Say “Yes” to Self-Interest

The Sydney Morning Herald, by way of AAP, in “Businesses back price on carbon”, reveals:  “More than 50 companies including GE, AGL and The Body Shop have signed a statement backing a price on carbon.”  Similarly, the ABC’s Midday Report announced that “fifty businesses” support the Government’s plans to tax industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.  However, the ABC chose not to reveal that those companies which support “a price on carbon” expect huge subsidies from the Government if the carbon dioxide tax be imposed, and will expect far greater profits with official support for the supposedly cleaner energy technologies they spruik—at the expense of the taxpayer by way of higher costs for electricity and the like.

At Wake Up 2 the Lies, you can see a list of the companies which support the stupid tax out of unenlightened self-interest.

Say “Yes” to Removing Unsatisfactory Polls

Until recently, the websites of all The Australian Greens’ federal members provided a poll (available since May, 2009) whereby people could vote on the question, “Do you support the Greens’ plan on emissions trading?”  Here it is on Sen. Bob Brown’s website:

For some reason—uncharitable cynics (which does not include us) might suggest that the results were not quite was the Greens would favour—the poll is no longer available.  Joanne Nova reports that, of 2,000 votes, 80% were “No”.  The Greens, however, do provide other polls for concerned visitors to express their agreement, or otherwise, with Green policies:

We have written to the Australian Greens asking for an explanation for the poll’s disappearance; naturally, we shall provide details of any response we receive.

By “emissions”, the Australian Greens refer to industrially produced carbon dioxide, that benificent gas which we all exhale and which is necessary for life on earth.  According to the Greens’ policy document, “Why do we want to cut emissions?”:

It can never be said too often that emissions reductions have one purpose only – to avoid catastrophic climate change. 

The Australian Greens will surely be glad to learn that reputable scientists can assure us that anthropogenic carbon dioxide does not and will not cause catastrophic climate change; the Greens can, therefore, safely reject any proposal for taxing carbon dioxide.

UPDATE I:  David Paris, Digital Communications Coordinator for the Greens’ Parliamentarians, has kindly and swiftly responded to our query; he writes:

We have not used the poll feature on our website for some time.
There are several old items on our site that relate to the 2009 negotiations around the Rudd government’s deeply flawed CPRS that have been removed to avoid confusion with the current debate about a price on pollution.  The poll you are referring to is one of those – from May 2009.

By “price” he means a suitably punitive tax-rate, we assume, and by “pollution” he means carbon dioxide.  Someone might excusably wonder whether the poll question—still open—from 12 October, 2009, “Do you think the Government should support the Greens’ Safe Climate Bill”, did not also relate to “the Rudd government’s deeply flawed CPRS”.

UPDATE II (10 June):  The story continues at Joanne Nova’s site. 

UPDATE III (11 June):  See, there is no recent, catastrophic warming:

Say “Yes” to Censorship

Over at Say Yes Australia, some naughty people are trying to post comments which don’t conform to the prevailing orthodoxy or ask uncomfortable questions.  Heretics!  Comments are being ruthlessly pruned, sometimes on the grounds that the comments were “irrelevant, spam or abuse” but, more often, furtively.
The comments pictured below were removed (or have, at least, failed to appear yet) on the grounds of heterodoxy or inappropriate questioning of authority, perhaps.  The third comment, sent by Don, appears under a different poster’s pseudonym because the site (owing to someone’s egregious incompetence) kept displaying other posters’ details over the weekend.

A supportive comment from the late Alena Composta,* however, was published:

UPDATE (8 June):  The questions posted by Julia Abstrahenda’st have failed to appear, but a more orthodox comment was allowed by the diligent moderators:

UPDATE II (8 June):  The third question posted by Don (as Julia Abstrahenda’st) has now, after several days, appeared, as well as another by me (as Julia Abstrahenda’st); “admin” has replied to the latter with the following:

The assertion, “That the science behind the carbon tax cannot be substantiated is untrue”, is, of course, a lie.  The alleged science behind the ‘carbon’ tax—the pseudo-science of CAGW—cannot be validated.
For those whose Latin is rusty, by the way, Julia abstrahenda est means “Julia must be dragged away.”

UPDATE III (11 June):  The earlier questions posted by Julia Abstrahenda’st have now, after five days, appeared.

UPDATE IV (12 June):  Comments on 45000 Australians Say “YES!” to a Price on Pollution include some by characters from David Copperfield:

UPDATE V (13 June):  Observed by the author:

UPDATE VI (14 June):  Though allegedly abusive posts have been swiftly deleted, names which consist of very rude invective in Latin are allowed.  (“Pedicabo vos” is derived from Catullus’ Carmen XVI):

UPDATE VII (2 July):  The humour continues.  A polite query asking the moderators whether they know what pedicabo vos means is censored, but obvious spam is not:

*  or not; at Verdant Hopes,  she spells her first name Alene, and one might think that she of all people would know how to spell her own name.  On the other hand, death and its attendant indignities usually rob people of orthographical dexterity.

Say “Yes” Rally Chants

“What do we want?”

“Exactly what the Government is doing!”

“What do we want changed?”

“Nothing, really; things are coming along nicely!”
“So, why are we here?”
“To say ‘No’ to carbon dioxide—it’s bad—, and ‘Yes’ to a tax which will devastate the economy unless the Prime Minister, her toadies, her pseudo-scientists, and her paid ‘experts’ are right when they claim that businesses won’t pass increased costs on to consumers!”

“Right.  So, when do we want that?”

“Um, in the fullness of time!  July, 2012!  Eventually!” 

“One, two, three, four; the Government should tax us more!”
“Five, six, seven, eight; we think a tax on air is great!”

“Give us no liberty!  We demand less say in how we’re governed!”
“We respectfully suggest that you pay no attention to us!”
“Taxation without representation!”

If You Really Thought Carbon Dioxide Were Evil

You’d kill yourself now.  You’re exhaling the stuff!  C’mon, say “Yes” to suicide!

Say “Yes” to Increased Taxes

Do you say “Yes” to a new tax on carbon dioxide?  Then why delay paying your taxes until after July, 2012?  Start paying taxes now, and show the world how much you really believe that Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming will doom us all—unless we pay higher taxes!