Truth or Progressivism--take your pick

Study: Hot female reporters are distracting

Hey pal, eyes up here. She's trying to tell you about genocide and financial collapse. What's that you say? You missed the headlines again because the anchor babe was confusing your man brain? You're not alone – a much-forwarded study published this week from Indiana University researchers Maria Elizabeth Grabe and Lelia Samson in Communication Research found that the SEXIER A FEMALE NEWS REPORTER IS, THE LESS LIKELY MALE VIEWERS WERE TO REGARD HER AS QUALIFIED FOR WAR AND POLITICAL REPORTING – AND TO REMEMBER WHAT SHE SAID.

Researchers had a 24-year-old woman do a short newscast twice, one time wearing a shapeless outfit, and another dolled up in red lipstick and dressed to accentuate her waist-to-hip ratio. The more alluring the waist-to-hip ratio, the less credible the reporter appeared. But while a sexed up anchor might not make a dent into her male viewers' ears, the Indiana study found women viewers reported no such disconnect. The study also didn't mention whether all its subjects identified as straight, so who knows what results the researchers might have obtained if they'd throw a little Ron Corning into the mix? Who among us has not occasionally spaced out the fact that someone was a litany of bad news because said individual was also wicked hot?

http://www.salon.com/news/media_criticism/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/01/27/men_ignore_hot_news_anchors


Hawaii bill would charge $100 for President Obama's birth records

FOR JUST $100, YOU TOO MIGHT BE ABLE TO OWN A COPY OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S BIRTH RECORDS.

Democratic lawmakers in Hawaii introduced a bill this week that would allow anybody to obtain Obama's personal documents, an effort aimed to silence so-called “birthers" and CLOSE A PROJECTED $800 MILLION BUDGET DEFICIT OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS.

The legislation would reverse a privacy law that bars the release birth records to anybody without a tangible interest, like family members.

"IF IT PASSES, IT WILL CALM THE BIRTHERS DOWN," THE BILL'S PRIMARY SPONSOR, REP. RIDA CABANILLA SAID. "All these people are still doubting it because they don't want the birth certificate from Obama. They want it from our state office."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/01/28/2011-01-28_hawaii_bill_would_charge_100_for_president_obamas_birth_records_effort_to_silenc.html

This would answer a lot doubts. I think it’s a good idea, but I doubt it will pass.

What a surprise!

A PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS AIRPORTS TO REPLACE GOVERNMENT SCREENERS WITH PRIVATE SCREENERS IS BEING BROUGHT TO A STANDSTILL, JUST A MONTH AFTER THE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION SAID IT WAS "NEUTRAL" ON THE PROGRAM.


TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/01/29/tsa.private/index.html?hpt=T2

Of course he doesn’t see any advantage to it. It makes TSA look bad. A government monopoly is still just a monopoly only they can simply ban competition.

Democrats Charged in 'Massive' Voter Fraud Case

TWO DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS IN AN UPSTATE NEW YORK CITY HAVE BEEN CHARGED IN A "MASSIVE" VOTER FRAUD CASE first reported a year ago on Fox News.

A 59-page, 116-COUNT INDICTMENT CHARGES TROY DEMOCRATIC CITY COUNCILMAN MICHAEL LOPORTO AND EDWARD MCDONOUGH, DEMOCRATIC COMMISSIONER OF THE RENSSELAER COUNTY BOARD of Elections, with forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument. The two men arrive in court in handcuffs on Friday and pleaded not guilty.

SEVEN OTHER PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND POLITICAL OPERATIVES ARE SAID TO BE TARGETS OF THE CONTINUING INVESTIGATION. The Fox News Voter Fraud unit first reported the brazen allegations just over a year ago, with reports that absentee ballots and applications were forged to try to stuff the ballot box and steal an election.

The case involves absentee ballots from the Working Families Party primary in September of 2009 for the Troy City Council and Rensselaer County legislature. It has been alleged the signatures and absentee excuses of unsuspecting voters were forged, all to ensure the Democratic candidates also won the Working Families Party line. Democratic candidates in New York State often run as Working Families Party hopefuls

.

Old Rules Won’t Determine GOP Presidential Candidate Our politics have changed.

The weakest part of our political system, by a considerable margin, is the presidential nominating process. It tends to exclude from consideration those with the greatest experience in areas that are uniquely the president’s responsibility: foreign policy and military strategy.

It tends less strongly to exclude members of Congress, particularly House members but also senators, whose extensive voting records inevitably contain material that is politically damaging at some point in the process. The process has become so lengthy that candidates often come up with strategies and programs that are rendered obsolete by the time of the next presidential inauguration.

All that said, we are stuck with it — or stuck with the version of the schedule that the national Democratic and Republican parties, acting for once in concert, and the various state parties and state legislatures can agree on.

SO IT MAY BE WORTHWHILE, BEFORE TRYING TO ASSESS THE CHANCES OF LIKELY, PUTATIVE, AND POSSIBLE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES IN THE 2012 CYCLE, TO DISMISS SOME OF THE RULES OF THUMB THAT HAVE ARISEN OVER THE YEARS.

The first is the notion that the Republican nomination always goes to the candidate next in line in seniority.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/258070/old-rules-won-t-determine-gop-presidential-candidate-michael-barone

A good read as to what the new rules may be.

How to Get Rich from Liberal Delusions

The secret to instant wealth is to spot a mass delusion and bet against it. The Tulip Craze. Florida swamp land.

Getting the timing right is tricky, but we are blessed with an overload of mass delusions. You can pick your own favorite. Delusional bubbles have to pop at some point, because the people who are paying for them eventually figure out that they've been had.

GLOBAL WARMING FRAUD is now in the midst of a slow collapse. The Chicago Carbon Exchange just closed, because the investors figured out the scam. But the list of liberal crazes is long, and we can EXPECT THE MEDIA TO MAKE UP EVER-NEW HEADLINES TO KEEP THEIR BUSINESS MODEL ALIVE. For George Soros, it's not only profitable, but it's also a good cause, because socialist world government is his guiding fantasy. It was socialist Europe that made up global warming, and turned Mad Cow into a mass hysteria. You can bet that the big investors had it figured out long before things got rolling…..

THE ONE THING WE KNOW IS THAT THE LEFT WILL FIND ANOTHER SCARE STORY TO PANIC YOU WITH.

OUR MEDIA HYSTERIAS ARE SO DUMB -- THEY ARE SO ANTI-SCIENCE, ANTI-TECHNOLOGY, AND ANTI-COMMON SENSE -- that the only question is "When will the next balloon go up?"

BUT DON'T EXPECT THE LIBS TO FIGURE IT OUT. They will fall for it the way they always do. Mass delusion satisfies their need for a personal faith. THEY MAY NOT BELIEVE IN ANY ORGANIZED RELIGION, BUT THE MEDIA HAVE THEM BELIEVING IN ORGANIZED PANICS.

MAKING MONEY FROM LIBERAL DELUSIONS IS NOT NEW. Bernie Madoff ran his Ponzi scheme on liberal charities 'cause that's where the biggest suckers are. Starry-eyed college kids are now planning careers in "the nonprofit sector," meaning they expect to take their salaries and perks off the top. But they need good media sob stories, like Obama's and Bill Ayers's pitch to a foundation, getting 196 million bucks for inner-city schools with a "jazz-based curriculum." Then they took the money to buy political IOUs in Chicago.

OBAMA STARTED OFF AS A CON ARTIST, AND HE IS STILL DOING IT, BUT ON A MUCH GRANDER SCALE. Millions of liberals still bow down to their little home shrine of Obama today because they're terrified of being called "racists" if they don't. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS A GIANT GUILT TRIP TO BILK AMERICA. AL SHARPTON GOES FOR DIRECT EXTORTION, BUT THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO MILK THIS COW.

Barney Frank specialized in laws requiring empty mortgages backed by Fannie and Freddie….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/how_to_get_rich_from_liberal_d.html

What is amazing to me is how the left accuses the right of ruling by fear.  It seems to be more than  a bit hypocritical.


The Supreme Court Is Not Our Benevolent Dictator

The clear and inherent constraints of the Constitution would, if applied with intellectual honesty, put an end to the expansionist vision of the federal government that IS ESSENTIAL TO THE LEFT'S PROGRAM OF STATISM.


The Left cannot abide applying the Constitution as it is written because this would upend its multipronged efforts to reshape American government and society at large. There is, for example, NOTHING IN THE CONSTITUTION ALLOWING FOR A FEDERAL MANDATE THAT ALL ADULTS PURCHASE HEALTH INSURANCE.


The Founders gave their political successors an amendment process so they might alter the text as the latter deemed wise (with, of course, the consent of voters in the states), and even included an amendment of their own (the 10th) clarifying that what is not delegated to the federal government is the province of the states. WHY WOULD THEY BOTHER WITH THESE THINGS IF THEY BELIEVED THE TEXT SHOULD BE OPEN TO CONTINUOUS, IDEOLOGICAL REINTERPRETATION?

