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Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said yesterday he was confused by Graham’s demands for what needs to be done to win his vote on the climate bill.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s keeps issuing contradictory and cryptic statements on the climate bill (see Graham is incoherent).  He is now officially more incoherent and incomprehensible than Rand Paul and the TV series Lost respectively, as E&E News PM (subs. req’d) makes clear:

“I know we need to enhance on- and offshore drilling, to make us more energy independent, but I’m not willing to say let’s go forward boldly now until I find out what happened,” he said.

There are at least a half-dozen investigations under way on the spill. “I just need someone to stop it, tell me what happened, and how we fix it,” Graham said. “I don’t need 500 people to tell me what happened.”

I feel the exact same way about the final episode of Lost!

Graham also said he could vote for a Senate energy and climate bill, but he must see offshore drilling provisions he originally negotiated with Kerry and Lieberman added back into the bill. At issue is language stripped out at the behest of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that would maintain a 2006 law to keep rigs 125 to 235 miles off Florida’s Gulf coast.

“They took the eastern Gulf provisions and dramatically changed that. I couldn’t live with that,” Graham said.

“I wouldn’t be the 60th vote for the drilling provisions in this bill, but I could be the 60th vote for this concept if it gets back to where it was before,” he added. “But I’m looking for more than 60 votes. You’re either going to get 40 votes or probably 70 votes.”

That position is not only incoherent, but it is incomprehensible and indefensible:

Bingaman also found fault with Graham’s reasoning that the climate bill needs to be put on hold while the Gulf of Mexico oil spill investigations continue. “I think the issue of what we do on climate change, putting a limit on emission on greenhouse gas emissions and a requirement that that be reduced, that can be done without some conclusion about this oil spill in the Gulf,” he said.

“I favor plugging the leak. I favor stopping the spill. But it’s hard to say why the failure to complete the investigation of that spill would be a justification for not limiting greenhouse gas emissions,” Bingaman added. “It seems to me a stretch.”

Certainly it’s not a good omen for the bill, whatever he means.  The possibility that Kerry and Lieberman would return to the original language — allowing drilling near the Florida coast — seems as remote  as the possibility that anybody is going to approve drilling off the coast of South Carolina for a long, long time.

And to add to Graham’s incoherence/hypocrisy, he supports Lisa “Dirty Air” Murkowski’s radical attempt to overrule science:

“I think it will pass,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “There are a lot of people who will be in the camp of, ‘We should do it, not the EPA.’”

Graham is a co-sponsor of the disapproval resolution from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would effectively halt EPA’s endangerment finding, the basis for its climate rules for cars and industrial facilities. The resolution, which needs 51 votes to pass, is expected on the floor by the week of June 7.

Murkowski’s bid is seen largely as a symbolic one given the resolution’s long-shot prospects in the House, as well as an expected veto from President Obama. Still, her effort is considered a critical early proxy for the Senate as Democratic leaders weigh whether they have the votes to pass a more comprehensive climate bill.

So far, Murkowski has 41 supporters, including three Democrats: Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Graham said he thinks a majority of senators will ultimately vote for the resolution, though he predicted most would do so with the understanding that a broader bill must pass too that combines climate and energy issues in a manner different from the House-passed climate measure.

“Some people will say carbon shouldn’t be regulated at all, I think that’s the minority view,” Graham said. “I think the majority of the body will say that Congress should set the carbon regulations, not the EPA, which gets us back to … when Congress is going to do it and how we’re going to do it. I believe that you’ll never regulate carbon without having energy independence, without a more business-friendly framework than Waxman-Markey. That’s what we’ve been trying to do.”

Clears things up, no?

Related Posts:

• BREAKING: Sen. Graham walks away from climate and energy bill over immigration plans
• Chait and Klein: Lindsey Graham is Right
• Lindsey Graham says, “yeah,” there’s a chance for climate to move forward this year
• Is Obama blowing his best chance to shift the debate from the dirty, unsafe energy of the 19th century to the clean, safe energy of the 21st century?

Clifton Taulbert wrote:

Fifty-five years ago, as a young boy growing up on the Mississippi Delta, I had never heard of Paris, France, but I knew all about Detroit, MI. My adult cousins, Melvin, Earl, and Mildred lived there.  Detroit was their city of dreams and became, for us, a place of great possibilities.

Detroit did not come about due to magic and luck, but over time innovation, collaboration, and hard work made it one of the top five cities in America. Detroit, this historic, grand city, seeks once again to ignite the imagination of young minds as a place of great possibilities. I firmly believe that entrepreneurs and innovators will play a big role in creating a new Detroit with great possibilities.

