The Angry Left

Nation’s Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows

AMERICANS ARE MORE PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THE NATION’S ECONOMIC OUTLOOK AND OVERALL DIRECTION THAN THEY HAVE BEEN AT ANY TIME SINCE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FIRST TWO MONTHS IN OFFICE, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Amid rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government’s ability to meet its future obligations, THE POLL PRESENTS STARK EVIDENCE THAT THE SLOW, IF UNSTEADY, GAINS IN PUBLIC CONFIDENCE EARLIER THIS YEAR THAT A RECOVERY WAS UNDER WAY ARE NOW ALL BUT GONE

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us/22poll.html?_r=1


If you are looking for Obama to be reelected, this is not good news.



Where are the angry Liberals?

These are good days to be a member of Congress. Your job is not popular, per se, and neither is the institution you work for. But AT LEAST YOU'RE NOT GETTING YELLED AT. A controversial Republican budget just passed the House, you're home in your district, and THE ANGER THAT CURDLED TOWN HALL MEETINGS FOR MEMBERS OF THE LAST CONGRESS IS REALLY NOWHERE TO BE SEEN….

http://www.slate.com/id/2291844/

An interesting observation here. Where are the angry liberals protesting?



Here are the angry liberals

A crowd of half a dozen protesters concerned with the Wikileaks story disrupted the Obama event at the St. Regis Hotel, with Oakland activist Naomi Pitcairn organizing the event for the GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF FRESHJUICEPARTY.COM; SHE PERSONALLY PAID $76,000 TOTAL FOR TICKETS FOR THE GROUP TO GAIN ENTRY TO THE HIGH PRICED FUNDRAISER, SHE TOLD US.

THE PROGRESSIVE GROUP PROTESTED what they called the inhumane treatment of Pvt. Bradley Manning in the Wikileaks case. Their protest song — which included lyrics: “WE PAID OUR DUES..WHERE’S OUR CHANGE?” — was sung in its entirety for Obama, who thanked them at the end of the a capella performance

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/A-76000-Obama-Protest-Song-120376699.html


This is another problem for Obama. Those who should be protesting the Republicans instead are protesting him. From the sound of who wasn’t there, that billion dollar fund raising goal may not be realistic.



The Unhappy President

ONE CAN UNDERSTAND HIS FRUSTRATION. The guy who once said to a reporter during the 2008 campaign, “You know, I actually believe my own bulls***” about fundamentally transforming America, is now forced to run as a reactionary, defending “Medicare as we know it” from “radicals” who — gasp! — want to change America. The overrated and inexperienced politician, accustomed to nothing but adulation, who was swept into office thanks to discontent with the incumbent, IS NOW HIMSELF THE INCUMBENT DESPERATELY TRYING TO EXPLAIN HOW HE’S DONE NOTHING WRONG.


He demonized George W. Bush as an evil fool, but Obama has been forced to adopt many of the very policies he derided as evil and foolish. THE “CHANGE” CANDIDATE IS NOW THE “MORE OF THE SAME” GUY….

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/265430/unhappy-president-jonah-goldberg

I enjoy Jonah Goldberg’s writing. Here’s another good one.



And more protests on Earth Day

It probably won't get much press coverage, but today President Barack Obama will be met at the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City WITH A PROTEST (FEATURING KIM KARDASHIAN!) THAT SPECIFICALLY–AND ACCURATELY–ACCUSES HIM OF BREAKING AN EXPLICIT CAMPAIGN PROMISE: TO OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZE AS PRESIDENT THE TURKISH GENOCIDE OF ARMENIANS nearly a century ago.

http://reason.com/blog/2011/04/21/kim-kardashian-others-protest


Hey, wait a minute, these folks are protesting a Nobel Prize winner!!



