Thursday, April 30, 2009
Nets: Specter 'Driven Out' of GOP by 'Right Wing' and 'Fringe of Party'
The evening newscasts on Tuesday night attributed Senator Arlen Specter's motivation for changing parties to how he realized he wouldn't win the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, but they also, just as they did with Senator Jim Jeffords in 2001, eagerly relayed -- without any challenge -- Specter's spin that, in the words of the TV journalists, he
“had been driven out by the right-wing of the Republican Party,” the GOP's “increasingly conservative tilt” and “the fringe of the party.”
[Typical. When Bret Bair relayed that point while interviewing Brit Hume on the subject Hume replied that the GOP is essentially unchanged from the days of Reagan and that it was Specter who'd become increasingly liberal over the years to the point where he simply couldn't be renominated in a Republican primary.]
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REPORT: "The Media and Obama: 100 Days and Still Madly in Love"
Yesterday Media Research Center President Brent Bozell sat down for a chat via Skype with Breitbart.tv "B-cast" anchors Scott Baker and Liz Stephans. You can watch the video here.
The topic: preliminary findings in an MRC study on the media's treatment of President Obama's first 100 days:
President Barack Obama has put forward policies representing the most radical government intervention in the free market in American history, with more proposals for even greater government interference on the way. But according to the Media Research Center (MRC), DURING Obama’s first 100 days in office the media have steadfastly refused to report this. In fact, rather than challenging the President’s radical policies, network news reporters have often celebrated Obama’s radical agenda.
MRC analysts examined all 852 stories on the Obama administration from January 20 through April 15 on ABC’s World News, the CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News. We will publish a detailed report on coverage of Obama’s first 100 days (ending April 29) in May. The trends, however, are evident.
Among the key findings thus far:
- Sanitizing Obama’s Socialist Agenda. None of the three broadcast network aired a single story focused on whether President Obama’s economic policies were driving the U.S. towards European-style socialism. Not a single network news reporter used the term “socialist” to describe how Obama’s policies are shifting economic authority to the federal government, away from the free market. On only four occasions was the word “socialist” used on-camera at all – all by outside sources, once by a random man-on-the-street.
- Obama is not a “Liberal,” Either. Amazingly, network reporters never called Obama or his agenda even “liberal.” NBC and CBS never used the word, and ABC only aired the term twice, citing Republicans using the word “liberal” to describe Obama’s policies.
- No Conservatives Allowed. On three of Obama’s major economic policies and plans - his banking bailout, his auto bailout and his plans for universal health care - the networks never had a single sound bite from a conservative or a free market expert.
- One out of four bank bailout stories (17 of 74) discussed the concept of outright government bank nationalization. In only two was a free market person allowed to rebut.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell:
“For the pro-Obama liberal media, the Obama honeymoon is nowhere near over. His is the most radical agenda ever presented to the American people. It is a socialist agenda. Why won’t the media – accurately – label him a socialist? Why do they refuse even to label him a “liberal”?
“The liberal media’s dedicated defense of Obama knows no bounds. Reporting his bank bailout, his auto bailout and his socialist health care plan without including ANY conservative or free market voices is not the work of real journalists, but it certainly is a labor of love.“The liberal media deserve the Tammy Wynette Award for their coverage of Obama’s radical agenda, as they continue to devotedly stand by their man.”
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At 100 Days, ABC Mangled Poll on Bush: 'Nice Guy, But We Don't Like Your Policies'
As the networks wind up to praise President Obama, there are easy comparisons to make with President Bush eight years ago. They were looking for any excuse to deny or destroy Bush’s popularity at that time. Brent Bozell gave an example of poll-denial and poll-mangling:
In his 100-days interview with the President, ABC's Charlie Gibson cut to the chase: our pollsters' finding of your 63 percent approval rating is nice, "yet less than half the people in the poll say that they approve of policies or feel that you understand their needs, which could be interpreted as saying, ‘nice guy but we don't like his politics or his policies.’"
The data, in fact, contradict Gibson’s interpretation.
When they asked if Bush was too liberal, too conservative, or just about right ideologically, 31 percent said too conservative, but a whopping 62 percent said about right. Well, what a shock. Moderates and conservatives like his policies; liberals don’t. When Gibson says 'Americans' don’t like his politics or his policies – guess which camp he’s representing?
You can also consult Brent Baker's Cyber Alert for more details on that time.
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'Ethicist' for NY Times: 'Great to Have President Who's Competent and Not Insane'
Appearing on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, Randy Cohen, the “The Ethicist” columnist for the New York Times Magazine, blurted:
“I'm a huge Obama fan. I think it's such an unbelievably great thing to have a President who's competent and not insane.”
[Guess that makes him a professional ethicist.]
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THE OBAMA DOCTRINE
HUGGING FOES, HURTING FRIENDS
The combination of dizzying naivete, dislike of our allies, disdain for our military, distrust of our intelligence services and distaste for our own country promises the worst foreign policy of our lifetimes... [snip]
We're to blame. If there are problems anywhere, they're America's fault.
This central conviction of leftist ideology appears to have soaked so thoroughly into our president's consciousness during his lengthy friendships with extremists that it's now second nature to him.
Problems can be negotiated away.
From Somali pirates to Moscow's belligerency, Obama and his Cabinet see a good chat as the best response to a challenge. Our president got to the Oval Office by talking, not doing, and his faith in his powers of persuasion is unlimited.
"We have to get over our Cold War thinking."
Great -- except that it's the Russians who've revived Cold War hostility.
Problems that can't be talked out can be bought off.
In Pakistan, send billions of dollars that will disappear and weapons that may soon be used against our troops. The solution to piracy? A generous program to rebuild Somalia. Hamas? Hand them a billion bucks.
Israel's the obstacle to Middle East peace.
Palestinians are all victims. Hamas consists of struggling community activists. The terrorists are in the Israeli military.
Islamist terrorism doesn't exist.
