REFLECTIONS

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -

In this issue:

1. Alaska Standard
2. Interior
3. Blago
4. Trade Deficit
5. UN IPCC
6. Browner
7. McDonalds

1. Alaska Standard. I have recently become involved with a new writing project called the Alaska Standard. This is a project that will attempt to provide an alternative to the local fishwrapper, the Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper locally known as the Anchorage Daily News. The site is Alaska-centric, reporting and commenting on things that don’t usually show up in our McClatchy newspaper. There are over 25 conservatives involved. We have even picked up a fair number of leftist trolls. If you are interested in Alaskan issues and commentary, please bookmark the site, visit it early and often, and thank you for your interest: the Alaska Standard

2. Interior. The Department of the Interior announced a series of last minute regulations intended to shield the State of Alaska from predatory lawsuits by environmentalists. The game up here by the greens has been to get arctic species listed as endangered – whether they are or not – under the specious grounds that global warming will destroy their habitat 50 years in the future and kill them all off. Preferably these endangered species live in places where there is oil, natural gas, or minerals to be mined. They successfully got the polar bear listed as endangered. They have filed a series of lawsuits in an attempt to get walrus listed as endangered. In the real world, the actual numbers of both animals are increasing, and have been for years. The next effort by the greens will be to use the listing as a vehicle to obstruct, delay, harass, and shut down all oil, natural gas, coal, and mining on and next to the Alaskan coastline. Interior’s new rules attempt to keep that from happening. Expect them to be quickly rolled back by the new Obama green machine staring January 20. All in all, it was a nice try to make up for the stunningly gutless capitulation to the greens by Kempthorne’s Interior Department in listing the polar bear as endangered based on loss of sea ice in 50 years.

3. Blago. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested and indicted on charges of selling the appointment to Barack Obama’s seat in the US Senate. The going rate was apparently around a million dollars. The FBI had been investigating him for some time and had wiretapped his phone(s). The arrests were done before any deal was consummated because the Chicago Tribune refused to sit on the story any longer. Blago’s arrest is yet another reminder of the cesspool of personal and political corruption that the Daley Machine in Chicago runs and that Obama and his hatchet man Rahm Emanuel slithered out of. Obama and Emanuel immediately denied any knowledge of the scheme, though both were known to be working with Blago’s office on a list of acceptable nominees. Emanuel immediately stopped talking to the media, acting like a guy who had been told by his lawyer to say nothing. By weeks’ end, there were reports that Emanuel had been on a substantial number of the Blago wiretaps. I have not yet seen confirmation of that story. The interesting part of Emanuel getting all wrapped up in this is that he is Obama’s brain, his hatchet man, the guy charged with getting the job done for Obama. If Emanuel goes away – for whatever reason – Obama becomes less capable of carrying out his plans to re-FDR the nation. Democrats have reacted uncharacteristically on this one, as they immediately started calling for Blago’s resignation. The chattering classes went old Soviet Union and started describing his actions as those of a man who is insane, for an insane man can be removed from office without all the normal legalities like an impeachment, trial and conviction. By weeks’ end, the Illinois legislature started talking about impeachment. It appears this indictment was based on information from Tony Rezko, who was engaged in a number of very friendly real estate deals with Obama. There will be another couple of shoes to drop on this one. Stay tuned.

4. Trade Deficit. Ed Morrissey in Hot Air Saturday discussed the increasing trade deficit in October. Surprisingly, the deficit increased by 7%, half of which was oil imports. The surprise was that there was an increase in a time of economic slowdown. The Obamaoids and congressional democrats are planning on an over $1 trillion economic stimulus package early next year. The best economic stimulus package would simply be to increase oil and natural gas exploration and production here in the US. This would increase the number of jobs in the time of economic slowdown; damage the economies of our enemies in Iran, Venezuela, Russia and elsewhere; and increase revenues into the treasury. Can we expect this sort of thing from the Obamaoid green machine? Not hardly likely. But it does provide the Republicans with a real opportunity to fight the impending expansion of environmental rules, federal spending, and the deficit. Will they be smart enough to take advantage of that opportunity? We will hope so.

5. UN IPCC. The pseudo-scientific foundation of manmade global warming is washing away just when the greens are poised to take control of everything in Washington DC. In a series of events reported mostly by AJ Strata of the Strata Sphere, the UN IPCC, the political body of scientists which has been charging forward with reports and analyses blaming recent warming trends on manmade production of carbon dioxide, has started walking away from their past conclusions. In a meeting in Poland last week, they fought a significant split in consensus – meaning they are halting starting to return to doing actual science rather than doing politics. UN IPCC scientists announced in Washington DC last week that the variation in global temperatures was better tied to a 2-3 decades long variation in Pacific Ocean temperatures called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation which shifted form a warming phase to a cooling phase in 2005. They predict cooler temperatures for the next three decades. Note that all this is done independent of the solar astronomers who are predicting an extended period of quiet solar activity, which will also move global temperatures downward. The global cooling trend is pronounced. It is measurable. It has a number of explanations. And is it fast becoming inarguable – which is why the greens and their toadies in the drive-by media and among democrats have shifted their description from manmade global warming to climate change. Pretty nifty, as the climate always changes. We will hope that things get cold enough, quickly enough so that congress and the Obamaoids cannot do irrevocably stupid on a policy basis.

6. Browner. Michelle Malkin Friday wrote about Obama’s selection of disgraced former Clinton EPA head as his new Energy Czar. Browner was an absolute disaster as the head of the EPA, and left under a cloud of scandal (what Clintonoid didn’t?), as she presided over the destruction of EPA computer files her last few days in office in violation of a court order to retain those files. She claimed she didn’t know about a court injunction issued the same day she ordered an underling to wipe her drives. At the time, Landmark Legal Foundation was pressing the court to order Browner to release all information about contact between her office and environmental groups that may have unduly influenced a wave of last-minute EPA regulatory actions. Browner claimed that her work computer did not have any agency-related materials, but was instead filled with computer games. Browner has worked closely with the environmental community in the past. There is no reason to think she won’t do the same thing in the future as Energy Czar.

7. McDonalds. Ed Morrissey in Hot Air Friday wrote that the AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are going after McDonalds because the corporation came out against the Card Check legislation slithering its way through congress. Card Check will remove the ability of people to cast secret ballots on whether or not they choose to join a union. It is part of the payoff by the democrats for the hundreds of millions of dollars that the unions spent electing democrats over the last election cycle. The vast majority of McDonalds franchise owners are small businessmen that rely on part time workers, new entries into the workplace, and college students. Union backed increases in the minimum wage, designed to assist the unions in jacking up their next contracts, contributed to a significant increase in teenage unemployment over the last couple years. Card Check will do worse, barring new workers from entering the marketplace. McDonalds is to be commended for their action. Perhaps it is time to buy a Happy Meal.

More later — AG

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Note: Interesting Items can be found also at the following locations: MatSu Valley News and the home page. Rod Martin’s The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column. Alex Gimarc is a long-time member of the Town Hall Conservative group.