Sammy Wilson

He's outspoken and I've made note of him here before. Northern Ireland's Environment Minister is speaking out again about the global warming hysteria.

“I think in 20 years’ time we will look back at this whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on earth were we ever conned into spending the billions of pounds which are going into this without any kind of rigorous examination of the background, the science, the implications of it all. Because there is now a degree of hysteria about it, fairly unformed (sic) hysteria I’ve got to say as well."

You gotta respect a politician - hey, an Environment Minister no less, who's not afraid to say what many already know about global warming.

“What are the problems that face us either locally and internationally. Are those not the things we should be concentrating on?” he asked.

“HIV, lack of clean water, which kills millions of people in third world countries, lack of education.

“A fraction of the money we are currently spending on climate change could actually eradicate those three problems alone, a fraction of it.

“I think as a society we sometimes need to get some of these things in perspective and when I listen to some of the rubbish that is spoken by some of my colleagues in the Assembly it amuses me at times and other times it angers me.”

Me too Sammy. I just wish a few more politicians had the guts to speak out like you.

Global Warming Rope-a-Dope

via FrontPage Magazine:

The global warming scare has provided a field day for politicians and others who wish to control our lives. After all, only the imagination limits the kind of laws and restrictions that can be written in the name of saving the planet.

Recently, more and more scientists are summoning up the courage to speak out and present evidence against the global warming rope-a-dope. Atmospheric scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, “It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.”

Also: Larywn's Global Warming Links: Hot off the Griddle

Computer climate models are the heart of the problem of global warming predictions.

Entire global energy and climate policies are based on the Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Their conclusions are based on climate models that don't and cannot work. This article explains how the situation developed and why the models are failures.

By Dr. Tim Ball

2008: the year man-made global warming was disproved

Via Christopher Booker in the Telegraph:

Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare.

(...)

Secondly, 2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a "scientific consensus" in favour of man-made global warming collapsed...

(...)

Thirdly, as banks collapsed and the global economy plunged into its worst recession for decades, harsh reality at last began to break in on those self-deluding dreams which have for so long possessed almost every politician in the western world. As we saw in this month's Poznan conference, when 10,000 politicians, officials and "environmentalists" gathered to plan next year's "son of Kyoto" treaty in Copenhagen, panicking politicians are waking up to the fact that the world can no longer afford all those quixotic schemes for "combating climate change" with which they were so happy to indulge themselves in more comfortable times.

A little music for Christmas

Now playing: Oilville Christmas Dynasty

or if you prefer, here's a cool video...



h/t

Merry Christmas

Looks like it's a white Christmas from coast to coast. Merry Christmas everyone!

Brit Hume

The end of an era at Fox News.

Dr. Tim Ball

"The only place where CO2 is causing temperature increase is in the IPCC computer models"

Origins of the financial crisis

Via Reason.tv

At Reason's 40th anniversary event, held in Hollywood on November 14 and 15, the American Enterprise Institute's Peter Wallison analyzed the roots of the current market meltdown and explained how government policies directly caused or massively exacerbated the housing bubble and the subsequent bust at the center of things.

25 minutes. Wallison quotes Reagan at the end of his talk. He's right on.

h/t

The Deniers Big List

Via Tim Blair, here's your chance to add your name to the big list of Deniers to be handed to future generations so they will know that you weren't involved with "the people that screwed the planet".

h/t.

CNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory 'Arrogant'

Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute appears in this video of CNN's Lou Dobbs and Chad Myers brought to us via the Business and Media Institute:

Unprecedented snow in Las Vegas has some scratching their heads – how can there be global warming with this unusual cold and snowy weather?

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers had never bought into the notion that man can alter the climate and the Vegas snowstorm didn’t impact his opinion. Myers, an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist, explained on CNN’s Dec. 18 “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that the whole idea is arrogant and mankind was in danger of dying from other natural events more so than global warming.

Alarmism

Alarmism has long been a favourite method of the global warming climate change crowd. It has been used with great success to get the public to take notice of their message of human induced planetary warming. It's a lesson that has not been lost on others.

A whopping 582,000 direct and indirect jobs would be lost in Canada over the next five years if the ailing Big Three US auto makers shut down their Ontario operations, said a study Tuesday.

The above report prepared for the Ontario Manufacturing Council has been at the top of the news today. But it's just another example of alarmism being used in an attempt to motivate government to act in a way it might not otherwise. In this case, the goal is to motivate government to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to "bail out" a failing segment of the automotive industry.

One does not need to be an economist to question the conclusions of this report. Let me explain.

First, we need to ask if it is even remotely likely that the "Big Three" automakers would completely shut down and lay off all of their employees? Of course not. And if you think that's a real possibility, I have some swampland in Florida that might interest you.

No, what the "Big Three" are facing is bankruptcy not total shut down. Bankruptcy is not the end of the world in business. In fact, some might argue that it's a new beginning. Bankruptcy is a process designed to assist failing companies by giving them protection from creditors while they re-organize and restructure their business, reduce their financial losses and hopefully emerge as a company that is leaner, meaner, competitive and profitable. A complete shutdown of operations is not the intent nor even a reasonable expectation of bankruptcy.

Second, with regard to a "bail out" we need to ask the questions, "would it do any good?" and "how much is enough?". The answer to the former is "no". A bailout that does not also include a restructuring will never be large enough. So the answer to the latter is there is no amount sufficient to keeping an inefficient company afloat. They'll be back for more and more and more. And then some more.

I am left wondering at the foolishness of all these proposed bailouts. It is not the government's role to provide for all of our needs. It is not the government's role to rescue every failing business. Have we become so hooked on the nanny state that we believe the government can solve all our problems?

Government cannot solve these problems and that is why it should not waste billions of our dollars investing in losing businesses. Yes, the economy is a mess. Yes, this is going to be painful. Very, very painful. But we will get through this quicker if uncompetitive businesses like the "Big Three" are made to accept their fates and get on with what they must do.

But bailout mania seems to have taken hold across the land. The only difference between the outgoing (Republican) President and the incoming (Democrat) President appears to be which has the plan to dish out the most cash the fastest.

It's all good money after bad. What infuriates me is that it's our money they're rushing to flush down the toilet. Which leads to one last question. Who will bail out the government when it fails?

Whether the goal is to control the climate (an obvious impossibility) or to control the economy (equally impossible) the alarmists' solution is always the same: massive government intervention in our free economy. But after all of our industries have been regulated and nationalized, there won't be any free economy to worry about.

