Report: Stimulus may include provision to crush 4 million newer-model pickups and SUVs that get less than 18 mpg

SEMA is opposing an effort by some Washington lawmakers to include a national car crushing program in the upcoming economic stimulus package. Vehicles targeted for the scrap pile will likely include Chevy Blazers, Silverados, S-10s and Tahoes; Dodge Dakotas and Rams; Ford Explorers and F-Series; Jeep Cherokees and Wranglers; and any other SUV or truck that obtains less than 18 mpg.

Under the plan, the federal government would pay a premium for '99 and newer cars...

Lawrence Solomon: Climate change’s Antarctic ruffle - News and Opinion Blog of blogs

Michael Mann and Nature are not new to political controversy, or dubious science. The two collaborated before — in publishing what became known as the hockey-stick graph. This graph — which showed the 1990s to be the hottest decade of the hottest century of the last thousand years — became one of the most publicized facts of the year when it was published. Then the hockey stick became slapstick as it became an object of ridicule: Mann’s statistical techniques were shown to be entirely invalid and Mann was shown to have lacked the statistical knowledge demanded by the study. Mann and Nature refused to make public the data used to produce the graph, Nature refused to publish a response rebutting the hockey stick graph and Nature’s peer review process was shown to be a sham.

It took years, and a U.S. Congressional committee, to finally resolve the dispute, to Mann’s and Nature’s shame. Mercifully, the verdict over the latest offering from these two is seeing a speedier resolution.

Obama is facing a great test within his own party over stimulus package

Most shocking is a $400 million giveaway to study what a growing number of scientists regard as a hoax - the great global warming scam - at the very time the nation is chilled to the bone and probably verging on a new ice age, little or big. To make matters worse there is $2.4 billion for another scam for demonstration projects called “carbon capture,” a process that has yet to be invented.