6/26: A Heated Debate

Conservative bloggers are working hard this morning to defeat the climate change bill that's currently being debated in the House. Erick Erickson and Michelle Malkin are both urging their readers to call Reps. and urge them to vote against the bill. Morever, it appears that their efforts may get results -- at least with certain members of Congress. Erickson reports that Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) is "keeping a tally of callers and his office says he'll vote based on the number of callers for or against cap and trade." This dynamic reminds us of the debate over the stimulus bill back in February, when Congressional offices reported that the anti-stimulus phone calls were outnumbering the pro-stimulus phone calls by a ratio of 100-to-1. Are conservative groups outworking their liberal counterparts when it comes to lobbying Congress on the climate change legislation? Or does the Dem leadership already have enough votes to pass the bill, as House Maj. Leader Steny Hoyer claims?

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• The bloggers are Firedoglake continue to urge members of Congress to vote against any health care bill that does not include a strong public option. Meanwhile, liberal bloggers (Marshall, Benen) were impressed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) strong endorsement of a public plan.
• Liberal bloggers (Yglesias, Bowers) are pleased that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) reversed his position on a public option, saying that he now supports it. Lefty bloggers attribute Specter's switch to Rep. Joe Sestak's (D-PA) primary challenge. However, it's clear that liberal bloggers (Moulitsas, Bowers) still distrust Specter, as they continue to emphasize his vulnerability to a strong primary challenge.
• Conservative bloggers (Malkin, Liebau, Riehl) are delighted about the low ratings for the ABC News special featuring Pres. Obama answering questions about his health plan.
• Liberal and conservative bloggers are both criticizing SC Gov. Mark Sanford (R) for taking taxpayer-paid trips to Argentina in order to visit his girlfriend.

Finally, please check back later today for our interview with Daily Kos' Jed Lewison!

CLIMATE CHANGE BILL: Workin' The Phones

Conservative bloggers are fiercely lobbying against passage of the House's "American Clean Energy and Security Act":

• RedState's Erickson: "Here is the list of swing Democrats on Cap and Trade. Here is the list of swing Republicans on the issue. If you don't see your Congressman on the list, go here, put in your zip-code, and find your Congressman. You need to call right now. Tell your Congressman to vote no on the Cap & Trade legislation, H.R. 2454. It is coming to a vote today. Brian notes in the comments that the legislation requires us to 'unilaterally reduce our emissions without being contingent on China or India reducing theirs.' It is also a giant tax increase on working families. Energy costs are going to soar."
• Malkin: "The House will vote on the cap-and-tax bill today. Make your voice heard. Phil Kerpen at AFP has compiled a very helpful list, which I'm reprinting in full here. Check AFP site for latest updates and alerts. Ask 'em how they can ram through this eco-boondoggle with EPA hide-and-seek games on global warming science going on unchecked."
• NRO's Iain Murray: "If you're as utterly disgusted by this as I am, you can send a message to [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and her cronies by telling your Congressmen to vote against this bill. You can e-mail them, call them (202-225-3121), or text the National Taxpayers Union on 54608 and they will help."

Many conservative bloggers believe that it's folly to try and combat global warming, which they're not even convinced is real:

• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "[T]he whole point of this exercise is supposed to be fighting global warming, a theory that has fallen into scientific disrepute and on which Americans divide evenly, at best. [...] I'm sure there must be a historical precedent for the folly that Waxman-Markey represents -- ordering the weather to change! -- but I can't think of one offhand."
• Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "King Canute knew better than to believe his advisers when they told him that he was powerful enough to affect ocean levels. Unfortunately, this administration and the Democratic Party don't have the sense Canute did."
• NRO's Victor Davis Hanson: "I just spent a few days in the Sierra in May during freezing cold temperatures and snow; a week ago it was quite cool and raining in New York; each time I have passed through Phoenix this spring it seemed unseasonably cool; and just gave a talk on the Russian River and about froze. Meanwhile the grapes look about ten days behind due to unseasonably cool temperatures. Any empiricist would be worried, as Newsweek once was, about global cooling. Will the planet boil, if we slow down a bit, review the science and dissenting views, and consider the wisdom in a recession of allotting nearly a trillion dollars to changing our very way of life (while the Chinese absorb market share)?"

Meanwhile, liberal bloggers (Sumner, Yglesias, Benen) aren't particularly happy with the climate change bill, but they still want it to pass.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: And When The Groove Is Dead And Gone...

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan offers his thoughts about the late Michael Jackson:

"There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age -- and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life.

But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence. Of course, he bears responsibility for his bizarre life. But the damage done to him by his own family and then by all those motivated more by money and power than by faith and love was irreparable in the end. He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell.

I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.

I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out. I hope he has the peace now he never had in his life. And I pray that such genius will not be so abused again."

LEST WE FORGET: Sanford To Star In Telenovela 'El Gobernador Caliente'

The Huffington Post's Andy Borowitz:

"Embattled South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford resigned effective immediately today, but announced plans to star in a steamy telenovela for the Spanish-language Telemundo TV network.

The telenovela, tentatively titled 'El Gobernador Caliente,' follows 'the hot sexcapades of a globe-trotting governor who doesn't let state business interfere with his relentless pursuit of coño,' according to the Telemundo press release.

Mr. Sanford said he is buckling down to learn his lines, learning such Spanish phrases as 'tan lineas' (tan lines) and 'bubis' (boobies).

'At least someone else writes the script for me,' Mr. Sanford said. 'Spelling has never been my forte.'"