Monthly Archives: December 2009

Uncategorized

A Dog’s Life

Received the following from an e-mail correspondent:

This made me very sad, especially since I have 4 dogs.

My dogs sleep about 20 hours a day. They have their food prepared for them. They can eat whenever they want, 24/7/365. Their meals are provided at no cost to them. They visit the Dr. once a year for their checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this they pay nothing, and nothing is required of them.

They live on a nice acreage in a kennel that is much larger than they need, but they are not required to do any upkeep. If they make a mess, someone else cleans it up. They have their choice of doghouses to sleep in. They receive these accommodations absolutely free.

They are living like a kings, and have absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of their costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head:

Holy crap, my dogs are Democrats!

’nuff said.

National Insecurity

Homeland Insecurity Digest

By now, most are aware of the attempted bombing of the NW airlines flight into Detroit. The episode and its aftermath do little or nothing to reassure that airline security is any better than it was before this incident. The experience of flying is rapidly transmogrifying into a virtual signing in to a state of voluntary imprisonment, with no pesly Constitutional nicities to be troubled about. (If prisons treated inmates like some of the TSA regulations treat airline passengers, the ACLU would be in full cry and out for blood.)

Flight 253 passenger: Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.

Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.

Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man….While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’”

HUH? Boarding an international flight WITH NO PASSPORT? WTF? Putting this along with the fact that there was no prior reservation, the ticket was one-way and bought with cash, MIGHT a rational person suspect that there was “something rotten in Denmark”? (OK – actually Netherlands, but you get the picture.) NOT confidence inspiring circumstances.

Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Both Saudi nationals have since emerged in leadership roles in Yemen, according to U.S. officials and the men’s own statements on al Qaeda propaganda tapes.

Transferred from Gitmo to art therapy in Saudi Arabia? HUH? Political correctness run amok here, or what?

Napolitano: No indication of larger terror plot

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says there is no indication that the man who attempted to destroy an airliner in Detroit on Christmas Day is part of a larger terrorist plot.

Napolitano refused to say whether Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has a connection to al-Qaida, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

The phrase “poor situational awareness” comes immediately to mind.

Bomb plotter: ‘More like me’

Failed plane bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West.

The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.

The reports come after The Sun revealed that cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.

The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.

And finally – the responses after the fact – a serious misapplication of admittedly limited security resources.

‘Absolute chaos’ at NYC airports
Innocent fliers: TSA has gone plane insane

Airline passengers thwarted the Christmas Day terror plot — and now passengers are getting the shaft.

International fliers are falling victim to insanely repetitive security questions, invasive pat-downs and overzealous flight attendants who restrict their every move, passengers fumed yesterday.

For all the gory details read the article.

As far as we are concerned here at the Chief’s outpost…automotive travel is definitely the way to go.

Uncategorized

B.O. Admin Plan Pushes Ag Rollbacks

Plan to turn farms into forest worries Obama official

Hmmm. Looks like the USDA in conjunction with EPA is setting up a push in the direction of an at least partial repeal of that environmentally risky 5000 year experiment with agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has ordered his staff to revise a computerized forecasting model that showed that climate legislation supported by President Obama would make planting trees more lucrative than producing food.

The latest Agriculture Department economic-impact study of the climate bill, which passed the House this summer, found that the legislation would profit farmers in the long term. But those profits would come mostly from higher crop prices as a result of the legislation’s incentives to plant more forests and thus reduce the amount of land devoted to food-producing agriculture.

Questions come to mind…how is this plan supposed to work, and what sort of modeling is being used to generate it, and are the predicted changes actually valid? The latter two issues are far from being trivial, given the proven tendency of environmentally oriented (junk-)scientists to fake and distort statistics, and use demonstrably invalid computer modeling in order to prove their (pre-determined) conclusions.

In spite of that, it seems like the first question is shaky enough in its premises that the Ag Secretary is calling the idea into question.

According to the economic model used by the department and the Environmental Protection Agency, the legislation would give landowners incentives to convert up to 59 million acres of farmland into forests over the next 40 years. The reason: Trees clean the air of heat-trapping gases better than farming does.

Mr. Vilsack, in a little-noticed statement issued with the report earlier this month, said the department’s forecasts “have caused considerable concern” among farmers and ranchers.
“If landowners plant trees to the extent the model suggests, this would be disruptive to agriculture in some regions of the country,” he said.

Gee…d’ya think, maybe so? Wonder what the first clue was?

