Grassfire's Steve Elliott offers his thoughts on politics and the culture

05.18.08 Briefing • Steve Elliott, Grassfire.org • Subscribe here • RSS

Obama's view of your economic future: "We can't drive our SUVs"

Buried in the sea of Obama's largest crowd (what Drudge calls the "Obama Mass") is the economic ramifications of his latest pronouncements on global warming:

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.... That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."

Let's break that down. First, under an Obama administration, "we can't drive our SUVs," which begs the question: "What precisely qualifies as an 'SUV'? Is my family minivan an SUV? Perhaps any vehicle that doesn't deliver 30 miles per gallon will be a banned 'SUV.' Let's move on. " We can't... keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times." My home was set at 70 degrees last night and my office is at 72 degrees all day. I think it's been proven that air conditioning actually does increase productivity. And why pick on '72 degrees'? Why not 76 degrees? What is morally acceptable in this new Obamaworld?

As we continue, our economic future under Obama looks even worse, because Obama establishes that the real moral authority for what we do as Americans is set by foreign authorities. Obama said we can't drive SUVs and set the thermostat to 72 degrees "and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK." Allow me to translate: Obama is a globalist. He sees America as ultimately under the authority of another jurisdiction, namely the global jurisdiction. Obama concluded this section of his remarks by saying, "that's not going to happen." This doesn't sound like the man who is going to bring us all together and get us to work together. This sounds more like America's most liberal senator.

"Threatened" Polar Bear Population Has Actually Doubled In Past 40 Years
The US Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne was presented with the real facts of the polar bear population and the gloomy projections of global warming computer models. Of course, Kempthorne went with the models. According to Kempthorne:

"Although the population of bears has grown from a low of about 12,000 in the late 1960’s to approximately 25,000 today, our scientists advise me that computer modeling projects a significant population decline by the year 2050. This, in my judgment, makes the polar bear a threatened species – one likely to become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future."

So while the actual population of polar bears is on the rise, the models tells us these bears are doomed. This sounds like a hangover from Al Gore's debunked "drowning" polar bears story in "Inconvenient Truth". The polar bear hype is one of the reasons the WPost gave Gore a "pinnocchio" for his movie. According to the Post:

Gore cited a scientific study showing that polar bears had drowned by "swimming long distances--up to 60 miles--to find the ice." According to Andrew Derocher, chair of the polar bear group at the World Conservation Union, studies show that there is a good chance that the polar bears died by drowning but no definitive proof. Storms and hypothermia are other major concerns.

More pronouncements from the Goracle
Now we know that Al Gore's venture funds have put down $1.8 billion in "green" industries. Given that without government mandates there currently is little rationale for these green industries, Gore's investments depend in large part on the success of his environmental crusade. Go here to see Gore push his stock portfolio during a recent "save the planet" presentation. And Gore is not slowing down. Over the weekend, he gave the commencement address at Carnegie-Mellon and restated his theses that "we face a planetary emergency" and have "given the planet a fever." Gore went on to say that man-made global warming is "the most serious crisis our civilzation has ever confronted."

Edwards Endorses Obama and his anti-American worldview
John Edwards' anti-climatic and purely politically pragmatic endorsement of Barack Obama was only noteworthy on two points. First, of course Edwards wants to be the Veep. But what does he bring to the table? Second, Edwards certainly shares Obama's "Hate America First" foreign policy. In his speech yesterday, Edwards echoed Obama's foreign policy thesis in saying that when other countries look at the U.S. "all the world sees now is a bully."

Bill Gates on the next 10 years
When the richest man in the world talks, it's good to listen. Well, at least it's worth a skim. Go here for the transcript to Bill Gates' keynote at Microsoft's CEO Summit. Gates' big new thing is a wipeboard that is interactive like his "Surface" giant computer table (see funny parody here). He sees a big move toward touch-interactive screens in the workplace through tables (Surface) and these boards. I watched his dog-and-pony and I'm not too convinced. Perhaps it was the presenter -- Gates has never had the slick promotional skills of Apple's Steve Jobs.

By the way, just 20 days to Jobs' keynote at Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference (WWDC) at which the industry is expecting Jobs to announce the iPhone 2.0.

On the Web Today:
G.O.P. Shaken by losses, looking to McCain
Crazy ants in Houston!
G.O.P. facing 70-seat deficit in House?
McCain goes "green" on website
Jerry Falwell's legacy grows
Mexican immigrants not assimilating well
Washington Times: Pardon Ramos and Compean
Latest Mac ad
CBS buys CNET for $1.8 billion
31,000 scientists reject global warming

05.13.08 Briefing • Steve Elliott, Grassfire.org • Subscribe here • RSS

Dem's problems only grow
Today will continue an odd and difficult stretch of days for the Democrats. Somehow, Barack Obama and the media managed to spin last Tuesday's results -- a split decision in North Carolina and Indiana -- as the coronation for Obama. Time magazine proclaimed him the winner and almost simultaneously Obama wrote off today's West Virginia and next week's Kentucky primaries. Does anyone see the irony of all this? The Demcoratic elite is trying to shame Hillary into leaving the race while Hillary gets ready for her two largest-margin primary victories. This is arguably the closest Democratic primary race in history. The only other race comparable was 1984 when Mondale defeated Hart. Hillary Clinton is the first woman to get close to her party's nomination. The Democrats will have to walk through the next several months very carefully.