These are chilling notions to the liberal ideologues who wish to impose their omni-beneficence on us plebian unwashed. Only a "living, breathing" Constitution affords the room to get around the text's obvious constrictions. Just so my meaning is sufficiently transparent: A person breathes. A document states.


THERE IS ANOTHER DIMENSION TO THIS NARRATIVE: A WILLINGNESS BY SOME ON THE LEFT TO CONSIGN TO THE SUPREME COURT ALL POWER OVER CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION.

"Anybody who knows anything about constitutional law knows it's up to nine men or women [to determine] what the Constitution says," said Rep. Steve Cohen (D.-Tenn.) in his attack on the reading of the charter's text on the House floor. …


IF COHEN IS CORRECT, NOTHING DONE BY ANY OTHER BRANCH OR LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT CAN BE VIEWED AS FIRM. All remains tentative until five Supreme Court justices decide its validity. And then only until another five decide whether their predecessors were correct.


Consider the wise words of Abraham Lincoln, given during his first inaugural. Reflecting on the exact attitude toward the Constitution portrayed by Cohen, Mr. Lincoln noted that "IF THE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT UPON VITAL QUESTIONS AFFECTING THE WHOLE PEOPLE IS TO BE IRREVOCABLY FIXED BY DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT ... THE PEOPLE WILL HAVE CEASED TO BE THEIR OWN RULERS, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=41473


I think the left is perfectly fine with the people ceasing to be their own rulers. They feel that a ruling elite could do the job better as they know what is good for everyone (read the book “What’s the matter with Kansas).

Advocating violence on the Left

Frances Fox Piven is a sociology professor who for four decades has advocated violent social upheaval as a means of effecting the radical change she believes in. HER NOTION OF APPROPRIATE CHANGE IS QUITE OBVIOUSLY THE DISPLACEMENT OF THE PRODUCTIVE CLASS AND ELECTED PUBLIC LEADERS IN FAVOR OF PEOPLE LIKE -- AHEM -- HERSELF.

This week, GLENN BECK CALLED PIVEN OUT ON HER ADVOCACY OF VIOLENCE. In response, the New York Times, a group that has amusingly chosen to call itself the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the American Sociological Association HAVE ATTACKED BECK FOR DARING TO TAKE HER AT HER WORD. Now, with Piven exposed to a broader audience than usual as a firebrand who holds views dangerous to democratic life, her friends have dolled her up in widow's weeds (her equally radical husband, Richard Cloward, died in 2001) and noted her age (78) to distract us from her work.

They want us to think, as did Psycho's Norman Bates channeling his long-dead mother, that "[t]hey'll see and they'll know and they'll say, 'WHY SHE WOULDN'T EVEN HARM A FLY.'"....

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/clarices_pieces_she_wouldnt_ev.html

Almost everything about this story is bad news for the left. The most recent article that Piven wrote came out January 10th right after the Gifford attack and the left’s accusation of the rights violent rhetoric. When Glenn Beck called her on it, the left who sees him as one of the worst offenders attacked him rather than disown Piven call for violence. They in effect doubled down and appear to be getting punished for it.


The 10 families who are costing us an astonishing £1m a year between them just in housing benefits

TEN FAMILIES IN ENGLAND ARE SHARING AN ASTONISHING £1MILLION A YEAR IN HOUSING BENEFITS, IT EMERGED LAST NIGHT.

The huge sums being lavished on the families by the taxpayer are allowing them to live in streets normally reserved for millionaires.

FIVE OF THE FAMILIES ARE RECEIVING THE MAXIMUM PAYMENT OF £2,000 PER WEEK.

It is the first proof that George Osborne was correct when he claimed some households were receiving sums in excess of £100,000 a year.

Last night, the Chancellor told the Daily Mail: ‘It is precisely this kind of shocking waste of public money under the previous Labour government that led to Britain’s debt problems.

‘We are bringing an end to this by putting a cap on the total amount of benefit that a family can receive so the days of £100,000 housing benefit claims are gone.’

THE COALITION TRIGGERED A FURIOUS REACTION LAST YEAR WHEN IT UNVEILED PLANS TO CUT THE TOP RATE OF HOUSING BENEFIT TO £400 A WEEK. Chris Bryant, the Labour justice spokesman, said the cuts would lead to ‘social cleansing’, with 200,000 people forced out of the capital.

THE MAYOR OF LONDON, BORIS JOHNSON, ALSO SPOKE OF A ‘KOSOVO-STYLE’ EXODUS.

Critics even questioned whether Mr Osborne could back his claim that some families were in receipt of six-figure annual sums......

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351537/The-10-families-costing-1m-state-handouts.html#ixzz1CRJJsCx9


Well if you are progressive you can understand why the taxpayer should have to pay over $150,000 per year for someone on the dole to be able to stay in London.

SOTU and other natural and not so natural disasters

Obama Stung by SOTU Plagiarism Rap

Kudos to presidential historian Alvin Felzenberg for his tug on Obama's cape. A Ph.D. from Princeton and the former spokesman for the 9/11 commission, Felzenberg is the first intellectual insider to suggest publicly that President Barack Obama is not the writer the literati have anointed him to be.


In his review of the State of the Union speech posted on the U.S. News website, FELZENBERG GOES SO FAR AS TO ACCUSE THE PRESIDENT AND HIS SPEECHWRITERS OF PLAGIARIZING IT.

"PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SECOND STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS CONTAINED ENOUGH RECYCLED IDEAS AND LINES LIFTED FROM SPEECHES OF OTHERS TO MAKE HISTORIANS WINCE," writes Felzenberg. "Had the president submitted the text of his second State of the Union Address in the form of a college term paper, he would have been sent forthwith to the nearest academic dean."….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/obama_stung_by_sotu_plagiarism.html


An interesting look at what appears to be a growing story.

To Boldly Go Where No Party Has Gone Before...

I figured out which position President Obama could play for the Steelers on Super Bowl Sunday. HE’D MAKE A GREAT PUNTER.

Decades of overspending and overpromising by the federal government, combined with a plunge in tax revenues, are pushing America to the brink of fiscal crisis. Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and interest on the national debt are gobbling up the gross domestic product. The aging Baby Boomers, meanwhile, are waiting in the wings.

PRESIDENT OBAMA KNOWS THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE CRISIS. His own debt commission reported in December, “If the U.S. does not put its house in order, the reckoning will be sure and the devastation severe.” And the debt commission offered plenty of intriguing ways to address the problem. Its plans to overhaul the tax code and Social Security were especially bold. Commissioners Paul Ryan and Alice Rivlin, moreover, delivered their own proposal to turn Medicare into a sustainable defined-contribution system. And a separate presidential commission, led by Paul -Volcker, outlined a corporate tax reform that would lower rates while closing loopholes.

OBAMA COULD HAVE ADOPTED ANY OF THESE POLICIES AS HIS OWN. HE COULD HAVE USED THE STATE OF THE UNION TO CHALLENGE REPUBLICANS TO WORK WITH HIM ON BRINGING THE GOVERNMENT’S FINANCES INTO BALANCE WHILE ENCOURAGING ECONOMIC GROWTH. He could have seized the deficit-hawk middle ground and possibly split the GOP in the process. INSTEAD, HE PUNTED. HE LEFT IT UP TO REPUBLICANS TO TAKE THE BALL AND RUN.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/boldly-go-where-no-party-has-gone_537578.html


I loved the analogy. BHO, punter in chief.



New Black Panther Party case: The facts are in

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights came out in December with a draft of its interim report on the New Black Panthers Party scandal. Earlier today a final report was posted on the commission's website, and with it, a flurry of rebuttals and separate statements from a number of the commissioners. The import of these statements should not be minimized.

The statements indicate several points: 1) the New Black Panther Party case brought by career Justice Department employees WAS MERITORIOUS ON THE LAW AND THE FACTS; 2) there is voluminous evidence of the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN THE PROSECUTION OF THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY case; 3) there is ample evidence that the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DIRECTED JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES NOT TO BRING CASES AGAINST MINORITY DEFENDANTS WHO VIOLATED VOTING RIGHTS LAWS or to enforce a provision requiring that states and localities clean up their voting rolls to prevent fraud; 4) the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STONEWALLED EFFORTS TO INVESTIGATE THE CASE; And 5) vice chairman Abigail Thernstrom has, for reasons not entirely clear, ignored the evidence and tried to undermine the commission's work.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-turn/2011/01/the_us_commission_on_civil.html


It will be interesting to see where this ends up. Will there be indictments against those who stonewalled and worse in this case? After Scooter Libby was indicted for lying to the FBI, it appears we have a much more serious case here.

Obama and Egypt

As protests spread against the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the Obama administration faces a choice: which side of history does it want to be on?

Does the United States want to support a dictator to the end, or does it stand with protesters demanding relief from decades of emergency rule, police torture, corruption and economic stagnation?

The administration already missed a chance to show the Arab world that it can live up to its rhetoric. President Obama failed to speak out in support of Tunisia's popular uprising until it was too late - after Tunisian strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country.

