This speech on the House floor by Representative Tom McClintock (R., CA) provides an eye-opening preview of what lies in wait for the American economy if the carbon tax passes. An excerpt:

I had a strange sense of deja vu as I watched the self-congratulatory rhetoric on the House floor tonight, and I feel compelled to offer this warning from the Left Coast.

Three years ago, I stood on the floor of the California Senate and watched a similar celebration over a similar bill, Assembly Bill 32. And I have spent the last three years watching as that law has dangerously deepened California's recession. It uses a different mechanism than cap and trade, but the objective is the same: to force a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Until that bill took effect, California's unemployment numbers tracked very closely with the national unemployment rate. But then, in January of 2007, California's unemployment rate began a steady upward divergence from the national jobless figures. Today, California's unemployment rate is more than two points above the national rate, and at its highest point since 1941.

What is it that happened in January 2007? AB 32 took effect and began shutting down entire segments of California's economy.

Read the full speech. It injects a small but refreshing note of sanity into the increasingly irrational debate over cap and trade.

Posted by tmg110 at 7:53 AM CDT

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It must cost one hell of a pile of IQ points to win the Nobel Prize for economics. A harsh indictment, you say? The prosecution cites this screed in the Washington Post by Nobel laureate Paul Krugman. Even the title is hilarious: "Betraying the Planet."

Krugman, you see, is incensed that his cherished carbon tax, a.k.a. cap and trade, only managed to pass in the House of Representatives by a razor-thin margin. So he trots out all the usual alarmist predictions to support his conclusion that "climate denial" is "a form of treason." No, I kid you not. This Nobel Prize-winning economist actually penned those words.

Krugman's fury is easy enough to understand. The carbon tax bill, which barely survived in the House, has zero chance of passing in the Senate. Members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, who represent states such as Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc., understand quite well that cap and trade would devastate their states' economies. Probably they also realize that the carbon tax will do little or nothing to affect the planetary climate one way or the other. Having flogged this stupid idea in his columns for years, Krugman now realizes that it's simply not going to happen.

"Betraying the Planet" is a perfect example of the global warming mob's intellectual dishonesty and moral degeneracy. Debate? Dissent? Skepticism? Can't have that! And anyone who disagrees with us is not simply wrong, but evil! And funniest of all, this primitive thinking, which would not be out of place in Islamofascist circles, goes by the name of "Science."

"Climate change" has achieved the status of dogma: it is to the Krugmans of the world what the doctrine of transubstantiation is to a faithful Catholic. The difference is that transubstantiation isn't likely to crush the American economy under a massive weight of taxes and regulations…

Posted by tmg110 at 7:16 AM CDT

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Just a brief note on the death of Michael Jackson. I'm utterly appalled by the media's salacious attention to this pathetic story. For all his talent, Jackson was a seriously disturbed individual who never got the help he so obviously needed. That's the real story, and it could have been covered in a single hour, without all the celebrity-driven voyeurism.

Posted by tmg110 at 7:56 AM CDT

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Call President Obama anything you want—but don't call him consistent! After piously refusing to take a hard line against the Iranian government's brutal suppression of the opposition, so as not to be seen as "meddling," Obama lost no time in "meddling" when the left-wing president of Honduras was given the boot. On the other hand, perhaps he is being consistent in a way by getting it wrong every time…

Posted by tmg110 at 7:22 AM CDT

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Last Sunday, the radical left-wing president of Honduras, Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, was kicked out of office by a coalition consisting of the armed forces, the legislature and the judiciary. At issue was Zelaya's effort to circumvent the Honduran constitution, which limits the chief executive to a single term. Like so many other leftists in Latin America and elsewhere, Zelaya was loathe to relinquish power. His attempt to strong-arm the commander of the armed forces into supporting his call for an unconstitutional  popular referendum to amend the constitution was the last straw.

Needless to say, Zelaya's left-wing allies in the region, including Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, protested against his removal from office. And having never met a left-wing demagogue it didn't like, so did the Obama Administration.

Having apparently made a study of Honduran law in his spare time, President Obama himself described Zelaya's removal as "illegal." Secretary of State Clinton, however, was more cautious in her comments, refusing to characterize the crisis as a military coup. Indeed, she seemed somewhat less eager than her boss to stand by the side of such unsavory thugs as Chavez and Castro.

Posted by tmg110 at 6:06 AM CDT

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Michael Jackson 'working on new climate change song before death'

We were spared that, at least…

Posted by tmg110 at 9:53 AM CDT

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I'm glad to be able to report that not one House member representing Indiana, Democrat or Republican, voted in favor of Obama's idiotic carbon tax. Maybe it's the Daniels Effect:

This bill would impose enormous taxes and restrictions on free commerce by wealthy but faltering powers— California, Massachusetts and New York—seeking to exploit politically weaker colonies in order to prop up their own decaying economies. Because proceeds from their new taxes, levied mostly on us, will be spent on their social programs while negatively impacting our economy, we Hoosiers decline to submit meekly.

You tell 'em, Mitch.

Posted by tmg110 at 9:47 AM CDT

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So The House of Representatives has passed Obama's carbon emissions cap-and-trade bill. And I must say that even in the context of Congress, it's rare to encounter an idea so glaring in its lack of any redeeming virtue whatsoever. Here we have a piece of legislation that (1) imposes a huge, regressive tax increase in the middle of a recession; (2) will crush the domestic oil and coal industies; (3) will destroy tens of thousands of jobs; and (4) will do nothing to affect the planetary climate one way or the other. And to think that George W. Bush is reviled as a clueless dimwit by the very people who are supporting this monstrous assault on the nation’s economy!

Posted by tmg110 at 9:39 AM CDT

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In the matter of Mark Sanford, soon-to-be-ex-governor of South Carolina, I find the defendant to be an idiot of colossal proportions who makes even Elliot Spitzer look like a class act. The Republican Party is very fortunate that this clueless dolt—who was mentioned as a presidential contender!—is self-destructing now. He could have become the GOP's John Edwards—a frightening thought indeed.

Writing for the American Spectator, Andrew Cline elaborates on Sanford's political suicide. Read it and weep.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:22 AM CDT

Updated: Thursday, 25 June 2009 8:31 AM CDT

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While we've all been preoccupied with Iran, Brack Obama's Venezuelan amigo has not been idle:

CHAVEZ STEPS UP ATTACKS ON JEWS

The story by Tim Meck includes this interesting tidbit:

While most would agree that the rise in anti-Semitism is driven by Chavez’s need to scapegoat a minority group for his own disappointing record of achievement in power, a secondary motive is his desire to ingratiate himself with his most important international ally, Iran. As Forbes’ Venezuelan commentators note in a piece on this topic, “Chavez and Iran speak with one voice about the Jews.” Lacking positive results to show their people, both autocratic regimes benefit from a coordinated effort of propaganda that blames Jews for domestic issues and foments anti-Semitic violence and vandalism.

President Obama seems to have some pretty bogus amigos.

Posted by tmg110 at 7:57 AM CDT

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