Bush acknowledges global warming in state union speech

While President Bush admits to global climate changes, we're wondering, did he actually admit man's impact on the climate in the form of global warming is so great, so massive, that he agreed to more stringent (Kyoto Treaty-like) caps on carbon dioxide (CO2)??

Doesn't look like it...

Meanwhile, as he spoke, those parts of the country that usually get snowfalls, well, they still get the snowfalls... in Winter, like usual.

One woman in Alaska of all places is quoted as saying:

"I've lived in Alaska since 1967 and I don't remember ever having this much snow before," Elliston said.

Of course, we all want the smog, the pollution, the gritty, dirty air to go away. Now. Not with some sort of gimmick like cap-and-trade emissions.

http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/catalyst/page.jsp?itemID=27226959 virtual trading. That's sick. That's the game that's being played on the uneducated public. Somebody should come out with a board game about it all.

Bush Pursues Energy Initiatives While Congress Debates Iraq
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Fox News

...Bush emphasized several energy initiatives in his State of the Union address, acknowledging global climate change and asking Congress to help the United States break its oil addiction by enacting an initiative that would cut U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent in the next 10 years. To reach that goal, Bush called for setting a mandatory fuel standard for alternative and renewable gases to 35 billion gallons by 2017, nearly five times the current target.

Ethanol is already in use in retail gasoline. However, the president's new fuel standards would not be limited to ethanol use.

"We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol — using everything from wood chips, to grasses, to agricultural wastes," Bush said in his sixth annual joint session to Congress.

In Delaware, Bush urged the use of clean coal technology. Before departing on the trip, he signed an executive order that aims to increase the use of alternative fuels through development of more hybrid vehicles; reduce federal petroleum consumption in fleet vehicles by 2 percent a year through 2015; reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy intensity -- or the consumption of energy per demand for services -- by 3 percent each year over the next nine years.

Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Joel Kaplan said Tuesday that the government has spent $12 billion so far this budget year on advanced energy technologies. Much of government spending has been in conjunction with the private sector. Kaplan said Bush has stepped up his goal of increasing corn and cellulosic ethanol use because of private sector developments.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,246224,00.html

CN American Morning
State of the Union: How did the President do?; Global Climate Change
Aired January 24, 2007 - 06:00 ET

...S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, a closer look at President Bush's big ideas, including what we were just talking about a moment ago, his plan for health insurance, what it could cost you, what it could save you, how it could help you. All ahead.

Plus, another reality check. Is America ready to ease off gas and really do something about global warming?

We'll take a look at all of those issues straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

The most news on the morning is right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. It's 45 minutes past the hour. Chad Myers, at the CNN weather center, has the traveler's forecast for you.

Cold.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: A fact check now. The president is pushing his energy plan today in Wilmington, Delaware. During the speech last night, he once again called for more conservation in this country, something he did last year as well. Remember he said we were addicted to oil? But this time, there was an important difference.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice over): The president uttered three words that he's never said before in a State of the Union Address: global climate change.

BUSH: America's on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil, and these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change.

(APPLAUSE)

M. O'BRIEN: The president is once again pushing for alternative fuels and better mileage for cars and trucks. The goal, to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent in the next decade.

So why bring up climate change now? It may be the president finds himself in a new political climate with a growing number of legislators clamoring for a change in direction on global warming. But change was not in the offing Tuesday night.

Most climate experts say any effective policy to combat global warming must also include mandatory limits or caps on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases power plants and other industries are permitted to pump into the air. And critics say the Bush policy, which continues to rely on voluntary measures, is essentially toothless. GENE KARPINSKI, LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS: If we're serious about the problem on global warming, which, as we all know, is the most and important environmental challenge we face, we really need mandatory caps on global warming pollution.

M. O'BRIEN: Bush's remarks were a small concession to what an overwhelming majority of climate scientists believe is a huge problem. They say in the coming decades, climate change will melt glaciers, flooding coastal areas as sea levels rise. It will unlikely increase the frequency of extreme weather events like catastrophic hurricanes. And it could lead to an entire species going extinct, such as polar bears, which are already struggling as their Arctic habitat melts.

It is a grim picture which many scientists believe requires more drastic action than the president has proposed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: One week from Friday, hundreds of the world's leading scientists will release their latest status report on global warming in Paris. We're told it paints a stark picture and that we are drastically changing our climate and the consequences are grave. As one scientist put it, the smoking gun is on the table...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/24/ltm.02.html

Meanwhile

Massive snowfall causes city to shrink
by Rebecca Palsha
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007

Anchorage, Alaska - Anchorage has been hit with more than 74 inches of snow this season, and according to the city, it's reaching a crisis level, with snow removal on the streets becoming a big problem.

