Archive for October, 2009

Glowbull Warming Update: It’s the Sun!

Science bulletin: ‘Sun heats Earth!’
Russian research forecasts global cooling

In a sharp rebuke to climate alarmists who believe human-generated carbon dioxide is responsible for causing catastrophic global warming, a Russian scientist has issued what amounts to a news flash announcing, “Sun Heats Earth!”

Habibullo Abdussamatov, the head of space research at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, has published a paper in which he tracks sunspot activity going back to the 19th century to argue that total sun irradiance, or TSI, is the primary factor responsible for causing climate variations on Earth, not carbon dioxide.

If you think man-made CO2 is producing glowbull warming – don’t exhale!

Moreover, Abdussamatov’s analysis of sun activity data has led him to conclude that the Earth is entering a prolonged cooling phase because sunspot activity is currently in a phase regarded as a “minimum.”

“Observations of the sun show that as for the increase in temperature, carbon dioxide is ‘not guilty,’” Abdussamatov wrote, “and as for what lies ahead in the coming decades, it is not catastrophic warming, but a global, and very prolonged temperature drop.”

Abdussamatov’s paper is featured on page 140 of a report issued this year by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, documenting more than 700 scientists who disagree over the proposition that global warming is a man-made, or anthropogenic phenomenon.

This report is swamping the envirowacko’s much ballyhoo’d IPCC Report that AlGor and others of his ilk, including B.O., and many complaisant members of the Cong. kowtow before as the Holy Book of the Orthodox Church of Glowbull Warming.

Update: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims
Outpouring of Skeptical Scientists Continues as 59 Scientists Added to Senate Report
‘The ­science has, quite simply, gone awry’

Fifty-nine additional scientists from around the world have been added to the U.S. Senate Minority Report of dissenting scientists, pushing the total to over 700 skeptical international scientists – a dramatic increase from the original 650 scientists featured in the initial December 11, 2008 release. The 59 additional scientists added to the 255-page Senate Minority report since the initial release 13 ½ weeks ago represents an average of over four skeptical scientists a week. This updated report – which includes yet another former UN IPCC scientist – represents an additional 300 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial report’s release in December 2007.

The over 700 dissenting scientists are now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. The 59 additional scientists hail from all over the world, including Japan, Italy, UK, Czech Republic, Canada, Netherlands, the U.S. and many are affiliated with prestigious institutions including, NASA, U.S. Navy, U.S. Defense Department, Energy Department, U.S. Air Force, the Philosophical Society of Washington (the oldest scientific society in Washington), Princeton University, Tulane University, American University, Oregon State University, U.S. Naval Academy and EPA.

…Award-Winning Princeton University Physicist Dr. Robert H. Austin, who has published 170 scientific papers and was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, lamented the current fears over global warming.

“Unfortunately, Climate Science has become Political Science…It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomena which is statistically questionable at best,” Austin told the minority staff on the Environment and Public Works Committee on March 2, 2009.

‘Could turn the climate change world upside down’

The rise in skeptical scientists are responding not only to an increase in dire “predictions” of climate change, but also a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data, and inconvenient developments have further cast doubts on the claims of man-made global warming fear activists. The latest peer-reviewed study in Geophysical Research Letters is being touted as a development that “could turn the climate change world upside down.” The study finds that the “Earth is undergoing natural climate shift.” The March 15, 2009 article in WISN.com details the research of Dr. Anastasios Tsonis of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “We realized a lot of changes in the past century from warmer to cooler and then back to warmer were all natural,” Tsonis said. “I don’t think we can say much about what the humans are doing,” he added.

Go to the links and see the report itself…the science is there on this, and is NOT based on erroneous models that are based on incomplete and “selected” data, and computer modeling that ignores significant variables.

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We Will FORCE You…We know better than you do!

Constitutionality of health overhaul questioned

On top of all the other obstacles facing President Obama in his quest to pass health reform is this one: Does the U.S. Constitution allow the government to require uninsured Americans to buy medical insurance or impose a tax penalty if they refuse?

Congress has never before required citizens to purchase any good or service, but that is what both House and Senate health bills would mandate.

DUH – d’ya think really? What’s the first clue.

The question of the mandate’s constitutionality “hasn’t been part of the public debate, but the legal community has been debating it. It’s been on all the legal blogs,” said Michael Cannon, director of health-policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. He said “the Constitution does not grant Congress the power to force Americans to purchase health insurance.”

In 1994, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noted that a “mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action.”

“The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States,” the CBO said.

THINK about this: American citizens compelled at gunpoint (remember the B.O. Presidium Czar reminding us a la Lenin and Mao that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”) to purchase something in order to reside in the country without being penalized?

Hello? What is spelled by the letters: T-O-T-A-L-I-T-A-R-I-A-N?

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Glowbull Warming Disaster in the Making

The real climate change catastrophe

In a startling new book, Christopher Booker reveals how a handful of scientists, who have pushed flawed theories on global warming for decades, now threaten to take us back to the Dark Ages

This is from the London Telegraph, and by now it’s no secret that the Brits have their own nests of moonbats who are every bit as radical (if not even MORE so, as impossible as that might seem!) as the B.O. Presidium Czars.

Next Thursday marks the first anniversary of one of the most remarkable events ever to take place in the House of Commons. For six hours MPs debated what was far and away the most expensive piece of legislation ever put before Parliament.

The Climate Change Bill laid down that, by 2050, the British people must cut their emissions of carbon dioxide by well over 80 per cent. Short of some unimaginable technological revolution, such a target could not possibly be achieved without shutting down almost the whole of our industrialised economy, changing our way of life out of recognition.[emphasis added]

EIGHTY PERCENT?  They have got to be kidding! Seriously – IF it is fully enforced this would end industrialization, with the necessarily associated death of…how many millions?…The Chief CANNOT envision even the enervated and anesthetized Brits rolling over voluntarily allowing themselves to go through the collective mass suicide that this would require.

This piece has a thumbnail history of the rise of the Great and Orthodox Junk Science Church of Glowbull Warming, as expounded by the false proclamation of It’s Truth as expounded by the IPCC, which in reality isn’t at all what it has been presented as.

