The concept of savvy politicians is all wrong. Remember “Gulliver’s Travels” Especially the part where the foreign king could not hear, until one of his servants smacked him across the ear with a soft baseball bat? Also, the king could not speak unless a servant smacked him across the mouth with the padded bat.

This is almost exactly what we have today, with elected officials hearing and reading only what their staffs have carefully filtered and allowed them to hear.

Politicians speak in carefully chosen words written by their staff, and usually only when their staff and advisers have chosen the time, place, and manner. Even a supposedly “spontaneous” Town-Hall type performance is just that, a well-rehearsed and practiced performance sometimes worthy of an Academy Award.

Rep. Waxman deserves a Razzy, for bungling his lines so badly. Or a better staff, who can actually write.

Who can forget Billy Boy Clinton and his cronies yukking it up at a funeral, until they realized a news camera was rolling. They instantly jumped back into character, with long faces and sad expressions. Method acting, apparently? Another Razzy?

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Quote of the week (26 04 2009) – Waxman’s stunningly stupid statement

This QOTW is from Congressman Henry Waxman, who is pushing (or maybe bribing) the carbon cap and trade bill through congress. The statement made by Waxman can be corrected by a third grader; it’s that bad.

From an interview on NPR as relayed by Tavis Smiley:
“We’re seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point – they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn’t ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there’s a lot of tundra that’s being held down by that ice cap..”

That’s probably the scariest statement on “science” ever uttered by a Congressman. Waxman is stunningly and stupidly misinformed and intellectually inadequate for the tasks at hand that bears his name: The Waxman-Markey bill

This is what Waxman works on in Congress:
Committee on Energy and Commerce (Chairman)
* Subcommittee on Health
* Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality
* Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Write or call your US representatives now.

I have a suggestion. Provided it’s legal (and I have no reason to believe it isn’t legal, but then I’m not a lawyer), identify 5 to 10 senators who in your opinion are (a) in a tight senate race, and (b) likely to vote for ACES. Call their offices and tell the person who answers the phone that you’ll be watching how the senator votes on the ACES bill, and that if the senator votes FOR the ACES bill, you will send $10 to his political opponent in the next election. Then do it. One such phone call will have no effect. 10,000 such phone calls might.

Reed Coray

REPLY: Well in that case, it was funny, thanks – A

[ snip, off topic parody ]

Perhaps one of the committee members will ask him why, if merely changing the albedo of roofing will make a significant dent in global warming per his statement on 5/27, the ruinous cap-and-trade bill is being promoted instead of this far less costly approach?

The State of Florida has issued a recent study of roofing materials showing that some have much better properties in this respect than others. Has the US government adopted guidelines that all new roofing or replacement roofing on government buildings in AC-intensive climates should conform to a high standard of solar reflectivity and FIR emissivity? Is there a program in place to educate homeowners and businesses that following Washington’s example would be in their own self-interest?

If not, why not? Is it because the administration’s real agenda is not GW but control of energy?

(Chu was earlier hung up by Congressman Barton on the issue of how there happen to be oil deposits in northern Alaska. It would be fun to press him on this issue, but I think that the issue of whether government building codes incorporate his albedo recommendation would be a better use of limited question time.)

I personally doubt that even converting all roofing to high-reflectivity materials would make much of a dent in global temperatures, given what a small fraction of the earth’s surface roofs are. However, it could still be very beneficial in terms of alleviating urban temperatures and in terms of reduced AC usage. If everyone who voted for Al Gore in 2000 and who has built a new house or had to replace their roof since then had followed the Florida study’s recommendations, there would already have been a huge change in urban albedo.

See how stereotypes are perpetrated? You have, to quote a famous line from The Hunt For Red October, “You arrogant [something], you haven’t killed them, you’ve killed us!”

REPLY: I agree Pamela. Labeling, name calling and regurgitation of stereotypical views only serves to build walls when rational debate is what is sorely needed. – Anthony

REPLY: You are correct, I confused you with another silly handle “n.o.brain” who did attack Helen Thomas. I removed my reply to you. I wish I didn’t have to snip any of these sorts of comments. But I do to maintain decorum. Am I perfect, no. Do some get missed from time to time, yes. I call ‘em when I see ‘em.

Best just to behave and not post words that are best left to street talk. And you might wish to consider changing your handle. It immediately sets you up to be viewed with little or no respect. Be annoyed if you wish, I’ve got other things to worry about. – Anthony

The handle is no more offensive than other poster’s content Anthony

Consider the costs in the following courtesy of Steven Milloy’s ‘Green Hell blog: Waxman-Markey lays groundwork for electric vehicle mandate

There is some serious jack involved in transitioning to these ‘wind up electric toy cars‘…

We of course can’t expect the MSM to honestly and factually inform us of the real situation as Frank Strategies blog shows us: Video: Economic Reporting – Then and Now

One of the seriously great thing about this particular blog Anthony Watts has put together here is that not only are the posts just a bit beyond excellent but the comments are also very much a learning experience too…

Thanks all…