The president's address
Entire text of Bush speech to America
January 23, 2007

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53916


President Bush's State of the Union Address - January 23, 2007

http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/c14100.htm

President Bush Delivers State of the Union Address
United States Capitol Washington, D.C.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060131-10.html

The Guest Worker Program: Both Sides of the Issue / Political Stands

http://immigration.about.com/od/laborjobissues/i/GuestWorkrIssue.htm

Wrong law used to convict Border agents
Jerome Corsi
Posted: January 22, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern World Net Daily

What crime is committed when two Border Patrol agents shoot in the buttocks a fleeing drug smuggler who has abandoned a van containing 743 pounds of marijuana?

Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., has on record a letter written to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Oct.11, 2006, charging that Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were charged under a statute that did not apply to the facts of the case. As previously reported by WND, the interview I conducted on Friday, Jan. 17, 2007 with the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, adds strong support to Rep. Jones's contention.

Jones notes that Ramos and Compean were convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c). This statute was written to increase the penalties when a violent criminal, such as a drug trafficker or a rapist, carries or uses a weapon during the commission of the crime. Law enforcement officers, including Border Patrol agents, are issued weapons by the Border Patrol to carry in the normal pursuit of their duties.

Ironically, Ramos and Compean were trying to apprehend an escaping suspect who was a drug smuggler. How is it that a law meant to punish armed drug smugglers is applied to prosecute the two Border Patrol agents who attempted to apprehend a person U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton properly characterizes as a drug-dealing ''dirt-bag?''

Jones notes that 18 U.S.C. Section 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c) has only been applied to law enforcement officers who themselves commit heinous crimes, such as sexual assault, outside the scope of their official duties. As Jones writes, ''Ramos and Compean were within the scope of their official duties when they fired at an illegal drug smuggler they believe to be armed and dangerous.''

Besides, Sutton never argues that Ramos and Compean were committing a crime they aggravated by discharging weapons. Sutton's contention is that Ramos and Compean's crime was that they discharged weapons at all. This is a distinct fact situation from the one 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c) was passed to involve...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53873

Imprisoned agent's wife:
President is a hypocrite
Calls State of the Union speech 'total sellout of the United States of America to Mexico'
Posted: January 24, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Monica Ramos, the wife of one of two U.S. Border Patrol agents imprisoned last week for wounding an escaping drug smuggler, attended the State of the Union speech in person last night – and was sharply critical of President Bush, calling him a hypocrite and worse.

Ramos, wife of Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos, attended the event as a guest of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean began prison sentences last week, of 11 and 12 years respectively, for their actions in the shooting and wounding of a Mexican drug smuggler who was granted full immunity to testify against them.

At the conclusion of the speech, Ramos, emotional and in tears, told WND in an exclusive interview, that she considered President Bush's speech compete hypocrisy.

"How could President Bush say that he wanted to secure our borders and that he would double the size of the Border Patrol when my husband is in prison," she asked WND. "Ignacio was trying to secure our border from drug smugglers. And what do we get? I have to show my children their father in prison in chains and I have to explain to them that the president of the United States is a liar."

WND waited nearly an hour after the speech was concluded to be able to speak with a clearly emotionally upset Monica Ramos.

"President Bush can say all he wants that the solution to border security is new infrastructure and technology," Ramos told WND, "but as long as my husband is in jail the American people should know that President Bush doesn't mean a word he says."

"What I sat in the gallery and heard tonight," she said, "was a total sell-out of the United States of America to Mexico. I heard President Bush's message loud and clear. All the president has to offer is electronic gadgets. Meanwhile, our borders are wide open to illegal immigrants, criminals and drug smugglers. God help the honest men and women of the Border Patrol who want to do their duty. It's a losing battle – just ask my husband, he'll tell you the truth."

"The American people only need to ask me," Ramos pleaded to WND. "Tell America that President Bush doesn't mean a word of what he says about border security. My husband is in jail for trying to capture a drug smuggler and President Bush wants electronics? My husband is a hero and President Bush is a traitor as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell my children that he wants new 'infrastructure' or 'comprehensive immigration reform' when their dad who wore the Border Patrol badge for years is shackled and in chains for doing his job."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53918

What bloggers know
Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Mary Jo Anderson


It's a common companion to that first morning cup of coffee. It is overtaking newspapers and "Good Morning America." In offices worldwide the morning break finds workers scanning their favorites. Can't sleep? Bored? Lonely? Looking for synchronicity? Just open the blogosphere. That is, log onto to your favorite blogs. Whole cyber-cities are just a few keystrokes away.