He said the Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model (FASOM), created by researchers at Texas A&M University, does not take into account other provisions in the House-passed bill, which would boost farmers’ income while they continue to produce food. Those omissions, he said, cause the model to overestimate the potential for increased forest planting.

Oh yeah: the pesky bit about invalid computer modeling again!

Mr. Vilsack said he has directed his chief economist to work with the EPA to “undertake a review of the assumptions in the FASOM model, to update the model and to develop options on how best to avoid unintended consequences for agriculture that might result from climate change legislation.”

One HAS to question the outcome of any revision just as strongly as the original scvheme. Given the political realities, it seems not unlikely that the revisions will be crafted to give the APPEARANCE of solving problems, while continuing in effect to “nudge” (in the terms of B.O.’s Czardomry) us in a direction back towards the cave.

The legislation would give free emissions credits, known as offsets, to farmers and landowners who plant forests and adopt low-carbon farm and ranching practices.

Can you say “Cap and Trade”?

Farmers and ranchers could sell the credits to help major emitters of greenhouse gases comply with the legislation. That revenue would help the farmers deal with an expected rise in fuel and fertilizer costs. But the economic forecast predicts that nearly 80 percent of the offsets would be earned through the planting of trees, mostly in the Midwest, the South and the Plains states.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and some farm-state Republican lawmakers have complained that the offsets program would push landowners to plant trees and terminate their leases with farmers.

The model projects that reduced farm production will cause food prices to rise by 4.5 percent by 2050 compared with a scenario in which no legislation is passed, the department found.

Ooops! Maybe THIS is the problem with the projection…it would give ammo to opponents of the overall (pseudo) green policy framework, which after all is built on the foundation of junk-climate science as propounded by the Great Church of St. Gore the Green.

Uncategorized

Cornhusker Auction

How to lose friends for little gain

Rarely has a cowboy castrated himself in public like Ben Nelson, the senator from Nebraska, who becomes an object lesson in how a United States senator easily trades his “convictions” and “principles” for perfectly legal bribes from cynical party leaders.

When the inevitable howling erupted in Nebraska, all the senator could come up with was a variation on the oldest excuse in Washington: “I didn’t do it, and maybe I won’t do it again.”

Huh?   That’s got to go right up there with “I voted against it before I voted for it”, and “It depends what the meaning of is, is” in the political doublespeak hall of fame.

Every president mirrors in ways large and small the politics he learned back home, and the administration’s use of the battering ram in behalf of a scheme that grows more unpopular day by day reflects the down-and-dirty politics of Chicago. Richard Daley the Original lives and breathes on Capitol Hill.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the senator’s colleagues can be grateful for the diversion of attention from the actual outrage. Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told the Senate that ObamaCare is so convoluted that no one (not even the dozens of lawyers who wrote it) actually understands it. The president insists that the change nobody believes in will reduce costs for everybody….

Nevermind. The president has the reform that does less and costs more. Earl Long, the late governor of Louisiana, once boasted that he could take a hundred-dollar bill and get anything through his legislature “and buy you a steak dinner with what I’ll have left over.”

President Obama goes that one better. He did it with a bribe of somebody else’s money.

It’s not change that the Chief can believe in.

Culture Wars

B.O. Tree: Ho-ho-ho’s indeed!

White House Christmas Decor Featuring Mao Zedong Comes Under Fire

BO Tree

The nation isn’t going to fall because of this. That being said…it DOES give a clear indication of the Obamaniacal state of mind, which in spite of Michelle’s vaporings has little connection to vast majority

Mao Zedong is in the White House, hanging out with the drag queen. Not far away, Barack Obama is making a play to have his head etched in stone.

BO Rushmore ornament

Mao Ornament

Hedda ornament

Critics of President Obama are setting their sights this week on the official White House Christmas tree, which features controversial ornaments including an orb depicting the late Chinese dictator, another that shows drag queen Hedda Lettuce, and yet another that shows a picture of Mount Rushmore — with Obama’s head pasted to the side of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt’s.

“Jesus wept.”

Uncategorized

Season’s Greetings

To My Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010 , but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish.

To My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Uncategorized

Update: Senate Shoves Obamacare Bill…

0023 CST

60-40 vote in the Senate by the Donkey party tells the country to take this bill and and use it to…copy a medical procedure involving “someplace the sun doesn’t shine.”

How does it follow the Constitution?   What’s that?…as Queen SanFran Nan Pelosi replied to a reporter’s question about the bill’s constitutionality.  “Are you serious?…That’s not a serious question!”  So much for THAT minor quibble.

