We're heading into the heart of hurricane season, and any day now, a storm will barrel toward the United States, inspiring all the TV weather reporters to find a beach where they can lash themselves to a palm tree. We can be certain of two things: First, we'll be told that the wind is blowing very hard and the surf is up. Second, some expert will tell us that this storm might be a harbinger of global warming.
Somewhere along the line, global warming became the explanation for everything. Right-thinking people are not supposed to discuss any meteorological or geophysical event -- a hurricane, a wildfire, a heat wave, a drought, a flood, a blizzard, a tornado, a lightning strike, an unfamiliar breeze, a strange tingling on the neck -- without immediately invoking the climate crisis. It causes earthquakes, plagues and backyard gardening disappointments. Weird fungus on your tomato plants? Classic sign of global warming... [snip]
The message that needs to be communicated to these people is: "Your problem is not global warming. Your problem is that you're nuts."
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Monday, August 11, 2008
Global Warming Did It! Well, Maybe Not.
BTW...
Gore's call to replace America's electric plants with windmills and the like in the next 10 years is a lawyer's delight.
Billions would be spent on litigation and on public hearings. Eco-protesters would use every stalling tactic possible to fight the installation of each and every turbine.
I say that because that is what they are doing now...
Inconvenient truths, after it was revealed that Al Goreʼs energy consumption at his spacious Tennessee home rose 10 percent in 2007, despite the installation of solar panels and more efficient light bulbs. Gore still consumes 50 percent more electricity every month than the average American does in a year.[thanks PK, but doesn't matter: we little people should trade in our cars for bicycles...]
.
EPA rejects Perry plea on Ethanol
In a move that did little to quell the debate, the Environmental Protection Agency denied Perry's request to reduce by half this year's U.S. ethanol requirement — to 4.5 billion from 9 billion gallons.
Perry said the waiver was needed because rising U.S. ethanol output is inflating corn prices, wreaking havoc on the state's massive livestock industry and boosting grocery bills for American families.
But on Thursday, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said Perry's request had not proved the Renewable Fuel Standard, which sets ethanol quotas, is causing "severe economic harm," a requirement needed to justify a waiver.
[evidently we must be harmed 'severely' before anything can be done? government]
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“To the annals of market manias and regulatory follies, a new chapter is being added: The Great Ethanol Bubble of 2008. It is possible that someday a fuel made from a cheap, abundant, renewable crop may replace oil. But it won't be food-based ethanol. It’s time not only to stop subsidizing the stuff but to revamp the chaotic, politicized and wasteful system of subsidies for alternative energy."
[when the LA Times wants to stop a government program, you know it's a no brainer...]
.
Media Mostly MIA on Obama's Downer Delivered to 7 Year-Old
When presidential candidates answer questions from children about why they want the job, most will give an answer that uplifts the child and the candidate. Not Barack Obama. At a campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana, a seven-year-old girl asked the Democrat why he wants to be President — and he told her that America has gone downhill:"America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children."
Obama's media water-carriers have virtually ignored his very telling response, one that is reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's gloomiest, malaise-based assessments of America during his awful presidency.
Here is a rundown of what happened from Ed Morrissey of Hot Air (direct YouTube link to relevant video is here):
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Court reverses home-school decision
An appellate court on Friday said parents have the right to educate their children at home despite not having a teaching credential.
The 44-page decision by the Los Angeles Second District Court of Appeals declared that “California statutes permit home-schooling as a species of private-school education.”
It is a reversal of a March ruling by Justice H. Walter Croskey that parents without teaching credentials do not have a constitutional right to teach their children in a home-school setting. The ruling also jeopardized some independent-study programs.
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Saudi slams 'racist' Israeli Nissan ad
Gulf states may boycott the Nissan Motor Company as a result of an Israeli TV commercial that depicts Saudis angered by a fuel-efficient car, a Saudi official has said. The new campaign by Renault-Nissan caused an uproar in the Gulf when it showed a group of Saudi oil barons screaming and attacking the Renault-Nissan vehicle.
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Thursday, August 7, 2008
GOP rolls into Day 4 of gas-price revolt
House Republicans have begun Day 4 in their "Shadow Session" on gas prices, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) is with them. Gingrich, who is pushing for more offshore drilling, said reliance on foreign oil imports is "bad national security policy, it's a bad economic policy and in the long run it's a bad environmental policy.."
[been watching this on TV? {yeah, my point. evidently the old media is selective re: the political stunts it will cover}]
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Moqtada al-Sadr Packs It In
Good news out of Iraq is becoming almost a daily event: In just the past week, we learned that U.S. combat fatalities (five) dropped in July to a low for the war, that key leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq have fled to the Pakistani hinterland, that troop deployments will soon be cut to 12 months from 15, and that Washington and Baghdad are close to concluding a status-of-forces agreement.
Now this: Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad's Green Zone as recently as April. Coupled with the near-total defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, this means the U.S. no longer faces any significant organized military foe in the country. It also marks a major setback for Iran, which had used the Mahdi Army as one of its primary vehicles for extending its influence in Iraq. [snip]
As with so much in Iraq, Mr. Sadr's sudden turn to moderation remains reversible. That's all the more reason to regret the U.S. failure to arrest Mr. Sadr in 2004 - it can't be undone. But our recent and considerable successes can be, which is all the more reason to see our involvement in Iraq through to an irreversible victory. With Mr. Sadr's "retirement," we've taken another long stride in that direction...
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Bush Gets Tremendous Crowds in S. Korea, US Media Ignores Story
[HT:MS]
Over at Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft introduces us to Amy Proctor's report on the amazingly large crowd of South Koreans that came out to welcome George W. Bush to their country. It's a good thing that Amy clued us in here in America, because our media sure ignored the story of this large turnout.