How can 21st century entrepreneurs and innovators combine their talents and dreams to once again assemble innovation, collaboration, and hard work to reinvigorate Detroit and its economy?

1. Focus on the Pre-K-12 Education Corridor as Detroit’s Bottom Line

Infuse and ignite their learning process with entrepreneurial mindset lessons—the same lessons that sparked the innovative success that branded Detroit for more than 100 years.  Detroit’s youth are coming of age at the right time to think differently and creatively about providing value to others and for themselves.

2. Redefine and Expand the Concept of Citizen-Ownership

Entrepreneurs become successful in part due to their sense of ownership—their right to originate, participate, and innovate. They tend to have more answers than questions. They recognize and value their unique gifts as necessary and meaningful. We need this group to market this mindset to the ordinary citizens of Detroit so that they can think of themselves as the next innovative Henry Ford. Why not?

3. Reclaim Detroit’s Work Ethic for Future Possibilities

Solutions are usually on the other side of problems.  There are no solutions without people. This is the reality that drives the entrepreneur. People make things happen! Marshal the tools of the entrepreneur media to remind the citizens of Detroit of their historic strength and their present capacity. Challenge the chamber of commerce to market nationally—broadly and boldly—the people, their skills, and their abundant real estate for their future.

4.  Foster Connectivity among the Independent Silos of Excellence (ISEs)

The entrepreneurial mindset of innovation and inclusivity has the capacity to connect the past to the future and to create the new foundation needed for building a new Detroit.  Detroit’s reinvigoration will come about when all the great neighborhoods (ISEs) connect and embrace a new vision—one that is unselfishly crafted and future focused.

5. De-mystify Technology- It’s the 21st Century’s ‘open door’ to Future Possibilities

The chip has changed the world and will continue to do so. The entrepreneur and the innovator are well aware of this fact, but not necessarily the ordinary citizen. At the level of the ordinary citizen is the human potential needed to tap into possibilities heretofore not known. Detroit is about tomorrow and so is technology.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

Font maker Bitstream today released the next version of its Bolt mobile browser. Version 2.1 add tight integration with Facebook and support for HTML5 video. The Bolt browser uses Bitstream’s server-side rendering of web pages making it a full Webkit-based browser for feature phones. There are Java and BREW versions of the browser making it compatible with most feature phones on the market. Bolt is also available for the BlackBerry, and can be configured as the default web browser.

The new Facebook integration in Bolt 2.1 allows users of the browser to work with Facebook instant messaging and to paste links directly to Facebook accounts. The HTML5 video support is in recognition of the growing number of web sites that provide videos in the new format. Bolt 2.1 is also compatible with more sites using streaming Flash video.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): To Win In the Mobile Market, Focus On Consumers

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Google’s playable Pac-man logo surely cost the worldwide economy millions of man-hours last week. It was originally only supposed to up for only two day. That’s changed. It will now reside forever at Google.com/Pacman. We heart Google.

Late Late Night FDL: Carnac The Magnificent
Johnny Carson as Carnac The Magnificent, featuring Ed McMahon. This skit aired on The Tonight Show in February, 1981.

Johnny Carson as Carnac The Magnificent, featuring Ed McMahon.  This skit aired on The Tonight Show in February, 1981.

What’s on your mind?

?

Early Morning Swim

• Great messaging, guys.
• Drill baby, drill.
• So, the biggest problem we face right now is wasteful spending?
• Let’s hope so.
• Obama vs. the corporations.
• Is this the best we can do?

• Great messaging, guys.
• Drill baby, drill.
• So, the biggest problem we face right now is wasteful spending?
• Let’s hope so.
• Obama vs. the corporations.
• Is this the best we can do?

?

The Spirit of ‘86
I was in college in the Spring of 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had its meltdown. Without Twitter, Blogs or Facebook we actually had to sit around and hyperventilate with each other face-to-face, it was terrible. One thing we did have is Reagan Administration officials on television telling us that non-commie […]

I was in college in the Spring of 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had its meltdown. Without Twitter, Blogs or Facebook we actually had to sit around and hyperventilate with each other face-to-face, it was terrible.

One thing we did have is Reagan Administration officials on television telling us that non-commie nuclear reactors were perfectly safe and we need to build more– “why look at France” they said, “the French nuclear reactors are wonderful!” Republicans praising France, it was a different time. But still, no new nuclear plants were getting built.

Move forward a quarter-century and without the Soviets to kick around these ecological disasters just cannot be spun so easily, so things go in reverse.

In the days since President Obama announced a moratorium on permits for drilling new offshore oil wells and a halt to a controversial type of environmental waiver that was given to the Deepwater Horizon rig, at least seven new permits for various types of drilling and five environmental waivers have been granted, according to records.