More and more eminent scientists have been coming out of the woodwork to suggest that the IPCC, with its computer models, had got it all wrong. It isn’t CO₂ that has been driving the climate, the changes are natural, driven by the activity of the sun and changes in the currents of the world’s oceans.

The ice caps haven’t been melting as the alarmists and the models predicted they should. The Antarctic, containing nearly 90 per cent of all the ice in the world, has actually been cooling over the past 30 years, not warming. The polar bears are not drowning – there are four times more of them now than there were 40 years ago. In recent decades, the number of hurricanes and droughts have gone markedly down, not up.

As the world has already been through two of its coldest winters for decades, with all the signs that we may now be entering a third, the scientific case for CO₂ threatening the world with warming has been crumbling away on an astonishing scale.

Yet it is at just this point that the world’s politicians, led by Britain, the EU and now President Obama, are poised to impose on us far and away the most costly set of measures that any group of politicians has ever proposed in the history of the world – measures so destructive that even if only half of them were implemented, they would take us back to the dark ages.

We have “less than 50 days” to save the planet, declared Gordon Brown last week, in yet another desperate bid to save the successor to the Kyoto treaty, which is due to be agreed in Copenhagen in six weeks’ time. But no one has put the reality of the situation more succinctly than Prof Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy, one of the most distinguished climatologists in the world, who has done as much as anyone in the past 20 years to expose the emptiness of the IPCC’s claim that its reports represent a “consensus” of the views of “the world’s top climate scientists”.

In words quoted on the cover of my new book, Prof Lindzen wrote: “Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly exaggerated computer predictions combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a rollback of the industrial age.”

Such is the truly extraordinary position in which we find ourselves.

Thanks to misreading the significance of a brief period of rising temperatures at the end of the 20th century, the Western world (but not India or China) is now contemplating measures that add up to the most expensive economic suicide note ever written.

Drill now, and throw another log on the fire!

Meanwhile, western and central South Dakota is preparing to shovel and/or plow a coming installment of cold, white October Glowbull Warming.

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Armageddon Time?

When it comes to Iran, the U.S. may be facing a cataclysm

Victor Davis Hanson is a military historian; Robert Baer a former CIA field officer. Both have studied the Middle East for decades, traveled to the area repeatedly in recent years and written about the region extensively. And both have become convinced that we may be facing a cataclysm.

Hanson and Baer each presented his analysis during an interview this past week. Although they differ on certain matters, they agree on five observations.

There is more of the backstory on each of these in the article, but that doesn’t make the situation look any better.

The first: If not already capable of doing so, Iran will be able to produce nuclear weapons in mere months.

The second observation: The Iranians have no interest in running a bluff. Once able to produce nuclear weapons, they will almost certainly do so.

The third observation: As the Iranians scramble to produce nuclear weapons, the Obama administration appears too feckless, inexperienced or deluded to stop them.

The Chief doesn’t know whether it is the fecklessness, inexperience, or delusion that is causing the problem. Probably all three!

The fourth observation: Israel cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran.

The final observation: Iran would retaliate.

“Iran’s deterrent doctrine is to strike back everywhere it can,” Baer explained. “We should expect the worst.” Iran would attack American supply lines in Iraq and command Hezbollah to start a civil war in Lebanon. It would fire surface-to-surface missiles at every oil facility within range, wreaking devastation in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states while removing millions of barrels of oil a day from the world markets. The economy of the entire globe would suffer a paroxysm. The Middle East could descend into chaos. The U.S. would experience the worst crisis in decades.

After the assassination 95 years ago of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the great powers of Europe engaged in meaningless diplomatic maneuvers. “Austria has sent a bullying and humiliating ultimatum to Serbia, who cannot possibly comply with it,” British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith confided in a letter. “[W]e are in measurable, or at least imaginable, distance of a real Armageddon.”

A big nation attempting to humiliate a small nation in a way the small nation simply cannot accept. Unseriousness among great powers. A gathering sense of impending catastrophe. Once again, it may be Armageddon time.

Like the lyric of an old Warren Zevon song: “It ain’t that pretty at all!”.

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B.O.: Who needs free speech? We don’t!

President Obama has something important in common with Edward I, aka “Longshanks”

What is this about?

It has received far less notice than it deserves, but last week the United States joined with Egypt in sponsoring a resolution appoved by the UN Human Rights Council that could blow a gaping hole in the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech and other civil liberties most of us take for granted.

The resolution encourages member nations to define as criminal “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.” Who defines what constitutes “national, racial or religious hatred?” Why, the government, of course. Who decides whether any given statement “constitutes incitement?” You guessed it.

In other words, if you live in a country that adopts this approach to freedom of speech, be very careful what you say about any other nation, racial group or religious faith. And you better not make anybody in power mad because you would be amazed what can be construed by governments as “incitement” to “hatred.”

If you are an American with the notion that the First Amendment will protect your right to say whatever you want whenever you want about whomever you want, be advised that this resolution embodies exactly the conceptual assumptions about law and rights that lead directly to those speech codes that restrict civil liberties on hundreds of U.S. college campuses at this very moment….

In other words, bunky, if you think the First Amendment will protect you from Obama and the UN, you’re still living in the 18th Century when people believed individual rights were theirs simply by virtue of being born under the U.S. Constitution, not as a dispensation of those in power.

So, what’s it have to do with Longshanks?

The UN resolution is quite literally medieval.

I guess this will make the Islamic world feel right at home…back to the 13th Century!

Consider the provision of Westminster I in 1275 under King Edward I in England (If you saw “Braveheart,” you will recognize him as the hated Longshanks. Trust me, he was every bit as bad as Randall Wallace’s wonderful screenplay made him). Westminster I banned the telling of “tales whereby discord or occasion of discord or slander my grow between the King and his people, or the great men of the realm.” And who defined what tales tended to sow discord? Why, the King and great men of the realm, of course.

But Westminster I was no Longshankian exception to the rule in mediavel England. Roll forward several centuries and we find Henry VIII, he of the many wives. Nobody could print a book without Henry’s permission. A law passed in 1542 proclaimed that “nothing shall be taught or mainained contrary to the King’s instructions” concerning the Bible or other religious matters. Violate that law three times and you went to the stake to be burned to death.