Bush arrives in Seoul, faces large anti-US protest.
But once the truth started coming out, Reuters tried to cover its obvious mistake with this later headline:
Bush arrives in Seoul, anti-U.S. protest fizzles.
Amy also found some nice video of the pro-Bush rally. Great report Amy and good work.
[funny, I don't see the 'fizzle']
[videos not in English {imagine} but worth watching > ]
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Steps toward war...
A day after the US threatened to punish Iran with a fourth round of sanctions for its roundabout, unclear response to a recently offered package of incentives in return for halting uranium enrichment, Russia's insistence on diplomacy pushes the possibility of further sanctions against Teheran even further into the future.
(Snip) Russian envoy to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, made it clear that Moscow has not set an ultimatum for Iran to respond...
[as predicted. and the centrifuges spin on...]
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Germany Presses Firms to Show ''Sensitivity'' on Iran Deals
Germany has called on its firms to show sensitivity in doing business with Iran following Israel's criticism of a German-Iranian gas deal, saying it violated the spirit of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. (Snip) ''We warn companies of the extremely sensitive nature'' of economic ties with Iran, Thomas Steg told a government news conference, adding that Berlin also expected firms to employ their ''moral sense'' if they invest there.
[translation: lip service before they invest there anyway]
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Israel mulls military option for Iran nukes
JERUSALEM - Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it. Such talk could be more threat than reality. However, Iran's refusal to accept Western conditions is worrying Israel as is the perception that Washington now prefers diplomacy over action with Tehran...
[just doing our part]
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[and we'll all be shocked and outraged when Israel defends itself].
Speaking of 1936 all over again...
.....The crowds of families who had woken their children before 5am for the historic event were pushed out and replaced by bused-in groups of Communist Party members, loyal workers and model students dressed in the uniforms of the torch relay's sponsors, Coca-Cola, Lenovo and Bank of China.......
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China does not allow democracy
Taipei - A senior Taiwanese official said that Beijing's move to delay any direct election for Hong Kong's leader until 2017 underlined why Taiwan could not accept reunification with China.
Tung Chen-yuan, a deputy chief of Taiwan's China policy-making body, known as the Mainland Affairs Council, said the decision sent a clear signal ''that the Chinese Communist Party does not allow genuine democracy''
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Beijing Taxis Are Rigged for Eavesdropping
The tiny listening devices, which are connected to a global positioning system able to track a cab's location by satellite, have been installed in almost all of the city's 70,000 taxis...
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Outspoken '06 Medalist Cheek Has Visa Revoked
The Chinese government on Tuesday revoked the visa of 2006 Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek, effectively barring the speedskating champion and social activist from attending the 2008 Beijing Games. Cheek is co-founder of Team Darfur, an organization composed of athletes attempting to draw attention to human-rights violations in Darfur.
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What bias?
Nets Lend Credibility to 'Bombshell' Iraq Deception Allegations
CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN all jumped Tuesday to publicize the claims in a new book by a left-wing journalist, Ron Suskind, that President Bush knew before the war Iraq had no WMD and that to justify the war the administration forged a letter to prove a connection between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaeda.
The journalists were unfazed by denials from former CIA Director George Tenet, nor the fact the alleged letter couldn't have impacted the public before the war since it didn't become public until nine months into the war.
The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes undermined Suskind's allegations as he observed, on the magazine's blog:To believe Suskind's account...you would have to believe: 1) that the Bush administration ordered the CIA, in writing, to forge a letter that was a rather obvious hoax; 2) that the CIA, hostile to the Bush administration and leaking against it at every turn, eagerly complied.
If the Bush administration went to the trouble of manufacturing such evidence isn't it likely they would have used it?
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[nonetheless...]
CNN Highlights Viewer Who Wants Bush 'Executed for Treason'
Deciding to showcase the allegations in Ron Suskind's new book which “says President Bush committed an impeachable offense” by ordering “the CIA to forge a letter to bolster his case for the war in Iraq,” CNN's Jack Cafferty posed as one of his “Cafferty File” questions on Tuesday: “What does it mean, do you suppose, if the White House did, in fact, order the CIA to forge a letter in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq?”"Bush, Cheney, et cetera deserved to be clapped in irons, held for trial and executed for treason."
Fellow anchor Wolf Blitzer marveled: “We're just hearing now, Jack, that there may be an effort in the Congress to now go ahead and have some hearings on this explosive, explosive charge.”
Both Cafferty and Blitzer's segments presumed the accuracy of Suskind's claims without question.
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Nannyism run amok
From the People's Republic of Cambridge to the west Texas town of El Paso, a paternalistic wave has been sweeping the country, says Reason.
To find the best and worst cities for exercising personal freedom, Reason ranked the 35 most populous municipalities in the United States in eight areas: alcohol, tobacco, sex, guns, gambling, drugs, freedom of movement, food and "other." The higher a city's score, the more restrictive it is. Here are the results:
• Chicago, ranked 35, is the most restrictive city in the United States; their litany of meddlesome laws include taxes on bottled water, a public smoking ban and a ban on serving foie gras in restaurants.
• Seattle, ranked 34, has long had an unhealthy strain of nannyism; smoking is banned in all public places.
• New York, ranked 33, is also heavily restrictive; the city has banned using trans fats in restaurant cooking oil, required fast food chains to show calorie content on their menus and fines citizens for trivial offenses such as sitting improperly on milk crates.
• San Francisco, ranked 20, has banned plastic bags in supermarkets, mandated the size of pets' water bowls and required psychics to obtain licenses. [er, what's the exam for that?]
