Michael Williams examines the cap-and-trade bill.

Michael Williams, current Texas Railroad Commissioner* and candidate for Senate, is doing a multi-part survey of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill currently before Congress. He’s up to Part III (see also Part I & Part II, of course), and here’s what he’s hoping to accomplish with it:

Democrats in Congress, joined with the Obama administration, are proceeding along parallel tracks to impose CO2 regulations so sweeping as to become the most expensive and expansive environmental reach of government into the lives of American families, businesses and consumers in history.

In May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill that is designed to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming. The full House could complete action on the bill within the next two weeks.

[snip]

The prospect for cap and trade is less certain in the Senate and the EPA, while poised to finalize its landmark finding, has not done so, yet. If enough Americans band together, we can still protect the American economy, jobs, and incomes from undue and unnecessary CO2 regulations.

Continue reading Michael Williams examines the cap-and-trade bill.

This is not how normal people see the Sanford affair.

Randy Milholland of the webcomic Something Positive is not ‘normal,’ and he would probably be angry with me if I said that he was. But he is clear-headed, and he is not a political obsessive like, well, me – so the designation more or less counts in this context.

Besides, this is, like, wicked funny. Without being particularly partisan about it. Warning: the language is a bit rough, so it’s going under the fold. Continue reading This is not how normal people see the Sanford affair.

“Freeze Frame.”

Freeze-Frame, J. Geils Band

Yeah. Cutting-edge, for its time. Admittedly, it lacks that essential “white horse running through a room in slow motion” quality found in most videos of the time, but then they were essentially making up the music video genre as they went along. No uniform weights and measures, as it were.

…and goodness gracious, but that song is old enough to serve in Congress.

Mental Parasite-free Kerry all caught up to AT LEAST 2006!

If you’re into science fiction at all, you’ve probably come across the concept of the Puppet Masters: creatures, usually alien (although sometimes demonic), that insidiously take over people and make them into organic robots with no free will or volition. Staple of the genre, in fact – but one thing that never really got addressed in the books or movies is what happened to long-term victims of the insidious mental parasites, once the control had been removed. Sure, the hero or heroine always snapped back, but they were usually only mind-controlled for several hours or weeks, tops. What would a puppet who had been ridden for thirty years look like, once that rider was removed?

Probably much like this:

The Bay State senator was telling a group of business and civic leaders in town at his invitation about the “bizarre’’ tale of how South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had “disappeared for four days’’ and claimed to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail, but no one was really certain of his whereabouts.

“Too bad,’’ Kerry said, “if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.’’

[Via Hot Air: bolding mine]

…Yes. Yes, she is Governor of Alaska, Senator. Well done!

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Gee, I wonder what the topic of discussion…

…for tonight’s Reason Happy Hour is going to be. Can’t wait to find out.

Probably the focus will be on reports of a Southern politician getting involved in morally questionable behavior with an Argentinian woman while down in South America.

Good job there, Bill Clinton.

Moe Lane

PS: Oh, did you think that I meant Sanford? Hey, not my fault that our sex scandals are less low-rent than the Democrats’…

My cynical prediction about the Democratic primary process.

Some time in the next year or so, the rules will be quietly changed so as to ensure that the power gaming techniques used by the current President to win the Democratic nomination in 2008 cannot be used against him in 2012. It’ll be straight primaries, winner take all, no more convoluted delegate allocation methods.

Second prediction: it will be touted as a ‘reform.’

Moe Lane

PS: If this comes true, feel free to reward me as a prophet by hitting the tip jar. Heck, hit it anyway.



Crossposted to RedState.

I assume that this was a rhetorical question of the Sunlight Foundation.

(Via Instapundit) What the frak is going on with the Cap and Trade bill is that it’s being shepherded through Congress by a government that is:

  • dominated by one political party;
  • controlled by one wing of that political party, mostly because they are senior (and senior because they are ideologues from safe seats);
  • largely unconcerned with addressing the concerns, honoring the ideals, and/or valuing the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation.

I hope that this helps clear up any lingering confusion.

Moe Lane

PS: I note that Paul Blumenthal’s post quoted Chris Bowers. I know how the latter voted in the last election; I’m curious as to how the former did. After all, it’d be a shame to include Blumenthal in the standard Elections have consequences comment if he actually had nothing to do with compounding the problem…

Crossposted to RedState.