Climate realists around the world have contended for years that the real goal of alarmists such as Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his followers is to use the fear of man-made global warming to redistribute wealth.
On Monday, one of Gore's leading scientific resources, Goddard Institute for Space Studies chief James Hansen, sent a letter to Barack and Michelle Obama specifically urging the president-elect to enact a tax on carbon emissions that would take money from higher-income Americans and distribute the proceeds to the less fortunate.
The eco-socialism cat was let out of the bag on page five of a PDF Hansen published at Columbia University's website on December 29...
(letter follows)
#1
Hansen proposes a tax on carbon with proceeds distributed per capita (not on the basis of wealth).
Although Hansen says this will be a progressive tax, I'm pretty sure he is factually wrong on this. On gasoline, use increases with income but at a slower rate than income. The same is true with electricity.
#2
It's Progressive, really! And the only Ukranians Stalin killed were Kulacks, he'd never do anything mean to real honest poor deserving Peasants, that would be against communism!
#4
The carbon tax has social benefits. It is progressive. It is useful to those most in need in hard times, providing them an opportunity for larger dividend than tax. It will encourage illegal immigrants to become legal, thus to obtain the dividend, and it will discourage illegal immigration because everybody pays the tax, but only legal citizens collect the dividend.
Yes, we all know that the only thing that keeps illegal immigrants from signing up to become legal is the absence of free money directed at them. And how do you collect the tax on money that is often paid in cash off the books?
And what about those who consume massive amounts of carbon fuels by flying or using mass transit? Should we put GPS chips in them tax them for the distances they travel from home? They are already talking about putting GPS chips in cars so that they can tax us on road use. I believe Oregon and Idaho have seriously considered the possiblity of doing that.
It won't be long before the start rationing our food intake too. No one should get more than their share. Obesity is a problem and health care is expensive. It's all for the good of the children.
#6
The time is going to come yet when all these idiots are gathered into one room, and the air taken out of it. People are going to get angry and stay angry, and it's not long off. Hanson needs to both be fired and refund his cumulative paycheck for the last ten years. He's a political "scientist" who is more than willing to make up data when the real stuff doesn't fit his beliefs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 21:27 Comments ||
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#7
Global Warming is only one part of it - we now have the US-WORLD RECESSION/DEPRESSION, aka MSM-Net's "GREAT DEPRESSION II", which can last for many more DECADES than the original 1929-1939/WW2 Dreat Depresion I ever would've have.
ITS NOT SOCIALISM-GOVTISM OR OWG-NWO, ETC. ITS "US-GLOBAL ECONOMIC RECESSION/DEPRESSION" + "ECON CHAOS", ITS MULTI-STATE, MULTI0REGION, MULTI/TRANS-CONTINENTAL "NEW ECONOMIC COMMUNALISM/COMMUNITARIANISM" + "GROWTH BLOCS"???
In more important news, MCDONALD'S GUAM brings back the SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH + MEAL!
#8
Again, unfortunately for all concerned the GREAT SOLAR EXPLOSIONS = "GREAT SOLAR STORMS" known as the "SIRIUS EVENT" DID OCCUR - the Perts remain scientifically uncertain as to what the phenom meant as per PRESNET + LONG-TERM LIFE ON EARTH.
* GLOBAL WARMING-COLING > this will be the first time that MODERN OR POST-MODERN SCIENCE, HUMAN ANALYTICAL METHODISMS, ETC, will be around to observe BOTH A MAJOR NATURALLLY-OCCURRING EPOCH(S) THAT IS ALSO A POSSIBLY CATASTROPHIC NATURAL GLOBAL EPOCH(S)???
PRAGMATISM > NO MATTER HOW GOOD OR BAD ONE'S SCIEN MODEL(S), THEORIES, + CALCULATIONS, ETC. ARE, NOTHING WILL BEAT WHAT ACTUALLY OCCURS.
