Brandon

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Attention New Readers

Welcome to Readers from !
I've noticed a large increase in visitors to this page in the last 24 hours. Would one of you mystery readers from please click on the comments link below this message and tell me where you learned about this page?

What Will We Do the Day After?

bombThe odd news out of Boston today of hoax electronic devices planted as a publicity stunt, but paralyzing the city, should be a wake up call.

What will we do when the day arrives that an evil device isn't a hoax?

It will be too late to debate pre-emptive action or go to the U.N. September 11th was a nightmare for most Americans ( liberals in denial excepted). But as bad as that day was, a nuke exploding in a major American city will make 9/11 look like a picnic.

What are we doing about it NOW that would prevent a nuclear holocaust that might be but the beginning of a worldwide conflagration?

Newt Gingrich was thinking about just that in a lecture he delivered to the Herzliya Conference in Israel last week.
The Threat of a Nuclear Iran
By Newt Gingrich
Real Clear Politics
January 30, 2007

...Three nuclear weapons constitute a second Holocaust. Enemies are explicit in their desire to destroy us. We are sleepwalking through this as if diplomatic engagement will create a fiesta where we will all love one another. The terrorist threats are larger and more formidable than the political system in Israel or the US can cope with. We need a grand strategy similar to the Kenan telegram which formed US policy for the duration of the Cold War, and the 68 plan developed by Nitze in 1950.

We lack the language and goals to address the new environment along with the speed and intensity to counter the contemporary threats. If we have no strategy we will need to be intellectually honest to consider the next step once two cities have been destroyed. My grandchildren are in greater danger than I was throughout the Cold War. What stages are you in Israel going to take if tomorrow morning Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv would be destroyed? Similarly the US needs to consider what policies it would advance if in twenty four hours, Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco were destroyed. These threats will become even more imminent in two or five years time.
...
The US should have as an explicit goal, regime change in Iran, as its constitution makes them a revolutionary regime. In 2006 even the Department of State which seeks to deny the nature of reality, noted that Iran is a leading sponsor of terror. What I need is something that will be similar to Reagan's Replacement strategy in Iran. The current unrest in Iran will facilitate this.
...
In conflict one side wins and another loses. If I have to choose between surviving and being killed, I will choose to kill the enemy and to survive. Peace comes as a result for victory and not as a substitute for victory.

Joe Biden: Racist or Idiot?

Either way, Biden's not someone we want in the White House!

Remember this? "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
--Trent Lott, December 2002

A media firestorm lasted for at least a week demanding first one apology, then another, and finally forced Lott to resign his leadership post. Al Gore described Lott's comment as "racist" anddemanded the Senate censure Lott, while Jesse Jackson called for Lott to resign.

Four Years Later


"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man." (audio here)
--Joe Biden, January 2007

Where's Al Gore? Stuck in a snowdrift on his way to a Global Warming conference? Where's Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson? Maybe Jackson is taking a bath or language lessons. Or perhaps he's visiting his parole officer.

And what about the Congressional Black Caucus?

As for Biden's apology or resignation as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committe forget it. His only statement thus far was something confusing about Obama being "clean as a whistle and sharp as a tack."

Well Biden's comment was tacky to say the least. And let's not forget Biden's other demonstration of the kind of remark that is only racist if the speaker is a Republican. In July 2006 he was trolling for votes in New Hamshire and he said: "In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking . . ."

P.S. This all reminds me of another racist Democrat in the Senate, the former Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan.

And if we're not tallying racists, but idiots, there's no bigger goofball in the Senate than Lurch. Here he sings his overseas smash hit single "Pariah."

Democrat John Edwards Carbon Footprint at New House

Environmental concerns? That's for the "other America."

edwardshouse-low

Larger image here.
Carolina Journal has more info.

Quite a nice pile for a family of six. I wonder how the adherents to John Edwards and his "two Americas" class warfare view this display of wealth. Think of how many homeless could live in his barn alone. And consider the carbon footprint that 28,200 square foot makes, not to mention the hundreds of trees which were cut down and the wildlife habitat that was destroyed. And further, let's factor in the amount of water needed to keep that grass green, not to mention the impact of the runoff from the pesticides and herbicide such a spread requires to maintain it in peak condition.