And that's alarming.

MacDonald: the palace coup

L. Ian MaCDonald delivers a no nonsense postmortem on the failed palace coup in the Gazette

The party had no choice but to dump Dion after the failed parliamentary coup and the bungled delivery of his blurry videotaped address to the nation. In every coup, the first thing they do is take over the TV station. These clowns couldn't even find it.

Read the whole thing.

Iggy: I'll huff and I'll puff...

“[Prime Minister Stephen Harper] miscalculated, with nearly catastrophic results for the country,”

John Ivison asks, "What catastrophe would that have been then? A Liberal-led coalition under Stéphane Dion, with the NDP’s Jack Layton in cabinet?"

Oh well. May the "coalition of the absurd" rest in peace.

I wonder who's going to break the news to Jack and Gilles?

It's back...

The Great Global Warming Swindle.

Link:

h/t

UN Blowback

UN Blowback: More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims via Marc Morano at the Inhofe EPW Press Blog:

POZNAN, Poland - The UN global warming conference currently underway in Poland is about to face a serious challenge from over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe who are criticizing the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore. Set for release this week, a newly updated U.S. Senate Minority Report features the dissenting voices of over 650 international scientists, many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN. The report has added about 250 scientists (and growing) in 2008 to the over 400 scientists who spoke out in 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.

Full Senate Report Set To Be Released in the Next 24 Hours – Stay Tuned…

Out with the old...

Well, the Grits made it official today. Stéphane Dion is toast. Burnt by his own desperation, by his own blood lust for power. A lust that consumed him so much that it drove him into an unholy alliance with the socialist NDP and the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

Stéphane, what the hell were you thinking?

Were you that desperate to not go down in history as the only federal Liberal leader ever to not go on to become Prime Minister? Did you care not for the future of your own Liberal Party? Apparently not, because the damage done will surely outlast your own presence on the political stage. Canadians will not soon forget that it was the Liberal Party that tried to seize power just weeks after being soundly rejected by the voters. And we will not forget your willingness to get into bed with the socialists and the separatists to do it. It will take some time for your Party to shake the image of these ugly shenanigans in which you partook.

And then there's the irony of the anointment of your replacement, the new Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, by what is essentially a coup d'etat within the Liberal Party. Many Liberals will remain unsatisfied with the way in which Iggy ascended to the throne, bypassing the traditional vote at a convention. But what else should we expect from a Party that was willing to oust a democratically elected government just 6 weeks into it's mandate?

It remains to be seen where Michael Ignatieff will take the Liberals. The word is that Iggy was luke warm to the ill advised coalition of the 3 stooges. He was said to be the last Liberal MP to sign the agreement. But the important thing is he did sign it. Don't expect to see Iggy distance himself from the coalition agreement right away. Looks like he wants to keep that one in his back pocket for now. A good bargaining chip against the Prime Minister, he thinks.

But it's a risky strategy. The coalition was very unpopular with Canadians. A change in leadership won't make it any more palatable. But for now, Mr. Ignatieff seems content to keep it alive. That is his first mistake as the new leader. Bad judgement there Iggy. Better drop it faster than a shifty green carbon tax.

Expect Ignatieff to move the party back towards the political center. It's a place where the Liberals have traditionally been successful. Their drift in recent years to the left has coincided with their worst electoral results in memory. No coincidence there. Some of the lefties like Bob Rae who were attracted to the Liberals of late will find themselves out of step with the new leader and will drift away, back to the NDP where they belong.

PS: with the departure of Stéphane Dion, you can expect to see some changes around here. Just a bit of redecorating, some new curtains, etc. The Stéphane Dion is not a leader banner will be the first thing to go.

The clock is ticking for Stéphane

It seems to be just a matter of time now before the Grits turf their hapless leader.

A movement to dump Stéphane Dion immediately has mushroomed within Liberal ranks, with former deputy prime minister John Manley calling for him to resign, and Grits from nearly every faction of the party exploring ways to pressure him to leave as early as next week.

Meanwhile, Michael Ignatieff, the front-runner to replace Mr. Dion, said the party is exploring ways to accelerate the choice of a new leader.

In an opinion piece published in The Globe and Mail Saturday, Mr. Manley calls for Mr. Dion to resign immediately so that a new leader can be chosen before Christmas.

Mr. Manley dumps cold water on the idea of a coalition with the NDP, arguing the Liberals must instead offer to co-operate with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to cope with the economic crisis, and prepare for an election in case he doesn't.

Manley also said that the "notion that the public would accept Stéphane Dion as prime minister, after having resoundingly rejected that possibility a few weeks earlier, was delusional at best" and...

Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff, a candidate to replace Stéphane Dion, says the party may decide to select a new leader much sooner than the scheduled May convention.

"I have been informed that discussions are ongoing," he told the Toronto Star when asked about expectations that Dion, the caretaker leader, might step down imminently.

We can expect Dion to be ousted as early as next week and an interim leader appointed by the Liberal caucus. An accelerated leadership convention could be held and a new leader in place by the time Parliament resumes on January 26th.

This should be the final nail in the coffin of Dion's ill advised coalition with the socialist and the bloc-head, Jack and Gilles.

Justice

Nevada style.... Video here.

Dion's days are numbered

As much as Conservatives would like to see the inept Stéphane Dion stay on as Liberal leader, it appears that his bumbling has led key Liberals to thinking it would be best for the party if M. Dion departed sooner rather than later.

Enter John Manley in this special comment in Saturday's Globe and Mail:

As a Liberal, I believe the first step for my party is to replace Stéphane Dion as leader with someone whose first job is to rebuild the Liberal Party, rather than leading a coalition with the NDP.

It seems clear that M. Dion is about to become the latest victim in this blood sport called politics. His desperation move to form a "coalition of the absurd" with his new best friends socialist Jack and Bloc-head Gilles and to then attempt to stage Canada's first ever coup d'etat has done far more damage to the Liberal Party brand than Liberals had anticipated. On the heels of their worst ever showing in the Oct 14th election under Dion's "leadership", the Liberals have now sunk even further in the polls.

As with the stock market, fearful Grits must be asking, "where's the bottom?"

Liberals don't like being on the outside looking in when it comes to government. They need to have their hands on the reigns. But Dion's latest shenanigans have done serious damage to the possibility of anything like that happening soon.