The blogosphere phenomenon has been chronicled in business magazines, university seminars, in political back rooms and on Main Street America. Psychologists study blogamania; they worry that blogging destroys interpersonal relationships since bloggers commune with cyber-friends while real-life connections languish. Advertisers pay for space in the margins of the high-traffic blogs. Students use them to share information on professors and their tests. For good or for ill, the blogosphere is part of American life.

The blog format is so popular that newspapers, magazines and radio have added their own staff bloggers to insure their fair share of the blog traffic. The power of blogs over public perception entices the pinstripe brigade from Madison Avenue to Hollywood. Paid professionals seed the blogosphere to create a "presence" for their clients – celebrities and politicians. Bloggers pick up news reports and exponentially increase exposure, creating a "buzz" within hours. There are blog awards and blog statistics trackers. There are even blog coalitions. Famous columnists are rapidly becoming famous bloggers – without editors or syndicators between them and what they really want to say. (Ann Coulter recently told Sean Hannity to look for her at Anncoulter.com)...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53883

House Considers Bill Vacate Convictions Ramos and Compean

Republican revolt builds over border agents
House resolution calls for tossing Ramos, Compean convictions
Posted: January 23, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

At least 70 Republican Congress members are co-sponsoring a House resolution ordering that the convictions and sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean be vacated and that they be released from custody immediately.
Even after suggestions last week that President Bush plans to review the Ramos and Compean case, the White House has continued reaching out for support to several prominent conservatives who, so far, are rebuffing administration requests to back the Justice Department on this case.

The resolution, H.R. 563, is being introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

Despite public suggestions to the contrary, the White House on background has continued indicating to prominent national conservative leaders that their heels are dug in on this case, denying at this point any plan to pardon the agents. Some critics contend the Bush administration's open border policy is behind its unwillingness to defend Ramos and Compean.

White House talking points continue to stress themes articulated by prosecuting U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in El Paso, who in an exclusive interview last week with WND claimed the two agents "shot 15 times at an unarmed, fleeing man," after which the agents "decided to lie about it, cover it up, destroy the evidence, pick up all the shell casings and throw them away where we couldn't find them, destroy the crime scene and then file a false report."

In a series of briefings with conservative leaders prior to the State of the Union message scheduled for this evening, the White House indicated that while the issue of immigration will be mentioned, it will not be a major theme. The president is expected to repeat his support of a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan that would include a guest worker program, prefacing re-introduction of legislation similar to the bill co-sponsored in the previous Congress by Sens. Edward Kennedy D-Mass., and John McCain R-Ariz.

While the speech is expected to sound the theme of border security, the president is not expected to give a commitment that the administration will press Congress to appropriate all the funds needed to build the full 770-mile double-layered fence Congress approved in a Sept. 29 vote just prior to the mid-term elections. Instead, the president is expected to emphasis electronic means to secure a virtual border and what the White House believes has been recent success slowing the number of "OTMs," or "Other Than Mexicans," who illegally cross the southern border.

President Bush has no plans to mention the Ramos and Compean case in the State of the Union speech...

...In addition to introducing H.R. 563, Hunter wrote a letter to Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, requesting that Ramos and Compean be separated from the general prison population to ensure their safety.

"These agents and their families have already received threats against their safety," Hunter wrote Lappin. "Therefore, it must be assumed that once they are required to mingle in general population with the very drug smugglers and felons they helped apprehend their security will be compromised."

Hunter's office told WND that readers were encouraged to call their congressmen, both Republicans and Democrats, asking that they co-sponsor H.R. 563.

The resolution, if passed, would represent a congressional pardon, an unusual procedure given that criminal pardons typically are considered only within the constitutional purview of the president. A legal analysis provided WND by Hunter's office argues that the pardon power is not constitutionally vested exclusively in the president but may also be exercised by Congress.


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53893

Confirmed: Presidential Pardon Border Agents a Myth

We exposed days ago in our piece Myth of Border Agents Presidential Pardon that President Bush never said during a KFOX TV interview Thursday, January 18, 2007 that he was considering a possible pardon for border patrol agents Ramos and Compean.

It was never even being considered by President Bush to pardon the agents a day after they reported to federal prison (Wednesday, January 17, 2007) to begin their 11 and 12 year prison sentences, nor at this time.

Had anyone in the news business bothered to view the actual KFOX-TV videotape of Alison Burns interview of President George Bush, this story would never had had any legs and worldwide hype.

