Vaclav Klaus hits the nail on the head. Global warming alarmism isn’t about saving the world from roasting, but about putting the world under the thumb of a few elites who know what is best for us, and the world:
Klaus, an economist, said he opposed the “climate alarmism” perpetuated by environmentalism trying to impose their ideals, comparing it to the decades of communist rule he experienced growing up in Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia.
“Like their (communist) predecessors, they will be certain that they have the right to sacrifice man and his freedom to make their idea reality,” he said.
“In the past, it was in the name of the Marxists or of the proletariat – this time, in the name of the planet,” he added.
Klaus said a free market should be used to address environmental concerns and said he opposed as unrealistic regulations or greenhouse gas capping systems designed to reduce the impact of climate change.
“It could be even true that we are now at a stage where mere facts, reason and truths are powerless in the face of the global warming propaganda,” he said.
He has called out Al Gore to a debate, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Looks like a great book though.
The American Energy Protection Act of 2008 (Senate Bill 2958) would remove restrictions on oil exploration and drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This would have opened access to about 24 billion barrels of oil, which is enough to keep America running for five years with no foreign imports, while other energy technologies are being developed.
…
Senate Bill 2958 would have removed commercial leasing restrictions on oil shale rich areas of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. Oil shale is a solid material containing oil, which makes it more expensive to extract than traditional oil liquids. But today’s oil prices have made access to this source of oil more cost effective.
It is estimated that there are two trillion barrels of unexplored oil shale right here in the United States. That’s trillion with a “t”.
…
The original Senate Bill 2958 is stuck in committee.
A few thousand emails to Sen. Jay Bingaman, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, might help to blast it onto the Senate floor. If you are interested, go to www.hermancain.com and click on “Do Something Now!”
Let’s see if the Democrats in the Senate can ignore 10,000 voices.
Bingaman, Jeff- (D – NM) Class I
703 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5521
E-mail: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov
Have fun!
UPDATE:
Here’s what I wrote. Feel free to cut and paste if you want:
Senator Bingaman,
I filled up my minivan last night at a cost of over $60. It isn’t the price of gasoline that upsets me, however. It is the fact that so much of our natural resources in America are off limits to American oil companies, leaving us at the mercy of oil producing countries. To show you how obscene this is, China is drilling 50 miles off of Key West, in an area off limits to American oil companies. This is to prevent an environmental disaster, as if China has a great record of respecting the environment.
Senator, Senate Bill 2958 is stuck in your committee. It would end this foolishness and give America a chance to provide for itself by doing two things:
1. It removes restrictions on oil exploration and drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This would have opened access to about 24 billion barrels of oil, which is enough to keep America running for five years with no foreign imports.
2. It removes commercial leasing restrictions on oil shale rich areas of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. It is estimated that there are two trillion barrels of unexplored oil shale right in our own country.
Let’s end the dedication to a small percentage of environmentalists, who rejoice at high oil prices because it lowers the number of cars on the road. It also raises the cost of many other things.
Senator, please do the right thing here. Take action that will help a majority of Americans.
Here I was worried about how I was going to pay for the trip to Las Vegas this September, and what do you know, I get this e-mail today:
Dear Friend,
I am an official for a bank here in Milano. I require your assistance and partnership in transferring huge amount of funds in euros out of my country. You will be required to: -
(1) Assist in the transfer of the said sum.
(2) Advise on lucrative areas for subsequent investment.
(3) Assist me in purchase of landed & viable properties.
I have all the information and guidance to enable you and I realize this opportunity.. Time is not in our favour; please establish secured communication with me through my email address.
Regards,
Francesco Pardo
If I were a bank official looking for help transferring a HUGE amount of Euros, and then help/advice in investing said sum, I would look to the main writer for a small to mid level blog, who thinks that his future may lie in goat farming and edible flower jelly.
This guy is obviously an idiot. How he got to be an official at a bank is beyond me. I am just gonna take all those Euros off his hands. I’ll let you know how it goes.
A new style of censorship is being considered by the Federal Communications Commission. The left understands the stigma attached to the “Fairness Doctrine,” so rather than try to reestablish it, they are taking another route to achieve the same goal:
In a 2007 report, an ultra-liberal think tank known as The Center for American Progress issued a report called “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio.” Jim Boulet of English First says its agenda was to cleverly recast the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” by using the term “localism.”
“In 2007, they issued a report in which they bragged that if they could get more women and minorities to own stations, there’d be fewer stations carrying programs like Rush Limbaugh. What the regulations also do is we create a board of censors, really, who the radio station would have to meet with four times a year to listen to all their complaints — and if they weren’t satisfied, the radio station could lose its license,” Boulet points out.