The term's even been banned from government departments. As Muslim extremists slaughter innocent victims by the thousands, we're assured Islam's a "religion of peace".
Our nukes threaten world peace and we need to get rid of them.
Other states only maintain or seek nuclear arsenals because we worry them. If we can get down to zero nukes, peace will reign on earth... [snip]
We now have a president who doesn't know that Pakistan was founded as a democracy, a secretary of state who thinks we created the Taliban, a head of the Department of Homeland Security who doesn't believe Islamist terrorists exist and a vice president who claims FDR gave televised speeches during the Depression.
If Bush had made such gaffes, the media would've mocked him. But Obama and his entourage excite orgasmic forgiveness among journalists. Which brings us to the Obama Doctrine's final tenet:
Our media sluts will portray defeat as victory.
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Muslims: 'We do that on first dates'
Without any pretense of an argument, which liberals are neurologically incapable of, the mainstream media are now asserting that our wussy interrogation techniques at Guantanamo constituted "torture" and have irreparably harmed America's image abroad.
Only the second of those alleged facts is true: The president's release of the Department of Justice interrogation memos undoubtedly hurt America's image abroad, as we are snickered at in capitals around the world, where they know what real torture is...
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Spanish judge opens Guantanamo investigation
MADRID -- A Spanish judge opened a probe into the Bush administration over alleged torture of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, pressing ahead Wednesday with a drive that Spain's own attorney general has said should be waged in the United States, if at all.
Judge Baltasar Garzon, Spain's most prominent investigative magistrate, said he is acting under this country's observance of the principle of universal justice, which allows crimes allegedly committed in other countries to be prosecuted in Spain.
He said documents declassified by the new U.S. government suggest the practice was systematic and ordered at high levels of the US government... [snip]
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking with reporters in Berlin before the investigation was announced, did not rule out cooperating with such an investigation...
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North Korea threatens nuclear tests over U.N. move
Seoul - North Korea on Wednesday threatened a new nuclear test unless the U.N. Security Council apologized for tightening sanctions, confirming some analysts' fears that Pyongyang is determined to build an atomic arsenal.
The United States said such threats were counterproductive and urged Pyongyang to return to stalled six-nation denuclearization talks...
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GM, Chrysler to follow failed British model
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There was a time in the decades following World War II that the British auto industry was vibrant, technologically sophisticated, and growing. It was no surprise when, for example, Jaguar won the grueling 24 Hours of LeMans sports car race three years running in the 1950s because the firm was the first automaker to adapt disc brakes successfully from aircraft to automobiles.
But, enervated by complacent management and recalcitrant unions, the British auto industry lost its edge. Partial nationalization came in 1968 followed by the complete government takeover in 1975. Within a decade, what had been a thriving economic powerhouse was reduced to a shambles. Once-proud British marques like Jaguar, Aston Martin, and the Mini were sold to foreigners, while scattered, isolated remnants survived a few years longer as cottage industries.
Skip forward to this week as General Motors embarks on an assuredly similar path of nationalization and inevitable demise. Under the terms of agreements now taking final form, what was only a few years ago America’s biggest company will soon cease to exist, and GM will become “Government Motors.” This is happening because of two presidents: Barack Obama, who controls GM’s decisionmakers via Washington’s Toxic Assets Recovery Program (TARP), and Ron Gettelfinger of the United Auto Workers.
Obama said nothing as Gettelfinger refused to make pay and benefits concessions that GM had to have to continue as a private entity.
The GM news release Monday made the new order clear:
"As a result of its ownership of GM common stock, the U.S. Treasury will be able to elect all of our directors and to control the vote on substantially all matters brought for a stockholder vote."
In case anybody missed the point, the statement then added:
“In addition, through its stockholder voting rights and election of directors, and its role as a significant lender to us, the U.S. Treasury will be able to exercise significant influence and control over our business if it elects to do so."
Washington now dictates who manages GM and what the automaker will try to sell, as well as the working conditions of all its employees. It’s much the same at Chrysler, except for one wrinkle involving Italy’s Fiat, which gets a minority position in the new firm.
The majority position at Chrysler will be explicitly owned by the UAW, whereas the U.S. Treasury will effectively be a UAW proxy at GM.
Not long ago, GM was so big that Washington regularly threatened anti-trust action. Well, at least Obama and Gettelfinger have taken care of that problem.
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UAW: Not Just Wages—Work Rules
To the extent the MSM has been willing to report on the disadvantage under which the Big Three automakers operate compared to their non-union competitors, the focus has been on the huge wage differential.
On this evening's Fox News Watch columnist Jim Pinkerton highlighted another issue which has gone largely unreported in the liberal media: the onerous union work rules that add literally thousands of positions to the job rolls compared to those of the foreign transplants.
View video here.
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[The cartoon's wrong: the unions ended up with the companies
they ruined because they invested in a political party...]
image toon - bdd mny auto uaw - Stakeholders skewered by union refusal for wage changeThe Anti-Success Presidency
Sit in on a corporate boardroom struggling to come to grips with the new economic climate Barack Obama has created. Do we expand? Create more jobs?
But, wait a minute. The bigger our company gets, the closer we come to being ''too big to fail,'' a ''systemic risk.'' The nearer we are to intrusive government oversight, limits on executive pay and regulators breathing down our necks...
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Why Your Next Credit Card Could Be Backed by Obama
Since apparently everything in America is going into the toilet except the public's faith in Barack Obama, it seems that the way to fix everything in America is to entrust it to Barack Obama.
The issues on the table for greater government involvement include: student lending, the car companies, car warranties, pensions, health care, banks, etc -- the list goes on... [snip]
I mean, really, what's the White House going to back next, your credit card? Maybe, says Slate's Chris Beam...
[It's not about helping, it's about gaining control.]
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ESA satellite images show ice shelf breaking away
Massive ice chunks are crumbling away from a shelf in the western Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said Wednesday, warning that 1,300 square miles of ice - an area larger than Rhode Island - was in danger of breaking off in coming weeks.