Political realists will argue that favoring stability and long-term allies like Mubarak is more essential to America's national interests than the uncertain and difficult task of promoting an inclusive democracy. But if we have learned anything over the past few weeks, it is that the status quo in the Arab world is not stable.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/01/29/2011-01-29_riots_in_egypt_president_obama_must_choose_between_support_of_hosni_mubarak_and_.html


We saw Obama ignore the demonstrations in Iran. It appears if you don’t want Obama to speak out against your regime, you need to be an enemy of the US. If you are an ally, well that’s a different story.



If Healthcare is so good, why all the waivers?

At the end of last year, the Department of Health and Human Services had granted some 222 temporary waivers to businesses small and large, insurers, and labor and other organizations that offer affordable health insurance or prescription-drug coverage with limited benefits. On Wednesday, THE AGENCY QUIETLY UPDATED ITS ONLINE LIST, WHICH NOW REVEALS A WHOPPING TOTAL OF 729 OBAMACARE ESCAPEES — in addition to four states, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee — that collectively cover about 2.1 million enrollees.

At least one eyebrow-raising waiver recipient — THE LEFT-LEANING, NATIONALIZED-HEALTH-CARE-PROMOTING ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION — has direct ties to the White House. Obama health-care czar Nancy-Ann DeParle sits on the foundation’s board of trustees.

Most noteworthy: ONE-FOURTH OF ALL THE WAIVERS (182) SO FAR HAVE GONE TO LABOR GROUPS.

The Teamsters Union, which hailed Obama last March for “enacting historic health care reform, providing health insurance to millions of Americans who don’t have it and controlling costs for millions more who do,” obtained waivers for 17 different locals.….

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/258240/waivers-favors-michelle-malkin


Perhaps one size doesn’t fit all?

Spain's jobless rate surges to 20.33%

Spain announced Friday its jobless rate surged to a 13-year record above 20 percent at the end of 2010, the highest level in the industrialized world, as the economy struggled for air.

It was more bad news for an economy fighting to regain the trust of financial markets and avoid being trapped in a debt quagmire that has engulfed Greece and Ireland and now menaces Portugal.

Another 121,900 people joined Spain's unemployment queues in the final quarter of the year, pushing the total to 4.697 million people, said the national statistics institute INE.

The resulting unemployment rate was 20.33 percent for the end of the year -- easily exceeding Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's target of 19.4 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110128/bs_afp/spaineconomyunemployment_20110128120624

Part of the reason Spain is in so much trouble is they decided to become the “green” capital of Europe “investing” heavily in green jobs. It seems they found the down side of this.

Cold truths about electric cars' cold-weather shortcomings

Count me among the many thousands of Washington area residents who spent Wednesday night stuck in traffic as a snowstorm sowed chaos all around us. Being car-bound in sub-freezing weather for six hours can make a guy think. I counted my blessings. The situation could have been worse, I realized: MY FELLOW COMMUTERS AND I COULD HAVE BEEN TRYING TO MAKE IT HOME IN ELECTRIC CARS, LIKE THE ONES PRESIDENT OBAMA IS CONSTANTLY PROMOTING, MOST RECENTLY IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS.

It is a basic fact of physical science THAT BATTERIES RUN DOWN MORE QUICKLY IN COLD WEATHER THAN THEY DO IN WARM WEATHER, and the batteries employed by vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf or the Chevy Volt are no exception.

The exact loss of power these cars would suffer is a matter of debate, partly because no one has much real-world experience to draw on. But there would be some loss. RUNNING THE HEATER TO STAY WARM, OR THE CAR RADIO TO STAY INFORMED, WOULD DRAIN THE BATTERY FURTHER.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/27/AR2011012706170.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

If you want the scientific explanation why batteries run down more quickly, click the link and read it.

Hillary and Climate Change

In August, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that the floods that were ravaging Pakistan at the time were linked to global warming.

“You can’t point to any particular disaster and say, ‘it was caused by [global warming],’ BUT WE ARE CHANGING THE CLIMATE OF THE WORLD,” Clinton told Pakistan’s Dawn TV, adding, “I think the predictions of more natural disasters are unfortunately being played out.”

Well, guess what, kids? There’s A PEER-REVIEWED PAPER ABOUT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, and in the press release about the paper, they don’t even mention the word “climate.” Simply put, A ROGUE STORM SYSTEM, PART OF THE NORMAL CHAOTIC NATURE OF WEATHER ON THIS PLANET, WAS THE CAUSE OF LAST SUMMER’S DEVASTATING FLOODS. NOTHING ELSE. Anyone who claims that the storm was part of “climate change” is simply flat wrong, and that includes Hillary

.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/27/hillarys-foot-in-mouth-moment-as-a-climate-scientist/#ixzz1CL1KjCa1



Himalayan glaciers advancing?

Himalayan glaciers are actually advancing rather than retreating, claims the first major study since a controversial UN report said they would be melted within quarter of a century. RESEARCHERS HAVE DISCOVERED THAT CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF HALF OF THE ICE FLOWS IN THE KARAKORAM RANGE OF THE MOUNTAINS ARE ACTUALLY GROWING RATHER THAN SHRINKING.

The discovery adds a new twist to the row over whether global warming is causing the world’s highest mountain range to lose its ice cover.

It further CHALLENGES CLAIMS MADE IN A 2007 REPORT BY THE UN’S INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE THAT THE GLACIERS WOULD BE GONE BY 2035.

Although the head of the panel Dr Rajendra Pachauri later admitted the claim was an error gleaned from unchecked research, he maintained that global warming was melting the glaciers at “a rapid rate”, threatening floods throughout north India.

The new study by scientists at the Universities of California and Potsdam has found that half of the glaciers in the Karakoram range, in the northwestern Himlaya, are in fact advancing and that GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT THE DECIDING FACTOR IN WHETHER A GLACIER SURVIVES OR MELTS

.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8284223/Himalayan-glaciers-not-melting-because-of-climate-change-report-finds.html

Does anyone else hear the sound of a hammer? Another nail in the AGW coffin?

2012 winning the future

Not what the Democrats had in mind

No wonder the Democrats hate and fear Sarah Palin

Well, speaking of last night, that was a tough speech to sit through and try to stomach because the president is so off base in his ideas in how it is HE BELIEVES GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO CREATE JOBS. Obviously, government growth won’t create any jobs. It’s the private sector that can create the jobs. His theme last night in the State of the Union was the WTF, you know, “Winning the Future,” and I thought OK, that acronym, spot on. There WERE A LOT OF WTF MOMENTS THROUGHOUT THAT SPEECH.”

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/01/whoa-sarah-palin-on-obamas-wtf-speech-wtf-was-right-on-video/

I don’t think this is what the Obama speech writers had in mind when they plagiarized this little ditty. And once again, Sarah Palin becomes a political master of using language to make a point.



A detailed look at the Rand Paul spending bill

Want to save $500 billion this year? Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has a way to do it.

Is it realistic? Maybe not every part of it, but have a look below and judge for yourself. ....

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH...............................$1,283,000,000. (23%)

Notes: The Government Printing Office is abolished.

JUDICIAL BRANCH......................................$2,434,000,000. (32%)

AGRICULTURE............................................$42,542,000,000. (30%)

The Agriculture Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Resources Conservation Service, and Foreign Agricultural Service are abolished. The Forest Service gets a $1.2 billion haircut.

COMMERCE...................................................$5,322,000,000. (54%)

National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is cut by $857,000,000.

DEFENSE.......................................................$47,500,000,000. (6.5%)

EDUCATION..................................................$78,000,000,000 (83%)

Only the Pell grant program survives.

ENERGY............................................................$44,200,000,000 (100%)

The Defense Department takes over all of Energy's remaining functions (nuclear waste, for example) and about $18 billion of its budget.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES..............$26,510,000,000. (26%)

Notes: FDA is cut by $230,000,000; Indian Health Service is cut by $650 million; CDC is cut by $1.17 billion; NIH by $5.8 billion......

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/detailed-look-rand-paul-spending-bill#ixzz1CEjb5XGR


Well worth the read. I especially like cutting out the energy department completely and most of the education department. Both of left wing sacred cows that really don’t help the country.



We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it

TWO OF THE CENTRAL PROMISES OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL LAW ARE UNLIKELY TO BE FULFILLED, Medicare's independent economic expert told Congress on Wednesday.

The landmark legislation PROBABLY WON'T HOLD COSTS DOWN, AND IT WON'T LET EVERYBODY KEEP THEIR CURRENT HEALTH INSURANCE if they like it, CHIEF ACTUARY RICHARD FOSTER TOLD THE HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE. His office is responsible for independent long-range cost estimates. . . .

Foster was asked by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., for a simple true or false response on two of the main assertions made by supporters of the law: that it will bring down unsustainable medical costs and will let people keep their current health insurance if they like it.

On the costs issue, "I would say false, more so than true," Foster responded……

McCLINTOCK: "The other promise... was the promise that if you like your plan, you can keep it. True or false?"