What they can’t stop with the “Fairness” Doctrine, they will stop with affirmative action in broadcasting.
One of the proposed regulations would require racial and sexual quotas for station ownership, and another would require that all “licensees should convene and consult with permanent advisory boards.” Boulet says he knows what that will mean.
“These boards are going to be made up of people like the [Council on] American-Islamic Relations, The National Council of La Raza – all a bunch of professional grievance mongers who will never be satisfied until programs like Rush Limbaugh are no longer on the air,” Boulet explains.
According to Boulet, the review process is expected to end on June 11, at which time the FCC will decide what to do.
There is an alternative. We preach active citizenry here, and one way of making your voice heard is via petition. There is a petition to tell the FCC what you think about this. It is at Keeprushontheair.com.
It is incredible they are even considering these things. As one Freeper said, “What part of the First Amendment, is so complicated?”
If McCain or Bush were making as many gaffes as Obama is making, they would be laughed out of office. You all know how they treat each and every error Bush makes as more evidence the President is an uneducated boob. But at least he never claimed to see dead people in the audience:
Having mispronounced the name of the Florida city he was speaking in on Friday, as well as erred about what president was in the White House when Hugo Chavez took over Venezuela, Barack Obama talked about seeing dead people in the audience during a Memorial Day speech in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Of course, you’re not likely to hear about this, because it seems a metaphysical certitude Obama-loving media won’t consider this newsworthy.
As such, consider yourself fortunate that Gateway Pundit found another delicious campaign mistake for us (video embedded right):
On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.
This guy’s seeing dead people, and folks are worried about McCain developing Alzheimer’s?
The Obamatons just sit and clap and cheer. He is the truth, the light and the way for these sycophantic drones. He probably can see the dead. He was probably speaking “metaphorically.” Yeah, that’s it.
And you can’t talk about Obama’s super powers either. That’s a distraction.
I recall I was standing up in the television control room, watching this new system we installed called DirecTV. My office was on the 01 level, just three levels below the flight deck. At sea, during flight ops, a person became used to the monotonous sounds of aircraft landing on the flight deck. While I was watching the satellite feed, the routine sounds continued in the back ground.
And then, something different happened.
That was the beginning of All American Blogger, one year ago today. It was a story I wrote about the men and women who had died while I was aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). One year later, we have posted 1,745 additional posts and made more friends than I would have expected. Our podcast started about the same time, and has also been a channel for us to meet some really fantastic people.
It has been the writing though, that has been the greatest way we have gained attention. It is interesting (for me, anyway) to look back at the posts and see how they have evolved, or improved, over the last year. For a while, we were blogging about just about anything. Then we became more focused and I think it has helped improve the blog.
Some of our articles over the past year have been really well done, but because of our relatively unknown status, received little attention. A few I thought deserved more attention than they received included “Bush Was Right to Veto,” an article detailing President Bush’s veto of an increase in “federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.”
Even the market understands that adult stem cell research is the better of the two options. And if liberals are convinced it is the other way around, nothing Bush has done can prevent them from donating money to companies or schools that are conducting research on embryonic stem cells. Bush is right. Taxpayer dollars should not be part of funding that research.
So while Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. cites polls that show nearly three-quarters of the public support embryonic stem cell research, I wonder what percent know the difference between pluripotent and multipotent stem cells, or has heard of “somatic cell reprogramming.†Very often, success stories simply say “stem cell,†and leave out the fact it is adult stem cells and not embryonic. The American public may not even know the difference. Besides, the fact that something is popular is not reason for moving ahead. Empirical evidence is. And the evidence shows adult stem cells are far more versatile and effective.
This is not an example of President Bush “ideology before science.†It is the Democrats putting politics before evidence and life. The evidence shows the case is stronger for adult stem cells.
I wonder when Michael J. Fox is going to make that commercial.
In July, I posted one of my favorite articles. I called it, “I Have a Right to Affordable Health Care…and a Sig Sauer P229.” The premise was simple: just because you have a right to something does not mean the federal government has to provide it to you. After all,
The government has only one role when it comes to health care: protect our right to choose the best health care available. They are not here to provide health care to me simply because I have a right to it.
If that is the case, I want my government to provide my Sig Sauer P229…with a full magazine, of course.
It was well received on Newsvine, but missed on the website.
Looking back through the posts from the past year, one that has been in the top ten most popular posts has been, “NY Times Attacks Fred Thompson’s Wife.” This illustrates two things. First, it shows the importance of pictures in driving web traffic, as I’m sure that people are not that interested in how the Times has attacked Fred Thompson’s wife. Second, it shows the hypocrisy of the Democrat party, who now says Michelle Obama is off limits. I wonder if they think Jeri Thompson is off limits now.