Liberals such as Manley know that their party needs to renew itself, to distance itself from both the socialist NDP and the separatist Bloc Quebecois. They know that the party needs to move itself back to the center. And they know it will be a process that will take some time.

And that process cannot begin until they rid themselves of their major problem.

2008 coldest year of the decade

But of course, it's no proof that global warming is over according to the Guardian.

This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week by the Met Office. The global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.

Fred

Canadians for Democracy

Canadians for Democracy

CTV poll

You can vote here.

Jack and Gilles... and Dion

Jack and Gilles went up the Hill
To plot a scheme of takeover... (audio)


Little ditty about Jack and Dion,
2 Canadian kids growing up in fantasy land,
Jacky's gonna be a political star,
Dion a debutante back seat of Jacky's car.

With apologies to John Mellencamp.



Stephane Dion. Still not a leader.

EU Leadership: Vaclav Klaus

There may still be hope for the European Union.

Leadership: Far from an effete welfare statist, the EU's next president is a bold free-market advocate who suffers neither fools nor the usual Euro-nonsense. In short, just what the doctored ordered for a sclerotic continent.

...Klaus, a student of the great F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman, is exactly the sort of leader that Europe has to have. The liberty-minded defender of free markets has the opportunity to rock the continent out of its self-inflicted economic malaise.

(...)

Unlike his critics, Klaus has some experience in reviving a mundane economy. After helping the former Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 while serving as prime minister, he took the Republic from the depths of a former Soviet economy to where, according to the CIA, it is now considered "one of the most stable and prosperous of the post-Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe."

The Czech Republic's healthy per capita GDP of $24,500 far outpaces that of Ukraine, which has moved in almost the exact opposite direction.

(...)

Under Klaus' guidance, the Czech Republic became the first post-communist nation to be given an investment-grade credit rating by international credit institutions. Unemployment has been kept low and productivity is running high. This, from a state-owned economy in which the private sector produced a mere 3% of the national income in 1989.

Vaclav Klaus is just what Europe needs if there is any hope of the EU pulling itself out of its drift towards socialism. Klaus is right on track on another important front too.

More recently, Klaus has turned his attention to global warming, believing the environmental movement has become an assault on freedom, and to regulation, too much of which, he says, caused today's financial crisis.

Bravo Mr Klaus.

Blowing in the wind

Via the Telegraph:

The UK is at "real risk" of imminent power shortages as a result of attempts to shift to more environmentally friendly methods of electrictity production, a report has warned.

(...)

The shortage has been caused by the increase in the level of demand for energy combined with a growing tendency to build wind turbines, at the expense of other, more reliable, electricity sources, it says.

The report estimates that around one quarter of the UK's energy plant capacity will close by 2015 as the country struggles to balance its carbon emissions targets with production of new energy sources.

Moon Report: Repeal Section 13

Richard Moon was commissioned by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) to review its conduct. Today Moon released his report and recommendations.

1. The first recommendation is that section 13 of the CHRA be repealed, so that the CHRC and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) no longer deal with hate speech, and in particular hate speech on the Internet. Hate speech should continue to be prohibited under the Criminal Code2 but this prohibition should be confined to expression that advocates, justifies or threatens violence.

Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act has been used with much controversy by the CHRC to suppress "hate speech". The CRHC has been accused of acting like a Kangaroo Court and restricting free speech with its Section 13 rulings.

More on the significance of this ruling from Ezra Levant, who knows all too well what it's like to be accused under Section 13 of the CHRA. Levant also has a column in tomorrow's National Post. And he explains how the CHRC has set out to bury the Moon report.

Despite the contractual obligations on Moon to have his report cleared (twice) by Lynch, he apparently stuck to his guns.

There remain other flaws with this report, and I’ll discuss them later. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that Richard Moon, Jennifer Lynch’s hand-picked white-washer, didn’t do what he was expected to do (expected to do by me or by Lynch!)

Will Lynch and her fellow bullies now concede defeat? Are you kidding? And admit that they’ve been conducting themselves inappropriately for thirty years? And admit that they are violators of human rights, not protectors of them? And lose all that power over people – the power to destroy and humiliate? And lose staff and budgets?

If so, then you don’t understand that being a bully is in the DNA of human rights thugs.

Lynch is already trying to throw Moon under the bus.

In her press release announcing his report, which you can see here, you’ll notice something is missing: Moon’s recommendation to repeal section 13. He uses the phrase repeal again and again in his report – but you won’t find it in Lynch’s revisionist press release.

I'll skip the obvious puns here about how the CHRC got "mooned" by its own expert. Or how the CHRC's chief commissar (Jennifer Lynch) is responding with a "Lynch mob".

There's more from Mark Steyn who is moonstruck.

Recently, at the Conservative party’s national policy convention delegates voted to repeal Section 13. And Liberal MP Keith Martin has re-introduced a private member's motion to repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

More at Five Feet of Fury.

Inhofe: Global Warming Theory has ‘failed consistently and dramatically’

From Marc Morano on Senator Jim Inhofe's EPW Press blog: Part TWO: ‘Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office’ – Scientists Continue Dissenting – Gore Admits 'I've failed badly' - Global Sea Ice GROWS!

Washington DC - The bad news for global warming alarmists just keeps rolling in. Below is a very small sampling of very inconvenient developments for Gore, the United Nations, and the mainstream media. Peer-reviewed studies, analyses, and prominent scientists continue to speak out to refute climate fears. The majority of data presented below is from just the past few weeks. Also see: U.S. Senate Minority Report: “Over 400 Prominent Scientists (and rapidly growing) Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007” & ‘Consensus’ On Man-Made Global Warming Collapses in 2008 - July 18, 2008 & An August 2007 report detailed how proponents of man-made global warming fears enjoy a monumental funding advantage over skeptical scientists. LINK

Senator Inhofe has a lot more goodies for your reading pleasure here and here.

Today is...

November 22, 2008. More.

Not Evil Just Wrong

That's the title of a new film that atkes on the global warming hysteria.

A new Irish film claims that climate change guru Al Gore is an alarmist and that those who think they are saving the planet are only hurting the poor

IF THE ADVANCE publicity is anything to go by, Not Evil Just Wrong will do for Al Gore what Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 did for George W Bush.

"This is the film Al Gore and Hollywood don't want you to see," declares the website for the latest work by film-makers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer.

Here's the trailer...

The website goes on to say that their latest film - which takes on what are described as global warming alarmists - is "the most controversial documentary of the year". Indeed, it could very well be the most controversial. And Al Gore and Hollywood may well not want you to see it. And in that respect, Gore and co are actually succeeding for the moment. Because there is no completed film. Not yet anyway.

