On the climate change discussion

The AP recently published an interview with Frank Euredi of Kent University. In it, Euredi basically lamented the state of the climate debate; various groups "knowledgeable or oblivious" shouting back and forth, in his view, with the Internet playing an enabling role. Then he makes this irksome observation:

Democracy in action? That’s one way of seeing it. But is something deeper afoot? As the amplification of human opinion becomes more democratic, is the suspicion of the expert and the intellectual — a long-held trope in American society — going globally viral?

A long-held trope? Oh, my. Oh, the condescension.  Where to start?

To take the current debate and generalize on the American character is to show a lack of understanding of both.  Whereas Euredi's characterization of the latter is more of a cheap shot, I shall instead address the former.

The current debate is mostly about wealth transfer between the haves and the have-nots at the expense of the public purse.  That fact alone, not to mention the numerous questions raised about the underlying data and climate models, makes this debate everyman's concern.

I can understand how Euredi would like the discussion be limited to the science community and the rest of us to just shut up and sit down.  And, the rest of us would most likely do just that if this whole climate discussion was limited to science.  But, the climate discussion is not now, if it ever was, about pure science and Euredi needs to accept the involvement of those other affected groups as legitimate.

O is out of the country?

Quick! Change the locks!

More CO2 regulation nonsence

There now is much ado over 1) O cannot sign a treaty at COP15 limiting CO2 emissions without concurrence of the Senate (true) and, 2) O is holding the upper hand because of the threat that the EPA will take over CO2 emissions in a "command and control" mode (false).

Congress has the authority to take climate change and CO2 emissions off the plate of not only the EPA but also the Supreme Court which ruled on CO2 emissions. All that is required is a Senate with the will to stand up against this abrogation of our national sovereignty.

More evidence of climate change chicanery

A number of sources are quoting a statement by Russia's Institute for Ecomomic Analysis claiming that temperature data from Russia may have been tampered with.  According to the RIA Novosti article entitled Russia affected by Climategate

On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory.

The summary went on to say data from only 25% of Russian stations was used eliminating data from 40% of Russian territory.

SA. 2837 to SA 2786 to H.R. 3590 Healthcare

At the request of Sen. Coburn, Sen. Sanders' amendment 2837 is being read aloud on the Senate floor.

By my count, Sander's amendment has 366 pages. The reading began around 17:00GMT. At 18:37GMT, the clerk has reached page 46.

There is a plum in the amendment to Section 1304 concerning community organizations:

(B) ASSISTANCE.--Each State Health Security Advisory Council shall provide assistance and technical support to community organizations and public and private non-profit agencies submitting applications for funding under appropriate State and Federal public health programs, with particular emphasis placed on assisting those applicants with broad consumer representation.

Check the last clause. Can you spell ACORN?

I suspect Sen. Sanders did not wish for this reading to happen.

Fat cats

On December 13, 2009, O opened his mouth and uttered these words:

"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," Obama said in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes.

That description would fit George Soros. So, is O planning on cutting the ties to his patron?

It's not the prison walls...

Well, it finally happened. The terrorists at Guantanamo Bay are going to a prison at Thomson, Illinois. In the words of Rep. Donald Manzullo (IL-16), "Gitmo is not being closed. They're just moving it..."

A lot has been said about how no one has ever escaped from a supermax prison such as Thomson will be. But, that's not even an issue. I believe these terrorists are not going to be able to tunnel out.

The real issue is, by moving these guys to the mainland, their custody moves from the military to the purview of the civilian courts. And, I am not sure our court system is able to deal with the situation.

So, rather than finding a way to break out, some of these terrorists may be invited to walk out through the front gate.

The real meaning of Copenhagen

New climate draft has gaping holes at UN talks

Here is the essence of climate talks at Copenhagen:

…European Union leaders agreed in Brussels to commit euro2.4 billion ($3.6 billion) a year until 2012 to a short-term fund to help poor countries cope with climate change.

Forget all the hype over rising sea levels and melting ice caps.  It’s about the money.  Mainly, how much wealth can be transferred from the ‘haves’ to the ‘have-nots-but-want-some-of-yours’.

Assume, for the moment, the ‘poor’ countries get the money mentioned.  What do you suppose they would do with it?  Help their people achieve a better standard of living?  Or, will the insiders merely enrich themselves.  Will there be an accounting required of the recipients?  Or, will it be ‘none of your business’.

The real meaning of Copenhagen?  Wealth transfer on a global scale.

Update: There was an offer of US$10B per annum but the 'needy' are holding out for US$100B per annum.

Can you spell ḥuṣpāh.

From biggovernment.com

Found on Big Government:



More cool [sic] videos at M4GW.

Things a little tense over at the White House?

