The BBC reports that a deal is close to emerging at the “climate change” talks in Copenhagen. The key news is that China has agreed to cut back on its pollution and the US is going to kick in some money. Only about $100 billion a year from initial reports.
A deal appears to be in sight for the final day of the UN climate change talks but there are fears it may not prevent a 3C (5.4F) temperature rise. … China signalled concessions on the monitoring of emission curbs while the US said it would commit money for developing countries. …
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her administration was prepared to help establish funding of $100bn a year for developing countries if a deal emerged that met US requirements.
The US wants to be able to verify Chinese compliance, but China was resisting any action that might infringe on its sovereignty. Meanwhile, President Obama boarded an airplane bound for the Danish capital, exuding confidence that a deal was in the cards. The NY Daily News reports:
“We’re not going there for the sake of something that’s called an agreement. We want something that works for both the international community but also that works for the United States. We think the elements are there to reach that agreement,” said spokesman Robert Gibbs.
“Coming back with an empty agreement would be far worse than coming back empty-handed,” he added.
Secretary of State Clinton tried to build momentum for an agreement yesterday.
She pledged the U.S. would help raise $100 billion a year to help poor nations in the global warming fight – but only if there is an agreement with teeth to enforce compliance.
The critical moment apparently came when Hillary Clinton agreed to kick in the money, according to the UK Mirror. Gordon Brown triumphantly announced, “today has been an important day.” No doubt.
Earlier, Hugo Chavez got a standing ovation when he pledged to make “capitalism obey us”. Andrew Bolt at the Herald Sun quoted this message from the Venezuelan dictator who hates America, but may love its money, some of which may now be coming his way.
embedded by Embedded VideoPresident Chavez brought the house down. When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.
When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.
But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ – “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.
YouTube Direkt
… and they all lived happily ever after to an even catchier tune.
Update
Now it seems like the deal wasn’t there. Jake Tapper at ABC News reports that a senior White House official is playing down expectations of a breakthrough, claiming the Chinese aren’t going to provide their promised ‘transparency’ in exchange for Hillary’s promised money.
“We’ve done what we can here,” a senior White House official in Copenhagen, Denmark, tells ABC News. “The Chinese are dug in on transparency and are refusing to let people know they’re living up to their end of the agreement.”
After landing in Denmark early this morning, President Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a bilateral at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to press the case that China needs to allow for transparency. …
He noted that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to resolve a separate issue — the need of developing nations for money to help mitigate environmental rules and adapt to environmental chamges — by offering to help raise $100 billion dollars to address their climate change needs.
But the US offer, Clinton underlined, was only “in the context of a strong accord in which all major economies stand behind meaningful mitigation actions and provide full transparency as to their implementation.”
President Obama noted that as well, saying the offer was on the table “if — and only if — it is part of the broader accord” including transparency.
What? Has Hillary discovered you can’t buy a fake Rolex with a bouncing check? Why did Hillary need it? Why did Wen Jiabao think he could sell it? Neither national side appears to be quick enough to put one over the other. Only the true believers have managed to put one over themselves. China is dug in, probably hoping that Obama will blast them out with real money, not an offer to help raise a $100 billion, which is like the ghost of the apparition of currency, already debased but always ready for more. Maybe there won’t be “decorations of red on a green Christmas tree”, but someone will sure have a blue Christmas.
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“The US wants to be able to verify Chinese compliance, but China was resisting any action that might infringe on its sovereignty.”
At least China still has a sense of national sovereignty and leaders that are working to protect their nation, something that we have lost along the way.
Yeah, yesterday Breitbart showed us Clinton’s old buddies out on the streets of Copenhagen, singing her favorite tune.
Recall the earliest days of the Cold War when the pinkos tried to convince us that “Better Dead than Red” was our only logical choice.
Now the lyrics to that Globalist Anthem have something to do with the new god Sustainability instead of the workers. But the leaders hunger for power remains, and their new priests want us only to sacrifice to Sus to salve our guilt. Only a command and control economy, with them at the helms, can save us from global [s]nuclear destruction[/s] anthropomorphic catastrophe.
IOW, Better Red Than Dead.
There they go again.
They’ve altered Pascal’s Wager to proclaim that Precautionary Principle this time says we must accede to the demands of Sus.
All those secular politicians, who’ve done so much to silence Christianity (what their megalomaniacal predecessor called “that Jewish disease”) say their beliefs are not a religion. Yet they are preparing sacrifices to Sus.