McElhinney and McAleer have raised almost $1 million (€799,000) but need a total of $4.5m (€3.6m) to allow for a full cinema release. They say they were acutely disappointed at being turned down for funding by the Irish Film Board, especially its conclusion that it was "repetitive and creatively thin".

Instead, they have gone onto the internet hoping to solicit donations in the style of Barack Obama. The finished product will be around 90 minutes long.

You can check out their website at www.noteviljustwrong.com

Remembrance Day 2008

Vimy, France – A solder is silhouetted against the names of men missing in action on the monument at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. Lest we forget. Photo courtesy Department of National Defence.

Spector: Obama's election means Kyoto is dead

Norman Spector in the Globe and Mail:

...the Toronto Star's former environment reporter, Peter Gorrie, predicts that Mr. Obama is about to put the final nail in the Kyoto coffin:

"Obama will not commit the United States to meet the emissions target - a cut to 6 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 - that it accepted then rejected under the 1997 agreement. Instead, his goal is to get back down to 1990 levels by 2020.

Everyone wants and needs the United States to be part of the talks, and any solution. And, for the time being, Obama is unassailable. So, his target will be adopted.

Al Gore wouldn't commit the US to Kyoto's emissions targets either when he and then President Clinton declined to send the treaty to Congress where it faced certain defeat. Spector has more surprising news in his update:

On the op-ed page of Sunday's New York Times, Al Gore weighs in with advice for president-elect Barack Obama, which suggests that he, too, has given up on the U.S. endorsing Kyoto and its targets, notwithstanding it being an agreement he negotiated as vice-president.

Kyoto may be dead. That can't be a bad thing, but the real danger is yet to come in the form of an alternative, likely some type of cap and trade system, which will prove very lucrative to the likes of the Goracle.

Phoenix succumbs to global cooling

NASA thinks that it's Mars probe Phoenix is "almost certainly dead", apparently the victim of "the increasing cold and dark of an advancing winter." Via BBC News:

Phoenix's major achievement was in becoming the first mission to Mars to "touch water" in the form of the water-ice it found just centimetres below the topsoil. Chunks of ice were seen to vaporise before the lander's cameras.


Other key results included the identification in the soil of calcium carbonate, which on Earth is a chief component of limestone rock.

Phoenix also detected sheet-like particles, which were probably clays of some kind.

The significance of both minerals is that they form only in the presence of liquid water - which could have supported life.

(...)

Phoenix even recorded snowfall; and took more than 25,000 pictures, from the panoramas of its Arctic landing site to the atomic scale images of dust grains delivered to its microscope.

Phoenix was an historic mission. NASA says that the lander is experiencing temperatures of -100 Deg C. Now that's what I call global cooling!

An interview with Madhav Khandekar

This is Part 1 of the interview. See also: Part 2 Part 3 Part 4.

Dr. Madhav Khandekar specializes in understanding extreme weather events in Canada and in other parts of the world. He holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics, a M.Sc. in Statistics from India (Pune University) as well as both M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Meteorology from Florida State University. As one of the world leaders in meteorology, Dr. Khandekar has worked in the fields of climatology, meteorology and oceanography for over 45 years and has published nearly 100 papers, reports, book reviews and scientific commentaries as well as a book on Ocean Wave Analysis and Modeling, published by Springer-Verlag (1989).

Madhav Khandekar is a retired Meteorologist, formerly with Environment Canada

IBD: Alarmists Still Heated Even As World Cools

Failure to notice the guerrilla in the room. An editorial from Investor's Business Daily:

Climate Change: It's been a bad year for global warming alarmists. Record cold periods and snowfalls are occurring around the globe. The hell that the radicals have promised is freezing over.

As the British House of Commons debated a climate-change bill that pledged the United Kingdom to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050, London was hit by its first October snow since 1922.

Apparently Mother Nature wasn't paying attention. The British people, however, are paying attention — to reality. A poll found that 60% of them doubt the claims that global warming is both man-made and urgent.

Michael Crichton

Author Michael Crichton has died of cancer. Best known for his best selling books like Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain, Crichton was just 66.

Michael Crichton was a critic of the conventional wisdom regarding global warming. His novel State of Fear took on the global warming alarmists the environmental movement and the increasing politicization of science.

Michael Crichton. Rest in Peace.

Obama Plan To "Bankrupt" Clean Coal Would Cost Hundreds of Thousands Of Jobs

The folks at Western Business Roundtable are mad and aren't going to take it anymore.

Denver, CO (Nov. 3, 2008) -- A bipartisan coalition of business leaders is calling on Governors, state legislators and Members of Congress publicly express their opposition before tomorrow's election to proposals to "bankrupt" the U.S. coal industry and threaten to put out of work several hundred thousand Americans who work in coal-related industries.

The call was issued by the Western Business Roundtable following news reports that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama intends to make it so costly to build advanced clean coal power plants with carbon capture and sequestration that it will "bankrupt" any company that tries to do so.

"We are calling upon Democrats, Republicans and Independents from coast to coast to publicly express their support for advanced clean coal power generation and to distance themselves from those who say that we should bankrupt the coal industry," said Britt Weygandt, Executive Director of the Western Business Roundtable. "A lot of Americans are going to be listening in the next 24 hours to see which elected leaders stand up for clean coal and which don't."

Vampires and Hildabeasts working together for McCain

You know this isn't over when you see things like this:

I’m working hand in hand with people I’ve repeatedly villainized and called vampires through the years, some of whom I’ve even squirted with holy water in hopes they’d melt. The Republican Ladies Guild is working hard in my kitchen today for McCain/Palin despite never understanding our support for Hillary Clinton before (and some of them call us nasty names like “Hildabeasts”, and think we don’t know). But, ALL OF US are working together now, vampires and Hildabeasts, because WE ARE ALL AMERICANS, and America needs us.

Because Obama would not stop at coal. Coal is just the beginning. Who knows where it would end.

Obama, the Great Unifier has done the unimaginable. He's united Hillary Democrats and Republicans across the coal belt and brought them together in an all out effort to elect John McCain and Sarah Palin. Better click on the link and read the whole thing. These folks are on fire!

Tomorrow night is going to be interesting!

Obama to bankrupt coal

This video interview with the San Francisco Gate from back on January 17, 2008 surfaced yesterday at Naked Emperor News. In it Barack Obama says that he will use carbon regulations to "bankrupt" anyone who builds a new coal power plant.