Let's help John Edwards Name His New Estate

I've got a few ideas what Edwards could name his new pile:

  • Carolina Chernobyl
  • Two Americas Plantation: Whites Only

Reader ideas?

Global Baloney Part Three

New Book Debunks Greenhouse Fears and Points to Natural 1,500-Year Warming Cycles

PRNewswire/ -- A new book that is bound to becontroversial in public policy and environmental circles says that theEarth has a moderate, natural warming roughly every 1,500 years caused by asolar- linked cycle. The current Modern Warming may be mostly due to thatnatural cycle and not human activity, say the book's authors, well-known climate physicist Fred Singer and Hudson Institute economist Dennis Avery.

"Unstoppable Global Warming-Every 1500 Years" (Rowman & Littlefield,276 pages, $24.95) assembles physical and historical evidence of the natural climate cycle that ranges from ancient records in Rome, Egypt, andChina; to 12,000 antique paintings in museums; to Vikings' tooth enamel in Greenland cemeteries; and to high-tech analyses of ice cores, seabed sediments, tree rings, fossil pollen and cave stalagmites.

"The Romans wrote about growing wine grapes in Britain in the first century," says Avery, "and then it got too cold during the Dark Ages. Ancient tax records show the Britons grew their own wine grapes in the 11th century, during the Medieval Warming, and then it got too cold during theLittle Ice Age. It isn't yet warm enough for wine grapes in today's Britain. Wine grapes are among the most accurate and sensitive indicatorsof temperature and they are telling us about a cycle.

They also indicate that today's warming is not unprecedented." "We have lots of physical evidence for the 1,500-year cycle," says Singer. "Yet we don't have physical evidence that human-emitted CO2 is adding significantly to the natural cycle. The current warming started in 1850, too early to be blamed on industries and autos."

Singer notes that humanity learned of the 1,500-year cycle only recently, from the first Greenland ice cores brought up in 1983. The cycle was too long and moderate to be observed by earlier peoples without thermometers and written records. The Greenland ice cores showed the 1,500-year cycle going back 250,000 years. It raises temperatures at the latitude of New York and Paris by 1-2 degrees C for centuries at a time,more at the North and South Poles, with a global average of 0.5 degrees C. In 1987, the first Antarctic ice core showed the cycle extending backthrough the last 400,000 years and four Ice Ages-and demonstrated the cycle was indeed global.

There is also evidence of the 1,500-year cycle in seabed sediments from six oceans, in ancient tree rings from around the Northern Hemisphere, in glacier advances and retreats from Greenland to New Zealand, and in cave stalagmites from every continent including South Africa. The North American Pollen Database shows nine complete reorganizations of the continent's trees and plants in the past 14,000 years, or one every 1,650 years. "The deepest seabed sediment cores show the cycle has been going on for at least a million years," says Avery.

Sunspot observations over the past 400 years, along with modern analysis of carbon and beryllium isotopes, link the 1,500-year cycle to variations recently detected by satellites in the sun's irradiance. Antarctic ice studies show global temperatures tracking closely with atmospheric CO2 levels over the past 400,000 years. However, Singer and Avery note the studies also show that temperature changes preceded the CO2 changes by about 800 years. Thus, more warming has produced more atmospheric CO2, rather than more CO2 producing global warming. This make ssense, say the authors, because the oceans hold vastly more CO2 than the air, and warming forces water to release some its gases. Singer and Avery say that the science of the natural cycle runs counter to what many believe and fear will happen as a result of man-made global warming:

  • * Wild species won't become extinct in our warming because they've been through at least 600 previous warmings, including the Holocene Warming just 5,000 years ago that was much warmer than today.
  • * The seas won't rise to drown New York before the next cooling, because 90 percent of the world's remaining ice is in the melt-resistant Antarctic. Even a 5 degree C warming would decrease its ice mass by only 1.5 percent, over centuries.
  • * Warming won't bring famine, because it brings what crops like -- longer growing seasons, more sunlight, and few untimely frosts. More CO2 also stimulates plants' growth, and enhances their water use efficiency.