Since this lead balloon has made it off the ground, the best chance to try to stop it is to put a spoke in the wheels of the upcoming reconciliation process.  This may be a chance for the so-called “blue dogs” in the house to make a positive difference, both for the country, and for their re-election chances.

Are you paying attention Stephanie?

Uncategorized

Russians ID Flying Object?

UFO pyramid reported over Kremlin

The object has been compared to an Imperial Cruiser in the Star Wars films and witnesses estimated it could be up to a mile wide.

Two film clips exist which appear to show the same object and footage has been repeatedly playing on Russian television news channels.

So what is it?

The identity of the shape has not been confirmed. Russian reports ruled out a UFO but police refused to comment.

If it ISN’T a UFO, or Unidentified Flying Object, since it is prima facie a flying object of some sort, logically the Russians must think they know what its identity is!

Enquiring minds await this revelation,  but others are not so sure as the Russians:

A spokesman for aerospace journal Jane’s News said: “We have no idea what it is.”

Neither does the Chief, but the video clips ARE interesting!

Glowbull Warming

Problems w/Euro Cap & Tax

Fraud in Europe’s Cap and Trade System a ‘Red Flag,’ Critics Say

The top cops in Europe say carbon-trading has fallen prey to an organized crime scheme that has robbed the continent of $7.4 billion — a massive fraud that lawmakers and energy experts say should send a “red flag” to the U.S., where the House approved cap-and-trade legislation over the summer amid stiff opposition.

In a statement released last week, the Europol police agency said Europe’s cap-and-trade system has been the victim of organized crime during the past 18 months, resulting in losses of roughly $7.4 billion. The agency, headquartered in the Netherlands, estimated that in some countries up to 90 percent of the entire market volume was caused by fraudulent activities.

Organized crime? Looks like two mobs fighting over the loot: the Euro governments vs. the “honest” gangsters (who don’t use the shield of governmental status to justify their theft).

Glowbull Warming

Glowbull Warming Updates

Firstly, one just HAS to take cognizance of the Glowbull Warming Conference Blizzard of ’09 that Copenhagen is getting:
Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming

World leaders flying into Copenhagen today to discuss a solution to global warming will first face freezing weather as a blizzard dumped 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow on the Danish capital overnight. “Temperatures will stay low at least the next three days,” Henning Gisseloe, an official at Denmark’s Meteorological Institute, said today by telephone, forecasting more snow in coming days. “There’s a good chance of a white Christmas.”

Delegates from 193 countries have been in Copenhagen since Dec. 7 to discuss how to fund global greenhouse gas emission cuts. U.S. President Barack Obama will arrive before the summit is scheduled to end tomorrow.

Denmark has a maritime climate and milder winters than its Scandinavian neighbors. It hasn’t had a white Christmas for 14 years, under the DMI’s definition, and only had seven last century.

There have been a number of instances where winter storms came in at the same time as AlGore sessions, and other glowbull warming events.

God is ironic.

Another dose of cold water was injected into the glowbull warming love-in by US Senator James Inhoff (R-OK).
Sen. Inhofe (R) In Lion’s Den in Copenhagen

The leading global warming skeptic in the U.S. Senate shocked reporters in Copenhagen with a dose of American reality with his prediction Thursday morning that the U.S. Senate will not pass a carbon ‘cap and trade’ bill, regardless of the commitment President Obama is expected to make here tomorrow.

“I am here to make sure the 190 countries here don’t go home with the false impression,” said sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. “The United States is not going to pass cap and trade. It just isn’t going to happen. Its chances are zero.” Inhofe said just 25 Senators would support the type of carbon reduction bill already passed in the House.

This proved to be a shocking experience to the world establishment pro-Glowbull Warming press:

Surrounded by reporters from around the world, including many who believe global warming is real, Inhofe often looked like a lamb on his way to slaughter.

One reporter asked Inhofe “What do you tell the children who have to live in a nightmare world. What should we tell them about your country being a heroin addict on fossil fuel? Answer the question!”

“Most of you are on the far left side, so listen closely. I contend the consensus is not there, and it wasn’t there prior to Climate-gate.”

“Nothing binding will come out of here in my opinion, and if it does it will be rejected by the American people.”

Nothing quite like calling a spade a spade!

