Free Republic

Tensions were already smoldering in the Oregon Senate Wednesday, when Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, poured gasoline on the situation, suggesting he would shoot and potentially kill any state trooper sent to haul him unwillingly back to the Capitol. After Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. said Tuesday that his caucus was “prepared to take actions” to prevent passage of a major climate change bill, Gov. Brown announced on Wednesday that she was ready to answer Republican stonewalling by calling lawmakers back for a special session. Brown hinted that she would be willing to send state troopers to round up Republicans...

Step aside, elected Members of Congress. If you can’t pass cap and trade legislation, The Environmental Protection Agency will move in with massively complex and costly regulations that would micromanage just about every aspect of the economy. They announced today that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and the environment. Since 85 percent of the U.S. economy runs on fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide, imposing a cost on CO2 is equivalent to placing an economy-wide tax on energy use. The kind of industrial-strength EPA red tape that the agency could enforce in the name...

The Brayton Point Power Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in New England, is shutting down amid a prolonged slump in energy prices that is forcing power operators nationally to rejigger their budgets and seek out more affordable production strategies. The closure will result in 240 job losses at the Somerset, Mass.-based facility. Its owner, an affiliate of New Jersey-based private equity firm Energy Capital Partners, said in a statement that steps would be taken to mitigate the effects of the job cuts for Brayton Point’s former workers....

Many things are holding the headlines hostage, the terrorist attacks, the crippling effects of Obamacare, the prospect of expanding war in Syria, and as always Iran. There is one over-riding constant that defines as it divides the present era: the fact that America has a President who advances values and policies diametrically opposed to the traditional beliefs of a vast number of Americans. From bowing to foreign leaders to not knowing how many states there are, from vowing to fundamentally transform America to actually doing it, President Obama is to many the Manchurian Candidate. Elected the first time on a...

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is set to reveal the details of a carbon tax designed to help fight climate change and billed as one of the nation's biggest economic reforms for decades. Labor leader Gillard plans to tax Australia's top 500 polluters for their carbon dioxide emissions as a means of reducing pollution, changing energy use and building investment in clean sources of energy. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard "No longer will the nation's biggest polluters be able to pollute our atmosphere for free," Gillard told a Labor Party conference on Saturday. "From July 1 next year, the freedom...

California must put an immediate halt to work on its cap and trade program until it completes a review of alternative approaches to reducing climate change, a state judge said Friday. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith ruled in March that the California Air Resources Board failed to conduct such a review but left open the question of whether the agency could conduct rule-making, environmental studies or do any other work while the legal issues were being resolved. The state said at the time that it would appeal. On Friday, Goldsmith enjoined the ARB from "engaging in any cap...

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a laid-back Midwestern Republican who governed a Democratic-leaning state, is running for president and will declare his candidacy on Monday in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa, an adviser told The Associated Press. The adviser, who disclosed the plans on the condition of anonymity in advance of next week's announcement, said Pawlenty will formally enter the race during a town hall-style event in Des Moines, Iowa. He's choosing to make his long-expected bid official in a critical state in his path to the GOP nomination. Advisers acknowledge that Pawlenty, 50, must win or turn in...

Washington, D.C. Today, the National Center For Public Policy Research hammered Johnson & Johnson CEO William C. Weldon over his company's partisan lobbying at its annual shareholder meeting in New Brunswick, New Jersey. National Center General Counsel Justin Danhof wasked Weldon to justify his firm spending shareholder money to support unpopular policies such as ObamaCare and cap-and-trade. Weldon said that he was proud of his company's lobbying positions even if they were not perfect, and he would not change his position even in the face of stark evidence that, as a result, many Johnson & Johnson consumers now view the...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has just vanquished his uber-right, Tea Party-backed primary challenger, J.D. Hayworth. So what’s on McCain’s schedule, now that he doesn’t have to satisfy a fringy primary electorate? Through a little creative reporting, I managed to get a copy of his day planner: -Call Lindsey Graham. Explain that junkmail filter trapped all those e-mails he sent me begging for help on climate change this year. Install junkmail filter software so this excuse seems plausible. (snip) -Come out in favor of comprehensive immigration reform -- again. Sprinkle gratuitous Spanish phrases into my speeches. ¡Obamanos! Okay, maybe not that...

The Washington Post reports: Conceding they can't find enough votes for the measure, Senate Democrats will announce Thursday they are abandoning for now efforts to put together a comprehensive energy bill that would seek to limit greenhouse gas emissions, ending the immediate prospect for a key legislative priority of President Obama and congressional Democrats. Instead, Democrats, according to sources, will push for a more limited bill that would seek to increase liability costs that oil companies would pay following spills such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico and would create additional incentives for the purchase of both natural...

