Global Warming = All About the Tax

The real goal of the global warming proponents is to tax. The US has a bustling economy and there are people who want some of the money while simultaneously slow down the US economy.

Holdren, however, says even these measure will achieve very little unless they are accompanied by a global tax on greenhouse gas emissions. "We don't think ultimately society will get it right in terms of the full range and scope of activities needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, until there is an additional incentive in the form of a price on greenhouse gas emissions, either through a carbon tax or a cap and trade approach," he said.

The United States is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, but is not a party to the cap and trade system contained in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Gas Guzzling Gore

Gore's house uses a lot more energy. No suprise here, but seeing some hard numbers is interesting. They didn't even touch the amount of extra fuel consumed by Gore's flying on a private jet. The Gore camp will say that they purchased "carbon credits," which essentially is a undisclosed payment to an undisclosed organization, which does absolutely nothing to stop what they say is the cause of global warming. For all the global warming fanactics, while a carbon credit may help them sleep at night (or buffer them politically), it doesn't stop what they think is causing global warming.

From Drudge Report:
Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.

Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.

In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.

Obamanomics

Be all things to all people. Say anything to get popular. Thomas Sowell runs a great critique:


"...Senator Obama is being hailed as the newest and freshest face on the American political scene. But he is advocating some of the oldest fallacies, just as if it was the 1960s again, or as if he has learned nothing and forgotten nothing since then.


He thinks higher teacher pay is the answer to the abysmal failures of our education system, which is already far more expensive than the education provided in countries whose students have for decades consistently outperformed ours on international tests.

Senator Obama is for making college "affordable," as if he has never considered that government subsidies push up tuition, just as government subsidies push up agricultural prices, the price of medical care and other prices.

He is also for "alternative fuels," without the slightest thought about the prices of those fuels or the implications of those prices. All this is the old liberal agenda from years past, old wine in new bottles, a new face with old ideas that have been tried and failed repeatedly over the past generation.

Senator Obama is not unique among politicians who want to control prices, as if that is controlling the underlying reality behind the prices.

There is much current political interest in so-called "predatory lending" — the charging of high interest rates for loans to poor people or to people with low credit ratings.

Nothing will be easier politically than passing laws to limit interest rates or make it harder for lenders to recover their money — and nothing will cause credit to dry up faster to low-income people, forcing some of them to have to turn to illegal loan sharks, who have their own methods of collecting.

The underlying reality that politicians do not want to face is that here, too, prices convey a reality that is not subject to political control. That reality is that it is far riskier to lend to some people than to others...."

They Aren't Barbarians!!!

While the Middle East has taken front stage in the world, some people lament that the major contribution to the world by those in the Middle East is the fact they happened to be sitting on oil. They didn't know how to use oil or get it out of the ground, but it is underneath where they are sitting. Without the oil, there would be no money for bombs and terror networks. They would be as unimportant to world politics as Madagascar.

In order to convince the world that they aren't barbarians... an opinion which has been brought on by continued acts of depravity and terrorism, beheading of civilians, the subjugation of women, the stoning of gays, etc... some outlets try to convince us that the Muslim world is enlightened. The British government created a factually and logically incorrect exhibit called 1001 Muslim inventions.

Now Reuters wants us to believe that some mosaic pattern in a mosque is a mathematical breakthrough. What is a breakthrough? The American Heritage dictionary defines it as "A major achievement or success that permits further progress, as in technology." So what further progress was achieved by this mosaic? What was the benefit of breakthrough?

Let's give an example of a real breakthrough: Michael Faraday found that electric run through a wire, will create a rotating magnetic field around it. This breakthrough led to the electric motor, which we use in countless places.

Medieval Muslims made stunning math breakthroughMagnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in medieval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars, scientists said on Thursday.

By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be "quasicrystalline" designs, Harvard University's Peter Lu and Princeton University's Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science.

Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.

"Oh, it's absolutely stunning," Lu said in an interview. "They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn't figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years."

While Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, Islamic culture flourished beginning in the 7th century, with achievements over numerous centuries in mathematics, medicine, engineering, ceramics, art, textiles, architecture and other areas.

Why I Could Never Vote For McCain, reason #2312

I could never vote for anyone who takes global warming seriously. I expect it from the media and the environwackos, but not people who want to be president. The junk science of global warming allows government to put extra regulation on business. It could be used to create new taxes. All in the name of "saving the planet."

US senator Joe Lieberman forecast that the US Congress would enact a law on cutting emissions by the end of next year, possibly this year.