E.g. TOPIX/REDDIT > SCIENCE WANTS TO DEV AND POWER-UP A TINY "WORKING SUN" [as modeled on our own].; + CNN last Nite > LARRY KING Guests > on "UFO's" as de facto SPACE ALIENS VISITING EARTH, versus MASSIVE GOVT-LED HI-TECH COVERUP + CONSPIRACY [Le Questionne = WHY A COVER-UP?].
Why a COVER-UP(S), why build MILE-LONG OR LARGER SPACE CRAFTS, why "Globalism" versus "Status Quo", why .............................@!
Oliver Stones "JFK" > DONALD SUTHERLAND as "THE COLONEL" = "Thats the real Questionion, is't it, Mr. Garrison, WHY"???
#9
Looks like the FBI-CIA/INTEL-PYWAR - you know, the Mafia - and DHS, World-conquering USSA = Weak United Socs Republiks of Amerika's SKYNET, etc. is ruuning low on bytespace to SSSSSHHHHH read our emails again???
D *** NGED CARLYLE US ARMY WAR COLLEGE - OOOOPSIES, MY BAD, I MEANT "CARLYLE INVESTMENT GROUP".
More than 700 white farmers will retain their land in keeping with proposals by Zimbabwe's government to improve food security and restore confidence in the agriculture sector, the state-run Sunday Mail weekly reported here.
Quoting a report presented at the ruling party's annual conference two weeks ago, the paper said the government was currently drafting offer letters for a group of 341 unspecified white farmers who would be allowed to continue
farming throughout the country.
Don't believe it ...
Another group of 97 white farmers would also be allowed to continue running conservancies in six of the country's 10 provinces while a further 278 farms would be spared from government expropriation as they are protected under bilateral investment protection agreements with 13 countries.
This would bring to 716 the total number of farms spared from compulsory acquisition by the Zimbabwean government for purposes of resettling landless people.
Zimbabwe had more than 6,000 white farmers who formed the backbone of the economy prior to the land reform programme in 2000. A further 140 white farmers would be prosecuted for failing to vacate farms after receiving eviction notices.
The decision to spare some farmers from eviction follows on the heels of a landmark case in which 78 white farmers successfully challenged the constitutionality of Zimbabwe's land reform programme at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in Namibia. The tribunal ruled in favour of the farmers and said Zimbabwe had violated the SADC Treaty which forbids countries to discriminate on the basis of colour or race. All of this happy-talk took place at the powerless SADC in Windhoek. What will actually happen is Zim may be another story.
#1
That ruling will mean a whole lot when a group of Zanu-PF thugs shows up in the middle of the nigh, drags you and your wife outside, rapes both of you, sets you on fire, etc.
#2
Slightly off topic (but not much), anyone ever seen the French documentary "Idi Amin Dada"? I watched it the other day... a fascinating film. It brought to mind the phrase "banality of evil". I had thought "Dada" in the title was a reference to the surreal, but in fact Idi Amin had a last name, and it WAS "Dada". Ironic, eh?
#4
Let's hope those white farmers got some top-soil saved from the good old days and know how to dry-plant behind a team of oxen.
Apologies for not responding to your query the other evening re Namibia, Besoeker, but I concur, they are a waste of space and oxygen, much the same as the Patriotic Front they morphed from, no change at all.
BTW, a good friend of mine is still trying to teach the principals of ploughing to the proper depth, but I guess that's hard when there are only AK47s, dogma and no tractors.
For those who thought the new era of Democratic governance would be dull, we present this year's Senate replacement follies. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich kept the entertainment going yesterday by defying just about everyone and nominating former state Attorney General Roland Burris to the seat being vacated by President-elect Obama.
Recall that federal prosecutors had gone public with their criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich earlier this month expressly to deter him from making such an appointment. Mr. Obama had then declared that the Governor should not make an appointment, and Senate Democrats had said they wouldn't seat anyone Mr. Blagojevich did appoint. Majority Leader Harry Reid repeated that pledge yesterday regarding Mr. Burris, who lost to the Governor in a primary in 2002 but then was vice chairman of his transition team.