The current movement to legalize and normalize pedophilia may seem unrealistic to some. I have yet to have someone agree with me when I claim that it will be legal in the next 25-30 years. But there are many, as I have detailed here, who see pedophiles as an oppressed minority. They see the road to freedom as being the same road homosexuals marched down. The first step would be the removal of pedophilia as a mental illness, a move the APA has already considered. Then, using the research of Kinsey and others mentioned above, the move would be made to abolish the age of consent. With the seeming support of science, this could be possible and it would effectively legalize pedophilia. With the legal burden lifted, the effort would then shift to normalization and acceptance. This is done by pedophiles casting themselves as a minority, a victim of a culture that rejects them. March after march makes the sight of a fifty year old man giving a six year old boy a deep tongue kiss nothing more than a sign of America’s tolerance, regardless of who gets hurt.
There are some things we should not tolerate. The legalization and normalization of pedophilia is one of those things.
This article was followed shortly by…
“Folsom Street Fair – Toddlers Welcome.” I didn’t plan it that way and, honestly, I can’t think of another topic that has driven more unwanted traffic to this site. Since we covered the homosexual sadomasochistic San Francisco street fair that had public displays of masturbation, yet encouraged folks to bring toddlers, we have not gone a day without getting a hit from Google on: “public masturbation.”
Prior to the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, Columbia University hosted a six hour “teach-in†conference attended by around thirty of Columbia’s faculty. They took turns castigating President Bush and his plan to invade Iraq. The leftists also heard from Nicholas De Genova. De Genova is a professor of anthropology and Latin American studies who hates the military.
During the six hour “protest,†De Genova said “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the US military.†He encouraged junior enlisted and junior officers to murder their superior officers. He also wished for a “million Mogadishus,†referring to the 1993 battle where 18 American soldiers were killed and more than 70 wounded.
We are to believe that this rhetoric does “not in any way represent†the university’s position, but, on the other hand, Columbia University does not allow its students to participate in Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) on campus either.
It would not have happened if not for a link from “Ace of Spades HQ.” That was a big day for us, and one that I won’t soon forget. Thanks to Ace for the link, the traffic and the appreciation of our efforts.
Socialism has also been a target of mine over the past year, with one post in particular driving the point home well. The title is so simple, “I Bought a Gallon of Milk Today“:
Chavez’s socialist policies will reduce Venezuela to the same level as Zimbabwe, despite the record oil revenues. There are already food shortages, and inflation. For $10,000,000 Zimbabwe, you can buy one gallon of Heartland Creamery milk, but not much else. The strong bolivar will follow the same path.
Only, in Venezuela and Zimbabwe, there isn’t any milk to buy. Telling someone, “I bought a gallon of milk today†would be a big deal. People would want to know where you bought it and was there any left. But in America, I can find anything I want in a small town of 10,000 people. In fact, in the nearby town of 1,500, I could get just about the same choices.
Socialism fails everywhere it is tried. It always has, and always will. While capitalism may be the unequal distribution of wealth, socialism is the equal distribution of poverty. The only exception is the ruling elite.
The threat of socialism in America was made even more realistic with the words of Maxine Waters just last week.
Illegal immigration has also been a hot topic over the last year, from the Mexican military’s incursions into America to a five part series on the topic, which was seen by quite a few people. If you missed it, check it out:
Finally, global warming alarmism has been a passion of mine. I have written about the threat of global warming totalitarianism since the beginning. In my opinion, this isn’t a threat of the world burning up, but of alarmists controlling your behavior. In “Control by Carbon: The Totalitarian Side of Climate Change,” I show how the global warming, or climate change, agenda is slowing creeping into your everyday life:
No incandescent light bulbs. Big deal, right. Not really, but the big deal is that we no longer have a choice. That is a big deal to me. The government has restricted my access to the light bulb for my own good. I’m not really comfortable with that kind of control from on high. And now California has tried to take government control a step further:
Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages.
Imagine yourself enjoying the air conditioner on a hot, summer day. you just finished mowing the lawn, you are hot and sweaty and you just want to stand there by that vent and cool off. Then your air conditioner stops. And you can’t control it.
“Open Season” by Stuck Mojo.
This is the video that made me want to get
to know Rich Ward and Stuck Mojo.
