be more clearly identified and the corresponding data excluded from the analysis.'"

More facts to add to the growing mountain of evidence that crap and trade is not not only economically disastrous, but environmentally insignificant.

George Will Slaps Down Media Glbal Warming Chearleaders

George F. Will - Going Green to Alleviate Guilt -- but Not Much Else - washingtonpost.com: "In the history of developed democracies with literate publics served by mass media, there is no precedent for today's media enlistment in the crusade to promote global warming 'awareness.' Concerning this, journalism, which fancies itself skeptical and nonconforming, is neither."

So much said in so few words - awesome.

Obama Wants To Expand Program That Drove Americans' Grocery Bills Up By $5 - $8 BILLION in 2007

Ethanol's Grocery Bill - WSJ.com: "Ethanol raises food prices because millions of acres of farmland and three billion bushels of corn were diverted to ethanol from food production. Americans spend about $1.1 trillion a year on food, so in 2007 the ethanol subsidy cost families between $5.5 billion and $8.8 billion in higher grocery bills."

The beauty of being a leftist is that you never are called to task for the "unintended consequences" of your noble deeds. Ethanol is a completely discredited "alternative energy" strategy. It is strictly designed to buy votes in the corn belt and contributions from mega-agribusinesses. The linked article talks about both EPA and CBO reports on the folly of ethanol as a gasoline alternative.

On top of the cost to the taxpayers of all the subsidies, we are paying BILLIONS more in our grocery bills. Where's the empathy in the administration for Americans struggling to pay their rising food bills?

The WSJ sums it up well:

As public policy, ethanol is like the joke about the baseball prospect who is a poor hitter but a bad fielder. It doesn't reduce CO2 but it does cost more. Imagine how many subsidies the Beltway would throw at ethanol if the fuel actually had any benefits.

If the above is true, why do the Dems continue to push this policy? I think you know the answer - every interference in the economy is a chance for statists to use YOUR money to buy votes and influence, and to further regulate your behavior and circumscribe your freedoms.