We have a “Climate Change Diplomat” ?

Published June 16, 2012 | By Iowadawg

The State Department’s top climate change diplomat says next week’s United Nations green development conference in Brazil is a high priority for U.S. officials even though President Obama isn’t showing up.

Heads of state from over 100 nations are slated to attend the June 20-22 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, not Obama, is heading the U.S. team, disappointing some environmentalists.

But Todd Stern, the State Department’s special envoy for climate change, noted Friday that not every nation is sending its head-of-state.

“The Secretary of State is coming at a very high level. There are many, many countries that are represented at the head-of-state level and many, many countries that are represented at a senior level comparable to the Secretary of State. I don’t have any other comment on that,” Stern said on a conference call with reporters about the summit.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and a number of other senior U.S. officials are also attending.

Stern called development a major foreign policy focus for the U.S.

“The President and the Secretary of State have elevated it, made it one of the three pillars of our foreign, national security policy, together with defense and diplomacy,” Stern said.

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Told wife, if this shows up at our local wally world or Fareway grocery store, I am buying some! Who else wants Bacon Soda?

It’s liquid, carbonated, a little sweet, and tastes like bacon! Forget those fruity sodas. We bring you a meat soda: Bacon Soda! And you’re thinking, “That’s just pure madness!” But no, it’s really not. It’s genius. Genius, we tell ya! Pure mad genius! Ah hahaha! Whoa… did we just see a flash of lightening? Odd… Well, we know some of you have heard of this soda and thought it was a myth. Others have tried the imposter bacon soda. (Imposter because it wasn’t made by serious bacon lovers.) This soda was cleverly crafted to not only taste like bacon, but be something you would actually want to drink! (Unlike the other sodas.) And if you like the Man Bait Maple Bacon Lollipops, then you will love this soda! It’s a mad marriage of sugar and bacon. Cheers!

Should go good with bacon jerky?

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Bacon dreamcatcher!

When multiple strips of bacon are weaved together in a criss-cross pattern. This forms what resembles a dreamcatcher.

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GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Four years ago, Kent Couch made headlines by floating through the clouds in a lawn chair hoisted by party balloons from Oregon to Idaho. He’s going to fly again, this time with a buddy sitting on a second lawn chair at his side.

They are planning to take off July 14 from the parking lot of Couch’s gas station and convenience store in Bend, Ore., the way he did in 2008 when he floated 235 miles to an Idaho farm field.

Iraqi adventurer and skydiver Fareed Lafta, who read about Couch’s exploit, will be going along for the ride so he could add lawn-chair ballooning to his bucket list.

“We can’t hit above 18,000 feet (because of federal flight restrictions), but we can make a good run at, I imagine, 400 miles or plus” in distance, which should put them in southwestern Montana after an overnight flight, Couch said.

The flight will be a warm-up for another one planned for this fall in Iraq. The men had to scrub a tandem flight last fall after Iraqi officials said they couldn’t provide security for the liftoff from a Baghdad soccer stadium.

Since people learned of his plans to fly in Iraq, he regularly gets told he is crazy. “They say: `Aren’t you afraid you’ll get shot down?’” he said.

Couch has wanted to fly like a cloud all his life, trying bungee jumping, sky diving, and hang gliding – everything short of getting an actual pilot’s license. Then he saw a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, who gained urban myth immortality.

“It looked plenty easy,” he said. “I saw this as the easiest way for me to fly.”

His first time up was in 2006, when he got only 99 miles before the helium balloons started popping and he had to bail out. In 2007, he flew 193 miles before running low on helium and landing in the sagebrush near Union, Ore.

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Geesh……wonder who is paying for these cops? And I have never been to a wedding yet where cops were in protection mode!

100 TO 200 COPS TO COVER WEDDING OF OBAMA ADVISER’S DAUGHTER

Washington Free Beacon

Between 100 and 200 Chicago police officers will secure the perimeter at the Saturday wedding of Valerie Jarrett’s daughter, which President Obama and the first family will attend:

ANCHOR ABC CHICAGO: President Obama and the first family will head to Chicago later today. Among the president’s plans is the wedding of Laura Jarrett, daughter of Obama senior adviser Valeire Jarrett. Chopper 7 HD flew over the backyard of the Kenwood home that will be hosting the wedding. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago police will be providing security. It is being reported that between 100 and 200 police officers will help secure perimeter around the wedding.

