Seventy global warming skeptics are going to speak at the International Conference on Climate Change next month.
It seems like every time I write about my global warming skepticism I get somebody who comments here that I am ignoring the facts about global warming. The last post that I wrote about this issue a commenter echoed Al Gore and told me that global warming is a fact and that there isn’t even a debate any more. This is not true. There is debate, there is nothing wrong with debate. There is something wrong however with people who try to shut down debate. It is funny how the only people who claim the global warming debate is over are people who believe it is true. There are plenty of people, including scientists, out there who believe that it is not true.
So I sit here now and I have found yet another article that debates global warming, this time 70 people are going to speak about global warming skepticism and they reiterate a couple of points that I have been trying to make here for quite some time.
Harrison Schmitt, a former astronaut and current global warming skeptic believes, as do I, that scientists are being bullied into publicly supporting the global warming scam.
They’ve seen too many of their colleagues lose grant funding when they haven’t gone along with the so-called political consensus that we’re in a human-caused global warming
This echoes a point that I have made in the past. Scientists are federally funded through grants and if they wish to keep the grant money coming in they have to tow the company line. Considering the federal government stands to make billions of dollars off of this scam they have a considerable reason to intimidate scientists with the threat of lost funding if they don’t aquise to the notion of man-made global warming. Millions of dollars in grant money is a pittance compared to the billions the government stands to make.
Schmitt then seconds another of my positions on global warming with the following statement:
global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making.
Exactly, these politicians see a chance with this politically correct issue to take advantage of people’s sensitive side, after all nobody wants to destroy the planet. The politicians play to this sensitivity as a means to regulate and control the people through tax hikes, legislation, and restrictions on activities which are currently free.
Every solution to global warming includes fees, taxes, restrictions, and regulations. Global warming is not a scientific issue, it is a political issue, and it’s only purpose is to put more money in the government coffers at our expense.
Why Isn’t President Obama Signing the Stimulus Bill Until Tuesday?
Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell
President Obama has been using the politics of fear to pass his massive welfare program (AKA the stimulus bill) since before he even took the oath of office. He claimed that to delay the bill would be disastrous and a catastrophe would ensue, he also made the statement, and I paraphrase here, that every day that passes without a stimulus bill more Americans lose there jobs. He tried to frighten the American people into supporting this bill and he tried to frighten congress into passing it.
He succeeded in rushing the congress into passing this disastrous piece of legislation. So much so that none of the representatives or senators even had a chance to read the bill before they signed it. To me that is the most egregious aspect, and there are many, of this whole issue. The fact that a senator or congressman would put a positive vote forth on a bill without knowing what was actually in the bill is beyond irresponsible. I think that it is criminal. I think that it should be impeachable. Anyone who votes for a bill without knowing what is in it should be removed from office. Anyone who signed this bill without reading it should be removed from office by the voters when they come up for re-election. They are doing a disservice to the people whom they are supposed to be representing.
The president claimed that all delays in getting the stimulus bill passed were unacceptable, that the time for playing politics was over and it was time to pass the bill because a catastrophy would be the result of inaction and debate. Now that the bill is ready for his signature where is dear leader? On vacation. President Obama decided to take a three day holiday weekend before he returns on Tuesday to sign this bill, the same bill that there could be no delay on.
Why the three day delay? Doesn’t the president care that more Americans are going to lose their jobs over the next three days because of his delay? If this bill was so damned important than shouldn’t he have postponed his long weekend and shouldn’t he have signed the bill first and then gone on vacation?
The truth is that there was no hurry to pass this bill other than the artificial time-line that he put on the bill so that he could have the appearance of taking fast action on a desperate situation. He doesn’t care about Americans losing their jobs, the intent of this bill isn’t to stimulate the economy. The intent of this bill was to get as many people as possible dependent on government while at the same time growing the government and funding far left organizations and programs such as the corrupt ACORN.
The artificial time-line that was given by Obama was just a disguise so the bill would be passed before the American people could see what was in it. There was no immediate looming catastrophe. (Other than the bill itself.) As word began to leak out about some of the more preposterous funding, pork-barrel projects that were in the bill, the louder the opposition became from the public. The louder the public outcry became, the more dire dear leader made delay on the bill sound. Obama got more determined to pass the bill quickly as the public learned what was in the bill. He needed it passed before the pressure from the public grew too loud for the congress to ignore. And he succeeded. That is why he was in a hurry to pass this bill.
