QOTW
“Why is Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons worse than the rebels’ use of al-Qaeda?”
YNoKyoto
PUBLIC servants are drawing up plans to collapse 33 climate change schemes run by seven departments and eight agencies into just three bodies run by two departments under a substantial rewrite of the administration of carbon abatement schemes under the Coalition.
Coalition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt briefed public servants on the dramatic restructure of the federal climate change bureaucracy before the election was called and yesterday confirmed the Coalition was committed to proceeding with the plan.
[…]
The Climate Change Authority, which sets emissions caps, the Climate Commission, which has conducted research into climate change, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which funds renewable technologies, are all slated to be abolished under the plans.
Oddly enough, I’m having a hard time pulling up mention of this development in Canadian media party coverage.
Via JoNova. (h/t Fred)
Cold, Coloradan Hands
Early Results Favor Pro-Gun Groups In Colorado Recall
Giron and Morse became the targets of recall efforts after helping to pass new gun restrictions including background checks for gun purchasers and limits on the size of ammunition magazines. The laws were spurred by shooting massacres like one in Aurora, Colo. in July 2012, which resulted in 12 dead and 58 people injured.
“They blamed Colorado gun owners for a tragedy they did not commit,” Dudley Brown, the executive director of Rocky Mountain for Gun Owners, told NPR. Brown’s group strongly opposed the gun laws.
Critics of the laws subsequently took steps to initiate the first ever recall of two state lawmakers in Colorado’s history.
The election results will be interpreted nationally as an important marker in the ongoing conflict between advocates and opponents of tightening gun restrictions. Indeed, the national view was that the recalls were an indicator as to whether national pro-gun groups had found a new way to fight gun restrictions. Observers and those involved in the recall elections said that if both Morse and Giron were recalled, pro-gun groups would look to use the same type of recall formula elsewhere in the country. That’s why prominent national gun control groups like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns got involved. The two sides pumped millions of dollars into the races.
Denver Post has more, including results.
Reader Tips
Tonight Lester Flatt, the Flatt half of Flatt & Scruggs, sees hippies in dorsal view and Can’t Tell the Boys From the Girls.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
A new Champ!
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
All is unfolding as predicted;
[European industry commissioner Antonio Tajani] warned that Europe’s quixotic dash for renewables was pushing electricity costs to untenable levels, leaving Europe struggling to compete as America’s shale revolution cuts US natural gas prices by 80pc.
“I am in favour of a green agenda, but we can’t be religious about this. We need a new energy policy. We have to stop pretending, because we can’t sacrifice Europe’s industry for climate goals that are not realistic, and are not being enforced worldwide,” he told The Daily Telegraph during the Ambrosetti forum of global policy-makers at Lake Como.
“The loss of competitiveness is frightening,” said Paulo Savona, head of Italy’s Fondo Interbancario. “When people choose whether to invest in Europe or the US, what they think about most is the cost of energy.”
By me, and damned few others, that is.
This Is Awkward
McClatchy: Intercepts caught Assad rejecting requests to use chemical weapons, German paper says… (h/t Rich)
HAHAHAHAHA
BREAKING: Chemical weapons checks in Syria can go ahead if US renounces use of force: Putin
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) September 10, 2013
Related: ‘Putin shipping Assad more weapons to crush rebels’
Reuters: Russia withdraws request for emergency U.N. Syria meeting
“Following withdrawal of the request for consultations, Security Council meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. (2000 GMT) will not proceed,” Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan, president of the 15-nation council this month, announced on his Twitter feed @AustraliaUN.
The meeting was expected to focus on a Russian plan to place Syrian chemical weapons under international control, diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
I Amuse Myself
Smoldering shadow of former self, Neil Young, blames oilsands. MT @BCheadle Neil Young likens oil sands landscape to Hiroshima. #softball
— Katewerk (@katewerk) September 10, 2013
Help Kickstart WWIII
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and prior to that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States.
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
Introducing Mr. Abbott
If you’re like most Canadians, you probably don’t know much about Australia’s new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. Consider this column (audio discussion of the same) by journalist Simon Kent to be an excellent primer. James Delingpole explains the two paths that Abbott can now take.
Tony Abbott sounds like a true, unapologetic conservative who isn’t afraid to tell Leftists that much of what they spew is bile. Look for outbreaks of “Abbott Derangement Syndrome” (ADS) in the very near future!
Conservatives Win In Norway
Norway’s opposition Conservatives, promising tax cuts and better healthcare, won elections in a landslide on Monday but faced tough coalition talks with a populist party that wants to spend more of the accumulated oil riches and curb immigration.
Led by Erna Solberg, a former girl scout leader who has overcome dyslexia, the Conservatives promise to diversify the economy away from oil, privatize state firms, and reduce some of the world’s highest taxes rates to give the private sector more breathing room.
Solberg, 52, will become Norway’s second female prime minister, as well as its first Conservative prime minister since 1990. At least the top two cabinet posts – and possibly the top three – are likely to be filled by women.
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
The price of power for many Ontario households and businesses has spurted higher as the “global adjustment’ – an extra fee tacked onto the market price – has jumped to a record high.
The market price for electricity in Ontario Tuesday was about 2.5 cents a kilowatt hour. But the global adjustment for September will add another 8.72 cents to the market price for customers who aren’t covered by the province’s regulated price plan.
[…]
It’s a fee added to the market price because most electricity in Ontario doesn’t trade on the open market; some generators have separate contracts with the Ontario Power Authority, others are covered by special rates for renewable power.
Privately owned Bruce Power sells its output under contract to the power authority, for example. Privately owned gas-fired generating stations also have separate contracts, while most wind and solar producers are covered by special feed-in tariff rates that are considerably higher than the average market price.
To cover the cost of those higher-than-market rates, as well as conservation programs, consumers are charged the extra fee, or “global adjustment.”
h/t Rob
Honey, I Finished The Internet
Reader Tips
We already know that the Pope wears a funny hat; tonight, we find out what bears do in the woods.
h/t Neil
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
O, Sweet Saint Of San Andreas
Hear my prayer. (h/t Larry)
link fixed -lance
On second thought
Following the US administration’s takes, retakes and gaffes on Syria and the Russian proposition is turning into a head-ache.
Still, the United States said it would take a “hard look” at the plan although State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said “we can’t have this be another stalling tactic.”
Clinton just referred to the "Kerry proposal," the same one US official called a "major goof" minutes ago.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianLAT) September 9, 2013
I think it’s pretty much a given that the Russian plan will go forward, the UN will love it, the Security Council will approve it and it gives everyone an out.
The only trick now, as seen by that tweet, is how to play it so that it isn’t seen as an off the cuff remark by Kerry but gosh-darned State Dept. policy put forward by the Messiah.