LOL! Obama’s Climate Plan Spooks U.S. Democrats

Yesterday we mentioned Obama’s nuclear option event, and now the fallout begins. |

From Timothy Cama and Scott Wong, The Hill

keep-calm-and-run-for-your-life-66[1]President Obama’s election-year plan to win a new international climate change accord is making vulnerable Democrats nervous.

The administration is in talks at the United Nations about a deal that would seek to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by “naming and shaming” governments that fail to take significant action.

The State Department on Wednesday denied a report in The New York Times that the plan is to come up with a treaty that would not require Senate confirmation, but that appeared to provide cold comfort to Democrats worried the issue will revive GOP cries about an imperial Obama presidency.

One Democratic strategist said the proposal would put swing-state candidates who are critical to the party keeping its Senate majority “in front of the firing squad.”

“You’re … making it more difficult for them to win and certainty putting them in a position to lose,” the strategist said.

Several vulnerable Senate Democrats kept mum on the issue.
Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mark Udall (Colo.), along with a handful of House Democrats, either declined to comment or didn’t respond to interview requests.
Senate Energy Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (La.) cautiously signaled support for the oil and gas industry that is important to her state, without commenting on the plan to sidestep the Senate.
“It is important that all nations do what they can to reduce carbon in the atmosphere,” she said. “But the president should not take any action that undermines the American energy revolution currently underway that is creating thousands of high-paying jobs for middle class families in Louisiana and across the country.”
spokesman for Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), who heads a House climate task force, said it was premature to comment on a plan with so few details.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who pushed a climate change bill through the House in 2009, said the Times story was inaccurate but had no further comment.

Other Democrats immediately distanced themselves from the proposal.

“This administration’s go it alone strategy is surely less about dysfunction in Congress than about the president’s own unwillingness to listen to our coal miners, steelworkers, farmers and working families,” Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.) said in a statement. Rahall is in a difficult reelection race.

Republicans in tight Senate contests, for their part, quickly seized on the issue.

Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who’s trying to unseat Udall, called on the incumbent to denounce Obama’s “latest executive power grab.”

“Coloradans don’t elect Senators to watch them toss their power to the president, whether Republican or Democrat,” Gardner said.

Republicans have been seeking to make the 2014 elections all about Obama, whose approval numbers remain low. They’ve sought to tie candidates such as Udall and Landrieu to Obama, and the Democratic strategist said the climate change proposal gave them ammunition.

Republicans have also sought to portray Obama as a figure abusing his power with executive actions. House Republicans approved legislation in August that would allow Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to file a lawsuit challenging Obama’s actions.

“Once again, the president is circumventing the wishes of the American people and their elected representatives, and doing so in a fashion that will destroy more jobs,” Boehner said Wednesday of the climate report.

Both the White House and State Department said the climate agreement is still being discussed, and they denied that it was a sure thing that the administration would seek to go around Congress.

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more soylent green!
August 27, 2014 2:12 pm

Obama doesn’t care about anybody but himself. If he has to sacrifice the Senate for his legacy, so be it.
If we’re lucky, Obama will save the Republicans from themselves and the Dems will lose the Senate.

Reply to  more soylent green!
August 27, 2014 2:25 pm

But, if the republicans win the senate and keep the house Hillary will win the White House…I think.

cnxtim
Reply to  mikerestin
August 27, 2014 2:37 pm

Terrific – ” i see a girl a coming, a coming with a gun an’, she just cant be beat” .” OR let’s go to war with??… Gee so many choices, what is a gal to do?

Reply to  mikerestin
August 28, 2014 6:05 pm

I think Hillary’s chance went to Barack, and I thought that even before Benghazi.

August 27, 2014 2:14 pm

A scientific basis for taking this action does not exist. Hopefully, politicians in the opposition will see in this situation an opportunity to discredit the party in power and will act appropriately.

August 27, 2014 2:21 pm

Reblogged this on Public Secrets and commented:
I wonder when Senate Democrats will finally get it through their thick, obsequious heads that Obama doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss if they get reelected? This climate accord is the latest example of how, in Obama’s mind, Congress is an option, not a requirement when writing laws.

JRM
August 27, 2014 2:24 pm

Like with most other subjects, the Dem Senators will go home and say whatever the voters want to hear and then go back to DC and vote how Obama tells them. If their lips are moving they are lying.

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  JRM
August 27, 2014 8:44 pm

“…The State Department on Wednesday denied a report in The New York Times that the plan is to come up with a treaty that would not require Senate confirmation…”
Who believes anything that comes out of the Obama Administration’s mendacious, slavering lips? Or the New York Times, for that matter?

Oatley
August 27, 2014 2:24 pm

This NYtimes story was coordinated with the WH…make no mistake.

cnxtim
August 27, 2014 2:27 pm

I hope Australia’s name is at the top of the little “o’s” N&S list – the bloody boofhead…Hey, little “o” you might have to get your much needed taxes back from the likes of the fruity computer company, instead of turning a blind eye as the hide the cash in China?

dp
August 27, 2014 2:28 pm

He did promise change, y’know. We all hoped for the best but what we got was a rogue community organizer with his finger on the executive order pen.
No more social experiments – vote for somebody who has actually got some life experiences and a has held a private sector job or owned a business next time.

Bloke down the pub
August 27, 2014 2:29 pm

Didn’t you guys on that side of the pond go to a lot of effort in 1776 to get rid of a monarchy? If O’Bama is so intent on returning to a monarchy, why not just become a British colony again? We’d love to have you back in the fold.

Abuzuzu
Reply to  Bloke down the pub
August 27, 2014 3:51 pm

Thank you “Bloke down the pub” for the kind invitation to return to the (UK) fold.
The problem with that is trying to decide which is worst, Our current president or the EU.

spetzer86
Reply to  Abuzuzu
August 27, 2014 4:39 pm

I suppose in either we’re ultimately being controlled / coerced by unelected bureaucrats. With Agenda 21, it might not really matter much either way.

bobl
Reply to  Abuzuzu
August 28, 2014 1:54 am

You could always join us in Australia.

cnxtim
Reply to  Abuzuzu
August 29, 2014 2:15 pm

That Abu is what we call a “no brainer”, The last few white house residents (especially) make Atilla look like just a “naughty boy”

Joseph Adam-Smith
Reply to  Abuzuzu
August 30, 2014 1:08 am

Please refer to the EU with its correct title – the European Soviet Union. Which we, in UKIP are trying to get out of. All the best at getting rid of Obama – and, more importantly, not replacing him with a like for like

Jim Francisco
Reply to  Bloke down the pub
August 27, 2014 7:05 pm

If we did come back could we move there or Oz without a lot of paper work?

bobl
Reply to  Jim Francisco
August 28, 2014 1:57 am

No, you need a passport to come to Oz. Just join the Australian federation instead, we could use a colony in N. America

August 27, 2014 2:30 pm

As I said on the last thread. Russia is what counts.
They can’t afford any CO2 limiting agreement. Russia’s economy is based on fossil fuels. And Russia has a veto – like the USA, UK, France and China.
Obama knows he can court the green vote without risking any commitments that would be electorally harmful.

rogerknights
Reply to  M Courtney
August 27, 2014 6:12 pm

And Russia’s not in a mood now to do Obama any favors.

rogerknights
Reply to  rogerknights
August 27, 2014 6:53 pm

Obama thinks he can name-and-shame Russia into compliance.
Ha
Ha.

Jeff-FL
Reply to  rogerknights
August 27, 2014 6:59 pm

Nor are China, the UK and France. It’s unusual to have a 16 month lame duck but the rest of the world have adapted fast.

Rhoda R
Reply to  rogerknights
August 27, 2014 10:19 pm

Obama isn’t worried about ‘naming and shaming’ any country but the US. This is just another elaborate ruse to get cap and trade in some form or another.

JJM Gommers
Reply to  rogerknights
August 27, 2014 11:35 pm

Obama knows the EU supports him in this case, we are in for a new clash with the BRIC countries. An El Nino would help him the coming year but if again a cold winter it will be a hard time for him. Interesting times.

meltemian
Reply to  rogerknights
August 28, 2014 4:51 am
cnxtim
Reply to  M Courtney
August 29, 2014 2:17 pm

A CO2 tax? that is not about “affording”.
That is about engaging a brain – if the little ‘o” can still find his…

Truthseeker
August 27, 2014 2:34 pm

From an outsider’s point of view, I think that the Democrats in Congress are starting to realise that since Obama does not require re-election and so he is sacrificing the party to achieve his own ambitions.
Could not have happened to a better bunch of people …

Admin
August 27, 2014 2:36 pm

Does anyone have any idea how silly this charade makes the President look?
I mean – trying to tie governments in other countries to a binding agreement, when he can’t even convince his own government?
Can anyone imagine a more ridiculous way to make the office of the President look weak and ineffectual, short of say handing Texas back to Mexico, to improve international relations?

cnxtim
Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 27, 2014 3:19 pm

Mexico has already won SoCal back, Texas next?

spetzer86
Reply to  cnxtim
August 27, 2014 4:40 pm

Have you see the demographics in Texas recently? I wouldn’t put the concept to a vote.

Reply to  Eric Worrall
August 27, 2014 4:16 pm

Eric … he has already achieved universal “weak and ineffectual” … amongst many examples, internationally, ISIS et al, domestically, open southern border.

Scarface
August 27, 2014 2:40 pm

You (Americans) should have voted him out when you could, but alas. Pay attention next time, please. When the USA will be under a green-red regime like the EUSSR is now, all hope is lost for a revival of democracy and capitalism in the Western world.
My hope is on you. As Churchill said: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”

Reply to  Scarface
August 27, 2014 3:07 pm

Tough to win against a Democrat when the media is acting like an extension of the Party.

NancyG22
Reply to  Jim Brock
August 27, 2014 4:37 pm

And the voter fraud. There was a woman on the news who admitted to voting around 5 times. All for the people that lived at her address, as if that makes it okay. Was that woman arrested? She should have been. I don’t recall any follow up on that story.

Rhoda R
Reply to  Jim Brock
August 27, 2014 10:21 pm

Nancy, she was arrested and spent a few days in jail. She was received like a hero by the local democrats when she was released.

MikeH
Reply to  Jim Brock
August 29, 2014 1:17 am

Yes, she spent ‘some time’ in jail but got an early release for humanitarian reasons because of Bi-Polar disorder. Would any ‘tea party’er’ get the same treatment with the same situations?
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/12/Poll-Worker-Convicted-for-Voter-Fraud-Released-Early-for-Bipolar-Disorder
BTW, she was a poll worker for about 20 years, you would think that the people in charge of running the polls would be aware of the laws regarding voting. I wonder is she allowed any of her friends to vote multiple times? She could use the same logic.

Jim Francisco
Reply to  Scarface
August 27, 2014 7:17 pm

Wasn’t Churchhill half American? I thought he was great.

richard verney
Reply to  Jim Francisco
August 28, 2014 12:34 am

Yes. His mother Lady Randolf Churchill was American.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Randolph_Churchill
I have not read the article, but I guess Wiki is OK as a siurce for this type of material. ,

70omeylt
Reply to  Jim Francisco
August 28, 2014 10:18 am

And part Native-American,

Leon Brozyna
August 27, 2014 2:57 pm

And a dysfunctional Congress is a problem because … ?
In simple terms, one of the functions of the Senate is to act like a brake on the motor of government … which, of course, makes people nuts whenever someone wants to jam action through Congress. If some people can’t get Congress to do what they want, they call it dysfunctional, or a do-nothing Congress.
The only thing better than a do-nothing Congress is one that repeals laws and cuts back on executive branch over-reach.

Reply to  Leon Brozyna
August 27, 2014 3:08 pm

…And Harry Reid is standing on the brake pedal!

cnxtim
Reply to  Leon Brozyna
August 27, 2014 3:31 pm

Your Congress was modelled on the House of Lords – without as much snoring, dribbling and farting.
At least in Oz we have out and out loonies (broom broom) to bewilder and thwart the real government

kenw
August 27, 2014 3:13 pm

Why on earth the unions continue to push for Democrats is beyond all logic.

Reply to  kenw
August 27, 2014 3:54 pm

Public unions are the ultimate special interest group feeding off the public teat. Private unions like SEIU and the Teamsters need the government to Federal government regulatory agencies to go after states that enforce right to work laws.

August 27, 2014 3:14 pm

Canada is looking better and better, eh…

latecommer2014
Reply to  Mark and two Cats
August 27, 2014 3:30 pm

Oz is looking better yet

Reply to  latecommer2014
August 28, 2014 8:11 am

True, but I can drive to Canada.

Latitude
August 27, 2014 3:29 pm

great they can start with Kuwait and Qatar……that’ll put a new spin on Arab spring

August 27, 2014 3:31 pm

Obama has an objective and the hockey stick is just a useful lever to achieve it. He took an oath to uphold the Constitution. When has he ever done that?
Impeachment is in order.
Unfortunately for “We the People” politics, honesty and guts seem to be mutually exclusive in the US nowadays.
“Anything goes” seems to be the rule and not “anything goes…according to the rules.”
I don’t say that because he’s done and tried to do things I don’t like or agree with but because he’s ignored what the oath of the office he took is sworn to defend “against all enemies foreign and domestic.”

Bruce Cobb
August 27, 2014 3:36 pm

Senate Energy Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (La.) said:
“It is important that all nations do what they can to reduce carbon in the atmosphere”. “But the president should not take any action that undermines the American energy revolution currently underway that is creating thousands of high-paying jobs for middle class families in Louisiana and across the country.”
So which is it? They can’t have it both ways.

JRM
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
August 27, 2014 3:56 pm

Mary Landrieu will talk like a conservative while she is home and vote like a liberal socialist on the senate floor while still talking trash. She sell her voters down the river to make the string puller happy. Name one politician that has honor or integrity.

Glen Livingston
Reply to  JRM
August 27, 2014 5:06 pm

Trey Gowdy!!!

wayne Job
Reply to  JRM
August 28, 2014 6:59 am

Very sad indictment of an administration gone badly wrong.

August 27, 2014 3:50 pm

“You’re … making it more difficult for them to win and certainty putting them in a position to lose,” the strategist said.”
Good. And lose they should. Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats ceded their constitutional role to their Democrat President in return for not having to take tough votes, so they should now pay the price and lose their seats.

ES
August 27, 2014 3:54 pm

“Obama takes over from Maurice Strong as global warming/climate change guru.
In one of the most significant transitions of our lifetime, a mantle was passed today, yet most of humanity remains blissfully unaware of it.
It couldn’t be worse because just as the late and lamented author Henry Lamb predicted back in 1997, aging, health-hampered Global Warming/Climate Change Godfather Maurice Strong has been replaced by Barack Obama.”
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/65592

August 27, 2014 4:16 pm

Corey Gardner (R – Colo. Senate race) has his own problems. He voted in favor of the DEA crackdown on medical cannabis. Roughly 60% to 80% of Americans of voting age support medical cannabis. And empirical evidence shows that 100% of living Americans have endocannabinoid systems in their body.

steve
August 27, 2014 4:23 pm

If you liked ObamaHealthCare, just wait for ObamaEnergyCare. As a supposedly smart man once said “…they’ll just go bankrupt…”

August 27, 2014 4:40 pm

Most Dems secretly back Obama! I wish someone would bring criminal charges to NOAA & NASA like they did to the Australian Meteorology Bureau for saying it is warming, when there has been no warming.

August 27, 2014 4:55 pm

Obama fiddles with climate while Putin burns … whomever, whatever he likes. The World Bank falls as the BRICS rise. Interesting times.

August 27, 2014 5:05 pm

NancyG22 says:
And the voter fraud. There was a woman on the news who admitted to voting around 5 times. All for the people that lived at her address, as if that makes it okay. Was that woman arrested?… No.
Nancy, don’t get me started. I have a folder labeled “Voter Fraud”. I’ve given up adding news items to it. Fraud is so endemic now that your vote simply does not count in most cases.
Certain nefarious groups have learned to game the system. Numerous elections are very close, and those groups target them. I won’t mention the groups *coughgeorgesoroscough*, but all it takes is literally a couple of votes per precinct, and you can flip an election.
There are easy fixes, such as photo ID’s, and purging the voter rolls every few years. But the party in poswer stonewalls all attempts at reform. They also encourage an endless flood of illegals to gate crash the country because they know they will get most of those [illegal] votes.
Sorry your vote doesn’t count. But if it makes you feel any better, mine doesn’t count either. ☹

Auto
Reply to  dbstealey
August 28, 2014 11:42 am

Sadly, the watermelons appear to be doing the same in the UK.
Postal votes for the asking.
And Heads of Households allegedly asking for all the ballot papers, marking them, then requiring the other ‘voters’ to sign that the vote is (ah – cough) genuine.
‘Influence’ – let’s be kinda kind – being ‘shown’ to voters at some polling stations – not always by members of different ethnic groups.
A push for a reduction in the voting age.
In the UK it is not legal to smoke tobacco products, or drink alcohol (except under strictly drawn conditions) until after one’s 18th birthday. Why should one be able to vote any earlier?
Auto

u.k.(us)
August 27, 2014 5:17 pm

“don’t just do something, stand there”

August 27, 2014 5:34 pm

First we (well, the US gov’t, not me!) listen in on Chancellor Merkel’s phone, then we put he in stocks for buying US coal. That’ll teach her!

August 27, 2014 5:44 pm

It is political suicide – and also very impotent. Any treaty he signs will have no weight – either in law or enforcement. It will only apply to Obama.
But it will cost him a lot of seats in congress.

steve oregon
August 27, 2014 5:45 pm

At every opportunity the populous should be reminded that Democrats own the AGW FARCE and the foolish war on energy.
They are obstructing pipelines, production and independence while plotting to carbon tax our economy into calamity.
They must be made to wear the zealous movement and all of it’s mendacity.

August 27, 2014 6:55 pm

Most Dems back Obama? You are living in dreamland. Most of them are cringing at the mention of his name. I live in SF and he is a dead duck here excwept among some gays.

Neo
August 27, 2014 7:05 pm

It could simply be that Obama figures that he has already lost the Senate, so he is trying to lose big.
The plan could seriously be to make a vain attempt at a climate change “treaty” while his big Democratic donors hedge with new investments in fracking and coal. Two years from now he leaves office with a “do nothing” private sector job that allows him to golf every day.

August 27, 2014 7:53 pm

‘..spokesman for Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), who heads a House climate task force, said it was premature to comment on a plan with so few details.’
I know Scott. Don’t tell me. Lemme guess: ‘We’re going to have to pass the plan to find out what’s in it.’

Useful Idiot
August 27, 2014 8:07 pm

“This administration’s go it alone strategy is surely less about dysfunction in Congress than about the president’s own unwillingness to listen to our coal miners, steelworkers, farmers and working families,”
Sorry hard working people of the US, you are expendable just so O can look good with his thug friends at the UN.

gregole
August 27, 2014 8:22 pm

Don’t our brilliant world leaders have real problems to manage?
World war/peace, national defense, unemployment, poverty, education, infrastructure, diplomacy, immigration, ethnic rivalry/racism, health policy, fiscal management, culture wars, crime, prison population, militarization of municipal police forces who terrorize and murder the innocent, and, and, and….
But Global Warming that hasn’t materialized in the last 15-17 years, isn’t a problem at all, but gets a big shout-out from the person holding the title of US President.
Governments, bad ones that is in modern times, seem to show a pattern of identifying problems that do not actually exist, and proposing solutions that will do nothing but harm. I don’t care what your party affiliation is, vote such officials out of office.

MarkG
Reply to  gregole
August 27, 2014 9:24 pm

Real problems are hard to solve. Fake problems are easy.
But I think we can safely say that Obama will be lucky if history looks on his actions during the demise of the American Empire as favourably as it did on Nero’s during the demise of the Roman Empire.

