The President's Climate Action Plan

From the fact sheet:

We have a moral obligation to leave our children a planet that’s not polluted or damaged, and by taking an all of-the-above approach to develop homegrown energy and steady, responsible steps to cut carbon pollution, we can protect our kids’ health and begin to slow the effects of climate change so we leave a cleaner, more stable environment for future generations. Building on efforts underway in states and communities across the country, the President’s plan cuts carbon pollution that causes climate change and threatens public health. Today, we have limits in place for arsenic, mercury and lead, but we let power plants release as much carbon pollution as they want – pollution that is contributing to higher rates of asthma attacks and more frequent and severe floods and heat waves.

The whole plan can be found here.

The most important initiative is that the President will call for the EPA to set new carbon emissions limits for NEW and EXISTING power plants.  The new limits will go into effect in 2015.  There will also be a call for stricter building codes at home and seven billion for emerging economies so they might prepare for whatever effects AGW brings down upon them. The "all-of the above" approach mentioned also puts a lot of attention of developing U.S. natural gas reserves as a "bridge fuel' to renewables.  So there's continued fracking in that country's future.  Nothing in the plan requires congressional approval.  And, incidentally, there's nothing about Keystone XL at all in the document.

The Aftermath

Paul Wells diagnoses the state of the GOP.  I would note also that the Republican nominating process has historically been a pretty orderly affair: typically, the guy that came second last time gets the job next time around. McCain and Romney, for example. But since the runner-ups in 2012 were all whack-jobs,  2016 will have no natural front-runner.  Expect an even more spectacular gong show, especially since the party's response to Obama's re-election will be to double-down on crazy.

Tim Hudak: The Wrong Message To The Wrong Crowd At The Wrong Time

Tim Hudak copping Obama's thing? I don't think that's going to impress the anti-milk-board types up in Lanark.And I hate to link to the Fat Chick, but there you have it.

Explaining The Inexplicable

In particular, Obama's decision to open new area's to offshore drilling:
Obama’s decision probably doesn’t make sense unless you take the fear factor into account. Let’s face it, if you were President of the United States, and you looked at this graph, what would you do? I don’t know about you, but I would probably start by saying something like, “HOLY SHIT!” Politically, Obama is looking at rapidly rising petroleum prices right around the time of his reelection campaign, if not sooner. Economically, he’s looking at a potential crunch just when things are supposed to be getting better. And while opening these new regions to drilling isn’t going to solve the problem (because even if large amounts of oil are lurking there the supply won’t come on line for about a decade), at least he’s now given himself political cover.

How Many Teabags?

From a blog post entitled "Tea party photo shows huge crowd — at different event":

There’s another problem with the photograph: It doesn’t include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the corner of Fourth Street and Independence Avenue that opened on Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn’t show the “tea party” crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.

Also worth noting are the cranes in front of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. According to Randall Kremer, the museum’s director of public affairs, “The last time cranes were in front was in the 1990s when the IMAX theater was being built.”

It appears that the photo was actually taken in 1997 at a rally for Promise Keepers, a group for Christian men. According to the group’s Web site, nearly 1 million people attended the event. Photos of the Oct. 4, 1997, event that were posted on various Web sites in 2003, 2008 and earlier this year show either the same picture or a similar photo that has identical tents and what appear to be TV screens in the same locations.

On a perhaps related note, Obama's ratings are back to their July levels and the Dems are up nearly 4% in the generic congressional:

PS. Yeah I had doubts about the numbers. I even wondered about the photos. Is there any kind of photo matching site out there that you can run a photo through and it will tell you if it matches/resembles one already on the Net? I've heard rumours of such a thing...

Obama Meets Harper At The Summit Of The Americas

The two chatted in a hotel service corridor as they moved between meetings.

"It's down the stairs, 2nd door on your right. And its more ancient than my African Grammy, so you might have to flush twice. Okay Steve?"

"How clean is it?"