FOSTER: "Not true in all cases."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCT4GhKaleCpy570YTLr9p7nq54Q?docId=7a1abd4a6937454f90aa34acf72c9870

Obamacare is unraveling. It was sold under false pretenses, evaluated by the CBO with questionable assumptions, and pushed through congress using bribery and threats to House and Senate members.



Economic ignorance and the Democrat agenda

President Barack Obama is very insistent on the need to “save American jobs.” The spending and THE BUY AMERICAN PROVISIONS OF HIS MASSIVE STIMULUS PACKAGE, APPROVED BY CONGRESS IN FEBRUARY, WERE MEANT TO “CREATE OR SAVE” MILLIONS OF U.S. JOBS. “Saving jobs” was also the stated goal of his recent pledge TO ELIMINATE TAX ADVANTAGES FOR COMPANIES THAT DO BUSINESS OVERSEAS. But instead of saving American jobs, Obama’s new corporate tax is apt to worsen what is already the highest unemployment since 1983 and make America’s companies even less competitive in the global marketplace.

Last spring, partly in response to the anti-bailout tea parties that were sweeping through the country on and around the April 15 tax deadline, the president announced that he plans to simplify the tax code. That sounds like a worthwhile goal, but it turns out that FOR OBAMA, SIMPLIFICATION MEANS TAXING PREVIOUSLY UNTAXED INCOME.

For instance, the proposal targets what executives consider to be a lifesaving feature of an otherwise depressing corporate tax code: PERMISSION TO INDEFINITELY DEFER PAYING U.S. TAXES ON INCOME EARNED OVERSEAS. According to the Obama administration, this practice keeps $700 billion or more of American corporate earnings in overseas accounts, beyond the taxman’s reach.

The president also wants to overhaul WHAT HE DESCRIBES AS A “MUCH-ABUSED” SET OF TAX REGULATIONS KNOWN AS THE “CHECK-THE-BOX” RULES. These regulations give companies some latitude in deciding where their subsidiaries will be taxed and make it easier for multinationals to transfer money between countries. The result, which Obama frowns upon, is that many companies have placed their offshore subsidiaries in low-tax countries.

While he’s at it, THE PRESIDENT WANTS TO RESTRICT TAX CREDITS THAT THE U.S. GRANTS COMPANIES TO OFFSET TAXES THEY PAY TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS.

http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/14/destroying-jobs-in-order-to-sa

An excellent article that lays out the simplemindedness of many liberals regarding taxation.

A new explanation of why the Democrats lost last November

We can begin by stipulating that CONGRESSMAN JIM MORAN (D-VA) is a disgusting human being. But is he this disgusting? He gave an interview to Alhurra, an Arab television network that, as AllahPundit notes, was founded as an American-supported alternative to Al Jazeera. Moran is asked about the Republican sweep, and he answers--I think--as follows:

It [the Republican successes in the 2010 elections] happened for the same reason the Civil War happened in the United States. IT HAPPENED BECAUSE THE SOUTHERN STATES, THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES, DIDN'T WANT TO SEE A PRESIDENT WHO WAS OPPOSED TO SLAVERY.

In this case, I believe, A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES DON'T WANT TO BE GOVERNED BY AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN, PARTICULARLY ONE WHO IS LIBERAL, WHO WANTS TO SPEND MONEY AND WHO WANTS TO REACH OUT TO INCLUDE EVERYONE IN OUR SOCIETY....

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/01/028217.php

It appears the left isn’t satisfied with comparing the right to Nazis. We’ve now gone back and compared them to the Democratic slaveholders during the Civil War.


Follow the money

Employees and political action committees of organizations that make up the big four special interests that own the Democratic Party contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to the party's federal candidates in 2010.

THE TOP 20 LABOR UNIONS, FOR EXAMPLE, GAVE MORE THAN $68 MILLION IN 2010, with 94 percent of the total going to Democrats and just 4 percent to Republicans. Most of the total, 88 percent, came from PACs associated with the top 20 unions, while the remaining 12 percent came from individual union members, according to Opensecrets.org.

Similarly, liberal ideological groups, many of which are heavily funded or otherwise closely linked with INFLUENTIAL DEMOCRATIC INSIDERS LIKE GEORGE SOROS AND DRUMMOND PIKE, GAVE MORE THAN $33 MILLION TO FEDERAL CANDIDATES IN 2010. Not surprisingly, virtually all of that money went to Democrats, according to Opensecrets.org.

But tracking campaign finance is never easy because of weaknesses of the data collection system and thanks to the creativity and regularity with which individuals and organizations across the ideological spectrum find ways in which to circumvent or otherwise compromise disclosure.....

The Examiner found that MORE THAN 2,600 INDIVIDUALS WHO LISTED THEIR EMPLOYER AS ONE OF THE TOP 110 PLAINTIFFS BAR LAW FIRMS GAVE MORE THAN $7.23 MILLION IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO FEDERAL CANDIDATES in 2010. More than 96 percent of the total went to Democrats. Independent candidates actually received more contributions from these trial lawyers than did Republicans.

There is another NEARLY $2.7 MILLION IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO FEDERAL CANDIDATES IN 2010 BY THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JUSTICE PAC, which represents the class-action lawsuit industry in the nation's capital. Ninety-seven percent of that money went to Democrats and 3 percent to GOPers

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/special-reports/2011/01/special-report-where-cash-goes-democratic-policy-flows#ixzz1CFUcEUPB

A pretty good article which quantifies the amounts of money going from special interests to the Democrat Party.

Affirmative action scandal at US Naval Academy

Professor Bruce Fleming is not your typical US Naval Academy (USNA) Professor. HE TEACHES ENGLISH AND HE ALSO HAPPENS TO BE A LIBERAL. I’ve written favorably in my books about his work because he also happens to believe in speaking the truth. And by speaking the truth about THE DIRTY SECRETS OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY, he has set off a fire storm.

Fleming wrote a piece last year exposing the fact that the USNA had a “two-tiered” system of admission that was designed to bring more minorities into the academy. And he began speaking to academy alumni about the lower standards. ”We’ll do anything to get non-white students,” he said, IN ORDER TO APPEAR MORE DIVERSE AND IMPROVE THE FOOTBALL TEAM. According to Fleming, THE ADMISSIONS SYSTEM IS TWO-TIERED BECAUSE MINORITY CANDIDATES HAVE LOWER TEST SCORES AND GRADES than their counterparts. In short, Fleming says that the Academy is rejecting better qualified white applicants to admit minority candidates with less impressive credentials. The USNA has been very aggressive on the affirmative action front in recent years. In 2009, Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, went so far as to say that “diversity is the No. 1 priority” at the academy. (Gee, I guess training warriors and officers is now #2).

But Fleming, who has served on the academy’s admissions board, goes even further. While white applicants are required to secure a nomination by a member of congress or other federal official, MINORITY CANDIDATES ARE SOMETIMES GIVEN WHAT HE CALLS “A PRO FORMA NOMINATION TO MAKE IT LEGIT.”…..

http://bigpeace.com/pschweizer/2011/01/27/affirmative-action-scandal-rocks-naval-academy-students-disillusioned-at-lower-admissions-standards-easier-coursework-for-minorities/

Can we tolerate affirmative action when our country’s defense is on the block?

S&P Downgrade Of Japan Roils Currency Markets

THE DOWNGRADE REFLECTS OUR APPRAISAL THAT JAPAN’S GOVERNMENT DEBT RATIOS–ALREADY AMONG THE HIGHEST FOR RATED SOVEREIGNS–will continue to rise further than we envisaged before the global economic recession hit the country and will peak only in the mid-2020s. Specifically, we expect general government fiscal deficits to fall only modestly from an estimated 9.1% of GDP in fiscal 2010 (ending March 31, 2011) to 8.0% in fiscal 2013. In the medium term, we do not forecast the government achieving a primary balance before 2020 unless a significant fiscal consolidation program is implemented beforehand.



Japan’s debt dynamics are further depressed by persistent deflation. Falling prices have matched Japan’s growth in aggregate output since 1992, meaning the size of the economy is unchanged in nominal terms. In addition, Japan’s fast-aging population challenges both its fiscal and economic outlooks. The nation’s total social security related expenses now make up 31% of the government’s fiscal 2011 budget, and this ratio will rise absent reforms beyond those enacted in 2004. An aging and shrinking labor force contributes to our modest medium-term growth estimate of around 1%.



In our opinion, the Democratic Party of Japan-led government lacks a coherent strategy to address these negative aspects of the country’s debt dynamics, in part due to the coalition having lost its majority in the upper house of parliament last summer. We think there is a low chance that the government’s announced 2011 reviews of the nation’s social security and consumption tax systems will lead to material improvements to the intertemporal solvency of the state. We even see a risk that the Diet might not approve budget-related bills for fiscal 2011, including government financing authorization. Thus, notwithstanding the still strong domestic demand for government debt and corresponding low real interest rates, we expect Japan’s fiscal flexibility to diminish.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110127-704673.html

Japan has long had the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the developed world, at approximately 200 percent of GDP. (The U.S. is around 60 percent.) This is definitely a word of warning for the USA.