We're still waiting to learn whether it's true the Ramos and Compean families were promised a phone call from President Bush

Bush to talk to border agents' families
Convicted border guards hoping for pardon in shooting
By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 01/20/2007 12:00:00 AM PST

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_5051275

Or was that a reporter's interpretation of Bush breaking away saying he had to make a phone call!

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2007/01/myth-of-border-agents-presidential.html

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=myth+border+agents+pardon

Notice the wording in the Jerome Corsi piece

My goodness, of course the White House talking points continue to stress themes articulated by prosecuting U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in El Paso
because the White House is supporting the Justice Department's conviction of Ramos and Compean. President Bush never claimed otherwise during the KFOX-TV interview.

Find the interview videotape on the KFOX-TV site and observe what Burns asks and how President Bush responds.

http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/10785667/detail.html

Republican revolt builds over border agents
House resolution calls for tossing Ramos, Compean convictions
Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

At least 70 Republican Congress members are co-sponsoring a House resolution ordering that the convictions and sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean be vacated and that they be released from custody immediately.
Even after suggestions last week that President Bush plans to review the Ramos and Compean case, the White House has continued reaching out for support to several prominent conservatives who, so far, are rebuffing administration requests to back the Justice Department on this case.

The resolution, H.R. 563, is being introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

Despite public suggestions to the contrary, the White House on background has continued indicating to prominent national conservative leaders that their heels are dug in on this case, denying at this point any plan to pardon the agents. Some critics contend the Bush administration's open border policy is behind its unwillingness to defend Ramos and Compean.

White House talking points continue to stress themes articulated by prosecuting U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in El Paso, who in an exclusive interview last week with WND claimed the two agents "shot 15 times at an unarmed, fleeing man," after which the agents "decided to lie about it, cover it up, destroy the evidence, pick up all the shell casings and throw them away where we couldn't find them, destroy the crime scene and then file a false report."

In a series of briefings with conservative leaders prior to the State of the Union message scheduled for this evening, the White House indicated that while the issue of immigration will be mentioned, it will not be a major theme. The president is expected to repeat his support of a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan that would include a guest worker program, prefacing re-introduction of legislation similar to the bill co-sponsored in the previous Congress by Sens. Edward Kennedy D-Mass., and John McCain R-Ariz.

While the speech is expected to sound the theme of border security, the president is not expected to give a commitment that the administration will press Congress to appropriate all the funds needed to build the full 770-mile double-layered fence Congress approved in a Sept. 29 vote just prior to the mid-term elections. Instead, the president is expected to emphasis electronic means to secure a virtual border and what the White House believes has been recent success slowing the number of "OTMs," or "Other Than Mexicans," who illegally cross the southern border.

President Bush has no plans to mention the Ramos and Compean case in the State of the Union speech...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53893

Rep. Rohrabacher Invites Border Agent's Wife to State Union Speech

Border agent's wife at State of the Union
Congressman invites Monica Ramos to underscore Bush 'failure'
Posted: January 23, 2007 10:36 a.m. Eastern

Note: The State of the Union address is slated to begin just after 9 p.m. Eastern Time, and will be broadcast on most major television and cable-news networks.
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Monica Ramos, the wife of imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos, will attend the State of the Union tonight as a guest of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who has sharply criticized the president's handling of the case.
Rohrabacher's spokeswoman, Tara Setmayer, told WND the presence of Monica Ramos will send a message...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53899

Wife of convicted Border Agent to attend State of the Union
By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 01/23/2007 02:07:16 PM PST

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_5068947

United Nations Projections Climate Change

U.N. climate panel to project wrenching change
Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:50am ET
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - A U.N. climate panel will project wrenching disruptions to nature by 2100 in a report next week blaming human use of fossil fuels more clearly than ever for global warming, scientific sources said.

A draft report based on work by 2,500 scientists and due for release on February 2 in Paris, draws on research showing greenhouse gases at their highest levels for 650,000 years, fuelling a warming likely to bring more droughts, floods and rising seas.

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may have some good news, however, by toning down chances of the biggest temperature and sea level rises projected in the IPCC's previous 2001 study, the sources said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-01-23T155044Z_01_L23924623_RTRUKOC_0_US-GLOBALWARMING.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

Global warming: the final verdict
A study by the world's leading experts says global warming will happen faster and be more devastating than previously thought
Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday January 21, 2007
The Observer

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1995348,00.html

Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr. site discusses the upcoming report and more

http://climatesci.atmos.colostate.edu/

Also see skeptic Dr. Bill Gray on this issue

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Intergovernmental+Panel+on+Climate+Change++dr.+william+gray&btnG=Search

Blog on Dr. Gray's positions, etc. well worth reading the entirety of the postings...