CBS Chicago reports the assignment comes amid recent violence in the city and a hot-weather forecast:

The report comes in the wake of a spike in violence in Chicago – including a rash of shootings last weekend that killed nine people and wounded 53, and three headline-grabbing mob attacks on innocent people downtown and in River North and Streeterville. [...]

Sneed reports the officers will be pulled from all the city’s police districts, and that the federal government will not be reimbursing the city for the cost.

Sneed points out that this weekend, the highs are expected to top out in the 90s – a condition that often leads to more spikes in violence.

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My wife is like, who cares? If it does not concern her Chicago Cubs, forget it!

Baseball analysis is difficult enough trying to decipher WHIP, WAR and OPS, but author Mark Judge took it to a whole new level with this political commentary, comparing rising stars Bryce Harper and Jason Heyward. Mr. Judge, who declared Harper a “conservative hero,” points to one particular play involving the two, where Harper legged out an extra base on a would-be single, which Heyward lazily fielded:

Heyward’s bungle showed a complacency, if not indolence, that Harper threatens to destroy, but it also could be a metaphor for the collapse of the old liberal order. Heyward was like one of those public school teachers who, because they are a union member, can’t be fired and so are relegated to the “rubber room” to sit and read the paper and gather a check for the rest of their lives.

A commenter responded with this rebuttal:

The Nationals picked Harper first overall because they had the worst record in baseball. They didn’t earn that pick through hard work, in fact they worked the least and were rewarded for it. That sounds like income redistribution to me. Bryce Harper is a socialist hero.

From : nbcsports

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Recreating Old Masterpieces with a Nail Gun

Artist Chen Chun-Hao uses a nail gun to replicate traditional Chinese landscape paintings of masters Fan Kuan and Guo Xi. Each “mosquito nail” creates a dot on the canvas, and when viewing the dots as a whole you see mountains, forests, streams, and other elements.

For more go HERE.

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Deep Fried Cereal?

It’s summer time, and that means new deep-fried fair fare from “Chicken” Charlie Boghosian, who brought us Deep-Fried Kool-Ade last year. At the San Diego County Fair going on now, Chicken Charlie’s is offering Deep-Fried Breakfast Cereal. In addition to Trix, you can select Cinnamon Toast Crunch and possibly others, depending on who stocked up on cereals for the day. Link

(Image credit: Shauntel Lowe for Imperial Beach Patch)

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He’s A Wily One, This President Of Ours!

Once again, President Obama has circumvented Congress and instituted policy on his own:

Washington (CNN) — “In an election-year policy change, the Obama administration said Friday it will stop deporting young illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children if they meet certain requirements.”

Pretty big deal, we’re talking millions that could be affected by this change in policy How is it he doesn’t have to run this by congress? Well, put simply, he didn’t change the law, at least not in his mind.

President Obama’s speech yesterday amounted to nothing but a verbal memo to Janet Napolitano to stop enforcing the law.

While Congress enacts the laws, President Obama feels like he doesn’t have to enforce them, at times.

Selective enforcement has become the mantra of this administration. Just look at Holders cast of idiots, though in his case we could also add selective compliance to the list as well.

How predictable can one get? Polling is down so let’s toss the Hispanic Community a bone, you can stay and we’ll even get you documented do you can work legally! That should go over well with unemployed young Americans whose jobs the newly documented immigrants will be vying for.

“This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It’s not a permanent fix, Obama said to take on conservative criticism of the step. This is a temporary stopgap measure…It’s the right thing to do.”

If not amnesty, then what is it? If only temporary, when does this policy end?

Senator McConnell Delivers Timely Defense of the First Amendment

Senator McConnell delivered a speech at the American Enterprise Institute this afternoon on the need for a renewed defense of free political speech. In his address, the Senate Minority Leader made his case for the need to vigorously defend political speech in the midst of Obama’s radical abuse of the First Amendment. The address focused on the threat to free speech posed by the Obama administration, while encouraging the audience to make the protection of free speech a priority issue during election season.

The Senator began his speech by highlighting his three-decade history of defending the First Amendment. He was opposed to the McCain-Feingold Act from the beginning, and applauds the Citizens United case as a step in the right direction.

The Senator also expressed his opposition to the Disclose Act, saying that it is “nothing less than an effort by the government itself to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation.” The Disclose Act, a response to the Citizens United case, would mandate strict disclosure of all donors to outside spending groups. The bill would open more donors to bullying from the government and be used as a “political weapon.”