A century later, a 1662 statute provided the death penalty for those selling “heretical, schimatical, blasphemous, seditious and trasonable books, pamphlets and papers.” Why? Because such publications allegedly were “endangering the peace of these kingdoms and raising a disaffection to his most excellent Majesty and his government.”

That is the essential legal background from England that helped spark the English Reformation and ultimately led to the adoption of the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Why on earth would anybody want to go back to that barbaric world in which you could lose your head for saying the wrong thing?

If you are interested in learning more about the bloody history that came before the First Amendment, see former University of Texas journalism professor Marvin Olasky’s “Telling the Truth” and the chapter on “a great cloud of witnesses.”

At this rate might it take the 2nd Amendment to preserve the 1st Amendment?  One can only hope not.

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Church Leader Issues 1st Amendment Warning

Apostle Says Religious Freedom Is Being Threatened

It is not the usual run of affairs for higher leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church to directly address political issues in their capacity as church leaders. When this does happen, it’s as though someone else is saying “Hey! You! Listen up! This is something REALLY serious!”

It may be worth noting that historically the LDS church knows deeply about possible problems with religious freedom, having been driven from Missouri at one point by an “Order of Extermination” issued by the state governor, and then being pushed out of Illinois after renegade militia vigilantes assassinated the Church president, Joseph Smith, and his brother. That was what led to the exodus to Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young, but I digress…

An apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said religious freedom is being threatened by societal forces intimidating those with religious points of view from having a voice in the public square. [emphasis added] (See the full text of the speech here)

Elder Dallin H. Oaks made the comments today in a major address to Brigham Young University-Idaho students on the importance of preserving the religious freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Elder Oaks has had a front-row seat in observing what he calls the “significant deterioration in the respect accorded to religion” in public life. Prior to his appointment to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Oaks had an illustrious law career. He served as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court, was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States Supreme Court.

These issues are well worth pondering;  one does not have to agree with the religious teachings of the LDS Church to be able to appreciate the civil and Constitutional issues addressed.

Anyone concerned with the maintenance of our Constitutional government in the face of continuous attacks from those who have another agenda, both inside and outside the Washington Beltway, should be concerned with this situation.

DISCLOSURE: The Chief is a active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

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“Mickey” Mao’s Club at B.O.’s White House

White House Official’s Praise for Mao–Whose Policies Led to Death of 65 Million–Was ‘Pathetic,’ Says China Expert

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told high school students in May 2009 that one of her favorite political philosophers was Mao Tse Tung, the Communist dictator responsible for the death of millions of people, and she explained why his philosophy was important for achieving personal and political goals.

When questioned last week after a video of her speech surfaced, however, Dunn said she was using “irony” in reference to Mao. A leading expert on China told CNSNews.com that Dunn’s remarks were “pathetic,” given the human rights atrocities committed under Mao’s reign.

Yeah – Mao is cool.  Never mind about those 65,000,000 dead people…they were only Chinese, anyway.

According to the MSM this is nothing worth commenting on.  Could you imagine their outcry if a Republican said something like this about Hitler?

These people in the White House are truly bereft of reason.

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Terrorism Hits Iranian Guard: They DON’T Like It.

Iran threatens to invade Pakistan, “crushing response” for US, UK

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafary, Monday, Oct. 19, threatened “crushing” retaliation against the US, UK and Pakistan including the invasion of its eastern neighbor.

Ooooooh! They sound MAD!

Apparently turn-about ISN’T fair play to the Revolutionary Guard

Tehran links all three to the suicide bombing attack in Sistan-Baluchistan Sunday, Oct. 18, which killed 42 people including seven senior Guards officers. One was Gen. Nur Ali Shoustari, Jafari’s deputy, who was identified by DEBKAfile‘s counter-terror sources as commander of the al Qods clandestine terror bases in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

So, whay are they treatening us, along with the others?

Jafary said: “Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus and there will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them.”

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources note that is the first time in Iran’s 30-year Islamic revolution that a military leader has gone to the extreme lengths of threatening to strike US and British military targets, a measure of the damage the regime and Guards suffered from the suicide attack, which has since been condemned and denied by Washington.

Like they’re REALLY going to believe ANYTHING we have to say about it.
How serious is the threat?
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report that Tehran will have to make good on its threats without too much delay or lose face among the political and ethnic minority dissidents plaguing on the regime, especially those who rose up in protest against the tainted June 20 presidential election. Hesitation will be seen as weakness.

Past Iranian reprisals were usually carried against the US or Britain indirectly in the Persian Gulf or by local Islamic surrogates like Hizballah in Iraq. Jafari’s words point to a more direct showdown this time by the IRGC or its terrorist arm the al Qods Brigade.

Take it for what it’s worth.

Take Me to Your Leader?

LMAO!

Immigrants Not Amused by ”Illegal Alien” Halloween Costume

Target's+illegal+alien+costume

“He didn’t just cross a border, he crossed a galaxy!”

Go to the original piece if you’re interested in details, but really, the picture says it all!

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B.O. Appoints Fox to Guard Financial Henhouse

Wall Street exec to lead SEC fraud branch

The Obama administration on Friday tapped a Wall Street executive to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charge against investor fraud in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal as it pushed anew for a regulatory overhaul to protect Americans from financial sector shenanigans.

The SEC announced Adam Storch, vice president of Goldman Sachs’ Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the its enforcement division, created earlier this year.

Goldman-Sachs AGAIN? Yeah. Right.

Although the Chief has some serious issues with Arizona Senator John McCain, on this one he hit the nail on the head:

“SEC names Goldman Sachs exec to enforcement post – you can’t make it up,” quipped Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, on Twitter, the popular social-networking Web site.

THIS is more “Change You Can Believe In” – at least if you’re with Goldman-Sachs.

This is the same Goldman Sachs involved with continuing to make massive bonus payments.

Conflict of interest?  What’s that?  (Nothing to see here folks. Move along.)

