Memo to voters. Here's the deal...You go broke...

...official US Treasury figures estimate the cost of cap and trade carbon legislation (aka The Waxman Markey Bill) to be $US1761/year/household... According to CBS “the equivalent of increasing personal income taxes by about 15 percent”. This comes in way over previous claims made by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) that claimed that the legislation would cost $83.95 /year/person.

So, what do taxpayers get in exchange for expensive green legislation ?

Answers on the back of an envelope (Freepost) to:

Nick Smith

Minister of Silly Green Posturing

Parliament Buildings

WELLINGTON.

...and a warning for Nick Smith...I’m betting that the Senate never bothers to even put together a bill that they can vote on. Too contentious, too dangerous for too many Senator’s re-election chances. And the best part is that if US efforts fall apart, (they will) then everyone else in the world who’s facing hard choices will take that as a cue and their efforts will fall apart too.
Copenhagen could easily turn out to be a sad joke...more from WuWT here...

...and Quotes of the day; re education and intellectuals ...By the end of that summer, I had concluded that the population cannot be divided into an intellectual class and a nonintellectual class; instead, I concluded, everyone is to some extent an intellectual. The college professor is an intellectual who, it is hoped, applies his intellect to his teaching and research. The skillful auto mechanic is an intellectual who uses logic to eliminate various possible causes of an engine's failure in order to narrow it down to the actual cause. Everyone is an intellectual. Compulsory schooling has robbed millions of people of the knowledge of their intellectual birthright...more here... H/T Samizdata...

...and re ex-President Jimmy Carter's opinion that opposition to President Obama is race-based...Carter's remark drew the condemnation of Michael Steele, the first African-American to become chairman of the Republican National Committee. "President Carter is flat out wrong. This isn't about race. It is about policy," he said in a statement. "This is a pathetic distraction by Democrats to shift attention away from the president's wildly unpopular government-run healthcare plan that the American people simply oppose."...more from Reuters here...