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Global Warming on 15-Year Hold
April 2, 2012 | 12 comments
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Suddenly This Summer
March 31, 2012 | 8 comments
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FakeGate: Just Another Day at Team Green
February 22, 2012 | 7 comments
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“Climate” and the Campaign
January 12, 2012 | 8 comments
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Germany’s Green Bubble Follows Spain’s; Will Congress Waste More Billions on Ours?
December 15, 2011 | 3 comments
The Spectacle Blog
Today at 1:30 pm Eastern time Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will host a press conference announcing the fifth Senate reinvention of “cap-and-trade” global warming legislation since 2003, the “American Power Act”. Call it the American Power Grab Act, instead, for reasons that will become obvious momentarily.
The orchestrated spectacle, with a cast expected to be in the dozens which massive alignment of special interest groups is apparently supposed to persuade you of the justness of their cause, is in fact a manifestation of all that is wrong with Washington and what Americans have become increasingly enraged by.
At this press conference, Sens. Kerry and Lieberman have both already indicated, they will insist that their scheme isn’t “cap-and-trade” because… they aren’t going to use that term this time around. Kerry has even said that “this is not an environment bill.” It seems that the public aren’t buying that argument, either, so it’s really about whatever appeals to you. Just not what it was about the previous four times they’ve tried to slip this Power Grab past you. Except that a summary of the bill makes plain it is, too, cap-and-trade. And worse. It includes billions of dollars each year in gas tax revenue to underwrite the wealth transfers these companies are so in favor of.
For this latest effort to hide an enormous tax and wealth transfer — a unilateral move that guarantees jobs will be shipped to China, India, Philippines, Mexico and elsewhere — — these lawmakers will be surrounded by numerous representatives of Big Green. That includes not just the wealthy pressure group industry but many among “Big Business”, numerous of whom are the benefactors enabling those pressure group chiefs’ huge salaries and vast PR budgets to scare you into accepting an agenda that uses the state to, oddly enough, enrich these same companies. Huh.
Sen. Lieberman has repeatedly teased the breadth of today’s organized scrum as proof that the scheme is now a good idea. Absent from his cheerleading is the fact that you are not represented at the table when your wealth and future prospects were being divvied up.
The reason for so many businesses leaping onto the stage today is also the dog that surely will not bark when the media report on industry’s touting of an enormous energy tax and wealth transfer from individuals: why do they support this?
The answer is because they have been promised a slice of the spoils taken from the average taxpayer and ratepayer. I detail who these companies are and how they hope to cash in on this scheme in my new book “Power Grab”. For example, consider Exelon. This Chicago-based utility, which today is expected to be represented both individually by its CEO and by its trade association the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), expects more than one billion dollars in increased profits for no additional capital investment if the scheme announced today passes. Their only cost would have been the lobbyists.
That’s just one company. But the windfall, arranged by politicians, comes from average American families. The company even admits the whole sordid mess in a Forbes article from earlier this year:
“Exelon needs that legislation to happen sooner rather than later. Without a carbon price of some sort, Exelon’s fortunes aren’t so bright…. ‘The conundrums are real,’ [Exelon CEO John] Rowe acknowledges. ‘There’s nothing that’s going to drive Exelon’s profit in the next couple of years wildly. It just isn’t going to happen.’
Except, of course, carbon legislation. And because of that, the company views spending on lobbying for legislation almost like a capital expense….
Exelon has very deep ties to the Obama Administration. Frank M. Clark, who runs ComEd, helped advise Obama before he ran for President and is one of Obama’s largest fundraisers. Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, worked as a consultant to Exelon. Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, helped create Exelon. Emanuel was hired by Rowe to help broker the $8.2 billion deal between Unicom and Peco when Emanuel was at the investment bank Wasserstein Perella (now Dresdner Kleinwort). In his two-year career there Emanuel earned $16.2 million, according to congressional disclosures. His biggest deal was the Exelon merger.”
The article details how Exelon wrote the provisions allocating the energy use “allowances”, or ration coupons. Others, including (according to Sen. Kerry) BP, wrote the provisions applying to oil companies, to ensure costs are passed straight through to you.