Funny, but at that point you might suddenly find solace in being a Christian or a Jew. As they drag you away, you may think about that — too late — as you find yourself crying out “Oh God.”
I’ve a new slogan for all who wish to fight this globalist push on the United States, whether it be Carbon Taxes or Health care,
Stop them Americans! The rest of the world is counting on you!
With all due apologies to the readers here and J.R.R. Tolkien:
One Treaty to rule them all,
One Treaty to find them,
One Treaty to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
In the land of U.N. where the shadows lie.
Obama Presses China for Accountability on Climate
Mr. Obama told those gathered: “The time for talk is over.”
He said that it is crucial “to hold each other accountable” for commitments.
“We must have a mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments, and to exchange this information in a transparent manner,” Mr. Obama told a plenary session of some 119 world leaders at the Bella Center.
“These measures need not be intrusive, or infringe upon sovereignty,” he said, in a direct reference to the concerns expressed by Chinese officials, who have been balking at proposed verification measures. “They must, however, ensure that an accord is credible, and that we are living up to our obligations. For without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page.”
The talks ongoing for the past two weeks, appear locked over the verification measures. Within an hour of Air Force One’s touchdown in Copenhagen Friday morning, Mr. Obama was in a big meeting with a high-level group of leaders representing some 20 countries and organizations. But the meeting was most notable in that Chinese premier Wen Jiabao elected not to attend, instead sending Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei, a snub which left both American and European officials seething.
“We know the fault lines because we’ve been imprisoned by them for years,” Mr. Obama said. “We can again choose delay, falling back into the same divisions that have stood in the way of action for years.” But, he warned, that such a course would leave leaders “back having the same stale arguments month after month, year after year, perhaps decade after decade—all while the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.”
America, he said, is “ready to get this done today.”
Mr. Obama spoke for about eight minutes and was emphatic in his delivery.
“We are running short on time,” he said. “And at this point, the question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart. Whether we prefer posturing to action.”
—
“The time for talk is over”
Time to spend, spend, spend!
Let me see if I understand. he United States is going to give $110 B of our money to the Chinese? If my Senator votes for this he is toast.
I guess it’s beyond the intellectual capacity of the envirotards to understand that the only way we can give China $100 Billion is to borrow it from them first.
China is one of the fastest growing economies on Earth and we are going to pay them so their economy can grow faster at the expense of ours.
The Revolution can’t get here soon enough.
“The critical moment apparently came when Hillary Clinton agreed to kick in the money”
Oooooh, now there’s a surprise!
Oh the weather outside is frightful, / But the fire is so delightful, / And since we’ve no place to go, / Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
“help establish funding of $100bn a year for developing countries”
What the hell does that mean? That’s about as non committal a statement that has ever come out of a weasel politician’s mouth.
It means nobody has committed any money yet, but “I think we can raise a $100 billion somehow”
What the heck? Clinton and Owe are only giving the Chinese $300 from every man, woman, and child in this country.
1) The US pratically begs to pay for taking it up the ***.
2) The Chinese, the biggest polluters on the planet, essentially get to take a pass.
No one should be surprised by this outcome. In the curent global political climate, it was preordained.
So, if we redistribute our borrowed wealth to developing nations, what are they going to purchase?
Obama Snubbed by Chinese Premier at Climate Meeting
Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s first closed-door meeting with world leaders in Copenhagen to forge an agreement to slow climate change had a notable absentee: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
On the last scheduled day of negotiations for a global accord, tensions between the U.S. and China are on the rise. The world’s two largest greenhouse-gas emitters came to an impasse over finance for developing countries, pollution-reduction goals and verification of emissions cuts.
Obama later expressed frustration about the stalled United Nations talks. Negotiations have become chaotic, people involved in the meetings said.
“We are ready to get this done today, but there has to be movement on all sides to recognize that it is better for us to act than to talk,” Obama told more than 8,000 UN delegates today.
The world’s ability to confront the challenge of climate change “is in doubt right now,” he said in a speech that followed Wen Jiabao’s.
—
“I don’t think even Mr. Obama can cut through the Gordian Knot here,” Ramesh said. “For developing countries it’s livelihood issues, for developed countries, lifestyle issues.”
