HALF-FULL REPORT 10/23/09

It was a scary conversation.  I was talking to the chief of staff of a solid conservative Republican senator.  I think the world of him as a close friend, he’s a true good-guy pro-American – but he’s so wrapped up in the day-to-day process of the Senate that it can startle him when he’s asked to glimpse the reality of beyond the Beltway.

We were talking about the fate of ObamaCare, and he had his black hat on telling me how the Dems will ram it through.  "If that happens," I said, "out could come the guns."

All he could manage in response was a garbled "Huh?"

"You and your boss need to grab people where you work by the lapels.  They have no real grasp of the depth of anger among their constituents.  Those constituents own hundreds of millions of guns.  There will be violence, buddy, if this thing passes, politicians gunned down in the streets."

To say he was gobsmacked is a  gross understatement.  I went on to assure him how disastrous I thought the consequences would be – not just for the recipients of the violence but for its perpetrators:  "Violence is extremely traumatizing for those who participate in it.  The one Eastern European country that overthrew Communism violently – Romania – still hasn’t recovered from it."

Further, I went on, "violence may be just what Zero wants, as an excuse to steal people’s guns and impose martial law.  The last thing we want is violence, it’s only a truly last resort, which is why you and the good guys on the Hill need to do whatever it takes to stop ObamaCare in its tracks."

***
Which may be what happened this week, as predicted by the HFR a week ago and discussed yesterday by Jack Kelly.  The Senate Dems are tearing themselves apart over the "Doc Fix" debacle, and the House Dems doing the same with the Pelosicrats against the Blue Dogs.

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The HFR Hero of the Week?  Other than every real American’s favorite vice-president, Dick Cheney, whose Center for Security Policy speech is a "must read" for TTPers, it has to be Doug Hoffman.

As predicted in last week’s HFR, the Conservative Party candidate in the New York 23^rd Congressional District election on Nov. 3^rd yesterday (10/22) received Sarah Palin’s endorsement.  This is marvelously good news. 

It solidifies Sarah’s leadership of the Country Party-Tea Party conservative movement against the Court Party of Dem and GOP elites (note that neither Romney, Huckabee, nor Pawlenty had the guts to back Hoffman).  It substantially increases Hoffman’s chances of winning.  And it ensures Scozzafava’s and the GOP Establishment’s loss.

Dede "Scuzzyfuzzy" Scozzafava had a meltdown this week (10/19), when she called the police to protect her from a Weekly Standard reporter asking questions – then followed that up two days later (10/21) by making a campaign appearance in front of Hoffman’s campaign office.

It never dawned on her that such offices are filled with her opponent’s workers and signs, allowing for this devastating photo op.  You may want to avert your eyes, however, as Scuzzy is so coyote ugly she makes Nancy Pelosi look like a prom queen:

Follow Sarah’s advice.  Donate to Doug!

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Here’s another Barf Alert.  Tomorrow, a group of climbers with the brawn to climb Mount Everest but no brains plan to unfurl a flag saying "350" on the summit.  All over the world, enviro-idiots will be performing stunts regarding the number 350, which is the parts-per-million of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere above which the planet is doomed (we’re already at 370).

Their claim is that an atmosphere above 350 is "not compatible with the planet on which civilization developed or to which life on earth is adapted."  This is way beyond mere stupidity and ignorance – this is deep into full derangement.

The reality is that plant life evolved on earth when there was a far higher concentration of carbon dioxide than now.  For most of the last 600 million years, CO2 levels have been many times higher, and the last time they were as low as now was 270 million years ago.

Further, there is no correlation between CO2 levels and global temperature over the last 600 million years.  Here’s the chart:

 
Life on earth today is CO2-impoverished.  The planet is in a massive CO2 deficit.  We – and plants – need more, lots more CO2.  At the least we need a counter to this lunatic "350 Movement."  We need a, say, "500 Movement."  Restore the Earth, Save the Plants – today 500ppm, tomorrow 1,000!  

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Perhaps then someone with brains will unfurl a "500" banner on the summit of Everest.  When they do, they’ll have one foot in Nepal and one foot in Chinese-Occupied Tibet, for the border runs across the summit. 

There’s a report in the Wall Street Journal today (10/23) on how the Chicoms have once again begun picking border fights – particularly with India.  Here’s the WSJ map of the border disputes:

India and China’s fight over the Aksai Chin – the area marked "Controlled by China, claimed by India" – was discussed in The Indo-China Con (June 2005).  I drove through the Aksai Chin, the world’s highest and remotest desert, in 1986.  It is uninhabited save for a few scattered nomads and worthless to India.