[2 points: 1) The 'Antarctic Peninsula' is the jutting little finger part of Antarctica, and the only place ice is melting: the rest of the (huge) continent is accumulating ice.
2) What's the mechanism for 'ice shelf' (i.e., ice extending/floating beyond the shoreline) break-aways?
A: They keep growing as long as it's cold enough and the shoreline 'hinge' is thick enough to withstand the 'bobbing' of the floating ice mass. Eventually, this bobbing causes the shelf to break off at the hinge, and the larger a chunk is means the longer/colder its been developing.
I.e., 'record setting' break-aways are indications of prior record setting accumulations - that's to say, intra-cycle cold.
As always, 'context is key' {and absent}.]
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Ministers split over Antarctic ice shelf claims
A split over global warming has emerged in Kevin Rudd's cabinet after it was revealed that a 13-month-old photograph was published this month to support the view that a catastrophic melting of Antarctic ice was imminent.
A study released last week by the British Antarctic Survey concluded that sea ice around Antarctica had been increasing at a rate of 100,000sqkm a decade since the 1970s...
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NBC’s 'Today' Warns of Doom-and-Gloom Icecap Melt Catastrophes
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At a time when Americans increasingly aren't buying into the theory of anthropogenic global warming according to a recent Rasmussen poll, NBC and its cable news network MSNBC are bringing out the big guns to slow the rise of that mentality down.
On NBC's April 26 "Today," anchor Lester Holt previewed his special "Future Earth: Journey to the End of the World," slated to appear on MSNBC on the night of April 26. According to the preview shown by Holt, the TV special is remarkably similar to Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," forecasting several doom-and-gloom scenarios.
Some have questioned NBC Universal's willingness to promote environmental alarmism, as it is doing with this special program and the segment previewing it. According a Washington Examiner article and a follow-up segment on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" on April 23, General Electric stands to profit off of a cap-and-trade policy if enacted.
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Energy Secretary Offers Dire Global Warming Prediction
Caribbean nations face "very, very scary" rises in sea level and intensifying hurricanes, and Florida, Louisiana and even northern California could be overrun with rising water levels due to global warming triggered by carbon-based greenhouse gases, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Saturday.
Chu's comments followed meetings with environmental ministers attending the fifth Summit of the Americas.
[How in the world did a devouted Green zealot become our Energy Secretary?
"Appointments are policy." - What does this say about the one appointing them?]
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FLASHBACK > FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009
Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently told the Los Angeles Times that global warming might melt 90 percent of California's snowpack. This, Chu said, would mean "no more agriculture in California," the nation's leading food producer. Chu added: "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going."
Invidious Statistics
How focusing on race can make a solution look like a problem
Eight years after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, American 9- and 13-year-olds are doing measurably better on standardized tests. Good news? Not necessarily. The New York Times report on NCLB carries the headline " 'No Child' Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap."
Fair enough. If the law is helping white kids but doing nothing for blacks, that doesn't seem right. Only that isn't what's happening, as you learn from reading the actual report:
"Between 2004 and last year, scores for young minority students increased, but so did those of white students, leaving the achievement gap stubbornly wide..."
So minority kids are doing better than before. But because white kids are also doing better, and therefore the "gap" remains, the Times suggests the law is a failure. By this measure, it would have been better to pass a law that only benefits minorities than one that benefits everyone...
[Or better to have done nothing than to equally benefit everyone? These are the divide and conquer tactics of all race/sex/economic divisions exploited by the Left: 'other's success has been at your expense'... ]
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Montana Fires a Warning Shot over States' Rights
- Montana is trying to trigger a battle over gun control - and perhaps make a larger point about what many folks in this ruggedly independent state regard as a meddlesome federal government.
In a bill passed by the Legislature earlier this month, the state is asserting that guns manufactured in Montana and sold in Montana to people who intend to keep their weapons in Montana are exempt from federal gun registration, background check and dealer-licensing rules because no state lines are crossed.
That notion is all but certain to be tested in court.
The immediate effect of the law could be limited, since Montana is home to just a few specialty gun makers, known for high-end hunting rifles and replicas of Old West weapons, and because their out-of-state sales would automatically trigger federal control.
Still, much bigger prey lies in Montana's sights: a legal showdown over how far the federal government's regulatory authority extends."It's a gun bill, but it's another way of demonstrating the sovereignty of the state of Montana,"
said Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who signed the bill.
[10th Amendment baby.]
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State seeks more federal aid for cost of keeping illegal immigrant inmates
CALIFORNIA
Fifteen years after Congress promised that Washington would help states pick up the tab for imprisoning illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, California is receiving but a fraction -- less than 12 cents on the dollar -- of its nearly $1-billion annual cost.
The unfulfilled promise is perhaps the most glaring example of the federal government shortchanging California...
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Firms bidding for Government contracts face equality quotas
Companies could be required to meet quotas on number of women or ethnic minority workers they employ in order to be win Government contracts, under new rules.
New laws planned by Harriet Harman, the equalities minister, mean that firms tendering for taxpayer-funded work could be judged on new criteria including the gender and race of their staff...
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
HOW BUSH PREPARED FOR THE OUTBREAK
[HT:LR]
Under President Bush, the federal government worked with manufacturers to accelerate vaccine development, stockpiled crucial antivirals like Tamiflu, war-gamed pandemic scenarios with senior officials, and increased the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) sample identification capabilities. These activities are bearing fruit today:
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already deployed 12.5 million courses of antivirals -- out of a total of 50 million -- to states and local agencies.
- In addition, CDC's new capacities have allowed Mexican officials to send flu samples to CDC for quick identification, a capability that did not exist a few years ago.
Collaboration between the government and the private sector on vaccines -- which Bush and his HHS team actively encouraged -- could potentially allow manufacturers to shepherd a vaccine to market within four months of identifying the strain and getting the go-ahead from CDC.