I lay the particularly odious example of Exelon — and those of others on the dais, ranging from Duke Energy to GE to “Chicago Climate Exchange” members — bare in “Power Grab”. Before your elected representatives impose this on you later this year, as soon as by the July 4 congressional recess, educate yourself on the rhetoric and ruses employed to part you from your money and, if history is any guide, threaten your family’s lives and indeed your livelihood altogether.
Pingback| 5.12.10 @ 9:07AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Disgraceful Display of links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
JP| 5.12.10 @ 9:20AM
The Dems know that at the very least thier majorities in Congress will be significantly reduced. At worst, they could lose thier House majorities, and be within a vote or 2 of minority status in the Senate.
The Dems would love to get one more major transformative piece of legislation through while the still have thier super majorities. But, they have 1 thing working against them: Time. They have 4 months before the campaign season begins in earnest. In order for them to ram through Cap and Trade, Card Check, or Amnesty they will have to work within the legislative process and calendar. And if they are successfull, they may turn what would be a poor mid term elections into a rout (lose both houses). If they use reconcilliation again, they may be tempting the Gods one time too many.
Cap and Trade may be the worst possible legislation to push right now. Unemployment is still around 10%, and the financial markets are down right spooked. Voting for Cap and Trade via Reconcilliation while still suffering high unemployment would not only seal the Dems fate in 2010, but also 2012. Remember 25 Senate Dems are up for relection in 2012, not to mention the Anointed One himself. The year 2012 could be to the Dems what 1932 was to the GOP.
Yosemeti Sam| 5.12.10 @ 12:08PM
Gore and Loserman.
Kerry (served in Vietnam and allegedly back shot an enemy combatant) and Loserman.
Pride - of Leftoid government.
Emile Zola - where are you?
kramer| 5.12.10 @ 3:07PM
Did anybody the mechanisms for international transfers of wealth in the summary? They've (democrats and global socialists) have been wanting huge financial transfers from the 'North" for decades.
The question is, why are democrats pushing legislation that is going to enrich other nations at our expense?
Eric(OfConservativeMind)| 5.12.10 @ 4:57PM
Because for many U.S. politicians it's not just about "us" anymore. They all for a globalization of the world that would unite under a one world government, namely the U.N. They don't care about divvying up America's sovereignty or its wealth among the poorer nations run by despots and communists. In fact, they see this as beneficial to their long-term goals.
Dumb down the nation through education, kick Biblical Christianity to the curb, embrace pagan spiritualism, redistribute wealth so everyone is poorer in general, and oppress us through PC which is just another word for Marxism and other thought and behavioral controls.
Unfortunately, our governments have been corrupted from the local to the federal level. To deny the presence of Fabian Socialists and their ilk in our government, educational establishments, et cetera, is to completely deny the last 70+ years of this nation's history.
As a nation, we are reaching our decline. Republics consistently fail when they reach Statism because of the costs associated with attempting to pursue Utopia. Eugenics, paganism, pluralism, atheism, these are all markers of the degeneration of a society that was founded on the belief in an individual's God-given right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Not to mention a man's right to private property.
As an aspiring Biblical Christian who has weaved in and out of the faith since my youth(I am 22), I only have solace in the fact of my belief that there is life after death and that the State can no longer oppress me once life and soul have exited this frail excuse for a shell.
For you Fabian socialists, liberals, progressives, et al... Yes, oppression is coming. The wheels were set in motion long ago, even before the 1900s. When I look and realize exactly how much authority has been centralized by our U.S. government, it is not illogical to conclude that the authority of the U.S. government will continue to grow and be fairly boundless, but for "particular exceptions."
Since Biblical Christianity and Conservatism(classical liberalism) are the only major ideological bulwarks against socialistic Statism, I can expect that there will either be an Exodus of conservative Christians and Jews from the U.S. in the future or the extermination of such individuals that will not willingly contribute to the greatness of the State.
As has been said by George Bernard Shaw about Socialism in his book The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism: "Socialism means equality of income or nothing, and that under Socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not the character(emphasis mine) and industry enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well."
Communistic regimes throughout history ruled by individuals like Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler have shown us what happens to individuals who do not agree with and abide by the rule of law set by the State, regardless of how Godless and oppressive they truly are. That we are, as a country, abiding by the Third Way(a combination of capitalism and socialism put forth and advocated by individuals like Bill Clinton, Blair, Obama, Bush Sr & Jr, et al) only shows us that the Hegelian dialectic process has succeeded under the auspices of the socialists in our society. The State will only brook diversity so long as the diverse masses will kow-tow to the authority of the State and its memes and agree to be "equal" in the eyes of the State.
