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West African bushmen are denied U.S. visas They'd been recruited to build a mud-hut village at a Staunton museum Thursday, Jul 03, 2008 - 12:55 AM By CARLOS SANTOS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER • PDF: Letter STAUNTON -- Three West African bushmen recruited to build an authentic mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia were denied visas because they are too poor and inarticulate. In a letter to Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., Debra Heien, chief of the consular section for the U.S. in Nigeria, said one applicant "could not articulate anything about the project. . . . The...

Influential Republican senator, John Warner of Virginia, suggested on Thursday that Congress consider reimposing a national speed limit to save gasoline. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to investigate what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. Warner said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit. In 1974, Congress set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline...

John McCain is a fighter -- at least when it comes to defending his military record. Today, a "Truth Squad" for the presumptive Republican nominee forcefully rejected General Wesley Clark's comments that McCain lacks foreign policy experience, and suggested Barack Obama do the same. Led by John Warner, a Virginia Republican who serves with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the squad blasted Clark and sought to reenforce the military reputation of McCain, a former Vietnam POW who once headed the largest Navy aviation squadron. "I find General Clark's comments to be unworthy, unseemly, for someone of his stature....

Democrats have placed a big bulls-eye on VA. Retiring Republican Senator John Warner's seat is in danger of being flipped by Democrat Mark Warner. Obama wants to make a play for the state. But the Dems can't keep their hands out of the cookie jar, giving Republicans a big stick.

By pushing a bill that distances himself from the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate on offshore drilling, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia is picking a curious time to exercise his well-known independence. Webb wants his home state to have the right to explore for energy off Virginia’s coast. His staff insists his proposal pertains only to natural gas, and not oil, and that it is completely in line with the state’s other two leading Democrats — Gov. Tim Kaine and former Gov. Mark Warner, who is running for Senate. Yet by attaching his name to the bill, sponsored by...

Many Americans think that switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, buying environmentally friendly appliances and obeying a (100% recycled) bag of green living tips will be the extent of their contribution to curbing greenhouse gases. But the price tag to consumers could be a lot higher if some politicians have their way. In fact, U.S. households could expect a $2,900 annual hit to their family budget sooner than they think.That's just one figure causing concern as politicians race to address global warming. Therefore, it's worth noting that at the same time Americans are concerned about climate change, they are also very...

The most obvious lesson to be learned from the U.S. Senate's failure to mount any sort of grown-up debate on climate change last week is that the country needs a new occupant in the White House. By that we mean a president who not only understands and cares deeply about the issue - which both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain say they do, and which President Bush clearly does not - but who is also willing to invest the time and the political capital necessary to push good legislation through Congress. The bill that died in the Senate sought...

Lieberman Hopeful, Despite Global Warming Bill's FailureBy JESSE A. HAMILTON | Washington Bureau Chief June 7, 2008 WASHINGTON — - It wasn't really about winning, anyway. So nobody's crying over the Friday defeat of a Senate bill to counter global warming. Not even Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose name was on it. The bill to slash industrial carbon emissions — a massive and deep-reaching piece of legislation known as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act — was the 2008 shot at doing something about the climate warming trend. As expected, it burned out. But the politics is in the details, and in...

Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) on Friday sought to end recent speculation surrounding his support for former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R), saying his stance has not changed since a statement last November in which he pledged financial support for Virginia GOP candidates but will not actively campaign. Warner's office issued a statement saluting Gilmore and announcing that he has contributed $2,000 toward his candidacy this month. But he added that he will "defer taking an active role in political campaigns or the district and statewide Republican nominating conventions." Gilmore last Saturday won the GOP nomination to succeed Warner, who is...

U.S. carbon-capping climate bill dies in Senate 11 minutes ago U.S. legislation that would have set up a cap-and-trade system to limit climate-warming carbon emissions died on Friday after a procedural vote in the Senate. The bill aimed to cut total U.S. global warming emissions by 66 percent by 2050. Opponents said it would cost U.S. jobs and raise fuel prices in an already pinched American economy.