"I'm from Chicago, man, I've seen worse."

Welcome Obama, About Those Tar Sands

This full-page ad appeared in USA Today on Tuesday, placed by the Mikisew Cree First Nation, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and the environmental group Forest Ethics.

And it looks like the folks from Greenpeace have scaled Alexandra Bridge and hung a number of banners reading “Welcome President Obama” and “Climate Leaders Don’t Buy Tar Sands”. As of a couple of hours ago, they were still up. (PS. if anyone has a shot of them e-mail and I shall post)

Pity when the most effective target of your lobbying campaign are the citizens and leaders of a foreign country, but there you have it.

Obama Moves To Punish Israel?

The United States administration plans to cut about $1 billion from the balance of its loan guarantees to Israel because of its investments in the settlements. The balance currently stands at $4.6 billion.

[...]

The assessment now is that the Obama administration will weigh the political situation carefully before deciding on a cut to the guarantees and may try to link it with Israeli measures beyond the Green Line.

I don't really understand how these loan guarantee thingies are supposed to work. However, it seems to be that the 1st Bush administration was able to use them as an effective cudgel to move the Israelis on certain issues. A stick to go with the carrot, in other words.

"If I Hadn’t Voted For The Guy Who Invited Warren To Give The Invocation At His Inauguration...

...I would probably find this all extremely funny."

Obama reaches out to Young Earth Creationists.

Obama's Election Pays Off Immediately For Canada

OTTAWA — Canada hopes to achieve a North American climate-change deal with U.S. president-elect Barack Obama and will begin working on the file within weeks, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday.

Meantime, officials told The Canadian Press the Harper government has been waiting for the departure of President George W. Bush to work with his successor on an integrated carbon market.

I believe that Ed Stelmach has come out against even a national, let alone international carbon trading regime as being against Alberta interests. Certainly, Alberta companies will have to buy the lion's share carbon credits if anything like this goes through. Tory on Tory violence?

Good-bye Bradley Effect, or: BCL Admits Error

I am one of the Liberals bobvis calls out:

During the primaries and shortly after, I heard a number of people (liberals) say that Barack Obama would not be elected because when it comes down to it, the Americans are just racist. People will say that they like his ideas and will vote for him, but once they go to the voting booth and ask themselves whether they want the old, white guy or the black dude, they just aren't going to vote for the black man. Some said 'Obama must build a substantially large lead' to hope to avoid the Bradley Effect in November.

These are falsifiable predictions.

If Obama is elected, will they revise their beliefs to account for the evidence that disconfirms their prior beliefs?

I will happily admit to being wrong about Obama back in January of this year. I honestly didn't think he had a hope of beating the Republican nominee. However, a well run campaign, a tanking economy, and many, many Republican mis-steps put him over the top. In fact, I am not even sure about the Bradley Effect holding true in this election. RealClearPolitics gave Obama a 7.5% edge over McCain on November 4th, and the actual spread according to Fox--52.35% Obama vs. 46.35% McCain--came in a bit below that (5.99%). Can this be attributed to anything in particular? I don't know. Certainly, if there is was a Bradley Effect in play, it was a very small one.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! Obama THE ANTICHRIST??

Canadian Catholic novelist Michael O'Brien, best known for his apocalyptic novel Father Elijah, think's he's got our ultra swarthy Spawn O' Satan pegged:

...now that I have seen the video of the Berlin speech I think there is more here than meets the eye. He is indeed a powerful manipulator of crowds, even as he appears ever so humble and wholesomely charming. I doubt that he is the long-prophesied ruler of the world, but I also believe that he is a carrier of a deadly moral virus, indeed a kind of anti-apostle spreading concepts and agendas that are not only anti-Christ but anti-human as well. In this sense he is of the spirit of Antichrist (perhaps without knowing it), and probably is one of several key figures in the world who (knowingly or unknowingly) will be instrumental in ushering in the time of great trial for the Church under its last and worst persecution ...