Islamists Never Sneak in from Mexico

U.S. border authorities have arrested a CONTROVERSIAL MUSLIM CLERIC WHO WAS DEPORTED FROM CANADA TO TUNISIA THREE YEARS AGO AND WAS CAUGHT EARLIER THIS MONTH TRYING TO SNEAK INTO CALIFORNIA INSIDE THE TRUNK OF A BMW, according to court documents.

Said Jaziri, the former Imam of a Muslim congregation in Montreal, was hidden inside a car driven by a San Diego-area man who was pulled over by U.S. Border Patrol agents near an Indian casino east of San Diego. Jaziri allegedly paid a Tijuana-based smuggling group $5,000 to get him across the border near Tecate, saying HE WANTED TO BE TAKEN TO A “SAFE PLACE ANYWHERE IN THE U.S.” .

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/border-authorities-arrest-controversial-muslim-cleric.html

Do we need a fence on the border? Of course we do.

Who owns the Democrats and Obama's future

Fifteen special interest heavy hitters Democrats cannot ignore

THESE 15 INDIVIDUALS ARE AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT POWER BROKERS WITH UNDENIABLE LEVERAGE TO MOST SHAPE CAMPAIGNS, CANDIDATES AND POLICIES IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. There are other Democratic heavy hitters, to be sure, but these 15 are must-haves on any list of those who cannot be ignored.

Big Lawyers:

Come July, the American Association for Justice, the chief political and lobbying voice of the class-action trial lawyers industry, will be headed by GARY M. PAUL, a name partner in a firm -- Waters, Kraus and Paul in Los Angeles -- that proudly claims to have filed more class action asbestos plaintiffs suits than any other firm in the country.

MEMBERS OF PAUL'S FIRM CONTRIBUTED AT LEAST $366,000 TO POLITICAL CANDIDATES DURING THE 2010 CAMPAIGN, with more than $364,000 of the total going to Democratic candidates and committees. And the AAJ PAC is the biggest among all legal PACs, according to OpenSecrets.org, giving more than $2.7 million in 2010 contributions, all but $68,500 going to Democrats......

Big Labor


Big Green


Big Insiders

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/special-reports/2011/01/special-report-fifteen-special-interest-heavy-hitters-democrats-cann#ixzz1C99xWp4K

This is a do not miss article. You will get the names, contributions, etc. that make these people the heavy hitters the Democrats can’t ignore. And there is a bonus section at the end with 25 major players beyond the 15.

A spotter's guide to the Left's side of the political universe

The quick analysis is that special interests have set the agenda of the White House and Congress for the past two years, isolating the Democratic Party on the Left, abandoned by the center and the Right.

BUT WHAT IS THIS "LEFT" WHERE DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN MAROONED? WHAT IS ITS STRUCTURE AND AGENDA?

The agenda is the easy part. The last two years of White House and congressional actions can be accurately summed up in two words: MORE GOVERNMENT.

The structure of the Left, however, is harder to sort out, especially when seeking to identify leaders with sufficient clout among key leaders in the White House and Congress to capture the elite level of the Democratic Party.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/special-reports/2011/01/special-report-spotters-guide-lefts-side-political-universe#ixzz1C9C5wUHH


Today’s Democrat Party is far more leftist than any time in its history. What’s caused that and what does it mean to the party?

Is today 1979, or 1995?

In 1979, of course, Jimmy Carter was the incumbent President, and NO SOPHISTICATED, INTELLIGENT PERSON IN WASHINGTON THOUGHT RONALD REAGAN HAD A SERIOUS CHANCE OF BEATING HIM. The RNC was convinced Reagan would be another Goldwater, and its entire focus was to deny him the 1980 nomination. You know what happened.

In 1995, President Clinton had just suffered a shocking, historic defeat in the midterms, with the Republicans taking both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. At first, he seemed to be on the same trajectory as Carter. BUT HE PIVOTED TO EMBRACE THE POLICIES OF THE NEW REPUBLICAN CONGRESS, WHILE STILL MANAGING TO PLAY OFF THEM TO HOLD HIS DEMOCRAT PARTY BASE. The Republicans nominated the clueless Bob Dole in 1996, and you know what happened.

Hence the question, is today 1979, or 1995? You can't answer that question by looking at where we are today. YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE UNDERLYING TRENDS TO GAUGE WHERE WE ARE GOING TO BE IN THE FALL OF 2012.

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/01/26/why-today-is-1979-not-1995


Will Obama be Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. You have to read this article to get the author’s take on it.

A Quick 65 Points (!)

By Jay Nordlinger

Well, like you, maybe, I watched the State of the Union address, and also the Republican response. AS I WAS WATCHING, I JOTTED NOTES, WHICH I SHARE WITH YOU NOW. As usual with these things — major addresses, presidential debates — I have read no commentary before launching my own. What others think, I don’t know. I’ll get to them sometime later…..



…..22) I HATE THIS US-AGAINST-THE-WORLD STUFF. Like we’re in some kind of economic Olympics with other countries. It’s not true. Prosperity, economic vitality, is a shared blessing; it is not zero-sum. We rejoice in others’ success, and we continue to succeed our own bad selves. Small, small, what Obama is saying. I have a feeling he does not comprehend abundance.

America is bigger than envying, or worrying about, other countries. I’M REMINDED TONIGHT OF THE 1988 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES — WHEN GEPHARDT AND DUKAKIS AND THOSE GUYS KEPT TALKING ABOUT THE RISING SUN (JAPAN), WHOSE HEAT WOULD MELT US ALL. CRIPE.

23) In many sentences, Obama is giving a Republican address. REAGANESQUE, KEMPESQUE — Chamber of Commerce-y.

24) OBAMA IS HAILING OUR FREE-ENTERPRISE SYSTEM? Has he recently joined Rotary? What will his friends in academia say? Is he going to maintain this pose through the ’12 election? If so, we — we Republicans — may be done for . . .

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/258028/quick-65-points-jay-nordlinger#more


This is a fun read.



SOTU: Plagiarized?

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama’s second State of the Union address CONTAINED ENOUGH RECYCLED IDEAS AND LINES LIFTED FROM SPEECHES OF OTHERS TO MAKE HISTORIANS WINCE. I suppose this is what one does when one not only has nothing new to say, but is required by custom and Constitution to come forth with a report of some kind by a certain time and day.

Had Obama or his writers been considerate enough to have informed listeners of where some of the president’s best lines and offered-up ideas originated, the speech might be remembered for its cutting and pasting of great and not-so-great moments of the past performance of others. AFTER QUOTING ROBERT KENNEDY EARLY ON, OBAMA TRIED TO HAVE HIS LISTENERS BELIEVE THAT EVERYTHING ELSE HE SAID THAT WE MIGHT REMEMBER WERE HIS OR HIS WRITERS’ CREATIONS. Had the president submitted the text of his second State of the Union Address in the form of a college term paper, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN SENT FORTHWITH TO THE NEAREST ACADEMIC DEAN. Once again, our public affairs are such that we have one standard for presidents and another for undergraduates. Now is as good a time as any to let Obama’s listeners in on what the late Paul Harvey would have termed “the rest of the story.”

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/alvin-felzenberg/2011/01/26/obamas-state-of-the-union-was-tantamount-to-plagiarism


This isn’t the first time, BHO has flagrantly “borrowed” lines, ideas, and even whole paragraphs from another speaker. I’ve made this a don’t miss (red headline) so you can see just how much he did plagiarized.

Regulatory review: Look out EPA!

On Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on Government Oversight and Investigations met for the first time this year to discuss President Obama’s executive order to review of all federal regulation. Among the Republican majority on the subcommittee, there was clear consensus: REGULATORY UNCERTAINTY HAS BEEN HARMFUL FOR THE ECONOMY AND NEW REGULATIONS FROM THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) NEED THOROUGH SCRUTINY.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the subcommittee, pointed out in his opening statement that in THE REGULATORY AGENDA RELEASED LAST FALL, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REVEALED IT WAS DEVELOPING MORE THAN 4,000 NEW RULES. The EPA alone has implemented 928 new regulations in the last two years.

Stearns went on to call the number of new regulations “breathtaking, given the nation’s dire economic situation.”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/26/republicans-begin-process-of-regulatory-review-with-eye-trained-on-environemntal-protection-agency/#ixzz1CBOaVKMZ

Hmmm, so they can’t get the people’s representatives to pass these laws, so they plan to do it be executive fiat. The last election was definitely a restraining order.



The Obama Presidency remains in a dangerous state of denial

If there is one big takeaway from Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last night, it is that THIS PRESIDENCY REMAINS IN A COMPLETE STATE OF DENIAL REGARDING THE MASSIVE THREAT THE UNITED STATES FACES WITH ITS BUDGET DEFICIT. Obama’s speech was a major lost opportunity to address the number one menace to America’s long-term prosperity – the towering mountain of debt. Ironically, Obama’s head in the sand speech came just a day before the release of the Congressional Budget Office’s latest economic outlook, which revealed that the deficits generated under the Obama administration are the largest since 1945…..

