All posts by Chief

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.

Uncategorized

Huckster’s Plans take Torpedo Hit

Former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee has controversial record of freeing criminals

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s record of freeing criminals from prison was controversial even before news that the man sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers had a lengthy prison sentence commuted by Huckabee.

The original parole and clemency papers from Arkansas may be viewed here.

The one-time Republican presidential contender granted twice as many pardons and commutations as the previous three governors of Arkansas combined, The Associated Press reported in 2007. In all, he issued 1,033 pardons and commutations during more than 10 years as governor — an average of about one every four days.

The Arkansas Huckster’s prison chickens are coming home to roost.

Huckabee’s ‘Willie Horton moment’

Mike Huckabee’s chance to be president of the United States could be going up in smoke this week.

The former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential wannabe is at the center of a story involving a “person of interest” in the shooting deaths Sunday of four police officers in the state of Washington….

This story has a long way to go before it’s played out. But, if Huckabee pardoned a man who went on to kill four cops, this will be a lot worse than the Willie Horton incident of the 1988 presidential campaign….

Huckabee’s credentials to lead the Republican party to victory in 2012 would evaporate if Clemmons indeed is the killer in the Washington case.

That’s not exactly something a “get tough on crime” political party would want on the resume of its leader.

Another RINO bites the dust!?

Uncategorized

Spirit of Mao Lives at U. of MN

At U, future teachers may be reeducated
They must denounce exclusionary biases and embrace the vision. (Or else.)

Sometimes the Chief has heard seni-laughing references from Minnesota friends about the “People’s Republic of Minnesota.

If this is any indication, maybe the laughter should be gone, leaving nothing but the “People’s Republic”…for real.

Do you believe in the American dream — the idea that in this country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed can get ahead on their own merits? If so, that belief may soon bar you from getting a license to teach in Minnesota public schools — at least if you plan to get your teaching degree at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus.

This is because of a series of “reforms” in the teacher education program being drafted and proposed for the U of M that forces compliance with a set of attitudes and procedures that are nearly exact reproductions of procedures implemented in ChiCom Chairman Mao Tse Tung’s disastrous “Cultural Revolution”.

In a report compiled last summer, the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group at the U’s College of Education and Human Development recommended that aspiring teachers there must repudiate the notion of “the American Dream” in order to obtain the recommendation for licensure required by the Minnesota Board of Teaching. Instead, teacher candidates must embrace — and be prepared to teach our state’s kids — the task force’s own vision of America as an oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic….

The report advocates making race, class and gender politics the “overarching framework” for all teaching courses at the U. It calls for evaluating future teachers in both coursework and practice teaching based on their willingness to fall into ideological lockstep.

The first step toward “cultural competence,” says the task group, is for future teachers to recognize — and confess — their own bigotry. Anyone familiar with the reeducation camps of China’s Cultural Revolution will recognize the modus operandi.

Wait, it gets worse:

The task group recommends, for example, that prospective teachers be required to prepare an “autoethnography” report. They must describe their own prejudices and stereotypes, question their “cultural” motives for wishing to become teachers, and take a “cultural intelligence” assessment designed to ferret out their latent racism, classism and other “isms.” They “earn points” for “demonstrating the ability to be self-critical.”…

The goal of these exercises, in the task group’s words, is to ensure that “future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression.”

Good grief, Charlie Brown!…and worse yet:

What if some aspiring teachers resist this effort at thought control and object to parroting back an ideological line as a condition of future employment? The task group has Orwellian plans for such rebels: The U, it says, must “develop clear steps and procedures for working with non-performing students, including a remediation plan.”

This is what Mao referred to as “re-education”, and he built special “camps” to insure proper implementation of this program.

And what if students’ ideological purity is tainted once they begin to do practice teaching in the public schools? The task group frames the danger this way: “How can we be sure that teaching supervisors are themselves developed and equipped in cultural competence outcomes in order to supervise beginning teachers around issues of race, class, culture, and gender?”

Its answer? “Requir[e] training/workshop for all supervisors. Perhaps a training session disguised as a thank you/recognition ceremony/reception at the beginning of the year?”

When teacher training requires a “disguise,” you know something sinister is going on.

Hard to imagine Minnesota is only 20 miles away from the Chief’s outpost. And they can’t figure out why more people are interested in home-schooling.

DISCLOSURE: The Chief is a semi-retired teacher with over a quarte-century of teaching H.S. sciences, as well as social studies, including U.S. history.