"So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted."

Coal presently accounts for about 49% of US power production. Preventing construction of any new coal plants will only drive up the price of electricity as more expensive replacements must be implemented.

Not only that, but consider the effect these remarks may have in coal producing states like Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. These are battleground states, key states that are needed to win the election. And that's something that didn't go unnoticed today by Gov. Sarah Palin:

Palin told supporters to listen to the audiotape. “You’re going to hear Sen. Obama talk about bankrupting the coal industry,” she said. The Alaska governor also pointed to comments that Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden made to an environmental activist, promising no more coal-fired power plants in America. Biden was videotaped, likely without his knowledge.

“In an Obama-Biden administration, there would be no use for coal at all, from Wyoming to Colorado, to West Virginia and Ohio,” Palin said.

and by Senator John McCain speaking today in Pennsylvania:

"My friends, you know what Senator Obama said about a year ago, he said he had not been a, quote, coal booster," he said, as the crowd booed.

"My friends, I've been a coal booster and it's going to create jobs, and we're going to export coal to other countries and we are going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. That's going to help restore the economy of the great state of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

Never mind debating about greenhouse gases. Forty-eight hours before the election and the front runner says he is going to "bankrupt" the coal industry with carbon taxes. Just what a struggling economy needs!

One in seven voters reportedly remain undecided or willing to change their votes. This might just help them make up their minds.

Update: The Coal Tango.

Can McCain win?

As we approach the day of decision in the US election, the daily opinion polls are ranging from a wide lead for Barack Obama to a race that's within the margin of error and too close to call. One national poll yesterday even gave John McCain a one point lead. So what are we to make of all this?

Some feel that the polls are biased towards the Democrats and many pollsters in fact do over sample Democratic voters. But that's because the pollsters are attempting to get a true sample of likely voters and they are influenced by all the hype from the Obama campaign and the media proclaiming a massive turnout by new Democratic voters.

But despite what the opinion polls are telling us every day, a good number of political analysts think that John McCain can still pull out a victory on Tuesday:

Ezra Levant:

I predict that John McCain will win the U.S. presidential election next week.

I believe many Americans are uneasy because Obama has masked himself (with the media's aid). He's masked his past, his friendships and alliances, his philosophy, and even his family details. But every now and then the mask slips and reveals a cultural radical; a constitutional radical; a socialist radical; a foreign affairs radical. And though the mask is quickly fixed back on, and the slip duly papered over by the MSM, I think doubts linger with middle America.

Steven Hill at HuffPost:

All the polls show Obama with a lead, but with polls having a mixed track record, we don't really know how sizable. Meanwhile, there seem to be a fair number of undecided voters who historically have broken for the Republican candidate. The Democratic candidate is African-American with a known Bradley effect out there, though the impact is difficult to quantify. There are unknown questions lingering about defective voting equipment, faulty election administration, purged voters, and Republican attempts to disqualify Democratic voters. What will be their impact, ultimately, on vote totals?

Given all these factors, is there a plausible scenario in which McCain could win? I would say yes, absolutely. Perhaps not likely, but certainly plausible. There is also a plausible scenario in which Obama wins handily. The truth is, there are too many moving parts in this election to know for sure. But if all the above factors line up just the right way, the nation could be in for a shock on Election Night.

And finally el Rushbo:

Now, if you were with us yesterday and you remember the blog post at HillBuzz by the Obama campaign worker named Sarah who basically threw the lid off what is actually going on in the Obama campaign. They're not nearly as far ahead as they have convinced everybody in the media, and a lot of voters. Everything about their campaign, seminar callers, seminar bloggers, seminar responders on YouTube, seminar everything; it is all image; it is being done to craft this notion that there is no stopping Obama, that it is a fait accompli. The only problem is Obama is not behaving that way. Obama is now trying to lower expectations. He's going to states that were in the bag. Let me share with you another post from another anonymous person, this also from the Obama campaign. It's a woman, and what we're picking up out there is that there really are a number of angry Democrat women. They are angry over the way this Democrat party is treating traditional Democrat voters, trying to destroy Joe the Plumber, an average blue-collar guy; trying to destroy Sarah Palin. These women do not like it. Let me read you part four of this latest anonymous post for an Obama campaign worker. This is a different one than Sarah P. from yesterday. This is a long post. I'm just going to read you this one point, number four.

"The Bradley Effect. Do not believe these public polls for a second. I just went over our numbers, found that we have next to no chance --" this is regarding Obama, "-- in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain but it's too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa are the true toss-up states. The only two of these the Obama campaign feels confident are Iowa and New Mexico, but now Obama's headed back to Iowa on Monday. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we in the Obama campaign tend to take a ten-point percentage in allowing for this, a minus ten-point percentage for allowing this and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark."

The bottom line is that the polls could be very, very wrong. The Obama campaign, with the full support of most of the main stream media, has successfully created the illusion that Obama is unstoppable and will win in a landslide. And that has influenced the sampling by the pollsters. But it ain't necessarily so.

In the post above, Rush referred to a post by an Obama campaign worker named Sarah P. who warns us not to believe the hype. Here's the link:

Hillbuzz: Confession of an Obama Blogger - by Sarah P

and another, Hillbuzz: Three things the Obamedia will do to depress Republican turnout
which are, in short all designed to demoralize Republicans enough that they don't bother to get out and vote: 1) create the illusion that Obama is unstoppable, 2) create the illusion that Obama is winning large in traditional Republican states and 3) that there's going to be an unbeatable turnout by blacks and youth in support of Obama.

Don't fall for it.

The tale of the tape (updated)

The Michelle Obama tape that is. (see update below)

A final agreement has been reached between African Press International (API) and Fox News Network (USA) on the dates to air the Michelle Obama tape arising from a discussion Mrs Obama had with the API two weeks ago. The show will take place any day/time from now, with a 15 minutes alert on when it is to take place. Other programmes will be interrupted. This is a precaution taken to avoid interference from any quarter.

What's that curious reference to interference from any quarter? Who would want to interfere with the airing of this tape of Michelle Obama?

Six hours after the release of information by API on the planned broadcast by Fox News Network of the Michelle Obama tape, in accordance with an agreement that has been reached between API and Fox News Network, API was contacted by Obama’s Campaign Manager.

[...]

Obama’s campaign manager contacted API by telephone and email offering 3 million US dollars followed with a request to API to cancel the deal with Fox News Network.