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100073619/the-obama-presidency-remains-in-a-dangerous-state-of-denial/


Read this and be frightened, very frightened.

No SOTU--Who owns the Democratic Party?

Who owns the Democratic Party?

An extraordinary electoral defeat last November HAS LEFT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ON LIFE SUPPORT -- NOT YET DEAD, BUT STILL REELING FROM THE OVERWHELMING "SHELLACKING" IT ABSORBED -- and facing structural challenges that few commentators have systematically analyzed.

With a net loss of 63 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate for the Democrats, A LOOK AT THE ELECTION MAP SHOWS THAT OUR COUNTRY IS ALMOST ENTIRELY RED, with blue sections mainly situated on the liberal east and west coasts, which is notably different than the pre-2010 map that had some blue in the South and Midwest.

On the state and local level, the Republicans picked up a historic 680 state legislative seats, and now control both chambers in 25 state legislatures. Overall, GOPers won 11 governor's races, including key races in states like Nevada, Virginia and Iowa, states that President Obama won in 2008 and that he will need to win re-election in 2012.

And, according to the 2010 census, DEMOCRATS ARE EXPECTED TO LOSE SIX CONGRESSIONAL SEATS in states that Obama won in 2008, and at least six Electoral College votes once congressional districts are redrawn, further diminishing his prospects in 2012, and providing the GOP with the same clout -- if not more -- than it commanded in 2001…..

…. While THE ELECTORATE MAY BE TRENDING TOWARD THE CENTER-RIGHT, POWER WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY LIES WITH THE MOST LIBERAL MEMBERS OF THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE, and especially with the special interests on the left, including public employee unions, environmentalist groups and trial lawyers, that have influenced the agenda of the Democratic Party and moved the party far to the left of mainstream America.

These special interests have used the power of the purse to co-opt the agenda of the Democratic Party vis-a-vis campaign contributions and independent expenditures…..

… DEMOCRATS MUST BREAK THE STRANGLEHOLD THAT TRIAL LAWYERS, PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS, AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS HAVE ON THE PARTY. If they can't do that, it will be very difficult to take the party off life support, and the 2012 election could very well be the final nail in the coffin for the Democratic Party.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/special-reports/2011/01/special-report-democrats-must-break-free-their-special-interest-stra#ixzz1C31kLvke


The mantra of the Democrats is that the Republicans are controlled by special interest groups. But this charge reminds one of pots and kettles. This is a series being run by the Washington Examiner. I will continue this over the next two days.



Do you wonder why the States are going broke?

ON TOP OF HIS $739,695 BASE SALARY, UCLA ADMINISTRATOR DAVID FEINBERG -- WHO SERVES AS BOTH ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR AND CEO OF THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY'S HOSPITAL SYSTEM -- RECEIVED A $218,728 "AWARD" FROM THE UC REGENTS THIS MONTH FOR A JOB WELL DONE.

That brings his yearly earnings to about $1 million.

According to the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, the REGENTS APPROVED FEINBERG'S BONUS, along with roughly $3 million more in "incentive pay and raises" for top UC medical officials, on January 21.

For instance, Paul Staton -- the chief financial officer of UCLA's hospital system -- RECEIVED BOTH A 10.5 PERCENT PAY RAISE (BRINGING HIS FUTURE SALARY TO $420,000 ANNUALLY) AS WELL AS A NEARLY $100,000 JANUARY BONUS.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/01/ucla_salaries_hospital_feinber.php


When civil servants are getting a million dollars a year in salary and bonuses, it is time for investigations and criminal prosecutions. California is a fiscal basket case and this is one of the reasons why.

History tells us" something that history doesn't tell us, say sociologists stumbling to protect Frances Fox Piven.

Here's the expression of "outrage" by the officers of the American Sociological Association:

SCHOLARS OF HER CALIBER, INTELLECTUALS OF HER STATURE, and especially those who tackle social conflicts and contradictions, mass movements and political action, SHOULD STIMULATE EQUAL LEVELS OF SERIOUS CHALLENGE AND CREATIVE DIALOGUE. Being called by Glenn Beck one of the “nine most dangerous people in the world,” and an “ENEMY OF THE CONSTITUTION” IS NOT A CREDIBLE CHALLENGE; IT IS PLAIN DEMAGOGUERY.

So vigorous debate about Piven's ideas is really important, but it better be the RIGHT KIND OF DEBATE by the RIGHT KIND OF PEOPLE and most certainly not that terrible, terrible man Glenn Beck. She's very lofty and serious, so, while she should be challenged, she must be challenged only by lofty and serious individuals, and of course, Glenn Beck is not one.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/history-tells-us-something-that-history.html

Elitist, arrogant, and simply stupid is the only way to describe the American Sociological Association comments. I guess only a “gentleman” can call a “lady” an intellectual whore in their world.



Government run healthcare scandals in UK

Official figures show that, under Private Finance Initiative [PFI] schemes, British taxpayers are committed to pay £229 billion for new hospitals, schools and other projects with a capital value of just £56 billion. Several contracts are due to run for 60 years, documents released under freedom of information requests show, meaning taxpayers will be paying for the projects for generations to come.

Private contractors who agreed PFI deals with the Government are set to make billions of pounds in profit, with some due to see returns of up to 71 per cent.

In the first of a series of reports, The Daily Telegraph discloses the heavy costs and administrative burdens caused by PFIs. The deals are a way of building large public projects using private finance, which were relied upon by the Labour government. The disclosures will lend weight to MPs calling on PFI companies to refund a share of their profits to the taxpayer.

The PFI deals include:

• A hospital which charged £52,000 for a job that cost £750. Demolishing a shelter for smokers resulted in the PFI contractor charging £2,600 a year for the “extra cleaning”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8279974/Private-Finance-Initiative-hospitals-will-bring-taxpayers-60-years-of-pain.html


Leftist rally against anyone making a profit on healthcare. But here we have a story of a national healthcare service and we still have scandals.



The road to hell is paved….

The turbulent years of the 1960s and '70s are best known by the headline-grabbing civil rights and women's rights movements. BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER "RIGHTS" MOVEMENT, LARGELY OVERLOOKED, THAT HAS ALSO HAD A PROFOUND EFFECT ON AMERICAN LIFE. The looming public-pension crisis that threatens to bankrupt city, county and state governments had its origins in those same years when public employees, already protected by civil-service rules, gained the right to bargain collectively.

LIBERALS WERE ONCE SKEPTICAL OF PUBLIC-SECTOR UNIONISM. IN THE 1930S, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia WARNED AGAINST IT AS AN INFRINGEMENT ON DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS that threatened the ability of government to represent the broad needs of the citizenry. And in a 1937 letter to the head of an organization of federal workers, FDR NOTED THAT "A STRIKE OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES MANIFESTS NOTHING LESS THAN AN INTENT ON THEIR PART TO PREVENT OR OBSTRUCT THE OPERATIONS OF GOVERNMENT until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, IS UNTHINKABLE AND INTOLERABLE."

Private-sector union leaders were also divided. GEORGE MEANY, the president of the AFL-CIO from 1955-1979 who came out of the building trades, argued that it was "IMPOSSIBLE TO BARGAIN COLLECTIVELY WITH THE GOVERNMENT." Private unionists more generally worried that rather than winning a greater share of profits, public-sector labor would be extracting taxes from a public that included their own workers. BUT IN THE LATE 1950S, WITH THE FAILURE OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT'S ORGANIZING CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH, MEANY'S OWN EXECUTIVE COUNCIL INSISTED ON THE NECESSITY OF WINNING THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703909904576052150177439350.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h


Public employee unions have worked well for the employees. Public Employees now earn more than their private sector counterparts with much higher benefits. Look to read a lot about this over the next few years.

Obama’s climate change czar leaving White House

This’ll be spun as part of the standard midterm turnover inside the administration, but the big difference between her and people like Axelrod and Gibbs is that they’ll be replaced. SHE (CAROL BROWNER) MIGHT NOT BE, FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT HER PORTFOLIO IS ALL BUT DEAD IN THE NEW CONGRESS.

Which is to say, it’s not so much that she’s quitting. It’s that you fired her…..

An increasing number of Democrats have raised their voices against Browner’s War on Carbon.

SHE INFAMOUSLY BULLIED AUTO EXECS TO NEVER PUT DOWN ANYTHING IN WRITING EVER.

OBAMA’S OWN OIL SPILL COMMISSION SINGLED OUT BROWNER FOR MISLEADING THE PUBLIC and “contributing to the perception that the government’s findings were more exact than they actually were.”

And HER BP DATA DOCTORING WAS UNDER FIRE by both Senate and House Republicans.

The GOP must not let her slip out the door quietly without answering for her abuse of power under oath and in the full light of public hearings.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/24/obamas-climate-change-czar-leaving-white-house/

Carol Browner’s tenure is a good example of why Congress has the power to oversight and investigate. She should be sworn to tell the truth and then questioned extensively.



Was Genghis Khan history's greenest conqueror?