Medicare: Here’s the truth

….Reforming Medicare is a comparative issue. It is (or ought to be - if the Republicans are minimally competent) a choice and not a referendum on one particular approach. WE AREN'T REALLY ARGUING ABOUT MEDICARE CUTS. WE AREN'T EVEN ARGUING ABOUT MEDICARE CUTS VS. TAX CUTS. PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS ALREADY CUT MEDICARE BY HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS. HE HAS NOW PROPOSED TO CUT MEDICARE BY OVER A TRILLION MORE. He has proposed to give a panel of unelected bureaucrats the power to impose service cuts. So our choice is a market-oriented reform in which seniors would have more options (and maybe more disposable income) and a centralized government system in which the government slams the door in your face when and how the government decides. Even so, the Republicans could still lose this argument because...

http://nlt.ashbrook.org/2011/04/a-better-strategery-and-better-chosen-ground.php

We are arguing about saving medicare.

IPAB Is an Acronym for 'Death Panel'

Contemplating the 2012 election that can already be seen looming on the distant horizon, the President's advisors were no doubt hoping that the "death panel" debate was… well… dead. But OBAMA HIMSELF INADVERTENTLY RESURRECTED IT WHEN, IN RESPONSE TO REPUBLICAN BUDGET PROPOSALS, HE CLAIMED THAT MEDICARE COSTS WILL BE KEPT UNDER CONTROL BY THE INDEPENDENT PAYMENT ADVISORY BOARD (IPAB). Obamacare opponents have been screaming about this committee since it was first added to the "reform" bill. And, since that time, anyone with the temerity to call it by its proper name -- death panel -- has been vilified by the Democrats and the "news" media. Nonetheless, that's precisely what IPAB will be. ITS SOLE PURPOSE IS TO CUT FUNDING FOR SOME HEALTH CARE SERVICES SENIORS NOW TAKE FOR GRANTED. AND THOSE CUTS WILL KILL PEOPLE.

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/22/ipab-is-an-acronym-for-death-p

This is a big deal. You’ll be hearing a lot more about the IPAB in the future. Obama has already decided to have a fixed Medicare budget and these folks will be able to ratchet down the budget even further. What this means is rationing and this rationing will kill older Americans. Death Panels is the correct term for what they will do.



What do Light Bulbs Have to do with the Commerce Clause?

Rand Paul, freshman US Senator from Kentucky, at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last month, summed up in a few choice sentences the Democratic Party progressive agenda:

You're really anti-choice on every consumer item that you've listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets -- you name it, YOU CAN'T GO AROUND YOUR HOUSE WITHOUT BEING TOLD WHAT TO BUY... You raise the cost of all the items with your rules, all your notions that you know what's best for me….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/what_do_light_bulbs_have_to_do.html

This is well worth reading. The Commerce Clause will be redefined one way or another when Obamacare is decided by SCOTUS.



Earth Day: A secular religion

….As all this suggests, environmentalism has become our newest religion. According to Joel Garreau, professor of law, culture and values at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, A RELIGION IS CHARACTERIZED BY “A DISTINCTION BETWEEN SACRED AND PROFANE OBJECTS; A MORAL CODE; FEELINGS OF AWE, MYSTERY AND GUILT; ADORATION IN THE PRESENCE OF SACRED OBJECTS AND DURING RITUALS; A WORLDVIEW THAT INCLUDES A NOTION OF WHERE THE INDIVIDUAL FITS; AND A COHESIVE SOCIAL GROUP OF THE LIKEMINDED.” Environmentalism, Garreau concluded in an article last year, fits this definition of religion very well.

Environmental historian William Cronon of the University of Wisconsin, Madison — president-elect of the American Historical Association — writes of environmentalism that it has “certain landscapes — usually the wildest and most natural ones — [that] are celebrated as sacred”; it is “openly prophetic”; it develops frequent “parallels to biblical prophecy in the Hebrew and Christian traditions”; AND IT OFFERS “PRACTICAL MORAL GUIDANCE ABOUT VIRTUALLY EVERY ASPECT OF DAILY LIFE….FROM THE APOCALYPTIC TO THE MUNDANE…..”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/21/earth-day-a-national-establishment-of-religion/#ixzz1KFLBrRwS

And this religion is not simply allowed in our schools, it is celebrated there.