Finally, looks like the Brits’ Meteorological Office (like our (NOAA) has apparently been caught with its data down:
CLIMATE CHANGE ‘LIES’ BY BRITAIN

THE Meteorological Office was last night facing accusations it cherry-picked climate change figures in a bid to increase evidence of global warming.

UK climatologists “probably tampered with Russian-climate data” to produce a report submitted to world leaders at this week’s Copenhagen summit, it is claimed.

The Met Office’s study, which says the first decade of this century has been the warmest on record for 160 years, is being used to trumpet claims that man is causing global warming.

But experts at the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis say the British dossier used statistics from weather stations that fit its theory of global warming, while ignoring those that do not.

They accuse the Met Office’s Hadley Centre of relying on just 25 per cent of Russia’s weather stations and over-estimating warming in the country by more than half a degree Celsius.

Brit climate science looks really junky about now, with this on top of the original Climategate leakage from East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit.

Glowbull Warming

100 REASONS WHY GLOBAL WARMING IS NATURAL

Campaigners yesterday attempted to pour scorn on “tenuous” global warming theories by issuing a dossier detailing 100 reasons why climate change is natural and not man-made.

The list includes the controversial claim that there is “no scientific proof” that rising levels of greenhouse gases are caused by human activity.

**SEE THE 100 REASONS HERE**

The report, by the respected European Foundation, also argues that a higher level of carbon dioxide (CO2) – the main greenhouse gas – is not a problem because it helps to boost crop yields.

And it claims that the warming we are now experiencing is “mostly natural”, pointing to historic shifts in the climate such as when Vikings farmed on Greenland in medieval times.

Political analyst Jim McConalogue, who wrote the report, said: “This demonstrates how tenuous, improper and indeed false the scientific and political claims are for man-made global warming, from claims that climate change can be controlled by human activity to the proposition that CO2 emissions represent a severe threat to our way of life, when in fact there is little evidence to support any of these claims.”

This of course assumes that the global climate is warming at all…recent evidence indicates that this may well NOT be the case.

Uncategorized

What savings?

Rising costs predicted in health care bill

Dealing an unexpected blow to Senate Democrat’s health care bill, administration economists on Friday predicted the overhaul would accelerate rising costs of health insurance and medical services, and that its proposed Medicare cuts could reduce care for senior citizens.

A report by analysts at the Health and Human Services Department said the bill would increase the nation’s annual spending on health care beyond the current $2.5 trillion at a slightly faster rate than if Congress did nothing. It concluded that new taxes on drugs, medical devices and health insurance plans would trigger higher insurance premiums for consumers.

Like this should be a surprise to anyone…massive expansion of government programs will actually cost more!

Who’d of thought it?

Defense Matters!

PC vs. Army: Army Loses, Again

A amazingly good report from NPR:
Rules Of Engagement Are A Dilemma For U.S. Troops

As part of the new American counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines must work first to protect the Afghan population. Given the choice between killing the enemy or risking civilian lives, they have been willing to let the enemy go. NPR’s Tom Bowman was in Afghanistan earlier this year and witnessed troops grappling with the dilemma of whether to shoot.

Go to the link for the actual interview, and for its transcript.

This shows the insanity of sending U.S. troops into a combat environment, and then tying their hands. This is what happens when politicians, lawyers and military bureaucrats are given plenary authority over the warriors. It didn’t in Korea and Vietnam, and it won’t work now.

It’s no way to fight a war.

Uncategorized

SD Academic “Donks” in Majority

DWU study: More S.D. professors are Democrats

This is not really much of a surprisE to the Chief, although apparently most of the state had beliefs to the contrary. The margin is not as great as it is elsewhere around the country, but it’s still there.

A new study by a pair of Dakota Wesleyan University students indicates that there are more Democratic college professors in South Dakota than the state’s residents suspect.

Kelsey Miller and Sarah M. Duff, students in professor Don Simmons’ Leadership and Public Service Seminar class, used voter-registration records to determine the political affiliation of 403 full-time college professors from the education, political science, business and history departments at 10 institutions in the state.

Eighty-seven of the professors were not registered to vote. Among the remaining 316 who were registered, 49 percent were Democrats, 37 percent were Republicans and 14 percent were independent.

The data contradicts perceptions held by South Dakota residents, according to an earlier telephone poll conducted by DWU students. In that poll of 413 South Dakotans, 55 percent of respondents said they thought college professors in South Dakota were either “conservative” or “somewhat conservative.”

Caveat emptor.

Glowbull Warming

Climategate/Copenhagen Updates

Firstly, just to put Glowbull warming into the perspective of reality:

Massive storm buries central US in snow

A massive storm buried much of the central United States in dangerous ice and snow Wednesday, stranding scores of motorists with massive drifts that shut down major roads and defeated plows.

Strong winds created drifts as high as 15 feet (4.6 meters) as the storm dropped as much as four feet of snow (1.2 meters) in some areas, said Pat Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, another blow of the axe to the big tree of glowbull warming himself

Climategate: Gore falsifies the record

This report from Andrew Bold from the land of Oz highlights AlGore hisself stating THREE TIMES that the Climategate e-mails were deserving of no creds since they were produced by e-mail exchanges of more than 10 years ago. He MIGHT have a point…IF THIS WAS TRUE…BUT IT’S PATENTLY FALSE!

…as Bolt points out:

In fact, as Watts Up With That shows, one Climategate email was from just two months ago. The most recent was sent on November 12 – just a month ago. The emails which have Tom Wigley seeming (to me) to choke on the deceit are all from this year. Phil Jones’ infamous email urging other Climategate scientists to delete emails is from last year.

How closely did Gore read these emails? Did he actually read any at all? Was he lying or just terribly mistaken? What else has he got wrong?

UPDATE – Reader Barry:
Actually the e-mail archives are named by Unix timestamp, ranging from Thu, 07 Mar 1996 14:41:07 GMT through to Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:17:44 GMT. This is a strong indicator they are extracted from an enterprise archive, probably by the FOIA Compliance Officer and not hacked from individual’s workstations.

This one concerns the Copenhagen Glowbull Warming Love-in:

Sensenbrenner to Tell Copenhagen: No Climate Laws Until ‘Scientific Fascism’ Ends

The ranking Republican on the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming said Tuesday he is going to attend the Copenhagen conference on climate change to inform world leaders that despite any promises made by President Obama, no new laws will be passed in the United States until the “scientific fascism” ends. [sound of b-slap from cluebat to Conference]

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., also wrote to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on Monday to demand that researchers who authored e-mails and documents that demonstrate climate change data were manipulated should not be allowed to participate in the latest report written by the U.N. panel. “I call it ‘scientific fascism,'” Sensenbrenner said during a press conference with fellow climate change skeptics. “The U.N. should throw a red flag. …. They relied on these scientists unjustifiably in my opinion.” [sound of b-slap from cluebat to U.N.]

Sensenbrenner wrote that “these bad actors” limited peer-reviewed studies used by the IPCC, which is leading the Copenhagen conference on climate change. “Their behavior has caused grave damage to the public trust in climate science in general, and to the IPCC, in particular,” Sensenbrenner wrote. “They should not be allowed to do so in the future. [emphasis added] I therefore request that you and the co-chairs of each of the three IPCC working groups ensure that none of the individuals involved in these nefarious e-mail exchanges participate as contributors, reviewers, or in any other capacity in the preparation of” the next IPCC report.

The above paragraph hits the kernal of a major long-term ramification of the whole Climategate phenomenon. If the political and the mainstream state-controlled media establishments continue to beat the drum for AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) they will only ultimately gut their own credibility, along with the “warmist” so-called scientists.

Take a breath, exhale, and throw another log on the fire, especially if you have been experiencing the above noted winter storm like we have at the Chief’s outpost in NW Moody County.

Glowbull Warming

Palin in Washington Post

1 Comment

Copenhagen’s political science

With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue.

“Climate-gate,” as the e-mails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have become known, exposes a highly politicized scientific circle — the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen won’t change the weather, but they would change our economy for the worse.

Go read the rest…it’s well worth it.

Whether you hate her or love her, an op-ed in the WaPo is prima facie evidence that Sarah Palin is in the political hard-ball park.

Glowbull Warming

Glowbull Warming Disarray Continues

Not only does Climategate deflect the lemming-like flow of Glowbull Warming worshipers at Copenhagen, but the leakage of draft agreements (linked here) have come as a rude awakening to the developing world that was expecting to line up at a liberally supplied trough of 1st world assistance.

Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN’s role in all future climate change negotiations.

The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.

Combined with the ignoring of the evidence of cooking the books from the Climategate, this is not exactly anything to inspire confidence in the rationality of the Great and Obaminable Church of Glowbull Warming in all it’s various denominations and iterations.

SD Politics

Candidate M.I.A.

George McGovern’s grandson decides against U.S. Senate run — this time

The grandson of former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern has decided not to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. At least, not yet.

Matt McGovern of Sioux Falls said Tuesday that he will not run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. John Thune.

The Chief is NOT a gambling man, but 5 will get you 10 that he’ll be going for the senatenext time out…like, can anyone imagine Johnson going for another term? There’s a lot better chance going for an open seat instead of trying to a likely futile round of butting heads with popular Sen. John Thune.

Meanwhile, the SD Donkey Party is looking for a sacrificial lamb candidate.

Obamunism

Dirty Harry Keeps it Going

Reid doubles down on slavery analogy

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday defended his remarks from Monday comparing congressional Republican opposition to healthcare to the 19th-century debate over slavery, accusing his GOP critics of “distorting” his intent.

“At pivotal points in American history, the tactics of distortion and delay have certainly been present,” Reid said. “They’ve certainly been used to stop progress. That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what’s happening here. It’s very clear. That’s the point I made — no more, no less. Anyone who willingly distorts my comments is only proving my point.”

WOW! I must have missed the section in the Constitution that states that the senate majority leader speaks ex cathedra, and any opposition is automatically and inevitably to be regarded as condemned for such politically incorrect heresy.

What Reid is also doing here is continuing to show his disingenuous lack of knowledge of American history.

His statement  “At pivotal points in American history, the tactics of distortion and delay…etc.” is incorrect.  In the past circumstances he has noted: slavery, women’s suffrage, and civil rights opposition was certainly present…but there was no distortion involved:  the opposition was unambiguously open in its advocacy of its views…but why be concerned with historical accuracy!

Uncategorized

Air bin Laden? TSA Security has Crash!

The High-Flying Bin Ladens — 12 Osama Kin Hold FAA Licenses

At least 12 members of Osama bin Laden’s family currently hold Federal Aviation Administration pilot’s licenses that make them eligible to fly aircraft anywhere in the United States, including three who received their licenses just this June, according to an analysis of FAA records provided to ABC News by a computer security firm, Safe Banking Systems.

One of the three who received his FAA licenses this year, Yeslam bin Laden, a half-brother of Osama who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, is named in a civil lawsuit brought by the families of 9/11 victims alleging he helped to finance Osama’s al-Qaeda network as it started up in the 1990s in Yemen and the Sudan.

Does this seem as strange to you as it does here?

The FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) would not address the bin Laden family pilots specifically but said no current license holders are considered “potential terrorists to harm the flying public.”

MAYBE so, but it still leaves a sort of queasy feeling…as does the following:

Massive TSA Security Breach As Agency Gives Away Its Secrets

In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers.

This is the same government that is promising to maintain the privacy of all of our medical records. Yeah. Sure.

The document shows sample CIA, Congressional and law enforcement credentials which experts say would make it easy for terrorists to duplicate.

The improperly redacted areas indicate that only 20 percent of checked bags are to be hand searched for explosives and reveal in detail the limitations of x-ray screening machines.

Great! Sounds like we have given a D.I.Y. manual to terrorists.

Uncategorized

Reid’s History: Ignorant or Deceitful

Reid Compares Opponents of Health Care Reform to Supporters of Slavery

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago….

Senate Republicans on Monday called Reid’s comments “offensive” and “unbelievable.”

But Reid argued that Republicans are using the same stalling tactics employed in the pre-Civil War era.

“Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, ‘slow down, stop everything, let’s start over.’ If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right,” Reid said Monday. “When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said ‘slow down, it’s too early, things aren’t bad enough.'”

There were some who said these things – Abraham Lincoln was one. He plainly and repeatedly spoke against the institution of slavery before the Civil War, and unashamedly based his view on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, that under the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” slavery was demonstrably evil. Lincoln’s goals were (1) preserving the right of free elections, (2) preserving the Union, and (3) pacing slavery in the course of ultimate extinction. In spite of this, in his first inaugural he stated “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” He based this statement on the lack of any Constitutional provision that gave the federal government the right to intervene, without a Consititutional amendment, in the internal order of the states. Was President Lincoln then, one of those condemned by Mr. Reid? One would logically conclude that this is the case, especially as Lincoln’s stance was based on the trivial (to modern as well as to antebellum Democrats) matter of Constitutional limits to federal power. The REAL opponents of limiting slavery in the day were…the Democrats.

He continued: “When women spoke up for the right to speak up, they wanted to vote, some insisted they simply, slow down, there will be a better day to do that, today isn’t quite right.