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Barack in the basement
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President Obama's media cheerleaders are hailing how loved he is.
But at the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years. According to Gallup's April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969.
The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton.
[You'd never know it to watch TV.]
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The Handcuffs We Willingly Wear
When Dave Barry wrote of the “handcuffs we willingly wear” it was two days after the September 11 attacks. He was talking about how our country would respond to the horrific murder of three thousand innocent American 
men, women and children – that even in war we would do whatever we could to spare the innocent. He was responding to those wickedly cheering the 9/11 attacks saying America deserved them.
The “handcuffs” being discussed today go far beyond those discussed by Barry seven years ago. Many critics of the former administration believe the “handcuffs” we must wear when trying to prevent future “man-made disasters” include a ban on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” particularly waterboarding. Many on the left are telling us that we have not been a decent people. We are being told that those tasked with keeping us safe for the past eight years acted immorally and now they must pay a price.
Last week the New York Times and some Democratic congressmen called for the impeachment of Federal Judge Jay Bybee, because “as an assistant attorney general, he was the author of the Aug. 1, 2002, memo endorsing strong interrogation ‘techniques’". Numerous leftwing commenters have invoked Nuremberg, saying that following orders to carry out the enhanced interrogation techniques is no excuse. One headline even read “The USA Hung’em at Nuremberg – The USA Hung Saddam – HANG BYBEE!” [snip]
Most Americans can tell the difference between following orders to gas innocent men, women and children to death in Nazi concentration camps in the service of a murderous psychopath and following orders to make a suspected (and sometimes confessed) terrorist believe he might be drowning in order to extract information in an effort to save the lives of thousands of innocents.
Don’t expect Americans to look favorably on an administration willing to compromise national security to settle political scores...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Despite Reports, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Was Not Waterboarded 183 Times
The New York Times reported last week that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, was waterboarded 183 times in one month by CIA interrogators.
The "183 times" was widely circulated by news outlets throughout the world.
It was shocking. And it was highly misleading. The number is a vast inflation, according to information from a U.S. official and the testimony of the terrorists themselves.
A U.S. official with knowledge of the interrogation program told FOX News that the much-cited figure represents the number of times water was poured onto Mohammed's face -- not the number of times the CIA applied the simulated-drowning technique on the terror suspect. According to a 2007 Red Cross report, he was subjected a total of "five sessions..."
"The water was poured 183 times -- there were 183 pours," the official explained, adding that "each pour was a matter of seconds."
[So, do you think this clarification will be "widly circulated by news outlets throughout the world"? I.e., yet again, the damage is done.]
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The Uighurs and the 'Torture' Memos
White House lawyers are refusing to accept the findings of an inter-agency committee that the Uighur Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay are too dangerous to release inside the U.S., according to Pentagon sources familiar with the action.
Reviewing the Uighurs detention, the inter-agency panel found that they weren’t the ignorant, innocent goatherds the White House believed them to be. The committee determined they were too dangerous to release because they were members of the ETIM terrorist group, the “East Turkistan Islamic Movement,” and because their presence at the al-Queda training camp was no accident.
There is now no ETIM terrorist cell in the United States: there will be one if these Uighurs are released into the United States.
According to Defense Department sources, the White House legal office has told the inter-agency review group to re-do their findings to come up with the opposite answer... [snip] The White House already came up with the opposite answer in declassifying and releasing the so-called “torture memos”.
Now, having released the details of the techniques, the coupled with the publication of the Army’s guide to interrogation of prisoners, al-Queda and all other terrorists now know what to expect if captured by Americans. And, as they have in the past, they can use this knowledge to train to resist the techniques we can use.
The Obama administration’s actions have given terrorists what may be a decisive advantage. If a detainee knows what to expect, his confidence cannot be shaken. He cannot be forced out of his comfort zone into doubt. And he can withhold information that may be critical to saving American lives.
In his dissent in the Boumediene case, Justice Scalia said that it gave the power to detain enemy combatants to the branch of government that had the least expertise in national security, the courts.
He added that the decision would probably cost American lives.
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Holder Pleads With Europeans to Take Gitmo Detainees
Washington - It's more than just a tough sell for Attorney General Eric Holder this week to persuade European allies to accept Guantanamo detainees.
''It's a 'mission impossible' for him, I think,''one German analyst said ahead of Holder's arrival in London on Sunday.
Republicans in Congress say Guantanamo should remain in operation and they are mobilizing to fight the release of detainees into the United States...
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HEROES
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Face of Defense: Principal, Graduates Serve Together
Oliver has met at least two other Freedom High School students since he reactivated in January.
“It’s kind of strange when I’m walking through the gymnasium and I hear someone say, ‘Mr. Oliver? What are you doing here?’”
Oliver also has met Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Michael J. Bradley, a platoon commander with the logistics group’s landing support company, who graduated from Freedom High before Oliver’s tenure there.
“Whether you’re taking care of your teachers and students or your Marines and sailors, your primary mission is to take care of the people you serve with,” he said. “It’s really encouraging as a Marine, an educator and an officer to see the patriotism in the youth of America.”
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Duka brothers get life terms for plotting Fort Dix attack
Three of the five men convicted of plotting an armed attack on Fort Dix were sentenced to life in prison today.The Duka brothers, Eljvir, Dritan and Shain, maintained their innocence before sentencing in federal court in Camden.
The men, all foreign-born Muslims raised primarily in Cherry Hill, were convicted on conspiracy charges...
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Labour Party embroiled in race row after candidate told she was 'too white and Jewish' to be selected
The Labour Party has become embroiled in a race row after a prospective female councillor was allegedly told she was 'too white and Jewish' to be selected.
Elaina Cohen claims that Labour councillor Mahmood Hussain said he would not support her application for an inner-city ward because 'my Muslim members don't want you because you are Jewish'...
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Brit airline forces stewardess to Muslim dress, walk behind males
Lisa Ashton said NO.