That’s quite a re-imagining of the definition of moratorium — and speaking of moratoriums.

Meanwhile, the oil geyser gets worse. Maybe we should bring in those Russian folks who fixed the problems at Chernobyl? Oh…right.

?

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

James P. Tucker, Jr.
American Free Press
Monday, May 24th, 2010

As the super-secret Trilateral Commission (TC) was meeting behind locked and guarded doors at the luxurious Four Seasons resort hotel in Dublin, Ireland May 8, participants were upset to learn that awareness of their evildoings was surging in the United States.

The same day, the Republican Party of Maine threw out its Establishment-approved platform and adopted a manifesto that denounced “efforts to create a one-world government,” called for abolishing the Federal Reserve
System and ridiculed global warming as a “myth.” Each of these matters is dear to the hearts of members of the Trilateral Commission and its brother group, Bilderberg. Their traditional goal is world government, and these stateless plutocrats have exploited the hysteria over “global warming” for profit.

Maine’s Republicans also praised the tea party movement and support Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) and his son Rand Paul, who won the GOP Senate primary in Kentucky May 18. Maine’s Republicans said, “Healthcare is not a right.” They say, “Eliminate Motor Voter”; “Reject the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child”; “Eliminate the Department of Education”; “Arrest and detain . . . anyone here illegally, and then deport [him], period.”

Similar demands are being made by a growing number of congressmen and other officials throughout the country, and this is distressing to the Trilateral-Bilderberg elite. The health control law proclaims a “right” to care and imposes an unconstitutional requirement that private citizens buy private healthcare or pay a fine. Yet the central government has no constitutional power to compel individuals to buy any product from a private party.

“Motor Voter” was imposed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 to register illegal aliens, mostly Hispanic, so they could illegally vote for him. The illegal immigrant would apply for a drivers license and be automatically registered to vote at the same time. Many were unaware they could vote until jerked off their porches on Election Day and shoved into a voting booth with a filled-out sample ballot in their fist.

Patriots, once educated on the issue, strongly oppose the UN’s “child’s rights” treaty. No, they don’t hate children, as the internationalists shout. This treaty would allow UN bureaucrats to enter your home and bully you if your child (or a neighbor’s child) complains. It is another attack on the family and national sovereignty by advocates of world government.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who was recruited into the Trilateral Commission as governor of Georgia by David Rockefeller, made the Department of Education a separate Cabinet-level entity in a payoff to the teachers union. Predictably, education went south as incompetent applicants got new teaching jobs. It is a goal of the internationalists to dumb down America, so living standards throughout the world will be equalized— equalized for us peons, not the plutocratic elite.

Federal law passed in 1952 requires that the border be sealed off and illegal immigrants thrown out. But internationalists consider themselves above the law and, of course, illegal immigrants reduce the U.S. standard of living. They also make great wage slaves to be abused by multinational corporations for the profits of top executives, many of whom are members of the TC and other globalist groups.
——
NOTE: Bilderberg will meet June 4-7 at the Dolce Hotel in Sitges, Spain, 12 miles from Barcelona.

U.S. Base Will Stay on Okinawa
Despite campaign promises and widespread protests, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has finally made the widely unpopular decision to allow the relocation of a U.S. military base on Okinawa. Hatoyama had been on the fence for months on how to resolve the issue, with his approval rating plunging to less than 25 percent. —JCL The New York Times: Apologizing for failing to fulfill a prominent campaign promise, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told outraged residents of Okinawa on Sunday that he has decided to relocate an American air base to the north side of the island as originally agreed upon with the United States. On his second visit to Okinawa this month, Mr. Hatoyama for first time conceded what Japanese media had been reporting for weeks: that he would accept Washington’s demands and honor a 2006 agreement to move the United States Marine Air Station Futenma to the island’s less populated north. The decision is a humiliating setback for Mr. Hatoyama on a problem that has consumed his young government and could prove its undoing. Before last year’s historic election victory, he had vowed to move the base off of Okinawa or even out of Japan. But his apparent wavering on the issue helped drive his approval ratings below 25 percent. Read more

Despite campaign promises and widespread protests, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has finally made the widely unpopular decision to allow the relocation of a U.S. military base on Okinawa.

Hatoyama had been on the fence for months on how to resolve the issue, with his approval rating plunging to less than 25 percent. —JCL

The New York Times:

Apologizing for failing to fulfill a prominent campaign promise, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told outraged residents of Okinawa on Sunday that he has decided to relocate an American air base to the north side of the island as originally agreed upon with the United States.