So let me get this straight. We pledge 100 billion that we have to borrow from the Chinese to help the Third World fight global warming (which has just been shown to be a hoax)just so the Chinese will agree to make some progress in curbing their pollution (which in the best interests of their people and which they will have to do anyway) but not if it means international oversight. And this is a good deal? As Senator Libermann quipped yesterday on the Senate floor (to the junior senator from Minnesota when he attempted to lecture Libermann about the Senate’s rules), “Oh, really.” Just when you thought the President and his minions couldn’t be any more brain-dead clueless they go and do something to show that the bottom hasn’t been reached yet. God help the Republic.
Chavez was the only honest one there. This all has nothing to do with climate, but is purely about bringing capitalism and the US to its knees. These movements away from, and contrary to, the US Constitution are beginning to border on treason.
No, Okay, wait, you’re killing me? Really?
Okay okay, This is like a whole new level of Keynes, okay. What a creative con, incredible! Let me see if I got it right, okay now. We’re gonna give china 100 billions of dollars that we print up based on T bills sold to China.
Wow, its like a perpetual printing machine in a Chinese laundry, no starch please.
–P.S.–To qualify as a perpetual motion machine the thing would have to do “useful work”.
We must remember that the BBC is no “independant” voice; they have been flogging this issue more than anyone for years. Reports from them are from the biggest cheerleader in the world.
It may be that the BBC’s report of a “deal” is the same as Harry Reid’s report of a “deal” with the medicaid buy-in last week. Just a bunch of hype trying to give the appearance of momentum.
None of the press can be trusted anymore, but it is no exaggeration to say that the BBC is today’s Pravda.
China will always play by China’s rules. Not someone else’s.
Just the latest shameful action and rhetoric from an administration seeking good will and recognition from the outside world through bad faith representation of our national interests.
I don’t know how anyone expected any different from BHO prior to his election. The signs were all there. But take heart — this liberal state senator is actually a boon to conservatives. He will not be reelected and it will be a long time before we elect another president who is so resentful of our country and what it stands for.
So the Copenhagen meeting went nowhere until the US promised $100 billion that it does not have. That is a real breakthrough. 47,000 tons of CO2 for the part for $100 billion. Let’s see: $100 x 10^9/47 x 10^6 tons CO2. That’s $2 million per ton. Seems a bit high………*sigh*
Merry Christmas, everyone. Christmas is coming early. Compliments of the uber left. ScroogeObama is up against it from the left on Afghanistan, Iraq and the Public Option. Apparently, Buraq according to the left has been “Cheneyed”.
Some yuletide quotes of good tidings:
We’ve long heard — from the most blindly loyal cheerleaders and from Emanuel himself — that progressives should place their trust in the Obama White House to get this done the right way, that he’s playing 11-dimensional chess when everyone else is playing checkers, that Obama is the Long Game Master who will always win. Then, when a bad bill is produced, the exact opposite claim is hauled out: it’s not his fault because he’s totally powerless, has nothing to do with this, and couldn’t possibly have altered the outcome. From his defenders, he’s instantaneously transformed from 11-dimensional chess Master to impotent, victimized bystander. Leftie Glenn Greenwald.
“Barack Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before the demands of the corporations.” Taken out of context from Ralph Nader
Bernie Saunders, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, Howard Dean, FireDogLake and the Daily Kos have all lined up to kill the Healthcare bill. First, we had Climategate, and now the Russians and the Chinese are scuttling Copenhagen.
What’s a phony Messiah to do?
China’s Rule: You pretend to monitor us and we’ll pretend to comply.
Breaking: India, China walk out of Copenhagen
From some of the above comments (feeblemind and Quig come to mind) I suggest the USA can learn a lot from China.
Also, let’s remember, that’s $100,000,000,000 PER YEAR, FOREVER.
No mention whether that’s indexed for inflation.
Remembering the SNL opener a few weaks ago, where Hu Jintao says to Obama, “We hear you’ve spent a lot of our money on clunkers.”
Now we can spend a lot of China’s money on pointless bribes to 3rd world kleptocrats.
Neither national side appears to be quick enough to put one over the other.
No, but perhaps both sides together are quick enough to establish mutual deniability – we say we offered $100b but those dastardly Chinese won’t cooperate, and the Chinese say they offered to comply but those dastardly Americans won’t promise the funds. Oh well, let’s all go home. Wink wink, nudge nudge.
If so, good, and I credit it more to a Chinese rationality than to anything like rationality on our side.