Las Vegas, ranked 1, is the least-restrictive city in the United States' most tolerant state; alcohol restrictions are virtually nonexistent and prostitution is legalized. [Vivaaaaaa, Los- sorry]
[think there's a bottom to this slippery slope that magically flattens out? it won't stop until stopped]
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Los Angeles wants to take bite out of fast food
LOS ANGELES - In the impoverished neighborhood of South Los Angeles, fast food is the easiest cuisine to find — and that's a problem for elected officials who see it as an unhealthy source of calories and cholesterol. The City Council was poised to vote Tuesday on a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants...
[government {evidently at all levels} is becoming our parents - always at the cost of individual choice]
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Some good news...
.
Texas defies World Court with execution
DALLAS - Texas defied the World Court and executed a Mexican national by lethal injection on Tuesday over the objections of the international judicial body and neighboring Mexico. (snip) The World Court's jurisdiction also does not reach Texas, a state where authorities generally don't like outsiders telling them what to do.
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Dem and Dumber in Ohio
Democratic congressional candidate Mary Jo Kilroy sent a look-alike to rural parade. Much like Saddam Hussein, Ohio 15th congressional district Democratic candidate Mary Jo Kilroy uses body doubles when she tires of having to deal with all of the little people she intends to represent.
Such was the case last week when Kilroy sent her campaign body double to represent her at the Plain City Steam Thresher parade. Apparently the Amish-dominated city was too tough a crowd for Kilroy to handle.
The Ohio 15th district seat is one that Democrats are hoping to pick up this November from Republicans, with longtime incumbent Rep. Deborah Pryce retiring.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Empty Promises Revealed
That was then, in the wake of midterm elections, before $4-plus gasoline. It was before high energy costs helped drive our consumer-based economy into a tailspin. But most importantly, before the American people lifted their voices in outrage over the recklessness of an ironclad Democrat policy that willingly outsources our energy needs to the whims of foreign oil producers.
So what does “the most open” House majority of all time do when a fair and honest debate over drilling doesn’t exactly help their party ambitions?
They dodge the debate for weeks. They disingenuously lead the American people to believe that oil and gas won’t necessarily be a part of our energy needs in the future. They schedule votes on feckless energy legislation – see “use it or lose it” and oil speculation. They justify their stonewalling as an effort to “save the planet,” impervious to the fact that other countries with far worse environmental track records will only intensify their drilling efforts.
But worst of all, they skip out of town for five-weeks without allowing a single vote that would meaningfully alter the imbalance of supply and demand that has triggered the spike in oil prices. This is a dereliction of duty of the gravest magnitude...
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Enemy of the State
Since his Oscar-winning turn in the 1978 antiwar film "Coming Home," the venerable actor Jon Voight has come to the conclusion that he and many in the "so-called peace movement" were manipulated by Marxist propaganda.
"The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away," he wrote in an article titled "My Concerns for America."Mr. Voight is not the first to connect these dots. But he is certainly the biggest Hollywood star associated with the anti-Vietnam War movement to do so. In his newfound voice, Mr. Voight also boldly warns of the consequences of electing the current antiwar candidate:
"If, God forbid, we live to see [Barack] Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before, and our country will be weakened in every way."[snip] The Los Angeles Times, the Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly and People magazine alum Jeffrey Wells led the charge. At his influential Web site Hollywood- Elsewhere .com, Mr. Wells wrote,
"If I were a producer and I had to make a casting decision about hiring Voight or some older actor who hadn't ticked me off with an idiotic Washington Times op-ed piece, I might very well say to myself, 'Voight? Let him eat cake."[liberal 'tolerance' - aka 'blue McCarthyism']
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Germany Still Won't Fight
Germany will deploy around 200 combat soldiers in northern Afghanistan, but will not move its 'troops' to the country's more violent south, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said on Wednesday, Feb. 6. German troops will be sent to replace the Norwegian contingent scheduled to leave Afghanistan this summer.
[with 'allies' like this...]
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Japan to Test Missile Interceptor in U.S.
Japan will conduct its first test-firing of a land-to-air missile interceptor in the United States in September to ensure that a missile shield for the Japanese capital will function properly if it falls under attack... [snip]
The planned test "aims to confirm the functions of the Patriot system that has been upgraded with ballistic missile defense capabilities," the ministry said.
The test comes as Japan and the U.S. accelerate their joint missile defense program following North Korea's missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
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The Third Lebanon War
There is something to be learned from the frenzied love-fest given in Beirut in mid-July to the most notorious of the Lebanese prisoners released by Israel. Samir Kuntar was sentenced to 542 years in prison for killing four people during a raid in 1979. Kuntar executed a father (Danny Haran) in front of his 4-year-old daughter, then killed the little girl by smashing her head against a rock with a rifle butt. But to the Lebanese, Kuntar is a returning hero... [snip]
Barry Rubin of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel has observed:
"What horrifies me most are not radicals cheering terrorist Samir Kuntar, but that most relative moderates feel compelled to do so. At the airport to greet him were leaders of Lebanon's anti-Syrian, anti-Iranian Druze and Christian groups as well as the ambassadors from Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Morocco. To avoid being discredited, relative moderates must affirm that anyone who murders Israeli children is a hero."The massive support shown for Kuntar throughout Lebanon, if taken at face value, has effectively re-defined the status of the Lebanese government (and, by extension, the Lebanese people) as the enemy of Israel. Giora Eiland, the former chief of Israel's National Security Council noted in Ynet News:
"The only way to prevent another war is to make it clear that should war break out, Lebanon may be razed to the ground. Not only will the Lebanese government fear it, so would Hezb'allah . . . This will deter the group, if it realizes that aggression on its part would result in destruction that would outrage the population and turn it against Hezb'allah."In effect, in the event of a Third Lebanon War, a vast array of strategic targets throughout Lebanon would no longer be immune from Israeli retaliation. By making common cause with Hezb'allah, the Lebanese stand to reap the whirlwind.