Democrats who run the state assembly are still trying to impeach Mr. Blagojevich, but meantime they've stepped back from allowing a special election for the seat. Democrats hope to dump the Governor and then have his replacement appoint a different Democrat. No doubt they're afraid Republicans might win given this exquisite display of competent, honest Democratic government.
Meanwhile, Democrats in New York are fighting over Caroline Kennedy's campaign to be appointed to the Senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton. Former Democrat and former Republican and now independent Mayor Mike Bloomberg is all for the idea, as reportedly is Mr. Obama, whom the daughter of JFK and niece of Senator Ted Kennedy endorsed at a crucial moment during the Presidential primaries. Not so happy is New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the son of a former three-term Governor, who would like the seat himself and was once married to a Kennedy.
Caught in the middle is Democrat David Paterson, who will appoint a new Senator but is Governor himself only because Eliot Spitzer flamed out with a prostitute. Ms. Kennedy hasn't helped herself with a recent spate of interviews showing she doesn't know very much about many public issues. But then how much worse could she be than the professional politicians who populate Albany or represent New York in Washington? Democrats will outnumber Republicans in New York's House delegation next year, 26-3, and it speaks volumes about their abilities that Mr. Paterson might choose a dynastic neophyte over any of them.
Lest it be overlooked, there's also the spectacle in Delaware, where the soon-to-depart Joe Biden has arranged to have a crony appointed to take his Senate seat of 36 years. Edward "Ted" Kaufman, a former aide to Mr. Biden, is expected to keep the seat away from a more ambitious Democrat for two years, until Joe's son Beau Biden, the state attorney general, can return from his National Guard tour in Iraq and run in 2010 to maintain the family business.
And don't forget Colorado, where a mooted Senate replacement for Secretary of Interior nominee Ken Salazar is his brother, Congressman John Salazar. Democratic Governor Bill Ritter, who has benefited from the money and organization of the Salazar political machine, will make that appointment.
So to recap all of this change you can believe in: A Kennedy and Cuomo are competing to succeed a Clinton in New York; the skids are greased for a Biden to replace a Biden in Delaware; one Salazar might replace another in Colorado; and a Governor charged with political corruption in Illinois wants one of his cronies to succeed the President-elect. Let's just say we're looking forward to 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I proudly hold the personal distinction of never having watched so much as a single episode of Dynasty.
#2
There is a silver lining of course.
The Blago appointment of a professional black victim is apparently giving Harry Reid a massive case of jock itch.
Rep. William Jefferson is running out of options. The Louisiana Democrat, in his final days in office, lost a longshot bid Monday to delay his trial on bribery charges.
Jefferson has been trying to get the charges thrown out, but a federal judge refused and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in November. In a one-sentence ruling Monday, the appeals court refused to put that decision on hold while Jefferson appealed to the Supreme Court.
That means, unless the Supreme Court decides to step in, a federal judge can soon set a trial date in a case that has hung over Jefferson for more than 3 years. The FBI raided his home in 2005 and his congressional office in 2006. A grand jury indicted him in June 2007.
Jefferson argues the charges are invalid because the grand jury got reviewed information related to his job as a congressman. That, Jefferson says, violates a constitutional clause that shields lawmakers from prosecution for performing their legislative duties.
Jefferson is charged with taking bribes, laundering money and misusing his congressional office for business dealings in Africa. During the raid on Jefferson's home, FBI agents discovered $90,000 in cash in Jefferson's freezer. Jefferson has promised there is an "honorable explanation" for the money in the freezer, but he has yet to make it public.
He lost his bid for re-election in December to Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao, who will become the first Vietnamese-American in Congress.
A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., could set a trial date at the next court appearance, which is scheduled for Jan. 15.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
Without the title of "the honorable" (spit) in front of his name his political cover has evaporated, and he's now just another crook. I'd expect a quick conviction.
