This Will Hurt

By William Warren

See more Cartoons by William Warren, and Great Articles at NetRight Nation Blog

The Greatest Scam On Earth

By Sultan Knish

In 2000, Al Gore was a failed Presidential candidate with a paltry $2 million to his name. Not a lot of money for a guy whose lavish mansion gobbles up almost $150,000 dollars alone in electric utilities annually, and that, of course, is before property taxes and all the other costs of owning a home in Belle Meade, which has one of the region’s highest costs of living. But besides growing a beard and lecturing college students on journalism, a hobby he had last practiced in the ‘70s, Al Gore didn’t have much of a career plan.

But Gore didn’t starve on the streets either, and eight years later, despite not having much in the way of a job, the former Vice President is worth over $100,000,000. Expanding your net worth by 2,500 percent sounds like the Madoff investment plan, but the scam that Al Gore invested in is one that makes Madoff look like a piker… because Gore invested in The Greatest Scam on Earth.

The Greatest Scam on Earth naturally revolves around the earth itself, combining millennial apocalyptic visions with junk science to create global warming. In 1920 the American poet Robert Frost wrote, “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice, From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.” Taking an incomplete cue from poem, the school of environmental apocalypse first tried to sell the idea of an ice age, before switching over to global warming.

In the ‘70s the talk was of a coming ice age:

Our Big Blog

Sometimes it’s hard to actually judge the relative size of your Blog, because there are just so many of them these days.

We would like to think of our Blog as being one of the Big ones, but we have no illusions on that front.

What we really would like to do is to actually believe that we are making a difference, and that can really only be judged by the ‘relative size’ of our Blog here at PA Pundits International.

In reality we could easily say that we are one of the big ones, but now we have some actual proof.

Each year now, they have been holding the Weblog Awards. This is the link to that site where nominations from the public are accepted.

True, it’s not on the scale of the Grammy’s or the other huge yearly Awards, but each year since its inception in 2003, it has gained in following, and last year there were almost one million nominations.

We have no illusions that our Blog will figure in any of the Presentations, but what it does confirm for us is that we indeed do have a large Blog.

Blog rankings are worked out on what is called the Technorati Authority. (TA) All blogs statistics regarding visits to each site are kept and from those this ‘Index’ is calculated.

Blogs are split into seven categories starting with the super Blogs, (the Majors) and going down to Hidden Gems. Blogs are categorised by that TA index.

The Majors are those Blogs with a TA number greater than 701, and the Number one Blog site has a TA rating of 970.

Our humble Blog here is not in those Majors, but we are, however in the next category below that one, that of the Very Large Blogs.

Here is the link to the listing for PA Pundits International.

Now a small statistical link may not mean much without some explanation, so look across there to the right of the entry and in green you will see the Authority number there and that is 563, and is up from the last regular reporting. That places our Blog in the category of Very Large Blog.

Next, look across to the left of the entry and see that other number there. This is the ranking for our Blog, and as you can see from that, our ranking number is 2437, a long, long way from Number 1 or even from the Top 100. That is also trending up as well.

However, and here’s the crunch. Look above the green bar there above our entry. the total number of Blogs being recorded is 853,799. We are at Number 2437. That effectively means that our Blog is in the Top 0.3% of all those Blogs being statistically reported.

Both the TA Number and the ranking change regularly, but our Blog is safely in the middle of that group.

So, we may not be in the Big league, but we are nagging at their heels.

This is thanks to all our loyal readers out there, those who visit our site from an outside source, looking at one specific post, and also those who have our site saved in their list of ‘Favourites’.

It’s not our part to tout for votes, because in the scheme of things, we may not be winning any awards. Our reward is knowing that we are indeed a Very Large Blog, and that can only be because there are people who obviously must agree with the topics we post on. That is what is most gratifying for us.

Our Choice Or Al Gore’s Choice?

By Nick Loris

Al Gore has had a busy week. First, the former vice president’s renewable energy investments received some serious backing from the taxpayer as $3.4 billion stimulus package would be allocated for smart grid investment. $560 million went to Silver Spring Networks, a company Gore’s venture capitalist firm invested in, that makes hardware and software to improve efficiency in the nation’s electricity grid. That’s not the only way Gore is profiting from the global warming debate. On November 3rd he published his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, which details the need for more wind, solar and biofuels, improved energy efficiency and the use of offsets and trees to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere – among other things.

