Save the GOP

Schwarzenegger had pledged to veto the legislation unless Democrats changed it to include concessions on labor and environmental issues that he said would speed up infrastructure projects.

Bass said Democrats had agreed to give Schwarzenegger 75 percent of what he said he wanted, but she said the governor then increased his demands for deeper spending cuts. She accused him of “moving the goal posts.”

A spokesman for Schwarzenegger, Aaron McLear, said he was not sure what the Democrats were talking about.

“The governor has been very clear for the last several months on what exactly he needs to support a budget fix,” he said.

San Francisco Chronicle

Arnold is right.  High labor costs and over zealous environmental regulations are breaking the back of California’s economy.  California flight has been in progress for several years now, with people fleeing for the neighboring states and the next Congressional reapportionment may result in California losing a Congressional seat for the first time ever.

The Democrats sent Schwarzenegger a budget ignoring the major issues and instead stuffed with taxes, including those on oil companies and a 2.5% increase in the state income tax.  Let me paint a picture of this for you.  Everyone that makes at least $44,819 already pays a state income tax rate of 9.3%.  The Democrats want to tack on another 2.5%.  Are the people not already paying enough???

I hope Schwarzenegger sticks this out and gets the appropriate concessions he needs to bring that state’s fiscal compass in order.

Jeb Bush stated today that he will not be seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez in 2010.  With Jeb now out of the running, who does that put on the A list?

Thanks to Erick Erickson at RedState for the link. You can read Blackwell’s 44-page PDF document here. I have skimmed through a good bit of it, and it appears pretty solid.

I have been leaning towards Blackwell for RNC Chair because he is a solid movement conservative and has been an outsider to the RNC, but has also had electoral success and is great at articulating conservative principles. This comprehensive plan demonstrates that rather than simply being able to talk about the merits of conservatism, Blackwell appears to understand how to apply those principles in tangible ways to redirect the Republican Party as an apparatus and as an ideological organ.

I think the best 2 candidates for RNC Chair are Blackwell and Saul Anuzis. There are issues with several of the other candidates, which I won’t expound upon. Well, except one - I think Mike Duncan needs to go. He may be a good manager, he may be a good Republican, he’s probably a nice guy, but if we are going to take this party in a new direction the leadership at the top needs to change.

Update: Ok, so I give both of my favorites equal time, you can see Saul Anuzis’ website here.

Update II: Further news from Erickson is that the leadership of the College Republicans (CRNC) has come out and publicly endorsed Blackwell’s bid. For those of you who don’t know, Save the GOP was founded by former CR leaders, and used to cover the CRNC goings-on quite extensively, in a very critical manner. I’ll let one of those guys comment on this development, but if the CRNC leadership is for Blackwell, that warrants giving pause to thinking Blackwell is the guy for the job. Will Mark or Alex please elaborate on this…

Update III: From Alex in the comments section:

The current CRNC leadership team (2007-present) is a group of solid guys and girls who are nothing like the people who ran the organization when it was mired in scandal in years past.  Their endorsements definitely count for something.

For those of you who are not aware, yesterday it was leaked that President-elect Obama’s choice for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency will be Leon Panetta, Washington veteran and an old Clinton White House Chief of Staff - but someone who notably has no direct intelligence experience.

Some of you may remember Mike’s post regarding Ishmael Jones’ book that was critical of the CIA, The Human Factor - Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture.

Reaction to the Panetta pick has been mixed, and I trust you can read plenty about it elsewhere. But I wanted to link to K-Lo’s post on the Corner with her questions to the pseudonymous Jones, in which the former deep-cover CIA agent sees the Panetta pick as a brave and positive indicator for CIA reform.

Check them all out here.  Voting is only open for a few more days.

OK, I know what you are thinking, but it’s true. In a recent article for WorldNet Daily, Chuck Norris writes a patriotic manifesto of sorts as to what should be done politically and economically in the US of A.

It’s common knowledge that the boogie monster checks under his bed for the former star of Walker Texas Ranger. However, I am equally terrified of the position that Norris takes on the political and economic state of the US. So with a tear in my disillusioned eye, as my hero worship comes to an end, here goes.

Norris rants against FDI:

America is literally being sold out from underneath Americans. According to the 2008 Economic Report of the President, “The United States is both the single leading recipient and leading source of foreign direct investment in the world. In 2006, total cumulative (foreign direct investment) in the United States was almost $1.8 trillion, 15 percent of the world total.” In 2006, foreign-owned assets in the U.S. totaled roughly $16 trillion dollars.

In addition to a few FDI Benefits brought up by the US Department of State, it doesn’t take an expert to tell you that ANY investor be it an individual, corporation, or sovereign nation invests in what he/she/it thinks will succeed. FDI is a vote of confidence by a foreign nation in the US economy. As foreign ownership of US assets rise, the less our quasi-hostile global neighbors want to see the US fail. Look at the effects of the US economic slowdown on our major sources of FDI.

Not to mention, over the last 25 years, the return on inbound FDI to the United States has averaged 4.3 percent while the average for outbound FDI from the United States has been 12.1 percent!

Norris continues:

We all know China serves as an example of this vicious cycle. American companies from agribusinesses to Wal-Mart have proliferated markets with so many “Made in China” labels that our nation has one big tag dangling from the toe of Florida – “Sold to China.” And does China mind its material and monetary dominance over America? Of course not. In turn, it takes our money that we pay them for their goods and invests (loans) it back to us via our government as one of the “foreign investors” in our national debt.

Chuck Norris (the actor) seems to think that China is the problem, Christian Broda and John Romalis (the University of Chicago economists) do not. They conclude that imports from China have helped keep inflation down, through consumer non-durable goods. In addition this has helped the poor by 6 percentage points more than the rich. Now that’s change I can believe in.

Before making a weak comparison to one of his films, Norris concludes with the protectionist argument:

It’s time to realize we’re all together in this boat called America, and she is sinking…The only economic stimulus plan they [government] should be preparing is the one that rewards manufacturers and consumers who promote and purchase American-made products and services. Our government doesn’t need to dole out more bailouts, and drown us deeper in debt. We don’t need more bad trade agreements like NAFTA or to provide tax relief incentives for corporations that are outsourcing. We need fair trade, not free trade.

I can agree with Norris concerning the bailouts and debt, but why does the knee jerk reaction have to be ‘blame trade’? The protection of “American-made products and services” is NOT good if it shelters said goods and services from the rigors of competition!

I seem to have heard a similar argument for American steel, which the taxpayers have spent about $100 billion protecting for the past 30 years. This has in turn contributed to the current US automakers crisis. Sheltered from competition for so long, US automakers are now turning to the government again for help. Wait, I thought that’s what the original subsidies were supposed to do. We seem to have once again run into the ‘law of unintended consequences’. Even the best of intentions…

This argument has been heard and refuted more times than I can count, but when someone as notable as Chuck Norris (who counted to infinity twice) gets on board the protection bandwagon, we need to speak up one more time.

You stay classy, Rep. Paul.

And before anyone mentions it, yes Congressman Paul has good points on limiting our domestic government - but so do Sens. DeMint and Coburn, Reps. Price, Shadegg, Pence, etc, Governors Sanford and Palin, etc.  The difference is that none of these people spout such nonsense about Israel launching a “pre-emptive war.”  It is because of this that I, and many other conservatives, really have no use for Ron Paul.

A lot was written about the infamous shoe throwing incident that took place in Baghdad this last year. I love that I can write about events less than a month old as “last year”. I didn’t really care that much about the incident at the time, treating it as I would some idiot in America throwing a shoe at Nicolas Sarkozy if he were here on a state visit.

Click to continue »

Reminding me of one of the best all time posts on SavetheGOP.

We all know that the UAW has squeezed the Big Three for years into giving more pay and benefits than are economically possible for the companies to stay in the black, but I have always wondered just where all those millions of dollars went to. Now I know.

The United Auto Workers may be out of the hole now that President Bush has approved a $17 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry, but the union isn’t out of the bunker just yet.

Even as the industry struggles with massive losses, the UAW brass continue to own and operate a $33 million lakeside retreat in Michigan, complete with a $6.4 million designer golf course. And it’s costing them millions each year.

Now of course would be the worst time conceivable for the UAW to try and liquidate these assets but that is not really the point. The point is that they have extorted (through the threat of strikes) enough money out of the Big Three that they could afford to purchase such superfluous luxuries as a $6 million golf course at a $33 million lakeside retreat. It would be one thing if these were profitable investments designed to provide retirement benefits to the union members, but they aren’t. They are perks for union reps and officials. This one facility alone has lost the UAW $23 million over the past five years, no wonder they need a bailout! Their golf course is hemorrhaging cash so fast it makes GM look well run.

Michelle Malkin has more details at NRO. Apparently golfing is a big part of being in the UAW.

January 1st was the 100th birthday of our beloved Barry Goldwater, expressed at another site as AuH2O, happy birthday Barry.

Bill Richardson has decided to spare president-elect Obama anymore embarrassment and preemptively resign as Secretary of Commerce.

But a grand jury in New Mexico is currently looking into charges of “pay-to-play” in the awarding of a state contract to a company that contributed to Richardson.

The importance of the inquiry was apparently dismissed when Richardson was first nominated. But it may have taken on more weight in light of the “pay-to-play” allegations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Perception is politics. Pay-to-play is cool until it isn’t. Unfortunately for Richardson this will do little to make the scandal go away and it seems another Democrat governor is heading down in flames. I am going to enjoy this so much, though not as much if Richardson had been forced to testify before a Senate committee.

In addition to Eric Holder (who greased the pardon of corrupt commodities trader Marc Rich while serving in the Clinton Administration and worked with Blagojevich on gambling regs in IL) and Bill Richardson another potential member of Obama’s cabinet has come under fire for corrupt dealings in their past. I’ll give you three guesses . . . Hillary Clinton was your first one huh? Imagine that.

Hillary Clinton is facing scrutiny for . . . pay-for-play!

A developer in New York state donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

Hillary Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.

If it weren’t for this simple little money making machine what would Democrats do once they were in office? I mean how else would they make any cash? If she sits down in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this has a 100% chance of coming up. She has the votes to make it through, but she won’t make it through unscathed.

Barrack Obama intends to boost the economy by adding 600,000 workers to the government’s payroll. How much more he will need to squeeze out of the taxpayer to accomplish this is unknown but there is no problem that a Democrat can’t solve by expanding the government. The economy is up? Increase the size of the government. The economy is down? Increase the size of the government. The government is too big? Increase the size of the government. If only we had some track record of success and failure by which we could measure whether or not increasing the government worked . . .

Now for some good news: Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina is standing up to the welfare bureaucracy in his state. He is demanding that no more government checks be mailed to the unemployed until some basic due diligence is conducted by the state Employment Security Commission.

Last month, South Carolina reported the nation’s third-worst unemployment rate at 8.4 percent. Forecasters have said the jobless rate could reach an unprecedented 14 percent next year.

Sanford says he won’t request a $146 million federal loan to pay unemployment benefits through March until the commission agrees to his demands that include an audit by the state’s watchdog agency.
. . .
Sanford has some things he wants first before he signs the request, such as an independent, third-party audit to review operations and performance of the commission.

Among other things, Sanford wants to have certain things collected, like unemployment insurance data, details, such as reasons for getting unemployment and dates of employment benefits, and quarterly employment numbers and wages.

The idea that unemployment checks are being handed out right now in South Carolina without this information is simply damning.

“I cannot provide information that I don’t collect and this is what’s being asked,” Ted Halley, executive director of the commission, said.

Specifically, Halley says his agency doesn’t collect specifics about why people are out of work.

The state already has borrowed $15 million to pay benefits through the end of this year.

“We’re paying out more money than we’re taking in to the trust fund and you do the arithmetic,” Halley said.

The best part though is this:

In a memo to Sanford, Halley agrees to some but not all the governor’s requests.

Halley agrees to a performance audit to be done by the Department of Labor, but not an independent, third-party as the governor requests.

