Garden State Patriot

Quite honestly, it is growing tiresome having to report on another fake Republican who is selling us out. In this case, it is the RINO senior senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham. Graham once appeared to be a strong conservative voice on the Hill during his tenure in the House. Those days seem like long ago.

Ever since joining that elite club known as the U.S. Senate, Graham has been anything but a conservative. He was a member of the infamous Gang of 14 and a supporter of blanket amnesty for illegals (which earned him the moniker ‘Lindsey Graham-nesty’). Now, the faux Republican is teaming up with none other than John ‘F’n’ Kerry on C(r)ap & Trade. Here is an excerpt from their dual-penned article which appeared in the NY Times (h/t Michelle Malkin).

CONVENTIONAL wisdom suggests that the prospect of Congress passing a comprehensive climate change bill soon is rapidly approaching zero. The divisions in our country on how to deal with climate change are deep. Many Democrats insist on tough new standards for curtailing the carbon emissions that cause global warming. Many Republicans remain concerned about the cost to Americans relative to the environmental benefit and are adamant about breaking our addiction to foreign sources of oil.

However, we refuse to accept the argument that the United States cannot lead the world in addressing global climate change. We are also convinced that we have found both a framework for climate legislation to pass Congress and the blueprint for a clean-energy future that will revitalize our economy, protect current jobs and create new ones, safeguard our national security and reduce pollution.

Our partnership represents a fresh attempt to find consensus that adheres to our core principles and leads to both a climate change solution and energy independence. It begins now, not months from now — with a road to 60 votes in the Senate.

It’s true that we come from different parts of the country and represent different constituencies and that we supported different presidential candidates in 2008. We even have different accents. But we speak with one voice in saying that the best way to make America stronger is to work together to address an urgent crisis facing the world.

Sickening.  

One wonders if the Senator is ignorant or simply out of touch with reality. Are we to believe he does not know about scientists who refute global warming? Is he unaware that global temperatures peaked over a decade ago? Are we to believe that a Republican Senator does not see reports from esteemed think tanks like the Heritage Foundation which consistently debunk global warming myths and also detail quite clearly how Cap & Trade will kill jobs and significantly inflate our energy bills, while having virtually no impact on global temperatures?

Senator Graham, I’m sad to say, has become a typical me-first politician. His aim is not to support conservatism, let alone his party, but only to further his own political career and personal gain. His betrayal on this issue is no less severe than Arlen Specter’s on the Porkulus Bill. Like Specter, Graham needs to be targeted and primaried out. The good people of South Carolina certainly deserve a far better conservative voice than this – and so do the rest of us.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

 Last week, at the Defending The American Dream Summit, we were treated to a sneak preview of the anti-global warming documentary, ‘Not Evil Just Wrong.’ The film, directed by two vocal global warming critics, Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, takes direct aim at Al Gore and debunks many of the myths put forth by the GW alarmists. Here is a synposis of the film from the web site.

Global warming alarmists want Americans to believe that humans are killing the planet. But Not Evil Just Wrong, a new documentary by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, proves that the only threats to America (and the rest of the world) are the flawed science and sky-is-falling rhetoric of Al Gore and his allies in environmental extremism.

The film drives home the realities of that extremism. “Turn off your lights. Turn off your heat when you get cold. Turn off your air when you get hot,” one man on the street says. “And then think about that.”

Not Evil Just Wrong warns Americans that their jobs, modest lifestyles and dreams for their children are at stake. Industries that rely on fossil fuels will be crippled if the government imposes job-killing regulations on an economy already mired in recession. Small towns in the heartland, like Vevay, Ind., will become bastions of unemployment and poverty. Breadwinners like Tim McElhany in Vevay will lose their jobs — and will have to start borrowing money again just to buy bread for their families.

The damage that would be wrought is unjustified by the science. Not Evil Just Wrong exposes the deceptions that experts, politicians, educators and the media have been force-feeding the public for years. Man-made pollution is not melting the polar icecaps. The ocean will not rise 20 feet in a flash. And the only polar bears dying because of man are the ones who try to eat men.