Obamunism, Uncategorized

Obamaniac’s Fears

7 stories Barack Obama doesn’t want told

Presidential politics is about storytelling. Presented with a vivid storyline, voters naturally tend to fit every new event or piece of information into a picture that is already neatly framed in their minds.

No one understands this better than Barack Obama and his team, who won the 2008 election in part because they were better storytellers than the opposition. The pro-Obama narrative featured an almost mystically talented young idealist who stood for change in a disciplined and thoughtful way. This easily outpowered the anti-Obama narrative, featuring an opportunistic Chicago pol with dubious relationships who was more liberal than he was letting on.

A year into his presidency, however, Obama’s gift for controlling his image shows signs of faltering. As Washington returns to work from the Thanksgiving holiday, there are several anti-Obama storylines gaining momentum.

This is the list of items…for more of the details see the original piece, linked from the above header.

Here are seven storylines Obama needs to worry about:
He thinks he’s playing with Monopoly money: Self-explanatory!
Too much Leonard Nimoy: Obama, a legislator and law professor, is fluent in describing the nuances of problems. But his intellectuality has contributed to a growing critique that decisions are detached from rock-bottom principles.
That’s the Chicago Way: This is a storyline that’s likely taken root more firmly in Washington than around the country. The rap is that his West Wing is dominated by brass-knuckled pols….The problem is that many voters took Obama seriously in 2008 when he talked about wanting to create a more reasoned, non-partisan style of governance in Washington.
He’s a pushover: If you are going to be known as a fighter, you might as well reap the benefits. But some of the same insider circles that are starting to view Obama as a bully are also starting to whisper that he’s a patsy. It seems a bit contradictory, to be sure. But it’s a perception that began when Obama several times laid down lines — then let people cross them with seeming impunity.
He sees America as another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe: Politicians of both parties have embraced the idea that this country — because of its power and/or the hand of Providence — should be a singular force in the world. It would be hugely unwelcome for Obama if the perception took root that he is comfortable with a relative decline in U.S. influence or position in the world.
President Pelosi: The great hazard for Obama is if Republicans or journalists conclude — as some already have — that Pelosi’s achievements are more impressive than Obama’s or come at his expense.
He’s in love with the man in the mirror: No one becomes president without a fair share of what the French call amour propre. Does Obama have more than his share of self-regard?

Glowbull Warming

Climategate Key Questions

Once again, the London Telegraph filling in details somehow overlooked in most of the virtually state-controlled MainStreamMedia.

Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation
There are three threads in particular in the leaked documents which have sent a shock wave through informed observers across the world.

Firstly:

Perhaps the most obvious, as lucidly put together by Willis Eschenbach (see McIntyre’s blog Climate Audit and Anthony Watt’s blog Watts Up With That), is the highly disturbing series of emails which show how Dr Jones and his colleagues have for years been discussing the devious tactics whereby they could avoid releasing their data to outsiders under freedom of information laws.

They have come up with every possible excuse for concealing the background data on which their findings and temperature records were based.

This in itself has become a major scandal, not least Dr Jones’s refusal to release the basic data from which the CRU derives its hugely influential temperature record, which culminated last summer in his startling claim that much of the data from all over the world had simply got “lost”. Most incriminating of all are the emails in which scientists are advised to delete large chunks of data, which, when this is done after receipt of a freedom of information request, is a criminal offence.

UPDATE: Too late! The data is already “dumped”,  so (conveniently) no pesky verification is possible. So sorry!
Climate change data dumped

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.
It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

The UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss following requests for the data under Freedom of Information legislation.

The data were gathered from weather stations around the world and then adjusted to take account of variables in the way they were collected. The revised figures were kept, but the originals — stored on paper and magnetic tape — were dumped to save space when the CRU moved to a new building.

The question which inevitably arises from this systematic refusal to release their data is – what is it that these scientists seem so anxious to hide?

Secondly:

The second and most shocking revelation of the leaked documents is how they show the scientists trying to manipulate data through their tortuous computer programmes, always to point in only the one desired direction – to lower past temperatures and to “adjust” recent temperatures upwards, in order to convey the impression of an accelerated warming. This comes up so often (not least in the documents relating to computer data in the Harry Read Me file) that it becomes the most disturbing single element of the entire story. This is what Mr McIntyre caught Dr Hansen doing with his GISS temperature record last year (after which Hansen was forced to revise his record), and two further shocking examples have now come to light from Australia and New Zealand.

