Three Big Firms Pull Out of Climate Partnership

The collapse of the biggest fraud in human history continues:

WASHINGTON—Three large corporations are quitting the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a broad group of businesses and environmental organizations that has been instrumental in building support in Washington for capping U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases.

Oil giants BP PLC and ConocoPhillips along with Caterpillar, Inc., the Peoria, Ill., heavy-equipment maker, have decided against renewing their membership in the organization, according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.

Red Cavaney, ConocoPhillips senior vice president for government affairs, said USCAP was focused on getting a climate-change bill passed, whereas Conoco is increasingly concerned with what the details of such a bill would be.

"USCAP was starting to do more and more on trying to get a bill out without trying to work as much on the substance of it," Mr. Cavaney said.

These companies are now seeing their extortionist's power withering away. USCAP is an odd consortium of large industrial corporations
and parasitical environmental groups bent on their destruction e.g. Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy and The World Resources Institute.


In other words, USCAP is a protection racket that companies are forced to join in order to avoid nuisance litigation, bad publicity from a compliant media or the wrath of the Eco-Marxists statist patrons in government through regulation and legislation.

Drilling Protesters Gather at The Beach

SIESTA KEY - More than 250 people joined hands on the famous powdery sands of Siesta Public Beach on Saturday to show opposition to oil drilling as close as three to 10 miles offshore...The Siesta Key protest was one of around 60 across the state...Sarasota Mayor Dick Clapp joined the protests, saying that the local economy depends on the beaches to draw tourists.

Moss organized the local protest after hearing about "Hands Across the Sand" on local public radio.

Hands Across the Sand includes many local governments and various Chambers of Commerce. Obviously they have an interest in this but do they know or care who they are climbing into bed with?

Their website features prominent links to radical groups like Progress Florida and The Florida Green Party, which is part of the Green Party of The United States. Their mission goes well beyond protecting the environment as they are essentially Socialist groups that use environmental causes to destroy private property rights and the free market system.

There is a compromise here that could allow drilling up to say, fifty miles from shore, well over the horizon but much closer than the ridiculous distance of 225 miles now in effect. On top of the obvious economic benefits for Florida and the country, oil rigs will also provide much needed artificial reefs that will expand the fish population in the desert that is Florida's Gulf Coast.

But local governments and business groups will never find common ground as long as they associate themselves with Anti-American radicals that view them as a temporary ally.

'Airstream Ranch' along I-4 does not violate law, judges rule

A small victory for private property rights:

TAMPA — Love it or hate it, the Winnebago-sized installation known as the "Airstream Ranch" is legal, a three-judge panel has ruled.

This week's decision reverses a $100-per-day fine on Frank and Dorothy Bates, who put up the shiny row of silver RVs in 2007. Hillsborough County officials can appeal, but Bates plans to keep the trailers buried nose-first in view of drivers whizzing through Dover on Interstate 4.

Got that? This is along I-4! I don't know if it's art or not, but it certainly breaks up the monotony of driving to Orlando. The taxpayers of Hillsbourough must be pleased as punch that their money has been wasted on this lawsuit.

"The attraction has drawn tourists from as far away as Japan, was the backdrop for a fashion shoot and has been featured in a country music video. Two people asked about marrying there."

Prediction: In twenty or thirty years someone else will own the property and new busybodies will try to prevent them from taking it down because it's "historically significant".

St. Pete Beach eyes federal stimulus money for marina, Corey boardwalk

It's nice to see that at least some of my federal tax dollars might be wasted closer to home:

ST. PETE BEACH — A city-owned marina and a boardwalk under the Corey Avenue Bridge are ideas that just won't die.

Despite past funding setbacks, the city is now pushing to get $500,000 in federal stimulus funds to build a 725-foot boardwalk beneath the Corey Avenue Bridge to connect the city's historic Corey Avenue shopping district with the new $8 million community center and park on the north side of the bridge.