In fact, not only is Obama the Anti-Christ, or at least the Anti-Christ's cousin, Ghost of a Flea has even more alarming news:

Barack Obama's first job out of Columbia was for a firm called Business International, a Scientology front name if I have ever heard one.

Does this mean John Travolta will be in the Obama cabinet--maybe as Under Secretary for Partying Down? That might good. Stars and Stripes is boring. Maybe he could drop it for something by the Bee-Gees.

Anyway, GoF isn't finished yet:

Barack Obama is a Manchurian Candidate. He has been groomed for this mission since before he set foot in the United States. He cannot become President of the United States.

So Barack's down with both L. Ron Hubbard and the Chinese? I'm a little confused, frankly. Were the Chinese at all into Disco? Maybe Obama should just keep S&S, thrown in a guitar solo and have someone rap the middle verse.

Finally, how does this mere negro hold sway over good, upstanding, red-state, corn-fed Christians the way he do? Answer: he's working some kind of Black Bullshit, some voodoo whammy....He's using hypnosis, gawdammnit!!! There's 60 pages of evidence!!! Can you not see, you pathetic clowns?

Obama’s techniques are the height of deception and psychological manipulation, remaining hidden because one must understand the science behind the language patterns in order to spot them. This document examines Obama’s speeches word by word, hand gesture by hand gesture, tone, pauses, body language, and proves his use of covert hypnosis intended only for licensed therapists on consenting patients. Obama’s mesmerized, cult-like, grade-school-crush-like worship by millions is not because “Obama is the greatest leader of a generation” who simply hasn’t accomplished anything, who magically “inspires” by giving speeches. Obama is committing perhaps the biggest fraud and deception in American history.

Read the whole thing! Obama can't become President! If he wins he's gonna go on TV and make America act like a chicken!

H/t dawg.

Color Me Skeptical...

(A quick note, since the article linked doesn't make it clear for a couple of paragraphs: the gal above is supposed to be a McCain volunteer, the backwards "B" is supposed to stand for "Barack")

But if this incident happened yesterday at about 9 pm Pittsburgh time--not even 24 hours ago-- and the backwards B was carved with a knife (as the story suggests), then that wound has healed up awfully nice.

So, maybe I'll feel dumb tomorrow, but right now I'm not buying it.

Whatever She Can Do, He Can Do Better

Chicago, IL - Urbanite and Presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke before a group of hunters and outdoorsmen today in Boise, Idaho in an attempt to solidy support from over 225 million Americans that own firearms and of those that hunt.

Obama chose Boise because in the words of his aide, "Mr. Obama wanted to return to the area where he hunted and killed Bigfoot on his last hunting expedition."

I would note that neither Barack nor Sarah Palin were able to subdue Bigfoot with their bare hands. I did that once. But I let him go.

Obama Is Doomed

Maureen Dowd explains why. Especially revealing is the bit about how Bill Clinton got Vlad to invade Georgia while The One was surfing in Hawaii, so as to make him look soft.

And here's the polls to prove it.

Barack Obama, representing the teenage wing of the Democratic Party

Obama On The Oil Sands

"If it turns out that these [carbon sequestration] technologies don’t advance, and the only way to produce these resources would be at a significant penalty to climate change, then we don’t believe that those resources are going to be part of the long-term . . . future,” Jason Grumet, Obama’s senior energy adviser, told reporters in June.

Plans for Alberta carbon sequestration projects are going forward.

Just an FYI. Looks like another quiet news day.

John McCain Bets On Wife's Boobs!

ABC News' Gregory Wallace and Sara Just Report: Sen. John McCain, R-Az., perhaps unknowingly, volunteered his wife for a beauty pageant on Monday that often features contestants topless -- and, occasionally, without any decency -- at the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally.

"I was looking at the Sturgis schedule, and noticed that you had a beauty pageant, so I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain told an audience at the rally. "I told her [that] with a little luck, she could be the only woman to serve as both the First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."