Since he was federally charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been wrongly caricatured as some kind of hapless jester prancing on the edge of madness.
Jesters hold rattles with a likeness of their heads on the end of a stick, and they hop off into a corner, prattling to themselves. That's what jesters do.
Jesters don't pick up the race card in a nationally televised news conference and slam it into the face of every Democrat in the U.S. Senate, a palm heel strike to the tip of the nose, leaving all of them watery-eyed, their lips stinging.
Yet that's what Blagojevich--aided by former Black Panther-turned-Daley-machine-functionary Bobby Rush--did at that stupendous news conference in Chicago on Tuesday. That's when the governor appointed Democratic empty suit Roland Burris, an African-American, to fill the Senate seat vacated by Obama.
"Please don't allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man," said Blagojevich.
It was a brazen move, and a smart one, and though the race card was ugly, there was no passion in it. There was no lunacy involved.
"This is not about Roland, this is about Rod," said savvy political consultant Thom Serafin when I called him while watching the circus of the politically bizarre. Serafin correctly predicted weeks ago that it would be Burris, shortly after Blagojevich was arrested and most other Senate hopefuls pulled out lest they be infected by the governor's dilemma.
"This is Rod telling the political class that he's still active, that he's still around, that he's still the governor," Serafin said. "And how do they deny Roland Burris? They can't."
On TV, Burris was chattering amiably, saying nothing as usual, and this time he forgot to mention several key facts about himself: That he's waited his turn and now it's his turn; that he's had his gravestone carved with all his political titles but he left room for more, and that he helped elect Blagojevich by running in the Democratic primary for governor and pulling African-American votes from Blagojevich's strongest challenger, former Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas.
It's that kind of arithmetic that politicians find impossible to deny.
"Let me just remind you that there is presently no African-American in the Senate," said Rush, the U.S. representative of the 1st Congressional District, whom the young Obama challenged years ago and got trounced by, teaching Obama to embrace the realities of Chicago politics: Go along and get along.
On Tuesday, Rush was obviously quite ill, but he was not mentally unstable. He was certainly strong enough to use the angry race language of the 1960s as he stood next to Burris and Blagojevich. Rush warned that no sitting Democrat would go on record for long to bar an African-American from taking the seat.
"I would ask you to not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer. Roland Burris is worthy," Rush said.
Hang? Lynch?
Isn't that the old politics of race that Obama was to have transcended for us?
But there it was, out in the open again, the images of young men hanging from trees in old black-and-white photos offered up easily by Rush, who has himself cozied up to Mayor Richard Daley and for a time was in charge of a Daley political fund.
"And I don't think any senators want to go on the record to deny an African-American from taking a seat in the U.S. Senate," Rush said, ominously.
Grown-ups have seen such theater before. The only things missing were cameo performances by those two prolific race card players, Al Sharpton and Chicago's own Rev. Jesse Jackson.
But Sharpton was preoccupied, giving photo ops to Caroline Kennedy for her New York Senate campaign. That video clip of the two having a cozy lunch, chatting amiably like old friends as they spear their vegetables, continues to run endlessly on cable TV news. While Sharpton might think the Kennedy lunch was expensive, she will no doubt consider it cheap at the price.
Meanwhile, Jackson has his own issues. His son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Bud Light), is mentioned in the Blagojevich federal criminal complaint as Senate Candidate 5, whose emissaries reportedly promised Blagojevich $1 million in campaign cash in exchange for his appointment. Congressman Jackson has denied making any such arrangement.
Senate Democrats are talking tough now, saying they won't seat Burris, but that won't hold. The debate has been framed. The only African-American in the Senate leaves for the White House, another African-American is appointed to fill that spot, and Democratic politicians know they owe their livelihoods to African-American voters.
That talk about transcending race was just talk. Skin pigment trumps ideas, and Blagojevich, who may be facing a jury soon, wants all the friends he can get.