[bit it's Israel which will be vilified in the press - despite the foreknowledge that it will be Lebanon-Hezballah which starts it - again]
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Venezuela's Chavez Makes More Anti-Democracy Moves
[HT:DG]
Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez plans to set up neighborhood-based militias, move toward a socialist economy, and increase state control over agriculture under a package of laws enacted by presidential decree.
Changes in areas from the military to small business loans were pushed through by the president in 26 laws released Monday in the official gazette. Chavez approved them on the final day of an 18-month period...
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Hawaii Man Accused of Helping China Design Missile
Prosecutors say Noshir Gowadia used Maui as a base to design a stealth cruise missile for China. He was indicted on 21 counts of conspiracy, money-laundering and falsifying tax returns. The case comes amid growing U.S. concern about Chinese spying and enhanced prosecution efforts across the country.
Last year, a jury convicted Chi Mak, an engineer for a California-based defense contractor, of conspiring to export U.S. submarine propulsion technology to China. He was sentenced to 24 1/2 years in prison. In June, a Chinese national with Canadian citizenship was sentenced to 24 months for selling fighter pilot training software to the Chinese navy.
Dan Blumenthal, a former China country director at the Pentagon and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said Beijing is after technologies that would help it 'counter' the U.S.
Despite the seriousness of the charges, the case has received scant public attention.
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Never forget
Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe, five nations remain "captive" to communism -- China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Laos.
Amid all the hoopla about the Beijing Olympics and the "ohs" and "ahs" over the dozens of skyscrapers soaring above the Chinese capital, we must keep in mind that China is also a land of forced labor camps...
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The Post-National Candidate
Jeffrey Kuhner of the Washington Times has a particularly incisive op-ed in today's edition focusing on Obama's standing as a "post national" candidate for president.
In effect, Obama would be the first president ever elected who has championed the idea of subsuming American interests to the will of the international community - specifically, the Europeans who themselves are seeking to wipe out national boundaries in favor of a continental super state.
Indeed, Obama makes no bones about his agenda...
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Global Warming as Mass Neurosis
What, discredited? Thousands of scientists insist otherwise, none more noisily than NASA's Jim Hansen, who first banged the gong with his June 23, 1988, congressional testimony (delivered with all the modesty of "99% confidence").
But mother nature has opinions of her own.
NASA now begrudgingly confirms that the hottest year on record in the continental 48 was not 1998, as previously believed, but 1934, and that six of the 10 hottest years since 1880 antedate 1954. Data from 3,000 scientific robots in the world's oceans show there has been slight cooling in the past five years, never mind that "80% to 90% of global warming involves heating up ocean waters," according to a report by NPR's Richard Harris.
The Arctic ice cap may be thinning, but the extent of Antarctic sea ice has been expanding for years. At least as of February, last winter was the Northern Hemisphere's coldest in decades. In May, German climate modelers reported in the journal Nature that global warming is due for a decade-long vacation. But be not not-afraid, added the modelers: The inexorable march to apocalypse resumes in 2020.
This last item is, of course, a forecast, not an empirical observation. But it raises a useful question:
If even slight global cooling remains evidence of global warming, what isn't evidence of global warming?
What we have here is a nonfalsifiable hypothesis, logically indistinguishable from claims for the existence of God. This doesn't mean God doesn't exist, or that global warming isn't happening. It does mean it isn't science...
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Doctors: Third babies are the same as patio heaters
[UK]
A pair of doctors have said that British parents should have fewer children, because kids cause carbon emissions and climate change. The two medics suggest that choosing to have a third child is the same as buying a patio heater or driving a gas-guzzling car, and that GPs should advise their patients against it. Writing in the British Medical Journal, John Guillebaud (emeritus professor of of family planning at UCL)...
[another professor. When government 'pays' for health care, 'medicine' becomes politics]
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China Oilfield Plans $2.5 Billion Offer for Awilco
Hong Kong - China Oilfield Services Ltd., a unit of the nation's third-biggest oil producer, plans to offer $2.5 billion for Norwegian oil and gas drilling contractor Awilco Offshore ASA, said two people familiar with the matter.
The cash bid values Awilco at 81 percent more than its market value.
(Snip) China Oilfield is targeting acquisitions of overseas petroleum drillers as the world's second-biggest energy- consuming nation searches for oil and gas beneath its coastal waters...
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Iran discovers billion-barrel oil field
Tehran- Iran says it has discovered a new oil field containing more than one billion barrels of crude. Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said the oil field held 1.1 billion barrels of sweet crude oil, of which 233 million coudl be recovered...
[peanuts; we've over 7 Trillion barrels worth in Rocky's shale alone. Oops, forgot: Pelosi said no.]
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Nothing uncool about patriotism
A Dallas area columnist recently wrote that we should all just shut up about patriotism because it’s a word that’s overused and “kinda uncool.” She went on to add that patriotism
“is a kind of dusty holiday decoration that gets pulled out of the attic and displayed on the porch for the Fourth of July. It's a topic for kids' essay contests or the old codgers down at the VFW, not something you talk much about around the office.”It is very sad to read this ungrateful commentary from someone too young and too spoiled to recognize how effete and impudent she sounds with her juvenile criticism of the sacrifices made by millions. A line from King Lear comes to mind: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”
These are the same people who wake up every day in a comfortable home and sit down to a healthy, robust breakfast before enjoying a refreshing shower and a selection of smartly tailored clothing. They slide behind the wheel of their late model, shiny automobile and head for the steady job that keeps their families well-fed and secure. During the evenings and weekends they gather with friends over cocktails and hors de oeuvres as they pontificate about the evils of the country that provides their affluent lifestyle.
