If money means victory in a statewide campaign, Chris Nelson has some work to do between now and the June 8 primary election.

The second-term Republican secretary of state took in $56,000 in the first few months of his campaign for the U.S. House. And those recently released figures left Nelson well behind the $181,000 collected by his opponent in the GOP House primary race, state Rep. Blake Curd of Sioux Falls.

What that means to the outcome of the primary and how it sets up the general election battle with incumbent Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is a hot topic of conversation in Republican circles these days. It’s particularly relevant in a year when incumbents, including Herseth Sandlin, are considered vulnerable to anger toward the congressional establishment — the majority party Democrats in particular.

Tough choice. The Chief has personally had more experience with Chris over a number of election cycles. Having said that, Curd appears to be a strong candidate also. Time will tell.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is reassuring Americans that the huge deficits and spiralling nationa debt “will never” damage the country’s sterling credit rating because investors will continue to view the U.S. as a good investment.

And in other news, Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus reassured his citizens that they should not worry about those hordes of German barbarians gathering outside the city.

Rome is too big to fall, so they will never invade Rome,” the Emperor said. “Besides, if they were to sack Rome, where would they go for our fine entertainments, including the orgies, drama productions with real executions, and, let’ s not forget, our incomparable gladiatorial contests in the Coliseum.”

German barbarian leader Odoacer was asked for comment, but would only say through a spokesman that he would soon confer in person with the Emperor about his future status.

Advisory: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
Reuters

The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week.

I guess they have to be sure to get the Official Party Line from  Presidential Press Secretary Voice of Sauron Gibbs.

Backdoor taxes to hit middle class

The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year — effectively a tax hike by stealth.

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

You just KNEW that this was going to be happening.

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a “patch” that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year’s levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy — the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.

Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:
* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;
* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;
* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;
* Individuals who don’t itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;
* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

So much for Baraq Hussein’s much ballyhooed middle-class tax cuts!

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.

“He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done,” said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks. “In consultation with his own doctors, he’s decided to go that route.”

Mr. Williams’ decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada’s health-care system.

APPARENT shunning…? It looks pretty definite to me!

“It was never an option offered to him to have this procedure done in this province,” said Ms. Dunderdale, refusing to answer whether the procedure could be done elsewhere in Canada.

Now THAT’S a statement to parse. Was it an option available but not offered, or one not offered due to beign not available in the province, or in the country for that matter?

In either case, there’s not exactly an impressive showcase for nationalized health care.

Somehow I haven’t noticed much coverage of this in SD media, except for coverage posted yesterday in the R.C. Journal. There obviously has been coverage of other areas’ power problems…the utilities are doing yeoman’s work to get the system restored.

Sonny Brave Eagle and his family spent six days in the dark without a phone or working radio before law officers found them in their home after a fierce winter storm cut power across South Dakota’s impoverished Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

“We didn’t know what was going on,” said Brave Eagle, among hundreds of people on the sprawling reservation amid a second week without electricity as utility workers struggle to make repairs. The storm brought down power lines, iced roads and led to water outages.

Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty estimated that 1,500 to 1,700 homes were still without power Monday, and said it would take “better than three weeks” to get the reservation up and running again.

The tribe has spent “enormous amounts” of money on such needs as fuel and water, and an emergency fund that had $175,000 a few months ago has been drained, said tribal spokeswoman Natalie Stites.

…but there’s lots of attention and funds for Haiti! Not to diminish that tragic situation, one still could wonder what happened to the bit about “Charity begins at home”?

It’s also worth noting that the U.K.’s Guardian is FAR from being any form of right-wing journal.

Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws
Exclusive: Key study by East Anglia professor Phil Jones was based on suspect figures

Phil Jones, the beleaguered British climate scientist at the centre of the leaked emails controversy, is facing fresh claims that he sought to hide problems in key temperature data on which some of his work was based.