McAleer and McElhinney debunk what for a time was the environmental movement’s most powerful weapon of disinformation, the infamous “hockey stick” graph that attributed a supposedly unique burst of warming in the 20th century to humans. They also shatter the myth that the hottest years in the United States were 1998 and 2006. The hottest year was 1934, and the hottest decade was the 1930s — when there were half as many people and no SUVs or jumbo jets.

But environmentalists like actor Ed Begley Jr. and Leo Murray of Plane Stupid, who appear in the film, won’t tell you that. Instead, Begley sheds phony tears for ex-cons who are offered “green” jobs, and Murray decries air travel as the modern world’s worst indulgence. Their hysterical claims have fooled many people into believing that carbon dioxide, an element that is essential to life, is poison.

Organizations like Greenpeace, whose excesses are roundly condemned in Not Evil Just Wrong by founding member Patrick Moore, persistently push the same kind of propaganda that prompted world leaders to ban DDT. They believed environmentalist Rachel Carson’s doomsday scenarios about the mosquito-killing chemical, and millions of children in the Third World may have been infected by malaria and died as a result.

The documentary notes that the World Health Organization lifted its ban on DDT in 2006, but Al Gore and his allies will not accept that verdict any more than they will accept the science that discounts theories about global warming. They are determined to blame humans for everything.

And here is the trailer for the film.

Al Gore, of course, rarely if ever takes questions when it comes to global warming. But Mr. McAleer had a chance to do just that the other day in Wisconsin, challenging him to respond to a report identifying 9 factual errors in his film ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ To no surprise, Gore dodged the question and McAleer had his microphone cut off.

Suffice it to say, this film could not come at a more appropriate time. The official premiere will be next Sunday, October 18th. If you wish to attend a screening, you can check the website for specific information.

Our friend Jim Poesl, who is running for Assembly in the 19th District, also pointed out to us at yesterday’s Conservative Leadership Breakfast that one screening will be held at the Knights of Columbus in Avenel. The screening will begin at 7:45 with a suggested donation of $10 per adult/$5 per child. The address is 109 Morrissey Avenue in Avenel (Tel: 732-734-0704). 

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Valero Energy is fighting back against C(r)ap & Trade. The sign you see here is being posted at their gas stations around the country. They also have a web page set up called Voices for Energy, urging people to contact legislators in opposing this energy tax. My Fox- Houston had the story:

“It’s definitely unprecedented for Valero,” said company spokesman Bill Day. “We’ve never done something like this before. But this particular issue is so important and this particular piece of legislation is so demonstratably bad that we did take the lead on this.”

Day says the bill pending before Congress holds refiners solely responsible for their product’s carbon footprint.

“So when you and I and everybody else drives their car, the manufacturer of the fuel in that car is the one responsible for the carbon emissions, not the owner of the car, not the driver.”

Valero estimates the company could be on the hook for $6 billion in carbon allowances every year, which is more than the company made in its most profitable year.

Of course, they balanced the story with the POV of the radical enviro nut:

“They’re not worried about this cost to their business,” said Matthew Tejada, executive director of GHASP (Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention).

“They’re worried about the fact that they know they’re going to pass that (cost) on to the consumer and that’s going to drive the consumer even more quickly to get away from oil.”

Tejada takes umbrage at Valero’s claim that Cap and Trade legislation would make “no measurable improvement on global climate change,” as stated on the website.

“If somebody doesn’t want Cap and Trade and they aren’t offering a more viable solution,” said Tejada, “what they’re really saying is ‘we don’t want to deal with greenhouse gases, we don’t want to deal with global warming.’”

To see Fox Houston’s corresponding video report, click HERE.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Last evening, Gov. Haley Barbour hosted an RGA webcast on C(r)ap & Trade. Gov. Barbour, of course, was an instrumental player in the GOP comeback in 1994 in his role as party chairman (personally, I don’t think we’ve had as effective a chairman since he left the post).