Compare that attitude with millions of immigrants, many of whom, when arriving on American soil, get down on their knees and tearfully kiss the ground to show their gratitude. The difference between them and the snooty native born malcontents is that the latter has no frame of reference... [snip]
Yet, I suppose it’s about what we can expect from a generation that has reached adulthood with an attitude that has been spoon-fed to them by liberal elitists [the highest concentration of which is in our school systems] who proudly put their hate-America slogans on parade...
[Recommended > ]
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Man calls 911 after Subway left sauce off sandwich
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jacksonville police say Reginald Peterson needs to learn that 911 is not the appropriate place to complain that Subway left the sauce off a spicy Italian sandwich.
Police said the 42-year-old man dialed 911 twice last week so he could have his sub made correctly.
The second call was to complain that officers weren't arriving fast enough.
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008
McCain Not First to Compare Obama to Paris Hilton
Would all of this overwrought press hysteria be rendered even sillier were it to turn out that Sen. McCain was in actuality quoting Sen. Obama? You'd like to think so...
A February 24, 2005, Washington Post article begins:
"There's nothing exotic or complicated about how phenoms are made in Washington, and, more to the point, how they are broken.It's just another example of the elite media not liking a Liberal's own words being used against him in the court of public opinion.
"Andy Warhol said we all get our 15 minutes of fame," says Barack Obama. "I've already had an hour and a half. I mean, I'm so overexposed, I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."
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Iran Says No to Diplomacy
The deadline for an Iranian response to the opulent package of incentives the regime was offered two weeks ago passed on Saturday, and was accompanied by three answers:
1. Iran will not give up “a single iota of its nuclear rights.” That is, Iran will never voluntarily abandon the pursuit of nuclear weapons.So who is still working under the fantasy that fruitful “engagement” is still possible? One such person is the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who was on the phone today with Iran’s nuclear “negotiator,” Saeed Jalili. What is the extent of Solana’s desire to keep the West in suspended animation? It appears unlimited:
2. Iran says it tested a new anti-ship missile, and the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said that “Enemies know that we are easily able to block the Straits of Hormuz for unlimited period.” (I am highly skeptical of both claims.)
3. According to the AP, Ahmadinejad yesterday said that “diplomacy is the only way out of his country’s standoff with the West over its disputed nuclear program and insisted he was serious about negotiations.”
Iranian state-run television reported that in the telephone conversation, “both sides agreed to continue talks.”This is unsurprising. Javier Solana has always had only one weapon in his arsenal — phone calls — and his interlocutors know it. It has also long been evident that Solana’s actual goal in his talks is not the prevention of Iranian nuclear weapons, but the prevention of the cessation of talks about Iranian nuclear weapons. This is tautological diplomacy at its finest, in which the maintenance of talks has itself become the purpose of diplomacy.
‘They also emphasised that preserving this path (talks) needs a positive and constructive atmosphere,’ the television report said without elaborating.
[meanwhile the centrifuges spin, and Israel prepares...]
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Networks Ignore Successful Missile Test
[HT:CW]
I know that missile defense is hardly a major political issue right now, but successes in the program are worth at least passing mention in broadcast media, particularly given tensions with Iran and the utility of missile defenses for our military forces should conflict ensue with the nuclear weapon-pursuing theocratic state.
Unfortunately, according to Nexis, no such stories were filed on either ABC or CBS programming following the latest test. This despite the fact that the test involved a not one but two complicating twists to the testing scheme. Reported the Honolulu Advertiser's Diana Leone ...
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NYT Howler of the Day: Obama Makes 'Few Rhetorical Stumbles'
Is reporter Michael Powell at the New York Times auditioning for Comic Relief?
At next year's event, Powell's headline at his August 2 story (HT Weapons of Mass Discussion) about Obama's repeated hypocritical invocations and charges relating to race (of course, that's not how he sees it), along with his report's first 10 words, would bring the house down:
With Genie Out of Bottle, Obama Is Careful on RaceAn official GOP web site, barackgaffes.com, has been compiling a comprehensive list of gaffes ever since it became clear that the presumptive Democratic nominee is perhaps the most mistake-prone nominee of any party in American history. [snip]
Senator Barack Obama is a man of few rhetorical stumbles .....
That the Times's Powell would open an article analyzing the presidential race with such an obvious gaffe of his own demonstrates just how out of touch those in the world of the Old Gray Lady have become.
[inflate our way out of the energy crisis?]
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Homosexuality – punishable by death?
The Norwegian Islamic Council is still waiting for a reply from the European Fatwa Council before it decides whether or not it is in favour of the death penalty for homosexuality. ''Unacceptable,'' says lesbian Sara Asmeh Rasmussen. (Snip)
''It's wrong of the Islamic Council to wait for the 'verdict' from the fatwa council in such an important case. By not saying 'no' to death penalties for gays, it shows attitudes that conflict with both democratic and humanitarian values,'' says Sara Azmeh Rasmussen...
[she sounds surprised]
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Fear Stalks Muslim Apostates in the West
Persuading Western Muslim leaders to repudiate Shari'a-sanctioned violence against apostates can be a frustrating exercise, as Prince Charles discovered in 2004. Troubled by the treatment of Muslims who convert to Christianity in Islamic nations, the prince convened a summit of senior figures from both religious communities.
