The largest tax bill ever and bad policy beside.

The House Opens Pandora's Box
By Robert Romano

On Friday, the House of Representatives opened up a Pandora’s Box. And although the Waxman-Markey carbon-cap bill may not contain all of the evils of humanity, it is a not-so-good start.

The only silver lining is that the American people are now keenly aware of what Congress is up to.

You see, the politicians in Washington probably thought they’d get away with it. That nobody was paying attention. That they could just jam it down the throats of the American people while nobody was watching. That there’d be no time to mount significant opposition to it. Indeed, that there was no time to even read it.

Now, millions of phone calls and emails later sent from Americans across the fruited plain to key legislators, a brief filibuster from the House Republican Leader while he read from an amendment that was filed by House Democrats at 3AM Friday morning, and now a razor-thin vote by which it barely passed, one thing is clear: They were wrong

Read the whole article for the details on this huge boondoggle that has no chance to accomplish its goals.

Global Warming or Global Waffling?

From TEXASINSIDER.org

650+ International Scientists Dissent Man-Made Global Warming Claims

Published: 12-16-08 Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008

Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernemntal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore.

This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report -- updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” -- features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC.

This new report, issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Ranking Member, is the latest evidence of the growing groundswell of scientific opposition challenging significant aspects of the claims of the UN IPCC and Al Gore. Scientific meetings are now being dominated by a growing number of skeptical scientists

Go read the whole article by clicking link above.
I believe in environmentalist efforts to be eco friendly. I also believe until we can forecast next wednesday's weather we need to be a little cautious about the certainty of climate forecast.

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Down

Widescale Global Cooling

From Daily Tech:

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

I think it is because Al Gore stopped talking so much. Actually I think it shows how little we really know about global climate. I believe it makes sense to treasure and protect the environment. I also believe anyone claiming to be able to predict weather 50 or a hundred years from now is a charlatan or a loon.

Gore's Fellow Nobel Winners Issue A Report

The Goracle better hurry up and get the dmocratic party to draft him as their candidate because his credibility looks to be short lived.
From the Telegraph:

This week, the United Nations' climate scientists will release a major report synthesising the world's best global warming research. It will be the first time we've heard from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice-president Al Gore.

in this report :

While Gore was creating alarm with his belief that a 20-foot-high wall of water would inundate low-lying cities, the IPCC showed us we should realistically prepare for a rise of one foot or so by the end of the century. Beyond the dramatic difference, it is also worth putting that one foot in perspective. Over the last 150 years, sea levels rose about one foot - yet, did we notice?

Al Gore and Inconvenient Facts

I believe it makes sense to reduce pollution and other environmental threats whether we can prove humans are causing global warming or not. I also believe it is terribly unproductive to rely on bad or fraudulent science and the politicization of the issue. Even worse is resorting to outright deception which risks discrediting the entire environmental movement.

35 Inconvenient Truths

The errors in Al Gore’s movie

R;ecord High Ice Cap growth in Antartica

Gateway Pundit has this graphic (purple area shows ice growth this year to record coverage) and relevant links. I hope Jeff Matthews sees this and it makes him feel better, or at least not quite so certain that we are doomed. The certainty and name calling from both believers and nonbelievers in man made global warning is counterproductive. Weather forecasting is iffy 3 days out, how accurate is it likely to be 50 years out?
Reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants is worth doing whether it is currently causing warming or not. A cleaner environment is its own reward. Let's let the scientists work on this research without politicizing the data.

Antartic Ice coverage increases to record level.

From ICECAP:

A New Record for Antarctic Total Ice Extent?

While the news focus has been on the lowest ice extent since satellite monitoring began in 1979 for the Arctic, the Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica) has quietly set a new record for most ice extent since 1979.

The Southern Hemispheric areal coverage is the highest in the satellite record, just beating out 1995, 2001, 2005 and 2006. Since 1979, the trend has been up for the total Antarctic ice extent.

See this chart from the University of Illinois site The Cryosphere Today.
Comment from Powerline;

I compared Google News searches for "ice cap 'north pole'" and "ice cap 'south pole.'" The North Pole stories were all about the shrinking ice cap there as evidence of global warming. I couldn't find a single news story about the expanding ice cap at the South Pole. This strikes me as a pretty good illustration of how the conventional story line about Earth's climate drives news reporting.

I firmly believe we should work to reduce our impact on the environment . But we need accurate information and good science. Crisis mongering for political gain discredits genuine effort. The environmental movement has a long history of being captured by extemists who turn people off with shrill rants and myopic approaches to improvement. Ultimately these one issue fanatics hurt the very cause they claim to support.

Oops! Never Mind

Oops!... Global Warming A Bust- Figures Were Fudged!

The Gateway Pundit has some updated figures and links to other commentary. Also the Instapundit links to Bjorn Lonborg"s new book on climate and Michael Crichton's review.

Watts Up With That?
Has explanation and data about NASA's revised list of the hottest years on record. Including a particularly interesting explantion for why at least some of the source data was inaccurate.

Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny

From the Chicago Sun times:

BY JAMES M. TAYLOR

In his new book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore pleads, "We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's ability to discern the truth." Gore repeatedly asks that science and reason displace cynical political posturing as the central focus of public discourse.

If Gore really means what he writes, he has an opportunity to make a difference by leading by example on the issue of global warming.

Mr. Taylor goes on:

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

read the whole article. I predict Gore will take a decisive stand, as soon as his pollsters tell him what to think.