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Showdown in Arizona: DHS Blinks

Sheriff Joe Arpaio stood up straight, and essentially told the Department of Homeland Security to stuff it.

‘Toughest sheriff’ vows face-off with feds over illegals

The man who likes to call himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., is planning a Friday showdown with the feds.

The sheriff has announced he will defy the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by doing a street sweep for illegal immigrants one day after the expiration of the agreement that has permitted him to conduct such operations for the past three years. The sheriff has said he expects the deal not to be extended, though federal officials have remained publicly noncommittal.

Homeland Security apparently sniffed the prevailing wind, and made their decision:

Law agencies make new pact on illegal deportation

Department of Homeland Security officials have signed new agreements authorizing nearly 70 state and local law enforcement agencies, including a contentious Arizona sheriff, to help arrest and deport illegal immigrants charged with violent or criminal acts.

Under the new agreements, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., who has come under fire for his immigration sweeps, will continue to work with federal authorities when illegal immigrants are booked into his jail. But Sheriff Arpaio’s office will not be given the power to arrest such people, as it previously had, federal officials said.

Sheriff Joe’s response?…business as usual:

As the new agreements were announced, Sheriff Arpaio launched a crime and immigration sweep Friday in northwestern metro Phoenix, according to the Associated Press.

The sheriff told the AP that he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

“It doesn’t bother me, because we are going to do the same thing,” Sheriff Arpaio said. “I am the elected sheriff. I don’t take orders from the federal government.”

That’s what the Chief considers a practical lesson to DHS in applied federalism.

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“Here’s the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss”

Russia’s Leaders See China as Template for Ruling

Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: the Communist Party.

Or at least, the one that reigns next door.

Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed.

United Russia’s leaders even convened a special meeting this month with senior Chinese Communist Party officials to hear firsthand how they wield power.

18russia.big

In the words of Rod Stewart:  “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”

A police state is a police state – whether you call it the “Communist Party of (insert country here)”, “United Russia”, or the “National Socialist German Workers Party”, it’s just different sides of the same coin.

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ChiCom Missiles to be Boosted by B.O.?

Obama loosens missile technology controls to China

President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department — a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.

The president issued a little-noticed “presidential determination” Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

Even Bill Clinton had enough shame to do stuff like this under the radar. As fas as B.O. is concerned, why bother.
Of course, the message to the country is “Nothing to see here. Move along folks. Go back home and watch NBC some more.”

Commerce officials say the shift will not cause controls to be loosened in regards to the export of missile and space technology.

DUH…by delegating the authority for approval DOWN the chain of command…the controls have ALREADY been loosened!

Besides…there is no reason to change the regulatory setup…unless there is already the intention to use the changed system to sell our technology to the ChiComs.

Eugene Cottilli, a spokesman for Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, said under new policy the U.S. government will rigorously monitor all sensitive exports to China.

Right…they will be monitored. Logically, this means that they will be occurring! Otherwise, there would be nothing to monitor! (Dang! That pesky logic…)

The presidential notice alters a key provision of the 1999 Defense Authorization Act that required that the president notify Congress whether a transfer of missile and space technology to China would harm the U.S. space-launch industry or help China’s missile programs.

How can a “presidential notice” repeal a law? Did I miss something here?

The law was passed after a late-1990s scandal involving the U.S. companies Space Systems/Loral and Hughes Electronics Corp. Both companies improperly shared technology with China and were fined $20 million and $32 million, respectively, by the State Department after a U.S. government investigation concluded that their know-how was used to improve China’s long-range nuclear missiles.

This was the afore-mentioned Clintonista “problem” with missile tech security.

Section 1512 of the 1999 law requires the president to certify to Congress in advance of any missile equipment or technology exports to China that the export will not harm the U.S. space-launch industry and that “missile equipment or technology, including any indirect technical benefit that could be derived from such export, will not measurably improve the missile or space launch capabilities of the People’s Republic of China.”

Of course, if B.O. is ignoring Congress on this, Congress will surely respond vigorously, right?

Oh…yeah…THIS Congress…never mind.

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We’ve seen this before…

Wasn’t it around 60 years ago that Jews had trouble travelling in Europe without fear of being arrested?

The bad old days appear to be returning…and Europe is supposed to be considered sane and civilized?

Israelis may stay home to avoid arrest in Europe

Israel is seriously considering restricting travel to Europe by its senior officials and military officers, fearing they might be arrested in the wake of a disputed U.N. report that accuses the Jewish state of targeting civilians in its Gaza war earlier this year.

Oh yeah. Some Palestinians got killed in a round of warfare that THEY started. So some UN-crats and traditionally anti-semitic Euros think that this constitutes war crimes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday harshly criticized the U.N. report, written by a team headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, “as distorted” and vowed not to permit the Israeli officials who launched the Gaza war “to arrive at the International Court in The Hague.” The U.N. Security Council will discuss the report on Wednesday.

Just how did this iteration of fighting get started? Remember the HAMAS Palestinian terrorists firing literally thousands of rockets into Israel (Which is roughly comparable in size to say, South Dakota between I-29 and the Minnesota border.) Then they get upset when Israel responds militarily and comes after them…and even fired real bullets back at them! (Shocking!!)

Israel launched the offensive to stop the militant Palestinian group Hamas from firing rockets on Israeli cities from Gaza, which Hamas controls. While the war is viewed in Israel as a tactical success, its large civilian death toll – estimated at 926 by Palestinian rights groups and at least 295 by Israel – has created significant diplomatic fallout.

How’s about the bit that there were so many civilian casualties because many rocket launching points were in hospital and school courtyards (with the normal users still present in the buildings while the rockets were going out) naturally becoming targets of the Israeli response.

F ‘em if they can’t take the heat…next time MAYBE they’ll actually THINK before you start with the rocketry again, but it’s doubtful.

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RINO Season Returns

GOP Graham’s endorsement boosts climate change bill

In an op-ed published Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina joined with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chamber’s leading Democratic advocate of climate legislation, to promote a bipartisan plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

They proposed a compromise that reduces U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions – which are widely considered to contribute to climate change – through a market-based “cap and trade” system, combined with a “clean energy” program providing incentives for nuclear power, offshore oil and gas drilling, and coal emissions controls.

