No Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fraction in Past 160 Years, New Research Finds

To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Read whole news report here

Extreme Intel/Security Failures

I am not an expert on security, the government or much of anything else. A. J. Strata is. Read what he says about the holes in our security, holes put there on purpose.

A Smoking Gun Dot In President’s Report On Flight 253 Intel Failures

Today we are gaining more and more clarity on the missteps that led up to a Nigerian Jihadist, who was armed with a powerful and sophisticated stealth bomb and trained by al Qaeda in Yemen, coming seconds away from inflicting a Christmas Day Massacre on Flight 253 over Detroit. And two things are becoming quickly apparent.

First is the glaring fact that news media is clueless about how things like intelligence gathering and the federal bureaucracy work. The root cause of this ignorance is because news reporters are inexperienced and unskilled spectators trying to grasp and convey these complex issues and actions to the public – and they do a terrible job of it. It is also due to the fact many of them are very much emotionally tied to this President as doe-eyed supporters (which is why you need political diversity on stories – not just in news rooms – to generate fair and balanced reporting). Biased and naive reporting seems to be the rule of thumb on this event.

The second aspect of this fiasco coming into focus is how the Obama administration changed the tone and pace of the war on terror. Toning down the ‘war on terror’ to a criminal investigation of ‘man-made-disasters’ has major impacts on our defenses. It fundamentally changes to nature of ‘the system’ which Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano infamously claimed had ‘worked’. Maybe it ‘worked’ as designed in its newer, lower key form. But it did not work in protecting this nation from attack....

....The presumption was that all available information would be looked at. That is how the system used to work. One member of the team relied on the other member to do their job the way they always have been. So what changed at NCTC that stopped a full background check of Abdulmutallab? Was it as this State Department source said – orders form the new Obama team to not profile Muslims:

This employee says that despite statements from the Obama Administration, such information was flagged and given higher priority during the Bush Administration, but that since the changeover “we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. (Rockport Conservative emphasis)

These paragraphs are just a portion of the post, go read the whole thing for the whole story, and be sure to read the updates. I check The Stratasphere daily, sometimes more than once. I trust his to know what he is talking about.

Shelby Steele on Race in America

Many of the conservatives I know, and I have often used the phrase myself, often refer to our president as The Emporer who has no clothes. Liberals like to refer to us who do not agree with the president as racists. What will they call Mr. Steele?
Obama and Our Post-Modern Race Problem

America still has a race problem, though not the one that conventional wisdom would suggest: the racism of whites toward blacks. Old fashioned white racism has lost its legitimacy in the world and become an almost universal disgrace.

The essence of our new "post-modern" race problem can be seen in the parable of the emperor's new clothes. The emperor was told by his swindling tailors that people who could not see his new clothes were stupid and incompetent...

It was finally a mere child who said, "The emperor has no clothes."...

America's primary race problem today is our new "sophistication" around racial matters. Political correctness is a compendium of sophistications in which we join ourselves to obvious falsehoods ("diversity") and refuse to see obvious realities (the irrelevance of diversity to minority development). I would argue further that Barack Obama's election to the presidency of the United States was essentially an American sophistication, a national exercise in seeing what was not there and a refusal to see what was there—all to escape the stigma not of stupidity but of racism.

Read it all. I'm afraid we have a president who has no clothes when it comes to knowing how to govern America, or even what we are all about.

While terrorists plot,the FAA parties

While a terrorist was plotting to kill Americans over the Christmas holidays, what was the Federal Aviation Administration doing? Why, spending $5 million on a three-week-long Christmas party, of course.

This is disgusting - go read it.

The American Thinker and Three Crises

A Decade and Its Three Crises
By Sammy Benoit

When we look back at the decade 2000-2009, we may well define it by three crises: the crisis that didn't happen, the crisis that wasn't supposed to happen, and the crisis that we don't realize is happening. We haven't learned the lessons of the first two, and our ignorance of the third may doom us to be slaves to our government, rather than the other way around.

The first two listed are easy to see, but many do not realize the third one is happening.
Benoit writes: 

The third crisis is the one that very few realize is happening. This may well be the crisis that defines the next decade: a government takeover of our lives.

This is a good article, you need to read it all.

More on the Christmas Bomber

If even Maureen Dowd gets it the O is in trouble---

"....I thought our guard might be down because of the holiday; now I realize our guard is down every day.

....If we can’t catch a Nigerian with a powerful explosive powder in his oddly feminine-looking underpants and a syringe full of acid, a man whose own father had alerted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a traveler whose ticket was paid for in cash and who didn’t check bags, whose visa renewal had been denied by the British, who had studied Arabic in Al Qaeda sanctuary Yemen, whose name was on a counterterrorism watch list, who can we catch?

Sen Feinstein says: Halt transfers to Yemen

“Guantanamo detainees should not be released to Yemen at this time,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement. “It is too unstable.”

Times Online says:
Al-Qaeda ‘groomed Abdulmutallab in London’

The Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect organised a conference under the banner “War on Terror Week” as he immersed himself in radical politics while a student in London, The Times has learnt.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London, advertised speakers including political figures, human rights lawyers and former Guantánamo detainees.
One lecture, Jihad v Terrorism, was billed as “a lecture on the Islamic position with respect to jihad”.

From the Daily Telegraph

THE CIA was tracking a person of interest known as "The Nigerian" - who was in fact airline bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - as early as August, CBS News reports.

The Washington Times reports the bomber had a personal blessing by the Imam:

The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner had his suicide mission personally blessed in Yemen by Anwar al-Awlaki, the Muslim imam suspected of radicalizing the Fort Hood shooting suspect, a U.S. intelligence source has told The Washington Times.

The wake-up call from Flight 253

...Yet US airport security remains obstinately reactive -- focused on intercepting dangerous things, instead of intercepting dangerous people.

by Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe
December 30, 2009

AFTER THE SEPT. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it was widely asserted at the time, nothing would be the same. What Pearl Harbor had been for our parents and grandparents, 9/11 would be for us: a shattering national wake-up call revealing both the gaping holes in America's homeland security and the reality that we were at war with an implacable enemy whose defeat would require years of sacrifice and resolve.

Very Good analysis of the current war situation in America. Read it here

Subprime Lending Study Confirms Obvious

I know everyone is focused on the underwear Jihad and the health insurance reformation, but you statisticians out there will love this article (Warning: Heavy math) that spends a lot of time proving the obvious about the dangers of the recent socialist attempt to put everyone in a house.

The Havard/MIT(1) Quarterly Journal of Economics published this study last month that showed subprime lending escalating sharply in poorer sections of the country -- while income in these areas didn't grow much or actually declined.

Let me see if I can get this straight -- in the last decade, more and more mortgages were given to people who couldn't afford them, e.g., poor people who lived in poor areas where housing prices don't really go up very well. And then in 2007 it all hit the fan (or a debt-to-income inverse correlation critical threshold thingy) because the incomes in these areas weren't going up with all the new debt these areas were taking on. And the housing values weren't going up either. Wait, I said that already.

It's a very politically correct explanation of the very politically incorrect driver for the recent meltdown of our economy.

It's a formal journal, so you can read the abstract here, and/or download a PDF of the whole shebang if you want to see the math. (Yes, real researchers show you the math -- and tell you all the reasons, theories and assumptions behind that math.)