GENGHIS KHAN'S MONGOL INVASION IN THE 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES WAS SO VAST THAT IT MAY HAVE BEEN THE FIRST INSTANCE IN HISTORY OF A SINGLE CULTURE CAUSING MAN-MADE CLIMATE CHANGE, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com.

Unlike modern day climate change, however, the MONGOL INVASION ACTUALLY COOLED THE PLANET, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

So how exactly did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan did it the same way he built his empire — with A HIGH BODY COUNT.

Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and AN ESTIMATED 40 MILLION PEOPLE WERE SLAUGHTERED by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/was-genghis-khan-historys-greenest-conqueror


What is actually scary about this is how modern leftist really seem to agree with this. And it appears we need to reassess the contributions Hitler, Stalin, and Mao made to the planet. Here are some scary quotes.


“Man is always and everywhere a blight on the landscape.”


- John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club


“I got the impression that instead of going out to shoot birds, I should go out and shoot the kids who shoot birds.”


- Paul Watson, Founder of Greenpeace and Sea Shepard


“Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs.”


- John Davis, editor of the journal Earth First!


“My three main goals would be to reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with it’s full complement of species, returning throughout the world.”


-Dave Foreman, co-founder of Earth First!


“A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”


- Ted Turner, founder of CNN and major UN donor

Hansen Savages Democrats In Shock Statement. Turns on Clinton Administration.

James Hansen, the controversial scientist at the centre of the global warming movement has TURNED ON AMERICA’S DEMOCRAT PARTY IN A SHOCK ANNOUNCEMENT, savaging past Democrat administrations for “huge mistakes” that denied America the possibility of producing zero carbon emissions energy by now.

Andy Revkin of the New York Times reported that Hansen was not happy with the current Obama administration, as DESPITE OFFERING HIS SERVICES “I NEVER HEARD BACK ANYTHING FROM THE WHITE HOUSE”. This “lame” approach, he said could be seen in past Democrat administrations:

Nowhere is the lame middle-of-the-road go-slow compromise approach clearer than in the case of nuclear power. The [Obama] Administration has been reluctant to admit that THE CARTER AND CLINTON/GORE ADMINISTRATIONS MADE A HUGE MISTAKE IN PULLING THE U.S. BACK FROM DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY.

http://hauntingthelibrary.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/hansen-savages-democrats-in-shock-statement-turns-on-clinton-administration/


This is truly a case of Hansen completely abandoning science and having become a zealot turns on anyone and everyone who doesn’t see the world EXACTLY as he does.


Weather forecast? Cold!

For people who are sick of the cold and snow and hoping for a quick end to winter, AccuWeather.com Chief Long Range Forecaster JOE BASTARDI MAY HAVE BAD NEWS.

MORE PERSISTENT COLD IS EXPECTED TO HOLD STRONG THROUGH AT LEAST THE MIDDLE OF FEBRUARY ACROSS MUCH OF THE EASTERN TWO-THIRDS OF THE COUNTRY. Bastardi also expects wintry events to last into April in some areas, which would be longer than last year.

Based on what is predicted for the rest of the season, Bastardi also says that THIS WINTER COULD END UP BEING THE COLDEST FOR THE NATION AS A WHOLE SINCE THE 1980S.

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/44657/bastardi-forecast-for-rest-of.asp

Obamacare and Death Panels

About Those Death Panels . . .

The very real threat of government health care rationing.

When Sarah Palin warned that Obamacare could lead to medical rationing and “death panels,” supporters were outraged. ALARMISM! THEY ROARED. A LIE! RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDA! Alas for supporters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PALIN’S PROVOCATIVE SOUND BITE WAS AT LEAST PARTLY GROUNDED IN REALITY—WHICH IS WHY THE TERM ENTERED THE POLITICAL LEXICON….

…..Oregon, a decidedly liberal state, provides an unequivocal example. IN 1993, THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION GAVE PERMISSION TO THE OREGON HEALTH PLAN, THE STATE’S MEDICAID PROGRAM, TO INTRODUCE RATIONING. The system involves a treatment schedule that lists 649 potentially covered procedures. THE STATE PEGS THE NUMBER OF PROCEDURES THE STATE WILL COVER TO THE AVAILABLE FUNDS. PATIENTS REQUIRING PROCEDURES ABOVE THE CUTOFF LINE ARE OUT OF LUCK.

As of October 2010, only the first 502 treatments were covered. But even that low number doesn’t tell the full story of rationing in Oregon. The Oregon Health Plan also rations covered procedures under certain circumstances. CHEMOTHERAPY, FOR INSTANCE, IS NOT PROVIDED IF IT IS DEEMED TO HAVE A 5 PERCENT OR LESS CHANCE OF EXTENDING THE PATIENT’S LIFE FOR FIVE YEARS, MEANING THAT A PATIENT WHOSE LIFE MIGHT BE EXTENDED A YEAR OR TWO WITH CHEMO MAY NOT RECEIVE IT.

Worse, even though it is not a formally ranked procedure, ASSISTED SUICIDE IS COVERED UNDER STATE LAW. Thus, when two RECURRENT CANCER PATIENTS WERE RATIONED OUT OF RECEIVING POTENTIALLY LIFE-EXTENDING CHEMOTHERAPY IN 2008, AN ADMINISTRATOR WROTE A LETTER ASSURING THEM THAT THE STATE WOULD PAY FOR THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR ASSISTED SUICIDES. TALK ABOUT A DEATH PANEL!

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/about-those-death-panels_536874.html?page=1


Given a red headline, because this is certainly something you want to read. Much more information that will demonstrate where we are going with Obamacare. Mean while overseas where they do have single payer healthcare….

I’d sooner let a Tesco butcher fix my toe than ask the NHS

For three weeks I’ve been limping around on a broken toe. The horse stamped on it and I’m in agony, but I’M NOT GOING TO GET IT SEEN TO BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO GO ANYWHERE NEAR MY LOCAL HOSPITAL. I’m sorry, I know I will get complaints from doctors and nurses about how hard they work. I know the NHS is a sacred institution that must not be criticised. But I have been to St George’s Hospital in Tooting in London, and my nearest alternative, King’s College in Denmark Hill, and HELL AND HIGH WATER WOULDN’T DRAG ME BACK TO EITHER.

I consider a little toe the size of a big toe far preferable to the horrors that might await me at either of those emporiums of state-sponsored, one-size-fits-all, “SIT DOWN AND DO AS YOU’RE TOLD” TOTALITARIANISM.

The last time I went to St George’s, THEY MADE ME FILL IN A QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT MY DRINKING HABITS BEFORE THEY WOULD EVEN LOOK AT MY INJURY, which was a hole through the middle of my hand where I had got it stuck in my horse’s mouth. I told them I had been teetotal for most of my adult life, but that didn’t put them off. THEY MERCILESSLY INSISTED I TICK ABOUT 30 BOXES WITH A “NO” OR “NEVER”, WHILE GRIPPING AND WRITING WITH ONE HAND, BEFORE I QUALIFIED FOR ANYTHING APPROACHING CARE.

And all the while, I could see people being admitted for emergency dental work. This is not my NHS, I thought. It’s someone else’s. I just pay for it. It quite likes my tax money but is not the least bit concerned about me. If it does care, it cares only in so much as I am fodder for its next risk assessment......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8277821/Id-sooner-let-a-Tesco-butcher-fix-my-toe-than-ask-the-NHS.html


Death panels, poor service, intrusive questioning are all hallmarks of government run healthcare.

The Obama Code

“INVESTMENT,” SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL NOTED, IS A CODE WORD when uttered by President Obama and Democrats. It means, he said on Fox News Sunday, “WE WANT TO SPEND.” Indeed, that’s what Obama and Democrats most want to do.


But “investment” isn’t the only code word you’re likely to hear from Obama in his State of the Union address tonight on Capitol Hill. He’s sure to use other words designed to mask what he and Democrats are up to. More often than not, THE CODE WORDS ARE INVOKED TO HIDE ONE THING: MORE AND MORE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN THE ECONOMY.


OBAMA’S FAVORITE NEW WORD IS “COMPETITIVENESS.” This doesn’t mean he wants to enact free market reforms to increase competition in the private sector. Perish the thought. HE WANTS TO FUND PROGRAMS THAT AID OR SUBSIDIZE INDUSTRIES INVOLVED INTO GLOBAL MARKETS. Once again, it points to more spending, more intervention.


The president ALSO WANTS TO “WIN THE FUTURE,” as he put it in a 4-minute video he sent last week to followers from his 2008 campaign. Who takes the lead in achieving this? Not the private economy unleashed by tax cuts and deregulation. FREE MARKETS AND FREE INDIVIDUALS CAN’T BE TRUSTED WITH THIS TASK. THE GOVERNMENT MUST BE IN CHARGE.