August 09, 2006
Bill Gray the climate change skeptic, revisited

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2006/08/bill_gray_revis.html

Roger Pielke, Sr. Blog on Professor Bill Gray and the Debate on Climate Change

http://climatesci.atmos.colostate.edu/2006/06/29/on-professor-bill-gray-and-the-debate-on-climate-changge/

Report Has 'Smoking Gun' on Climate
Monday, January 22, 2007
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer


http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jan22/0,4670,WarmingClimateReport,00.html

Fox news video

Hot Issue
Commerce Sec'y Carlos Gutierrez on whether fixing global warming will kill U.S. economy

Global warming debate

Forecasters debate climate change cause

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jan22/0,4670,WarmingClimateReport,00.html#

for more on this issue use the search feature on this site located top left corner

President to speak on immigration temp worker program

Drudge Report
STATE OF THE UNION EXCERPTS
Tue Jan 23 2007 17:10:15 ET

The American people expect their elected leaders from both parties to work together on the important issues facing the Nation. Tonight the President will lay out an ambitious agenda, driven by bold and innovative concepts. He will discuss the importance of forging common ground with the new Congress and explain that to keep America safe, we must prevail in the war on terror...

On comprehensive immigration reform:

“Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration system worthy of America – with laws that are fair and borders that are secure. When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms the interests of our country… Yet…we cannot fully secure the border unless we take pressure off the border – and that requires a temporary worker program

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2.htm

President to talk about global warming

CNN reporting from the Situation Room...

Too Darn Hot
Common sense in the warming debate
Cathy Young January 16, 2007

The Boston Globe
Global warming is the subject of intense debate. But if ideology is getting in the way of science, maybe both sides of the debate are letting that happen.
While the evidence of global climate change is overwhelming, there are skeptics who challenge the consensus view that warming is caused by human activity. These individuals are routinely accused of being in the pocket of big corporations that would be hurt by aggressive measures to curb carbon emissions. (And, in fact, many of them work for groups that receive funding from such sources as ExxonMobil). Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science, has argued that treating the issue as a legitimate debate is misleading because it bestows legitimacy on pseudoscientific propaganda.

But is everyone on the other side disinterested? On his blog, Mooney notes that sometimes "environmental groups and their ilk oversell the science." On the issue of whether global warming is to blame for hurricanes, he says, "it's clear the science has been abused on both sides."

People can easily see economic motives to bend the facts and abuse the science. Ideological motives are less readily apparent, but no less real; and, for quite a few people, environmentalism has become a matter of not just ideology but quasi-religious zealotry.

Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy studies at UCLA and a self-identified liberal, noted this recently on his blog. Writes Kleiman, "To those who dislike a social system based on high and growing consumption and the economic activity that supports high and growing consumption and maintains high and growing demand (a dislike with which I have considerable sympathy), to those who think that the market needs more regulation by the state, to those who think that international institutions ought to be strengthened . . . global warming is a Gaia-send" -- since it justifies drastic worldwide public action to curb production and consumption. (Gaia, the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, is a term used by many ecologists to refer to the earth as a living entity.) While Kleiman sympathizes with environmentalists, he notes that "their eagerness to believe the worst" -- for instance, in Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth" -- "is just as evident as the right wing's denialism."...

Excerpt continued

...There is a growing number of voices in the scientific community that reject both denialism and alarmism on global warming. Roger Pielke, an environmental science professor at the University of Colorado, calls such people "nonskeptical heretics" -- those who believe that human-caused global warming is a real problem, but one that can be met in part with technological management and adaptation. Mooney has come to embrace such a viewpoint as well.

Pielke has pointed out an unfortunate tendency toward political polarization within the scientific community. Last year, Tech Central Station, a website that supports the free-market system, promoted a statement by several scientists who dismissed any connection between hurricanes and global warming -- while environmental activists promoted the views of other scientists who argued that such a connection exists.

Most journalists and pundits have limited knowledge of science; as a result, they tend to pick whichever science best suits their political prejudices. Both science and journalism deserve better. Perhaps we can start by remembering that an ideological crusade can be as strong an inducement to bend the truth as the profit motive...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/117896.html

Global warming debate concensus crack

Global warming debate provacateur Heidi Cullen is being discussed on Fox 'n Friends.

Is the Weather Channel getting political? The trio comment on Cullen and James Spann, who retorted in a statement which was subsequently picked up at the Drudge Report, and around the Internet.