The nuke bit, and POSSIBLE extra drilling are good, but doesn’t offset the rest of the Cap and Tax provisions.

Overall, with Republicans like Sen. Graham-cracker, who needs Democrats?

UPDATE: Graham-cracker isn’t alone in exemplifying the RINO attitude; of course Olympia Snowe(-blind) has made a career of this.

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Glowbull Warming Updates

Maybe the MSM is starting to wake up and notice the sunrise:

What happened to global warming?

This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

Uh…if a scientific model fails, that’s a pretty sure indication that it is a poor model for some reason; based on bad data, failure to include critical variable factors, etc.

So what on Earth is going on?

It’s the SUN, stupid!

Western MT cold breaks records

The National Weather Service predicted freezing temperatures and snow flurries both Saturday and Sunday for most of Eastern Montana.

Meanwhile, temperatures in parts of western Montana were near zero overnight and record lows were set in Missoula, Kalispell and Butte on Sunday.

With chilly temperatures expected to sweep across the state over the weekend, school marching bands were pulled from the University of Montana’s homecoming parade Saturday under threat of frigid weather.

You get the picture.

Cold temperatures threaten seed potato crop

Record-low temperatures in southwestern Idaho are threatening to destroy at least a portion of this season’s crop of seed potatoes.

Spuds still in the ground could be saved by a layer of snow; a dusting had fallen on Bozeman and the surrounding region by Sunday.

Nina Zydak, director of the Montana State University Potato Lab, said most area farmers have already started digging.

But many farmers expect to lose some of their potatoes.

Aside from the cold, the food-Nazis should like this…they say we eat too many chips and fries anyway.

And finally…the Grand Poobah of Glowbull Warming himself is out as usual, trying to be a personal self-fulfilling prophet by heating things up with his usual bloviation:

Gore upbeat on climate bill

Former Vice President Al Gore shared his optimism about the “shifting momentum” of the climate change debate with about 500 environmental journalists Friday in Madison.

“We’re very close to that political tipping point,” Gore said at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference at the Madison Concourse Hotel.

Yep! He’s tipped over the top on this, long ago. Meanwhile, the local peasantry isn’t buying the act:

“His optimism isn’t shared by a lot of other folks,” said Tim Wheeler, an environmental reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Gore may have been trying to push politicians to action, Wheeler added.

Conservative groups led by Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow and Americans for Prosperity held a demonstration Downtown that drew about 200 people, including U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, who also participated in the conference’s panel discussion following Gore’s speech. The demonstrators worried Gore’s policies would push American jobs overseas.

Gore has been criticized for not publicly debating his position since the release of his 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

In what organizers said was a rarity, Gore took half a dozen questions from journalists, including one from Phelim McAleer, an Irish filmmaker who asked Gore to address nine errors in his film identified by a British court in 2007.

Gore responded that the court ruling supported the showing of his film in British schools. When McAleer tried to debate further, his microphone was cut off by the moderators.

Ah, yes…the joys of free and open debate on the issues…but not to be allowed with AlGor and his ilk of the enviro-junk science movement.

Finally – here at the Chief’s location white, flaky, sub-zero deg. C water is falling on the roof, etc. about 6 weeks earlier than the usual occurrence around Turkey Day…but then again, maybe everyday IS Turkey Day with AlGor!

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The Latest Norwegian Joke

The Chief woke up this morning to Mrs. Chief saying “Guess who won the Nobel Peace Prize?”

The way the question was asked signalled (after 30+ years of questioning experiences) that there was something extraordinary about the answer.

Being thus alerted, the immediate thought came…”It must his Imperial Divine Eminance B.O. hisself!  This was immediately followed by the thought “Naw – not even the Norwegians could be THAT stupid…after all, he hasn’t accomplished anything significant yet.”

Sadly enough, the first impression was right. So much for any more credibility to the Nobel Peace Prize.

This makes Ole, of “Ole and Lena” fame seem be a genius by comparison.

Obama Wakes Early To News Of Nobel Win

The White House says President Barack Obama was woken up a little before 6 a.m. with the news that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs learned from reporters that Obama had won the 2009 prize, and telephoned the White House early Friday to pass along the news to his boss.  The president plans to talk about his award at 10:30 a.m. Friday in the Rose Garden.

One awaits with bated breath!

President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation….

During the press conference to announce the winner, there were gasps in the room when Obama’s name was mentioned in Norwegian. Moments later, the announcement was made again but in English.

Gasps…no kidding. They were lucky there wasn’t gagging…no, it WAS the international press…most of them can swallow anything with the proper seasoning of political correctness!

Analysis: He won, but for what?

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Price to President Barack Obama landed with a shock on darkened, still-asleep Washington. He won! For what?

For one of America’s youngest presidents, in office less than nine months — and only for 12 days before the Nobel nomination deadline last February — it was an enormous honor.[emphasis added]

A richly UNdeserved honor.

The prize seems to be more for Obama’s promise than for his performance. Work on the president’s ambitious agenda, both at home and abroad, is barely underway, much less finished. He has no standout moment of victory that would seem to warrant a verdict as sweeping as that issued by the Nobel committee.

And what about peace? Obama is running two wars in the Muslim world — in Iraq and Afghanistan — and can’t get a climate change bill through his own Congress.

Without commenting on the demerits of the climate change bill…the stunning lack of achievement is obvious.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize to mixed reviews

This report is mostly more of the same, except for this little tidbit:

Critics — some in parts of the Arab and Muslim world — called the committee decision premature.

Not even the Arabs all agree on the merit of this one.

Premature?  D’ya think? Maybe just a bit?

Nobel Committee’s Decision Courts Controversy

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, so early in his presidency, is bound to reignite criticism of the workings of the Nobel committee.

The deadline for nominations for the prize was Feb. 1 — two weeks after Mr. Obama was inaugurated.

“So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far,” former Polish President Lech Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, said Friday.

So, how do they make these selections?  Read on:

When all the nominations are in, the committee draws up a short list of between five and 20 candidates which are then considered by the Nobel Institute’s director and research director and a group of Norwegian university professors. Their reports on the candidates are then discussed by the five-member prize committee.