A Guardian investigation of thousands of emails and documents apparently hacked from the University of East Anglia’s climatic research unit has found evidence that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed and that documents relating to them could not be produced.

Jones and a collaborator have been accused by a climate change sceptic and researcher of scientific fraud for attempting to suppress data that could cast doubt on a key 1990 study on the effect of cities on warming – a hotly contested issue.

Today the Guardian reveals how Jones withheld the information requested under freedom of information laws. Subsequently a senior colleague told him he feared that Jones’s collaborator, Wei-­Chyung Wang of the University at Albany, had “screwed up”.

OUCH!   Hard to state it any more clearly than that!

More details in the rest of the linked article, and here also…predictably there’s a continuing attempt to weasel out of the embarrassment, but the egg on the faces is clearly visible.

President Barack Obama is seeking increased funding for nuclear weapons research and security programs next year, even as his administration promotes nonproliferation and has pledged to reduce the world’s stockpile of nuclear arms.

The administration on Monday asked Congress for more than $7 billion for activities related to nuclear weapons in the budget of the National Nuclear Security Administration, an increase of $624 million from the 2010 fiscal year.

Few except for hard-core anti-nuke peaceniks would seriously submit that the U.S. should totally abandon its nuclear weapons capability. Such being the case, this is essential to insure the capability to maintain a credible nuclear deterrence.

Like cans of food, thermonuclear devices have a shelf life…after a period of time they lose their effectiveness due to the effects of radioactive decay of tritium. They need to be remanufactured. At that point, it is also necessary to update the systems of the weapons using state-of-the-art-electronics, which also improves the command/control/security of the devices. It’s been some time since we did this, and the shelf life limits are approaching.

Obama, in spite of a presumed gut-level dislike for nuke weapons, (like who in their right mind would love them!) recognizes the reality of this necessary process. As noted also, the same techniques, equipment, and personnel are also required to do the job if further weapon reductions are negotiated with Russia and the ChiComs, so the peaceniks have at least that consolation.

At last…this is something that the Chief agrees with the administration on…if it actually is cleared through Congress and implemented.

Firstly, Herr Doktor Professor Baraq Hussein would have gotten a serious downgrade in MY class for screwing up a fundamental reference, that one could venture to say is symptomatic of a deep lack of respect for the fundamental principles of the founding of the American Republic:

“We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution, the notion that we’re all created equal…”

First off, downgrading what is the one of the fundamentally unique principles of our Republic to a mere “notion”…words fail. Also…checking my trusty pocket reference copy of the Constitution and Declaraction of Independence indicates that said reference is NOT “enshrined in our Constitution”…but IS found in the Declaration, in close and immediate context of “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

Key concept there: Our equality, and our “unalienable rights” are NOT granted by any act of man, even the Constitution! They are directly bestowed as a part of the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”. Once that relationship is disestablished nothing is left except ultimately as Mao stated and one of B.O.’s appointed “czars” (and how American is THAT title!?) reiterated “Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun”, or the other one who stated that if they couldn’t prevail “by means of the power of persuasion, then they would use the persuasion of power.”

Otherwise, some additional highlights of the less-than-edifying experience:

FACT CHECK: Obama and a toothless commission
There were also OTHER notable instances of B.O. playing fast and loose with reality:

President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won’t just be “one of those Washington gimmicks.” Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won’t have any teeth.

Obama confronted some tough realities in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, chief among them that Americans are continuing to lose their health insurance as Congress struggles to pass an overhaul.

Yet some of his ideas for moving ahead skirted the complex political circumstances standing in his way.

Go to the original piece for all the gory details…it’s a reminder of the old Warren Zevon lyric: “It ain’t that pretty at all!”

Another historic aspect of the SOTU is the dissing of the Supremes, and for that matter of Congress at the same time. The congressional part of this is here:

…the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That’s why I’ve called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. (Applause.) This can’t be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline.
Now, yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I’ll issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward…[emphasis added]

Without getting into the argument about this idea for a budgetary fig-leaf, the stated relationship here can be summarized as “I don’t need no steenking Congress, I’ll just do what I want by proclamation regardless of the vote of the people’s representatives.”