On his second visit to Okinawa this month, Mr. Hatoyama for first time conceded what Japanese media had been reporting for weeks: that he would accept Washington’s demands and honor a 2006 agreement to move the United States Marine Air Station Futenma to the island’s less populated north.

The decision is a humiliating setback for Mr. Hatoyama on a problem that has consumed his young government and could prove its undoing. Before last year’s historic election victory, he had vowed to move the base off of Okinawa or even out of Japan. But his apparent wavering on the issue helped drive his approval ratings below 25 percent.

Read more

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Will advances false claim that Blumenthal fabricated his association with Harvard swim team

George Will falsely claimed that Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal “told the Hartford Courant that he was the captain of a Harvard swim team when he was never on the swim team.” In fact, a former Harvard team captain has stated Blumenthal was on the team, and there is no evidence that Blumenthal personally provided the Courant with any information about his team status.

Will falsely claims Blumenthal misled Courant about being on Harvard’s swim team

Will: “How do you explain that he evidently told the Hartford Courant that he was the captain of the Harvard swim team when he wasn’t on the swim team?” On the May 23 edition of ABC’s This Week, George Will said if he “ran the Democratic party,” he “would be trying to get [Blumenthal] out” of the Senate race, adding: “How do you explain the fact that he evidently told the Hartford Courant that he was the captain of a Harvard swim team when he was never on the swim team?” Will added: “This is a serial problem.”

Courant profile does not state that Blumenthal said he was “captain”

Hartford Courant report does not attribute swim team claims to Blumenthal. In an October 3, 2004, profile of Blumenthal, the Courant reported (accessed via Nexis):

The Blumenthals paid for their children to attend Riverdale Country School, a private school in the Bronx, and later footed the bill for Ivy League schools, all the way through law and medical schools.

In Richard’s case, that meant four years at Harvard University, where he was captain of the swim team, editor-in-chief of the Harvard Crimson and a magna cum laude graduate, and Yale Law School.

Courant issued a correction to its story. On May 21, the Courant issued a correction to its 2004 profile that also did not indicate Blumenthal had supplied the Courant with false information:

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was never captain of the Harvard University swim team. A 1978 Courant story incorrectly reported that he was — an error repeated in subsequent Courant stories, including profiles in 1980 and 2004.

Courant: Former Harvard team captain confirms Blumenthal was on the team

Courant reported that a former Harvard team captain said Blumenthal “was on the team” and that Blumenthal said he had “no idea” where the captain claim came from. The Courant reported on May 20:

I called the school earlier today and was told the registrar’s office can verify attendance but could not verify an individuals participation on any athletic team. I was told to call the swim coach, who did not return my call.

But Waterbury native Peter Alter, who was the captain of the Harvard swim team in 1968, the year after Blumenthal graduated, told the Courant this morning that Blumenthal was on the team.

He was a freestyler and “was actually a pretty good one,” said Alter, now a lawyer in Glastonbury who still on occasion talks to Blumenthal.

The Yankee Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think-tank based in Hartford, unearthed a trove of photographs from Harvard that show Blumenthal was at least associated with the team.

A photo from the 1964 Harvard College yearbook, posted on the Yankee Institute’s Facebook page, shows Blumenthal participating in a Harvard swim meet his freshman year. “However, if Blumenthal was on the Harvard swim team, he is not included in the team’s group yearbook photo that year,” Yankee’s executive director Fergus Cullen noted in an email.

Blumenthal campaign manager Mindy Myers said it is her understanding that Blumenthal was a member of the freshman swim team at Harvard.

The captain of the swim team in 1967, Blumenthal’s senior year, was James Seubold, who is now a doctor in the Chicago area. He could not be reached for comment.

Alter, who was a diver and only the second diver in school history to be named captain, said it is a “big deal to be named captain” of any Harvard sports team.

Alter said he talked to Blumenthal a few years ago, when both of them were at a function. The two men joked about the inaccurate references to Blumenthal being the team captain. The attorney general told Alter “he had no idea where it came from.”

“He said he had tried to figure out where it had started and that he had never claimed to have been the captain,” Alter said.

NY Times first forwarded dubious claim that Blumenthal was “never on the team”

NY Times cited Hartford Courant description of Blumenthal as team captain when, “records at the college show that he was never on the team.” The New York Times reported on May 17:

On a less serious matter, another flattering but untrue description of Mr. Blumenthal’s history has appeared in profiles about him. In two largely favorable profiles, the Slate article and a magazine article in The Hartford Courant in 2004 with which he cooperated, Mr. Blumenthal is described prominently as having served as captain of the swim team at Harvard. Records at the college show that he was never on the team.

Mr. Blumenthal said he did not provide the information to reporters, was unsure how it got into circulation and was “astonished” when he saw it in print.

Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

YOUR NEW REALITY
May 24, 2010

From Agence Global :

Rand Paul says, “I would have voted no on the Iraq War.” He also says, in a video posted prominently on his campaign website, that he’ll push for formal declarations, with House and Senate votes, before the launch even of wars he might favor. He says that while national defense is the top responsibility of government, conservatives who are serious about reducing waste must be wary of the excesses of the military-industrial complex. Add on criticisms of the Patriot Act and a willingness to cross partisan lines, and you can see why Rand Paul gets Cheney’s goat.

What really troubles Cheney and his circle, according to the Cato Institute’s David Boaz, is the prospect that a Paul win would begin to crack the false facade of party unity on military intervention. “That’s an issue the GOP establishment doesn’t want an open debate on,” says Boaz, who suggests the neocons “desperately fear that [electing] a conservative anti-interventionist leader on foreign policy just might reveal that a lot of Republicans and conservatives…don’t buy the world-policeman foreign policy the Bush/Cheney administration imposed on the GOP.”

The NeoCon-controlled Republicans are terrified now of The Tea Party, and they’re decidedly nervous that Ron Paul could become the movement’s leader. Sarah Palin as a leader of the Tea Party, they could handle her, and through her, most of the movement. But Rand Paul is something else altogether, and much closer to the roots of the Tea Party.

Just about the only place you see this kind of pinprick on U.S. consumers in the MSM is in a political cartoon:

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Michael Jackson fans in Japan have been offered the chance to spend a night with the King of Pop’s possessions in an exhibition in Japan.

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Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

James Bovard
Campaign For Liberty
May 24, 2010

In his commencement address at the University of Michigan on May 1, President Obama warned that public ignorance subverts self-government. Obama declared: “When we don’t pay close attention to the decisions made by our leaders, when we fail to educate ourselves about the major issues of the day… that’s when democracy breaks down. That’s when power is abused.”

Unfortunately, most Americans have little or no idea how government works or who is holding the reins on their lives. Most American voters do not know the name of their congressman, the length of terms of House or Senate members, or what the Bill of Rights guarantees. Most Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice or a single cabinet department in the federal government. But the ignorance goes far beyond Civics 101.

In his commencement speech, Obama declared that “we need an educated citizenry that values hard evidence and not just assertion.” Except, of course, when government officials assert that “there is nothing to see here — just move along.” While Obama loudly urges Americans to get better informed, Republicans and Democrats are quietly covering up some of the government’s worst abuses.

Obama heavily pressured Congress last year to enact a law prohibiting the release of thousands of photos showing horrendous abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan by U.S. troops. From 2004 onwards, the U.S. government deceived Americans — first claiming the torture scandal involved only “a few bad apples” from West Virginia, and then insisting that it was merely a few bad units, and then asserting that there was no national policy. By 2008, it was clear that the torture was mandated at high levels of the White House and Pentagon. Suppressing the photos makes it easier for former Vice President Dick Cheney and others who crafted the policies to continue denying that any crimes ever occurred.

Obama is also squelching the vast majority of facts regarding the National Security Agency’s 2002+ warrantless wiretapping of Americans. (Federal Judge Vaughn Walker recently ruled that the wiretaps were illegal.) No individual American has been permitted to know whether NSA copied his email or recorded his calls. The Obama administration even refuses to release the Bush-era Justice Department memos that “proved” why government is now entitled to spy on citizens without a warrant. While Congress granted retroactive immunity to the federal officials and phone companies that betrayed Americans’ privacy, Obama’s Justice Department is prosecuting a NSA official for notifying the media of the abuse.

Obama’s vision of democracy also does not include permitting Americans to learn which banks and other financial institutions received trillions of dollars of subsidies and guarantees from the Federal Reserve. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind.—Vt.) and Rep. Ron Paul (R—Tx.) pushed an “Audit the Federal Reserve” amendment to the financial regulation bill. But the Obama White House acted as if disclosing the names of the lucky companies that received windfall benefits would violate the rights of the biggest welfare recipients in American history.

How are citizens supposed to stop abuses when politicians refuse to let them know what government is doing? The government claims that evidence of its torture and wiretapping must be suppressed in the name of national security. But this greatly reduces the likelihood that Americans will learn from their rulers’ folly.

The recent cover-ups illustrate how our republic is becoming an Attention Deficit Democracy. The government remains nominally democratic — elections continue to be boisterous events with mass rallies and tidal waves of dubious ads. But after the polling booths close, most citizens remain clueless about what their rulers do in their name.