And presidential candidate John McCain, who is co-sponsoring climate legislation with Mr Lieberman, was emphatic on the need for new initiatives.

"I am convinced that we have reached the tipping point and that the Congress of the United States will act, with the agreement of the administration," he told the forum.

... The climate debate is over, said US presidential candidate John McCain.

Turmoil in Venezeula Continues

Chavez's Venezuela is descending into a dictatorship. Of course this gets minimal media attention because Chavez is a darling of the left. Price controls cause shortages. Anyone interested in national healthcare should read this.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez threatened Wednesday to nationalize any privately owned supermarkets and food storage facilities caught hoarding inventories or violating price controls imposed on basic goods.
Accusing private companies of hoarding beef and other foods, Chavez warned supermarket owners and distributors that he would nationalize their facilities as soon as they gave him "an excuse." ...

Industry officials blame shortages on price controls that oblige retailers to sell at a loss, while the government claims unscrupulous speculators, including supermarket owners and distributors, have been hoarding food to boost prices. Venezuela's consumer protection agency and National Guard have raided warehouses and confiscated tons of food they say vendors were unwilling to sell at the official price.

Jose Luis Betancourt, president of Venezuela's main business chamber, said Chavez's threat carried serious implications for the private sector.

"This is a veiled threat against any company, any business owner, any investor, any citizen," Betancourt told Globovision TV station.

Example of Bias in the Media #346231

So this blogger for Edwards says a lot of nasty things about Catholics, among others, and she gets canned. However, in typical spin, the AP labels her "targeted". Now if a blogger for a Republican trashed Mohammed, and he got canned, what would the headline be?

Targeted blogger quits Edwards campaign
RALEIGH, N.C. - One of the chief campaign bloggers for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards quit Monday after conservative critics raised questions about her history of provocative online messages.

Amanda Marcotte posted on her personal blog, Pandagon, that the criticism "was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign." Marcotte said she resigned from her position Monday, and that her resignation was accepted by the campaign.

Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the Edwards campaign, confirmed that Marcotte was "no longer working for the campaign." She declined additional comment.

Mininum Wage Hikes Cause Layoffs

Mininum wage hikes are sold to the public as businesses being mean and unfair to the poor working guy. Let's all feel better about ourselves, because we voted in a raise for someone else. Socialist politicans claim that a man can't support a family of four on mininum wage. However, mininum wage applies to everyone, including teenagers. So when the cost of labor for a certain job gets too high, there are layoffs. Instead of giving teenagers jobs where they can learn to hold a job and make some spending money, now can't because of our rhetoric about evil corporations.

Oh, for the days when Arizona's high school students could roll pizza dough, sweep up sticky floors in theaters or scoop ice cream without worrying about ballot initiatives affecting their earning power.

That's certainly not the case under the state's new minimum-wage law that went into effect last month.

Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they're cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees. And teens are among the first workers to go.


The Employment Policies Institute in Washington, which opposed the recent increases, cited 2003 data by Federal Reserve economists showing a 10 percent increase caused a 2 percent to 3 percent decrease in employment.

It also cited comments by notedeconomist Milton Friedman, who maintained that high teen unemployment rates were largely the result of minimum-wage laws...AZ Central

Will the Real Conservative Please Stand Up?

Although he is far behind in the polls, California Representative Duncan Hunter is the only real conservative in the race. Guiliani is against guns and is pro-abortion. McCain is all over the place. Mitt Romney is phoney. His George Romney was also a Rockefeller Republican. One thing I learned from the Bushes, despite initial packaging, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Duncan Hunter is a Vietnam Vet and an unabashed conservative in California. He's a conservative's conservative. He's not like Romney trying to suck up to conservatives after years of playing the liberal card.

Price Regulation Leads to Shortages Example #52,356.

The old saying goes “The one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn anything from history.” Countries have tried fixing prices for decades and the result is the same... shortages. This time, Hugo Chavez's socialist populism is causing food shortages in Venezuela.

The same product at a lower price will generate higher demand.
Producers aren't going to create something that they must sell at a loss. If it costs me $200 to raise a pig (shots, feed, etc) but I only can sell it for $150, why raise the pig?

In the US we don't see it with food as much, but we do see it in housing. Rent control has left NY with high rent prices and housing shortages. The builder could tear down an old building and build a taller building with more units (thus adding to the city's housing capacity), but if the builder can't charge enough to recover his costs, he'll never build it.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Meat cuts vanished from Venezuelan supermarkets this week, leaving only unsavory bits like chicken feet, while costly artificial sweeteners have increasingly replaced sugar, and many staples sell far above government-fixed prices.