First off, the $100 billion figure. Wretchard, are you sure it’s per year, and not over ten years, which is what I remember Sec. Clinton being quoted as saying a day or two ago?
If it is indeed $100B/year, then that is an interesting (and outrageous sum) figure, because: That was how much the U.S. was going to fork over annually under the aborted Global Poverty Act, which then Sen. Obama sponsored in 2007-2008. The intent was to commit the U.S. to .07% of its annual GDP to this ‘poverty fund,’ and that works out to about $100B currently.
So, these criminals have found another way to try to squeeze this out of us?
Like I said in an earlier post, how do China and India get to be called developing nations when one of them buys more cars than Americans do, and the other one has the world’s largest middle class? And if China in aprticular has the cash to lend us for our reckless spending, why do they need additional money from us, unles it’s a downpayment on their loan?
Why are we so helpless in the face of this lunacy?
This was one smooth move on Obama’s part.
He can’t deliver anything without Congress so he cooked up a formulation where he can blame China for killing the deal that he couldn’t make.
He’ll return and say he tried but it was all their fault.
Likewise, having Obama’s leftist supporters refuse to support health care gives Obama a face-saving excuse for not delivering one.
Not only is Obama weak internationally, he is weak domestically.
Don’t blame me, I worked my butt off for McCain.
When is this idiotic charade going to end.
#19 wws: “We must remember that the BBC is no “independant” voice; they have been flogging this issue more than anyone for years. Reports from them are from the biggest cheerleader in the world.”
Hey, let’s be politically correct about this. They aren’t “cheerleaders,” they’re athletic supporters.
The Chinese take a reasonable approach to this. As far as they are concerned they bought the US government and paid cash for the deal. Why should they get lectured by Obama? The Chinese are in the position of the Lord in his castle or Mr Potter in his bank viewing a delegation from importuning rabble with distaste.
Chavez and his comrades are only held back by concern that if they push to far it might inconvenience their paymasters in Moscow, Beijing and Beirut. Reagan would have known how to deal with him. The appropriate response is targeted but disproportionate force.
Rush had an interesting new item, the Iranians have seized an oil well in a disputed border area. All the rats are now moving to grab the cheese before it vanishes from the table. The Russians must be considering demanding Alaska back. We should remind them that Sarah Palin would come with the deal. Putin may be deterred by that thought.
Whitehall,
Excellent points. McCain was correct on energy. Obama has ditched his overseas sponsors for domestic political intrigue.
Re: #25 Charles’ link.
Has any one seen this verified by other than the Indian news agency?
# 31. Matt Beck:
Sorry but whenever I hear the word athletic supporters a scene from my past flashes into my mind. The young woman has over lunged with her foil and it has gone through the lower side and behind her male opponents fencing jacket and it sticking about a foot out the other side. The cry goes up, “Nobody Move!” The unveiling proceeds carefully and embarrassingly. A gasp arises when it is seen that the foil has gone through and out the holes on the ventilated cup in the jock strap. Fortunately the “package” has been missed.
The moral is to tape or glue coins over the holes in a ventilated cup or mail order a solid one if the local store doesn’t stock them.
This is precisely why friends don’t let friends vote Democratic.
If this whole wretched episode doesn’t put a stake through the Democrats heart, I don’t know what will.
Obama is fast becoming a failure on every conceivable level. How appropriate that he would display this, yet again, at a failed conference sponsored by an organization that has come to epitomize fraud and failure.
Live: minute-by-minute coverage of crunch day at Copenhagen
China’s supposed intransigence is a convenient excuse for Obama & Co. He expected to descend from heaven and save the world yet once again, only it isn’t as easy as virtually every other unearned “accomplishment” of this hideous empty-suit clown.
This morning I saw a photo of Obama with the Chinese premiere. The body language of the two was telling. Jintao sat erect and reserved and in control while the American President leaned in and was nearly doubled over in his obvious desperation to salvage something from his latest global debacle. How hideous that this stinking man depicts America as a nation which must go around the planet doubled over and handing out staggering mountains of loot. It is both high farce and high tragedy that the money the US would end up giving to “developing nations” including China would come about by borrowing that loot from China itself with her bulging war chest of US dollars.