Based on this sort of timing, we should see an article showing this new healthcare bill has increased the cost of healthcare -- just about the time the major aspects of the bill start taking effect.

(1) Contains twice the ivy-league power of the average economic journal!

Updates on the Christmas Day Bombing Attempt

From the Detroit News:
Flight 253 passengers believe others involved in plot
Why was this allowed to happen in the first place?

From This Day in Nigeria
Nigeria: Airport Security - FG Reads Riot Act to Airlines

From the Washington Examiner comes the real icing on the cake. Whistleblowers punished for warning of aviation security lapses
This didn't just start with Obama.

They've been frantically trying to warn America for the past six years: Aviation security is a joke, and it's only a matter of time before terrorists destroy another airplane full of innocent passengers.

The close call in Detroit on Christmas Day has vindicated a group of highly experienced experts -- including former airline pilots, federal air marshals and Federal Aviation Administration inspectors -- who were fired or demoted for pointing out obvious flaws in the nation's post-9/11 aviation security system to their chain of command.

Read all of this.

From ABC News
Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.
OOPS! What were we thinking?

From CNN
Analysis: Similar explosive on plane used in Saudi attack
Not only that but there is this in the body of the story:

Al Asiri concealed the bomb, made of PETN, in his underwear, according to the official Saudi investigation.

Read it all.

The Barn Door is Now Closed - We hope

From Randy Barnett at the Volohk Conspiracy
TSA Security Directive SD-1544–09-06
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Transportation Security Administration
Aviation Security Directive
Subject: Security Directive
Number: SD 1544-09-06
Date: December 25, 2009
EXPIRATION: 0200Z on December 30, 2009
This Security Directive (SD) must be implemented immediately. The measures contained in this SD are in addition to all other SDs currently in effect for your operations.
INFORMATION: On December 25, 2009, a terrorist attack was attempted against a flight traveling to the United States. TSA has identified security measures to be implemented by airports, aircraft operators, and foreign air carriers to mitigate potential threats to flights.
APPLICABILITY: THIS SD APPLIES TO AIRCRAFT OPERATORS THAT CARRY OUT A SECURITY PROGRAM REGULATED UNDER 49 CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS (CFR)1544.101(a).
ACTIONS REQUIRED: If you conduct scheduled and/or public charter flight operations under a Full Program under 49 CFR 1544.101(a) departing from any foreign location to the United States (including its territories and possessions), you must immediately implement all measures in this SD for each such flight.
1. BOARDING GATE
1. The aircraft operator or authorized air carrier representative must ensure all passengers are screened at the boarding gate during the boarding process using the following procedures. These procedures are in addition to the screening of all passengers at the screening checkpoint.
1. Perform thorough pat-down of all passengers at boarding gate prior to boarding, concentrating on upper legs and torso.
2. Physically inspect 100 percent of all passenger accessible property at the boarding gate prior to boarding, with focus on syringes being transported along with powders and/or liquids.
3. Ensure the liquids, aerosols, and gels restrictions are strictly adhered to in accordance with SD 1544–06-02E.
2. During the boarding process, the air carrier may exempt passengers who are Heads of State or Heads of Government from the measures outlined in Section I.A. of this SD, including the following who are traveling with the Head of State or Head of Government:
1. Spouse and children, or
2. One other individual (chosen by the Head of State or Head of Government)
3. For the purposes of Section I.B., the following definitions apply:
1. Head of State: An individual serving as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth, or any other political state (for example, King, Queen, and President).
2. Head of Government: The chief officer of the executive branch of a government presiding over a cabinet (for example, Prime Minister, Premier, President, and Monarch).
2. IN FLIGHT
1. During flight, the aircraft operator must ensure that the following procedures are followed:
1. Passengers must remain in seats beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
2. Passenger access to carry-on baggage is prohibited beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
3. Disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.
4. While over U.S. airspace, flight crew may not make any announcement to passengers concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks.
5. Passengers may not have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
AIRCRAFT OPERATOR ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The aircraft operator must immediately provide written confirmation to its assigned PSI indicating receipt of this SD.AIRCRAFT OPERATOR dissemination required: The aircraft operator must immediately pass the information and directives set forth in this SD to all stations affected, and provide written confirmation to its PSI, indicating that all stations affected have acknowledged receipt of the information and directives set forth in this SD. The aircraft operator must disseminate this information to its senior management personnel, ground security coordinators, and supervisory security personnel at all affected locations. All aircraft operator personnel implementing this SD must be briefed by the aircraft operator on its content and the restrictions governing dissemination. No other dissemination may be made without prior approval of the Assistant Secretary for the Transportation Security Administration. Unauthorized dissemination of this document or information contained herein is prohibited by 49 CFR Part 1520 (see 69 Fed. Reg. 28066 (May 18, 2004).
APPROVAL OF ALTERNATIVE MEASURES: With respect to the provisions of this SD, as stated in 49 CFR 1544.305(d), the aircraft operator may submit in writing to its PSI proposed alternative measures and the basis for submitting the alternative measures for approval by the Assistant Administrator for Transportation Sector Network Management. The aircraft operator must immediately notify its PSI whenever any procedure in this SD cannot be carried out by a government authority charged with performing security procedures.

FOR TSA ACTION ONLY: The TSA must issue this SD immediately to the corporate security element of all affected U.S. aircraft operators.
FOR STATE DEPARTMENT: Retransmittal to appropriate foreign posts is authorized. Post must refer to STATE 162917, 201826Z Sep 01, Subject: FAA Security Directives and Information Circulars: Definitions and Handling, for specific guidance and dissemination.
Gale Rossides
Acting Administrator

An Interesting Take on the Year 2009

And I see a lot to agree with the editor of the Daily Interlake of Northwest Montana.  He looked for the New Lows. It seems we had a lot for him to write about with that subject.  He writes:
"....Last year, it was all about “hope and change.” This year, it is all about “smoke and mirrors.” Last year was “post-partisan”; this year is “post-partisan depression.” Last year we had a Constitution; this year we don’t."
Strong words right? Well, let him exoplain,

.... "So, in honor of the demise of the Republic with the passage last week by the Senate of the so-called health-care reform bill, I propose a Bottom 10 list that shows us just how low we have sunk as a nation and a civilization.

Without a doubt, 2009 saved the worst for last, so it was easy to conclude that the Bottom Story of the Year was Sen. Harry Reid hijacking the Constitution and throwing it under the bus where it was crushed along with majority rule and citizens’ rights.

With apologies to Kris Kristofferson, let’s face it: “Health-care reform” is just another phrase for “nothing left to lose.” Because if the Congress can order you and me to buy insurance today, they can order us to march across the country with our hands tied behind our backs tomorrow.
 
Does that seem like an exaggeration? Not to me. The power of the federal government is so gargantuan that it is now bigger than the Constitution, which means anything is possible. Tyrants don’t need rules. They do what they want to do because it is convenient, not because it is constitutional.
And, by the way, we have now learned the answer to the age-old question: “What happens if good people do nothing?” They watch their country go down the drain.

This is a long article but a good read, so go read the rest.

Media Bias Is Real? Who Knew?

Well apparently UCLA knows it now.  
Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist
 by Meg Sullivan

While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left.