The purpose of last night’s webcast was to both provide an update on C(rap) & Trade, as well as to explain the consequences of capping CO2 emissions.

Gov. Barbour began the webcast by providing some perspective on the Democrats’ energy proposals. While the governor is greatly troubled by a potential government-run healthcare system, by contrast, that would only impact 18% of our economy while C(rap) & Trade would impact 100% of our economy. Energy, he said, ‘is the life’s blood of our economy.’ It effects everything we do and produce.

Currently in the U.S., the Governor noted, our energy comes from 3 main sources: Coal (50%), Natural Gas (20%), Nuclear power  (20%). The rest is derived from Hydro-electric (7%) and Solar/Wind/Bio-Mass (3%).

This is key to understand because one of the things Democrats are proposing, such as in the Waxman-Markey bill, is a ‘Renewable Energy Standard.’ This would regulate that a certain percentage of energy come from renewable sources which do not produce greenhouse gasses (solar/wind/bio-mass) which currently produce only about 3% of our energy. Importantly, nuclear power -which Gov. Barbour said is ‘the most proven way (to produce energy) without emitting greenhouse gasses’ – would NOT be counted toward the standard.

Moreover, hydro-electric power would not be a feasible alternative because the environmentalist wackos (my term) oppose the creation of dams and threats to the eco-system that they claim would affect things like salmon runs.

In a Waxman-Markey world, the only place to turn would be solar, wind and bio-mass. These sources would have to make up for the loss of production from carbon-emitting sources and nuclear. In Gov. Barbour’s state of Mississippi, he says this would be devastating and that without nuclear power his state would not be able to make up for the loss in energy production.

As an example, Gov. Barbour mentioned that the Tennessee Valley Authority now has 2 wind farms in place. But these wind farms are of little use in the South because wind is simply an unreliable source. The TVA farms, as a consequence are only operable 20% of the time.

Obviously, all of this will mean that energy costs will go up and jobs will be lost. Gov. Barbour mentioned that for every 1% increase in GDP, it would require a 3% increase in energy production. Logically, if energy production can not meet this demand, our economy will suffer. In fact, the Governor cited CBO numbers indicating that C(r)ap & Trade would cost the U.S. 2.5-3.0 million jobs PER YEAR. The average family would be burdened with roughly $1800 more in energy costs per year.

And there’s more.

Gov. Barbour said that C(r)ap & Trade would make industries like steel ‘uncompetitive.’ They would lose business to foreign steel makers in places like China.  And, ironically enough, this would actually lead to MORE pollution not less because American steel manufacturers emit 5x less per ton of steel produced than a steel producer in China. This would undermine the whole intent of C(r)ap & trade. And as we all know, so long as countries like China don’t get on board with C(r)ap & Trade, any efforts on our end to postitively impact the environment will be futile.  

In fact, Governor Barbour pointed to recent comments by none other than Lisa Jackson. At a recent hearing on energy, Jackson was asked how much less greenhouse gas emissions there would be if the U.S. does everything outlined in Waxman-markey and she said ‘NONE.’

Meanwhile, China is preparing to build 50 coal plants a year. And India has basically told us they have ‘no intention’ of going along with any of this.

It gets better.

Gov. Barbour pointed out that the Waxman-Markey bill actually has a provision in it to – get this – provide special unemployment benefits to people in the energy sector who lose their jobs as a result of this legislation. Quite frankly, I couldn’t believe that when I first heard it. Within the Waxman-Markey bill itself, they are admitting that their own proposal is a job killer!

In closing, the Governor asked: If you were going to come up with a plan to de-industrialize America, could you think of anything better? Well, the answer to this question is a clear and emphatic ‘NO!

Here is some more on C(r)ap & Trade today from The Heritage Foundation. 

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!‘

No not that Christie! This one…

The former Governor was interviewed by the National Journal and was asked about, among other things, C(r)ap & Trade. Her answer shows she doesn’t know a ‘whit’ (sorry, couldn’t help it) about it.

