American Republic Online

Nancy Pelosi’s response to House debate domestic drilling for oil on Friday was to turn off the lights & cameras and send everyone home.  The Republicans want to debate the merits of drilling for some of the over 100,000,000,000 barrels of oil sitting discovered, but untouched under federal lands and coastal waters.  The Democrats lacking any real response to such a suggestion opted for a 5 week vacation to avoid the issue.

The unfortunate “secret” is that the Democrats don’t want gas prices to come down.  Either because A) price shock at the pump will encourage ecological ends or because B) they feel that gas prices will be blamed on Bush (and not on the Congress that was elected with reducing fuel costs as a political promise) which will help Obama in November.

Despite the lack of session, several Republicans are making a stand on the floor of the House again today.  Approximatly 30 Republicans will hold an Energy Debate for “as long as it takes” to get Pelosi to start official bipartisan debate.
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Seriously, this is for real:

Park department staff is recommending reducing bonfires at the two beaches this summer and possibly banning them altogether next year.

The park board will hear the recommendation Thursday, and the city plans to run public-service announcements and hand out brochures later this month about the effects of bonfires on global warming.

According to a memo to the park board from the staff released Thursday, “The overall policy question for the Board is whether it is good policy for Seattle Parks to continue public beach fires when the carbon … emissions produced by thousands of beach fires per year contributes to global warming.”

Under the proposal, the department in July would reduce the number of fire rings at Alki from six currently to three and at Golden Gardens from 12 to seven.

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As we reported yesterday, Democratic Presidential Front-Runner Barack Obama stated in a prepared speech just this Saturday:

“China, India, in particular Brazil. They are growing so fast that they are consuming more and more energy and pretty soon, if their carbon footprint even approaches ours, we’re goners.” - Sen. Obama (emphasis added)

Unfortunately it is far worse than Sen. Obama realized:

China has surpassed the United States in carbon emissions to become the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA) reported Tuesday.

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This quote was buried in the press for obvious reasons, but the ARO has ferreted it out for you. Here is a full snippet of Obama’s speech in Oregon on Saturday:

“All right. So that’s what we want to do on global warming here in the United States. We are also going to have to negotiate with other countries. China, India, in particular Brazil. They are growing so fast that they are consuming more and more energy and pretty soon, if their carbon footprint even approaches ours, we’re goners. That’s part of the reason why we’ve got to make the investment. We got to lead by example. If we lead by example, if we lead by example, then we can actually export and license technologies that have been invented here to help them deal with their growth pains. But keep in mind, you’re right, we can’t tell them don’t grow. We can’t drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we’re living in the desert or we’re living in the tundra and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.” - Sen. Obama (emphasis added)

This brief portion of his speech speaks volumes about Barack Obama’s outlook of and for the country. I must say though that this compelling messag has raised a lot of questions in me:

• What should I do with my SUV now that I can’t drive it?
• Isn’t having enough to eat a pre-req for not being among the “3rd World”?
• How many Americans are currently living in the “tundra”?
• Why is Brazil with a population of 188 Million worse than China & India that both exceed a Billion?
• How many other countries need to approve of our lifestyle to be acceptable? Just one, three, all of them?
• Since we should shrink our lifestyle to allow for China’s growth - is Obama running for President or Chairman?

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Hillary’s husband, Bill, recently stated that

“We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions ’cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren.”

And you know what? He’s right. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (at least to the magical 1990 level everyone favors for some reason), our economy would suffer a serious set-back. Less transportation, less industry, etc. Few have been willing to admit this. Others shrug it off willingly as an easy sacrifice. Although I doubt the majority of people would agree. You see, environmental-consciousness is a luxury of developed societies. When one is struggling to survive for a week, or even a day, issues that might face future generations are pretty low on the to-do list. It’s rather easy to tell someone to live a salt-of-the-earth lifestyle while sitting in air conditioned rooms, next to refrigerators, down the road from grocery stores, benefiting from formal education, etc. Oh wait, the Kyoto Treaty doesn’t force itself on developing countries, only those who can afford the changes. Why not? Because of the harm it would do to their economies. Do the “struggling middle class families that have been walked over by the Republicans” mind if his wife “slows down our economy” to fight global warming? Hmmm….

Say good bye to the incandescent light bulb. Congress has banned them staring in 2012. Congress defends this blatant attack on consumer choice and the home is castle concept by sighting energy savings. Everyone talks about how much money and power everyone will save. Wrong!

• Save Money? Nope. You’ll spend it all on the more expensive bulbs. So instead of a check to the utility it goes to the lighting industry. Same mothballs in the wallet for the consumer.
• Save Power? Nope. If the fuel efficiency of cars is any indication, no power will be saved. Consumers will simply care less about turning off their lights. As cars have gotten better mpg, American’s simply drive more. The economic impact not some love of the planet is what drives these things. If making sure you turn off your lights only impacts your power bill $5 instead of $50… no one will bother. Increasing the power consumption back to the pre-meddling point. Sorry congress, market forces don’t change with your wims.

Sadly, when I first heard about this a few weeks ago, I asked “What’s next? Are they going to make it illegal to set my thermostat to low?” Little did I know just how quickly I would be proven right. California is trying to pass a bill to require radio controlled thermostats for “peak times” and “emergencies”. So what happens when California declares a “global warming emergency”? Wal-mart will sell out of window AC units that day. Though I probably shouldn’t point that out, or those will be banned before the emergency declaration.

• Bye Bye, Light Bulb - If only Microsoft could argue its competitors hurt the environment.
• Senate Votes on Bulb Bill
• House Votes on Bulb Bill
• Who Will Control Your Thermostat?

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John Coleman is the guy that put weather on the map. Or at least on 24/7 cable TV. He’s a Meteorologist’s Meteorologist and he’s speaking out against global warming. Do you think he has enough credibility to overcome all the celebrities that have proved global warming over a soy latte?

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM.

Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data back in the late 1990’s to create an allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental wacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremist, notable politicians among them then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda.

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NBC Universal’s started a “Green is Universal” initiative Sunday including more than 150 hours of programming designed to raise awareness about environmental issues. The event was kicked off at a football game, where the sports casters turned off the lights in the studio to set a good example. (Not all the lights were cut lest the picture go dark.)

After their significant sacrifice, NBC cut to a satellite feed showing the country’s light pollution from space. Light pollution, the bane of amateur astronomers largely goes unnoticed in this country. Families routinely leave lights on willy-nilly, washing out the very stars people used to worship. But lights pose an even more serious threat than the oft-forgotten light pollution: global warming.

Lights use electricity, and electricity is often created along with sinister global warming gases. For this reason NBC urged Americans to stop the coming obliteration of our species through global warming. TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS. Unless, of course, you pay extra for the power company to route “green” power to your house. Then your lights are fine.

What NBC didn’t foresee in it’s noble cause, was the extent to which people would listen to them. Many people have now realized that their TV emits light (as well as runs on electricity) and turned it off as well. Ratings for the NBC this week have plummeted 23% and are trending downward. “We certainly didn’t expect such enthusiasm on the part of our viewers” said Sandra Mechum, PR Director for NBC Universal.

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So have the eco-hippies officially lost it when they start talking about the environmental impact of a natural process of mother nature?

What’s next, pollution control measures for volcanoes?  Coming up with a way to stop the genocide of the bunnies by the wolves?

If you look closely at the “damage” done to the environment, it comes down to the pretty plants being replaced in some areas by less pretty, hardier plants. Don’t we support natural selection any more?  Seriously though, why does it always come back to being pretty?  You know what this is going to lead to: anorexic weeds.
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