Now that the bill is passed and the American people can’t stop it he can take his little vacation and the bill will still be there when he returns. More Americans will have lost there jobs since Obama went on vacation, but if you thought that he cared about that, and if you thought that this bill was designed to help stimulate the economy, his inaction to sign the legislation before he went on vacation should prove otherwise.
Obama achieved his goal and now that the bill has passed there is no hurry to sign it. The bill will be there when he returns from vacation on Tuesday and he will sign it. There is nothing that you or I can do to stop it, that is why there is no hurry to sign the bill anymore. That is why he can wait until Tuesday to sign the bill.
Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell
Now that the stimulus bill has passed and it is too late to do anything about it we are starting to get stories like this one that claim that President Obama’s stimulus plan is going to reverse the welfare reforms that President Regan and President Clinton put into place, these welfare reforms got people off of welfare and made them functioning contributors to society instead of the drain that they were.
RONALD REAGAN started it, Bill Clinton finished it and last week Barack Obama was accused of engineering its destruction. One of the few undisputed triumphs of American government of the past 20 years – the sweeping welfare reform programme that sent millions of dole claimants back to work – has been plunged into jeopardy by billions of dollars in state handouts included in the president’s controversial economic stimulus package
I don’t think that the welfare reforms went far enough in the first place, but now even those reforms are gone, or will be soon, replaced with programs that will encourage people to return to the government mammary for a free ride. But that was Obama’s goal all along.
Robert Rector, a prominent welfare researcher who was one of the architects of Clinton’s 1996 reform bill, warned last week that Obama’s stimulus plan was a “welfare spendathon” that would amount to the largest one-year increase in government handouts in American history.
And it gets worse, just look at this projection:
Douglas Besharov, author of a big study on welfare reform, said the stimulus bill passed by Congress and the Senate in separate votes on Friday would “unravel” most of the 1996 reforms that led to a 65% reduction in welfare caseloads
Obama has, with the help of a lapdog Democrat majority and three despicable RINOs, undone what could be considered the only good thing that President Clinton accomplished in his eight years in the White House. Welfare cases dropped 65% after the reform bill of 1996 was passed and now Obama’s plan will undo most of it.
Call me stupid but I always thought that the least amount of people living of of government handouts the better. I always thought that the more people who could fend for themselves the better. I always thought an independent minded people made a stronger and more productive nation, but that is not what this president wants, he wants as many people dependent on government as possible and with one bill he has undone most of the hard work of the last twenty years that was aimed at getting people out working for themselves.
Michael Steele summed it up best:
If you like government dependence, you will love the plan they are jamming through Congress
Is Obama’s Census Grab Unconstitutional?
One issue that was flying underneath the radar was President Obama’s plan to oversee the census. When Judd Gregg removed his name from consideration for commerce secretary it shed a new light on the census issue.
There is a line of thought out there that President Obama’s possible takeover of the census bureau is unconstitutional. There has been talk on the radio and by some in congress:
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that there was no legal or constitutional basis for Obama’s plans, citing the fact that Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which contains the census provision, spells out the powers of Congress — not of the president or executive branch.
“We [Congress] give to the executive branch and the Commerce Department the requirement to administer this constitutional duty, belonging to the Congress,” Issa explained. “By no means is there any basis, legal or constitutional basis, for the president to direct the census.”
Article 1 Section 2 of the constitution, which deals with the responsibilities of the house of representatives, spells out clearly who is responsible for the census:
The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.
It is clear that the intent of the constitution was to designate the responsibility of census taking to the house of representatives. It is also clear that the founding fathers did not want the president of the United States to have too much power, which is why we have the three branches of government, the old checks and balances that the Democrats talked so much about over the last eight years.
There is absolutely no constitutional basis for President Obama to oversee the census. This move is clearly unconstitutional. And it is being done for political reasons. The only reason that President Obama can have for overseeing the census has to be so that he can influence the redistricting of house seats. He is clearly meddling in a branch of government that he does not belong in. Here are Rahm Emanuel’s words from 2006:
“If you think redistricting is always partisan and political which it is…it’s going to be on steroids this time.”
What does he mean by that? Why is the white house being so silent and mysterious about this issue? Nobody will say what Obama even means by work closely or overseeing the process. Who is he planning to count? Illegals? What methods is he planning to use to count the people? Sampling? The constitution clearly states that an actual enumeration shall be made. So sampling in itself is unconstitutional. And has been ruled unconstitutional.