Oklahoma Senator On Global Warming: I've Been Vindicated By Alex Cameron, Oklahoma Impact Team Posted: Jun 24, 2010 9:53 PM Updated: Jun 25, 2010 9:03 AM PERRY, OK -- He's been called an idiot, a climate killer, and one of the worst enemies of the planet, and it couldn't make Jim Inhofe more proud. To Oklahoma's senior U.S. Senator, the insults just validate his efforts to expose what he says are the lies and exaggerations of global warming alarmists. And, as he told our Oklahoma Impact Team, his efforts are finally paying off, because public opinion on the issue is...

WASHINGTON -- For two months, the Obama administration has been skirting the truth about its inept response to the April 20 BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and the resulting fire and oil spill. The O-Team claims it has been "on top" of this problem since "day one." Reality shows that both the leaks and the lies continue. On June 15, President Barack Obama, master and commander of the teleprompter, tried using his first address from the Oval Office to convince the American people that his team was doing all that could be done in handling "the worst environmental disaster...

Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Franklin Raines, two of his top underlings and select individuals in the "green" movement were inventing a patented system to trade residential carbon credits. Patent No. 6904336 was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office on Nov. 7, 2006 -- the day after Democrats took control of Congress. Former Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., criticized the award at the time, pointing out that it had "nothing to do with Fannie Mae's charter, nothing to do with making mortgages more affordable." "It wasn't about mortgages. It was about greenbacks. The patent, which Fannie Mae confirmed it...

The BP oil disaster was custom-made for The Obama. It’s a disaster that not only destroys jobs and the lives of the affected humans but, is killing off all wildlife it touches. The effective oil-skimmer systems utilized by the Saudis and others would work to greatly minimize the damage being caused to the US Gulf Coast. But, The Obama continues to drag his heels as States and lives are destroyed. Note: Obama, of course, remains aloof and untouched and continues to refuse all offers of help—only those that truly WILL help—as he smilingly watches and fiddles like Nero while the...

"...my deep respect and admiration for the McCains..." "Send the maverick back to the United States Senate!" "He is a man of the people!" http://www.johnmccain.com/live

Sen. John McCain's campaign is calling on his primary challenger to disavow the backing of an anti-illegal immigration group that permits the use of terms such as "wetbacks" and "pepper bellies" – derisive epithets sometimes used for immigrants – on its website. "Let's be clear: Congressman [J.D.] Hayworth's continued flirtation with extreme groups that condone racism only opens the door for liberals to falsely paint all opponents of illegal immigration as bigots. Congressman Hayworth should immediately disavow this group’s support and commit to never again associating himself with groups that accept this kind of hateful and counterproductive rhetoric," McCain campaign...

February 24, 2010 JD Hayworth: sole AZ conservative candidate for US Senate By Sher Zieve Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing former Arizona US Congressman J.D. Hayworth and current Conservative candidate for US Senator from Arizona. Congressman Hayworth is running against the liberal-progressive incumbent Sen. John McCain. The McCain machine is well-oiled and presents a formidable opponent to those who want to preserve the US Republic. However, J.D. believes the momentum for a resuscitation and reinstatement of the principles upon which our country was founded are with him and his campaign. Below is a candid interview of Conservative...

President Obama decided it’s time to push the dictator button and tell the Legislature they’re expendable. Using the Old Gray Lady for softball coverage, the White House announced the President is prepared to use Executive fiat to advance his energy, environmental and fiscal policies. But what good is signing your agenda into law if you don’t have radicals to implement it? Oh yeah, he’ll also be making recess appointments. It’s good to be King! On Friday White House chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel announced the President is preparing, “to get the job done.” Translation: Obama is tired of waiting for...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is scheduled to meet privately Wednesday evening with top administration climate aide Carol Browner. Graham is working with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft a bipartisan cap and trade bill. He plans to discuss the ways Senate leaders can deal with manufacturing and coal state worries that the bill will spike electricity bills in the midst of a deep recession. “We’ve got to address people’s concerns about compliance costs and rate payer increases,” he told POLITICO. He’ll also use the meaning to address nuclear power, off-shore drilling and new coal technologies —...

"...The charity was the Joyce Foundation on whose board of directors Obama served and which gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were “instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” And that’s only the beginning of this tawdry tale, Mr. Barnes. The “privately-owned” Chicago Climate Exchange is heavily influenced by Obama cohorts Al Gore and Maurice Strong. For years now Strong and Gore have been cashing in on that lucrative cottage industry known...