Perhaps they could call it The American Economy Memorial Marina and Boardwalk. No one locally wanted to fund this thing, having decided it was a waste of money. But using borrowed and stolen money laundered through Washington is OK. The people (and their children) of St. Pete Beach will pay for this inefficient nonsense anyway, so they might as well put their snouts in the trough.

Pinellas County Prescription Drug Sting

Here's the latest offensive in the war on some drugs:

PINELLAS PARK — A Pinellas County sheriff's task force is planning a Monday sting operation to round up suspects accused of prescription drug crimes...The task force of St. Petersburg police and Pinellas sheriff's investigators was created to help combat the pharmaceutical fraud and doctor-shopping epidemic, officials said...The task force of St. Petersburg police and Pinellas sheriff's investigators was created to help combat the pharmaceutical fraud and doctor-shopping epidemic, officials said.

I'm sure glad the police are out there protecting us against...what? This will accomplish exactly nothing other than wasting taxpayer dollars to screw up the lives of people who are already screwed up enough. The war will continue until people realize they can only be addicted to government approved drugs like alcohol.

The Biggest Jerk in Congress

From Human Events:

“Every school, club, or company has a loudmouth whose outrageous statements and failed attempts at humor cause his friends to shy away, feigning laughter and everyone to think ‘what a jackass.’ Congress always has more than its fair share of such people, and suffers them gladly. Well, most of them. But this congress contains a man who rises above the rest, distinguishing himself beyond all others as this session’s ‘Biggest Jerk In Congress.’ He is Representative Alan Grayson, a first-term Democratic Congressman from Florida’s historically Republican 8th Congressional District, which includes Orlando.”

I disagree. Grayson's world class jerkiness is merely a symptom of his underlying insanity.

Crist, Rubio Spar Over Counting illegals in Census

The argument is academic at this point, since the census has already begun. Nevertheless, Charlie Crist is taking the opportunistic stand as opposed Rubio's more principled one:

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio has come out against including illegal immigrants in the national census — even though doing so could significantly reduce Florida’s political power and share of federal funding. …

But, later, a spokesman for Rubio’s Senate campaign said that Rubio did “not support a congressional reapportionment process that counts illegal immigrant populations when allocating seats.” Alex Burgos said Rubio’s position “stems from a concern about rightful representation in Congress and ensuring that every voter has an equal voice.” …

Crist went to North Miami on Tuesday to urge everyone to participate in the census.

“The people of Florida represent a rich legacy of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experiences, and want to be represented accordingly,” Crist said. “Florida families should participate in the 2010 census to ensure our state receives the funding necessary to meet the needs of our citizens.”

Illegal immigrants are not citizens but Crist wants to redefine the word while resorting to the usual "diversity" pandering. He then goes a cynical step further in his criticism of Rubio:

“Florida deserves to have her fair share. And I think making sure that we count every single Floridian is vitally important. That’s why I went to the school yesterday in North Miami,” Crist said.

“It is important. It’s important to our state, it’s important to our people. And the notion that you would not want to accept federal funding to make a political statement is absurd.”

It's not just a political statement, it is a defense of the rule of law and the Constitution. What's absurd is Crist's acceptance of an overbearing federal government that forces states to beg Washington for the return of its citizens money in the form of pork. What's more absurd is the notion that illegal immigrants should be counted in the census in order to get more of that pork.

Perhaps if states didn't receive funding for illegals, they would be less accepting of the problem and would lobby Washington to do its job and protect the borders.

More from Hot Air:

But there is also $400 billion in federal programs available to states, allocated in large part on the basis of population. Crist wants a bigger piece of that pie, and Rubio also acknowledged that those kinds of considerations are not unimportant. That should demonstrate how federal programs distort political processes, though, and not give an excuse to pork feeders at the trough. The Constitutional requirement for a Census every ten years is to make sure that Americans have fair representation in the House, not to determine which little piggy gets the most slop.