In each of these countries it has been possible for local scientists to compare the official temperature record with the original data on which it was supposedly based. In each case it is clear that the same trick has been played – to turn an essentially flat temperature chart into a graph which shows temperatures steadily rising. And in each case this manipulation was carried out under the influence of the CRU.

Thirdly:

The third shocking revelation of these documents is the ruthless way in which these academics have been determined to silence any expert questioning of the findings they have arrived at by such dubious methods – not just by refusing to disclose their basic data but by discrediting and freezing out any scientific journal which dares to publish their critics’ work. It seems they are prepared to stop at nothing to stifle scientific debate in this way, not least by ensuring that no dissenting research should find its way into the pages of IPCC reports.

So much for the scientific peer-review process.

In light of the latest revelations, it now seems even more evident that these men have been failing to uphold those principles which lie at the heart of genuine scientific enquiry and debate. Already one respected US climate scientist, Dr Eduardo Zorita, has called for Dr Mann and Dr Jones to be barred from any further participation in the IPCC. Even our own George Monbiot, horrified at finding how he has been betrayed by the supposed experts he has been revering and citing for so long, has called for Dr Jones to step down as head of the CRU.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

SD Politics

SF Tea Party on Black Friday

Sioux Falls was full to the seams with “black Friday” shoppers, as anyone who had to negotiate traffic around 41st & Louise (for example) can testify.  Not everyone was partaking of said holiday “cheer”(?).

A small but enthusiastic group of the local Tea Party group was out on a late notice event to show their colors along 57th street, just around the corner from Donkey Party Senator Tim’s Sioux Falls office.

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Glowbull Warming, Junk Science

Climategate: Details, Hits B.O. Admin, Cap and Tax Plans

Several reports extending the scope of the Climategate disclosures that continue the processes of destruction and loss of credibility by the Glowbull Warming (junk science) establishment

Firstly, here’s one detailing that some of the e-mails rigging the debate are to/from/involving B.O. “Science Czar” John Holdren.  Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren involved in unwinding “Climategate”  scandal

Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as “Climategate”.

Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal. In fact, according to files released by a CEU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people”.

“The files contain so much material that it is going to take some time t o put it all in context,” says Ball. “However, enough is already known to underscore their explosive nature. It is already clear the entire claims and positions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are based on falsified manipulated material and is therefore completely compromised.

The IPCC is the much ballyhooed UN group whose bogus reports have been providing the underpinning of the original Kyoto Treaty, and which is the driver for the upcoming bogus efforts at Copenhagen, to which B.O. will apparently be desperately seeking to promote.

As far as Czar Holdgren is concerned, there is an e-mail exchange detailed that he has with Michael Mann (one of the glowbul warming heavy hitters) about rigging the debate.

Climategate e-mails sweep America, may scuttle Barack Obama’s Cap and Trade laws

Just a few considerations in addition to previous remarks about the explosion of the East Anglia Climategate e-mails in America. The reaction is growing exponentially there. Fox News, Barack Obama’s Nemesis, is now on the case, trampling all over Al Gore’s organic vegetable patch and breaking the White House windows. It has extracted some of the juiciest quotes from the e-mails and displayed them on-screen, with commentaries. Joe Public, coast-to-coast, now knows, thanks to the clowns at East Anglia’s CRU, just how royally he has been screwed.

Senator James Inhofe’s Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has written to all the relevant US Government agencies, acquainting them with the nature of the e-mails. But the real car crash for Obama is on Capitol Hill where it is now confidently believed his Cap and Trade climate legislation is toast. It was always problematic; but with a growing awakening to the scale of the scientific imposture sweeping the world, as far as the Antipodes, the clever money is on Cap and Trade laws failing to pass, with many legislators sceptical and the mid-term elections looming ever closer.

Cap and Tax getting incinerated? God lives!
Meanwhile, this is even hitting directly at one of the Chief’s pet peeves – the idiotic situation with the compact fluorescent bulbs – where so-called environmentalists want to force us all to use these expensive and annoying devices, wach of which is an environmental time bomb which will cleverly spread toxic mercury far and wide in the environment as they are used, and inevitably discarded in the normal trash flow.

At the more domestic level, the proposed ban on incandescent light bulbs, so supinely accepted in this servile state of Britain, is now provoking a huge backlash in America. US citizens do not like the government coming into their houses and putting their lights out. Voters may not understand the cut and thrust of climate debate at the technical level, but they know when the Man from Washington has crossed their threshold uninvited.