President Hugo Chavez's administration blames the food supply problems on unscrupulous speculators, but industry officials say government price controls that strangle profits are responsible. Authorities on Wednesday raided a warehouse in Caracas and seized seven tons of sugar hoarded by vendors unwilling to market the inventory at the official price.

Major private supermarkets suspended sales of beef earlier this week after one chain was shut down for 48 hours for pricing meat above government-set levels, but an agreement reached with the government on Wednesday night promises to return meat to empty refrigerator shelves.

Shortages have sporadically appeared with items from milk to coffee since early 2003, when Chavez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor.

Yet inflation has soared to an accumulated 78 percent in the last four years in an economy awash in petrodollars, and food prices have increased particularly swiftly, creating a widening discrepancy between official prices and the true cost of getting goods to market in Venezuela.

"Shortages have increased significantly as well as violations of price controls," Central Bank director Domingo Maza Zavala told the Venezuelan broadcaster Union Radio on Thursday. "The difference between real market prices and controlled prices is very high."

Most items can still be found, but only by paying a hefty markup at grocery stores or on the black market. A glance at prices in several Caracas supermarkets this week showed milk, ground coffee, cheese and beans selling between 30 percent to 60 percent above regulated prices.

The state runs a nationwide network of subsidized food stores, but in recent months some items have become increasingly hard to find.

At a giant outdoor market held last weekend by the government to address the problems, a street vendor crushed raw sugar cane to sell juice to weary shoppers waiting in line to buy sugar.

"They say there are no shortages, but I'm not finding anything in the stores," grumbled Ana Diaz, a 70-year-old housewife who after eight hours, had managed to fill a bag with chicken, milk, vegetable oil and sugar bought at official prices. "There's a problem somewhere, and it needs to be fixed."

Gonzalo Asuaje, president of the meat processors association Afrigo, said that costs and demand have surged but in four years the government has barely raised the price of beef, which now stands at $1.82 per pound. Simply getting beef to retailers now costs $2.41 per pound without including any markup, he said.

"They want to sell it at the same price the cattle breeder gets for his cow," he said. "It's impossible."

After a meeting with government officials Wednesday, supermarkets association head Luis Rodriguez told the TV channel Globovision that beef and chicken will be available at regulated prices within two to three days. He did not say whether the government would be subsidizing sales or if negotiations on price controls would continue.

The government has urged Venezuelans to refrain from panic buying and is looking to imports to help.

Jorge Alvarado, trade secretary at the Bolivian Embassy in Caracas, told the state news agency that Venezuela's government plans to import 330 tons of Bolivian beef next week, eventually bringing that to 11,000 tons a year. It also plans to import 8,250 tons of beans, chicken, soybeans and cooking oil, Alvarado said.

Government officials dismiss any problems with price controls, while state TV has begun running tickers urging the public to "denounce the hoarders and speculators" through a toll-free phone number.

"The weight of the law will be felt, and we demand punishment," Information Minister Willian Lara said Wednesday

Very Scary

In a typically uncritical "news report" Reuters says that John Edwards, in trying to outdo his Democratic rivals has proposed a big tax increase in order to get more money for his healthcare schemes. Particularly chilling:

"Finally we need to do a much better job of collecting the taxes that are already owed," he said, specifically targeting what he said are large amounts of unpaid capital gains taxes.

"We should have brokerage houses report the capital gains that people are incurring because we're losing billions and billions of dollars in tax revenue," Edwards said.

I seriously doubt he means unpaid realized capital gains. What he's probably looking to tax is unrealized capital gains. That's not the same as interest. When you put your money in a bank, the bank pays you interest. You actually see that cash every year. If you purchase a home or stock certificate and the value of that object goes up, that's an unrealized capital gain. You don't see the greater value in cash until you sell the object. Can you imagine paying income taxes on your house every year because the value is going up? I shudder at what that would do to people's retirement funds. I bet Edwards is glad he has his millions and really begrudges the little people actually earning some money in their lifetimes.

Methods of Media Bias

So the NY Times (who else?) showed photographs and video of a soldier dying. However, let's look at how the Houston Chronicle discussed the case. When liberals do something despicable they frame the controversy as an even sided debate. They also drone on about rules as if it is a a technicality in order to report the news, but bore the reader. They wait until the last paragraph, after over 1000 words, to mention the family.

Images of dying soldier renew war coverage debate
WASHINGTON — A photograph and videotape of a Texas soldier dying in Iraq published by the New York Times have triggered anger from his relatives and Army colleagues and revived a long-standing debate about which images of war are proper to show.