Of course many of those who said that themselves were women, even some of the founding activists of the women’s suffrage movement. Their stand wasn’t due to opposition, but due to their recognition that from where they were, it would take a long process of education and involvement to change political and social conditions. What finally tipped the scale was the recognition of the siginificant contributions of women workers in the efforts of war production during WW-I. Political opposition prior to this time was pretty much across the board…members of both parties were largely opposed to suffrage on a national level until after the war. Curiously, Utah, and Wyoming Territories were both early adopters…but were forced by Congress to cancel women’s suffrage as conditions to gain admission to the Union!

“When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today.”

Yep!  Sure did happen.   Southern Democrats (again).  The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964 could only be passed by the Democratic congresses of the day due to Republican support to overcome the Democrat “Solid South”.

To turn Reid’s rhetorical strategy back on him, one COULD note that Mussolini’s Italy, The Third Reich, and the USSR used “single payer” type government health care as a wedge to inject the state into all aspects of the people’s lives.

Of course Reid, Pelosi, and the libs today have no such motives…do they?

Constitution Watch

Constitution, B.O., & Nobel Prize

This is a point about B.O. being awarded the Nobel Prize that I had not thought of  before.

Keeping the Nobel Prize would violate the Constitution

Congratulations, Mr. President, but if you care about the rule of law, you’ll have to fork over the Nobel Peace Prize within 60 days of accepting it next week. Contrary to Mel Brooks’ pronouncement in “History of the World Part I,” it’s not always good to be the king. It’s impossible if you are an American president.

Article I of the Constitution states: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.”

Clearly, the presidency is both an office of “profit” and of “trust” and the prize package (including 1.4 million clams) is included in the terms “present” or “emolument.” Therefore, a sitting president cannot accept it from a “King, Prince or foreign State” without the consent of Congress.

While the Prize comes from the private Nobel Foundaation, Alfred Nobel left instructions in his will that winners would be selected by a “committee of five” appointed by the Parliament of Norway. There is no question that the intent of Article I and a 1966 law passed by Congress is such that this prize is “from a foreign State.”

Anybody out there want to bet whether or not B.O. will do this little Constitutional thing?

No?  Me neither. Ain’t gonna happen, although it should.

Glowbull Warming

Climategate / Glowbull Warming Updates

Yet ANOTHER set of reports on this…am going for the Q & D listing & minimal summary. Go to the header links for more details.

Former NASA climate scientist pleads guilty to contract fraud

A former top climate scientist who had become of one the scientific world’s most cited authorities on the human effect on Earth’s atmosphere was sentenced to probation Tuesday after pleading guilty to steering lucrative no-bid contracts to his wife’s company.

Another case of “scientific ethics” in action?

Global warming controversy reaches NASA climate data

The fight over climate science is about to cross the Atlantic with a U.S. researcher poised to sue NASA, demanding the release of the same kind of information that landed a leading British center in hot water over charges that it skewed its data.

Christopher C. Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data dating as far back as the 1930s. “I assume that what is there is highly damaging,” Mr. Horner said. “These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this.”

This is in the context that AlGore has consistently refused to defend his stand on glowbull warming in any setting where someone might actually ask REAL questions:
Gore cancels personal appearance in Copenhagen

Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday abruptly canceled a Dec. 16 personal appearance that was to be staged during the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which begins next week.

Looks like he’s afraid the climate at Copenhagen “Nopenhagen” is getting too hot for him to handle.

National Insecurity

Somali Pirates’ Stock Exchange!

This reads like something from Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk sci-fi novel Snow Crash:

Somali sea gangs lure investors at pirate lair

In Somalia’s main pirate lair of Haradheere, the sea gangs have set up a cooperative to fund their hijackings offshore, a sort of stock exchange meets criminal syndicate….

It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers from the Somali diaspora and other nations — and now the gangs in Haradheere have set up an exchange to manage their investments.

One wealthy former pirate named Mohammed took Reuters around the small facility and said it had proved to be an important way for the pirates to win support from the local community for their operations, despite the dangers involved.

“Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 ‘maritime companies’ and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,” Mohammed said.

72 “maritime companies” pirate bands organized? WTF?

This is like the urban phenomenon of the “known crack house”…everybody KNOWS what’s going on, and where it is going on, but nobody with responsibility is willing to do the job of cleaning up the mess. The whole reason the United States built it’s Navy was to protect against (North African Islamic) piracy. We DO still have a Navy, but nobody in the administration apparently is willing to commit effective force to clean up this repeated infestation of African Islamic piracy.