These are just a few of the surprising findings from a UCLA-led study, which is believed to be the first successful attempt at objectively quantifying bias in a range of media outlets and ranking them accordingly.

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."

 Read the rest to find out how science finds out what we already knew.

Sarah Palin Calls them Out

Don Surber's blog in the Daily Mail:

Palin takes on Obamacare deal-making

She took on a corrupt mayor of Wasilla.

And won.

She took on a corrupt governor of Alaska.

And won.

Now she takes on a corrupt Speaker of the House, a corrupt Senate Majority Leader and as corrupt president.

My money is on Sarah Palin.

On her Facebook this morning was this post:

Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be standard operating procedures in D.C. No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs on the backs of patients – also known as rationing. Apparently Reid and friends have changed the rules of the Senate so that the section of the bill dealing with this board can’t be repealed or amended without a 2/3 supermajority vote. Senator DeMint said:

“This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law. I’m not even sure that it’s constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a senate rule. I don’t see why the majority party wouldn’t put this in every bill. If you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future senates. I mean, we want to bind future congresses. This goes to the fundamental purpose of senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future congresses.”

In other words, Democrats are protecting this rationing “death panel” from future change with a procedural hurdle. You have to ask why they’re so concerned about protecting this particular provision. Could it be because bureaucratic rationing is one important way Democrats want to “bend the cost curve” and keep health care spending down?

The Congressional Budget Office seems to think that such rationing has something to do with cost. In a letter to Harry Reid last week, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf noted (with a number of caveats) that the bill’s calculations call for a reduction in Medicare’s spending rate by about 2 percent in the next two decades, but then he writes the kicker:

“It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”

Though Nancy Pelosi and friends have tried to call “death panels” the “lie of the year,” this type of rationing – what the CBO calls “reduc[ed] access to care” and “diminish[ed] quality of care” – is precisely what I meant when I used that metaphor.

This health care bill is one of the most far-reaching and expensive expansions of the role of government into our lives. We’re talking about putting one-seventh of our economy under the government’s thumb. We’re also talking about something as intimate to our personal well-being as medical care.

This bill is so unpopular that people on the right and the left hate it. So why go through with it? The Senate is planning to vote on this on Christmas Eve. Why the rush? Though we will begin paying for this bill immediately, we will see no benefits for years. (That’s the trick that allowed the CBO to state that the bill won’t grow the deficit for the next ten years.)

The administration’s promises of transparency and bipartisanship have been broken one by one. This entire process has been defined by midnight votes on weekends, closed-door meetings with industry lobbyists, and payoffs to politicians willing to sell their principles for sweetheart deals. Is it any wonder that Americans are so disillusioned with their leaders in Washington?

This is about politics, not health care. Americans don’t want this bill. Americans don’t like this bill. Washington has stopped listening to us. But we’re paying attention, and 2010 is coming.

Give ‘em hell, Sarah. Give ‘em rotten, stinking, bloody hell.

Who Is the Climate Gate Whistle Blower?

From Canada Free Press
Climategate Whistleblower
by Dr. Tim Ball

It was probably a whistleblower that released files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA)? If so then the information is admissible in court and we will get greater detail on the greatest deception in history.

Phil Jones, former Director of the CRU knew the potential damage and legal implications of the file’s content. Jones told the police the files were from CRU, and claimed a crime was committed. Ludicrously, he said the information had no value because it was criminally obtained.

Why an Insider?

Major clues suggest the leaks were from an insider. A few emails were sent to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Paul Hudson on October 12, weeks before full release. This indicates someone trying to draw attention, but Hudson did nothing. He knew of the wrath and reach of Michael Mann. As a CRU member noted on October 26 2003, Anyway, there’s going to be a lot of noise on this one, and knowing Mann’s very thin skin I am afraid he will react strongly, unless he has learned (as I hope he has) from the past….” He didn’t as his later reactions showed.

An October 11 2009 email from Narasimha Rao to Stephen Schneider says, ”You may be aware of this already. Paul Hudson, BBC’s reporter on climate change, on Friday wrote that there’s been no warming since 1998, and that pacific oscillations will force cooling for the next 20-30 years.” Mann became aware and on the 12th wrote, “extremely disappointing to see something like this appear on BBC. Its (sic) particularly odd, since climate is usually Richard Black’s beat at BBC (and he does a great job). From what I can tell, this guy was formerly a weather person at the Met Office. We may do something about this on RealClimate, but meanwhile it might be appropriate for the Met Office to have a say about this, I might ask Richard Black what’s up here?” This is Mann at his nasty bullying best.

When Hudson did nothing the person(s) released the entire file to the world. Hudson’s failure was disappointing because he had credibility as a BBC weather presenter and former Met Office employee. The Copenhagen conference was probably the concern because the files showed the scientific basis for climate policies was falsified.

Knowledge and Access to the University Computer System

Whoever released the files knew which were significant and had access to the UEA computer system.

Canadian network engineer Lance Levsen after detailed analysis showed convincingly the source was someone within the university. He concluded, “For the hacker to have collected all of this information s/he would have required extraordinary capabilities…to crack an Administrative file server to get to the emails and crack numerous workstations, desktops, and servers to get the documents.”

Read  the rest.

Another Case Where Facts Don't Matter

Illinois prisons are overcrowded but if the Chicago Boss wants one of their prisons for his pet project they can bend the facts to make them fit. This is from the Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo.

Skeptics dominate hearing on Guantanamo detainees in Illinois

Sterling, Ill. – Federal and state officials faced a vociferous public and skeptical state legislators here Tuesday at a public hearing on the proposal to transfer Guantánamo Bay detainees to the Thompson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois.

Three issues dominated the debate: whether or not the state will lose money in selling the correctional center to the federal government, whether giving up an underused facility was wise given the overcrowding in the state's prisons, and finally, whether the safety of Illinois residents is at stake in housing terror suspects in their backyards.

“We’re talking about bringing terrorists to Illinois,” said state Sen. Bill Brady (R). He was one of several who chastised state officials such as Illinois Department of Corrections Director Michael P. Randle with “doubletalk” in suggesting the state prison was at average capacity while at the same time endorsing an early release program for 200 prisoners to shore up bed space. ed emphasis

Read the rest here.

Some Unions are not Happy with the Healthcare bill

From the Washington Post
Labor's messy health-care bargain
by Harold Meyerson

The Net roots is up in arms about the Senate's version of health-care reform, with many rooters demanding it be voted down. The liberal establishmentarians lament the compromises they were compelled to accept but support the bill's passage. In between the two, indignant and stuck, is organized labor.

"There's an excise tax on policies, but there's no public option to hold down the cost of those policies," says Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers. "There's no Medicare buy-in, no pay-or-play mandate for employers. There's no Canadian reimportation to hold down drug costs, on the grounds of 'safety.' No one gets sick from Canadian reimported drugs," adds Gerard, who is Canadian. "I know a guy who got sick from a Chinese-made ingredient in an American drug, but there's no restriction on Chinese drug imports."

Gerard is hardly alone in his criticisms. Labor believes, rightly, that the cost controls in the Senate bill come chiefly from insurance policy holders (among them, labor's members), rather than from insurance and drug companies. Both the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union have condemned these provisions, while hailing the bill's epochal creation of affordable health insurance for 30 million Americans. They're careful, too, to exempt President Obama from their criticisms.  Read the rest.