THe described effect of the continuing and accumulating CRU avalanche?

The term that Fox News is now applying to the Climategate e-mails is “game-changer”. For the first time, Anthropogenic Global Warming cranks are on the defensive, losing their cool and uttering desperate mantras such as “You can be sceptical, not in denial.” Gee, thanks, guys. In fact we shall be whatever we want to be, without asking your permission.

Couldn’t have said the last sentence there any better myself!
In conclusion on this piece, there are several choice observations:

At this rate, Copenhagen is going to turn into a comedy convention with the real world laughing at these liars. Now is the time to mount massive resistance to the petty tyrants and hit them where it hurts – in the wallet. Further down the line there may be, in many countries, a question of criminal prosecution of anybody who has falsified data to secure funds and impose potentially disastrous fiscal restraints on the world in deference to a massive hoax. It’s a new world out there, Al, and, as you may have noticed, the climate is very cold indeed.

Finally – more gory details of the above-mentioned Dr. Mann, again in the context of engaging in rigging the scientific playing field of the “peer-review process”.

Rigging a Climate ‘Consensus’
About those emails and ‘peer review.’

The climatologists at the center of the leaked email and document scandal have taken the line that it is all much ado about nothing. Yes, the wording of their messages was unfortunate, but they insist this in no way undermines the underlying science. They’re ignoring the damage they’ve done to public confidence in the arbiters of climate science.

Another day, more information. The gift that keeps on giving!

Uncategorized

Oil Shieks Out of Cash?

Dubai default threat rattles world stocks

Global stock markets tumbled Thursday on mounting anxiety over a debt default request by Dubai and tighter lending conditions in China, analysts said.

London lost 1.86 percent to 5,264.97 points in late morning trade but was suspended at about 1030 GMT owing to a technical issue.

The London Stock Exchange said it was investigating the “root cause” of the problem and would update investors when it had further information.

Elsewhere, Frankfurt dived 1.80 percent to 5,698.99 points and Paris plunged 1.89 percent to 3,737.06 points at the half-way stage.

In Asia, Beijing nosedived 3.62 percent, Tokyo fell 0.62 percent and Hong Kong closed 1.78 percent lower. Chinese shares were also hit by the prospect of tighter banking rules and worries about monetary policy next year.

New York markets is closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those turkeys over there!

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

UK Defense Minister Hits B.O.’s Afghan Dithering

Bob Ainsworth criticises Barack Obama over Afghanistan

It’s GOT to be bad when even the IngSoc government thinks B.O. is too squishy on the war.

Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, has blamed Barack Obama and the United States for the decline in British public support for the war in Afghanistan.

Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban.

A “period of hiatus” in Washington – and a lack of clear direction – had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said.

Senior British Government sources have become increasingly frustrated with Mr Obama’s “dithering” on Afghanistan, the Daily Telegraph disclosed earlier this month, with several former British defence chiefs echoing the concerns.

But Mr Ainsworth is the first Government minister to express in public what amounts to personal criticism of the US president’s leadership over the conflict which has so far cost 235 British lives.

“It ain’t that pretty at all.”

Defense Matters!

Navy SEALS Do Job: Get Hung Out to Dry

1 Comment

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

Just to refresh your memory, this is the handiwork of the Islamoterr in question…note the burned and mutilated [American] bodies hanging from the bridge girder:

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The three, all members of the Navy’s elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral’s mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named “Objective Amber,” told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Awwwwww. Poor baby. Refer again to the above picture. If there was any justice in this situation the Islamoterr  should have been whacked while “resisting capture”.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

This is SO wrong. We take the best of our best, send them out to do a mission and capture a known and identified terrorist combatant. They do so, and the perp complains (after he had been turned over to Iraqi custody) that he got punched during the course of events.  What happens next?

Why what else, given that this is the day  of the B.O. administration granting the full panoply of legal rights of an American citizen to the killer (by beheading!) of  American reporter Daniel Pearl, and who also happened to  lead the planning for the 9-11 attack?  The feckless wonders of the U.S. Obamanation Navy bring the SEALS up on charges!

IMAGINE THE VERY WORST THING  THAT I COULD SAY TO COMMENT NEGATIVELY ON THIS LEGAL ABORTION.

NOW, CONSIDER IT SAID!