Attention Deficit Democracy begets Leviathan because rulers exploit people’s ignorance to seize more power over them. The contract between rulers and ruled is replaced by a blank check. And regardless of how many secrets the government keeps, the rulers still act like the people are liable for all the government’s abuses.

Obama urged graduating students to “pay attention” and “stay informed.” Citizens should be especially curious about what lurks behind the curtains that politicians close. The more crimes politicians are permitted to hide, the fewer liberties citizens will retain.

Sen. Lamar Alexander Advocates A Government Takeover Of The Oil Spill Clean-Up
The oil spill that resulted from a British Petroleum rig exploding in the Gulf of Mexico is still continuing unabated, and many scientists are now saying that BP and the Obama administration are downplaying the amount of oil that is gushing into the water. The joint BP-federal command has been relying on an estimate from […]

The oil spill that resulted from a British Petroleum rig exploding in the Gulf of Mexico is still continuing unabated, and many scientists are now saying that BP and the Obama administration are downplaying the amount of oil that is gushing into the water. The joint BP-federal command has been relying on an estimate from NOAA scientists that the oil rate was increasing by 210,000 gallons (5000 barrels) a day, but independent scientists estimate that the flow rate is at least 850,000 gallons a day.

This week, a flurry of environmental organizations, members of Congress, and local officials in the states affected by the spill called for the federal government to take over the response effort from BP. “This is an all-hands-on-deck crisis, and we need to use every asset the U.S. has, including the Defense Department and all of its most sophisticated technology,” said Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA).

Today, on CBS’ Face the Nation, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) — who spends a lot of his time fearmongering about various government takeovers — seemed to advocate that the government simply let BP off the hook and take over the clean-up effort:

Alexander: There’s one thing [the administration] could do. Under the law, they could fire BP and take it over. But the truth is the federal government probably doesn’t have the capacity to do that. […]

Q: But would you favor taking over BP if that became necessary?

Alexander: Sure, that’s up to the President to decide. … Under the law the federal government can take it over if they choose. And I understand why they might not choose, but that option exists.

Watch it:

Last week, BP CEO Tony Hayward said that he expects the environmental impact of the disaster will be “very, very modest.” But as The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson pointed out, “already, toxic sludge has started to ooze onto Louisiana’s fragile wetlands, and oil globs and tar balls have been found on barrier islands and beaches along the northeastern Gulf Coast. The federal government closed 19 percent of the Gulf to fishing on Monday when the slick doubled in size, caught by the Loop Current that is now dragging oil to the Florida Keys.”

Steele refuses to denounce Rand Paul: ?I can?t condemn a person?s view.?
This morning on ABC’s This Week, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had to address Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul’s recent comments that private business owners should be allowed to discriminate against people of color or anyone else they choose. After a firestorm of criticism, he backtracked and said he would “not support any […]

This morning on ABC’s This Week, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had to address Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul’s recent comments that private business owners should be allowed to discriminate against people of color or anyone else they choose. After a firestorm of criticism, he backtracked and said he would “not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” but the controversy has raised other questions about his views on the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal minimum wage, and the Fair Housing Act. Today, Steele said that Paul’s philosophy is “misplaced in these times” because it’s not “where the country is right now.” However, he defended that position because “it’s a philosophical position held by a lot of libertarians” and refused to condemn Paul:

STEELE: That’s a direct quote, and it’s a philosophical position held by a lot of libertarians, which Rand Paul is. They have a very, very strong view about the limitations of government intrusion into the private sector. That is a philosophical perspective. We have had a lot of members go to the United States Senate with a lot of different philosophies, but when they get to the body, how they work to move the country forward matters. […]

TAPPER: But do you condemn that view?

STEELE: I can’t condemn a person’s view. That’s like, you know, you believe something and I’m going to say, well, you know, I’m going to condemn your view of it. It’s the people of Kentucky will judge whether or not that’s a view that they would like to send–

TAPPER: Are you comfortable with that?

STEELE: I am not comfortable with a lot of things, but it doesn’t matter what I’m comfortable with and not comfortable with. I don’t vote in that election. The people of Kentucky will. As a national chairman, I’m here to say that our party will move forward in fighting for the civil rights and liberties of the American people, especially minorities in this country, and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that everyone who’s going to come to the United States Congress or go to state capitals with a Republican label are in that fight with us.

TAPPER: It sounds like you’re not comfortable with it.

STEELE: I just said I wasn’t comfortable.

Watch it:

Transcript:

KAINE: I was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years. Rand Paul wrote a letter about the Fair Housing Act to a local newspaper, saying a free society should tolerate private discrimination, even if it means that hate-filled groups exclude people based on the color of their skin.

TAPPER: That’s pretty much a direct quote.