Change you can believe in. Lots more info at the links above.

Related from Hot Air: Credit-card experts explain the extent of Obama’s deception. This kinda 'splains how BHO can afford to spend $3 million on an infomercial to get the word out, or should that be to stop the word from getting out.

Update: From the comments, a reader claims that the Michelle Obama tape is a hoax.

Now that the deadline given by Korir of API for the airing of the Michelle Obama tape has come and gone, Korir and his group of insiders have disappeared from the sight.

Seems that the author of the original story has a rather questionable record.

More cooling

First October snow since 1922 blankets London as global warming bill debated.

Switzerland sees most snow for October since records began.

Florida breaks 150 year record.

And there's more cold weather in store for Florida which is about the be hit by the Gore effect: GORE TO CLOSE FOR OBAMA IN FLORIDA.

h/t.

Cooling

More evidence of our cooling planet:

The coldest air of the season, with temperatures at mid-January levels, has blanketed the Carolinas. That will mean near-record daytime temperatures today in Charlotte, and possibly a few inches of snow in the mountains.

and this...

A potent nor'easter will blast the Northeast today with strong winds, heavy rain and wet snow as a huge dip in the jet stream pushes cold air as far south as central Florida....

According to the Winter Weather Center, up to a foot of snow will fall in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania through tonight, while even more than a foot of snow will be dumped in the Adirondacks of New York.

Meanwhile some people remain out of touch.

Newsbusted

If Saturday Night Live had great humour like this, maybe more people would watch it once in a while. Via Newsbusters:

Fred Thompson sums it up very nicely

In this new video from the RNC Sen. Fred Thompson gives his thoughts on liberalism, conservatism, responsible change and just exactly what an Obama Presidency would mean for America. It's over 12 minutes but worth every second.



h/t

So you think you can dance?

What if election competitions were like this?



Another fun election video at Just Right!

Voter Fraud and ACORN

via Investors Business Daily:

That the greatest attempt at voter fraud in the nation's history is being funded in large part at taxpayer's expense is more than a bit ironic. House Minority Leader John Boehner wants it stopped and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wants the group allegedly behind the fraud, ACORN, criminally investigated and prosecuted.

ACORN calls itself a "nonpartisan" group seeking to register minorities and the poor. But its political arm has endorsed Barack Obama, who both trained the group's staff and sued the state of Illinois on their behalf. And Obama's campaign has given ACORN affiliates $800,000 for a get-out-the-vote drive.

In fact, it's a get-out-the-vote for Obama drive as evidenced by a video recently aired by Fox News that showed just how "nonpartisan" the group is.

Kyoto suit dismissed

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by greenies against the Canadian Government to force it to prepare a plan for meeting the emissions targets of the Kyoto Protocol.

Such an order would be so devoid of meaningful content and the nature of any response to it so legally intangible that the exercise would be meaningless,'' Judge Robert Barnes said in a 40-page ruling issued today.

For his part, back in April Environment Minister Baird said,

...that Canada couldn't meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol without causing a recession. An economic impact report presented by Baird said implementing the Kyoto plan would result in 275,000 job losses in 2009 while the cost of electricity would rise 50 percent after 2010 and gas prices would increase 60 percent.

Wither Stéphane

Like everyone else, I was eagerly awaiting news of Stéphane Dion's press conference earlier today. Not because I wanted to gloat over his expected resignation as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. But rather because I contemplating doing something different - like saying something nice about him.

I had words rolling in my head about how he was a decent sort of fellow, a poor politician and party leader, but still a decent chap. I thought I would say that he pushed his failed agenda because he truly believed in his Green Shift as a step towards solving all that global warming nonsense. He wouldn't be alone. Millions of Canadians have drunk that kool aid and Dion would be following his beliefs. Not such a bad thing. Misguided, but still a noble thing.

With his anticipated departure, I was even contemplating making a few changes to this blog, which after all takes it's very name from the fact that Stéphane named his own dog after the disastrous Kyoto accord. I was going to remove that little graphic that says Stéphane Dion is not a leader. I felt that this blog could continue on without Stéphane Dion. After all, Kyoto is a "dog" in its own right, without any help from M. Dion.

That was before I heard the news.

Instead of doing the graceful thing and stepping down as leader immediately, Stéphane Dion chose to stay on until a leadership convention can be held in the spring. And that's not so bad either. He is the leader and this was his decision. Still OK.

But then he went on to explain his decision. Dion refused to accept the blame for losing the election, the poorest showing for the Liberal Party since 1867. He blamed the Conservative "propaganda machine" for "misrepresenting his leadership and goals".

Come on, Stéphane don't you know this is politics? Its a blood sport, you know. The Conservative campaign was effective in portraying you as an ineffective leader only because you let them. Besides, you Liberals have done your best to misrepresent Stephen Harper over the years, remember "scary" and "secret agenda".

Next he blamed his own Party for poor fundraising! He said they couldn't compete with the spending of the Conservatives. This is true but who is going to carry the blame for that if not the leader himself? A strong leader can motivate the grass roots and fill the party coffers. You need look no further than to Stephen Harper for proof.

As for his Green Shift, which proved unpopular with voters, Dion said "at the end of the day, people thought it was a carbon tax and were afraid of it". He is implying that Canadians didn't understand his Green Shift. If it hadn't been for those nasty Conservatives, people would have understood!

I beg to differ with M. Dion on this one. I think Canadians understood all too well what it meant to allow the Liberals into power with a mandate to implement a massive new tax on everything. And they wanted no part of it.

Stéphane Dion's leadership has left the Liberal party broke and disunified. More so than when he took the helm. But most importantly, Dion, wrapped in his own arrogant self importance has just shown us that he still doesn't get it.

It would have been better for him to have just slipped quietly into the night.

But hey, I won't have to change the curtains around here for a while yet.

The Iron Curtain revolt

The financial crisis trumps the so called "climate crisis":

Europe’s commitment to ambitious green goals became the latest victim of the global financial crisis yesterday when a growing number of EU countries rebelled, claiming that the plans were now too expensive.

Plans for binding European legislation by December were dropped as the EU watered down the carbon dioxide blueprint that it had announced with a fanfare 18 months ago.

The revolt by eight countries, led by Italy and Poland, left the EU’s self-proclaimed mission to shape a global, post Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gases in disarray.

Actually, financial crisis or not, it would have eventually come to this anyway. The only way to meet the EU's crazy carbon targets would be to severely curtail industrial production and throw their economies into a tailspin.