As far as the Supremes go, they were verbally flogged in an unprecedented display of inter-branch criticism reminiscent of some of the worst of FDR, but PERHAPS not as egregious as Jackson’s refusal to abide by the Marshall court’s decision on the Cherokee removal.

At least Justice Alito wasn’t buying B.O.’s mis-statements:
Justice Alito mouths ‘not true’

POLITICO’s Kasie Hunt, who was in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words “not true” when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision.

“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

So what was wrong? Approx. a century ago corporations were banned from making direct contributions to candidates for election funds. This was not addressed, nor affected by the current ruling. Also, foreign corporations are STILL banned from involvement in U.S. political campaigns (although admittedly the presence of Chinese money in Bubba Clinton’s and B.O.’s fundraising was noteworthy as cases of sometimes intercepted interventions.)
Result? Read on:
Supreme Court Historian: After President’s “Insult,” Won’t Be Surprised If Supreme Court Doesn’t Attend Next Year’s State of the Union Address

A noted Supreme Court historian who “enthusiastically” voted for President Obama in November 2008 today called President Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address last night “really unusual” and said he wouldn’t be surprised if no Supreme Court Justices attend the speech next year.

“It was really unusual in my mind to see the president going after the Supreme Court in such a forum,” said author and Law Professor Lucas Powe, the Anne Green Regents Chair in Law, and a Professor of Government at the University of Texas-Austin School of Law. “I’m willing to bet a lot of money there will be no Supreme Court justice at the next State of the Union speech.”

Added Professor Powe, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, “you don’t go to be insulted. I can’t see the Justices wanting to be there and be insulted by the president.”

But this is just a negative reaction from a myrmidon of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, right?…er…not this time:

His opinion has nothing to do with animus towards the President, for whom Powe said he voted enthusiastically.

Chief’s overall grading: D-minus for content.

I won’t even approach what I actually thought of the delivery except to ask if you can pronounce a-r-r-o-g-a-n-t. ’nuff said.

It was…interesting…to have to get somewhat large quantities of snow out of the way before proceeding with other necessary preparations at the cemetary, but with heavy ag equipment, wonders were done, and the rest became more or less routine.

Working ouside in the cold  reminds the Chief of one of Clausewitz’ observations on war:  “Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.”

Ditto for outside work in zero-ish temperatures with wind!

The widely ballyhooed “established science” of Glowbull Warming” continues to unravel so fast that you need a scoresheet to keep track.

Off the top of my head, there was firstly a more or less continuous stream of articles and papers…yes…including peer-reviewed ones!

The major shock was the Climategate bust, which caught leading warmist scientists in the act of faking data, rigging publication of scientific papers, and other sorts of scientific fraudulent practices.

Then the alleged data showing the shrinkage of arctic sea ice was admitted to be incorrect.

Now, the bit about the Himalayas being ice-free by 2035 has similarly blown up, after lead climate scientist Dr. Murari Lal openly admitted the use of fake data to attempt to exert political pressure.

The scientist behind the bogus claim in a Nobel Prize-winning UN report that Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 last night admitted it was included purely to put political pressure on world leaders.

Dr Murari Lal also said he was well aware the statement, in the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), did not rest on peer-reviewed scientific research.

This report was previously a major linchpin in the construction of the supposedly credible IPCC report.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Dr Lal, the co-ordinating lead author of the report’s chapter on Asia, said: ‘It related to several countries in this region and their water sources. We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action.

‘It had importance for the region, so we thought we should put it in.’

So much for scientific objectivity.

With the current pattern shown by all of this the only surprise is that anyone still takes Glowbull Warming science at all seriously. There are a lot more of the details in the original article…it’s more of the same ol’ same ol’ as the previous cases of junk climate science that have been coming to light.