It ended in disappointment. The Islamic representatives failed to issue a declaration condemning the practice, which the Christians had requested; they also cautioned non-Muslims not to discuss such matters in public... [snip]
Their views are grounded in Shari'a law. All major schools of Islamic jurisprudence stipulate that a sane adult male must be put to death for abandoning Islam. Many Islamic states outlaw apostasy and seven list it as a capital offense. However, freelancers such as angry relatives present the greatest danger to ex-Muslims, as Shari'a empowers individuals to punish converts. This tradition has followed Muslims to the Western world... [snip]
How our societies respond to this challenge will help set the parameters of freedom in the twenty-first century by determining whether fundamental rights truly are guaranteed for all.
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China fails to meet Olympic promises it made to win games
BEIJING — With four days left before the start of the 2008 Summer Games, Chinese officials have not lived up to key promises they made to win the right to host the Olympics, including widening press freedoms, cleaning up their capital city's polluted air and respecting human rights. The failures were evident Monday...
[China has broken every deal it ever made with anyone - and they think our naivety about promises amusing. We really ought teach history in this country]
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Climate hysterics v heretics in an age of unreason
[HT:PD]
IT has been a tough year for the high priests of global warming in the US. First, NASA had to correct its earlier claim that the hottest year on record in the contiguous US had been 1998, which seemed to prove that global warming was on the march. It was actually 1934. Then it turned out the world's oceans have been growing steadily cooler, not hotter, since 2003. Meanwhile, the winter of 2007 was the coldest in the US in decades, after Al Gore warned us that we were about to see the end of winter as we know it.
In a May issue of Nature, evidence about falling global temperatures forced German climatologists to conclude that the transformation of our planet into a permanent sauna is taking a decade-long hiatus, at least. Then this month came former greenhouse gas alarmist David Evans's article in The Australian, stating that since 1999 evidence has been accumulating that man-made carbon emissions can't be the cause of global warming. By now that evidence, Evans said, has become pretty conclusive.
Yet believers in man-made global warming demand more and more money to combat climate change and still more drastic changes in our economic output and lifestyle. The reason is that precisely that they are believers, not scientists. No amount of empirical evidence will overturn what has become not a scientific theory but a form of religion... [snip]
Politicians everywhere should be forced to take an oath similar to the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors: above all else, do no harm. Before they make decisions that could trim Australia's gross domestic product by several percentage points a year and impose heavy penalties on Australians' lifestyle, Labour and Liberal alike need to re-examine the superstition of global warming.
Otherwise, the only thing it will melt away is everyone's civil liberty
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Overfill your bin and you’ll be treated worse than a shoplifter
[UK]
Families who overfill rubbish bins are to face bigger fines than those imposed on drunks or shoplifters, the government has told local authorities.
Although the government has previously claimed that it leaves local councils to decide on the level of fines, the Fly-capture Enforcement manual, produced by the Department for Environment, stipulates that fixed penalties for offencesinvolving “waste receptacles” must range from £75 to £110.
The offences for which householders can be fined include leaving ajar the lid of a wheelie bin, putting out a bin the evening before collection or leaving the bin in the wrong place...
[the inevitable path of government involvement {there's no consumer choice to check its eventual excesses}. Health care anyone?]
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[won't happen here? update:]
San Francisco plan to inspect residents' garbage
SAN FRANCISCO (Map) - San Francisco residents could be fined up to $1000 and lose their garbage service if they don't sort their trash properly under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The plan would direct city garbage collectors to inspect residents trash to make sure various types of waste are placed in correct bins for recycling, composting and trash.
The proposed legislation by the city's Department of the Environment would be the nation's first mandatory recycling and composting law...
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[Q: what happens when you allow the creation of a Department of the Environment? A: state determined conscious - by force. just the tip of the iceberg folks...]
WIND VERSUS GAS
Congress seems ready to spend billions on a new "Manhattan Project" for green energy, or at least the political class really, really likes talking about one. But maybe we should look at what our energy subsidy dollars are buying now, says the Wall Street Journal.
For example:
- The total taxpayer bill was $16.6 billion in direct subsidies, tax breaks, loan guarantees and the like, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA),
- That's double in real dollars from eight years earlier, as you'd expect given all the money Congress is throwing at "renewables"; even more subsidies are set to pass this year.
- For electricity generation, the EIA concludes that solar energy is subsidized to the tune of $24.34 per megawatt hour, wind $23.37 and "clean coal" $29.81.
- By contrast, normal coal receives 44 cents, natural gas a mere quarter, hydroelectric about 67 cents and nuclear power $1.59.
Those jobs won't come cheap, and you'll be paying for them.
[consider the detrimental effects that fuel's recent 30-40% increase has caused and look at the above numbers again. Does anyone really believe the nation can survive a 2500% increases?]
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CNN Gives Pass to Democrats on Anti-Drilling Vote Maneuvers
From CNN correspondent Kate Bolduan's perspective, the political differences on energy policy are little more than a "partisan standoff" between Democrats and Republicans.
"The main battle comes down to whether to allow new offshore drilling," Bolduan said. "Republicans say yes, Democratic leaders say no. The dispute has deteriorated into competing press conferences, dueling poster boards and partisan jabs,"
However, this "standoff" would be eliminated if the Senate, controlled by the Democratic majority, would allow a vote on drilling - a detail lacking from Bolduan's report.
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Poll finds most Florida voters are in favor of offshore drilling
Democrats vilified Republican presidential candidate John McCain when he came out in support of offshore drilling in June. And when Gov. Charlie Crist backed away from his long-standing opposition, critics accused him of sacrificing Florida's interests to curry favor with McCain. A new poll shows most Florida voters think McCain and Crist are right on the issue.