Notice that last line - they exempt the president from their criticisms. If you read the whole column you see how much time and money they spent electing the Man, how can they now criticize him?

Not one but many "Cheap Dates" in the Congress

Michael Gerson calls Senator Nelson a cheap date because apparently that is how he described himself. But in my opinion there are a lot more of them in the senate and house.  Here's what Gerson says about Nelson:
For Sale: One senator (D-Neb.) No principles, low price.

Sometimes there is a fine ethical line between legislative maneuvering and bribery. At other times, that line is crossed by a speeding, honking tractor-trailer, with outlines of shapely women on mud flaps bouncing as it rumbles past.

Such was the case in the final hours of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's successful attempt to get cloture on health-care reform. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the last Democratic holdout, was offered and accepted a permanent exemption from his state's share of Medicaid expansion, amounting to $100 million over 10 years.

Afterward, Reid was unapologetic. "You'll find," he said, "a number of states that are treated differently than other states. That's what legislating is all about."

But legislating, presumably, is also about giving public reasons for the expenditure of public funds. Are Cornhuskers particularly sickly and fragile? Is there a malaria outbreak in Grand Island? Ebola detected in Lincoln?

Reid didn't even attempt to offer a reason why Medicaid in Nebraska should be treated differently from, say, Medicaid across the Missouri River in Iowa. The majority leader bought a vote with someone else's money. Does this conclusion sound harsh? Listen to Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who accused the Senate leadership and the administration of "backroom deals that amount to bribes" and "seedy Chicago politics" that "personifies the worst of Washington."

Read the rest.

Healthcare Bill Equals Cargo Cult for Some States

I lived in Louisiana for many years and early on I realized it was a "Cargo Cult" state.  Since Huey Long they have expected the largesse of government, at either the state or federal level. Now with the largesse of Congress we finally have the great government in the sky that is going to deliver the goods to quite a few states and municipalities in our great nation.

Are the anthropologist going to recognize this for what it is?  When exactly did the United States become a nation of the Cargo Cult religion? Was it in the 1930's with FDR?  Was in the 1960's with LBJ and the Great Society? Was it because the Baby Boomers could deny nothing to their children?  When did we become so dependent?  Why are we so helpless?  All questions, where are the answers?

Here are some " Gee, Ya' Think?" headlines

Recovery not as strong as previously thought - From AP
Banks with political ties got bailouts, study shows - from Reuters
Carbon prices fall in wake of Copenhagen - from Financial Times
Top Cuban official says Obama lied in Copenhagen- from AP
Cuban minister says Obama "imperial, arrogant" from alertnet

Important News from Today

I am busy packing for a Christmas trip so do not have much time to spend posting on the blog. This is going to be a fairly long post with many links I think are very important.  I know I will be leaving out some but please read these and any links that come up with them.

From American Thinker:Merry Christmas, from Harry

     

 According to the latest news, Harry Reid has the 60 votes needed to pass Obamacare. While the legislation itself is not available for reading, to my knowledge, the Congressional Budget Office did report on it December 19. I parse that CBO report here so we know what is about to happen to us.

     The CBO does not make the accounting all that easy, despite its many tables of numbers. The number Democrats like to cite is that this plan will reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the 10 years from 2010 to 019.

     Imagine that, more people insured and the deficit reduced. How do they do that? The short answer is: over $1 trillion in Medicare cuts and tax increases. For the longer story, read on.

From Investors Business Daily:
Penetration Even At The Pentagon: Muslim Spies Setting Muslim Policy
This is Part 3, read Part 1 and Part2

   

  The internal threat from Muslim extremists in the military extends to high-level

Defense Department aides who have undermined military policy. In fact, one top Muslim adviser pushed out an intelligence analyst who warned of the sudden jihad syndrome that led to the Fort Hood terrorist attack.

     An honored guest of the Ramadan dinner at the Pentagon this September was Hesham Islam, who infiltrated the highest echelons of the Ring despite proven ties to U.S. terror front groups and a shady past in his native Egypt.     As senior adviser for international affairs to former deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Islam ran interference for the Islamic Society of North America and other radical fronts for the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, the subject of my new book "Muslim Mafia." (Be sure to read all three parts of this.)

 
Read and support Michael Yon reporting from Afghanistan.
As Christmas Approaches
            As Christmas approaches, many people are thinking about the troops, who in turn are thinking about loved ones at home. Cards and letters are tacked up on many walls. The favorites are from the little kids, with questions like, "How do you go to the bathroom?" "Can you eat dinner?" "Does it hurt to get shooted?" It goes on.
               I emailed to Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger, asking if he had any words for the troops this Christmas. Jeff came right back with this awesome letter: Read the letter here.  
 
From the Telegraph UK more on the ongoing scandal and fraud of Climategate.
Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri        

The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write.

       No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007.

        Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former railway engineer with a PhD in economics he has no qualifications in climate science at all.  (my emphasis)

     What has also almost entirely escaped attention, however, is how Dr Pachauri has established an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC’s policy recommendations.

     These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in ‘carbon trading’ and ‘sustainable technologies’, which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year. Read the whole thing.

Michael Goodwin in the NY Post writes about the Baby Boomers shame
Dreading our future                 

      I am a baby boomer, which is to say my life has coincided with turbulent and awesome times. From the Cold War to Vietnam, from Watergate to Monicagate, through the horrors of 9/11 and the stunning lifestyle advances, my generation's era has been historic and exciting.

     Yet for all the drama and change, the years only occasionally instilled in me the sensation I feel almost constantly now. I am afraid for my country.

     I am afraid -- actually, certain -- we are losing the heart and soul that made America unique in human history. Yes, we have enemies, but the greatest danger comes from within.

     Watching the freak show in Copenhagen last week, I was alternately furious and filled with dread. The world has gone absolutely bonkers and lunatics are in charge.

     Mugabe and Chavez are treated with respect and the United Nations is serious about wanting to regulate our industry and transfer our wealth to kleptocrats and genocidal maniacs.

     Even more frightening, our own leaders joined the circus. Marching to the beat of international drummers, they uncoupled themselves from the will of the people they were elected to serve.

     President Obama, for whom I voted because I believed he was the best choice available, is a profound disappointment. I now regard his campaign as a sly bait-and-switch operation, promising one thing and delivering another. Shame on me.

Read more, but remember he is one of those who voted for him and we ALL suffer for it.

 
Take a look at these important blogs:
Power Line  (poll data; Lockerbie bomber)
 
Gateway Pundit  Watch a video of John McCain stand up for Sarah Palin, I saw it live this morning and it was a treat.
 
Trying to Grok has three good links. CBO assesment from the Corner;  and why the insistence for healthcare.
 
Leon Hale, if you've read his columns through the years you will enjoy reading his blog posts. He is still great.

For Some Reason I'm Not Laughing....

This is from Betsy's Page:

This is what happens when you rush a vote.

 Here's a funny story that illustrates what happens when you rush through a vote without reading and proofreading the bill.

When he earmarked $100,000 in taxpayer spending to go to Jamestown's library, Rep. James E. Clyburn meant for it to go to the library in Jamestown, S.C., which is in his district.

