EPA Declares CO2 Harmful To Humans

The EPA and the Obama Administration in an effort to circumvent Congress has unilaterally declared that CO2 is harmful to humans. CO2 if you will recall is a NATURALLY OCCURRING gas. By declaring it harmful, the EPA may now begin to regulate (i.e. tax/fine/fee) emissions. This means that in order for you to drive you car, you can, and probably will be fined for doing so.

The EPA said that the scientific evidence surrounding climate change clearly shows that greenhouse gases "threaten the public health and welfare of the American people" and that the pollutants — mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels — should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Bullshit! The "scientific evidence" is far from certain, especially since the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia's emails and data have clearly shown an attempt to block any publication of articles and papers that take a contrary view of the "settled science". Since "Cap & Trade" bills passage has stalled and are likely to go nowhere, the Obama Administration is attempting to do an "end run" around Congress and desires to seize control of energy production in this country. During the campaign, Mr. Obama repeated stated his desire to drive the production of coal, as well using coal as a means of energy production out of business by making it prohibitively expensive to use this for energy. This is a blatant power grab by this administration.

"These long-overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as the year when the United States government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at news conference.

The action by the EPA, which has been anticipated for months, clearly was timed to add to the momentum toward some sort of agreement on climate change at the Copenhagen conference and try to push Congress to approve climate legislation.

"This is a clear message to Copenhagen of the Obama administration's commitments to address global climate change," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lead author of a climate bill before the Senate. "The message to Congress is crystal clear: get moving."

Unfortunately, it seems that the Obama administration won't be happy until it not only controls the production of energy, but that of health care as well. This is nothing more than a bald attempt to completely restructuring the United States into a socialist/statist economic model. If the government controls the production of energy, it will be able to dictate to companies who is permitted to do business and more importantly who is not. Additionally, it will have the ability to dictate who gets health care...and who does not.

The time has already arrived that bureaucrats are deciding upon a political basis who is permitted to work in government by not hiring anyone with a conservative background...in the very near future you can bet they health care (with the passage of the government's plan to seize control of health care) your political party will be a deciding factor if you receive good care...or not. Now the government will dispense energy upon those corporations (by giving thee "exemptions") who are politically approved of, and those who are not. Now, Mr. Obama's enemy list begins to take on whole new meanings.

Obama Has Leaped Off the Precipice

Mr. Obama has leaped off the precipice when his minions initiated the assault on Fox News. He joined Richard Nixon and the famous enemies list with one of his own.

Mr. Obama's includes an news organization (Fox News), an organization of business ownder (US Chamber of Commerce), the Health Care Industry (1/6th of the economy)...and who else?

Who will be next to be named an "enemy of the state"? Who will be our 2 minute hate victim? Who?

Valerie Jarret, Child of the Revolution (wannabe)...

I don't, at least not often, quote entire entries from another blog...it's not nice and is considered bad form. But when a far better writer than I writes something that makes a great point...I copy it and bring it here. The link in the title take you to the raw feed from the Baltimore Mullet Wrapper (oops the Balt Sun).

From the WSJ blog...James Taranto:

David Zurawik, TV critic for the Baltimore Sun, notes a revealing exchange between CNN's Campbell Brown and White House consigliera Valerie Jarrett. (Note that neither Brown nor Jarrett is as fat as she appears in the video; CNN, for some reason, insists on presenting its online videos with the wrong aspect ratio.) Here's the transcript:

>Brown: So do you think FOX News is biased?
Jarrett: Well, of course they're biased. Of course they are.
Brown: OK. Then do you also think that MSNBC is biased?
Jarrett: Well, you know what? This is the thing. I don't want to--actually, I don't want to just generalize all FOX is biased or that another station is biased. I think what we want to do is look at it on a case-by-case basis. And when we see a pattern of distortion, we're going to be honest about that pattern of distortion.
Brown: But you only see that at FOX News? That's all that--you have spoken out about FOX News.
Jarrett: That's actually not true. I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we're going to speak truth to power.

Good for Campbell Brown for sticking up for a competitor (albeit at the expense of a lesser competitor). And it's pretty funny how Jarrett, after smugly asserting, "Of course they're biased," did not make a pretense of standing by her position when Brown asked a question she would have been prepared for if she had spent any time thinking this through.

Even more risible, though, is the claim that the administration "is going to speak truth to power." Hello, Valerie? Your boss is the president of the United States! No one is more powerful. As we suggested Friday, it really seems as if Obama and his men do not understand what it means to be president. Because their power is constrained--thank you, Founding Fathers!--they labor under the delusion that they are powerless.

Yet while this is all hilarious, it is also scary when you think it through. Great power entails great responsibility. There is little to suggest that Obama and his aides appreciate their responsibility, and much, including their incessant complaining that the previous president did a lousy job, to suggest an attitude of total irresponsibility.