Earlier this week, we spoke to Senator James Inhofe from the Senate floor, where he led the opposition in debate on the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill. He seemed confident that the bill would not pass in the Senate, and told us that the overwhelming vote to open debate had nothing to do with support for the bill, but the opportunity to argue against massive regulation of energy production in the US. Inhofe apparently had it more right than he knew, as it appears that the debate will end much more quickly than anyone guessed — and that the bill is dead...

Excerpt: This week’s Climate Tax Bill debate revealed many useful insights into why the American people will remain skeptical of a global warming cap-and-trade system. The Wall Street Journal aptly noted on June 6 that environmentalists are "stunned that their global warming agenda is in collapse" after the Climate Tax Bill debate. "The green groups now look as politically intimidating as the skinny kid on the beach who gets sand kicked in his face. Those groups spent millions advertising and lobbying to push the cap-and-trade bill through the Senate," the paper noted. "With gasoline selling at $4 a gallon, the...

f this week's Senate debate on a proposed cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for climate legislation, things are not looking too good for opening night. The week has been marked by parliamentary maneuvers and bitter accusations over divergent estimates of the bill's future costs. On Wednesday, a group of GOP senators asked that the clerk of the Senate read the entire 491-page bill aloud, an extremely rare request. That took more than 10 hours. Although parliamentary maneuvers could still extend the debate into next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) faced...

Legislation to combat global warming by putting limits on greenhouse gas emissions appeared headed to defeat as Democrats and Republicans accused each other of manipulating Senate rules to impede it. Opponents of the bill, co-authored by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, are "trying to fritter away the time" that Senate leaders had set aside for debate, Democratic Sen. John Kerry charged. On Wednesday, Republicans forced Democrats to have the 492-page bill read aloud on the floor, taking up more than nine hours. Majority Leader Harry Reid then scheduled a showdown vote for this morning on a motion to limit additional...

Call your Senators and Urge them to Vote NO on S. 3036! After promising to allow an open and lengthy debate on America's Climate Security Act (S. 3036), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture to proceed to final passage, allowing NO AMENDMENTS and only ONE DAY for debate of a massive energy tax increase on American consumers. The Senate will vote on cloture tomorrow, Friday morning, June 6th! The latest word is that Senator Reid is actively working to gain over 50 votes for cloture. We cannot allow this many Senators to vote YES. Environmental groups will spin...

I'm sorry, fellows. Do you really think the world is filled with morons? When it comes to bait and switch, used car salesmen are paragons of virtue compared to this global warming crowd. Excuse me. It's not the ``global warming'' crowd now; it's the ``climate change'' crowd. Of course, they don't want any of us to own automobiles; so what the heck. They can act like used car salesmen because there will be more jobs for them as being advocates in the climate change arena.

To: STATE EDITORS Contact: David Almasi, +1-202-543-4110, for National Center for Public Policy Research WASHINGTON, May 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Senate is poised to vote on the Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act, a new poll finds an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the higher energy costs the bill would impose. The poll, conducted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, found 65% of Americans reject spending even a penny more for gasoline in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The number rejecting raising gas prices to combat global warming has increased by 17 percentage points -- or...

We wrote here about the economic disaster that goes by the name Lieberman-Warner, the carbon cap-and-trade system now being considered by the Senate. We posted a diagram created by the Chamber of Commerce that exposed the ludicrous complexity and intrusiveness of the proposal. The bill, as amended by Barbara Boxer, has now gotten even worse. Boxer's amendment adds more than 300 regulations and mandates. The Chamber has accordingly prepared another version of their chart that reflects Boxer's changes. It is a remarkable document; click to enlarge: This morning, four Republican Senators held a press conference on Lieberman-Warner. Jim Inhofe of...

Conventional wisdom suggests that times of high economic growth would be the most appropriate occasion to enact legislation that could be very expensive for American taxpayers. That’s not the case for Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer. Boxer, who is the chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and advocating the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade legislation, said a “recession” is the best time to do it because it will bring us “hope.” “[S]ome of our colleagues will say this: Why do this now? We are in a recession. Precisely because we are in a recession is why we should be...