Why the left isn't right

The far left that has taken over the Democrat party thinks that Jesus was a "community organizer," Barak Obama is the Messiah, global warming is the Gospel, and abortion is a sacrament.

Limousine liberals

What is a "limousine liberal?" Someone who says, "Green for thee, but not for me." Example: last month's Democratic National Convention (CNET News, "Democrats find 'green' political convention tough to enforce," August 28, 2008):

The Democratic Party has boasted that its convention here will be "the most environmentally-sustainable" gathering in the party's history, complete with a director of sustainability, low-power lighting in some areas, and calculations of carbon footprints.

But reality doesn't always match expectations. Bikes aren't permitted inside the convention's security perimeter, so golf carts and other vehicles are used. The wooden card keys proved buggy, and some were replaced with more-reliable plastic. Fried mini-donuts were prominently on sale inside the Pepsi Center. Party VIPs and celebrities told their decidedly non-green town cars and GMC Yukon XL mega-SUVs--rented from limo provider A Class Above Transportation--to idle, with engines and air conditioning on, in the nearby pickup area. (What self-respecting conference-goer wants to climb into a GMC Yukon when it's a toasty 93 degrees in the shade?)

Plus, a gathering of tens of thousands of people (and perhaps 70,000 for Barack Obama's Thursday acceptance speech) generate a whopping amount of trash. Even if it's sorted, recycling Obama-Biden signs takes energy, as does trucking in what the Journal reported to be 900 volunteers to monitor waste cans and perform the trash-separation, thereby taking them away from tasks that might be more productive.

Let us stipulate that the Democratic Party, perhaps because it was good marketing or perhaps because it was a sound principle, made an effort to promote recycling here. But whopping huge mounds of trash remain unavoidable—and the presence of idling SUVs--show that the concept remains more of a slogan than reality. (Then again, probably the only way to hold a "green" convention is to do it entirely over the Internet.)

Lieberman-Warner is the wrong answer

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." --Groucho Marx

Groucho perfectly describes the Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill, the so-called "cap-and-trade" bill being debated in the U.S. Senate. Global warming is a myth misdiagnosed (or misrepresented) as a global crisis, and Lieberman-Warner is the wrong remedy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is graphically keeping track of the hundreds of proposed mandates and regulations in the bill. Here is a current version (linked to a detailed description, where you can download the chart for a closer look):


This would be funny if it was just a parody out of Duck Soup, the 1933 Marx Brothers movie set in the fictional Freedonia, "the Land of the Spree, and the Home of the Knave." But if this bill passes, no one will be laughing.

For further analysis of the bill, visit the Basin Electric Power Cooperative "Better Solution" web site.

Grogan on the issues

Republicans in state House District 43B are pinning their hopes on endorsed candidate Brian Grogan to win the district, not just because the incumbent Rep. John Benson (DFL-Minnetonka) has only a 25% rating on the Taxpayers League of Minnesota legislative scorecard, but also because every seat is crucial to help sustain Gov. Tim Pawlenty's vetoes of the worst DFL legislation, and help get a Republican agenda through the legislative process, to shape the quality of life in this state for generations to come!

I asked Brian to comment on some of his legislative prorities. Here is what he wrote:

I firmly believe that Minnesota's raising health care costs are more related to our current regulations than to insurance company pricing practices. We need to bring down the anti-competitive walls and remove the HMO regulatory exemptions established by the Minnesota legislature.

Educational funding and the inadequacies of it, especially within my district, are related more to current law than the need to raise taxes. Currently, the Minnesota legislature restricts how much of the property taxes we pay can be retained within our school districts. And, the Minnesota legislature feels the Minneapolis and St. Paul districts deserve a higher per pupil fee than the suburban schools. I support legislation that would readdress the current, disproportionate school district per student funding laws.

In regard to our environment on a state legislative level, it is important we are excellent stewards of our resources but let us make sure we are making legislative decisions based on concrete scientific evidence. For example the idea that wind or solar energy will ever be able to meet a significant amount of our energy needs is false and is misleading the public debate. It can be a good alternative resource especially for homes but it is not a viable source for manufacturing plants and other type of businesses which are the largest user of energy within the state. The idea that nuclear energy isn’t a viable option is erroneous-it is being used effectively in many European nations. The key to nuclear energy is addressing the nuclear waste issue and we can address it through effective tax incentives and laws. In addition, coal can be burned very efficiently, is cost effective and our nation has enormous supplies of it. And, we can address the pollution concerns through current technology while further eliminating our reliance on foreign oil.

Lastly, the idea that global warming is scientifically proven to be related to our carbon dioxide emissions has not been scientifically established. It is plausible but not proven. Our planet is definitely going through a climate change but its cause and long term certainty has not been scientifically explained nor certified. Our state has the ability to address our energy needs in an economically viable way but not by over regulating businesses or by forcing costly alternatives on consumers and businesses.