I believe cap-and-trade can work. It worked with SO2 reduction. I understand carbon is a very different emission, but it worked there, and there were all the same kind of concerns evidenced in the beginning. As with most things, the devil’s in the details. Depending on where you set the levels, and how quickly people have to meet them, it can work without sending the economy into a tailspin.

I’ve documented some of the problems with C(r)ap & Trade here. The bottom line is C(r)ap & Trade amounts to a tax on just about everything produced in this economy and would negligibly impact global temperatures over the next 4 decades, particularly because nations like India and China won’t sign on.

So, nice try Governor but you are just way off-base on this one.

You can read the rest of the interview here where the former Gov touches on the healthcare debate, Obama and the current governor’s race. Of course, you can decide to put a cap on her emissions by deciding not to read it.

Cross-posted at Red County & Conservatives with Attitude!

Yesterday, the destructive, job-killing Waxman-Markey C(r)ap and Trade bill passed the House. While numerous Democrats broke ranks to oppose this bad legislation, it passed with some Republican support. That support, unfortunately, came from three so-called Republicans right here in New Jersey. Their names? Leonard Lance, Chris Smith and Frank LoBiondo.

Their votes in favor of this bill represent nothing less than a betrayal of Republican principles. Waxman-Markey, as I have pointed out previously, is a repressive tax for Americans. It will impact everything we produce and result in lost jobs and higher energy bills to the tune of up to $3,000 a year for the average family.

Lance, LoBiondo and Smith have now elevated themselves to the same level as Arlen Specter. Their votes are no less a betrayal as Specter’s was for the Porkulous bill.

As such, each of these Congressmen now no longer deserve our support. Each of them needs to be primaried out. Republicans need to send a strong and clear message that on certain issues you must toe the line and breaking ranks will not be tolerated. If you are a constitutent in the districts represented by these Congressmen make no mistake, they have not represented you, let alone this state and our nation. They need to be voted out.

I, for one, will do all I can to see that that is exactly what happens next year.

My understanding is Congressman Frelinghuysen may vote for the destructive C(r)ap & Trade bill. There’s no time to lose so start contacting his office now.

WASHINGTON, D.C.
2442 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-3011
(202) 225-5034

Legislative Office
Chief of Staff – Nancy Fox
Senior Policy Adviser – Steve Wilson
Scheduler – Tina Wei
Legislative Aide – Kathleen Hazlett
Legislative Aide – Dan Ostermueller
Legislative Aide – Marissa Watkins
Legislative Correspondent – Jeff Brabant

Open: Mon. – Fri., 9am to 5:30pm

NEW JERSEY
30 Schuyler Place, Second Floor
Morristown, NJ 07960
(973) 984-0711

Constituent Service Center
Constituent Services Manager – Pam Thievon
Scheduler – Michelle Moallem
Constituent Services Representative – Joan Hamilton
Constituent Services Representative – Kristin Jones
Staff Assistant – Judy Ceballos
District Staff Assistant – Mary Provost
District Staff Assistant – Bernie Tyson

Open: Mon. – Fri., 9am to 5pm

The Heritage Foundation has done an exhaustive analysis of the C(r)ap & Trade legislation being readied in the House. The Waxman-Markey bill [logically so-called for the bill's main sponsors, Henry "The Taxman" Waxman (CA) and Ed Markey (MA)], would have significant and drastic negative effects on our economy according to Heritage. Consider that Waxman-Markey, by 2035, would:

Reduce aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) by $7.4 trillion,

Destroy 844,000 jobs on average, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by over 1,900,000 jobs,

Raise electricity rates 90 percent after adjusting for inflation,

Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 74 percent,

Raise residential natural gas prices by 55 percent,

Raise an average family’s annual energy bill by $1,500, and

Increase inflation-adjusted federal debt by 29 percent, or $33,400 additional federal debt per person, again after adjusting for inflation.

Sound like change you can believe in?

Read the rest of the heritage analysis here: The Economic Impact of Waxman-Markey