After receiving the counter-offer, the governor’s office released a statement, saying:

“We are disappointed by the updated agreement. It shows that the Employment Security Commission is afraid of the scrutiny an outside audit would provide. We are insisting on an independent audit before we sign anything.”

The very idea of a public official refusing to allow the governor to conduct an independent, third-party audit should be grounds for immediate dismissal. Mark Sanford is going to war with government spending and isn’t taking prisoners.

Alright, obviously with Christmas, New Year’s, and all of the madness that surrounds the holiday season, blogging by myself and other contributors has been slow as of late. I’m sure Obama’s coronation inauguration later this month will be more than enough to light a fire under all of our rears to crank out some more constant material.

In the meantime, some links to check out:

First there was Rod Blagojevich attempting to sell Obama’s old Senate seat, with the incoming administration categorically denying any contact with the Governor or his office about the Senate appointment, which as I pointed out at the time was a stupid and fishy-looking thing to do. Rahm Emanuel apparently had several contacts with Blagojevich. Though Greg Craig shockingly determined no wrongdoing by Rahm or any other transition staffers after an internal investigation, it remains to be seen what the full extent of the investigation of Blagojevich will yield.

In the meantime, we still have Bill Richardson to kick around. He was going to join Obama’s cabinet as Commerce Secretary, but is now bowing out since he is under federal investigation. Good lord, this administration hasn’t even taken office yet, and there’s already not one, but two investigations related to it, the next 4-8 years are going to be fun.

The candidates for RNC Chairman are debating today at a forum hosted by Americans For Tax Reform, moderated by Grover Norquist.

And, to finish off this post with some libertarian-leaning policy analysis from our friends across the Atlantic, the government-imposed smoking ban in England is showing some unexpected side effects. When will people realize that more government micromanagement of everyone’s lives usually a) does not solve the problem and b) usually causes more problems as a result.

Rob Bluey opines over at RedState.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for higher fuel taxes.

With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax fail to raise enough to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel fuel tax by 12 to 15 cents a gallon. At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation.

The commission will also recommend that states raise their fuel taxes and make greater use of toll roads and fees for rush-hour driving.

Associated Press

Gas shot through the roof in 2008 hitting levels surpassing $5 a gallon in some states and we were told that the way to bring the price back under control was to cut down on our gasoline usage and invest in more fuel efficient vehicles.  The American people responded appropriately to the crisis and it resolved itself.  Now we are being told that taxes must be raised as a consequence for doing exactly what was requested of us.  Now, what kind of incentive is that to take more responsible actions going forward?  Why should I go out and buy a hybrid at a higher price than a traditional automobile if the government will just hike the taxes up and cause me to pay the same amount of money towards fuel if I just kept the gas hog in the first place?

A tax increase on this order would be politically treacherous for Democratic leaders in Congress — a gas tax hike was one of the reasons they lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed concern about raising gas taxes in the current economic climate.

Naturally, this will be political poison.  Americans have finally gotten fuel prices back down to a level we have been comfortable with for many years prior to the increase.  The cost of gas here in South Carolina is in the $1.40s right now.  I’m not sure if hiking them back up is what the American people had envisioned with “change we can believe in.”  So how does Congress get around this?  The same way they do everything else.

Lie…..

Charles Whittington, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, which supports a fuel tax increase as long as the money goes to highway projects, said Congress may decide to disguise a fuel tax hike as a surcharge to combat climate change.

Transportation is responsible for about a third of all U.S. carbon emissions created by burning fossil fuels. Traffic congestion wastes an estimated 2.9 billion gallons of fuel a year. Less congestion would reduce greenhouse gases and dependence on foreign oil.

“Instead of calling it a gas tax, call it a carbon tax,” Whittington said. “As long as we label it as something else we may have the momentum and acceptance to move forward.”

I must say, Mr. Whittington does have one heck of a brass set on him.  We know Congress lies to us all the time, but this guy actually comes out in public and admits that Congress should lie to our faces in order to get this passed.

They can call it a carbon tax or whatever they want.  I doubt many people will be fooled.  The impartial and conservative media outlets will point out the fraud being propagated by our shystering schlemiels in Washington, but that doesn’t mean they still won’t get the tax pushed through.  If they do this right away they still have almost two years until any of them are up for reelection and the American people have short memories.  The outrage that will ensue after passage will gradually fade away by 2010 and may not carry the same fire by the time elections come around as it did in ‘94.