But in the bustle to write and pass the $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill, Congress ended up designating the money for Jamestown, Calif. - 2,700 miles away and a town that doesn't even have a library.

As Molly used to say to Fibber, "Tain't funny McGee!"

Elected to Office or Into the Royal Realm?

Here in Texas when I was young we heard a lot about "The Duke of Duval". In fact if it had not been for that Duke, Lyndon Johnson would not have been elected into office in the first place. It wasn't that the duke was elected to national office but he did wield much power.

Now we have those who are elected to Congress who seem to think they were elected to travel and spend taxpayer money as if they were royalty. The Wall Street Journal addressed this in the article about members of the House of Representatives and their  accomadations in Edinburgh.

Congress Travels More, Public Pays

Lawmakers Ramp Up Taxpayer-Financed Journeys; Five Days in Scotland

The expenses racked up by U.S. lawmakers traveling here for a conference last month included one for the "control room."

Besides rooms for sleeping, the 12 members of the House of Representatives rented their hotel's fireplace-equipped presidential suite and two adjacent rooms. The hotel cleared out the beds and in their place set up a bar, a snack room and office space. The three extra rooms -- stocked with liquor, Coors beer, chips and salsa, sandwiches, Mrs. Fields cookies and York Peppermint Patties -- cost a total of about $1,500 a night. They were rented for five nights.

While in Scotland, the House members toured historic buildings. Some shopped for Scotch whisky and visited the hotel spa. They capped the trip with a dinner at one of the region's finest restaurants, paid for by the legislators, who got $118 daily stipends for meals and incidentals.

Eleven of the 12 legislators then left the five-day conference two days early.

The tour provides a glimpse of the mixture of business and pleasure involved in legislators' overseas trips, which are growing in number and mostly financed by the taxpayer. Lawmakers travel with military liaisons who carry luggage, help them through customs, escort them on sightseeing trips and stock their hotel rooms with food and liquor. Typically, spouses come along, flying free on jets operated by the Air Force. Legislative aides come too. On the ground, all travel in chauffeured vehicles.

I realize there may be some trips that are necessary for overnight stays by legislature, but I fail to see why they need such an entourage to conduct actual business. It seems to me that a real arrogrance, some might call them haughty, seems to come to people who are elected to these offices.  They have lost all memory of the term "Public Servant" and seem to instead see themselves as elite rulers entitled to all the accourtrements that go with their station in life.

Read it all here.

E. J. Dionne is Worried about the Democratic Party

In an op-ed in the Washington post he details the problems of why Democrats can't blame Bush for their troubles and asks, "Here's what Democrats need to ponder: Can they prosper in the absence of George W. Bush?"

In my opinion it is high time they stopped blaming Bush for everything under the sun.

Dionne points out the many problems of actually running a country while doing everything to undermine it.  (my words, not his) They talk about their "big tent" but don't really know how to work under it.
Go read it and see what you think. 

San Antonio Had a Tea Party Today

Go to Alamo City Pundit to see his report and photos.

The SEIU Wants it ALL

From the Hill:

Union pulls back on supporting bill
by Jeffrey Young

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) backed out of an event with other organizations promoting the Senate healthcare reform bill Wednesday over concerns about changes made to the legislation to accommodate centrist Democrats.

The SEIU had planned to participate in a Capitol Hill press conference along with the AARP, the liberal advocacy group Families USA, Consumers Union and the American Cancer Society Action Network. As recently as Tuesday morning, the organizations distributed an advisory to the news media that included the SEIU.

But the move by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to excise provisions of the healthcare reform bill to create a government-run public option health insurance program and to allow people between 55 and 64 years old to buy into Medicare gave the labor union pause, spokeswoman Lori Lodes said.

"That decision has to be made by our leaders and our members," Lodes said. The event with the AARP and the other groups was scheduled before Reid made changes to the bill.

The SEIU executive board will hold what Lodes described as an "emergency" meeting Wednesday night to decide how to move forward. "Right now, they don't have the information they need to make this decision," said Lodes, who added that the SEIU informed the other organizations on Tuesday they would not be joining the press conference.

The board meeting likely will not produce a final determination by the union about whether to support advancing the Senate healthcare bill, which not only lacks a public option and the Medicare buy-in but also would levy an excise tax on so-called Cadillac health insurance plans that some union members have, Lodes said.

"We will not have an absolute decision coming," largely because Reid has not released the final language of the healthcare bill, she said.

More Truth Detecting Goin' On

from The Corner at National Review:

Gore and the Truth
By Andrew Stuttaford

Al Gore has been under fire for spinning some forecasts on the disappearance of the Arctic ice a little too aggressively. Some of the criticism is overly harsh (if the forecasts are correct, the news is still bad), but, as yet another example of Gore's tendency to exaggerate, they are interesting.

And so are Nairobi's mosquitoes. This article from the Spectator by Paul Reiter, a professor of medical entomology from the Pasteur Institute (and much, much more), is well worth a look. Here is a key extract:

I am a scientist, not a climatologist, so I don’t dabble in climatology. My speciality is the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. As the film began, I knew Mr Gore would get to mosquitoes: they’re a favourite with climate-change activists. When he got to them, it was all I feared. In his serious voice, Mr Gore presented a nifty animation, a band of little mosquitoes fluttering their way up the slopes of a snow-capped mountain, and he repeated the old line: Nairobi used to be ‘above the mosquito line, the limit at which mosquitoes can survive, but now…’ Those little mosquitoes kept climbing.

The truth? Nairobi means ‘the place of cool waters’ in the Masai language. The town grew up around a camp, set up in 1899 during the construction of a railway, the famous ‘Lunatic Express’. There certainly was water there — and mosquitoes. From the start, the place was plagued with malaria, so much so that a few years later doctors tried to have the whole town moved to a healthier place. By 1927, the disease had become such a plague in the ‘White Highlands’ that £40,000 (equivalent to about £350,000 today) was earmarked for malaria control. The authorities understood the root of the problem: forest clearance had created the perfect breeding places for mosquitoes. The disease was present as high as 2,500m above sea level; the mosquitoes were observed at 3,000m. And Nairobi? 1,680m.

These details are not science. They require no study. They are history. But for activists, they are an inconvenient truth, so they ignore them. Even if Mr Gore is innocent, his advisers are not. They have been spouting the same nonsense for more than a decade. As scientists, we have repeatedly challenged them in the scientific press, at meetings and in news articles, and we have been ignored.

In 2004, nine of us published an appeal in the Lancet: ‘Malaria and climate change: a call for accuracy’. Clearly, Mr Gore didn’t read it.In 2000, I protested when Scientific American published a major article loaded with the usual misrepresentations. And when I watched his animated mosquitoes, his snow-capped mountain was oddly familiar. It took a few moments to click: the images were virtually identical to those in the magazine. The author of the article, Dr Paul Epstein, features high in Gore’s credits.

Dr Epstein is a member of a small band dedicated to a cause. And their work gains legitimacy, not by scholarship, but by repetition. While they publish their work in highly regarded journals, they don’t write research papers but opinion pieces and reviews, with little or no reference to the mainstream of science. The same claims, the same names; only the order of authors change. I have counted 48 separate pieces by just eight activists. They are myth-makers. And all have been lead authors and/or contributory authors of the prestigious IPCC assessment reports.

