Did Ed Miliband save the Copenhagen summit from complete failure? | Fred Pearce | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Did British climate secretary Ed Miliband save the planet early on the final Saturday of the Copenhagen conference?

BBC News - Why did Copenhagen fail to deliver a climate deal?

The logical conclusion is that this is the arrangement that the big players now prefer - an informal setting, where each country says what it is prepared to do - where nothing is negotiated and nothing is legally binding.

Through Copenhagen's looking glass - Rex Murphy - The Globe and Mail

Has the science been tainted, is the question of our time. Has the authority and prestige of scientific practice been invoked at the very moment when its methods – its practice – has been, to any degree, corrupted or degraded? This would be a reasonable question – and let me stress it is still a question – even if the project or subject was one of far less consequence and scope than the planet's climate and its economic practice.

That question is not being asked with the rigour we should expect. There is something about the great cause of global warming that tends to disarm scrutiny, to tamp down the normal reflexes of tough questioning and investigation that the press brings to every other arena. The great conference at Copenhagen seems to have whistled by the quite momentous challenge that the East Anglia e-mails presents to the centrality of the claims made by the global warming cause. Lots of fossil-of-the-day moments – not many hard press conferences.

BBC News - China rejects UK claims it hindered Copenhagen talks

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband had accused China of vetoing two agreements on limiting emissions.

Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the accusations were a political plot made by leaders who wanted to shirk their own obligations.

America's Best Days - Rasmussen Reports™

Sixty-six percent (66%) of U.S. voters prefer a smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes over a more active government with more services and higher taxes.
...
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% prefer a government with more services and higher taxes. Eleven percent (11%) aren't sure which is best.

Republicans Post Eight-Point Lead On Generic Ballot - Rasmussen Reports™

Perhaps this helps to explain why Parker Griffith, a freshman congressman from northern Alabama, is expected to announce today that he is switching parties. Elected as a Democrat, he is switching to the GOP because of unhappiness with national Democratic policies. Several other Democratic congressmen in swing districts have announced that they will not seek reelection next year.

Men prefer GOP candidates by 19 points over Democrats, while women are evenly divided between the two. Among voters not affiliated with either party, Republicans lead by a 43% to 19% margin.