The job of those in power is not to "speak truth to power," though it would be nice if they spoke the truth once in a while. It is to exercise power responsibly. The effort to bully Fox News Channel would be an abuse of power were it not so pathetically inept.

**Mr. Taranto makes a strong point. The Obama Administration really doesn't have a clue about what they are doing. When you are on the outside, it's really very easy to throw grenades...but when YOU ARE THE BOSS, it's vastly different.**

CNN Throws Grenades...At Itself

Politics daily has a great post on CNN's inability to actually report facts and figures. Instead CNN has become a partisan in pushing the Obama Administration agenda.

In an epic segment on Oct. 12, Stewart spent 11 minutes -- half of the entire Daily Show -- pouring through clips of CNN's blatant disregard for fact checking the statistics spewed by actual politicians and pundits on its shows. According to Stewart, "Fact checking is the function of news. This is the public service provided." Never one to make a point without sarcasm, Stewart added, "It is one of the reasons the health care debate has been so fruitful."

As usual, Stewart nails it. He argues that the news organizations should educate the nation with fact checking and an open, intelligent evaluation of each side of political debates so that the public discourse is not mired in lies and partisan bickering. Idealistic as it may sound, there is a word for this: journalism. Instead, CNN brings together partisan experts that bash each other in divisive quarrels masquerading as real information. Issues such as the uninsured and the deficit take a back seat to fiery buzzwords like death panels and socialism/fascism that have no basis in the reality of the health care overhaul. We are constantly bombarded by the explosive attacks of partisan conflict and emerge deaf to the real substance of our political debate.

Basically, CNN, MSNBC, NBC & CBS are failing in their mandate to report the news. They have become defacto propaganda arms of the Obama Administration. They never, ever report anything negative or adverse. On the other hand, they constantly reported on negative aspects of the Bush Administration. This goes hand in hand with the inability of the Obama Administration to take responsibility of any of their actions or of the present situation the country is in. It's all "inherited" and the "news" organizations fully support this meme. Fox News now has a larger audience than ALL the other news networks combined. Yet, those networks refuse to see the problem that their biased reporting as a problem, all the while they bleed viewers. Print media has the same problem...and I don't think either will wake up until it's too late.

Our democracy requires a robust news media that reports facts on what our political "elites" are attempting to inflict upon us. Without it, we are doomed. Right now, only Fox News the Wall Street Journal and a few regional papers attempt to present reasonably balanced reporting. This cannot continue...but the Obama Administration has declared war on Fox News, and is attempting to marginalize it because they are not fully supporting the aims of this administration. It's wrong and will probably result in a huge backlash, just as Nixon's "enemies list" did 37 years ago.

The Chicago Way: Eliminate ANY Opposition...

Eric @ classicalvalues.com has an excellent entry on the Obama Administration's adoption of the "Chicago Way" of political warfare. The WSJ was the news source that gives us the phrase "The Chicago Way"...it's an indication that this administration has run amuck in ways that are anti-democratic and against all of our traditions.

A White House set on kneecapping its opponents isn't, of course, entirely new. (See: Nixon) What is a little novel is the public and bare-knuckle way in which the Obama team is waging these campaigns against the other side. In recent weeks the Windy City gang added a new name to their list of societal offenders: the Chamber of Commerce. For the cheek of disagreeing with Democrats on climate and financial regulation, it was reported the Oval Office will neuter the business lobby. Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett slammed the outfit as "old school," and warned CEOs they'd be wise to seek better protection.

Jarret is a protege of one of the founders of the 70's terrorist group SDS (and Ayers friend) Marilyn Katz. Additionally, her father has a long time member of the CPUSA (Communist Party of the United States) Chicago organization.

What worries me is the growing size of the Obama Enemy List. First it was just the health insurance industry. Then, he added Fox News...now it's also the US Chamber of Commerce. Where will it end? Eric worries that,

Bare knuckles Chicago-style politics is one thing. But to see it directed at the Chamber of Commerce, from leftist radicals in the White House, is quite another. I'm glad to see that so far they haven't caved to pressure. My worry is that the reason the Chamber of Commerce is being so viciously targeted might involve more than just playing the game by Chicago politics. I worry that the target is the free market system itself.

How many Obama voters thought they were voting for that?

This administration should begin to worry about a backlash...soon, because they are stirring up a hornets nest...who will they come for next?

The Chicago Way

There was a very interesting column in today's Chicago Tribune by Clarence Page. He objects to the Obama Administration's attacks on Fox News. Not stridently, and really rather cautiously,

Surely President Barack Obama and his advisers don't really think that their feud with Fox News will do anything but enhance the cable network's viewership. A deeper problem is what the flap reveals about Team Obama, which seems to be more comfortable with campaigning than governing.

I'm not happy about that. It does not fill me with glee to see Fox News star Sean Hannity joyfully replaying Obama's 2004 come-together speech about how we're "not red states or blues states" but "the United States of America" and asking where is Obama's promise now?