STEELE: That’s a direct quote, and it’s a philosophical position held by a lot of libertarians, which Rand Paul is. They have a very, very strong view about the limitations of government intrusion into the private sector. That is a philosophical perspective. We have had a lot of members go to the United States Senate with a lot of different philosophies, but when they get to the body, how they work to move the country forward matters, and right now, the federal government is not moving forward on BP and cleaning up that mess; the federal government is not moving forward on the economy and creating jobs. There are a lot of — there are a lot of philosophies, a lot of talk on this hill about folks to get stuff done. What the American people are looking for is what are the concrete steps that this administration has taken to clean up the mess in the Gulf before it gets worse, and to create the jobs that are necessary for people to go back to building the economy the way that everybody wants it to be.

TAPPER: Fair enough, but just one more — one more beat on Rand Paul, and that is do you condemn that point of view? I mean, where would African-Americans be if the federal government hadn’t come in and said, hotels, you have to–

STEELE: Exactly. That’s very much a part of the debate back in the ’60s, as it is going forward. But the reality of it is, our party has stood four-square behind, you know–

TAPPER: But do you condemn that view?

STEELE: I can’t condemn a person’s view. That’s like, you know, you believe something and I’m going to say, well, you know, I’m going to condemn your view of it. It’s the people of Kentucky will judge whether or not that’s a view that they would like to send–

TAPPER: Are you comfortable with that?

STEELE: I am not comfortable with a lot of things, but it doesn’t matter what I’m comfortable with and not comfortable with. I don’t vote in that election. The people of Kentucky will. As a national chairman, I’m here to say that our party will move forward in fighting for the civil rights and liberties of the American people, especially minorities in this country, and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that everyone who’s going to come to the United States Congress or go to state capitals with a Republican label are in that fight with us.

TAPPER: It sounds like you’re not comfortable with it.

STEELE: I just said I wasn’t comfortable.

Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s president, says he misses working with F1 legend Michael Schumacher. The race-car driver, who won five world championships for the automaker, stayed with the team on as a consultant basis after retiring from Formula 1.

“We had beautiful years together and I gave him back his desire to race,” di Montezemolo said. “At times I miss Schumacher, he gave so much to Ferrari, but he also received a lot.”

Schumacher left Ferrari and joined Mercedes-Benz this year to make his comeback in F1. di Montezemolo admits that his relationship with Schumacher has changed since he signed with Mercedes. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: AutoCar

Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech

Watts Up With That?
May 24, 2010

Guest post By Paul Driessen, Willie Soon, and David R. Legates

We’re often asked, What really causes all these alarms about global warming disasters?

As scientists and policy analysts who’ve studied our ever-changing climate for a combined 65 years and attribute the changes primarily to natural forces, we’ve wondered that ourselves and also asked: Why is warming always framed as bad news? Why does so much “research” claim a warmer planet “may” lead to more diarrhea, acne and childhood insomnia, more juvenile delinquency, war, violent crime and prostitution, death of the Loch Ness Monster – and even more Mongolian cows dying from cold weather?

We’re not making this up. In fact, this is just the tip of the proverbial melting iceberg of climate scare stories chronicled at http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm.

Clearly, too much money is being spent on one-sided global warming advocacy cloaked as “research,” not enough on natural causes and adaptation. Despite the best of intentions, too much money can corrupt, or at least skew the science.

As they say, follow the money. Remember Indiana Jones’ immortal words: “Fortune and glory.”

Too many people in government, wealthy foundations and activist groups have decided they know what’s best for us, what kind of energy and economic future we should have, and who should be in charge. They intend to implement those policies – and global warming scare stories are key to achieving that objective. They’re pouring tens of billions of dollars into the effort.

A good example of how research money politicizes science is this May 4 headline: “Carbon dioxide effects on plants increase global warming.” The story enthusiastically reported the results of a science journal paper by Long Cao and Ken Caldeira from the Carnegie Institution. Carbon dioxide is not just making the atmosphere trap more heat, they say. It also enables plants to absorb CO2 more efficiently, so they don’t have to open stomata (pores) in their leaves as much, and they evaporate less water.

That should be good news, as it enables plants to survive better under dry conditions, even in desert areas where they couldn’t before. Any botanist or visitor to CO2science.org knows this. Indeed, hundreds of experiments show how growth, water efficiency and drought resistance of crop and wild plants are enhanced by higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. So more CO2 and better plant growth should be celebrated – not serve as another “climate crisis” to further the political goal of ending hydrocarbon use and controlling our factories, jobs, cars, lives and living standards.

But the Carnegie folks turned this good news into bad, ominously saying the reduced evapotranspiration means plants don’t cool down as much, and that supposedly raises global temperatures slightly.