President Sarkozy of France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, led the way in appealing to all 27 countries to stick to their targets.

But tempers flared at the quarterly European Council in Brussels, with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, clearly furious at the pressure being applied. During a stand-up row behind the scenes, he told Mr Sarkozy that the targets would crucify Italian industry.

“Our businesses are in absolutely no position at the moment to absorb the costs of the regulations that have been proposed,” Mr Berlusconi said later.

Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, said: “We don’t say to the French that they have to close down their nuclear power industry and build windmills, and nobody can tell us the equivalent.”

In an extraordinary break with EU protocol, both leaders said that they did not have to stick to the deal because neither had been in office when it was signed by their predecessors in March 2007.

Bravo to Italy, Poland and the other renegades for putting their economies and their people's welfare first and not giving in to the EU on this.

Let Mr. Sarkozy commit Kyotocide if he wishes. Vive le revolution!

Update: Looks like the Euros have got the UN worried.

The collapse of environmentalism

The next commodity to collapse will be mass-marketed environmentalism, says Lawrence Solomon in Friday's Financial Post:

Stock market indexes have plummeted from their inflated peaks. Oil and other commodities have likewise plummeted. The next commodity to tumble from unsustainable peak levels: environmentalism.

In part, I am making this prediction because, in my 30 years as an environmentalist, I have never seen so many governments and so many corporations so profusely espousing so many environmental causes. Where promoting environmentalism was once seen as daring and counter-cultural, today it has become banal, no longer the exclusive preserve of a Body Shop chain, but of every retailer down to Wal-Mart. For the same reason that clothes go out of fashion after the masses embrace them, mass-marketed environmentalism will come to be disdained. That won’t sell for long.

I am predicting a collapse of today’s Wal-Mart environmentalism for another reason, too: Much of it is misguided, based on misunderstanding and vacuity.

The economy will always trump environmentalism. When it comes down to it, people will be all for environmentalism - until it affects their pocket books.

Not a pretty story

Obama's influences include radicals, a terrorist and felon writes Salim Mansur:

Among those with whom Obama worked in Chicago's corrupt politics were the radical preachers Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger, the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, and the convicted felon Antoin Rezko.

Alinsky was a radical socialist. He invented community organizing as a political camouflage for subverting America's democracy and capitalist economy.

In Rules For Radicals, Alinsky described the means and ends of his politics as did Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto. Alinsky wrote, "Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."

This is the Trojan horse principle of destroying the enemy -- capitalism and democracy -- from the inside.

Update: John McCain finally gets it.

Updater: The Obama-Odinga connection.



The longer version of this video is here.

h/t: CFP.

The godfather of Kyoto

A fascinating interview with Maurice Strong in the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Review by Claudia Rosett, who asks "Is the godfather of the Kyoto treaty a public servant or a profiteer?":

Often described as an "international man of mystery," Mr. Strong during his long, globe-trotting career has been one of the most influential architects of the opaque cross-border bureaucracy that is today's United Nations. He is probably best known as godfather of the U.N.'s 1997 Kyoto treaty, and as a former U.N. top adviser who in that same year received a check for almost $1 million, bankrolled by the U.N.-sanctioned regime of Saddam Hussein.


(...)

The apple-faced Mr. Strong was born in 1929 in rural Canada. He grew up with a hankering to see the world. His travels took him to New York, where he spent a few months working in 1947 as a junior security officer at the U.N. He went on to tour Africa, and returned home to climb the corporate and public-sector ladders in Canada. In 1970 he returned to the U.N. for the first in a series of high-level incarnations that included organizing the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the environment, founding and becoming the first head of the U.N. Environment Program, and chairing the 1992 Rio summit on the environment.

Now, Mr. Strong is no fan of Ms. Rosett who has written much about him in the past, especially concerning his connections to other characters implicated in the UN's Oil for Food scandal like Tongsun Park and Benon Sevan. So just the fact that Rosett was granted this interview is something in itself.

Here's a couple of select comments from the interview...

He says that when he left New York in 2005, "I didn't just run away to China, I already had an apartment here." He adds that his departure from the U.N. was motivated not by the Oil-for-Food investigations, but by his sense at the time, as Mr. Annan's special adviser on North Korea, that the U.N. had reached an impasse. "It just happened to coincide with the publicity surrounding my so-called nefarious activities." He insists: "I had no involvement at all in Oil-for-Food . . . I just stayed out of it."

On his current activities in China, Strong tells Rosett:

"My advice gets to the highest levels." he says. He has also been involved in setting up the Tianjin Climate Exchange for trading carbon credits: "the first climate exchange in China." It's a joint venture with several entities, including the Chicago Climate Exchange, where he holds a seat on the board.

There's much more, so be sure to read the whole thing.

h/t: Newsbeat1

Update: Strong publishes his views on the Future of China. Curiously the essay is marked "NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM". But you can read it at the link.

Harper victorious

My election prediction was way off. Thankfully.

A strengthened minority for Stephen Harper's Conservatives with 37.6% of the popular vote and significant gains in Ontario. And a possible career change for Stephane Dion?

Record cold all over the place

California:

Temperatures dropped to 31 degrees in the Ukiah Valley on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, the coldest Oct. 12 morning since record keeping began in Ukiah in 1893, said Troy Nicolini, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Eureka. The previous record was 34 degrees in 1916.

Oregon:

Cold temperatures set several new record lows this weekend, including a low of 22 Saturday in downtown Pendleton that broke a 118 year-old record of 24.

Alaska:

Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too.

Election predictions

Just for fun tonight, Kate has a "seat projection thread" going at small dead animals. For what it's worth, I posted my prediction there.

BQ = 55
Conservatives = 132
Green = 0
Liberal = 85
NDP = 34
Other/Independent = 2

I also predicted the percentage of the popular vote for the winning party at 38.5%

I would like to see the Tories win bigger, but I think my projection is fairly realistic. Unless of course, there is real 3 way split on the left between the Grits, the NDP and Greenies. In that case the Tories could win a lot more seats.

We should know in a few hours!

Election Day Blogburst

"I am a Canadian,
a free Canadian,
free to speak without fear,
free to worship God in my own way,
free to stand for what I think right,
free to oppose what I believe wrong,
free to choose those who shall govern my country.
This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold
for myself and for all mankind."

These words of Canadian Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker from the Canadian Bill of Rights have been on the sidebar of this blog since day 1. They are worth repeating on this day when we exercise our hard earned right to elect a government of our choice.