If you call me a liar and a fool for making these statements, then you just haven't been paying attention. The socialists have attained many of their directives, folks. Just look at the Communist Manifesto and see how much of it applies to the States currently. Even further, look at the 45 Communist Party goals listed in the January 10, 1963 Congressional Record here: http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
Pingback| 5.12.10 @ 8:56PM
The Building Advisor » Blog Archive » American Power Act Bows to Controversy links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.13.10 @ 12:58PM
Streetsblog Capitol Hill » Specter of Gas Tax Lingers as Rendell, Villaraigosa Push I links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.13.10 @ 1:28PM
Kerry/Lieberman rebrand “Cap & Trade” as “American Power” and hope you won’t notice « links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
flek| 5.13.10 @ 1:56PM
This is nothing more than a pathetic tax to steal more money from the US taxpayer. It will destroy what is left of any manufacturing in the US.
Make 'Crap and Raid" extinct...it's based on bogus science...the religion of consensus at the altar of stupidity.
Pingback| 5.13.10 @ 3:38PM
Cap & Trade is Now the “American Power Act” | Republic Now links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.13.10 @ 5:30PM
Disgraceful display of the day…’The American Power Act’ | DayTradingIssues.info links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.13.10 @ 5:34PM
Kerry/Lieberman rebrand “Cap & Trade” as “American Power” and hope you won’t notice « links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.13.10 @ 5:42PM
Disgraceful display of the day…'The American Power Act' links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.13.10 @ 8:35PM
Hour of the Time » News 13May10-PM links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Holocaust Gaza| 5.13.10 @ 10:33PM
"The Swift Boat guy and the Jew".
Did we expect something normal?
Pingback| 5.14.10 @ 12:41AM
Militant Libertarian » “Cap and Trade” becomes “American Power Act” links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Paul Revere| 5.14.10 @ 3:30AM
No Incumbents 2012!
Unless it's Ron Paul or someone like him- A real truth teller.
There are battlefield executions are taking place in Afganistan right now- Soldiers are smoking poppy and 18 commit suicide everyday more than killed in all the B.S. wars.
Oil spill may fill Gulf and come up east coast fly over reveals no "REAL" cleanup effort 5 times bigger than reported. Laugh at greece-we are next
Buy gold and stop paying all taxes starve the beast tell em to suck a tail pipe
No Incumbents 2012!
Pingback| 5.14.10 @ 7:56AM
Disgraceful Display of the Day « Constitutional Republic Party links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.14.10 @ 9:30AM
Cap & Trade Newspeak: American Power Act links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.14.10 @ 11:34AM
Streetsblog Capitol Hill » Specter of Gas Tax Lingers as Rendell, Villaraigosa Push I links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.14.10 @ 8:47PM
Now it’s the “American Power Act” | USA1 Buzz links to this page.
Colony14Author | 5.14.10 @ 8:55PM
From The Obama Timeline:
ComEd was once headed by Thomas Ayers, the father of Obama pal and domestic terrorist William Ayers. Thomas Ayers was also a friend of Frank Marshall Davis. It was probably Davis who encouraged Obama to attend Columbia University and meet William Ayers.
ComEd relied heavily on coal from Sahara Coal, which was run by Frank Woods, Jr. The Woods family founded the Woods Fund. William Ayers placed Obama on the board of the Woods Fund in 1993. Obama then gave Woods Fund grants to ACORN, the Gamaliel Foundation, the Arab American Action Network, Trinity United Christian Church (i.e., Reverend Jeremiah Wright - so he could buy a new Porsche in 2001), Bernardine Dohrn's Children and Family Justice Center, and "Leadership for Quality Education" - which was run by John Ayers (brother of William Ayers). Obama was on the board of LQE also.
Read The Obama Timeline. If it happened to, from, by, with, or because of Obama, it's in that book.
Pingback| 5.14.10 @ 11:53PM
Disgraceful Display of the Day « The Truth About Our World… links to this page. Here’s an excerpt: