Tuesday
Nov162010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill No US Climategate probe?
Nov 16, 2010 Climate: CRU Climate: Mann Darrell Issa, the Republican leader who has in the past demanded a probe into Climategate appears to have backtracked rather. According to The Hill, Issa is now saying that while he thinks there needs to be an inquiry into the emails, this will not be his top priority.
I will have limited resources and limited time. I am looking at things that fall between the cracks, but also I am looking for the largest dollars of waste, and although this is a significant issue, it may not be the issue that first comes to my committee, and we are willing to realize that I only have so many resources and so much time.
Reader Comments (10)
Meanwhile Greeks bearing gifts are to be avoided
George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, said new European-wide taxes might now be needed to fund bail-outs.
“We need a mechanism which can be funded through different forms and different ways,” he said. “My proposal is that taxes such as a financial tax or carbon dioxide taxes could be important revenues and resources for funding such a mechanism.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/portugal/8135686/Euro-under-siege-after-Portugal-hits-panic-button.html
Don't think the Cash Cow will be given up without a fight
Politicians... *sigh*
Before election: PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE
After election: BACKTRACK BACKTRACK BACKTRACK
When will we ever learn lol
If the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on "fighting" global warming, assuming global warming doesn't need fighting, is not among "the largest dollars of waste" then the US economy is in even worse trouble than previously believed.
Is he not waiting for the end of the "lame duck" congress, so that Democrat resistance will be less effective?
gc, he must wait, because he won't be committee chair until the new Congress is sworn in.
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Yes, it could be the political equivalent of appearing slightly to lower your guard. As your opponent is distracted by the movement of your hands, you kick his knee out.
The AGW scam is indeed quite low on the Republican agenda. They have far bigger to fish to fry right now. Trillion dollar deficits, 800 Billion in Fed printing of worthless money, Nationalized Health Care fiasco, SEIU voter fraud, defunding NPR, PBS and the NEA. Nobody that I know of ran on a platform of debunking AGW. Americans are less concerned about it, one way or the other, than the British, Canadians and Aussies.
The Republicans, perhaps for the first time since 1994, seem to be trying very hard to listen to the voters and align their priorities accordingly. The Tea Party voters (lots of independents) have made it very clear that their votes were all about kicking out the Dems for screwing up, not because they are very happy with the way the Republicans governed in the recent past. Issa knows that he has been given a 2 year probationary period to focus like a laser on the MOST important issues. Climategate isn't on that list.
The swing voters are in no mood for anything that looks like a distraction from the economy, jobs, reducing the size of govt. Period. Get some serious movement on the main task, he will have some rope to get onto the next tier of priorities.
in australia, a highly unpopular conservative party nearly won govt based on their opposition to an Emissions Trading Scheme. we now have a Labor govt who promised no carbon tax if they were re-elected, yet every single day there are media headlines about a "carbon tax" that the govt is having to pursue after all, because the public and big business is demanding it!
in the US, the Tea Party (Parties) made it clear they would not vote for anyone in favour of what they call capntax, and republican lindsey graham dropped out of the cross-party (kerry/lieberman/lindsey) climate bill push.
but that was then, and this is now:
18 July: Washington Post: Shailagh Murray: Republican lawmakers gird for rowdy tea party
Former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), now a D.C. lobbyist, warned that a robust bloc of rabble-rousers spells further Senate dysfunction. "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples," Lott said in an interview. "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/17/AR2010071702375.html
12 Nov: Washington Times: Dalibor Rohac : As Kyoto plan collapses, Plan B emerges
This rising group is a heterogeneous bunch. It includes Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics in England, Roger Pielke Jr., author of “The Climate Fix,” and the “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg, who is releasing his new movie focused on climate-change policies, “Cool It.” Finally, it includes experts from both the American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Brookings Institution in the United States, who recently published a joint proposal for fostering energy innovation.
This last fact is probably the most disturbing. Whenever the most influential left-wing and right-wing experts agree, the odds are that the matter will involve expanding government and taking resources away from the private sphere…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/12/as-kyoto-plan-collapses-plan-b-emerges/
surely our common cause, no matter where we are on the political spectrum, is to prevent the commodification of carbon dioxide based on unproven science.
And yet, this week's New Yorker states that Issa "wants to investigate climate scientists."