Other blogs bursting with these words today include Blazing Cat Fur, Blue Like You, Covenant Zone, Dust my Broom, Damian Penny, Five Feet of Fury, Halls of Macademia, Just Right, Kitchener Conservative, Political Staples, Right Girl, small dead animals, stubble jumping redneck, The Great Pumpkin and Wonder Woman.

Now get out there and VOTE!

The red-green pact

Could those rumours be true that the red red Liberals and the green Greens are making "secret deals"? Well, better take a look at this CPAC video of Green Party candidate Larissa Shasko and Liberal candidate Cal Johnston discussing a "coalition" in Saskatchewan.



Via Climbing out of the Dark

The Greens and Liberals (with Carolyn Bennett present) try to form a coalition in the riding, but the NDP will have none of it. All this, just to stop those scary Conservatives. They never stop to think that people might actually like the Conservative platform and think that lefties are wrong. It never even enters their carbon riddled brains, that they just might be the ones who are off track.

Let's give the NDP candidate credit for having the good sense of not allowing himself to be drawn in to this sorry mess.

h/t: SDA

Green Party in chaos over May's "secret deal" with Dion

As the Canadian Federal election enters its final days, news is emerging of a possible "secret deal" between Green Party leader Elizabeth May and Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion. Via Bourque Newswatch, a top Liberal organizer "fears a secret deal has been cooked between Dion and Elizabeth May":

...which may explain why she has been meeting with "key Liberal organizers" and is now actively telling Green Party supporters to vote Liberal, of all things.

This, according to our Liberal insider, in exchange for a possible Senate seat and a place as Environment Minister in a Dion-led government. To be clear, Ms May's curious strategy of backing Dion is creating ill-will within her own party to the point that "a lot of Green candidates are upset", according to one national news report this morning. Add to that the fact Dion himself is urging Greenies to go red and join the Liberals.

There's more...

In recent hours, Bourque has heard from a number of senior political operatives, notably senior Green Party standard bearer David Chernushenko, who told Bourque that

"Integrity is when you make your actions consistent with your words and your promises. We all look for leaders with integrity. Too bad they are so hard to find. Green Party candidates should expect nothing but full and unwavering support from their leader. They have not received it. She has failed utterly in this one and most important obligation. To back them all to the end. In our 2006 leadership race, only when pushed by me, she promised Green Party members that of course she would back GP candidates 100 percent. Alas, the facts speak for themselves. If I were a candidate, I would be furious. I would feel let down by my leader when I needed her most. I wanted to stay out of this campaign entirely, but when I saw Green Party candidates, voters and donors being sideswiped, I could not stay silent. My friends and family deserve more respect. The Green Party is is not a "flag of convenience" to be raised and lowered on a whim."

Elizabeth May and the Green Party: politics as usual. Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party: desperation.

Update:

He [Dion] characterized Ms. May as “courageous”, saying that “for the sake of Canada she wants me as prime minister of Canada.”

Mr. Dion was speaking to a small but enthusiastic crowd of about 75 Liberals at a rally in the Ottawa area riding of Ottawa Orleans

OK, so we are in the final days of the election and all Dion can do is muster the support of 75 Liberals? in the nation's capital? Holy shit.

Election sign courtesy of Katewerk.com.

Updater: Blue Like You asks, "why isn’t this situation being investigated by Elections Canada?"

Updaterer: Angry explains about Section 481 of the Canada Elections Act.

Earliest snowfall on record

2008 is already shaping up to be one of the coolest years in a long, long while. Now this: Boise gets earliest snow on record:

Big snow flakes fell early Friday evening, turning Downtown Boise into a giant snow globe for people on their way home from work. The snow caught many people off guard, including this bicyclist heading down Idaho Street between 8th and 9th around 5:45 p.m. Across the Treasure Valley, tree branches heavy with wet, snow-covered leaves fell on power lines, causing scattered power outages.

This is the earliest measurable snowfall in Boise since recordkeeping began in 1898, according to the National Weather Service. At 10 p.m., the Weather Service said 1.7 inches of snow had fallen. The previous earliest recorded snowfall was Oct. 12, 1969, when a little more than an inch fell.

Does this disprove global warming? Does this mean we're headed into a period of global cooling. Of course not. It's just an isolated incident. But on the other hand, if this were a heatwave, it would be all over the mainstream media.

Update: Winter has arrived in Saskatchewan too:

REGINA — Although autumn officially began just three weeks ago, winter is making an appearance in southern Saskatchewan.

Forecasters predict Estevan will get up to 15-centimetres of snow by tonight.

The Red Star reports:

Environment Canada reported as much as 12 centimetres of snow had fallen and another 10 centimetres was forecast for overnight, along with a slight chance of freezing rain.

Updater: It was exactly 2 years ago this weekend that an early winter storm shut down the city of Buffalo, NY.

NoCarbonTaxes.com

McCain hits back about Freddie and Fannie

Perhaps this is a preview of tomorrow's Presidential debate.



Senator McCain should challenge all the major news media during the debate on national TV to fact check the record. Dare them to report who pushed for greater regulation of Fannie and Freddie. Dare them to report who fought against those regulations.

Dare them to do some journalism.

The pot calling the kettle....

It would appear as though over a quarter of Stephane Dion’s speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2005 was plagiarized directly from a 2004 speech given to the U.S. Senate committee chaired by none other than…..John McCain.

Read all the gory details at Return of the Tory.

Update: Link fixed.

$700 Billion: What just happened?

Obiden's lies

I have updated an earlier post about the VP debates where I said that Joe Obiden had uttered a number of falsehoods which should provide McCain with some good ammunition for new commercials going into the home stretch of the campaign and added a link to American Thinker's Biden's Big Lies All 14 of Them.

That's all well and good, but here is the full list from JohnMcCain.com:

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage -- they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false

8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska -- she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation -- he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

Haven't heard about these from the mainstream media? What a surprise!

Now National Review has the list too with some extras:

Below, you’ll find a list of 14 “lies” Biden told last night, distributed by the McCain campaign. I’d just note two observations: first, when you tell stories of things that didn’t happen with the frequency of Joe Biden, coupled with his fervent belief of these untrue and inaccurate statements, I don’t think “lie” is the appropriate term. “Hallucinations” seems more accurate, I think. Second, they missed a bunch, so Biden’s list of li- er, hallucinations is well beyond 14.

Worth the read.