Equally interesting, the researchers based their findings not on actual experiments, but on yet another computer model that allegedly predicts future temperatures. When they tweaked various assumptions about the physiological effects of CO2, global air temperature over land increased 0.7 degrees F (0.4 deg C) above what supposedly would occur just from doubled CO2 levels directly increasing the greenhouse effect. But just six months earlier, the same authors tweaked the same model differently – and got only 0.2F (0.1 deg C) of additional warming. The authors now say this earlier result is “unrealistic.”

However, what guarantee do we have that the new assumptions are “realistic”? Maybe they are but, face it, there’s far less “fortune and glory,” far less headline grabbing, in a mere 0.2 degrees. It’s also far less “realistic” to expect another research grant, if the first one could only come up with 0.2 degrees of crisis. That’s not even 9:00 versus 9:30 on an average summer morning.

Besides fortune and glory, and more research grants and publications in prestigious journals, there’s also the matter of reputation. Dr. Caldeira, besides being a reputable scientist, is also an advisor to billionaire Bill Gates on renewable energy, and in charge of the $4.5 million in geo-engineering research funding that the Gates Foundation has provided over the past 3 years.

How many climate scientists can rub elbows with Bill Gates? Glory indeed. So 0.7 degrees it is.

Of course, this does not mean more robust plant growth can never be harmful. But does it really take five researchers and six funding sources (including the National Environmental Trust, NSF, NASA and NOAA) to model ragweed under doubled CO2 computer scenarios and conclude, “there may be increases in exposure to allergenic pollen under the present scenarios of global warming”?

All this makes us wonder: Why is it a bad thing that more CO2 helps plants tolerate droughts better and revegetate deserts? Should we cut down more forests, to generate even more cooling than the planet has experienced since 2005? Why do “error corrections” always seem to result in more warming than originally predicted, instead of less? And why do taxpayers have to shell out Big Bucks on this stuff?

The United States alone has been spending some $7 billion a year on “climate change research.” That’s a lot of money. But a majority of Americans now say climate change is due to natural forces, not to human CO2 emissions. To alarmists that means more “research” and “education” on the “climate crisis” is clearly needed – but not more on better oversight of questionable research or studying natural causes.

During a March 2009 closed-door meeting, Department of Energy senior advisor Matthew Rogers outlined his “dilemma” over how to comply with his new mandate to quickly spend $36.7 billion in grants and loan guarantees from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka, the Stimulus Act) on renewable energy and climate change. Today, with only $300 million of our taxpayer money and children’s inheritance left to spend, poor Matt says his “popularity continues to decline.”

Nearly $2.4 million dollars of that Stimulus loot may be funding the latest research by Penn State University Professor Michael Mann, father of Mann-made global warming, the debunked hockey stick temperature graph and many infamous Climategate e-mails. In one new project where Mike is the principal instigator, over a half-million dollars in grant money generated only “0.53” jobs in Pennsylvania. We must have missed the headline “Stimulus Creates Millionaire.”

We’re not suggesting fraud or corruption by Caldeira or anyone else. But we do find it curious that the vast bulk of the money goes to research that consistently discovers more “global warming crises.” We find several other phenomena equally curious.

* In an era when ExxonMobil posts all its grants on its website, and we have the “most transparent government in history,” government agencies, liberal foundations and activist groups jealously guard information on who’s getting how much money from whom, to finance all this crisis-oriented research.

* Universities are fighting attorney-general investigations, and insisting that any investigations into alleged misconduct must be conducted in-house and behind closed doors. Yet they are happy to give Greenpeace fishing-expedition access to emails and work product by climate crisis skeptics.

* Despite insisting that their research and findings are completely honest and above-board, climate alarmists still refuse to share their data, computer codes and methodologies, or discuss and debate their tax-funded work with scientists who might “try and find something wrong with it.”

If we didn’t know better, we’d think the operative rules were: Never seek logical or alternative answers, if you can blame a phenomenon or problem (like decreasing frog populations) on global warming. Do whatever it takes and fund whatever research is needed, to advance the goals of ending hydrocarbon use, increasing government control and “transforming” society. And always include the terms “global warming” or “climate change” in any grant application.

It may not be corruption. But it sure skews the research, conclusions and policy recommendations.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org). Willie Soon is an independent scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. David Legates is a climatologist at the University of Delaware.

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Russia Today
May 24, 2010

A month on and the BP off-shore rig spill is still flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Rust colored oil has washed into marshlands and the Mississippi river, endangering wildlife and nature reserves on the American coastline. Big business seems reluctant to take responsibility for the clean up and locals fear they are on the brink of a ecological disaster.