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When President Donald Trump begrudgingly signed a budget deal he called “ridiculous” in order to get increases for the military budget, he asserted: “I’m not going to do it again.” That was 16 months ago. Now, the Trump administration and House Democrats reportedly have reached a deal to suspend the debt limit temporarily and increase spending by more than $300 billion with only limited cuts. Around 5:45 p.m. in Washington, the president tweeted: "I am pleased to announce that a deal has been struck with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy...

**SNIP** It depends. Some carbon-offset projects – which are supposed to compensate for the heat-trapping gases you release to the atmosphere by taking a plane trip, for example – are scams. In one notorious case, the Vatican was presented with offset certificates for millions of trees that were never planted. Even if a project actually exists, offsets have the potential to go wrong in other ways. Say you’re promised that your purchase will help pay for a new wind farm, but then you learn that the wind farm was going to be built even without the help of offsets. You’d...

Cut taxes. Reduce the tax burdens of the American people. Shelve hair-brained schemes like accrual accounting and FACTA whose sole purpose is to please the accountants at the CBO. Follow the Reagan model. It has a proven record of success Obamacare repeal was supposed to be an easy lift. For seven years, every Republican in Washington pledged to repeal and replace the law that has greatly damaged our health care system. Yet when it was time for a vote, political and legislative realities hit them in the face. Enacting legislation, even when in the majority, is never easy. While the...

$60bn in defence deals expected to lift Saudi economy Ivan Gale Last Updated: Nov 20, 2010 Boeing, which has orders for Apache helicopters, above, Little Bird helicopters and F-15s will shoulder most of the offset burden. AFP Defence firms selected to provide Saudi Arabia with up to US$60 billion (Dh220.35bn) in arms and military aircraft will generate more than $20bn in economic benefits throughout the kingdom's economy in return. The boost will come via the nation's offset rules, which require the contractors to help build ventures in other sectors of the economy. Saudi Arabia's five planned economic cities, including the...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once...

Airlines Now Offer Carbon offsets

If you thought that the era of British bigwigs keeping Indians as personal servants came to an end with the fall of the Raj in 1947, then you must have had a rude awakening last week. In a feature about carbon offsetting in The Times (London), it was revealed that the leader of the UK Conservative Party, David Cameron, offsets his carbon emissions by effectively keeping brown people in a state of bondage. Whenever he takes a flight to some foreign destination, Cameron donates to a carbon-offsetting company that encourages people in the developing world to ditch modern methods of...

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press WriterTue Jun 26, 11:29 AM ET Fewer chartered planes, more train trips and a royal Jaguar that runs on cooking oil have helped Prince Charles achieve a carbon-neutral household, an annual review of the prince's accounts said Tuesday. The annual review by the prince's Clarence House office said Charles cut his annual carbon emissions by 9 percent, to 3,775 tons, between April 1, 2006 and March 31 of this year. The prince offset those emissions by investing in an agency that promotes tree planting and sustainable energy projects. The review said the prince's households —...

Are you a liberal and are you tired of your sane acquaintances making fun of your insanely contradictory positions? Do those annoying conservatives harsh your mellow with their irritating logic and consistency? Do you tire of having your crazy rants about BusHitler invading Iraq for oil interrupted by some Evil HalliburtBot pointing out the current gas price at the pump? Does everybody start laughing when you suggest that Bush brought down the WTC with the most insanely complicated conspiracy in the history of insanely complicated conspiracies, yet somehow failed to “plant” a few WMDs in Saddam’s palaces? Well then, if...

Carbon credits may reduce only guilt So far, offsets 'yield few if any environmental benefits' ......... How clean is your carbon credit? Carbon credits are advertised as a way for polluters to offset the greenhouse gases they produce. ....... Worse, reports of fraud and abuse are piling up. Most recently, an investigation by The Financial Times found that companies and individuals "rushing to go green have been spending millions on 'carbon credit' projects that yield few if any environmental benefits."

NEW YORK - Q: What are carbon offsets? How do I choose among the organizations and companies that sell them? And is buying carbon offsets the best way for me to help the environment? A: Carbon offsets are a way for anyone who drives a car, turns on a light or takes a plane to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions by investing in a green project aimed at reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere. Some of the investments offered by offset organizations: A wind farm in Nebraska, a sewage facility in Thailand and a biomass plant in Minnesota powered by...

I am offering a breakthrough idea of magnificent proportions. Fat Offsets! No longer do you have to suffer from obesity. No longer do you have to hear jokes about love handles, padunkadunk butts, or other comments or phrases having the word "lard" in it. How does this work, you say? Well, you can buy "Fat Offsets." What does this mean? Offset means “neutralize,” “balance,” or “cancel out.” When we do certain activities like gorge our guts, stuff our faces or eat till our eyes bulge out we produce large amounts of Fat, or Adipose Tissue. Fat offsets counteract these activities...

All the media coverage of how we can live a green life, got me to thinking. According to the USDA:"Planting trees remains one of the cheapest, most effective means of drawing excess CO2 from the atmosphere." Such a claim deserves some investigation. This is what I found. According to British Airways, a single round-trip flight of a 747-400D between London and NY puts 1.26 metric tons of CO2 per passenger into the atmosphere. This is 1260 kg/person. Again, according to the USDA, The average tree can take an average of 5.9 kg of CO2 out of the atmosphere per year....

With all the debate over the legitimacy of carbon offsets, I was reminded of this story in the Bible: (Matthew 19:16-22) 16 ¶ And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false...

In the early part of the Sixteenth Century, some Catholic priests, mainly in Germany, were accused of selling Indulgences to rich patrons who donated towards the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Indulgences, as practiced by these particular priests, forgave the sinner of his or her sins for a fee. This was a corruption of Catholic doctrine so let's not get into that aspect of this subject; however, it does bring up an interesting point (or analogy) about today's politics. Today, we have the "Pope" of all Eco-lytes Al "The Benificent" Gore and his minions, handing out carbon offset...

California's green governor will again go boldly where few politicians have gone: He plans to buy carbon credits to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from his extensive air travel. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is working with Pacific Forest Trust, a San Francisco group, to offset the emissions. The trust manages a carbon credit program at the Fred M. van Eck Forest near Arcata in Humboldt County. In short, the trust sells the trees' ability to absorb carbon dioxide released when people burn fossil fuels. The 2,100-acre forest is owned by a foundation affiliated with Purdue University in Indiana. It is...

Where can I go to purchase offsets?