Global Warming: Earth Day’s secular sacred belief

Our government is in the process of imposing strict controls to reduce greenhouse gases in hopes of staving off global warming even though earth's atmosphere is cooling.

Monday's Washington Post included an op-ed piece by Fred Hiatt titled On climate change, the GOP is lost in never-never land. IT WASN'T A PARTICULARLY GOOD ARTICLE BECAUSE IT WAS UNFOCUSED AND DISJOINTED, BUT ITS THEME WAS CLEAR. HIATT THINKS REPUBLICANS LIVE IN A FANTASY WORLD AND THAT CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE OF THEIR GRAND DELUSION.

I'm not a Republican or a Republican Party apologist. I'm an ordinary citizen who's interested in the facts, AND THE FACTS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE TELL A TALE THAT MR. HIATT AND PEOPLE OF HIS ILK CAN'T OR WON'T ACCEPT. THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING ALRIGHT, BUT IT'S GETTING COOLER - NOT WARMER. At this point, the only way to have missed that fact is to have bought into the liberal progressive lie that global warming is destroying the planet so completely that you refuse to even consider evidence calling it into question.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/the_climate_is_changing_alrigh.html


Climate change from a political viewpoint is dead. People are worried about the economy, about the deficit, about their children’s future. Here’s a face saving idea for the left. Declare that the Kyoto Accord worked and the climate is actually getting cooler. Declare victory.




SEC off the hook for Madoff

In Molchatsky v. U.S. (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 19, 2011), the federal district court held that two Madoff victims could not sue the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the SEC's "gross negligence" in failing to discover the fraud. The opinion recounts at some length the allegations of the agency's ineptitude, largely taken from the SEC Office of Inspector General's Report, but nevertheless ultimately agrees with the government that the agency's conduct is protected under the Discretionary Function Exception (DFE) of the Federal Tort Claims Act. Because the SEC's decision regarding whom to investigate and how to conduct an investigation are discretionary, any negligence or even abuse of that discretion is shielded from suit by sovereign immunity.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/securities/2011/04/madoff-victims-cant-sue-government-for-secs-incompetence.html/


Sovereign immunity is something that lets the government skate where a private concern would find itself sued and frequently criminally liable. And yet the left keeps looking to turn more over to the government

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.

Lessons not learned by the Democrats

Primary Voter Turnout Stays Low, but More So for Democrats

For the first time since the 1930s, participation in Republican
primaries exceeds participation in Democratic primaries, according to a report by the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American
University.

The study, which looked at elections held through Sept. 1 of this
year, found that more than four million more voters cast ballots in Republican
primaries than in Democratic primaries. While it is unclear whether higher
levels of Republican primary participation spell doom for the Democrats in
November

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/primary-voter-turnout-stays-low-but-more-so-for-democrats/?hp

The 'I Can't Wait To Vote' Election

I saw this title and knew what the article was about. I can’t wait to vote either.

Democrats voted for the Obama agenda; now voters get to vote on
Democrats--and they can't wait.

Nov. 2, Election Day, will be one for the history books.

For months the political prognosticators have been slowly ramping up
their predictions in favor of Republicans. Democratic leaders, by contrast,
pooh-poohed any suggestion they could lose the House, but even they now feel the
winds of discontent.

Enjoy the read: http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/09/elections-democrats-politics-opinions-columnists-merrill-matthews.html?boxes=Homepagetoprated

Obama's War on America's Seniors

Harry Reid said he can’t imagine how any minority could be a Republican. This may explain why no Senior should be a Democrat. And yes, say hello to those notorious “Death Panels.”

Seniors citizens probably provided less support for President Obama in
the 2008 election than any other voter bloc. That reflects the wisdom of age.
But for President Obama, apparently it's payback time, because he is conducting
a comprehensive economic assault on America's senior citizens.