Gibbs: Poll like a six-year-old

A Gallup poll on Tuesday reported O’s approval rating has dropped to 47 percent.  With the possible exception of Bill Clinton, this is the lowest value in recent times for a president at this point in his first term. [link]

When questioned, White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, had this to say:

"I tell you, if I was a heart patient and Gallup was my EKG, I'd visit my doctor," Gibbs said. "If you look back, I think five days ago, there was an 11-point spread, now there's a 1-point spread. I mean, I'm sure a 6-year-old with a crayon could do something not unlike that. I don't put a lot of stake in, never have, in the EKG that is the daily Gallup trend."

Seems like the boys over at the White House are a little tense these days.

One would think these results would be taken as a hint that a change of course was in order.  After all, Gallup has a seventy-year history behind them.  But, I doubt that such a thought has, or will, cross the mind of this president.

More ‘climate change’ humbug

Louisianans Watches Native Land Sinking Into Sea

The Biloxi-Chitimacha living on Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana will need to move because their land is being inundated by the Gulf of Mexico.  The tribal Chief is calling for the remaining tribe members to move to higher ground.

This is how ABC News characterized these events:

In the process they will become some of America's first climate refugees, fleeing for higher ground and leaving their ancestral home behind.

Characterizing what is happening to Isle de Jean Charles  as a ‘climate’ event and the tribe as ‘climate refugees’ is bald-faced humbug.

The reason the Biloxi-Chitimacha’s land is disappearing is because of the Corps of Engineer’s levee system which cut off the monsoonal floods and accompanying silting; hardly a ‘climate’ process.

But, the leftist media, along with the internationalist progressives in O’s administration, will do anything, say anything to advance the global warming/climate change meme.

What a crock…

Our President and the Emperor

Our young President's naiveté is showing.

And, I would be surprised to hear the Emperor and Empress were not a little bemused as well.

Recommended Reading

Health Care: Missing the Forest for the Trees

The linked article by Janet M. Orient, MD, has a number of perceptive observations about the health care legislation bills currently active in Congress.

Definitely worth reading.

Adm. Mullen sailing the PC seas

Navy SEALs accused of punching accused Falluja plotter

There is something bad wrong with the Navy admiralty.  In my mind, it began with Adm. Zumwalt who began tearing down two centuries of naval tradition. 

Now, we have three valiant Navy Seals up on charges.  And, for what?

Three U.S. Navy SEALs face criminal charges after the alleged mastermind of one of the most notorious crimes against Americans in Iraq [Ahmed Hashim Abed] accused them of punching him after his capture, the military said Wednesday.

Abed was punched?  So he says.  But, Abed watches the news from this country.  He knows our government is PC to a fault.  He knows he can cause a lot of trouble for his captors just by making the statement.

Adm. Zumwalt started the Navy's decline and Adm. Mullen—by allowing this travesty on his watch—is protracting it.

Proof of Global Warming Chicanery

The widely suspect and now debunked 'hockey stick' graph, published by the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, has been exposed through a series of e-mails between researchers.

Other news sources (e.g., Reuters) are maintaining this revelation is merely 'awkward but not a game changer' as the evidence for global warming is overwhelming.

Overwhelming? Yeah, sure. Just like the 'rigorous' reindeer study or the 'proof' that the entire Antarctic continent underwent warming. [link]

Perhaps those same writers ought to stop and consider whether the so-called 'evidence of global warming' is rather 'proof of global chicanery.'

Hot Air in Copenhagen?

Irwin M. Stelzer of the Hudson Institute has an opinion piece in the Weekly Standard¹ analyzing the activities leading up to Copenhagen 2009.  You know; the U.N. sponsored fraud aimed at transferring wealth from the Developed Nations—mostly the U.S.—to the Rest of the World.

Stelzer was doing pretty good until he inserted the following clinker near the end of the article:

Too bad the Copenhagen delegates won’t consider an alternative to centralized U.N. control: private sector investment, backed by carbon taxes or an effective trading scheme that puts a price on carbon and thereby levels the playing field between carbon-free technologies and carbon-intensive ones.

What Stelzer seems to have a blind spot for is:  If  using carbon-free technology was inherently advantageous, it would attract private sector investment  on its own.  Free market dynamics would ensure it.  Instead, Stelzer falls back on the Socialist idea of using government intervention to force an outcome.

What a bummer.

¹Hot Air in Copenhagen, Stelzer, Irwin M., The Weekly Standard, November 23, 2009, pp. 14-16.

The Obama Administration

Obama the candidate told us we could see what his administration would be like by looking at the people he surrounds himself with.

It is plain to see he was truthful about that.

But, not much else.

Just one year since being elected Obama has visited twenty countries.  More than any other President at this time in office.

So, how can a President take so much time away?  How can a President be so detached from the business of governing?  Who is doing the work of the Executive branch?

Could it be the thirty-two Marxist czars he has surrounded himself with?  Could it be the President is merely the front man for certain Unions and Marxist-Socialist organizations?