But, there’s still one more fish to fry:

The financing commission thinks the long-term solution is a mileage-based revenue system. While details have not been worked out, such a system would mean equipping every car and truck with a device that uses global positioning satellites and transponders to record how many miles the vehicle has been driven, the type of roads and time of day. Creation and installation of such a system would take about 10 years.

Moore said commission members were initially concerned that using technology to track driving might violate drivers’ privacy, but they’ve been assured that such a system could be designed to prevent vehicles from being “tracked in some big brotherish way.”

I will say this now with the utmost certainty, that Hell will freeze over and the devil himself will be toboganning through the fizzled fiery depths of eternal damnation before I allow any Orwellian politician to mandate a tracking device be put in my automobile.  It will not happen, but don’t think they aren’t going to continue to grow this idea.  Such a system has already been discussed in North Carolina and heavily favored by the Governor of Oregon.

Republican Party officials say they will try next month to pass a resolution accusing President Bush and congressional Republican leaders of embracing “socialism,” underscoring deep dissension within the party at the end of Mr. Bush’s administration.

Those pushing the resolution, which will come before the Republican National Committee at its January meeting, say elected leaders need to be reminded of core principles. They said the RNC must take the dramatic step of wading into policy debates, which traditionally have been left to lawmakers.

“We can’t be a party of small government, free markets and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing industries, which lead to big government, socialism and high taxes at the expense of individual liberty and freedoms,” said Solomon Yue, an Oregon member and co-sponsor of a resolution that criticizes the U.S. government bailouts of the financial and auto industries. Republican National Committee Vice Chairman James Bopp Jr. wrote the resolution and asked the rest of the 168 voting members to sign it.

Washington Times

If this will be the new face of the RNC then I’m looking forward to the coming months and years.  For too long the RNC has been a mouthpiece for the party powerbrokers rather than the grassroots and the American people. Case and point:

In 2006, some party members presented a resolution challenging Mr. Bush’s plan to legalize illegal immigrants and enact a guest-worker program. Mr. Bush’s lieutenants fought back, arguing that the party should not tie the president’s hands on a policy issue, and the RNC capitulated, passing an alternate White House-backed resolution instead.

If we are to rebuild the party into a true voice for successful limited government policies then we need accountability all the way up to the top.

North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Gary Emineth said it’s time for the RNC to end the disconnect between what the party platform says and what elected Republicans do.

“It is time the party gets involved in policy issues and forces candidates to respond to the platform,” Mr. Emineth said. “Frankly the way we view the platform is a joke. We work hard to drive our principles into the platform, then candidates ignore it.”

“If the party doesn’t move in this direction, we will continue to be irrelevant. Whoever has the larger star power will continue to win, and what they stand for and believe will become less relevant,” Mr. Emineth said.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, both of whom voted for the financial bailout but opposed the auto bailout, declined to comment.

Of course they declined to comment.  What are those two bozos going to say?  Yes, you’re right?  We’ve been lying to you for the past eight years about we said we would deliver to the American people?

The dawning of groups like Rebuild the Party and the current actions of the RNC are beginning to give me some hope that maybe change really is in the air this time.  It’s unfortunate that it took the current malfeasance of the Bush Administration to ignite the flame, but better late than never, I guess.

It’s coming up again like every year.  Congress’ annual pay raise is right around the corner and as usual there is little resistance from the Congressional bodies to suspend it.  Congressman Jim Matheson (D-UT) seems to be about the only one in D.C. raising a stink about it.  He has been lobbying his fellow Congressmen for the past eight years to have the automatic pay raises put to a vote.  Have our Congressional representatives earned the over $4,000 cost of living increase they are about to receive, putting their annual salary at around $174,000?  That is a rhetorical question.