She walked off the job at BMI per TimesOnLine.
That Brit airlines told her to wear the full Muslim garb—head to toe—and walk behind men when serving the airlines going to Saudi Arabia.
It is insane how some non-Muslims quarters are bowing and scraping toward Allah in order to make the devotees comfortable.
Muslims do not change one iota when non-Muslims enter their borders.
Muslims then should learn to live with non-Muslim cultures or stay within Muslim confines. It is in no way enhancing freedoms for non-Muslim countries to adopt Muslims demands.
BMI is making a worldwide fool of itself. Its powers-that-be should be fired. Ashton should be put in their places.
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Putin takes crude remark about hanging Georgian leader a step further
MOSCOW - Reveling in his reputation for earthy language, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin unabashedly confirmed a crude outburst against Georgia's president and even took the tirade a step further Thursday.
The French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur reported last month that Putin told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he would hang Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili by the testicles. The remark came during the August war between Russia and Georgia.
In a televised question-and-answer session with Russian citizens, a caller asked Putin whether he would like to see Saakashvili "hanged by one of his body parts."
"Why by just one part?" Putin responded with a grin.
[It's in our interest to never forget that this man is a thug.]
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U.S. Regulatory Czar Nominee Wanted Net 'Fairness Doctrine'
There are those who hang their First Amendment hats on President Barack Obama's statement that he isn't for reinstating the Censorship Doctrine, also mis-known as the "Fairness" Doctrine. These people are ignoring ever mounting examples of the censorious intent of this Administration on all things information.
They are playing the Ostrich Defense despite the fact that nearly every Obama appointee to anything that has anything to do with regulating anything is a strident Leftist whose first impulse is to loathe the American people exercising the freedoms the Constitution affords them.
Now we have Cass Sunstein, President Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar." Who has written:"A system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government."
That warms the free speech cockles, does it not? Sunstein has in the past proffered a whole host of anti-liberty and often bizarre notions. [I.e., another radical appointment.]
President Obama, in introducing Sunstein as his nominee, again demonstrates he's reflexively opposed to the practice of freedom by a free people. This is certainly an Administration that has repeatedly brought to the fore people radically opposed to the freedoms afforded us in the First Amendment.
Which is why Obama's narrow pledge on the "Fairness" Doctrine leaves us - unsated. And most likely unprotected from a regulatory assault on conservative and Christian talk radio.
P.S.: The good news is his is an appointment that requires Senate confirmation, so he can be stopped. FSA member the American Conservative Union has created a website called Stop Sunstein through which you can submit petition signatures to do exactly that.
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[Then >
"We ought to ban hunting"
- Cass Sunstein, in a 2007 speech at Harvard University
"Animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives …"
- Cass Sunstein, “The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer,” August 2002.
"A system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government."
-Cass Sunstein, arguing for a Fairness Doctrine for the Internet in his book, Republic.com 2.0 (page 137).
> "Appointments are policy." >> Stop Sunstein ]
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Fire the real culprit in the Detroit debacle, the UAW
President Barack Obama’s ousting of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner raises an important question: Why pick on Wagoner and not Ron Gettelfinger? Gettelfinger is the president of UAW, the powerful union that presided over the downfall of the Big Three.
The reason for GM’s failure is no mystery. But here’s a clue anyway: It’s not uncommon for a UAW contract to exceed a thousand pages...
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Taxpayers may bail out fat UAW benefits
Bankruptcy is normally capitalism's most effective engine of creative destruction, a necessary cleansing mechanism to free up capital and labor for more productive application. But with Obama administration intervention to package a Chapter 11 filing for Chrysler (and maybe GM soon enough), money from taxpayers who enjoy nothing comparable to the lifetime health care benefits, layoff protection, and retirement pay of the UAW, will be funneled to the UAW's labor aristocrats.
It is precisely these lavish benefits which drove the American Big Three into the corner they find themselves in. Simple justice requires that they reap the whirlwind their never-ending demands generated. Asking people who pay for their own health care and must fund their own retirements to bailout people who enjoyed superior income and benefits is morally wrong, and will continue to hamstring the companies.
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UAW Said to Get 55% Chrysler Ownership, Board Seats
The United Auto Workers union’s retiree health-care fund will own 55 percent of Chrysler LLC in exchange for cutting in half the automaker’s $10.6 billion cash obligation to the trust, people familiar with the matter said.
Under the terms of the contract, the trust would get representation on the company’s board of directors, said two people briefed on the deal, who asked not to be named because the matter is 'private'...
[The UAW was the no. 1 reason the company couldn't compete - and now it wins. And tell me again how Ford, struggling to fix itself without taxpayer money, is now supposed to compete with a government backed competitor?]
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Top lawmaker wants mileage-based tax on vehicles
A House committee chairman said Tuesday that he wants Congress to enact a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks to pay for highway programs now rather than wait years to test the idea.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said he believes the technology exists to implement a mileage tax....
[In place of the gas tax? A: No, in addition to it... ]
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The missing sunspots: Is this the big chill?
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Could the Sun play a greater role in recent climate change than has been believed? Climatologists had dismissed the idea and some solar scientists have been reticent about it because of its connections with those who those who deny climate change. But now the speculation has grown louder because of what is happening to our Sun. No living scientist has seen it behave this way.
There are no sunspots.
The disappearance of sunspots happens every few years, but this time it’s gone on far longer than anyone expected – and there is no sign of the Sun waking up. “This is the lowest we’ve ever seen. We thought we’d be out of it by now, but we’re not,” says Marc Hairston of the University of Texas. And it’s not just the sunspots that are causing concern.
There is also the so-called solar wind – streams of particles the Sun pours out – that is at its weakest since records began. In addition, the Sun’s magnetic axis is tilted to an unusual degree. “This is the quietest Sun we’ve seen in almost a century,” says NASA solar scientist David Hathaway.