I will propose viable solutions and bring a new vision for health care, education, job creation and energy policy. A vision to reshape government, achieve greater economic security for our citizens and enhance our schools and businesses. My vision believes and understands that our local businesses and citizens are best at solving and offering solutions to the Government and it is the legislature’s responsibility to be responsive to those needs.

Global warming: at least 31,000 short of consensus

The Star Tribune reported that on Monday, "the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine appeared before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and announced that it has the signatures of more than 31,000 scientists...who agree that the human impact on global warming is overblown:"

We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto ... and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.

Among the notable Minnesotans who signed the petition: WCCO-TV meteorologist Mike Fairbourne. Fairbourne had some courage to publicly declare skepticism about global warming, since his colleagues, anchorman Don Shelby and fellow meteorologist Paul Douglas, are noted believers in man-made global warming/climate change.

The Global Warming Petition Project is much more than just another Internet petition drive. It's a serious rebuttal to the junk science of global warming. The web site includes a summary of peer-reviewed research on the science of so-called global warming.

It's time to take a step back from flawed computer models, the gospel of global warming and its prophet Al Gore and his Hollywood disciples, and the very real economic damage being caused in the name of this myth.

Freedom: a better idea

There was a time in this country when we kids grew up learning about American innovators. Ford's Lee Iacocca had "a better idea." He captured the youth market with the Mustang, then when Ford scoffed at his minivan, he took it to Chrysler. Decades later, both products and their imitators are still going strong. The race to the moon inspired us and forever changed our life on Earth. Every year, American inventors earn more patents than inventors from all other countries combined.

Today, nanny-state socialist environmentalists who are pushing the compact florescent lamp (CFL), and the lawmakers and bureaucrats who love them, ironically sweep the dangers of the mercury and lead solder in each of the bulbs under the rug (figuratively speaking). These are some of the same people behind the effort to rid our medicine cabinets of mercury fever thermometers, rid our homes of thermostats with mercury switches, warn against consuming too much mercury-laced tuna, and lobby hospitals and clinics to eliminate vaccines preserved with thimerosol (which contains mercury). They justify other shortcomings of CFLs — high costs of manufacturing, inefficiency in frequent on-off applications, unsuitability in extreme temperatures like home ovens and your Minnesota garage during winter, the wastefulness of the disposable ballast — as a "net positive" in light of claimed reductions in greenhouse gasses, which is a whole 'nother adventure in junk science.

These problems should be discussed (the mass media won't), but they are not the worst thing about Congress banning Thomas Edison's incandescent bulb by 2014.

Just like smoking bans aren't really about public health, gun bans aren't really about public safety, light rail isn't really about relieving traffic congestion, ethanol isn't really about energy independence, the incandescent light bulb ban isn't really about reducing the mythical threat of global warming.

All of these misguided public policies in various ways expand government and reduce our freedoms.

Free markets and the profit motive has solved problems and improved the quality of life for over 200 years in this country. A year ago, Thomas Edison's General Electric announced a new incandescent light bulb technology, the high efficiency incandescent (HEI), that it claims is about as efficient as the CFL, but without the CFL's significant environmental, safety, and health hazards. Edison's successor inventors at GE Global Research are also working on a technology called OLED (organic light emitting diode), another low-cost, high-efficiency, "Earth friendly" lighting alternative.

Government rarely leads the way in innovation (except in the areas of taxation and redistribution of wealth). "Congress tends to jump on whatever the current buzz is in the 24-hour news cycle," said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN6), announcing her "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act," the necessity of which is a testament to intrusive hand of Big Brother.

Government should let the competition of free markets pick the winners and losers, and let the light bulb symbolize American innovation and know-how again.

"Who controls the past controls the future..."

"...who controls the present controls the past." —George Orwell

WCCO-TV Channel 4 and CBS News have apparently tried to control the past, using Dan Rather-style, ends-justifies-the-means "journalism," this time to advance their global warming agenda.

Yesterday on its web site, WCCO posted a story with a CBS dateline ("Protesters call attention to global warming"), that misrepresented the size and location of last Saturday's Sierra Club global warming rally, held on the mall of the Minnesota State Capitol. The text of the story was a roundup of the global warming demonstrations held around the country, but the accompanying video clearly showed images of the much larger Tax Cut Coalition rally, held on the steps of the State Capitol (that's the Quadriga visible in the screen capture image, for those of you who might remember it from your fifth grade Capitol tour; click for a larger size).

The story was pulled from the WCCO web site within an hour or so of the start of yesterday's Jason Lewis Show on 100.3 KTLK-FM, where the, ahem, inaccuracy was reported.

The local media has done its best to portray the attendance at the Tax Cut Coalition rally and the Sierra Club rally as comparable, when in fact the former outdrew the latter by, conservatively, 400% - 500%. Who needs a reality check now?

Visit the KTLK-FM web site, and local blogs like PheistyBlog, for the real story of the 2007 Tax Cut Coalition rally.

Global warming expedition called off due to extreme cold

An inconvenient truth.

[Expedition organizer Ann] Atwood said there was some irony that a trip to call attention to global warming was scuttled in part by extreme cold temperatures.

"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."