Of course, Tuesday's fiasco could have been avoided. Democrats in the state legislature could have stripped Blagojevich of his appointment powers and imposed a special election. Obama also could have demanded it. But as he has done so often in his career, Obama avoided a confrontation and looked the other way.
Democrats tried to finesse this, and they allowed Blagojevich the opening he needed, to hold that news conference and defy everybody. And so I'm forced to tip my hat to Gov. Dead Meat on this one, for sheer brazenness.
He's no jester. And it takes guts to keep a straight face while Democrats about you are losing theirs.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
That's when the governor appointed Democratic empty suit Roland Burris, an African-American, to fill the Senate seat vacated by Obama.
Here I though this was all about preserving a "black" seat, now it realize it's about preserving the empty suit seat.
Given the voting record of the fine people of Ill, it's probably best their next senator is selected not elected.
Besides Burris did grease Blogo, so all's fair in the Windy City.
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/01/2009 10:17 Comments ||
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#4
I don't see a winning strategy for Rod on this. How can he make this turn out well for him? Seems like he's just putting his head on the chopping block on this one. With moves like this, the political machine has no choice but to get rid of him, fast! The quickest way is a night swim in the Chicago River, but that may backfire at this point. The state legislature could get him off stage with a public impeachment and conviction. It might pass the smell test for the willing dupes in the MSM, but will Illionis voters buy it? Could spell trouble for some of Rod's cronies in 2010. Then you have the Obama problem. He's got to keep those buses coming, to throw tainted pals under and his white wash machines will be running 24/7. 2009 looks to be a troubling year for Illionis politics, but it also holds the possibility of real change and real reform. Is there a Bobby Jindal in Illionis?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
01/01/2009 10:30 Comments ||
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#5
"Is there a Bobby Jindal in Illionis?"
If there was, Richard, he's been wearing cement overshoes for years. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 11:03 Comments ||
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#6
I don't see a winning strategy for Rod on this. How can he make this turn out well for him?
He's making it less-bad; if he going down, he's taking the Democrats down with him.
A day after Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois appointed Roland W. Burris to fill President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat, new details emerged about how the governor worked behind closed doors to make the appointment, and the United States attorney prosecuting Mr. Blagojevich on corruption charges sought a 90-day extension to bring an indictment against him.
At a Tuesday news conference here, Mr. Blagojevich breezily introduced Mr. Burris, a former Illinois attorney general, as the "next United States senator from Illinois." But United States Representative Danny Davis, who like Mr. Burris is a longtime fixture of the Illinois Democratic Party and an African-American, said he was offered the seat in a meeting with an emissary of the governor last Wednesday, and turned it down on Friday.
"Given all the revelations and all the controversy, I would not be able to take it from the governor," Mr. Davis, who has represented a Chicago district in Congress since 1996, said in an interview. "I felt that if I was to take the appointment, I would spend so much of my time deflecting and defending the position that it would take away my real reason for being involved in politics and political life -- to find solutions to problems."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So Mr. Davis couldn't come up with the scratch?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 0:41 Comments ||
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#2
"I felt that if I was to take the appointment, I would spend so much of my time deflecting and defending the position that it would take away my real reason for being involved in politics and political life -- to find solutions to problems."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
For those who thought the new era of Democratic governance would be dull, we present this year's Senate replacement follies. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich kept the entertainment going yesterday by defying just about everyone and nominating former state Attorney General Roland Burris to the seat being vacated by President-elect Obama.
Rep. William Jefferson is running out of options. The Louisiana Democrat, in his final days in office, lost a longshot bid Monday to delay his trial on bribery charges.
Since he was federally charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been wrongly caricatured as some kind of hapless jester prancing on the edge of madness.
A day after Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois appointed Roland W. Burris to fill President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat, new details emerged about how the governor worked behind closed doors to make the appointment, and the United States attorney prosecuting Mr. Blagojevich on corruption charges sought a 90-day extension to bring an indictment against him.