But because India claims it just for pride (China did steal it militarily in 1962), China tit-for-tat claims the Arunachal Pradesh, which is inaccessible to China from Tibet but of great real value to India.

Obviously the solution is a mutual agreement for India and China to both relinquish its claims on each other’s territory.  But obviousness escapes these two behemoths.

Equally obvious should be the solution to India’s deadly border dispute with Pakistan.  This was discussed in Concordia (July 2006), which has a spectacular picture I was able to take of K2, the world’s second highest mountain, where Pakistan, India, and China come together.

India claims the area marked "Controlled by Pakistan" whose inhabitants are all Moslem and have no desire to be ruled by India.  Pakistan, tit-for-tat, claims the area marked "Controlled by India" whose inhabitants are Hindu (in Jammu & Kashmir – except for the Moslems in the Srinigar-Kargil area) and Buddhist (in Ladakh) and have no desire to be ruled by Pakistan.

But perpetual war between them keeps their armies in business and well-funded, so the obvious claim-swap and resultant peace is impossible. 

That people are dying over these asinine easily-solvable border disputes is a clear demonstration that the world is filled with governments crazier and deadlier than ours.  Perspective is always useful.

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Proof that such disputes can be solved was provided this week by China and India cooperating in a joint effort to defeat a threat to them both.  Yesterday (10/22) in New Delhi, China’s chief climate change official Xie Zhenhua, and Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister, signed an agreement to blow up the Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty.

Of course, neither of them admitted to this.  The purpose of their governments’ agreement, they said, was to "cooperate" in providing an "alternative framework" to the treaty being proposed at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen ("COP-15") this December.  Both India and China fully intend to ignore any demands made upon them to reduce their "greenhouse gas emissions" and ruin their economies thereby.

Which is why this picture on the COP-15 official website – of Zero shaking hands with head Chicom Hu Jintao who promises success at the conference – is completely hilarious.

What the Chinese want, of course, is for them and all "developing nations" to be exempt from the treaty while the US and Europe screw each other by applying it only to themselves.

But who should ride to the rescue and scuttle Beijing’s perfidy in the nick of time?  The Lone Ranger of the North – Canada!  Ottawa Dashes Hope For Climate Treaty in Copenhagen is the thrilling headline in today’s Globe and Mail.  Hurray for the Canucks!

The bottom line is this. The GlobalClimateScam website is doing great work at exposing the myths and dangers of climate alarmism.  But their fear that Zero will go to Copenhagen to "sign away US sovereignty" is overblown.

First, next month Zero goes to Beijing to genuflect to the Chicoms who will diss him.  Then Indian leader Monmohan Singh goes to meet Zero in the White House, where Singh will diss him.  Zero will get nowhere with either China or India regarding Copenhagen.

Second, a President cannot, by the Constitution, sign a treaty by himself.  Article II section 2 specifies that a treaty can only become binding upon the United States if it is ratified by two-thirds of the Senate.  The Dems have 60 votes, not 67, and a healthy number of those 60 will vote No along with most every Republican.

Third, Zero is telling everyone that he won’t go to Copenhagen at all unless Cap & Trade is passed.  That won’t happen either – certainly not by mid-December.

The odds are high and growing that Copenhagen will be a debacle, that both it and Cap & Trade will go down in flames.  Let’s all drink to that.

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One last note:  The Remember The Alamo Rendezvous link now has instructions how to directly book your room at the Hilton Palacio Del Rio.  Don’t put this off!  Get registered and get your room now.  There are only so many rooms we can get at the $169 special price for TTP.

I’m also delighted to announce that one of the most amazing individuals I’ve ever known – Sichan Siv – will be speaking at the Rendezvous. 

When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, they slaughtered Sichan’s entire family.  He escaped, eating bark and leaves in the jungle, made it to Thailand, got asylum in America, drove a taxi in New York – and how he made it from there to being Special Assistant to President George H. W. Bush, Under-Secretary of State for South Asia, and a US Ambassador to the UN is a story he tells in his book Golden Bones.

Sichan is a long-time TTPer – and is looking forward to welcoming his fellow TTPers to his now-hometown of San Antonio.
 

Ps:  Forbes Magazine today provided additional support for The Scam of China, in story entitled China’s 8.9% Growth?  No Way.  Thanks!