Gore stresses that the cost of doing nothing is much higher than any dire economic projections that would result from capping greenhouse gas emissions, or as Gore likes to call it, “global warming pollution.” To gain support, Gore paints pictures of rising sea levels that will swallow up islands and devastate the global economy. But this “opportunity cost” of doing nothing must be discounted by the actual effect the “doing something” will have. Doing something like cap-and-trade, does not mitigate climate change entirely, if at all, and therefore the (negative) opportunity foregone (i.e., the expected climate change) is not the full benefit.

We have to look at how much climate change Waxman-Markey is expected to mitigate. As Heritage analyst David Kreutzer says, “We need to look at the cost of these proposals in light of what difference these proposals make. None of the proposals will entirely eliminate predicted climate change regardless of the assumptions, models, computers or theories used.”

Pelosi Bill Rolls Amnesty And Abortion On Demand Into One

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  CONTACT:  Phyllis Schlafly, President, (314) 721-1213

Schlafly:  Pelosi’s bill rolls medical amnesty for illegal immigrants and abortion on demand into one giant pile of junk policy

Phyllis Schlafly

Washington, D.C. –Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of the leading conservative public policy organization Eagle Forum,  made the following statements on the eve of the scheduled House vote on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) health care reform bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962):

“Less than 24 hours remain for Members of Congress to do the right thing and listen to their constituents who have passionately risen up to oppose this 2,000-page pile of junk policy which Nancy Pelosi is masquerading as health care reform,” said Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly.  “This bill is stealth amnesty for illegal immigrants and abortion on demand rolled into one.”

“H.R. 3962 is the feminists’ dream bill because it provides for the largest expansion of government sanctioned abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973,” said Schlafly.  “It’s unprecedented.  It would for the very first time allow direct government funding of elective abortions, and we all know that when strident abortion supporters like Rep. Louise Slaughter and Planned Parenthood have no problem with supposed “pro-life” amendment language, like that offered by Rep. Brad Ellsworth, you know something’s fishy.”

Is ABC’s “V” an Insightful Political Commentary of Obama’s Regime? + More

Digest

The Foundation

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” –Samuel Adams

Government & Politics

Tuesday’s Elections Bring Hope, Change

There is a groundswell of conservative activism rising up across our great nation, as citizens are awakening to this ominous threat of constitutional adulteration and tyranny. Citizens are speaking out at public forums, attending grassroots “Tea Parties,” making a stand for Liberty.

The first real political results of that uprising were manifest in the elections of Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie to the executive branches of the states of Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. Each of these Republicans vanquished a Democrat opponent for whom Barack Obama had campaigned extensively, and both victories came in states that went for Obama in 2008.

HEALTH: Immigration Issue Might Be Punted Until Conference

by Kasie Hunt, with Billy House contributing

House leaders are likely to bow to pressure from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and leave tighter restrictions for undocumented immigrants out of the healthcare overhaul, but avoiding conflict in the House could set up a brutal battle with the Senate and possibly President Obama.

“We will have to deal with this. It’s more of a matter of when,” a Democratic leadership aide said of the immigration issue. “The president needs to get involved.”

Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter said leaders were “pretty content with the rule the way it is” when asked if the immigration language would change.

Some House Democrats in vulnerable districts are uncomfortable with how the bill handles immigration because it differs from the Senate. Under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill, undocumented immigrants aren’t required to buy health insurance — and they’re not allowed to use the exchange the bill sets up, even if they use their own money to buy a plan.

The House bill is silent on the issue, effectively requiring undocumented immigrants to carry insurance and letting them use the exchange to buy it.

Obama has expressed support for the Senate’s proposal, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday the president has not changed his position.

Obama met Thursday with four CHC members — Democratic Reps. Xavier Becerra and Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, Charles Gonzalez of Texas and Nydia Velazquez of New York. They urged him to reconsider his position and threatened to bring down the House bill if it were changed to tighten the restrictions.

Think Health Care Is Expensive Now? Wait Until It’s ‘Free’

By Tom McLaughlin

Recently, I asked my students how much it costs for a doctor visit. “My mother pays $15,” said one.