On Fox 'n Friends, the Weather Channel's site is shown scrolling down some hundreds of postings regarding Cullen's comments. (visit it - obviously, there is not a concensus)

http://climate.weather.com/blog/9_11592.html

Kilmeade, commenting on Cullen over at the Weather Channel: taking a page from the O'Donnell and Donald Trump playbook, it's all a ratings boost, he says.

What Cullen stated:

Excerpt

Meteorologists are among the few people trained in the sciences who are permitted regular access to our living rooms. And in that sense, they owe it to their audience to distinguish between solid, peer-reviewed science and junk political controversy. If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of Approval.

http://climate.weather.com/blog/9_11396.html?cm_ven=one_deg_blog&cm_ite=one_deg_commentary&from=one_deg_commentary

A weatherman, in Alabama has commented, says Doocy, doesn't know a single meteorologist who believes in global warming.

BTW James Spann's site is getting more traffic than ever due to the notoriety - hope they put up a comment area soon to increase their readership.

http://www.weatherbrains.com/

“The Weather Channel” Mess
January 18, 2007, 5:45 pm | James Spann | Op/Ed

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process. So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know...

http://www.jamesspann.com/blog.htm


Last couple of days Senate offices have been bombarded with emails, and receiving 40,000 queries about this, says Doocy.

Gretchen, it's not an exact science.

We know earth is getting warmer, we don't know why. Is it a great big cycle or man-made, that is where the debate is.

Check out Weatherbrains podcast
Weather Brains episode number 52 is on the server (January 22, 2007).

In this week's episode:

-James Spann's global warming controversy with Dr. Heidi Cullen of The Weather Channel...-Kevin Selle finds that the whole issue actually started with the interview of a Washington, D.C. television meteorologist last year...

http://www.weatherbrains.com/

Note the http://www.jamesspann.com/blog.htm blog contains comments of posters (37) too much traffic...

http://www.jamesspann.com/blog.htm

Border Patrol Agent Solitary Ignored by President

To date, to our knowledge, the families of Ramos and Compean, the two border agents prosecuted by U.S. Attorney, Johnny Sutton and convicted by a Texas jury, have not received a promised phone call from President George W. Bush.

We've said we were going to watch when the call happened. It has not, and certainly not before the big speech President Bush will make tonight.

What's he going to talk about tonight? Energy, health care. Iraq.

Meanwhile, there is war on the border of the United States - the border with Mexico.

Over 250,000 petitions have been signed requesting a pardon. Nada. Now, we find...

Border Patrol agent held in solitary confinement
'They act like he's Charles Manson,' father-in-law tells WND
Imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos not only is being held in prison for trying to halt a fleeing drug smuggler, he's being held in solitary confinement treated as if he were Charles Manson, a relative told WND in an exclusive interview.

Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law, told WND that Ramos is being held in conditions usually reserved for extraordinarily dangerous or trouble-making inmates.

"They have Ignacio in a 6 foot by 12 foot cell," Loya told WND in a telephone interview from El Paso. "There are no bars, just a steel door, and no window. He has no television and nothing to do. He is fed in his cell and let out only for one hour after 23 hours in the cell. He is then taken to a room with a television where he is allowed to watch the TV for an hour before he is returned to solitary confinement."

Loya told WND that the family believes that the federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, introduced into the trial inaccurate or incomplete testimony provided by the drug dealer, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, as well as from other Border Patrol agents who the federal prosecutors had pressured prior to the trial.

"I can't believe how Ignacio is being treated," Loya told WND. "He has been a federal agent for years and he has been involved in many drug busts. I am convinced that the U.S. attorney has a grudge against my son-in-law and I cannot believe how mean and determined Johnny Sutton has been to see my son imprisoned for doing nothing more than trying to stop a drug smuggler he and Jose Compean believed was armed and dangerous."

Loya explained to WND that Aldrete-Davila had beaten and cut Compean in the struggle that occurred in the ditch as Aldrete-Davila was trying to escape.

"The prosecutors say that Compean was going to beat Aldrete-Davila with his shotgun. How could that be? Aldrete-Davila is over six feet tall and Compean is about five feet five inches. Compean would have been afraid that Aldrete-Davila would have taken the shotgun from him and beat him or shot him with it. The story at the trial that the prosecutors offered the jury didn’t make any sense."

Loya told WND that he had sat through the entire trial. A complete transcript of the trial is not yet available and Loya told WND that the U.S. attorney's office told him that the trial transcript would cost $3 per page. "At over 3,000 pages, that means we have to come up with $9,000 just to get a copy of the transcript. And besides, it isn't available yet and the prosecutors' office can’t tell us when it will be available."




