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Potentially Big News on Lieberman's Cap-and-Trade Proposal

Posted September 20, 2007 | 05:06 PM (EST)

Recently, one of the most irksome members of the Senate, Joe Lieberman (I-Clowntown) expressed openness to one of the boldest and most effective climate-change policies possible. Some background,

A cap-and-trade system begins by placing a cap on carbon emissions and distributing permits (permission to emit a certain amount of CO2) equal to the capped amount. The notion is that permits will be bought and sold, allowing market forces to determine where emission reductions can be made fastest and easiest. The question is how to distribute those initial permits.

When the EU carbon trading system was established, permits were given away based on emissions, meaning the biggest polluters got the most permits. The idea was that those polluters most needed the money because they had the biggest reductions to make, but in practice it was an enormous financial windfall for their shareholders and prompted very little action on their part to reduce emissions.

The alternative is to sell the permits at auction. This would, in effect, put the proceeds in government coffers rather than in the pockets of utility shareholders. The question then becomes: what should the gov't do with all that money (up to $50B a year)?

The Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade proposal, released early this year, was widely seen as the "moderate" bill that could get some support from Senate Republicans. One of the biggest criticisms it faced is that it would auction only 20% of the permits -- 80% would be given away to polluters.

But an intriguing item in Politico indicates that Lieberman may be open to changing that:

Lieberman, following a forum sponsored by the Progressive Policy Institute Wednesday, said such a change to his legislation was possible. "We've heard [calls for a 100 percent auction] from some stakeholders and heard that from some of our members. We're thinking about it. Warner and I haven't closed our minds to that. It's on the table," he said.

This could be huge news. The L-W proposal is viewed as the middle of the road. If it moves to 100% auctioned credits, that will effectively sanctify it as the new baseline. The policy and political implications are both huge.

You have a post on the conservative board detailing how you saved a certain poster's posts, plus you have another post saying how creeped out you are by us.

All this Sue Ann admiration and adoration is just sick, sick, sick and oh-so CREEPY. You act like she was Mary Mag or something. EEEEECCCCH. !!@@$%$%$$$%$%$

Anyone seen the kids singing the Obama song. It's way way creepy. They're all dressed in their little uniform and doing hand gestures and you can definitely tell the kids do not know what the lyrics mean. It was on the Obama website but after so many negative comments they took it off. One commenter on AOL wrote "it is eerie. What on earth are children doing praying to a candidate? I'm not sure what bothers me the most: Is it their glassy-eyed stares? Is it their Children of the Corn-fed good looks? Their hyptonized vibrato-less tones? Someone else wrote "This has more than a little whiff of Havana and Moscow about it". And another commenter wrote "These kids are already being taught to worship Obama as if he were some kind of god. That's what kids in North Korea, Cuba, Saddam Hussein's old Iraq, and other totalarian regimes were taught to do as well. The purpose is if they grow up seeing their leaders as god-like they're less likely to rise up against them." (now that's one of the best observations I've read).

Anyway...here is the link and you can see for yourselves. Don't watch it before bed unless you don't mind nightmares.

Just for the record, Obama is not a messiah or the messiah, he is not our savior, though he tries portrays himself as just that. He is not operating some elevated, enlightened plane on which the rest of us are not fit to tread. He is merely a man wrongfully elected into the most powerful position in the world. Forgive me if my fears and concerns aren't assuaged by the fact that he ordered a chili dog for lunch!

He wasn't "wrongfully elected." The majority of the people spoke and, for once, their votes were counted honestly. He didn't need to be selected. He was rightfully elected.

The Bushies are the "worshippers." Those who voted for Obama are "supporters" of better futures of their children and grandchildren. It just so happens that that hope -- yes, HOPE, the new Neocon four-letter curse word -- is coming in the form of a man who can, at the very least, form complete sentences, for whom English is not a second language, someone who doesn't claim the "have mores" are his "base," and someone who hasn't claimed to have a direct line to GOD.

Oh, yeah, and he just happens to be BLACK, as well. So he carries even a higher burden than any other white man would be forced to carry. He's intelligent enough to know that this is a historic moment in the USA, which is another reason I believe he won't mess it up.

I've seen the look in his eyes when his wife and children are in his presence. He is truly humbled by them. It would take quite a lot to convince me that he would endanger them (or their futures) in any way. He isn't arrogant. He doesn't publicly say he doesn't CARE what people think because he's the "Decider," and I'm pretty sure he is aware that fish and man CAN and HAVE coexisted for quite some time now.

A few days ago someone posted below how Obama was "just like one of us" because he ordered a chili dog and cheese fries for lunch with the mayor of DC! The idea, I guess, being that he isn't really like us, he's better than us, on a higher plane I guess, and that we should all swoon at his presence and revel in the idea that he could possibly be like us and eat a freaking chili dog! Am I right?!?!?!

And then there is the countdown to his inauguration. And can I just remind everyone it is an inauguration NOT a coronation. The man is not going to be king!

I've noticed this Obama worship for a while what with Oprah calling him "The One" on her show during the election race and the fervor at his rallies during the campaign, you know the swooning and fainting and the chanting "yes we can" like it was some sort of evangelical tent revival. It was as if all reason was lost in the euphoria of this "man." At first I tried to chalk it up to the excitement of the election. But it continues now even after he has won the election. Not only is it creepy, it is very, very dangerous.

Just a simple Google search of obama blogs, I find this and many others with similar sentiments:

"Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway... Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul."

I'm not sure who the author is, but the author and this country has lost touch with reality and lost touch with God to the extent that people are looking to Obama as some sort of god. Not believing in God doesn't mean you believe in nothing, it means you'll believe in anything and look around you, there is a great many people ready to believe in anything, even a black man from a corrupt Chicago political machine with a nice smile and pretty words.

"Pledged to vote for Woodrow Wilson and support the reorganization of the Democratic Party"

"Democrats in every county in Pennsylvania have been betrayed times without number and to-day trickery and deception walk hand in hand to again mislead them"

"Canidates have been found, who, for a price, are willing to represent the twin-machine traitors."

"Every alert, active Democrat will easily detect the tricksters, and on Saturday, April 13th, 1912, between the hours of 2 PM and 8 PM, will register his vote for the Purification of this Party."

This is creepy. Check out the date on this video clip.sm

David Roberts

Potentially Big News on Lieberman's Cap-and-Trade Proposal