But this is not just a scientific curiosity. It could affect everyone on Earth and force what for many is the unthinkable: a reappraisal of the theory of global warming...
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Bill Allows Citizens to Sue for Climate Change Damages
"Victims" of climate change would be able to sue the federal government or private businesses over greenhouse gas emissions under language buried in the House climate bill, according to a report in the Washington Times.
Under the provision, anyone "who has suffered, or reasonably expects to suffer, a harm attributable, in whole or in part," to government inaction to file a "citizen suit."
The term “harm” is broadly defined as “any effect of air pollution (including climate change), currently occurring or at risk of occurring.”“You could be spawning lawsuits at almost any place [climate-change modeling] computers place at harm’s risk,”
According to the Washington Times report, under the House bill, if a judge rules against the government, new rules would have to be put in play to correct the 'problems' associated with climate change.
[A lawyer's wet dream, and yet another example of what the green-zealots can't do politically they'll do through the courts - all of which you will pay for.]
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OPEC wants oil to reach $70 a barrel
ALGIERS – OPEC wants to see oil prices rising to more than 70 dollars a barrel, the oil cartel's secretary general Abdalla El-Badri said Sunday.
"The price of 50 dollars is not enough to cover investment costs for the future,"El-Badri told reporters in Algiers.
"The price which allows reasonable and acceptable revenues is more than 70 dollars a barrel,"he added.
[That's funny, American oil companies say anything north of 35$ pays for brand new fields to be developed. Too bad our own government has 'just said no'.]
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Drill, Baby, Drill? Forget It.
Salazar is fresh from representing the State of Colorado in the Senate, where he specialized in fighting the development of that state’s energy riches to help the U.S. become less dependent on foreign oil. Since assuming office, he has led the Interior Department on a crusade to slow, reduce or stop oil and gas development on federal lands, both onshore and off.
He canceled leases already issued to companies to develop energy in Utah against the wishes of the Utah Congressional Delegation and governor. He canceled the sale of commercial oil shale leases in the west that hold the key to what the government says is an energy resource of 2.6 trillion barrels....10 times as big as Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.
And he ordered a halt to a plan for offshore oil and gas leasing that was almost 30 years in the making after Congress and President Bush finally lifted the moratorium that had made the U.S. the only country in the world that embargoed its own oil from itself….an act that would constitute an energy war against the U.S. if another country tried it.
All of this from a man whom the mainstream media described as a “moderate.”
[More re: the EPA's recent insanity re: CO2 as 'polutant' - Highly Recommended > ]
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FLASHBACKs re: the 'moderate' "Salazar" [I.e., another radical appointment]
Then, because silence is interpreted as consent... >
[select banner, & pass it on...]
oil petition
Watchdogs are heeling for Obama
Last week, I asked my journalism and political science students at American University to grade the news media covering the Obama administration for the first 100 days. The consensus fell between a C+ and a B-.
However, if I asked President Barack Obama’s media strategists to grade the press corps covering their boss, I bet they would mark their cards with an A.
Why? With few exceptions, the mainstream news media have been dutifully pushing the Obama message, burnishing his carefully crafted image and offering few challenges when he makes questionable or misleading pronouncements, gestures or policy statements.
In short, they seem mesmerized by the glamour of this new and different president. He is keeping them so busy with skillfully staged daily travel, speeches, meetings and photo ops that they hardly have time to ask tough questions or add context to their stories. Whatever Obama says, or doesn’t say, is usually good enough for them.
No comment from the president on pirates taking hostage the captain of a U.S.-flagged ship? No problem.
Get a new dog? Three days of extensive coverage everywhere.
Obama strategists must be giving each other fist bumps as they chortle, “Boy, have we got them eating out of our hands"...
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Coverage More Positive for Obama than for Bush or Clinton
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“President Obama is getting more coverage, and more positive coverage, from the media than his two predecessors,” FNC's Bret Baier related during Monday's “Grapevine” segment in summarizing the hardly-surprising findings from “a new study of his first 50 days in office” completed by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA).
The analysis of the network evening newscasts, Baier recounted, “was judged 58 percent positive for President Obama. That compares to 33 percent for Mr. Bush and 44 percent for Mr. Clinton. NBC was most positive at 61 percent. CBS was 58 percent, ABC 57 percent.”
[What bias?]
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[Meanwhile, in the real world...]
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April's cable ratings are out, and it looks like Fox News isn't slowing down in the Obama era.
TVNewser notes that Murdoch's network has just beaten CNN and MSNBC combined in every hour from 6pm to midnight -- that's in both total viewers and the key demo (age 25-54). Glenn Beck's ratings continues to soar, too, now up 212 percent in the demo. [snip]
In addition, Nancy Grace -- on sister network HLN -- beat out MSNBC's Keith Olbermann...
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What would the media say if Obama's frequent Hollywood Guests were oil executives?
Barack Obama’s White House is beginning to look a lot like a Joan Rivers special. Celebrity after celebrity is showing up at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., demonstrating, as Obama has told us time and time again, that the President is indeed outside the bubble, interested in the common man, and a representative of the little guy.
Or not.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Feinstein seeks probe into Bush detainee tactics
[HT:SN]
The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee has called for a full congressional inquiry to move forward on controversial George W. Bush-era interrogation and detention methods.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, speaking Sunday on CNN's ''State of the Union,'' said she hopes that public outrage regarding the memos will soon subside so that Congress can calmly and fully investigate the issue.
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Boehner wants CIA to release Pelosi notes
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is upping the ante on Speaker Nancy Pelosi — asking the Obama administration to release CIA notes taken during a 2002 briefing session with Pelosi and other Congressional leaders.
Boehner is backing efforts by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking member on the House intelligence committee, to release agency's records of meetings with Congressional members from both parties...