The National Debt tops $10 trillion.  Our currency has plummeted.  We are in the midst of the worst financial crisis in 70 years.  Thousands of jobs have been lost overseas.  If anything, their salaries should be significantly reduced until they turn things around.  The raise will assuredly go through with little objection and that is because the American people will let it.  Only we can stop it, but more times than not the American people have proven to be useless in controlling the actions of our government.

This is yet another wasted opportunity by Republicans.  Where is the GOP leadership on this?  John Boehner and Mitch McConnell could be holding a press conference right now protesting this pay increase and showing Americans of all stripes that the GOP demands accountability and positive results.  Instead all we hear our crickets and the crinkling of our money in their pockets.

Excellent commentary. He is spot on.

The first, on May 21, headed “Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts” , reported that the entire Alpine “winter sports industry” could soon “grind to a halt for lack of snow”. The second, on December 19, headed “The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation” , reported that this winter’s Alpine snowfalls “look set to beat all records by New Year’s Day”.

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.

The Telegraph

The man-made global warming conspiracy is unraveling like a badly knit sweater and some in the media are finally talking about it, even in Europe.

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. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

Ever shriller and more frantic has become the insistence of the warmists, cheered on by their army of media groupies such as the BBC, that the last 10 years have been the “hottest in history” and that the North Pole would soon be ice-free – as the poles remain defiantly icebound and those polar bears fail to drown. All those hysterical predictions that we are seeing more droughts and hurricanes than ever before have infuriatingly failed to materialise.

Even the more cautious scientific acolytes of the official orthodoxy now admit that, thanks to “natural factors” such as ocean currents, temperatures have failed to rise as predicted (although they plaintively assure us that this cooling effect is merely “masking the underlying warming trend”, and that the temperature rise will resume worse than ever by the middle of the next decade).

For the first time in about 40 years Canada had a national white Christmas.  For the past few winters we’ve been seeing record cold temperatures all over the world and “scientific” predictions have been wrong over and over again.

Secondly, 2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a “scientific consensus” in favour of man-made global warming collapsed. At long last, as in the Manhattan Declaration last March, hundreds of proper scientists, including many of the world’s most eminent climate experts, have been rallying to pour scorn on that “consensus” which was only a politically engineered artefact, based on ever more blatantly manipulated data and computer models programmed to produce no more than convenient fictions.

I’ve said before that the idea of man made climate change is political and not based on real science.  This article was reference before by Mike discussing the growing number of scientists speaking out against the faux religion of climate change.

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.

This will be tell tale sign.  The Dalai Bama has already predicted a budget deficit of close to $1 trillion for 2009.  Will our new environmental extremist government and all of its European greenie weenie comrades-in-arms follow through with all of these economically devastating programs to “save the planet” when they’re facing rapidly rising unemployment and inflation caused by our global recession?  They’ll have to, right?  I mean, we’re all going to die in massive floods and hurricanes if they don’t.  They said so.  They certainly couldn’t put this on the back burner.  What good would a stable economy be if we all have to migrate to the Colorado Rockies in order to stay alive?

Suddenly it has become rather less appealing that we should divert trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into the fantasy that we could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 80 per cent. All those grandiose projects for “emissions trading”, “carbon capture”, building tens of thousands more useless wind turbines, switching vast areas of farmland from producing food to “biofuels”, are being exposed as no more than enormously damaging and futile gestures, costing astronomic sums we no longer possess.

I think the tide on this is turning, slowly, but turning all the same.  More and more people in the government and in the scientific community are opening their mouths and speaking out against this fraud.  It will obviously take time for the mainstream media to actually discuss this, but eventually they won’t have a choice or they’ll simply stop talking about climate change and let it slowly fade away into memory, like the Iraq War, global cooling, acid rain, and everything else they’ve been wrong about.  The Internet is allowing the truth to escape and we may be seeing the beginning of the end of our modern day Spanish Inquisition

News has been slow over the last week or so and will probably continue to be for a few more days as we approach New Years. In the mean time, the race for RNC Chairman and the debate over what it will take to rebuild a winning Republican coalition continues on.

Patrick Ruffini continues to do yeoman’s work over at The Next Right (see here and here. And Erick Erickson is as always, awesome.

Also, there was an article today in the Hill on the RNC race. Check it out.