I don't agree with Hannity on much. He's only a tad more serious-minded as a news clown, in my grumpy view, than his colleague Glenn Beck. But, as much as my wife might run from the house when she hears me say it, Hannity's right on this one

As far as it goes, it's at least a beginning...perhaps other voices will begin to question what is occuring. Here's my response to his column:


Mr. Page,
This letter is in response to your column on Mr. Obama's new "War On Fox News". Mr. Obama has more than Fox News on his "enemies" list. It apparently has entries for any organizations that oppose his policies. They are branded as "evil" and must be ostracized. Corporate leaders in the financial industry were stigmatized for "earning too much". Later the "enemy" was the health insurance industry for changing their minds about participating in their own destruction as an industry.

Yet another "enemy" who opposes some of Mr. Obama's policies is the US Chamber of Commerce who opposes the "Cap & Trade" bill which if enacted will literally destroy what is left of the economy. Individual household energy costs will add approximately $2000.00 per year. I'm barely making ends meet now. That kind of energy cost increase, along with the tax increases that are hidden in the various incarnations of the health care bills will literally put me and my family out on the street.All they, and Fox News are guilty of are opposing, as any American is permitted to do under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution is to express their opinions, or report what they deem to be news. On the other hand, John F. Kennedy said in a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, Apr. 27, 1961

" No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.

I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers--I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: "An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion."
Any president that does stifle opposition is skirting if not shredding, the US Constitution. Think about it. How much of a leap is it to being from being labeled "not legitimate" to "enemy of the state"...

Thank you for allowing me to take up so much of your time.

Sincerely,

Richard A. Vail

Portents of Things to Come

The NYTimes is reporting that Anita Alvarez, the Cook County state’s attorney, who was elected last fall, is investigating the student journalists of Northwestern University's, Medill School of Journalism's, Medill Innocence Project. These students have over the years, freed at least 15 men and women on death row or serving life sentences.

“Every time the government starts attacking the messenger as opposed to the message, it can have a chilling effect,” said Barry C. Scheck, a pioneer of the Innocence Project in New York, who said he had never seen a similar demand from prosecutors.

This is the "Chicago Way" of politics. If you don't like what someone is saying about you politically, then you stigmatize them, drive them out. This is what Mr. Obama is doing to Fox News. Exactly the same thing.

If you begin to hound and organization, to name them as "enemies" then they are no longer legitimate and thus must be ignored. It's not a huge leap, from ignoring groups...to eliminating in a final solution. The National Socialist thought that way, so too did Mao Tse Dung in China. Mao eliminated at least 100 million "enemies of the state". Hugo Chavez is well on the way to doing this as he is imprisoning all who have vocally opposed his dictatorship.

My question is, who is next? What group, organization will be named, stigmatized and delegitimated? Who is next? That's an important question to ponder upon in the next few months as we watch this Chicago-bred politician's administration unfold.

We're All Balloon Boys Now

RCP has a column by Daniel Henninger, titled "We're All Balloon Boys Now" from the WSJ's opinion section. One of the commenter's named Pat Schon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm a Democrat and I do not believe one single
> word that President Obama says. His
> message/agenda is all spin. How did we ever vote
> for him?

Here's my my answer to him:

You voted for him because you bought the "kool-aide" the MSM was selling. Because they decided that they HAD to get him elected so they threw aside their mandate to examine all candidates under the harsh glare of public scrutiny, and published exactly what the Obama campaign wanted you to hear/know (see: ) for the video of this interview of Anita Dunn in Guatemala...oddly where the America press DIDN'T report her comments:

"The Obama campaign's press strategy leading up to his election last November focused on "making" the media cover what the campaign wanted and on exercising absolute "control" over coverage, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told an overseas crowd early this ?year.

In a video of the event, Dunn is seen describing in detail the media strategy used by then-Sen. Barack Obama's highly disciplined presidential campaign. The video is footage from a Jan. 12 forum hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development in the Dominican Republic.

"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," Dunn said, admitting that the strategy "did not always make us popular in the press." "

Ms. Dunn is on record as saying literally, they don't want the press to ask Obama genuine questions...because they don't want to have to answer them....think about it. An American administration is actively trying to silence the one news organization that actually has the balls to question what this administration is doing.

Once upon a time an American president said:

" No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.

I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers--I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: "An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion."

John F. Kennedy
35th President of the United States
From a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, Apr. 27, 1961

I can't see this President saying that...even though he ran on the platform of transparency. The Nixon administration was more transparent than this one...this one even has an enemies list. It's gotten so bad that anyone who disagrees with Mr. Obama's policies is labeled a racist, next it will be treason to oppose him.

Here's the list

Health Insurance Industry
Banking Industry
US Chamber of Commerce
FoxNews

Who else will be added.