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LA Times Leaves Out That Waterboarding Helped Thwart Terror Attack... on Los Angeles
Say you're the editor of a major U.S. city's newspaper and that sources in the national security community have informed your reporters that waterboarding was a crucial tactic in making a terrorist detainee spill his guts with information that, when followed up by authorities, thwarted a planned terrorist attack on same major U.S. city.
You would probably run the story on the front page with a banner headline to that effect, but at the very least you'd make sure that fact was reported in your paper's coverage.
That is, of course, unless you're the ideologically leftward, politically correct editors at the Los Angeles Times...
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The U.N. Steps up to the Plate
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An Austrian, Manfred Nowak, who serves as something called a U.N. special rapporteur in Geneva, is now warning the United States that former Bush administration officials should be tried and prosecuted for torture, including the lawyers who gave advice about statutes on interrogation.
Three notes:
1) The U.N. special rappoteur, like most transnational officials that have no accountability, is cowardly; Mr. Nowak knows that he can gain publicity by trashing the U.S. — and, especially in the present politicized climate, the former administration. He also knows from past experience, that if he were to dare to go to Russia, China, or, in fact, almost any country on any U.N. commission connected to civil rights and press his case, he would probably either be ignored (no headlines, some danger in reporting that China tortures dissidents) or, who knows in the case of Iran, Libya, Cuba, etc., be himself tortured.
2) He is hypocritical. If he is really worried about serious transgressions of human rights, perhaps he could simply stay home and investigate his own country's quite amoral policy of shipping everything from sniper rifles to nuclear technology to human-rights-violating regimes like Iran. Or, better yet, he could use his U.N. dais to go after the growing Austrian neo-Nazi movement.
3) The current Third-world practice in the U.S. of serially trashing an outgoing administration, whether by demonizing it abroad or seeking to try its former officials, is already bearing fruit, as it brings the likes of Professor Nowak out of the woodwork. Soon, when the Obama administration releases pictures, more memos, etc. (of course, prepped by the now mandatory denials on the Sunday-morning talk shows that it would ever do this, and the now mandatory postfacto "anguished" pep talk to the particular intelligence agency in question), we will see even sharper reactions from our enemies.
And if we are going to go down this Orwellian route, then let us at least be consistent, and call in the U.N. to find out who gave the "order" to blow apart the heads of the negotiating Somali teen pirates (no habeas corpus there), and the Predator "execution" of "suspected" Wazirstan purveyors of man-made catastophe, and perhaps even those in the media who not all that long ago falsely reported that U.S. guards had "flushed" Korans at Gitmo — all the latter are not matters of supposed torture, but had consequences that led to death.
Do we really wish to turn our country into something like this?
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Israel's Arab cheerleaders
In spite of the Obama administration's warning that Israel can only expect Egypt to support its position that Iran must be denied nuclear weapons if it gives Jerusalem to the PLO, last week's visit by Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman clearly demonstrated that Egypt wishes to work with the government on a whole host of issues. Coming as it did on the heels of Egypt's revelation that Iranian-controlled Hizbullah agents were arrested for planning strategic attacks against it, Suleiman's visit was a clear sign that Egypt is as keen as Israel to neutralize Iranian power in the region by preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons.
And Egypt and Jordan are not alone in supporting Israel's commitment to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power. American and other Western sources who have visited the Persian Gulf in recent months report that leaders of the Gulf states from Bahrain - which Iran refers to as its 14th province - to Saudi Arabia to Kuwait and, of course, to Iraq - are praying for Israel to strike Iran's nuclear facilities and only complain that it has waited so long to attack them.
As one American who recently met with Persian Gulf leaders explained last week,"As far as the Gulf leaders are concerned, Israel cannot attack Iran fast enough. They understand what the stakes are."
UNFORTUNATELY, THE nature of those stakes has clearly eluded the Obama administration...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Banks May Need $1 Trillion After U.S. Tests, KBW Says
New York - U.S. lenders including Wells Fargo & Co. may need another $1 trillion in capital to cushion losses as unemployment rises and borrowers fall behind on payments, KBW Inc. analysts said today. The estimate is based on KBW’s own ''stress test''of the strength of top U.S. lenders,
Bankers may get their first look tomorrow at results of the tests, which are being conducted on 19 of the biggest U.S. financial companies...
[Conned again. The FDIC already monitors metrics on bank 'health'. Obama's 'stress test' is a mechanism to garner yet more government control over the banks - nothing more.]
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Support for Free Market Economy Up Seven Points Since December
Seventy-seven percent (77%) of U.S. voters say that they prefer a free market economy over a government-managed economy. That’s up seven points since December.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey also found that just 11% now prefer a government-run economy, down from 15% four months ago.
Free markets are preferred by 94% of Republicans, 64% of Democrats and 78% of those not affiliated with either major party. Adults under 30 favor free markets by a 79% to eight percent (8%) margin.
Support for free markets does not equal support for a purely laissez faire approach, however. Voters are evenly divided over the need for more government regulation of big business: 46% support the idea, and 43% are opposed.
But in December, 52% favored more regulation, and only 35% were opposed.
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Geithner: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse?
What is going on in this country? The government is about to take over GM in a plan that completely screws private bondholders and favors the unions.
Get this: The GM bondholders own $27 billion and they’re getting 10 percent of the common stock in an expected exchange. And the UAW owns $10 billion of the bonds and they’re getting 40 percent of the stock.
Huh? Did I miss something here?
[Does anyone think the government's take over of the car companies has anything to do with business? It's all for the unions. And what of Ford? Is it now to compete with companies owned by the government and which therefore pay no taxes? Some 'reward' for trying not to need government help.]
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[US government takes over Harley Davidson]
85% Say Government Has Too Much Power, Too Much Money
Sixty percent (60%) of all Americans say the federal government has too much power and too much money, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just nine percent (9%) say the government has too little power and money. Twenty-four percent (24%) believe the government has about the right amount of both.
Not surprisingly, the Political Class sees things a lot differently. While 85% of Mainstream Americans say the government has too much power and money, just two percent (2%) of the Political Class agree.