[so? public opinion only counts in democracies]
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No Excuses For Not Drilling
An open letter to U.S. Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney. About 700 billion U.S. dollars flow out of this country every year for foreign oil and gas. Instead of this obscene transfer of our wealth and standard of living out of the United States, why don't you let the “Big Evil Oil Companies” invest their obscene, windfall profits right here in the United States and then the let the taxpayers' dollars for energy stay here too?
[was reminded by a talk show Saturday that we're also talking tens of thousands of high paying jobs that would be created if Pelosi changed her mind about domestic drilling. Evidently only some causes of off-shoring are seen as 'evil' ]
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Monday, August 4, 2008
GOP House Revolt Over Oil Drilling Gets Ignored or Buried
It turns out that if you rely on the evening news programs of the three broadcast networks, you didn't hear about this extraordinary event at all. As Politico reported:
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m. and are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.The protest came moments after the GOP presented Pelosi the following letter: [snip]
The results of a LexisNexis search suggest the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle all ignored this revolt.
With gas and oil prices on the minds of Americans from coast to coast, how could any press outlet not cover this story?
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Breaking Speaker Pelosi's News Blackout
[i.e., new media exposes old's duplicity again]
New technologies broke a news blackout attempted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Friday afternoon, 8/1/08, starting at 11:30 am (Eastern) Real Time News was the only window to a major event in the House of Representatives.
The Democratic Party controlled-House had just voted to adjourn for a 5-week vacation without voting, or even engaging in debate, on solutions to America's energy crisis. As the Democrats went out to their gasoline-powered cars to drive to the airport to board jet fuel-powered aircraft, the House Republicans stayed on to present their All of the Above Energy Plan.
Despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi removing the press from the gallery, and having lights, microphones and C-Span cameras turned off, media coverage continued, against House rules, entirely via Twitter and Qik live cell-phone video...
[Recommended > ]
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$10 Gas Doesn't Change Dems Mind on Oil Drilling
There was a rather extraordinary confrontation on the Senate floor involving offshore oil drilling that got very little press coverage. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) tried to get Democrats to vote on a measure that would open up such drilling if the price of gasoline reached a certain level. Although the "bidding" eventually reached $10 a gallon, Colorado's Ken Salazar continually objected.
As reported by the Salt Lake Tribune Friday:
In back-and-forth bickering on the Senate floor Thursday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell attempted to force Democrats to vote on a measure opening up coastal waters for drilling when gas reached $4.50, $5 or even $7.50 a gallon.Oddly, Google news and LexisNexis searches produced little coverage of this incident. Isn't it newsworthy that Democrats wouldn't expand drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf even if gasoline reached $10 a gallon?
"If $5-gallon gasoline isn't an emergency, I have to ask what is an emergency?" McConnell said.
"It's a phantom solution," countered Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo, noting that such drilling would not affect gas prices in the short term.
Evidently not.
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On energy, Democrats in office means a return to the 1970s
Last week's energy debate in Congress gives voters concerned about gasoline prices a good idea where U.S. energy policy is headed. If Barack Obama is in the White House, Democrats win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and Nancy Pelosi has fewer pesky Republicans to ignore in the House, this will be energy rule No. 1: Forget more drilling. Offshore. Alaska. Doesn't matter.
[it matters who you vote for {it also helps if you're old enough to remember the '70s}]
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Whose turn is it to wake up the media?
[HT:SE]
While our intrepid reporters and all-knowing, all-powerful editors are taking a much deserved (according to them) snooze, another extraordinary milestone was reached in Iraq.
Five American troops died in July as a result of combat in Iraq, by far the lowest monthly U.S. death toll of the five-year war.Whether that can be maintained against an expected surge in violence by the remnants of al-Qaeda and Iranian backed militias as we approach the election remains to be seen. But for now, this is fantastic news - even if few are reporting it or giving it much prominence.
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Twofer...
.
Obama vows to end US role in Iraq
Barack Obama, the Democratic contender for the US presidency, has said his main priority as US president will be to end the US involvement in Iraq. Speaking ahead of a regional tour, Mr Obama said "our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe".
[really. having a military base in Iraq, bordering Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran, wouldn't be to this nation's benefit? Iraq has served as a black-hole into which vast numbers of our most dangerous enemies have been drawn into and eliminated. Leave, and it could, if Iraq isn't yet strong enough, become a safe haven for exporting terrorism to our shores...]
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Adios Afghanistan
According to Barack Obama’s own logic and criteria, it’s high time the U.S. gets out of Afghanistan. On Tuesday, Obama said This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century. He was talking about the war in Iraq. But every item in his indictment could just as easily apply to the Afghanistan conflict...
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Iran Heading Toward Nuclear 'Breakthrough'
[HT:GP]
Iran is heading towards a major breakthrough in its nuclear weapons capability, Israel's deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz warned Friday.
"Iran is continuing to advance toward a military nuclear capability and is heading towards a major breakthrough," the Iranian-born Mofaz told a think tank after talks in Washington with US officials.
"For us such a situation that Iran will have a nuclear power is an existential threat and from the state of Israel point of view, it is unacceptable," Mofaz told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
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Time For An Indifferent World To Take A Stand
When you sit in Tel Aviv and admire the beautiful seashore, you also read the local newspapers and have to imagine the unimaginable. This city could one day be the target of an Iranian Shahab-3 missile carrying a nuclear warhead.
Then you instinctively understand what every Israeli already knows: An indifferent world may soon force Israel to defend its right to exist with a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. That's why the world must finally take a stand and impose tough sanctions against Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Over the past five years, representatives of the European Union have tried to negotiate a reasonable solution to the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. Iran has consistently refused to cooperate, and it continues to enrich uranium in total defiance of three United Nations Security Council resolutions. Yet, the world's response to Iranian defiance has been weak and ineffective.