Take their contention, for example, that as a result of climate change, tropical diseases will move to temperate regions and malaria will come to Britain. If they bothered to learn about the subject, they would know that in a period climatologists call the Little Ice Age, when Charles II held ice parties on the Thames, malaria — ‘the ague’ — was rampant in the Essex marshes, on a par even with regions in Africa today. In the 18th century, the great systematist Linnaeus wrote his doctorate on malaria in central Sweden. In 1922-23 a massive epidemic swept the Soviet Union as far north as Archangel, on the Arctic circle, killing an estimated 600,000 people. And malaria was only eliminated from the Soviet Union and large areas of Europe in the 1950s, after the advent of DDT. So it’s hardly a tropical disease. And yet when we put this information under the noses of the activists it is ignored: ours is the inconvenient truth.

Read the whole thing.

More on the Ft. Hood Terrorist

From Canana Free Press:
Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki, former Imam of the Dar al Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia
The Fort Hood massacre & “Toronto 18” connection
By Doug Hagmann
There is a direct connection between the Islamic terrorist attack at Fort Hood to the members of the so-called “Toronto 18,” an Islamic terrorist cell broken up by counter-terrorism authorities in 2006. That nexus is Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki (a/k/a Aulaqi), the former Imam of the Dar al Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. Al Awlaki privately counseled at least three of the 9/11 terrorists in the months prior to 9/11, and was found to be in contact with Nidal Malik HASAN, the Muslim terrorist who murdered 14 Americans (including one unborn child) at Fort Hood on November 7, 2009 in the weeks and months leading up to that attack.

The convoluted relationship of terror suspects also involves two Muslim Americans who embarked on a week-long trip to meet with Canadian terror suspects in a March 2005 “Islamic terror summit” in Toronto, Ontario. Both were sentenced last week to lengthy prison terms for their planning terrorist attacks, and the recruitment and training of others.
Read the rest.

Today's Climategate News

These are mainly from Watts Up With That you go directly there or click on the indiviual link that catches your eye.

Gore gets caught in a factual fabrication at Copenhagen
Uh-oh even the true believer scientists may be onto him.

DOE sends a “litigation hold notice” regarding CRU to employees – asking to “preserve documents”  It may be getting time for the US to take this seriously.

Frigid Folly: UHI, siting issues, and adjustments in Antarctic GHCN data
If you didn't believe in fraud and conspiracy this will convince you of the fraudulent aspect of the Global Warming group.

The Silliest News Report I've Read

In spite of the first paragraph, this "news" (propaganda) article goes on to blame people for dastardly carbon emissions and says 2009 will be one of the warmest years on record.....go figure!

Natural disasters at decade low in 2009-UN report 14 Dec 2009 13:06:47 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Extreme weather continues to dominate

* Ocean acidity seen rising dramatically-UN

By Richard Cowan

COPENHAGEN, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The world this year suffered the fewest number of natural disasters in a decade, but floods, droughts and other extreme weather continued to account for most of the deaths and economic losses, according to a United Nations report released on Monday.

There were 245 natural disasters recorded this year, down from the decade high of 434 in 2005, said the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

The figures were released mid-way through an international climate conference in which 192 nations hope to nail down new firm targets for reducing carbon pollution, which is blamed for a long-term trend in more extreme weather.

Continue reading propaganda here

Another Pot Meets Kettle Moment

This is from theNew York Times:
Under Murdoch, Tilting Rightward at The Journal
I have to admit I did not read beyond the first paragraph, I just shook my head and thought what a nerve for someone at the most biased paper in the USA to make such a claim. And I admit it, I thought, it's about time. Click the headline to read it, if you want.

No Joking!

Apparently he was trying to be funny, but it is too true. This is from Newbusters on a Gene Weingarten column in the Washington Post.
Humorist Presumes Liberal Bias in Unveiling 'Secrets Journalists Never Told You'

In “sharing my do's and don'ts” as a journalist, Washington Post humor columnist Gene Weingarten found good fodder in the presumption journalists are out to help liberals and Democrats while hurting conservatives and Republicans. “When deliberately slanting stories in support of liberal causes, always cover your tracks by quoting the other side,” he advised. “Example: 'President Obama wants universal health care, whereas Rush Limbaugh, the big fat drug addict, contends it is a bad idea.'”

Go read it all, Weingarten finds it very amusing that we might think reporters are biased.  Unfortunately he is wrong and it is not amusing. Click Post link to read the original column.

Are You Wondering What Really Happened?

Did AmeriCorps official lie about possible First Lady link to IG firing?
by Bryon York

Congressional investigators looking into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin have discovered that the head of AmeriCorps met with a top aide to First Lady Michelle Obama the day before Walpin was removed.

According to Republican investigators, Alan Solomont, then the chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, had denied meeting with Jackie Norris, at the time the First Lady's chief of staff. But recently-released White House visitor logs show that Solomont met with Norris on June 9 of this year (as well as on two earlier occasions). President Obama fired Walpin on June 10 after an intense dispute over Walpin's aggressive investigation of misuse of AmeriCorps money by Obama political ally Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, California.

After being presented with the visitor logs, investigators say, Solomont explained that he met with Norris to discuss Corporation business but did not discuss the Walpin matter. When pressed, Solomont said he might have made an offhand comment, or a mention in passing, about the Walpin affair, but that he and Norris did not have a discussion about it.

Copenhagen, We Have a Problem

From TimesOnline UK - Copenhagen stalls decision on catastrophic climate change for six years

The key decision on preventing catastrophic climate change will be delayed for up to six years if the Copenhagen summit delivers a compromise deal which ignores advice from the UN’s science body.
World leaders will not agree on the emissions cuts recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and are likely instead to commit to reviewing them in 2015 or 2016.
The delay will anger developing countries who, scientists say, will face the worst effects of climate change despite having contributed relatively little of the man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
A draft text published by the UN says that there should be a review in 2016, which could result in an “update of the long-term global goal for emissions reductions as well as of the adequacy of commitments and actions”.
The Times has learnt that negotiators from developed countries are planning to use the idea of a review to justify failing to agree the 25-40 per cent cut in the 1990 level of emissions by 2020, recommended by the IPCC.
Even the most ambitious provisional offers made by all the countries amount to a reduction of only 18 per cent.
Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, said leaders would be unable to deliver a deal in line with what the IPCC had recommended. Read the rest.

From the BBC -
Copenhagen climate summit negotiations 'suspended'
Negotiations at the UN climate summit have been suspended after developing countries withdrew their co-operation.
Delegations were angry at what they saw as moves by the Danish host government to sideline talks on more emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol. Read the rest.