Yes, but what if she loses? Vice Presidents and other members of an administration have to pass certain tests. Why not First Ladies?

With that consideration in mind, lets look at a few of the alternatives to Cindy McCain that the Miss Buffalo Chip beauty contest might throw forward.

This one can ride a mechanical bull. She's clearly tough enough to occupy the office just outside the Oval Office:



My personal favorite First Lady (were my sweet wife to, like, plotz it or something):


And runner-up:


And, speaking of Vice Presidents, here's a solid pick for the VP slot on McCain's ticket. You can bet the Iranians won't fuck with this guy.And, of course, whenever you see this kind of effervescing of the American Spirit, there's usually a Canadian or two involved:

But you know what? It's starting to work for me. The primitive, working class male inside is beginning to stir. If the Senate and House are going to remain lopsidedly Dem anyway, why not vote for the paleface geezer that's willing to show his wife's chest off to bikers over the lefty, femmy, "bring me my mirror" college boy? Quick! What were the selling points on Black Jesus supposed to be again, other than that he shines gloriously in the light of his own aura? Tell me before I go recidivist, like they do down in the American Heartland.

Obama Can't Win Cuz He's Black, Part II

I used to believe this. Now I am not so sure. Nevertheless the Obama campaign better stash their guy's halo and get digging, if a new U.S.A. Today Poll is to be believed:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain moved from being behind by 6 points among "likely" voters a month ago to a 4-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama among that group in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. McCain still trails slightly among the broader universe of "registered" voters. By both measures, the race is tight.

There's a thing down in the States called The Bradley/Wilder Effect, where black candidates significantly underperform their polling numbers when it actually comes time for voters, esp. white voters, to cast a ballot. Will it take a few points off Obama's totals on election night, so that even if he is up a couple of points in the nationals he might eventually lose to McCain? Hard to say, as the effect seems to have waved over the years.

However, the GOP is doomed in the House and will lose ground in the Senate. Therefore, it will be very easy for a disgruntled Republican/Indy voters to send a message by casting a split ballot--kicking the bums out in the two houses, but keeping a Republican in The White House. Especially if they don't want to vote for a black but won't admit as much to the pollsters.

And Americans have voted this pattern in the past. The1972, 1984, and 1988 elections saw Republicans send one of their own to the White House while the party lost ground in Congress.

Obama: I Prayed With That Crazy Pastor Before I Prayed Against Him

De Spiegal explains why Democratic superdelgates cannot do the right thing and vote for Hillary over tarnished pretty boy candidate Barack Obama. Therefore Mr. Obama should voluntarily end his campaign for the good of the Democratic party, and the nation.

Yeah, like that's gonna happen. Get ready for President McCain and a 100 years of war!

Of Course It Can Be Done

Paul Wells wonders about the Republicans mounting a negative campaign against Obama, concludes that it is not only a possibility but a likelihood.

Watching the Democratic Primary I am reminded of a scene in "Primary Colors", which of course was loosely based on Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign. Travolta's Jack Stanton character has just unleashed his research machine on rival Freddy Picker, and uncovered evidence of a homosexual affair. Travolta says to aide Henry Burton: don't you think its better this all comes out now rather than in the general election when Picker can take the whole Party down with him?

Which is why I have no qualms about Hillary's tactics so far in the campaign. What she has uncovered about Obama's past (slurping lattes with former member of the Weathermen), and his own campaign's mis-steps (the Che Guevara posters, the crack about bitter gun-toting hicks) have almost certainly doomed him in the general election, and its time the Democratic Party realized it. Unfortunately, their youth wing, the MoveOn crowd, has rocks in its teenage head and won't abandon him.

All the Dems need to do this cycle is pick an old white guy from the Conservative wing of the party to send the Republicans out for some much needed time in the political wilderness. As I've said a number of times before, Hillary is that old white guy.