It is time for the United Nations to live up to the reason for its creation: preserving world peace. Whereas the current United Nations sanctions on Iran are weak and ineffective, strong economic sanctions can force Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program without a shot being fired. After all, Iran is highly dependent upon the outside world to develop its oil and natural gas fields and even to refine its oil into gasoline.
If [when] Russia and China prevent effective action in the Security Council, then sanctions can be implemented outside of the U.N. by the European Union together with the United States - such as urging citizens [that would be us] demand that state's public pension funds divest from investments in foreign companies doing business in Iran... [snip]
As each day passes, it becomes more obvious that Iran's real intention is to develop nuclear weapons. Israel must not be put into a situation where it has to act unilaterally. If Israel is forced to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, oil prices will skyrocket and economies will falter.
If that happens, then the blame must be placed squarely on an indifferent world.
[and the UN's failure as an institution recognized - and corrected]
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Shades of 1936
Holding the Olympic games in Nazi Germany back in 1936 was the biggest mistake ever made by the ringleaders of the gang of extortionists known as the International Olympic Committee. Hitler was so concerned about the Reich's image that he had all the signs taken down that
But Hitler also took precautions that the international press would not be able to interview the few who openly opposed his regime by having several prominent activists he had been unable to corral arrested in the weeks prior to the games.
Once again, the elitist, Euro-snobs who run the Olympic movement have thumbed their nose at the world, this time by choosing Communist China to host the games. And as before in Nazi Germany, the Chinese are sprucing up their "workers' paradise" in order to put the best possible face on their tyrannical rule...
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The hole in Kyoto's 'cap'
Why taxes and the cost of consumer goods go up and carbon emissions don't come down
Last week we looked at the leaky foundation at the base of the Kyoto accord, known as carbon credits. Today, let's examine the holes in its roof -- its so-called "cap" on carbon emissions. In reality, there is no "cap", either in the Kyoto accord or the "cap-and-trade" markets and carbon taxes it has spawned.
Why? Because they weren't designed to do so.
What will they do? Raise taxes and our cost of living through higher consumer prices, with Big Business and Big Government dividing up the cash between them like crooks after a bank job...
[money & power]
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State shutters FPL 'green' program
For almost five years, Florida Power & Light trumpeted green energy, saying customers could help the environment by contributing as little as $9.75 a month to buy renewable power.
On Tuesday, angry state regulators killed the program by a unanimous vote after a Public Service Commission staff audit found that about 80 percent of the contributions went for marketing and other administrative expenses.
The staff reported that about $1.8 million of the $9.6 million FPL customers contributed over a four-year span went to purchase renewable energy...
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Choosing Plastic Bags Like Murdering Puppies?
For most of us, the choice of plastic bags at the grocery store aisle doesn't equal the moral depravity of canicide. Yet for some reason, a cheeky writer for Time magazine suggested as much in her story on "The Patron Saint of Plastic Bags":
In the pantheon of lost causes, defending the plastic grocery bag would seem to be right up there with supporting smoking on planes or the murder of puppies.Yes, that's how Time's Belinda Luscombe began her July 27 article, going further than even NBC's Brian Williams who famously found "paper or plastic?" a "paralyzing" quandary.
[I can carry a dozen plastic bags into the house at once - end of quandary. don't these adults have anything better to do?]
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THE GREATEST SCANDAL
The profound failure of inner-city public schools to teach children may be the nation's greatest scandal. Presidential candidate John McCain is calling for alternatives to the system. In remarks recently to the NAACP, McCain touted the Washington, D.C., Opportunity Scholarship Program, a federally financed school-choice program for disadvantaged kids signed into law by President Bush in 2004:
• Qualifying families in the District of Columbia receive up to $7,500 a year to attend private K-12 schools; to qualify, a child must live in a family with a household income below 185 percent of the poverty level.McCain could have mentioned EdisonLearning, a private company that took over 20 of Philadelphia's 45 lowest performing district schools in 2002 to create a new management model for public schools: the most recent state test-score data show that student performance at Philadelphia public schools managed by Edison and other outside providers has improved by nearly twice the amount as the schools run by the district...
• Some 1,900 children participate; 99 percent are black or Hispanic; average annual income is just over $22,000 for a family of four.
• A recent Department of Education report found nearly 90 percent of participants in the D.C. program have higher reading scores than peers who didn't receive a scholarship - there are five applicants for every opening.
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FT's Crook Explores the Gun Owner in His Natural Habitat
In his July 31 blog entry, "Postcard from the gun show," Financial Times correspondent and loyal subject of Queen Elizabeth II Clive Crook admits that he "may get thrown out of Georgetown for this," but he applauds the rugged individualism of the American gun owner:Aside from other motivations-sport, self-defence-the gun-show universe is about pride, self-reliance, and resentment at being bossed around. Distinctively American traits, wouldn't you say? Best in moderation, no doubt-but still, where would the country be without those attitudes? I may get thrown out of Georgetown for this, but I say, good for them.
In the midst of describing his first-ever visit to a gun show in the Colonies, the British expat expressed agreement with the rationale for laws permitting concealed carry for law-abiding citizens: ...
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LAT: 'John McCain Ad Irritates Many in Hollywood'
Posted on the Los Angeles Times's Web site is the story "John McCain ad irritates many in Hollywood." The referenced ad, of course, is the one that uses Britney Spears and Paris Hilton to portray Barack Obama as a shallow celebrity.
Despite the headline citing "many," only two Hollywood types are quoted.
[still, good start]
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