AP story in the Houston Chronicle -
Developing countries boycott UN climate talks
COPENHAGEN — China, India and other developing nations boycotted U.N. climate talks Monday, bringing negotiations to a halt with their demand that rich countries discuss much deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.
Representatives from 135 developing countries said they refused to participate in any formal working groups at the 192-nation summit until the issue was resolved. The developing countries want to extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which imposed penalties on rich nations if they did not comply with its strict emissions limits.
The African-led move was a setback for the Copenhagen talks, which were already faltering over long-running disputes between rich and poor nations over emissions cuts and financing for developing countries to deal with climate change.
However, the move was largely seen as a ploy to shift the agenda to the responsibilities of the industrial countries and make emissions reductions the first item for discussion when world leaders begin arriving Tuesday.
"I don't think the talks are falling apart, but we're losing time," said Kim Carstensen, of the World Wildlife Fund. The developing countries "are making a point."
The dispute came as the conference entered its second week, and only days before more than 100 world leaders, including President Barack Obama, were scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen.
"Nothing is happening at this moment," Zia Hoque Mukta, a delegate from Bangladesh, told The Associated Press. He said developing countries have demanded that conference president Connie Hedegaard of Denmark bring the industrial nations' emissions targets to the top of the agenda before talks can resume.
Poor countries, supported by China, say Hedegaard had raised suspicion that the conference was likely to kill the Kyoto Protocol. The United States withdrew from Kyoto over concerns that it would harm the U.S. economy and that China, India and other major greenhouse gas emitters were not required to take action.
"We are seeing the death of the Kyoto Protocol," said Djemouai Kamel of Algeria, the head of the 50-nation Africa group.
It was the second time the Africans have disrupted the climate talks. At the last round of negotiations in November, the African bloc forced a one-day suspension until wealthy countries agreed to spell out what steps they will take to reduce emissions.
Go to the Chronicle to read the rest.

Is the Gov't Preventing Jobs Growth

An editorial from the Washington Post provides some suggestions.

By Charles Lane

With unemployment stuck around 10 percent, President Obama has pledged "to take every responsible step to accelerate the pace of job growth." Here's a thought: Instead of trying to "create" jobs by tweaking this tax break or increasing that spending program, why not stop doing things that destroy jobs?

I suggest starting with these three job-rescuing policy changes, none of which would cost taxpayers a dime.

-- End federal protectionism and price supports for sugar.

-- Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act.

-- Reduce the federal minimum wage.

These are just the bones of the article. Go here to read it all.

An interesting Article on George Soros

I ran into this article at American Thinker.  I have often wondered about this and I think Mr. Duke has some good answers to the questions on Soros' ethics.

The Pathology of the Rich Socialist
By Selwyn Duke

People such as George Soros and Michael Moore certainly talk a good game, but the next Mother Teresa they are not. Mother Teresa never criticized the free-market system; wealth just wasn't for her. Soros and Moore are quite the opposite. They will never take a vow of poverty and dedicate themselves to helping the poor. They just want our civilization to take a vow of poverty and become poor.

This has caused many to wonder: How can someone preach socialism while being the most rapacious "capitalist" imaginable? Well, I have a theory about this.

Read his theory here.

Today's Climategate Links

American Thinker - The wages of climategate - be sure to read the comments.
The Strata Sphere - Climategate Ripping Through The “Settled Science” - read this one for sure.
From Jerry Pournelle - Data and Climate Science - explains the problems very well.
VIDEO: Lord Monckton addresses a Greenpeace-campaigner on global warming.
via Instapundit. I enjoyed watching this one. The lady is a "true believer."
Hiding The Decline At Google? - If you think some search engines are not politically driven, you must read this. another via Instapundit.
Cartoons of the Week by Tom Lewis - not all on Climategate but you will enjoy anyway.

Even the Democrats Don't Know What is in The Bill

Number-two Senate Democrat 'in the dark' about health care bill
By: Byron York

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin admitted Friday that he is "in the dark" about the national health care bill currently under construction by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In an exchange on the Senate floor, Republican Sen. John McCain asked Durbin, "Should we not at least be informed as to what the proposal is that the Senate Majority Leader is going to propose to the entire Senate?" Durbin's answer: "I would say to the senator from Arizona that I am in the dark almost as much as he is, and I am in the leadership." Durbin explained that during a Democratic caucus, Reid and the small group of senators involved in crafting the bill turned to their fellow Democrats and "basically stood and said, 'We are sorry, we can't tell you in detail what was involved.'"

Read it all here.

Why Didn't he Say What He Really Thought?

Maybe because they wouldn't print curse words?  This reporter really HATES Sarah Palin.  I won't repeat his ranting here but here is a link if you really want to read it.

 On the other hand, apparently Clarence Page had something nice to say, finally.
His column from December 9th is repeated in many newspapers and blogs across our fruited plains. This one is worth printing.

Palinpalooza goads media into laughter

If you know what Washington's Gridiron Club is all about, the idea of Sarah Palin addressing the group might sound pretty unlikely -- about as unlikely as, say, the National Organization for Women naming Tiger Woods its man of the year.

And yet, odd juxtapositions happen. Bob Dylan has released a Christmas album. Bill Cosby has released an album of "socially conscious hip-hop." And Palin has addressed the Gridiron Club as an honored guest -- and she got laughs!

And yet, odd juxtapositions happen. Bob Dylan has released a Christmas album. Bill Cosby has released an album of "socially conscious hip-hop." And Palin has addressed the Gridiron Club as an honored guest -- and she got laughs!

That's important because Washington journalists founded the Gridiron Club in America's most serious town back in the 19th century for less-than-serious purposes: Two dinners, one in spring and one in summer, during which journalists make fun of the people they cover.

Suffice it to say the humor of this club, founded with the Victorian-era slogan "The Gridiron singes but does not burn," belongs to a less raucously polarized era than this age of Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart and YouTube. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile achievement these days simply to bring members of opposing parties together peaceably under the same roof, even if it takes the lure of being able to ridicule the media.

Palin not only interrupted her book tour, dubbed Palinpalooza by headline writers, to speak to a roomful of those darned media representatives Saturday all gussied up in gowns and tuxedos, but she held her own against this year's Democratic speaker, the liberal master of pithy one-liners, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts.

If Palin won the evening -- and even my own Hyde Park-raised, liberal wife believes she did -- it is largely because everyone expected Frank to be funny, which he was. Palin defied expectations. I was so accustomed to her attack-dog role in last year's presidential campaign and the angry spirits of many of her supporters in the tea party wing of her party, that I was surprised to see how cheerfully and gracefully she poked fun at herself without actually being Tina Fey in disguise.

A sampling:

--"It is good to be here and in front of this audience of leading journalists and intellectuals. Or, as I call it, a death panel."

--"To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, this has to be the most extraordinary collection of people who have gathered to viciously attack me since the last corporate gathering at CBS."

--"I've been touring this great, great land of ours over the last few weeks. I have to say, the view is much better from inside the bus, than under it!"

And her timing was impeccable. She has a former sports announcer's -- and former Miss Alaska finalist's -- way of projecting her sincerity, a quality that the late George Burns famously called the secret to success: "Fake that, and you've got it made."

Yet, as much as her politics are not mine, after chatting with her and her husband, good-natured former "First Dude" Todd Palin, I came away with a new fondness and respect for both of them. If they were faking their enjoyment at being there, they certainly sounded mighty sincere about it.

They were warm and friendly in the infectious way that helped Ronald Reagan rise from B-movie actor to California governor and U.S. president. The fact that Palin's next book-signing date was in Iowa only enhanced talk of her possibly taking the presidential plunge. More bizarre things have happened, like Reagan's rise.

Although I still think Palin will use her new fame and political pull to influence politics from some television talk show studio somewhere, her potential in politics awaits one something she has not shown us: a big speech.