Meanwhile, Fox 'n Friends discussing how Rep. Sinema wants patrolling with a weopon to be a crime, carry 18 months in prison and proposes legislation to twart attempts by Minutemen to protect the U.S. borders. White guys wearing camos carrying weapons is how she describes the Minutemen, says Chris Simcox of the Minuteman Project

The President had the responsibility to protect that border by putting 44,000 National Guard along the border and building the wall.

http//www.foxnfriends.com

One of the topics we've been monitory here at Net the Truth Online will be discussed on http//www.foxnfriends.com

The status of a lawsuit against Hazleton, Pennsylvania

Paul for President?
The maverick libertarian Republican talks on war, immigration, and presidential ambition. Brian Doherty | January 22, 2007
Reason Mag

Excitement spread like wildfire last week across the libertarian web: Ron Paul has entered the presidential race! Even the mainstream press took notice. As we’ll see in the interview with Rep. Paul (R-Texas) below, the excitement may have been premature.

The reason for the excitement is understandable: Ron Paul has been the most consistent successful politician advocating the limited-government principles that he sees embedded in the Constitution. Part of his appeal, to a voting base that we can safely presume isn’t as libertarian as Paul is himself, is that of the very rare politician following his own conscience and mind with steadfast integrity. Indeed, Paul is not afraid of aggravating even parts of his libertarian constituency when he thinks it’s the right thing to do, as on immigration (where he’s against amnesty and birthright citizenship, and for increased border control) and his vote this month in favor of prescription drug negotiation.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/118086.html

Mysterious lights talk at Mancow

Update Jan. 25, 2007

Lights 'not of this world' mystery finally solved
Air Force reveals weapons tests that sparked global UFO frenzy
Posted: January 24, 2007
9:22 p.m. Eastern

Editor's note: WND's Joe Kovacs will appear on KTOK Newsradio in Oklahoma City Thursday morning at 8:05 a.m. Eastern to discuss this story. It can be heard at 1000 on the AM dial or online at KTOK.com.
By Joe Kovacs© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Mysterious lights in the sky witnessed and photographed by an Air Force colonel who described them as "not of this world" apparently have an explanation of this Earth after all, WND can reveal.

Officials say the colorful illuminations seen Jan. 9 over western Arkansas came from special military flares that slowly parachuted to the ground as part of an Air Force training mission involving A-10 aircraft pilots at nearby Fort Chaffee, a base used for testing weaponry.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/staticarticles/article53936.html

Mystery lights in sky on Mancow radio in morning
Executive news editor Joe Kovacs joins national show at Wednesday, January 24, 2007

http://www.mancow.com/stationfinder

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53887

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53904

Secret report global warming??

Report Has 'Smoking Gun' on Climate

By SETH BORENSTEIN
The Associated Press
Monday, January 22, 2007; 7:21 PM



WASHINGTON -- Human-caused global warming is here _ visible in the air, water and melting ice _ and is destined to get much worse in the future, an authoritative global scientific report will warn next week.

"The smoking gun is definitely lying on the table as we speak," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who reviewed all 1,600 pages of the first segment of a giant four-part report. "The evidence ... is compelling."

Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist and study co-author, went even further: "This isn't a smoking gun; climate is a batallion of intergalactic smoking missiles."

The first phase of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is being released in Paris next week. This segment, written by more than 600 scientists and reviewed by another 600 experts and edited by bureaucrats from 154 countries, includes "a significantly expanded discussion of observation on the climate," co-chair Susan Solomon a senior scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She and other scientists held a telephone briefing on the report Monday.

That report will feature an "explosion of new data" on observations of current global warming, Solomon said.

Solomon and others wouldn't go into specifics about what the report says. They said that the 12-page summary for policymakers will be edited in secret word-by-word by governments officials for several days next week and released to the public on Feb. 2. The rest of that first report from scientists will come out months later...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012200917_pf.html

http://www.ipcc.ch/

For more information on this issue use the search feature on this site located at the top left corner

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming

Jan. 22, 2007, 9:45AM
Climate scientists feeling the heat
As public debate deals in absolutes, some experts fear predictions 'have created a monster' By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Scientists long have issued the warnings: The modern world's appetite for cars, air conditioning and cheap, fossil-fuel energy spews billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, unnaturally warming the world.

Yet, it took the dramatic images of a hurricane overtaking New Orleans and searing heat last summer to finally trigger widespread public concern on the issue of global warming.