I feel lately like doing a variation on that old 60′s exhortation to “Drop out and tune it”, except in my case I want to Drop Out and Tune Out. I no longer want to participate with the clown nation the Left and Obama & Co. have turned the US into. I no longer want to know about the foul world beyond our borders which embraces more avidly than ever the polluted ideologies which have caused and will continue to cause all the world’s worst miseries. Let it all come down with a crash. Major political and social edifices of the world need destroying badly, and in my opinion, it couldn’t happen soon enough.
Morton Doodslag,
I noticed the same thing about the photo. Kinda like a Beta dog bowing to an Alpha dog. The Chinese premier obviously dissed our President.
Let’s hope this insult puts some spine into the Won.
The Chinese understand the power of capitalism after seeing it transform their nation is recent decades.
I never would have thought we would someday be passing each other going in opposite directions.
40. JerryM:
Let’s hope this insult puts some spine into the Won.
Worms don’t have spines.
PAYING TRIBUTE:
That is what we’re being asked to do, in the old-fashioned meaning of the phrase. One can also call this ‘reparations.’ Reparations are what a defeated enemy pays to the victors. Frankly, I don’t remember us being defeated of late, do you? This is utter insanity, a world where a pompous fool is give a Nobel Peace Prize for accomplishing nothing, and where we surrender when we haven’t lost.
We as a nation are to be punished for our success, and for what we thought was our triumph over the belief system that is now re-emerging.
#40. The insult will not put any spine into Obamao. He, and minions, believe that Amerikkka is the world’s villian. She needs to be defeated, demoralized, and marginalized. The $100 billion dollars (for starters) of our money in their view is really just climate reparations for the damage that evil amerikka has done to the virtuous people of the world. #17 is right, dictator-for-life wannabe Chavez was the only one there who was honest.
#39 I can relate to your sentiments. What is disgusting is that the people who have turned this country into your “clown nation” are the same who have reaped and benefited the most from America’s freedom and wealth. I can not express in words the depth of disgust that I feel for them. All of them.
Thank you for #38, Charles.
It appears from the draft being worked on that only countries that want financial assistance will be monitored internationally. Apparently China (and Brazil) don’t want the money.
If so what happens to Obama’s “…if, and only if…”
The Danegeld
Brilliant!
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100020279/copenhagen-climate-summit-most-important-paper-in-the-world-is-a-glorified-un-press-release/
The Copenhagen summit outcome will be a bad deal by any measure, because the entire issue is based on lies and deceptions. However, its not going to be as bad as it could have been. For the first time this year, I think we have reason to be thankful that Obama, not McCain, is our President.
Apparently for Obama, AGW is not at the very top of his priority list as it has been for McCain since 2003.
The evidence suggests that, as President, McCain would have gone the extra mile to assure that the outcome at Copenhagen was perceived as a success. He has been deeply and personally committed on this issue for many years, coauthoring a major legislative effort to control CO2 in 2003, visiting the Arctic to personally view the melting, etc. His 2003 bill failed, but his commitment has never wavered in the years since. McCain has been seen as the main “go to” man in the GOP by global warming advocates whenever they sought bipartisan support for AGW. Then, last year, AGW seemed to figure large in his decision to run as a “maverick” to highlight his green credentials.
In a column published in the Financial Times, March 19, 2008 McCain addressed the issues taken up at Copenhagen this month. He wrote:
“Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren.”
“We need a successor to Kyoto, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner.”
He argued that America needs to be willing to be “persuaded” by our European allies. McCain’s column was headlined “America must be a good role model.”
Bottom line: On this issue and several others, the American people are on their own, without trustworthy leadership in sight. In my view, it will take grassroot efforts by concerned citizens to turn things around.
Before the Chinese and Indians walked out, they brought up an old concept in a new form …
Phrase of the day:
“common but differentiated responsibility”
Definition: a shared responsibility that must be borne by one party more than another based on a non sequitur.
Example: Al Gore
Expect to see this used a lot in the future
. . . . visiting the Arctic to personally view the melting, etc.
Ah, yes, the ‘Arctic melt.’ There is a list floating around the blogosphere of a series of archived NYT articles on the Arctic ‘meltdown,’ starting with one from 1881, then 1931, 1934, 1938, 1951, 1954, 1958, and son on, ad nauseam.
What’s happening now is intriguing, but what is the ‘Arctic melting’ and refreezing all about, and is it a ‘crisis?’ It would seem to be damning evidence of AGW until you take the very long view, which the world’s leadership, corrupted scientists, and militant activists refuse to do.