First He Trashed Medicare

A Democrat campaign theme this fall is that those scary Republicans
want to end Medicare as we know it. But that is not possible, because President
Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the Democrats have already done that, in
Obamacare.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/09/15/obamas-war-on-americas-seniors

Health Bill Gates Wants Death Panels: Dying People VS Teachers

This one reminds me of how the rich and nobility in 19th Century England thought that the poor needed parks and open space (like they had in their estates) rather than jobs and better pay. Death Panels which we all know aren’t part of Obamacare appear to be sneaking out of hiding. You can watch the video at the link below.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/bill-gates-wants-death-panels-dying-people-vs-teachers/

News that isn’t really news.

Oh, well, at least you didn’t have a government stimulus grant to pay for this.

Pew’s survey also illustrated how many Americans are headed to their
own corners in cable news viewing and radio listening. Eighty-four percent of
people in liberal MSNBC talk show host Keith Olbermann‘s audience say they
approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance, with 80 percent of Rachel
Maddow’s audience saying the same thing.

At the same time, 7 percent of conservative Sean Hannity‘s Fox News
Channel viewers and 9 percent of Rush Limbaugh’s listeners say Obama is doing a
good job, the survey said. Three quarters of Limbaugh, Hannity and Glenn Beck’s
audiences identify themselves as tea party supporters.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/survey-news-consumers-making-transition/

Gore's "Unprecedented and Irreversible" Decline

Here’s another sign that the AGW movement is dying. Al Gore’s The Climate Project has slumped to an all-time low number of presentations made. It appears the dogs don’t like the dog food.

The French sceptic climate website Changement Climatique has
compiled a graphic showing the number of presentations given each month. I’ve
posted it below

http://notrickszone.com/2010/09/13/gores-unprecendented-and-irreversible-decline/

Is Obama Smart?

Is our President really smart?

President Obama recently came out in favor of the Mosque near ground zero in New York. Shortly thereafter the White House had to issue a clarification which was then followed by an elaboration of the clarification. Now we know if you listen to liberals how smart Obama is. But shouldn’t we know?

Perhaps we should put less effort into forcing the release of President
Obama's original long-form birth certificate, and more effort into forcing
release of his IQ. Anyone want to take my bet that it'll be lower than
George W. Bush's?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/a_dim_bulb_in_the_oval_office.html

Perhaps we should require a candidate’s college GPA, their college board’s score, and their IQ to be released to the public. If nothing else, if someone really was the “village idiot” they would have to be public with it and it is unlikely we would elect them.

US breast cancer drug decision 'marks start of death panels

America's health watchdog is considering revoking its approval of the drug Avastin for use on women with advanced breast cancer, leading to accusations that it will mark the start of 'death panel' drug rationing.

US regulators will delay consideration of the colon-cancer drug Avastin
as a treatment for breast cancer

A decision to rescind endorsement of the drug would reignite the highly
charged debate over US health care reform and how much the
state should spend on new and expensive treatments.

Avastin, the world’s best selling cancer drug, is primarily used to treat colon cancer and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2008 for use on women with breast cancer that has spread.

It costs $8,000 (£5,000) a month and is given to about 17,500 women in the
US a year. The drug was initially approved after a study found that, by
preventing blood flow to tumours, it extended the amount of time until the
disease worsened by more than five months.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7948878/US-breast-cancer-drug-decision-marks-start-of-death-panels.html


Obama’s fund raising speeches

This week's fundraising speeches across the nation have a shorter brag
list and a more stridently ......partisan tone, aimed at congressional
Republicans who, if summer polls are any indicator, only need to keep
breathing in order to regain control at least of the House on Nov. 2.

The Democrat is trying to portray Republicans in Congress as
obstructionists, as if American voters gave the GOP lopsided majorities in both
houses in the 2008 elections, instead of the other way around.

If Republicans were such obstinate obstacles, why didn't Democrats
approve healthcare last year when they had 60 Senate votes and the GOP was
helpless to halt it? Obama doesn't discuss the dissension among
Democrats.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/08/obama-democrat-findraiser-in-chief-.html