Climate scientists might be expected to bask in the spotlight after their decades of toil. The general public now cares about greenhouse gases, and with a new Democratic-led Congress, federal action on climate change may be at hand.

Problem is, global warming may not have caused Hurricane Katrina, and last summer's heat waves were equaled and, in many cases, surpassed by heat in the 1930s.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4487421.html

For more information on this issue use the search feature on this site located at the top left corner

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming

Meteorologist Spann Monday Guest Spots Jan. 22

Glenn Beck notion of man's exclusive contribution to global warming is wrong...

Get the transcript

Meteorologist Disagrees with Global Warming Theory
Aired January 22, 2007 - 19:00:00 ET

Glenn Beck

...The notion of man`s complete responsibility for global warming has wrongly been adopted as universal truth here in our country. Remember, you know, just because Al Gore made a documentary doesn`t mean that all of the information he presented were irrefutable facts. Where were the SUVs when the dinosaurs were burned?

You know, it`s just like two doctors having a differing opinion on how to handle a treatment of a disease. There are numerous alternative views on why the Earth`s climate is what it is...


What happened? How did -- why is it, James, that you don`t believe that this is a manmade process?

JAMES SPANN, METEOROLOGIST: Well, Glenn, the earth`s climate has changed since the day God put it here. We have had these cyclical changes, and I believe that most of this is purely natural.

Quite frankly, to those of us in the operational community -- and we`re talking meteorologists that look at computer models and data in a simulated public forecast -- we don`t see much difference in the global warming in the last 10 to 15 years compared to the global warming we had from about 1910 to about 1945.

The 1930s were extremely cold across the globe. And I just don`t see a lot of difference in that.

And to us, the co2 emissions -- and let me say this. I think we should reduce this for better air quality. We`re going to run out of fossil fuels. We have many issues. And I`m all in agreement that we should reduce that.

But the idea that this is producing catastrophic manmade global warming just doesn`t make a lot of sense. It`s a pop gun compared to atomic bomb issues like volcanic dust in the stratosphere, the position of the sun, the temperature of the sun, the structure of the earth`s magnetic poles and ocean currents. That`s what makes the big changes...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/22/gb.01.html

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/gb.html

CNN Transcripts for January 22, 2007

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2007.01.22.html

Beck's guest is James Spann

Is it manmade or is it natural, poses Spann during the interview. There needs to be a healthy debate. He responded to Cullen's comments...

Spann said Cullen was unavailable to appear on a spot on the podcast at weatherbrains.com

http://www.weatherbrains.com/

GLENN BECK

Scientist Shares Alternate View on Global Warming; Do Commercial Airlines Care More about Lawsuits Than Safety? Aired January 17, 2007 - 19:00:00 ET

Discusses global warming with Bjorn Lomborg, a scientist. He`s an author of the "Skeptical Environmentalist".

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/17/gb.01.html



Thanks to following site for the tip of Spann's scheduled appearances. We would've missed it firsthand if we hadn't found the announcement.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

In essence, Spann does not believe that human activity is contributing to global warming and contends that "billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon." Spann received so much traffic on his site that it was temporarily shut down Thursday night, he said.

Then the FOX News Network called and asked him to appear on "Hannity & Colmes." And CNN Headline News, which wanted to book him for "Glenn Beck." Spann said he is scheduled to appear on both of those shows Monday night.
What pressed all of those hot buttons was Spann's response to comments made by the Weather Channel's Heidi Cullen on a blog she posted Dec. 21.

On that post, titled "Junk Controversy, Not Junk Science," Cullen supported the theory that increases in levels of gases, particularly carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere have led to global warming, and she challenged meteorologists who say it is the result of cyclical weather patterns...

http://kstepanian.blogspot.com/

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http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming

Global warming predictions in error

ARTHUR B. ROBINSON, SALLIE L. BALIUNAS, WILLIE SOON, AND ZACHARY W. ROBINSON

Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, 2251 Dick George Rd., Cave Junction, Oregon 97523 info@oism.org

George C. Marshall Institute, 1730 K St., NW, Ste 905, Washington, DC 20006 info@marshall.org January 1998

ABSTRACT

A review of the research literature concerning the environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th Century have produced no deleterious effects upon global weather, climate, or temperature. Increased carbon dioxide has, however, markedly increased plant growth rates. Predictions of harmful climatic effects due to future increases in minor greenhouse gases like CO2 are in error and do not conform to current experimental knowledge...

http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm

For more information on this issue use the search feature on this site located at the top left corner

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