Not Global Warming, Todd Palin Censored, Mooseburger Chili

Where I live there are a lot of people who poo poo any arguments for global warming. A lot of newsprint is used to promote their contempt. It doesn't matter how you wish to justify it, but the polar ice caps are melting, and its having effects felt around the globe. Reuters gives a report from the UN:  The humanitarian community is overwhelmed by rising weather-related disasters and tens of billions of dollars are needed each year to reduce the risks from global warming, aid officials at U.N. climate change talks said on Wednesday.
The number of natural disasters had doubled in the past 20 years from around 200 to 400, Kasidis Rochanakorn, director of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, told journalists. There were 200 floods in 2005 compared with 50 in 1985, and they were damaging larger areas, he said.

For good or bad, the economic stimulus bill achieved a deal to pass a Senate vote, maybe on Tuesday. Then it goes to committee where it will be tweaked and changed again over much debate. The United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard has a good idea over how to implement the TARP funds: "A decade or so ago, some states gave welfare recipients food stamp debit cards. Welfare mothers could use them to buy groceries with plastic, just like virtually everybody else in the check out line. Plastic made accounting easier for clerks because the debit cards failed to function for excluded items like cigarettes and alcohol.

That’s what America needs for Wall Street. When bankers get money from the $700 billion bailout called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), they should receive it on plastic. A TARP debit card would restrict bankers’ spending. TARP plastic would fail to function if bankers tried to use it for excluded items like $18 billion in year-end bonuses, private French-manufactured jets and $35,000 inoperative toilets. "

Boy, those Alaskans don't mess around. When todd Palin blew them off during the Troopergate scandal, they finally got around to punishing him: From Politico: "The Alaska state Senate voted Friday to find Todd Palin, husband of Gov. Sarah Palin, in contempt for failing to testify under order of subpoena. The resolution passed the Senate 16-1 and contained language ensuring that none of the 10 individuals would be subject to further legal action on the matter.

The resolution’s sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Hollis French, told the Anchorage Daily News that “a lot of people were upset that the subpoenas were ignored” and that the resolution “memorializes their contempt.” Big deal, huh?

But our Sarah is keeping a more positive image, and finding ways to insert herself into the national spotlight, from dissing the GOP to go and have dinner with the President at the Alfalfa Club, to having interviews with Esquire magazine, from which I serve up a few good quotes. Ok, they were originally excerpted by the Hill blog. As one of those who are both pathetic and anonymous, I thank you Sarah Palin:

"Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie annoy me."

"I'll tell you, yesterday the Anchorage Daily News, they called again to ask — double-, triple-, quadruple-check — who is Trig's real mom. And I said, Come on, are you kidding me? We're gonna answer this? Do you not believe me or my doctor? And they said, No, it's been quite cryptic the way that my son's birth has been discussed. And I thought, OK, more indication of continued problems in the world of journalism. If I were giving advice to myself back on the day my candidacy was announced, I'd say, Tell the campaign that you'll be callin' some of the shots. Don't just assume that they know you well enough to make all your decisions for ya. Let them know that you're the CEO of a state, you're 44 years old, you've got a lot of great life experience that can be put to good use as a candidate."


"The secret to chili is you gotta have good mooseburger in there. I don't know if you can get moose commercially in New York. You'd have to come up here and visit me in my home, and I'll prepare it for ya."


"Hot? If only people could see me as I come in from a run early in the morning without a trough full of makeup on, I think that they'd have a different opinion."

Late night jokes:

"This week in Washington, President Obama took time out from his busy day to read a book to a group of second graders. Did you see that on the news? It was a fairy tale about a cabinet nominee who once paid all his taxes." --Jay Leno

"It came out today that the House Democratic Caucus spent $500,000 of taxpayers' money for retreats at luxury resorts and spas. The Democrats say the time was used for strategic planning for the country. So, the resorts are being used for strategic planning. Really? Then what is the Capitol building for? Hello?! Hello?! Isn't this work?" --Jay Leno

"Hey, listen to this -- according to 'The Wall Street Journal,' the city of Las Vegas wants to use $2 million worth of the economic stimulus package for neon signs. I just hope it doesn't make the city look tacky." --Jay Leno

"I don't want to just ruin everybody's day, but there is discouraging news everywhere. Unemployment is high. Foreclosure rate is high. Michael Phelps is high." --David Letterman

"Hey, how about that Rod Blagojevich? You know who I am talking about? The former governor of Illinois was on the program Tuesday. He looks like the guy who would sell you retractable awnings. Blagojevich looks like a guy who runs out of bullets and then throws his gun at Superman." --David Letterman

"Man, here's something chilling. Former Vice President Dick Cheney is now warning that there will be another terrorist attack. He got that information by waterboarding himself." --David Letterman

"Another one of President Barack Obama's nominees is having tax issues, which proves one thing: The Democrats like raising the taxes, but they hate paying them." --Craig Ferguson

"Sarah Palin is back in the news as well. She's been criticizing anonymous bloggers. She calls them 'pathetic.' Apparently she feels that unknown people should not be criticizing politicians, unless the unknown person is running for vice president. Then it's all right." --Craig Ferguson

"It's bad here in California. The unemployment here is the worst it's been in 25 years. Here's how bad the unemployment situation is in Hollywood. Right now, people are begging to work with Christian Bale." --Craig Ferguson