Members, all of whom are former or serving deputies of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, seek to reach a unanimous decision — normally by mid-September — but this has sometimes proved impossible and the choice is then made by a simple majority vote.

Some have criticized the selection procedure as untransparent. The committee never announces the names of nominees and information about candidacies is only made public 50 years after the decision. “It is all done in secret, you don’t know what is happening and whoever sits on that panel is very susceptible to the tides of the moment,” said Philip Towle, an academic from the department of politics and international studies at the University of Cambridge.

Even in Norway, where Mr. Obama enjoys huge popularity, the decision raised eyebrows among some. “It is just too soon,” said Siv Jensen, leader of Norway’s main opposition party, the Progress Party. “It is wrong to give him the peace prize for his ambition. You should receive it for results.”

She said that the decision to bestow the award on the president was the most controversial she could remember and was one of a number that had moved the prize further away from the ideals of Alfred Nobel.

Ah! Enlightenment!

Norskie University professors and Eurosocialist politicians do the heavy lifting.

’nuff said.

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Obamacare Bill Includes New Medical Taxes

A new mommy tax

When Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus proposed taxing medical devices to raise $40 billion over the next 10 years for his health care plan, opponents started digging in and looking at what would be taxed. It turned out feminine products, like tampons, were classified as class I medical devices and thus, the “tampon tax” was born.

The backlash was quick and severe enough against the idea that the committee quickly drafted new language that would exempt those necessities from the tax, along with all other class I devices, like tongue depressors, and decided to only tax class II medical devices and higher that cost less than $100.

But, just wait for the revolt to start again because women will still pay a price under the new structure. Particularly new moms who want to use a powered breast pump to bottle milk for their babies. Those devices, labeled class II, typically retails for more than $100.

And, all the rest of the more expensive, higher-class medical devices used by both men an women — such as pacemakers, ventilators, X-ray machines, powered wheelchairs and surgical needles — will be taxed, too.

Tampons exempt, breast pumps, pacemakers,  and wheelchairs are fair game. Sort of brings to the chief’s mind the old Beatles song, “Taxman”:

Let me tell you how it will be,
There’s one for you, nineteen for me,
‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
Yeah, I’m the Taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don’t take it all.
‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
Yeah yeah, I’m the Taxman.

If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat,
If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
Taxman.

‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
Yeah, I’m the Taxman.
Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some more
‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
Yeeeah, I’m the Taxman.

Now my advice for those who die, (Taxman!)
Declare the pennies on your eyes, (Taxman!)
‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
Yeah, I’m the Taxman.
And you’re working for no-one but me,
Taxman.

[Yeah, I know...I took the liberty of deleting the names of the Brit's party leaders in the mid-60's.   So what.  It dessn't change the point.]

Back to the bill: nothing there about middle class (and below) exemptions, either, is there?
Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Attack on Texas Airline Flight?

Missile Possibly Launched in Liberty County

A missile may have just barely miss hitting a Continental Airlines flight on Friday.

Liberty County sheriff deputies are meeting with the FBI and FAA to discuss this incident.

Sheriff deputies say on Friday a missile may have been launched near Interstate 10 and mount Belview. A continental flight which had just taken off from Bush Intercontinental Airport may have been the target.

Yikes!

It was flying above 12,000 feet when just after 8 p.m., the pilot reported seeing what’s being described as a missile.

Must have missed this report on the MSM news…since surely they would have reported it?

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B.O. Middle East Disarray

The B.O. administration seems unable to get itself organized in the middle east, with the resulting development of serious economic consequences, as illustrated by the unfortunate pattern of the following articles found online today…as contradictory as they are.

White House angry at General Stanley McChrystal speech on Afghanistan

At the time that General McChrystal was appointed, B.O. pledged to take care of the needs of the force as communicated by the commanding general…that WOULD be McCrystal. Ooops! When he says something that B.O. doesn’t want to hear, it’s a different story. Support for the war apparently only goes so far now that the election is over.

According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.

Truth is a bitch!

The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago’s unsuccessful Olympic bid. In an apparent rebuke to the commander, Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, said: “It is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations, civilians and military alike, provide our best advice to the president, candidly but privately.”

This ignores the situation that McChrystal’s requests were made weeks ago, with hardly a “Howdy do?”  In reply. B.O. doesn’t seem able to realize that military combat doesn’t operate according to the whims of his attention…or rather, inattention.

Less than perfect decisive action is generally better than no action at all, which has been the White House pattern of late.

If there was an incipient plan to cut out and abandon the effort (without commenting on the merits of THAT), then there MAY be some rationale to the non-response from Washington, but…that’s NOT what they are insisting:

White House: Leaving Afghanistan not an option

The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama is not considering a strategy for Afghanistan that would withdraw U.S. troops from the eroding war there. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that walking away isn’t a viable option to deal with a war that is about to enter its ninth year. “I don’t think we have the option to leave. That’s quite clear,” Gibbs said.

If that’s really the case, not to put a fine point to it, then it’s past time for B.O. to s–t or get off the pot!

In addition, to completely have two opposite trends at the same time, comes SECDEF Gates

Taliban Afghan momentum due to lack of U.S. troops

The Taliban has the momentum in Afghanistan now because of the inability of the United States and its allies to put enough troops into the country, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday.

HUH?

Firstly, Gates essentially is agreeing with McChrystal that we do not have enough troops in-country to successfully do the job: so now both the Commanding General AND the Secretary of Defense apparently don’t buy into B.O.’s pusillanimous inaction.

Secondly, is the United States Secretary of Defense REALLY saying that this is due to the “INABILITY of the United States and its allies to put enough troops into the country” [emphasis added]?  We are UNABLE to carry out a policy that would enable winning the war in Afghanistan?

Anyone else remember B.O. proclaiming that AFGHANISTAN was the “central front” of the war on Islamoterrs, in contrast to Iraq? Apparently that was then (campaign mode) and this is now (Administration mode).