Reply to  MarkG
August 28, 2014 3:06 pm

But… but… “climate change” is a fake problem, and it’s the hardest one of all to solve!!!

pat
August 27, 2014 8:55 pm

for those with a stake in such things:
28 Aug: Bloomberg: John H. Cushman Jr.: U.S. Auditors Say Obama Climate Math Checks Out
InsideClimateNews.org — Government auditors have taken a close look at a disputed calculation used by federal regulators to assess the long-term costs of carbon pollution. Their verdict: It was all done by the book.
The hotly contested economic calculation, known as the “social cost of carbon,” or SCC, sailed through a review by the Governmental Accountability Office, whose audits often feature scathing criticisms of the bureaucracy…
The review was requested by several of Congress’ most outspoken critics of the administration’s methods, who have called the SCC’s development “a black box.”…
The administration’s methods, the GAO said, “used consensus-based decision making”; “relied on existing academic literature and methods”; and “took steps to disclose limitations and incorporate new information.”…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-27/u-s-auditors-say-obama-climate-math-checks-out.html
about the writer, formerly with NYT, includes previous articles:
John H. Cushman Jr.
http://insideclimatenews.org/author/john-h.-cushman-jr.

DD More
August 28, 2014 7:18 am

This administrations calling a “Do Nothing Congress” is code for “They will not do what WE want”.
Maybe the Do-Nothing’s can just read a poll on Right Direction – Wrong Track.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/right_direction_or_wrong_track
Since Jan 1, 2010 “Right Direction” has never been above 50 percent and only 5 weeks above 40 percent.
You often do not get where you want to be when your going the Wrong Direction.

August 28, 2014 8:19 am

“It’s annoying that we have to fight elections for our cause The inconvenience–having to get a majority”
Of course, it only matters if you have to worry about elections…

brians356
August 28, 2014 10:56 am

Democrats are “worried the issue will revive GOP cries about an imperial Obama presidency.”
Revive? Huh? When did the cries ever subside?

Stephen Rasey
August 28, 2014 3:06 pm

Greg Gutfeld (The Five) 8/28 17:30 EDT.
:The President plans to sign an international climate change accord in 2015 with the approval of Congress. It’s nuttier than elephant poop. The New York Times says the thing would compel countries, including ours, to cut carbon. Even though our Constitution demands Senate approval for such Treaties, the White Houses bypasses that by inking a politically binding deal that Names and Shames countries into submission.
There are 4 problems here. It’s Illegal. … It’s Wrong. …. It’s Crazy….. And It’s Evil.
First, It’s Illegal. “Politically binding” is as legally binding as a Ouija board. If that is a Treaty, then so is graffiti. To Obama, the Constitution is like waiting in line for BBQ — its for other people.
Second, It’s Wrong. The Journal Science says the 17 year pause in Global Warming will last another decade. A natural fluctuation in Global Climate creates 30 year warming and cooling periods.
This is what Obama is about to punish us for: inevitable variability.
Third, It’s Crazy. Addressing Global Warming before Global Terror makes as much sense as worrying about indigestion while playing in traffic. To him Terror is a nuisance hindering his march into the abyss.
And that’s the Evil Part. Masked as “established science”, this is wealth redistribution on a global scale, draining our economy in a spasm of Socialism.
And he wishes to shame US? Don’t bother. We’re ashamed, but not of us.
——–
Kimberly, I love how their tactic is to Name and Shame, as if countries, like in China?, —- would react to that. “Oh my gosh, their up set with us!”… …
————————–
Kruthammer: 8/27/14 Special Report: “The idea of shaming the Butchers of Tiananmen Square, or of shaming a country that just a week ago buzzed a US airplane at 20 feet, a country that is expanding into the eastern and south China Seas is sort of the dumbest ideas since the “Russian Reset Button”. It is also based upon the same ideas that the Russians and the Chinese and other act like Obama does with adolescent idealism when it comes to Foreign Policy. So it is an incredibly stupid idea.”

Stephen Rasey
Reply to  Stephen Rasey
August 28, 2014 7:55 pm

A video link to the Gutfeld essay on Breitbart

rw
August 29, 2014 12:57 pm

“naming and shaming”, eh? That’s gonna work about as well as his Ukraine policy.
Is he planning to try this with ISIS as well?

cnxtim
Reply to  rw
August 29, 2014 2:22 pm

Searching for shame elsewhere by the little “o”? Now THAT is the granddaddy of all oxymorons…