Reagan polished his skills, ideas and delivery as a campaigner for Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential nominee in 1964, and as a broadcast commentator before he ran for office. Then-Sen. Barack Obama memorably leaped to the national stage with his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech. Palin has yet to deliver a similarly original vision on such a grand scale. But she's young. At this moment, she excites more voters than any of the other known Republican hopefuls, even if polls show that quite a few more voters love her than say they will vote for her.

Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board and blogs at chicagotribune.com/pages/page

UK's TimesOnline looks at Tea Parties

Republican votes bagged by Tea Party
by Christina Lamb in Washington

WHEN Stacy Mott, a stay-at-home mother of three children, started writing a blog after the election of President Barack Obama last year, she had no involvement in politics and simply wanted to vent her frustration at financial bailouts, healthcare reform and legislation to combat climate change.

The former marketing executive at Toys R Us quickly found that she was not alone. One year on, her blog, Smart Girl Politics, is an organisation with 23,000 members and co-ordinators in almost every state.

“There are a huge amount of people out there who are angry at Obama and big government but feel the Republican party is not representing them,” said Rebecca Wales, who left the party’s campaign team to become Smart Girl’s communications director. “What we are seeing is an outpouring of conservative values.”

In recent months America has witnessed an astonishing growth in similar right-wing grassroots organisations across the country, loosely grouped under the label Tea Party.

Although it has no leader, no clear origins and a vague objective of “taking back America”, it is emerging as a powerful force in next year’s congressional elections. A poll last week found that if it were a party, the movement’s candidates would be more popular than the Republicans. According to the Rasmussen survey, Democrats have 36% of the vote, the Tea Party 23% and Republicans 18%.

Yet the first mention of the movement came only in February, when a TV reporter named Rick Santelli launched a tirade against the government’s bailout of mortgage companies. His report, which ended up on YouTube, called for a tea party in homage to the 1773 protest in which British tea was emptied into Boston harbour, helping to spark the American revolution. Others say the name stands for “Taxed Enough Already”.

Whatever its origins, the Tea Party first showed its teeth with a rally in Washington in September whose size and venom took everyone by surprise. Tens of thousands of angry protesters massed near Capitol Hill to denounce Obama’s healthcare and spending plans, chanting, “Enough, enough”.

Then, last month, Tea Party supporters showed the electoral damage they could wreak by backing their own right-wing candidate rather than the moderate Republican in a congressional election in New York state. The resulting split led to a Democrat victory.

Tea Party activists now plan to back conservative candidates in next autumn’s mid-term elections. They believe their grassroots support will enable them to raise millions of dollars, drawing on the Obama campaign’s success in using the internet.

FreedomWorks, a Washington-based advocacy group that has helped to organise Tea Party protests and claims 500,000 registered members, says it will start mobilising its support base this month.

“We’re looking at the potential of raising small cheques from a vast number of donors, just as Obama did,” said Matt Kibbe, the group’s president.

Read the rest. 
Related links of this article showed biased reporting; they were;
* Tea Party Express takes aim at healthcare plan
* America's white men are back and raging (more than a little bias showing in this one.)

Pretty Funny Parody / Climategate Christmas Album

YouTube "Commercial" for "A Climategate Christmas" -- all your favorite carols with fresh new words... like "I'm dreaming of a carbon neutral Christmas..." and instead of Silent Night, it's Hide The Decline.

Click to watch: Burning Raw Data On An Open Fire

NeoNeocon on the KSM Trial

NeoNeocon has a long piece on the KSM trial to be held in NewYork City. I won't bother to copy and paste here, it is a very long one, just go read it.

Outrage: the KSM decision

There is a Lot on Gateway Pundit Today

Go over there and take a look. See the Welcome to Obamaville sign, you will like it. Read about Greta referring to Obama and saying, "it's a lie". Lots to read and see at Gateway Pundit.

Gee, Who Knew it Would Actually Cost More?

The New York Times apparently didn' have a clue. Thus this article.

Senate Hits New Roadblocks on Health Care Bill
by Robert Pear and David M. Herzenhorn

Democratic leaders hit a rough patch Friday in their push for sweeping health care legislation, as they tried to fend off criticism of their proposals from a top Medicare official, Republicans and even members of their own party.

"...The Medicare official, meanwhile, said that total national health spending would increase slightly as a result of the Senate bill, put together by the majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada. President Obama has repeatedly said that one of his top goals is to slow the growth of health costs.

Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Friday that under Mr. Reid’s bill national health spending from 2010 to 2019 would total $35.5 trillion. That is $234 billion, or 0.7 percent, more than the amount projected under current law, he added.  

To help pay for coverage of the uninsured, the bill would impose new fees on health insurance companies and manufacturers of brand-name prescription drugs and medical devices. Mr. Foster said the fees would increase national health spending by $11 billion a year because the fees “would generally be passed through to consumers in the form of higher drug and device prices and higher insurance premiums.”

Go read it all to see how they are blaming this all on the Republicans.

George Soros rears his Ugly Head Again

When he does that we know he is trying to damage the interests of the United States.
His latest adventure is written up in a New York Post article by Charles Hurt. This man is behind a lot of our ills and a lot of the nasty anti conservative websites.  Read this and believe it.
Eco Vulture has a Bone to Pick

COPENHAGEN -- George Soros arrived on the scene here yesterday to once again save us from ourselves. (note all emphasis by Rockport Conservative)

The guy has tons of money and has no doubt whatsoever that global warming is cooking the planet and that it's all the fault of human industry and innovation.

But, as usual, he wants you and me paying for this boondoggle. Not surprising from a guy like Soros, who has never created anything.

It's almost like "Revenge of the Nerds." Only now, when all the rules of nature are suspended to accommodate quack science, can all the losers finally sink their loser teeth into all the great inventors and imaginers who built the car engine, fed the world, saved millions of lives and made the world better for just about everyone alive.

George Soros has always been a vulture sitting on the sidelines of all this great creation. (best line in the article)

Now, it's important not to belittle the value of vultures. There is good reason federal law protects the scavengers of road kill. They are willing to dine on the carrion the rest of us would rather not touch.

Likewise, Soros bets on the collapse of currencies and makes out huge.

But nowhere in nature do vultures step forward and demand to be treated like sweet-voiced canaries to be kept in your living room only to void their vile diet all over civilized people.

Soros is the Larry Flynt of finance. Yet, somehow, he manages to get invited to all the big parties, whether he's lobbying to tax into oblivion small business owners and family farmers in America or to punish industrious countries everywhere for all their mighty advancements.

Yesterday's con was all about the money -- it's always about the money -- rich countries paying poor countries to cope with all this global warming that UN scientists have so much trouble proving actually exists.

Soros' idea is that the International Monetary Fund would "loan" huge amounts of money -- $100 billion -- to impoverished countries at highly advantageous rates.

In the unlikely event of a default, the loan would be backed by IMF gold reserves. But no need to talk about that because, really, does anybody think Bangladesh might possibly fail to meet its obligations or do anything dishonorable, like skip out on the bill?

Here's an idea, George: Why don't you back the loans yourself and let Americans and hard, imaginative workers everywhere get back to work improving the planet?

Charles Hurt has really called it on George Soros, my sentiments exactly.  What a scoundrel.