However it plays out, our allies and so-called allies are betting that the United States uner B.O. is a paper tiger, so they are getting together behind our back and planning to slip it to us financially and economically, apparently with no fear of possible effective response:

The demise of the dollar

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

Our reaction thus far is in any practical sense, ineffectual, as we slip towards an expansion of Cold War II.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China’s former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. “Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable,” he told the Asia and Africa Review. “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.”

This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil…

God help us…we’ll need it if we don’t start to get our sh… er… stuff together.

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B.O. – Guess What? A New Federal Agency!

Like, what else would they propose – MORE government, of course.

Obama proposes new consumer agency

The Obama administration Tuesday proposed legislation for a financial oversight agency designed to protect consumers and investors from unscrupulous deals – a plan praised by Democrats, but met with skepticism on Wall Street.

The proposal also faces a political tussle on Capitol Hill, where pro-business Republicans have opposed past administration attempts at bank reform.

The White House sent Congress a 152-page draft bill to create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which it says would offer greater consumer protections for such financial products as mortgages, credit cards and loans by establishing simpler and more transparent rules and regulations.

Lets call a spade a spade here. First off…another new agency? Isn’t there ANYTHING they can cook up that doesn’t expand the government?

Far and away the greatest part of the financial difficulties that people get into is by having an attitude that “the rules don’t apply to me”, and that “someone has the obligation to give me the money I want to have the things I WANT to have, whether I can REALLY afford them or not.” Taking on consumer debt to acquire an ever bigger, and admittedly more impressive pile of “toys for big boys (and girls)” is NOT any more viable in the long run than is the Federal government’s massive and apparently unlimited expansion of ITS debt load.

What else would one expect B.O. to do than put in an agency that will effectively facilitate further expansion of consumer credit, while inevitably providing more “protective” regulatory loopholes. Apparently, if it’s sauce for the Federal goose, then it’s also sauce for the consumer gander.

NOT what we really need in either case!

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Thune Interview: Reid Vulnerable

Senate giant killer sees new victim: Reid
S. Dakota senator points to Nev. election

Interesting interview piece with SD Senator John Thune in the Sunday Washington Times

Sen. Thune points out similarities with Daschle v. Thune race, and the vulnerabilities of “Dusty” Harry Reid in this election cycle.

The Republican who ousted the Democratic leader of the Senate in 2004 says Harry Reid finds himself in a similar predicament of representing a conservative-leaning state but leading a liberal party.

Sen. John Thune made Senate history when he unseated Sen. Tom Daschle by exploiting the gap between Mr. Daschle’s interests in Washington and those of his home state of South Dakota. That’s exactly where Mr. Reid, the Senate majority leader, is now, he said.

“In the case of Senator Daschle, he was leading a left-of-center caucus and representing a right-of-center state — it was very difficult to reconcile those two,” Mr. Thune told The Washington Times. “I know that Senator Reid will work very hard over the course of the next several months to convince his voters in Nevada that he’s still very connected to them and in touch, but I think that the perception that he’s got to overcome is that he is leading a left-of-center caucus in Washington that’s trying to do all these things with which they disagree.”

Some other issues are also noted in the piece:

Mr. Thune, a former three-term House member, has earned a reputation as a rising GOP star among the upper chamber. The affable Midwesterner has been a fierce critic of government spending throughout President Obama’s first term — during the debate over the stimulus bill, he routinely noted that one could spend $1 million each day since the birth of Jesus and still not match the plan’s $787 billion price tag.

Also, the proposed interstate CCL legislation that almost slid though the Senate in spite of the Donkey Party majority…

He’s also taken the lead on gun rights, and says Second Amendment supporters remain a powerful force despite not winning every vote.

In June, Mr. Thune forced several Democrats to take a tough vote on a measure that would have required states to honor the concealed weapons licenses of out-of-state citizens, who would then be subject to the conceal-carry laws of the state in which they were traveling.

Mr. Thune’s amendment, which he tried to attach to the defense authorization bill, garnered 58 votes — two shy of the 60-vote threshold in the Senate for contentious legislation. The vote was a rare loss for the gun rights lobby, which earlier in the year had a significant win with Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn’s amendment allowing guns in some national parks.

“The issue I decided to take on was clearly the most controversial of all. It energized people on both sides of the Second Amendment debate, but I think that to say that you got 58 votes in the Senate — that somehow [the gun rights] movement is losing steam is just not reflective of reality,” said Mr. Thune, noting that he lost two Republicans but picked up the votes of 20 Democrats.

The Chief notes a realistic dose of realpolitik in his role as a GOP leader…sort of reminds one of Reagan’s approach to the more…moderate…portions of the GOP:

As the new head of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Mr. Thune — who replaced Nevada Sen. John Ensign after Mr. Ensign disclosed an extramarital affair — hosts the party’s weekly policy lunch and helps shape the GOP legislative agenda. Though members of the conference may disagree in certain areas, he said it’s better for Republicans to have a wide tent that includes moderates who will vote with the party on core issues.

“It’s a question of whether you want to be an ideologically pure minority or a government majority. I think that you know you’re going to have places in the country where a Republican in Maine isn’t going to be the same as a Republican in Oklahoma; that’s just the way it is,” he said. “If you want to set the agenda, if you want to be the party that’s actually leading the country, you’re going to have to recognize that you’re going to have to have a party that includes a lot of people that you may not agree with on every issue.”

ON a less (or more, to some?) serious note, the Senator will have to be careful of a serious “killer” issue.

Mr. Thune, a native of Murdo, S.D., a small town in the central part of the state, said one of his early political lessons came during an appearance he made at a St. Patrick’s Day parade. An avid supporter of the Green Bay Packers, he sported a team sweatshirt at the event, underestimating the passions of a constituency dominated by Minnesota Vikings fans.

“It was bizarre. People were screaming stuff at me and it was just — never again,” he said. “I probably lost a thousand votes doing that.”

When it comes to the Vikings, the Chief admits to being a fan of the BYU Cougars. What’s the connection? It’s football, right?

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What Was their First Clue?

Meeting pretty women makes men feel good

Flirting with an attractive woman really does make men feel good, scientists find, as they discover it causes a surge in health-giving hormones.