‘Lessons from history’ are usually cited in the context of war and politics, but not on issues like long-term weather patterns and genuine climate change. How would it be an actual crisis if we may be headed for what would at most be a ‘milding’ of the temperate zone climates? That’s all the Bronze Age and High Middle Ages ‘climate change’ periods really were: a milder version of what the temperate zones have been used to in living memory. To me, that doesn’t constitute genuine ‘climate change,’ any more than our slow crawl out of the so-called ‘Little Ice Age’ (it was no Ice Age, just a colder variant of a temperate climate) is a climatic upheaval now. For a ‘modern’ people who snicker at our ‘primitive’ ancestors fears and superstitions, we seem a truly spineless, panicky lot.
Urgency Grows as U.S. and China Try to End Stalemate
In a day of brinkmanship and seesawing expectations, President Obama met with China’s prime minister, but it was unclear if progress has been made on the issues holding back a climate deal.
The later draft also included a few hard figures about joint emissions cuts of 50 percent by 2050. Developed nations committed to reducing their emissions “individually or jointly by at least 80 percent by 2050.”
All the drafts included a dozen or so enumerated points asserting general commitment to the idea that “climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time” and asserted that “deep cuts” in global emissions are required. The amounts for short-term emissions targets by 2020 remained represented by X’s and Y’s — place holders for later. The drafts also sought to lay out some framework for verification of emissions commitments by developing countries and establish a “high-level panel” to assess financial contributions by rich nations to help poor countries adapt to climate change and limit their emissions.
—
I vote for changing that 80% to X’s and Y’s.
Looks like Fidel Castro was unimpressed by the performance of our Dear Leader at Copenhagen.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b906163662d9b06fc3c89eb53b5da4fe.831&show_article=1
However it is reassuring to read that Fidel is concerned about Global Warming. Also, it’s amusing that both Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe speeches were greeted at Copenhagen with rapturous applause:
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/18/the-high-season-for-fraud-and-farce/?feat=home_headlines
The thing in Copenhagen was originally a dagger pointed at the heart of the World’s economy but instead it turned into a clown show. Chalk up another one to Obama.
what is the ‘Arctic melting’ and refreezing all about, and is it a ‘crisis?’ It would seem to be damning evidence of AGW until you take the very long view.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to re-heat it.
It occurs to me that we finally have an answer to the question, “Lives there a man with soul so dead. . . .?”
I freely admit to not having read all the comments here. I’m curious on two items:
1. Hilary Clinton “pledged the U.S. would help raise $100 billion a year to help…” – that doesn’t commit the U.S. to fund the entire $100 Billion, but that we would help “raise” it. Fairly non-committal as pledges go.
2. President Obama insists the time for talk is done; the need for action now. Despite recent revelations that the science may be faulty based on massaging data for a predetermined outcome – while insisting on transparency.
Isn’t this reflective of our “debate” re healthcare? No time to read, no time to debate, no time – we must vote NOW on one of the, if not the, greatest changes for our economy and government? TARP, Stimulus Nos. 1 (and 2) having been so effective. Transparency, anyone? No one trusts the published numbers on any data, much less Climategate.
I particularly like China and India walking out – saved by our competitors!
Don Rodrigo @ 46… I read that too, a little earlier. Money quote… “There was one good moment at Copenhagen, though: some seriously professional truncheon work by Danish Plod on the smellies.” Good times.
Oops – may have written too soon -
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_re_eu/climate_obama
Peterike: Bravo! too funny.
The final draft isn’t out, but everything I’m seeing encourages me to believe that it will a travesty hidden inside a farce, wrapped with a fraud.
There will be no possible way for anyone to paint this as anything but an EPIC FAIL.
I hate to misquote a great poet, so I’ll post this in correction, with my apology.
Breathes There The Man
By Sir Walter Scott
Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
Quick, I need help with the math. 100 billion, eh! Lets see, there are 300 million Americans, give or take a wetback or two.
So it will take 3$US or so per American to get to a billion per year. So that means we all need to pony up 300$US per year to get what?
That last part confuses me, which is why I need help with my math. Surely they don’t want me to pay 25$US per month for nothing?
I think I can get a better deal then that.
I can’t comparison shop without a comparison.
I would ask my brother’s wife, who is an expert on shopping, but she hasn’t talked to me since I asked her what the social difference between high heels and a burkka was.