This whole action seems unnecessary to me in the first place. Congress is constitutionally bound to take the census every ten years. The head of the census bureau reports to the commerce secretary and the commerce secretary reports to the president. Shouldn’t Obama then have been able to appoint a commerce secretary that shares his beliefs on what the census should consist of and how it should be managed? President Obama could have achieved whatever his ultimate, devious ulterior motive was silently with his appointment of a commerce secretary who shared his beliefs. He could have abandoned the constitution on this issue in stealth mode but he chose to blatently discard the constitution.
Perhaps this is what he meant by an open and transparent administration.
Stimulus Bill Passes Without Anyone Bothering to Read the Bill
President Obama is an impatient man. Part of this comes from his arrogance and part of it come from his narcissism. President Obama tried to become the fastest president in history to nominate and have his cabinet confirmed.
In his rush to be the fastest he obviously cut corners and didn’t do his homework and we have all seen and must acknowledge the disaster and political nightmare that has ensued from his impatience with regard to his cabinet nominees.
He hasn’t learned his lesson from that fiasco as he rushes to pass his stimulus bill. As the homework wasn’t done on his cabinet appointees he is pressuring the house and senate to pass this bill so quickly that they are not able to do their homework on this bill. Nobody has had a chance to even read the bill that they are now being pressured to vote on.
Nothing good can come from a bill that is hiding so much that the president is demanding a vote before anyone can look at the bill. Gone is the president’s promise to past this bill online so that the American people can see it. There is a reason for this. President Obama knows that if the American people knew what was in this bill they would never be in favor of it. He may also be afraid that if enough senator and representatives were actually given enough time to read this bill they might not vote for it.
Here is GOP leader John Boehner:
Why is the New Hampshire Governor Still Popular?
Why is Governor John Lynch still so popular?
That is a question that I have been asking myself for quite a while and this poll may finally give me an answer. When asked about New Hampshire’s budget problems here were the results:
In a poll of 619 New Hampshire adults between Feb. 5 and 9, only one-third said they have heard or read a lot about the state’s budget problems, 48 percent said they have heard a little and 18 percent said they have heard nothing. Yet, nearly half believe the state’s budget problems are “very serious” or “serious.”
A total of 66% of the people polled replied that they have either heard only a little about the state’s budget problems or nothing at all, while only 33% polled have heard allot about the budget problems.
66% of the people don’t know how Governor Lynch has spend this state into a huge fiscal hole! Residents of New Hampshire who know little or nothing about the budget problems that we face are simply not paying attention. And they are the vast majority.
You can’t pick up a newspaper or watch the local news and not know something about the budget problem. Of course the news spins the problem to make it sound like it is the national economy that has sunk New Hampshire into a fiscal emergency when in fact the governor spent his way into this whole, but even that doesn’t matter if the voters of New Hampshire don’t even care enough to bother to pick up a paper or watch the news.
In an odd way I feel a little better knowing this information. I thought that the voters liked the direction that Governor Lynch was leading the state and now I know that that might not be the case at all, voters are just to apathetic towards New Hampshire politics to even pay attention. It isn’t that voters approve of the job that Governor Lynch is doing, they just don’t care.
That thought isn’t so reassuring after all, it is scary. So I leave you with a plea to the voters of New Hampshire:
If you are a voter of New Hampshire and you do not follow politics or are to apathetic to follow the state budget or even the direction the state is headed in please do us all a favor; don’t decide on election day that you suddenly care, don’t show up on election day. If you don’t care enough to pay attention during the year please don’t pay attention on election day. If you don’t know the issues, don’t bother to vote on election day. We will all be better off for it.
Bill Clinton Wants to Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine
Add Bill Clinton to the list of Democrats who wants to reinstate the fairness doctrine.
Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side,” Clinton said, “because essentially there’s always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows and let face it, you know, Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous
Bill Clinton did make a good point in that quote, there is money in conservative talk radio. Yes, conservative talk radio makes the radio stations money and that is why they are on the air. Liberals have had talk radio programs, and still do, liberals have had radio networks but the problem is nobody listens to liberal talk radio so the radio stations don’t make money and the shows get cancelled. It is as simple as that.
There is a very good reason why liberals don’t listen to talk radio to hear opinions that they agree with– they don’t have to. Liberals have cornered the market in every other media form from television to newspapers.
Conservatives on the other hand only have talk radio where they can hear conservative voices. That is why the left is so anxious to reinstate the fairness doctrine, they want to limit the last bastion of conservative talk, the one media outlet that they don’t dominate.