San Diego Minutemen Sign Taken Down
California Highway officials recently removed an "adopt a highway" sign sponsored by the San Diego Minutemen because the sign was on a road that illegal aliens use while coming into our country. Apparently, officials thought the sign was too controversial, although it has stood for six weeks without controversy or incident. In 2006, I had the privilege of traveling to San Diego, meeting Jeff Schwilk and others with the SD Minutemen and hearing first-hand the battle they have had to stop the massive flow of illegals that have come across in San Diego. Go here for more information.

Are you Time-Shifting?
How we watch television is undergoing a metamorphosis and I'm not talking about HD. The real change is what's called "time shifting" -- watching TV when you want to watch it and now necessarily when it is aired. If you are one of the 25% of American households with a digital video recorder (DVR), you know what I'm talking about and you're never going back. DVRs let you skip commercials and fit your TV viewing around your schedule rather than the other way around. I now find it annoying to watch any show "live." Even a 15 minute delay lets me skip all the commercials in a one-hour program.

Time-shifting is causing problems for TV executives. THis year's May "sweeps" are down 7 million viewers from last year. But the trend is only going to get bigger, especially since people already time shift when they use their computer (few of us have the patience to sit in front of our computer and watch or listent to something "live").

On the Web Today:
Bob Barr for President
20% of Dems going to defect if Obama nominee
Woman fired for opposing homosexuality

05.09.08 Briefing • Steve Elliott, Grassfire.org • Subscribe here • RSS

Vermont Strategy working for homosexual activists.
For example, ever so steadily, the "Vermont" strategy is in full swing for the homosexual agenda. Simply put, the plan is to use Vermont as a foot in the door to other states by forcing other states to recognize same-sex marriages legalized in Vermont.

This week, a New York court of appeals ruled that the state would recognize same-sex marriages from other states and countries (in this case, Canada) -- despite the fact that same-sex unions are outlawed in New York. This comes while the Supreme Courts in Vermont and Virginia are engaged in a legal tug-of-war that hinges on whether Virginia must recognize a Vermont same-sex union. That case is likely headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, the California Supreme Court is currently deciding a case to determine whether traditional marriage is constitutional in that state.

Why is this not a political issue in 2008?
So with all this legal buzz, why is this not one of the leading news stories in the 2008 election cycle as it was four years ago? It can be argued that in 2004 marriage -- not the war, not the economy -- proved to be the decisive issue in the presidential race. That year, Massachusetts recognized same-sex unions and a major controversy erupted when the mayor of San Francisco decided to issue marriage license to homosexuals and lesbians despite that state's ban. The "attacks on marriage" dominated the news for months. On election day 2004, 11 states overwhelmingly passed marriage referenda. Ohio was one of those states and this is important to note since the Bush-Kerry race pivoted on Ohio. In Ohio, Bush won 16% of the black vote (up from 11% nationally) and two-thirds of the church-going vote. The marriage referendum proved to be a key "get-out-the-vote" motivator and Bush was the beneficiary.

Fast forward to 2008. Ironically, the same issue that ignited the marriage debate in 2004 -- the San Francisco mayor's push to issue marriage licenses -- is still at the center of the legal controversy surrounding marriage. The California Supreme Court case I mentioned earlier will decide that original 2004 legal dispute involving the San Francisco mayor.

So, why is this not a political issue in the 2008 race for the presidency? First, the Left got smarter. Marriage is a losing issue for the Left because their ideology and their base supports homosexual marriage. So the Left has gone silent. Homosexual activists are relatively quiet and political leaders try to support "marriage" and the "rights" of homosexuals at the same time. Second, this is not a key issue for John McCain. In fact, he opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment although his position on the issue does line up with marriage advocates on most other points. Third, the media is barely taking notice. And if the media does not bring the issue front-and-center on a regular basis, the candidates do not feel the need to address the issue. In the case of the disappearing marriage issue, the Left clearly has the advantage.

$126,600,000 of your tax dollars flushed down the "Carbon Hole"
This week the Department of Energy awarded grants totalling over $126 million for "carbon sequestration" projects. Basically, our tax dollars are being wasted on projects to pump CO2 into the earth and hopefully slow down Al Gore's "planetary emergency." This comes after Al Gore blamed the tragic cyclone in Myanmar on global warming: "We’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.” Of course, scientists rebuffed Gore's ridiculous claim and we, as taxpayers, should rebuff these grants and the coming $1.2 trillion carbon tax. The vote on the Carbon Tax is next month. Go here to sign our petition.

On the Web today:

Obama open to Clinton "Dream Ticket"
Stay-at-home moms worth $117k
Obama can't shake Wright's and church's wrongs
Are we in recession? No. Check the real definition here (WTimes)
Obama: McCain "losing his bearings"
Hillary's run to the Left too late?
Wikipornia?