“Fifteen dollars?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “That’s what she paid.”

“Okay,” I said, “But is that all it cost?” I pointed out that the average doctor visit costs between $95 and $265.

“She has insurance,” he said, “and they paid the rest. I didn’t know it cost that much.”

Many adult Americans don’t either and that’s our biggest problem with health care reform. I explained that people sometimes have a small “co-pay” and the rest comes from somewhere else. Those with insurance pay monthly premiums whether they get services or not. The poor, and people claiming to be poor, may have a small co-pay and government uses our tax money to pay more, but it still doesn’t add up to the total cost of the visit – or the surgery, or the therapy, or whatever. To make up the deficit, providers charge patients with insurance more than the cost of their services, products or procedures – that’s why an aspirin can cost $13 at the hospital. Some doctors or dentists won’t take patients who won’t pay themselves or who don’t have insurance because they can’t afford to make it on what government pays. Hospitals, though, have to take everyone. There’s no such thing as free health care, but more and more consider it their right.

It would be simpler if we all paid out of pocket, and that’s what 90 percent did before World War II when, according to economist Thomas Sowell, only about 10 percent of Americans had insurance.

It’s Not About Me

By William Warren

See more Cartoons by William Warren, and Great Articles at NetRight Nation Blog

Climate Policy Imperils China, India

By Marlo Lewis

Jonathan Pershing, head of the U.S. delegation at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, says China should cut its CO2 emissions 50% by 2050.

Reuters reports:

BARCELONA, Spain, Nov 5 (Reuters) – China should roughly halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to keep the world on a safe climate path, the head of the U.S. delegation at U.N. climate talks in Barcelona said on Thursday.

Leading industrialised countries say that the world must halve greenhouse gases by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and have committed to lead by cutting their own emissions by 80 percent.

China should cut by about 50 percent, leaving space for poorer countries to grow their economies, Jonathan Pershing told Reuters.

“If you put China in there at a 50 percent reduction, if we’re a bit higher, that gives lesser developed countries a bit lower. If they are in that middle band, plus or minus some percentage, that seems about right.”

China would be on course to meet that goal if it repeated its present energy efficiency five-year plan into the future, he added. “They’re doing pretty well,” he said.

Democrats Approve Climate Bill

By Scooter Van Neuter

WASHINGTON (SR) – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a Democratic climate change bill Thursday requiring any industry that can survive to 2020 under the proposed law reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent, and for the rest who go bankrupt trying, by 100 percent.

Republicans on the committee unanimously boycotted the bill because of the certainty it would, if passed, drive thousands of companies out of business and crush profits for those that remain, ultimately transforming the U.S. into a fetid slum.

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer defended the bill on the grounds that “business doesn’t much matter when polar bears are catching fire.” Boxer colleague Senator Frank Lautenburg also dismissed Republican fears of economic collapse, asking reporters, “What good is having a job if everything’s frozen solid and you’re so freaking cold you can’t hardly move?”

My comments: So is this bill to make things colder or hotter? I don’t know about you, but I need an answer from one of these clueless pinheads before I hit the GAP this weekend! Let’s have a margarita while we wait for their answer.

Read More Satire and Humorous Comments at Scooter’s Report

Obama Threatens Blaspheming Scientists

By Andrew Bolt

Barack Obama will not tolerate a scientist who dares question his faith:

Last month, President Obama gave a somewhat chilling, if somewhat ignored, speech on climate change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He stated that any scientific debate about the magnitude of global warming is unscrupulous, decrying “those who . . . make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary.”

Then, the president talked tough, saying, “We’ll just have to deal with those people,” language familiar to anyone who knows the vagaries of Chicago politics.

Galileo knew Obama’s type well.

(Via Instapundit.)

Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog

Nobody Questions That?

The Brushfires of Freedom

By Mark Alexander

“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” –Samuel Adams

A year ago, the election of Barack Hussein Obama was an egregious affront to our national legacy and a clarion call to action for many good citizens who honor the rights and obligations of liberty.

In November 2008, it was difficult to accept that a majority of our countrymen had fallen into such a stupor that they could be lulled by the dullard droll of “hope ‘n’ change”; that they could be conned into electing an inexperienced charlatan, an unapologetic socialist, to the office of president.