The journalists involved, Times reporter Damien Cave and Getty Images photographer Robert Nickelsberg, working for the Times, had their status as so-called embedded journalists suspended Tuesday by the Army corps in Baghdad, military officials said, because they violated a signed agreement not to publish photos or video of any wounded soldiers without official consent.

New York Times foreign editor Susan Chira said Tuesday night that the newspaper initially did not contact the family of Army Staff Sgt. Hector Leija about the images because of a specific request from the Army to avoid such a direct contact....

Now let's see how the could have been written article.

Family Blasts Times for Showing Death of Son
A Texas family who lost their son in Iraq is furious at the New York Times for publishing photos and a video of their son's death. His brother Dominque said this morning, "It's hard enough to lose a son, but the impact of his death widespread on the internet has been even more devestating." The Army pulled the embedded status privledge of the NY Times for their gross violation.

Seditious in Seattle

Lt. Watada is refusing to go to deploy, claiming he believes the Iraqi war is immoral. He was commissioned the Army after he graduate college in June 2003. The Iraq War started in March 2003. So if you think the war is illegal, why join knowing you'll likely go there.

There are some in the military who enjoy the benefits, the job security, etc, but when it comes time to actually do the thing they signed up for, they whine.

He should take his court martial like a man.

Of course the Media frames the debate is if it is about free speech. When you join the Army, you give up a lot of those rights.

Army officer court-martial tests free speech
SEATTLE (Reuters) - A U.S. Army officer, whose public refusal to go fight in
Iraq made him a champion of the anti-war movement, faces a court-martial next week when a military panel could determine the limits of free-speech rights for officers.

First Lt. Ehren Watada faces up to four years in prison if convicted on a charge of missing movements and two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer when his court-martial starts on Monday at Fort Lewis, an Army base near Seattle.

Watada, a 28-year-old artillery officer, refused to deploy with his brigade to Iraq last summer and called the war illegal and immoral. He refused conscientious-objector status, saying he would fight in
Afghanistan but not Iraq.

And You Thought Screening 8 Year Old Girls Was Bad?

On Wednesday, I was at the airport, returning home. While I've seen, plenty of 8 year old girls or 78 year old men, getting pulled out of line and given the full inspection, I've never been so aghast at what I saw.

A Iraq veteran who was a double amputee (both legs had very visible prostetics) obviously failed the metal detector and was pulled out of line. They didn't just give him the quick run down of the metallic wand, but they went the whole nine yards, including the chemical swab.

I only wish I had my camera. Imagine a veteran, with a high-and-tight haircut, camoflauge jacket, and two prostetics legs, standing with his arms outstretched and parallel to the ground, with the TSA lackey wiping him with a chemical swab.

When did we lose all common sense? Mark Twain once said common sense isn't common at all. I guess he was right. I talked to the veteran afterwards, and he's begrudgingly used to it by now. He's a representative for Salute America's Heroes so he does a lot of travelling.

"Bomb Scare" in Boston

It seems like Boston get the Stupid Government AND the Gestapo awards today. Not only did they not excercise any judgement or reason in investigating the Cartoon Networks guerrilla marketing ads, but they are looking to press felony charges against the two guys to put up the signs.

Overreacting is one thing, but then to furiously stamp his feet and demand felony charges, the mayor looks even MORE stupid.

By the way, bombs look like this:



or this:



but not like this:



The-sky-is-falling-we're-all-going-to-die panic followed by a temper tantrum on part of Boston's government is not leadership. No judgement was used on the part of the mayor, the Boston PD, or the media. Now, they're just trying to do damage control instead of admitting they screwed up. People, including Boston's mayor and Finest shouldn't believe everything they see on "24".

One thing I'll grant, is that it's not unreasonable for someone to call the thing in, esp. if it's stuck under a bridge. But, let me give you a real life example:

I was deployed to Kuwait and my navy unit guarded the two harbors that we use to ship supplies up to Iraq from USS Cole type attacks. One day we found a 55 gallon drum floating in the water. Of course we were going to investigate it. It could be a bomb. But it would be the height of stupidity to lock down the base send forces screaming all over hither and yon and then when it was all over and found to be nothing, charge some poor Haji who may have pushed the drum over the side of his fishing boat.

Yes, there is a threat to terrorist attacks and yes it's smart for citizens to call in suspicious objects, but the government has to react rationally. I can even accept the overreaction, but not charging the marketers after the fact (with a felony no less). That's the real criminal behaviour here.