We also had a fantastic talk with author Orson Scott Card (yes, that OSC…think Ender’s Game) on our podcast about Al Gore and the Church of Global Warming. We’ve had some other great interviews in the past year also. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch joined us to discuss his book “Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t” and Rich Ward of Stuck Mojo came on to discuss the band’s song “Open Season” and conservatism in general. Rich was a surprisingly excellent interview, and if you have not listened to it, you should. It is really inspirational to listen to Rich talk about his beliefs. Your kids could use a rock role model like Rich Ward.
My Newsvine friends were a big support to the blog also. Thanks to Andrew Min, Travis Farral and Doug Weber for helping out with articles and the occasional comments. It’s nice to have your familiar faces here.
And last but not least, the fellas over at A Newt One. They have been a big help in both blogging and podcasting. They encouraged us, with a little help from others, to jump from TalkShoe to BlogTalk Radio.
There are no doubt more, and I appreciate you all as well. Thanks for being a friend.
There are so many articles that I wanted to include in this post, but it just isn’t realistic. So a few months back, I convinced Andrew to create an “Archives” page. One thing I have noticed in writing this post is the number of articles still not featured on that page that should be. Nonetheless, check it out and get to know us. I promise you won’t be disappointed with our past, and I’ll do my best to make sure you won’t be disappointed with the next year.
Thank you all for your support. It means more than you know.
Happy Memorial Day everyone. I hope you all had the chance to spend some time with people you love today. Duane and his family are barbecuing with relatives today, and my family just walked in the door from a six day trip to Chicago to visit family.
Some folks went to parades today, some brought flowers to the cemetery to decorate graves of people you have lost, and some drank cold beer and ate pork ribs. Whatever you did today, I hope all of you will take a couple of minutes to remember the fallen soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who have given their lives in the service of this nation. Take a moment to think about the Americans who are serving around the world today while the rest of us were at the lake eating hot dogs and cole slaw.
It doesn’t matter who you are, or what your political beliefs are. From the most liberal democrat to the most conservative republican, we all owe the men and women of our military a debt of gratitude for protecting our right to live in a country where we can debate our political views and practice our beliefs freely, without fear of being thrown in jail or killed.
Here in America, we have something special, and it didn’t happen by accident. It happened because so many brave people in our history bought and paid for our freedom with blood, tears, and even their lives. So again, just take a moment – take 30 seconds to think about the country you live in, and why it is the way it is. And don’t be afraid to feel a little pride.
Update:
Here are a few pics from today’s ceremony in my hometown:
Dear Lord, lest I continue in my complacent ways, help me to remember that someone died for me today. And if there be war, help me to remember to ask and to answer “am I worth dying for?â€
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Democrats have maintained a socialist agenda for some time now, they just call it “Progressivism.” However, today Maxine Waters gave us another peek behind the curtain.
Wanna see a woman back-peddle? Hillary brings up assassination and the election in the same conversation. She didn’t really mean that Barack was going to get shot, but don’t let the Obamatons let facts get in the way.
And finally, Tom Harkin, Democrat from Iowa, said that there is no way John McCain should be president. Why? His military record. It really shouldn’t surprise you.
We have preached and preached that the Democrat’s agenda reeks of socialism. Now, Maxine Waters, who has a history of embracing communists, lets it slip:
Castro has always played the race card in relations with the United States and has courted black Americans skillfully. He has also made his island a refuge for criminals who style themselves “political prisoners” in the U.S. One such was Joanne Chesimard, who in 1973 murdered a police officer in New Jersey. She was sentenced to life in prison, but escaped in 1979, changed her name to Assata Shakur, and made her way to Cuba. There she dines out on her “persecution” by the American criminal justice system, regaling Latin American and European visitors with her experiences. At the same time, people whose only crime was to attend Mass or try to publish a free newspaper paper unlamented in Castro’s prison.
As Jay Nordlinger reported in National Review, Shakur was the subject of a misunderstanding between Fidel Castro and California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Waters had voted for a measure calling for the extradition of “Joanne Chesimard.” Only later did Waters discover that Chesimard was Assata Shakur. Abashed, Waters wrote a truckling letter to Castro personally explaining that she had no idea these women were one and the same and would never have voted as she did if she had known. She went on to decry the “Republican leadership” in the House of Representatives for “deceptive intent” in using the old name, and added that the 1960s and 1970s had been “a sad and shameful chapter of our history” when “vicious and reprehensible acts were taken against” people like Shakur, forcing them to “flee political persecution.” It’s difficult to say which part of this letter is the most disgusting: the “apology” by a sitting member of the United States Congress to a brutal dictator; the suggestion that it was somehow “vicious and reprehensible” for the U.S. to convict and imprison a murderer; or the notion that a country like Cuba was a refuge from “political persecution” when, in fact, Cuba is one of the world’s leading practitioners of political persecution?