At the time, Obama’s politically moderate supporters scoffed at the charges of socialism, but unlike Bill Clinton, who ran to the center after being elected, Obama has run as fast and far to the left as possible, just short of publicly declaring our Constitution null and void.

Too many Americans have been complacent about liberty, believing it to be their birthright and the birthright of generations to come. They have enjoyed the fruit of liberty defended by others, taking rights for granted and knowing nothing of the obligations for maintaining that blessing. Most Americans have never had to fight for liberty and, thus, have little concept of its value or any sense of gratitude for its accumulated cost — a cost paid by generations of Patriots who have pledged their Lives, their Fortunes and their Sacred Honor.

I encourage you to take heart, though, because change is coming, and not the variety proffered by Obama and his ilk.

Choosing Judges and Scoffing at Laws

Choosing Judges: Missing the Point

By Tim Potts

Long before the balloting began, many citizens and media concluded that merit selection of judges was the cure for the tawdry political “advertising” and more than $3 million spent on the Supreme Court contest. But that misses the point.

The point about choosing judges is that there is no perfect system. Appointive systems can be just as secretive, expensive and corrupt as elective systems. If the process of nominating candidates for appointment is conducted behind closed doors where campaign contributions to the appointing officer can be laundered and undisclosed for their true purpose, that’s no improvement.

This danger is especially acute in PA where filling mid-term vacancies is based on the party registration of the appointees. The Senate routinely and corruptly withholds confirmation to fill one judicial vacancy until there is a second vacancy so that the two major political parties each get a seat on some bench. This cannot give citizens confidence that an appointive system will be an improvement, particularly for the growing number of voters (now one in eight) who refuse to lend their good names to the parties.

The true debate must be not between a lousy elective system and a lousy appointive system, both of which PA now has. It must be between excellent systems of each variety.

If the goal is to preclude the danger of judicial favoritism based on campaign contributions, we can look to other states. Maine adopted public funding of elections in 2000. Click here for an official report. North Carolina adopted public financing of judicial elections only.

The Future For Electrical Power After Waxman Markey And Kerry Boxer (Part 4)

PART FOUR OF FOUR PARTS

October Chart for U.S. Electrical Power Consumption.

The image at left is the current chart for electrical power consumption for the U.S. The chart is from the huge Government site at the Energy Information Administration. This chart is from the October Quarter Report and is for the previous 3 months. Click on the image to open it in a new and larger window.

In the earlier posts on this subject, I showed how the intent of both the Waxman Markey and Kerry Boxer Bills was not to actually reduce Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Greenhouse gas, but just to place a further cost on them. This new tax, and really, there’s no other name for it, will have an effect on nearly three quarters of all electrical power generated in the U.S. and even power generated in the Renewable sector was not spared.

There are only 2 sectors where this new tax will not be levied. They are power generated from the Nuclear process, and the power generated from the Hydroelectric process, both of these amounting to 28% of all electrical power consumed within the U.S. both these processes emitting no CO2 whatsoever from the generation of the electrical power. True, none is emitted from Wind which makes up 1.48% of the consumed power but that sector is still only tiny in comparison to the overall consumption.

However, closer inspection of those 2 sectors from the data, and not the chart show that they are actually increasing the level of consumed power. That makes it seem that there is new power coming on line which is not the case. As coal fired power decreases as those older plants close down, the only methods of generation that can supply power on a dedicated 24 hour basis, and in large amounts are from those 2 sectors, Nuclear and Hydro. Every other sector decreased production except for those two, and to a much lesser degree, Wind, which added power, but significantly lower than from Nuclear and Hydro. This added power is not from new nuclear plants or new hydro plants, just that they have been tasked to provide a greater amount of power to take up some of that lost from coal fired sources.

Obama’s Achievements

By Alan Caruba

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at Warning Signs. A business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Read more thought provoking articles at Warning Signs

ENVIRONMENT: Boxer Might Move Toward Markup Without GOP Presence

by Darren Goode

A partisan standoff on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee might escalate today when the panel continues debate on a climate bill.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

Looking for more?
For CongressDaily articles and markup reports, see our Energy and Environment page. For more energy and environment articles as well as blogs, videos and related materials, see the National Journal Group’s expanded energy and environment page.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) walks toward the U.S. Capitol building after getting off the subway

Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer might move to do what critics have labeled a “nuclear option,” which could allow the panel to approve and possibly amend a cap-and-trade bill she and Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry have offered.