Nearly one-our-of-four members (24%) of the Political Class, in fact, believe the government has too little money and power, but 68% say it has about the right amount of each.
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NUMBER OF FEDERAL SUBSIDY PROGRAMS TOPS 1,800
[HT:WR]
Federal spending is growing by leaps and bounds. The budget hit $3.9 trillion this year, double the level of spending just eight years ago. The government is also increasing the scope of its activities, intervening in many areas that used to be left to state and local governments, businesses, charities, and individuals. For example:
- By 2008, there were 1,804 different subsidy programs in the federal budget.
- Hundreds of programs were added this decade -- ranging from a $62 billion prescription drug plan to a $1 million anti-drug education grant -- and the recent stimulus bill added even more.
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Public Sector Waste Is Driving Us to the Brink of Disaster
Labour's grotesque mismanagement of public finances has brought the country to the brink of ruin. (snip) Officialdom is now filled with endless tiers of management and sprawling empires of red tape, all devoted to the single purpose of squandering taxpayers’ money.
The public sector has become a vast job-creation racket for armies of penpushers who meet no genuine need but swallow a fortune in their generous salaries, working conditions and pensions...
[Do you really think ours would work any better?]
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Global Warmists' Sly Polar Disorder
Back in 2005, NASA attempted to excuse the failure of their climate models to predict continued southern ice expansion as an omission of the “snow-to-ice conversion” process in their programming. Once that algorithm was incorporated, they insisted, their models properly recognized the phenomena as completely consistent with warming predictions. Two years later, alarmists everywhere were screaming about what horrors the opening of the Northwest Passage would portend.
But as I pointed out then, while it was true that satellite photos had found an ice-free corridor along Canada, Alaska and Greenland and Northern Hemisphere ice at its lowest level since such images were taken in 1978, it was also true that Antarctic ice levels (Southern Hemisphere) were at record highs for that same period. And that fact was being completely ignored in the headlines.
Consequently -- all eyes were directed to the catastrophe looming in our northern waters.
Fortunately for realists, since the Northwest Passage hysteria of 2007, Arctic ice has made a rapid comeback, as you can see from this DMI Centre for Ocean and Ice graph, constructed from Ocean and Sea Ice, Satellite Application Facility data. In fact, the 2009 Arctic ice extent appears to be well on track to exceed the previous four years.
So why do we continue to hear warnings about receding Arctic ice? How is that possible when the extent is quickly approaching its 1979-2000 mean? Simple -- the rules have changed - again. It’s no longer the area of the ice that counts, but rather the volume. You see, thicker winter ice is better able to survive the summer and in turn help cool the planet while reflecting sunlight back into space. And, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), “This year, ice older than two years accounted for less than 10% of the ice cover at the end of February.”
So there’s a new metric in town -- The ice that has been forming at a record pace since the 2007 record low simply doesn’t count because it’s not yet as thick and “effective” as older ice.
And that nonsense somehow gives cover to a mainstream media (MSM) that, despite continually expanding ice, dutifully repeat the retrofitted analysis in headlines the likes of Arctic ice is thinner than ever according to new evidence from explorers and Arctic ice continues to shrink and thin and of course Arctic will be ice-free within a decade.
Pretty slick, huh?
[Again and again; lie, when time (and data) shows it to be so, change the story (lie) and run with that for another few years. It's a shell game of untruths, but when the major media supports it...]
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Do not read this column ....
Today's column is written as a public service to all my readers who think everything they need to know about global warming they learned from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and who demand I stop attacking that nice man, David Suzuki.
I implore you, I beg you, I beseech, you -- STOP READING THIS COLUMN.
I can barely keep up with my correspondence from readers who have intelligent things to say. To all those described above -- who don't understand the difference between weather and climate or how cap-and-trade works, although you always think you do -- please, go buy a book on climate change, sit down, read, learn.
Then maybe we can have a rational discussion. Look, I'll help you... [snip]
But the problem, if you only read books of this type, is that you don't come to understand that Kyoto wasn't an environmental agreement at all, but an economic one, primarily designed to hobble the U.S. economy and that far from lowering global greenhouse gas emissions, it guaranteed they would rise.
You don't understand how a toxic combination of UN bureaucrats, opportunistic politicians, special interests, rent-seekers and scientists-turned-ideologues, has oversold not the reality of anthropogenic climate change, but the certainty about what's going to happen, where, when, how severe and most important, what we should do...
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Deeper In Red From Going Green
Recession: The administration tells the country it can revive the economy with a "green" stimulus. But, like government-provided universal health care, where it's been tried in another nation, it hasn't worked. [snip]
"An examination of Europe's experience" in trying to green the economy, which dates back to 1997, "reveals these policies to be terribly economically counterproductive."
That the European experience has been economically counterproductive should be no mystery. Creating jobs through government dictate always carries cost. Since there is little market for the green programs that are supposed to pull us out of our economic tailspin, those jobs have to be financed by taking money out of the private sector, where it could be used for genuine investments that would generate honest, not taxpayer-subsidized, jobs.
Spain is to the proponents of a green economy what Britain and Canada are to the supporters of state-provided universal health care: a model that the U.S. should follow. The president himself has brought up Spain as an example of the value of government promoting renewable energy.
Before mentioning Spain, or any other nation, again — and certainly before he proposes any further green initiatives — he should read Alvarez's report. He would need to go no further into the paper than the third of Alvarez's 24 salient points:
"While it is not possible to directly translate Spain's experience with exactitude to claim that the U.S. would lose at least 6.6 million to 11 million jobs, as a direct consequence were it to actually create 3 to 5 million 'green jobs' . . . the study clearly reveals the tendency that the U.S. should expect such an outcome."
Alvarez said in an interview that the job losses "could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices," which companies have done.
Facts, as has been said, are stubborn things. But they are scarcely more stubborn than most minds on the political left that ignore immutable economic laws and well-documented economic history.
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