Then in the Elian Gonzales case, she was all for sending the boy back to Cuba.
We have covered the illegal immigration topic extensively, and have come to the conclusion that our open border policy results in the trafficking of children for sexual purposes, the unnecessary deaths of Mexicans and other aliens in the desert and unnecessary deaths of American on the streets.
One of the many things that have been jaw-droppingly outrageous was the attempt by John McCain and Ted Kennedy to pass “comprehensive immigration reform.” The American people spoke very loudly on that issue, demanding security first, then we can deal with the illegals in the country. It was loud enough that even McCain could hear it on the Democrat side of the aisle. Or so he said:
“I will secure the borders, I will secure the borders first.”
“Senator Kennedy and I tried very hard to get immigration reform, a comprehensive plan, through the Congress of the United States,†he said. “It is a federal responsibility and because of our failure as a federal obligation, we’re seeing all these various conflicts and problems throughout our nation as different towns, cities, counties, whatever they are, implement different policies and different programs which makes things even worse and even more confusing.â€
He added: “I believe we have to secure our borders, and I think most Americans agree with that, because it’s a matter of national security. But we must enact comprehensive immigration reform. We must make it a top agenda item if we don’t do it before, and we probably won’t, a little straight talk, as of January 2009.â€
Mr. McCain asked others on the panels for suggestions about how to “better mobilize American public opinion†behind the notion of comprehensive immigration reform.
His attachment to this movement is enough to push away even those who swallowed hard and supported his candidacy, even when they didn’t care for him. People like John Hawkins at Right Wing News:
John McCain is a liar. He’s a man without honor, without integrity, who could not have captured the Republican nomination had he run on making comprehensive immigration a top priority of his administration. Quite frankly, this is little different from George Bush, Sr. breaking his “Read my lips, no new taxes pledge,” except that Bush’s father was at least smart enough to wait until he got elected before letting all of his supporters know that he was lying to them.
Under these circumstances, I simply cannot continue to support a man like John McCain for the presidency. Since that is the case, I have already written the campaign and asked them to take me off of their mailing list and to no longer send me invitations to their teleconferences. I see no point in asking questions to a man who has no compunction about lying through his teeth on one of the most crucial election issues and then changing his position the first time he believes he can get away with it.
Moreover, I genuinely regret having to do this because I do still believe the country would be better off with John McCain as President as opposed to Obama or Clinton. However, I just cannot in good conscience cast a vote for a man who has told this big of a lie, for this long, about this important of an issue.
Welcome to the club, John. We’re expecting more, so grab a chair and let’s try to figure out what to do. I personally think a sandwich is a good start, but I usually do. After we eat, then maybe we can start lobbying for Tancredo as Veep.
The Roswell Beacon featured an article detailing how law enforcement officials were going to deal with racists who might be gunning for Barack. It is a great idea for an article, because that has to be an interesting subject. However, the Kos kids were a little upset with the graphic they chose for the cover of the magazine.
A diarist named “spiralstairs” wrote on Daily Kos, “The article itself is not offensive, but the cover is beyond the pale. As indicated by the article, there are some serious racists in the area, and Obama’s candidacy has brought out the worst in a lot of people. The last thing we need is a newspaper to suggest assassination with an incendiary cover such as this.”
Readers — Kos receives more than 1.3 million visits a day, according to sitemeter.com — were encouraged to contact the newspaper and its advertisers. By day’s end, Holiday Inn announced it would no longer do business with the Beacon…
The paper’s publisher said the Kossacks were using “liberal blogger thuggery.”
Well, yeah. That’s what they do. Now you have a cover story for next edition.
I just wanted to remind everyone that All American Blogger is still in the running for “Best Political Blog” in this year’s Blogger’s Choice Awards. We took the badge down with the new design, but we would appreciate any votes we can get.
Right now we are standing at 40 votes, which puts us behind our friend Dustin at Dustin’s Gun Blog. The top political blog only has 133 votes, though. I know from our Feedburner stats that we have a lot more subscribers than that, so if you have a few minutes, please give us a vote.
Gov. Sarah Palin, mother of five and the Governor of Alaska, says “The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species.” Ah, if we only have about forty-nine more governors like this hottie, er, governor:
She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state’s northern and northwestern coasts.
Palin argued that there is not enough evidence to support a listing. Polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation, she said.
Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, said Palin, a Republican.
Notice anything? They were sure to note, very clearly, that Palin was a Republican.
Good for her. I think she might be a good choice for McCain’s Vice President. Maybe she could straighten out his global warming beliefs.