Psychologists found that just a five minute talk with an attractive women raised the levels of testosterone by 14 per cent Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Researchers found that just being in the presence of a pretty member of the opposite sex causes a temporary boost in levels of testosterone and cortisol – both hormones associated with alertness and wellbeing.

However hanging around with other men has the opposite affect – reducing the levels of both substances in the body.

DUH!

IOC Whacks Chicogo Games

Rio win 2016 Games as IOC rebuff Obama

Rio de Janeiro will stage the first Olympics in South America in 2016, the International Olympic Committee decided on Friday, delivering a stunning rebuff to U.S. President Barack Obama and favorites Chicago.

IOC President Jacques Rogge announced the decision to give the Games to Rio after three rounds of voting which produced a landslide victory for the Brazilians in a final showdown with Madrid.

Chicago, despite a speech to the IOC by President Obama, who had put his credibility on the line by flying in to address the IOC just before the vote, went out as fourth and last in the first round of voting, one of the biggest shocks in an Olympic ballot.

Maybe now B.O. will have more time to talk to General McChrystle for more than 25 minutes about the Afghan war.

Can you say s-c-h-s-d-e-n-f-r-e-u-d-e ?

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Dismal Obameconomy Continues

A couple of items relating to this:

Jobless rate reaches 9.8 percent in September

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers cut far more jobs than expected.

The report shows that the worst recession since the 1930s is still inflicting widespread pain and underscores one of the biggest threats to the nascent economic recovery: that consumers, worried about job losses and stagnant wages, will restrain spending. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation’s economy.

Looks like the porkulus bill money didn’t provide all that much stimulus.

Of course, as the financial sector improves, unemployment will too, Right?

Oooops:

Banks With 20% Unpaid Loans at 18-Year High Amid Recovery Doubt

The number of U.S. lenders that can’t collect on at least 20 percent of their loans hit an 18-year high, signaling that more bank failures and losses could slow an economic recovery.

…even more than it already is?

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EPA Junks Science at Work

EPA Proposal: Help Environment Or Increase Costs?

The government is considering a plan that could help the environment, but some say it could also hurt your budget.

Two things here: (1) It WILL hurt your budget (and the economy, employment, etc.) (2) It won’t make any real difference in the environment. Over geologioc time, there is NO noticeable correlation between climate and CO2:

paleocarbon Notice the WIDE variations between the temperature and CO2 fluctuations? If CO2 level drove temperature, as CO2 increased, so would temperature. This just is NOT present in the data!  Nonetheless…

The Environmental Protection Agency wants to require large industrial facilities to get more permits if they emit more greenhouse gases. The plan targets power plants, refineries, even ethanol plants.

The EPA’s proposal would cap greenhouse gas emissions at 25 thousand tons of carbon dioxide a year. The EPA says it would mean a healthier environment, economy, and future for America. But some Republicans including Senator John Thune disagree.

Good for them.  The Chief also disagrees in MANY ways!

Look at the list of South Dakota facilities that emitted more than 25 thousand tons of carbon dioxide last year in the table from the SD DENR lin the article linked from the header.  Note that it hits a number of “green” facilities.

The Chief’s recommendation:

Stop Exhale

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Donks Clearing Way for Middle Class Tax Increases

The Donkey party is throwing over another of B.O.’s repeated solemn pledges.

Senate Finance Committee dumps Obama’s tax promise

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, which is considering President Obama’s health insurance reform plan, has voted down an amendment which provides that “no tax, fee or penalty imposed by this legislation shall be applied to any individual earning less than $200,000 per year or any couple earning less than $250,000 per year.” [emphasis added]

You might recall that President Obama promised no tax increases whatsoever, of any kind, on earners making less than those amounts. But don’t bet on him to veto this bill.

The committee vote on the amendment, proposed by Republicans Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Pat Roberts (Kan.), was 11 in favor, and 12 against. All Republicans and one Democrat voted in favor of the amendment. All 12 opposed were Democrats.

DANGER!  BEWARE of PICKPOCKETS
Ladies: Carry your purses tucked under your arms, with the strap over your shoulder.
Men: Do not carry wallet in your rear hip pocket.
Be alert at all times!

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How to Handle Terrs

Farmer’s daughter disarms terrorist and shoots him dead with AK47

An Indian farmer’s daughter disarmed a terrorist leader who broke into her home, attacked him with an axe and shot him dead with his own gun.

Rukhsana Kausar, 21, was with her parents and brother in Jammu and Kashmir when three gunmen, believed to be Pakistani militants, forced their way in and demanded food and beds for the night.

THis was apparently S.O.P. for the local terrs. They picked the wrong place this time:

When they forced their way into Miss Kausar’s home, her father Noor Mohammad refused their demands and was attacked.

His daughter was hiding under a bed when she heard him crying as the gunmen thrashed him with sticks. According to police, she ran towards her father’s attacker and struck him with an axe. As he collapsed, she snatched his AK47 and shot him dead. She also shot and wounded another militant as he made his escape.

Score one for the good guys & gals!

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Uff da!

I won’t say this is exactly on a LIGHTER note…but…

Hen lays monster egg – then dies

A farmer in New York state has revealed how a recently deceased hen left behind an impressive legacy – an egg weighing almost five ounces.

This speaks for itself:

EGG_1492928c

You’ve got to feel for the poor hen.  (She died after making her supreme effort.)

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B.O.’s Bipartisanship? Missing in Action

Cantor: Obama’s not met with GOP leaders since May

President Obama has cut off communication with Republican leaders, going more than four months without hosting the bipartisan congressional leadership at the White House to discuss his health care proposal, the No. 2 Republican in the House said Wednesday.

Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, told The Washington Times that health care reform has been an “utter disaster” for Mr. Obama and predicted if he pushes through a public option as part of a final bill, Republicans will win back at least one chamber of Congress in the 2010 elections.

Mr. Cantor said Mr. Obama initially asked for Republican help on health care, but Republicans have heard nothing since they offered their ideas.

“No matter what the cry is from the White House, no matter what the president claims, they have not engaged with us,” he said.

Hey!  Wadda ya want!  That ain’t da Chicago way!

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