Bill Lockyer, the super-litigious, super-political attorney general of California — who has declared war against manufacturers and CO2 — has earned the San Diego Union-Tribune’s endorsement for state treasurer. A begrudging endorsement, to say the least:

The Democratic candidate for treasurer, Bill Lockyer, has displayed a vicious partisan streak in his eight years as attorney general, using his powers to sandbag initiatives he doesn’t like and to file frivolous lawsuits solely to score political points with unions and environmentalists. In his previous job, as Senate president, he was the epitome of the pay-to-play Sacramento culture, famously blocking a law meant to keep criminals out of California casinos and card clubs after taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the gambling industry.

Incredibly enough, we have no choice but to endorse him. His Republican opponent, Board of Equalization member Claude Parrish, is simultaneously flippant, uninformed and unfocused. Lockyer may be the devil, but he’s a smart devil. Were Lockyer treasurer, it is incomprehensible that Californians might someday wake up to learn that the state had lost billions of dollars because he made complex financial decisions without due diligence. That is not the case with Parrish.

We set out to give Lockyer the most grudging election endorsement in the history of the printed word. We hope we have achieved our goal.

Indeed! (Hat tip Taranto.)

Just wrapped up the call with OMB Director Rob Portman. Some highlights:

We’ve noted here repeatedly — as recently as this week — the positive effect of the tax cuts, and would echo everything that Rob Portman said today. Here’s a link to a fact sheet on the budget and here’s a link to a document that shows the effect of letting the tax cuts expire.

South Dakota manufacturers held a news conference in Sioux Falls yesterday to argue against passage of Amendment E, the initiated constitutional amendment to hold judges and other elected officials personally accountable for decisions they make as part of their official duties. NAM Board Member Jay Bender took the lead:

Manufacturing officials from around the state spoke up Monday about their fears that Amendment E would stunt economic growth and hinder community involvement.

“The proposed Amendment E is a job killer for South Dakota,” Jay Bender, president of Falcon Plastics of Brookings, said during a press conference Monday in Sioux Falls.

“It has a potential to create judicial chaos for businesses nationwide. Since judges will know they can be sued for dismissing frivolous lawsuits, they will be reluctant to do so.”

Amendment E, also known as the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law, would create a special grand jury to review complaints against those with judicial immunity, which would include members of juries, school boards, city councils and other boards.

Several manufacturing companies operating in the state, including 3M Company, Raven Industries, Tyson Foods and Showplace Wood Products, will partner for an advertising campaign that will oppose the proposed amendment.

KELO story here. Also big news Monday:

South Dakota U.S. Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune, along with U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth, Republican congressional candidate Bruce Whalen, Gov. Mike Rounds and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jack Billion announced Monday their opposition to the amendment.

NAM webpage with facts about the ill-considered, ill-tempered amendment is here.

This is not for the weak of heart. By popular demand, we re-post this list of likely Committee Chairs in a Democrat-controlled Congress, and their NAM Vote Ratings. Click on this link to see it.

And, here’s a link to everyone’s vote rating. Get educated before Election Day — see who supports manufacturing and who doesn’t, and vote accordingly.

Just an outstanding speech by Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, at the Detroit Economic Club Monday. Liveris outlined the energy challenges facing U.S. manufacturing — a recurrent theme here at the NAM — and especially the effect of higher energy costs on chemical manufacturers.

PDF file of his speech is here. AP coverage here. And the Detroit Free Press does a fine job of summarizing his message here.

The United States is losing major business investments and high-paying manufacturing jobs because it does not have an adequate energy policy to address rising natural gas prices, said Dow Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris in a speech Monday to the Detroit Economic Club.

The United States has vast amounts of natural gas along its coasts, but environmental laws prevent drilling. Liveris, head of the $46-billion Midland-based global company, said he would like to build more chemical plants in the United States, but the country’s environmental laws and lack of a coherent energy policy are discouraging.

“Faced with the choice of investing here in the United States, with the certainty of higher and more volatile natural gas prices, how can I recommend to my board and to my shareholders to invest here?” Liveris asked.

NAM’s President, John Engler, is speaking this morning in Atlanta to the Fabtech/American Welding Society national conference/convention. He’ll spend much of the speech focusing on manufacturing’s energy needs. Manufacturing consumes one-third of all electricity in the country, and as the economy grows, the demand will grow. Liveris’ comments are timely…and important. Thankfully, they seem to be drawing attention.

We’ve been invited to join in a conference call today with Rob Portman, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Sara Taylor, the Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs. The call takes place at 3 p.m. EST. We plan to write on it as it occurs.

Please drop us an e-mail if there are any questions you’d like us to ask. If we get the chance, we’ll ask ‘em.

OK, now here’s a guy who isn’t going to be invited to speak to the Society of Environmental Journalists coven any time soon….

Michael Palmer, general manager of the ABC and Fox affiliates in Bangor, Maine reportedly sent an e-mail to his staff over the summer (after they had covered the premiere of Al Gore’s fantasy film) saying that when Bar Harbor was under water, they could do global warming stories but, “until then, no more.”

Wait — it gets better. According to this story in the New York Times, Palmer said he wanted no more stories broadcast on global warming because — among other reasons — “The issue evolved from hard science into hard politics and despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, this science is far from conclusive.” Palmer went on to say that he placed “global warming stories in the same category as ‘the killer African bee scare’ from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone’s computer was going to self-destruct.” Think he’s been reading the blog….? He’s absolutely dead-on right on all these points.

Of course, the NY Times was obligated to interview James Hansen, resident global warming hysteric, telling Palmer that it’ll be glug-glug for him soon enough up there in Bar Harbor. Maybe, or maybe not. Mark us down as siding with Michael Palmer and his courageous view. He can teach Bill Blakemore and ABC a thing or two about balance.

For those of you who may be bored this Halloween, waiting for the elections, maybe sitting in your cubicle with no pumpkin to carve, help is on the way. Thanks to regular blog reader Jen Satrom, you can click on this link and carve your own pumpkin. Be creative, but be careful of the sharp objects.

Given that it is Halloween, this video is making the rounds and thought we’d share it. This video is a spoof on one of the creepiest movies ever made- The Silence of the Lambs. If it was good enough to be voted one of the top 100 movies of all time, it’s hopefully good enough to share today. We won’t spoil a good movie plot, so, click on the image below to watch it.

Here’s a fairly extraordinary piece from the Environment and Public Works Committee of the United States Senate, what any objective observer would consider an authoritative source. This should shock even the most global-warming-hysteria-hardened curmudgeons out there.

At a Society of Environmental Journalists convention (we’ve written about them before, not really the most balanced group on the topic themselves), ABC global warming correspondent Bill Blakemore said, “I don’t like the word ‘balance’ much at all” in global warming coverage.

At least we can say for ol’ Blakemore that he’s not alone. In fact, we’ll bet he felt right at home up there in Howard Dean’s home state, speaking to a bunch of enviro-journos. They likely carried him out on their shoulders. You can see from this link that Blakemore clearly confuses the role of journalist and scientist. His job is to report, not to make sweeping conclusions about science over which experts are clearly split. And, therein lies the rub: He refuses to acknowledge the lack of consensus on the issue. Shame on him, shame on ABC, but they don’t really care. They have their own satellite and you’ll believe what they tell you, dammit.

As John Mayer sings,

“When you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want .”

Like Mayer, we keep on waiting for the (journalistic) world to change — at least in their blatant one-sided coverage of global warming (Or is it cooling?). With folks like Bill Blakemore, there’s slim chance of that.