At today's Blogger's Briefing at the Heritage Foundation, Andrew Wheeler, Director of the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works expressed the importance of getting out the conservative response to June's Climate Security Act.

Wheeler hopes the Committee's website is a one-stop shop for bloggers to get important information. I checked out the site and noticed that EPW also has a blog that's updated several times a month. To go a step further, the committee can consider incorporating the blog into its homepage to make the process easier for bloggers looking for more information.

Today, Wheeler offered a 10-page summary of an Amendment to the Act that would cost American taxpayers & consumers a hefty $1.2 trillion in new spending through 2050.

The Leiberman-Warner Climate Security Act calls for the largest tax increase in American political history and arguably, is the largest re-distribution of wealth, ever.

Wheeler believes that a majority of Senate Republicans will want a full debate on this Act, even though a majority oppose it.

The goal: to get our conservative message out.

To Republicans, a 2-3 week debate on "climate change" is ideal, but may be stifled my Senate democrats like Harry Reid who will try to play gatekeeper on amendments. I hope the blogosphere can serve as an extension to the debate that will take place on the Senate floor.

Bloggers can get more information on this Act at the EPW's Committee Website.

I just received confirmation from Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation that Emmy Award-winning actor and comedian Ben Stein will speak at the Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Bloggers’ Briefing on Tuesday, April 15, at noon.

The event coincides with the release of “EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed.”

Note: This event is CLOSED to the public and open to the Right kind of bloggers only. Anyone who wants to attend should RSVP to Bluey.

On a personal note, I'm a huge fan of Ben Stein because he was such a good sport when I was working for Congressman Jack Kingston, Ben agreed to participate in our intern YouTube video series, "Journeys with Jack."

Here's the clip:

It'll be good to see you again, Ben.

It's that time of the week again. Yep, that's right it's Conservative Blogger Briefing time.

This week was all about Iraq. With some sub-prime mortgages and online petitions thrown in for fun.

Kirk Johnson, Ambassador Crocker's "chief statistician" who recently returned from a year in Iraq, and Jim Phillips from the Heritage Foundation came by to talk to us about the surge and General Pertraus and Ambassador Crocker's testimony to Congress this week.

To sum up everything, Phillips had two good quotes.

There may be a hard road ahead, but it would be even harder if we were to leave.

and

Dealing with the Iraqis is like trying to herd cats.

I asked Johnson and Phillip about the role Iran is playing in Iraq and whether or not Iran could be persuaded to stop destabilizing Iraq.

They answered that in the short-term Iran wants to destabilize Iraq and force the US out of the country. Then in the long-term Iraq will able to step into the power vacuum and set up a regime sympathetic to Iranian interests.

In the ensuing discussion, the point was made that the biggest story that isn't getting out, although that's now starting to change, is Iran's meddling in Iraq.

Phillips conjectured that the Administration itself has been soft-pedaling Iran's role in Iraq, because, "If we start exposing it, we'd have to do something."

Here's some video of Kirk Johnson from today courtesy of Robert Bluey.

There's more video of Johnson talking here.

If you want to read more, Johnson has a article up that talks about the points he covered today. There's also a good YouTube video of him talking about this week's hearings.

Subprime Mortages
Elizabeth Terrell from National Taxpayers Union called in to talk about the subprime mortgage issue and mentioned a recent paper from NTU on the subject.

Victory Caucus
Lastly, N.Z. Bear at the Victory Caucus gave us an update about the petition to support the troops. You can download the petition or host it on your blog and show your support for General Petraeus and the surge.

Contact N.Z. Bear for more info at nz (at) victorycaucus.org.

As always, today's well-attended conservative bloggers briefing was hosted at the Heritage Foundation by Robert Bluey. (If you're a blogger and want to participate in these meetings either in Washington, DC or via phone, email Bluey at Robert.Bluey AT Heritage.org.)

Our guest was Washington Times reporter, Rowan Scarborough, who has just published his book, "Sabotage: America's Enemies Within the CIA."

I started to write out some notes on the very interesting discussion but I'm realizing that I may have missed a few words here and there and policy is hardly my strong point.

Given the nature of the issue, I'll defer to writing for you what Bill Sammon has said about the book:

"In Sabotage, Rowan Scarborough exposes the CIA bureaucracy as a petty, vindictive lot bent on destroying a president because it did not agree with his policies. Various bipartisan commissions have documented the CIA's failures before September 11, 2001. Scarborough reveals its anti-administration tactics after the attack. The CIA could not find bin Laden. But, as Scarborough shows, it still found time to try to bring down Bush."

Lunch was a slice of lasagna, casear salad, and a diet coke. And it was good.