Constitution Watch

“Ministry of Truth” Proposed by Donk Cong

Here’s the latest spew of California Donkey Party Congresscritter Henry Waxman.

Govt will need to help shape U.S. media: Waxman

A top Democratic lawmaker predicted on Wednesday that the government will be involved in shaping the future for struggling U.S. media organizations.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, saying quality journalism was essential to U.S. democracy, said eventually government would have to help resolve the problems caused by a failing business model.

This is wrong in many ways.

Firstly, does anyone SERIOUSLY think that government is going to put itself in a position to “resolve the problems caused by a failing business model” without taking over management? The precedent is already out there with the banks, financials, and auto companies.

Diversity of opinion and free speech? Would any publication or writer dare to go against the acceptable “party line” of the government, knowing that their bread and butter comes off the government’s table? NOT BLOODY LIKELY!

Waxman, other U.S. lawmakers and regulators are looking into various options to help a newspaper industry hurt by the shift in advertising revenues to online platforms….”Eventually government is going to have to be responsible to help and resolve these issues,” Waxman told a conference hosted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on the future of journalism.

WHY? Did the government feel it necessary to guarantee the continued survival of the telegraph, to protect and maintain the right of citizens to communicate freely? Not quite…as it turned out the telegraph services withered away due to other, faster, more direct, and cheaper technologies.

In the same way, THIS IS NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT! This is NOT part of the Constitution! The ONLY thing in the Constitution about the press is in Amendment 1: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;…” There is NOTHING there that Congress has the obligation to MAINTAIN and PROVIDE a particular form of media, in this case the daily newsprint media.

In case you hadn’t noticed, there ARE other ways to get “news and views”…you’re looking at one right now!

Glowbull Warming

Climategate Updates

Wow!  MORE stuff on this! The gift that keeps on giving.

Climate scientist at center of e-mail controversy to step down
This has gotten enough notice that even the WaPo has to take cognizance.

A scientist who is one of the central figures in the controversy over hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit announced Tuesday that he is stepping down while the university investigates the incident.

Climate skeptics have seized on several e-mails from Phil Jones, director of the university’s Climatic Research Unit, to other researchers as evidence that prominent scientists have sought to silence their voice in the debate over global warming.

This is one of the “majors” in the flap – the Brit “scientist” caught in flagrante by his own e-mails.

The e-mails were pirated and posted online last month.

Looks more like they were leaked rather than hacked…but the effect is the same…a really hot time for the glowbull warming freaks.

Not only the Brits – Michael Mann, one of the originators of the bogus “hockey stick” graph is under a cloud at Penn State:
Penn State Will Investigate ‘Climategate’

The Penn State administration plans to investigate Climategate and determine if it needs to take further action,…E-mails indicate that climate change researchers—including Penn State Prof. Michael Mann—exaggerated or fabricated global warming data. And, according to the report, some E-mails indicate that the director of the research unit in question may have contacted researchers and asked them to “delete certain E-mails.”

CLIMATE CHANGE ‘FRAUD’

THE scientific consensus that mankind has caused climate change was rocked yesterday as a leading academic called it a “load of hot air underpinned by fraud”. Professor Ian Plimer condemned the climate change lobby as “climate comrades” keeping the “gravy train” going.

In a controversial talk just days before the start of a climate summit attended by world leaders in Copenhagen, Prof Plimer said Governments were treating the public like “fools” and using climate change to increase taxes.

He said carbon dioxide has had no impact on temperature and that recent warming was part of the natural cycle of climate stretching over ­billions of years.

There’s more, but the point is clear.

Meanwhile, down under, it seems that Climategate has given the Oz Parliament a blow upside their collective head with the cluebat!

Australia’s Parliament defeats global warming bill

Australia’s plans for an emissions trading system to combat global warming were scuttled Wednesday in Parliament, handing a defeat to a government that had hoped to set an example at international climate change talks next week.

The Senate, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government does not hold a majority, rejected his administration’s proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.

More summary and comment from the London Telegraph:
Climategate: it’s all unravelling now

So many new developments: which story do we pick? Maybe best to summarise, instead. After all, it’s not like you’re going to find much of this reported in the MSM.

They have their summary, and their summary is a part of this one. Some of it’s the same, but they note even more newly breaking events.

Funny how this all results from glowbull warming junk scientists pulling their data and models from someplace where the sun never shines, and then claiming it’s the light of day.