The groundswell is growing now that these non-inclusive, insensitive Democrats have power. They are looking to end free speech and to silence the opposition, they are looking to squash all of those that do not believe what they believe. They want to end debate.
There is nothing more un-American than that.
Judd Gregg Decides Not to Run For Re-election in 2010
Yesterday Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination for Commerce Secretary in Obama’s administration. He did this in my opinion for one reason and one reason only– the census.
President Obama, after Gregg accepted the nomination, removed the biggest responsibility of the Commerce Secretary from his control. President Obama has handed the responsibility of the census over to his chief of staff, this is the first time in Unites States history that the census will be controlled by the president. This is being done for political reasons because the results that Obama receives from the census will be used to redistrict the house of representatives. Clearly a political power grab.
This embarrassed and humiliated Judd Gregg who realized that Obama played him for a fool. Obama reached across the isle all right. He reached across and took power away from his Commerce Secretary and put it in his own hands. Judd Gregg had no option but to resign on principle alone.
Today the news comes that Judd Gregg is not going to run for re-election in 2010, I think that he may have been leaning towards retiring from the senate before he accepted Obama’s nomination, that may have been part of the reason that he accepted the nomination.
I am sure that Gregg feels betrayed by Obama and embarrassed and that may be part of his reasoning also.
It may be a good thing for Republicans that Gregg has decided not to run for re-election, Gregg has drawn allot of ill will over this whole fiasco. First with his supporters and Republicans who felt that he abandoned the party and the state by accepting the nomination in the first place. And secondly, on his withdrawal from consideration for the position, by Obama supporters who are extremely pissed of at Gregg because they feel this was nothing but a political ploy to embarrass Obama.
Clearly the Obama supporters are not thinking with clear heads on this issue. Gregg comes off worse than Obama in this whole fiasco. Gregg’s name is being run through the mud while people just look at Obama and see nothing new, just another appointee to his cabinet that has a controversy or resigned.
Gregg has built up so much ill will here that it is probably best to have another Republican candidate try to win the seat in 2010. Until then we will just have to hope that Gregg extracts his payback over the next two years for the injustices done to him by Obama and his unprecedented power grab.
President Obama has been embarked on a magical, mystical tour to try to sell his stimulus bill to a country that doesn’t want it. He is not above saying anything to persuade the people that his stimulus package will work, including lying.
President Obama told an audience at one of his gatherings that if only the Senate would pass his stimulus bill Caterpillar would hire back some of the people that they were forced to lay off. He claimed that the company told him they would hire back employees if the stimulus bill passed.
This was an out and out lie, it was bullshit. Today the CEO of Caterpillar called out the president on his bogus lie.
The CEO of Caterpillar said today that not only will Obama’s stimulus package not stop the layoffs from happening but that there would be more layoffs before the company began hiring again.
President Obama was caught in another lie. He will do and say anything to pass his radical left agenda, the truth be damned.
Today the CEO of Caterpillar basically exposed Barry Obama for who he is. He is a fraud, he is all style and no substance and most of his style appears to be lies. But he lies so well, he says it so well that people just want to believe him. We find out more and more every day however, that he cannot be trusted. His word isn’t worth the paper that it is printed on.
Judd Gregg Resigns as Nominee for Commerce Secretary
Today Senator Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination to become President Barry Obama’s Commerce Secretary dealing yet another blow to Obama’s scandal ridden cabinet.
This withdrawal, for once, had nothing to do with tax problems. Or the campaign finance and ethics violations like the man that Judd Gregg was replacing is having to deal with.
This withdrawal was about irreconcilable differences between the administration and SenatorGregg. Senator Gregg specifically mentioned the stimulus bill but I believe there is an issue that was much more of a thorn in his side. An issue that he just couldn’t get past. An issue that he just couldn’t accept. I believe this because Senator Gregg knew where Barry stood on the issues, he knew where Obama stood on the stimulus and yet he still agreed to join his cabinet so there must be more. And there is.
Just days after Judd Gregg was announced as President Obama’s choice for Commerce Secretary, a move solely designed to secure a 60 vote majority in the senate, the president tried to pull a fast one on Gregg straight out of the Chicago politics playbook. He took away the biggest responsibility that the Commerce Secretary has and put it in his own hands. The execution of the census. Barry Obama had so much faith in his new Commerce Secretary designate that he stripped from him his biggest responsibility. This must have irritated the living hell out of Gregg who must feel that he was played for a fool.
So today Judd Gregg dealt Barry Obama the same type of embarrassment that he was probably feeling himself ever since Obama announced his decision to take over the census himself.