Both winning the future and competitiveness have another role. Properly understood, they’re a diversion from the present, with its weak economy and high unemployment. You’re supposed to ignore what’s happening today and look to the future, when competitiveness has kicked in a few years down the road and the American economy is victorious.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ryan-v-obama-round-4_537206.html



Here are some code words from the Republicans: Responsibility, Fiscal Sanity, Unsustainability and unleashing the free market. All these mean less spending, investments, government sponsored competitiveness and government directed “wins in the future.”


Mortgage Giants Leave Legal Bills to the Taxpayers

SINCE THE GOVERNMENT TOOK OVER FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC, TAXPAYERS HAVE SPENT MORE THAN $160 MILLION DEFENDING THE MORTGAGE FINANCE COMPANIES AND THEIR FORMER TOP EXECUTIVES IN CIVIL LAWSUITS ACCUSING THEM OF FRAUD. The cost was a closely guarded secret until last week, when the companies and their regulator produced an accounting at the request of Congress.

The bulk of those expenditures — $132 million — went to defend Fannie Mae and its officials in various securities suits and government investigations into accounting irregularities that occurred years before the subprime lending crisis erupted. THE LEGAL PAYMENTS SHOW NO SIGN OF ABATING.

Documents reviewed by The New York Times indicate that taxpayers have paid $24.2 million to law firms defending three of Fannie’s former top executives: Franklin D. Raines, its former chief executive; Timothy Howard, its former chief financial officer; and Leanne Spencer, the former controller.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/business/24fees.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2


The left continues to ignore the role of Fannie and Freddie in the economic crisis we had. Barney Frank was reelected and whenever F&F or the CRA are mentioned as drivers of the global crisis, the left pretends that they’ve never heard anything so foolish.

Why a Liberal is glad to say goodbye to Keith Olbermann

.....The show began in 2003, when large swathes of the journalistic profession appeared to have been cowed -- not just by the Bush administration per se but by a jingoistic atmosphere that lingered too long after 9/11 and took many unwise forms.

IN THAT ENVIRONMENT, OLBERMANN WAS FRESH, EVEN DARING. The show’s increasingly forceful liberalism through its early years made for some riveting TV moments, the best-known perhaps his 2006 takedown of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

THE FRESHNESS CURDLED SOON ENOUGH.

In his farewell remarks on Friday, OLBERMANN PROUDLY PROCLAIMED THAT HIS SHOW WAS "ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT." IN RECENT YEARS, THAT DESCRIPTION WAS A STRETCH, AT BEST.

Everything from the increasingly contrived "Worst Person in the World" segments to the host’s persona -- a kind of an ersatz version of Walter Cronkite, with infinitely more "attitude" but infinitely less real authority -- had settled into a rut. PREDICTABILITY AND SELF-IMPORTANCE WERE THE MAIN FEATURES.

"Countdown" had a niche -- a profitable one for both the network and its host, who was rumored to have negotiated a $30 million four-year contract in 2008 -- and Olbermann apparently saw little need for change......

But, more importantly, THERE WAS A YEARS-LONG PROCESSION OF PUNDITS WHOSE ONLY APPARENT PURPOSE WAS TO CONFIRM THE CORRECTNESS AND BRILLIANCE OF THE HOST’S EVERY UTTERANCE. The spectacle was one in which purportedly respectable journalists seemed to fall over themselves to play courtier to King Smug.....

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/01/22/stanage_olbermann/index.html


Olbermann’s departure is causing the gnashing of teeth over at the Huffington Post, but I think this liberal has it correct.


Here’s another look at the Olbermann’s departure.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-23/keith-olbermann-how-anger-fueled-his-rise-and-fall-at-msnbc/?cid=hp:mainpromo2



Tucson, Piven, and the Left

DREIER’S DEFENSE OF PIVEN IS COMPLETELY AT ODDS WITH THE UPSHOT OF HER WRITINGS, WHICH LOVINGLY CHRONICLE EFFORTS BY COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS TO INTENSIFY RIOTS AND VIOLENT PROTESTS. I explain Piven’s strategy on NRO’s homepage today in “Frances Fox Piven’s Violent Agenda.” DREIER’S EFFORTS TO TURN PIVEN INTO A LATTER-DAY INCARNATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING ARE ABSURD. Piven looks forward to rioting and urges community organizers not to waste time channeling violent protests into conventional politics but to escalate disruptions for maximum leverage. Dreier’s defense of Piven’s latest controversial editorial in the Nation leaves out the crucial passage where she calls for Euro-style protest riots in the United States.

THE HOPE OF SILENCING BECK IN THE WAKE OF TUCSON HAS LURED THE LEFT INTO A STRATEGIC BLUNDER. They’ve decided to turn Piven into a martyr. Yet in doing so THE LEFT HAS TIED ITSELF TO PIVEN’S WILD WRITINGS AND OVER-THE-TOP RADICALISM. Dreier acts as though Piven’s scholarly work is somehow different from the calls for rioting, crisis, and polarization in her two notorious Nation articles. Actually, Piven’s scholarly writings are worse. READ POOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS AND YOU’LL SEE WHAT I MEAN. The left could and should have disowned Piven’s extremism long ago. Jack Beatty’s 1977 review of Poor People’s Movements in the Nation was actually negative, calling Piven to account for her counterproductive and intentionally polarizing tactics. A QUARTER CENTURY LATER THE NATION HAS EMBRACED PIVEN’S CALL FOR EURO-STYLE RIOTING IN AMERICA, allowing her to speak with the magazine’s editorial voice. It’s not Beck who’s tarring the left with the Brush of Piven’s radicalism. They’re doing it to themselves.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/257747/tucson-piven-and-lefts-strategic-blunder-stanley-kurtz


This is worth reading. The left’s radical agenda as exemplified by Frances Fox Piven is a violent one. Calling for civility in speech even while their members call for violence in the streets is simply disingenuous. Dreier defends her and attacks the right. Here’s a link to Kurtz’s article Frances Fox Piven’s Violent Agenda.


http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257733/frances-fox-piven-s-violent-agenda-stanley-kurtz


And here’s another one giving you more information of Piven and how the MSM is playing the story

http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2011/01/24/suddenly-radical-frances-fox-piven-is-old-widowed-college-professor/


Bury Lenin: Majority of Russians say

TWO-THIRDS OF RUSSIANS WANT VLADIMIR LENIN TO BE REMOVED FROM HIS RED SQUARE MAUSOLEUM IN CENTRAL MOSCOW, A NEW POLL HAS SHOWN. The poll, organised by Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, comes after a senior figure in the party sparked a lively debate on the issue, saying THE TIME HAD COME TO RESPECT LENIN’S LAST WISHES AND BURY HIM IN ST PETERSBURG ALONGSIDE HIS MOTHER.

“Lenin was an extremely controversial political figure and his presence as the main figure in a necropolis in the heart of our country is absurd,” Anatoly Medinsky, an MP and member of the party’s governing committee, said.

Only 10 per cent of Lenin’s corpse remained, he said, alleging that the rest had been “ripped out and replaced a long time ago”. The body’s presence in a purpose-built mausoleum on Red Square had turned the country’s central square into a cemetery and was “blasphemous”, Mr Medinsky added. Lenin’s waxy corpse remains a popular tourist attraction and is regularly treated with a special cocktail of chemicals to stop it from degrading. But with a parliamentary election looming later this year and a presidential poll next year, analysts believe that the ruling United Russia party may be considering closing the Red Square mausoleum in order to show the world it is serious about modernising the country

.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8276991/Russians-want-Lenin-removed-from-Red-Square.html


This is better than what they did to unpopular rulers in ancient Rome. They would throw their bodies in the Tiber River like a common criminal. The horror Lenin brought to Russia might make people consider a similar fate.


Waiting For Betelgeuse To Explode: 2012? Second Sun?

Either we won't live to see it or Betelgeuse could do a supernova explosion at any time and for a couple of weeks it'll be much brighter out.

THE SECOND BIGGEST STAR IN THE UNIVERSE IS LOSING MASS, A TYPICAL INDICATION THAT A GRAVITATION COLLAPSE IS OCCURRING.

When that happens, WE'LL GET OUR SECOND SUN, ACCORDING TO DR BRAD CARTER, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland.

I think this means it will be bright at night if Earth is at the right point in its orbit. Anyone know the direction of Betelgeuse as compared the plain of our solar system? Do we have the Sun between us and Betelgeuse during some part of the year?

If it is bright enough to appear as a second sun then won't it heat up the atmosphere? What fraction of the Sun's radiation would that supernova provide?

BUT SINCE BETELGEUSE MIGHT NOT EXPLODE FOR A MILLION YEARS SOME ASTRONOMERS THINK THE ARTICLE ABOVE MAKES TOO MUCH OF THE POSSIBILITY. One astronomer says it will only get as bright as the moon. I guess I'll go back to worrying about VEI 7 (volcanic explosivity index 7) and VEI 8 eruptions. A VEI 7 would repeat the 1816 Year Without Summer. A VEI 8 would probably cause an ice age. Billions would die.

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/007846.html


So it might be as bright as our sun, or perhaps the moon. It might fry us or not and we might plunge us into an ice age. It might happen in a few months or it might be a million years from now. Sometime science is not only not precise, but it's unknown.