At the very least, Boxer said, “I think we can vote a bill out of this committee.”

All seven panel Republicans are continuing their boycott of the markup and are seeking more economic analysis from EPA. “The same position we had before,” Environment and Public Works ranking member James Inhofe said.

Boxer did not tip her hand about what she will try to do when the markup resumes today, including whether she will move to allow amendments to be offered and voted on without Republican participation.

Copenhagen Crumbles, But Our Cash Still Wanted

By Andrew Bolt

Good news:

A legally binding agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions is no longer a realistic goal for next month’s Copenhagen summit, the UN Secretary-General says. According to Ban Ki Moon such an agreement will not be signed next month and the most likely outcome is voluntary targets, which countries could announce but then ignore.

Which they will.

But that won’t stop the demands for our cash – which the draft treaty suggests should be around $7 billion a year from Australia alone:

Mr Ban also said that developed nations would have to increase the amount that they paid to poorer countries to help them to adapt to climate change. Asked whether he believed that the European Union’s proposal of a fund of up to $50 billion of public money a year would be sufficient, he said: “As we go into the future, I think that should be scaled up.”

That’s your billions to the sticky-fingered UN, to pass on to China and the Third World.

Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog

POLITICS: Both Sides See Positives In Election Results

by Erin McPike, with Billy House and George E. Condon Jr. contributing

Republican Governor-elect Bob McDonnell (R) of Virginia and his wife Maureen McDonnell greet the crowd at his victory party on November 3, 2009 in Richmond, Virginia

Both parties found silver linings today in Tuesday’s election results, with Democrats winning a New York House seat for the first time since the Civil War and Republicans saying Bob McDonnell’s strong win in the Virginia governor’s race put four House seats held by Democrats in play for next year.

Party leaders downplayed failures, with Democrats saying lost governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey did not reflect on President Obama and would not alter the healthcare debate, and Republicans said the loss of the House seat in New York resulted from local party leaders handpicking the GOP candidate.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Rep.-elect Bill Owens will be sworn in Thursday to fill the upstate New York seat vacated by Army Secretary John McHugh. Also joining the House at that time will be Rep.-elect John Garamendi, who coasted to victory in a special election to replace former Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who is now a senior State Department official.

That timetable would put two more Democrats in place in time for Saturday’s crucial vote on healthcare legislation.

By then, House Minority Whip Cantor and other Republicans suggested, moderate Democrats might start bailing out on their leaders. Cantor called the Virginia and New Jersey results “a shot across the bow to Democratic moderates and Blue Dogs as they consider Speaker Pelosi’s radical healthcare overhaul.”

HEALTH: Reid Will Not ‘Be Bound By Any Timelines’ On Reform

by Anna Edney

Senate Majority Leader Reid Tuesday backed off of a Democratic push to pass a healthcare overhaul this year.

be bound by any timelines,” Reid said, refusing to commit to passage this year.

Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer of New York put the overhaul’s timeline in CBO’s hands, saying the budget office has been slower than anticipated scoring proposals Reid sent for analysis at the beginning of last week. “That’s the big intangible here,” he said.

Finance Chairman Max Baucus said Tuesday that CBO scoring on the overhaul proposals is not expected until next week. He also maintained the Senate should aim for this year to complete the overhaul.

“I think it can be done this year,” Baucus said. “It may mean late nights. It may mean weekends. It may mean extra work, but I think it can be done this year. I think we should try to get it done this year.”

Democrats had hoped to hand President Obama a healthcare victory his first year in office. Obama has also pressed Democrats to send him a bill before Christmas, according to a Democratic member.

House Dems Release Manager’s Amendment
House Democratic leaders late Tuesday night filed the manager’s amendment to their comprehensive healthcare legislation, setting in motion the 72 hours that they have agreed to allow for public viewing before starting House debate. That means debate could start by late Friday night or, more likely, Saturday.

To see the text of the manager’s amendment, click here
To see the text of the bill itself, click here .