"We hope our book will help calm the rampant hysteria about globalwarming and the flawed Greenhouse models," emphasizes Avery. "We should be using our resources and technology to find the best ways to adapt to the inevitable but moderate warming to come, not to study one climate model after another, scare people to death, and pass crippling 'environmental' legislation that would deny the world the economic growth it needs to overcome poverty, the greatest problem of all."


For more, read the discussion (PDF) Avery and Singer held at the Hudson Institute November 9, 2006.

Global Baloney "truth squads" sure do have to overlook quite a bit of contrary scientific data in their mad rush to restructure Western economies!

sunprom_soho

Also posted at the Wide Awakes.

Update: Wordsmith invites those interested in hearing more about this book to listen to Michael Medved's interview with Dennis Avery.

Iran "Escalating" Attacks Against U.S. in Iraq?

NBC News has the story where fresh questions are being raised of the Iranian involvement in the January 20th sneak attack on U.S. forces in Karbala, Iraq where four Americans were killed. (Mike's America post here).

Iran is providing the weapons, money, training and intelligence for attacks against U.S. forces and other violence against innocent Iraqis.

Meanwhile, Democrats like Senator Joe Biden have warned President Bush not to respond to the war against Americans unleashed by Iran which goes back to their invasion of our embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Whose side are the Democrats on?

Global Baloney Part Two

Bad News for Global Warming Alarmists
By Michael Asher
Daily Tech
January 30, 2007

The Climate Debate turns ugly

It's been a bad year for Global Warming Alarmists. Researchers are finding more and more evidence of natural warming events in the earth's past, events that were far more rapid and dramatic than first thought. Several scientists, disgusted with the media's refusal to carry their mesage accurately, have begun writing letters and books. Even the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has long been the most vocal supporter of climate alarmism, has finished its Fourth Assessment report, which lowers worst case estimates sharply, and cuts in half long-term predictions for sea level rise. Evidence of the beneficial aspects of continues to mount, with arctic seal populations increasing, longer growing seasons, and less extreme temperature swings.

Is it any wonder environmentalists are getting even more emotional in the debate? In public, they state they simply want "truth to out," but the reality is a bit different. Recently, Weather Channel host Heidi Cullen made a strong bid to silence the opposition, calling for the removal of AMS certification for meteorologists who challenged the belief in catastrophic human-induced global warming. In it, she compared global warming denial to "going on air and saying that hurricanes rotate clockwise," apparently herself unaware that in the southern hemisphere hurricanes do indeed rotate in this direction. Cullen's statement immediately provoked outrage from meteorologists around the nation, with one of them angrily proclaiming, "I don't know a single meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype."

Heidi Cullen gained earlier fame for hosting environmental writer David Roberts, who openly called for Nuremberg-style war crimes trials (complete with death sentences) for any scientist brave enough to dispute the public hysteria on global warming. How's that for support of scientific truth and free speech? In the past, reporters just hung up on scientists who didn't agree with their beliefs ... now they want to lynch them!

Luckily, its not yet illegal to research the true causes of global warming. Late last year, atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer released his book, Unstoppable Global Warming (Every 1500 Years), detailing the current warming trend's correspondence with a natural 1500-year cycle. Singer notes that most of the current warming ocurred before 1940, and thus before the majority of man's CO2 emissions. He further notes that, since 1940, the earth experienced one 30-year long cooling trend, followed by a 30-year warming trend...both of which were much smaller than the warming right after 1900. Singer's documenting of 600 past historical events of rapid warming further supports his views.

Also, Danish Physicist Henrik Svensmark has a book coming out next month: The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change. In it, he details his research on cosmic radiation-induced atmospheric cloud formation. Svensmark points out that already-observed changes in solar flux act to reduce cloud cover, and thus cause the earth to reflect less solar radiation back into space. This quite obviously causes a moderate degree of warming...just as we've seen.

Is global warming a man-made danger ... or a part of a natural cycle? More and more scientiests are leaning to the latter. Will the media be brave enough to report their research, or will public hysteria win the day?

Thanks Dcat!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Lesson From Munich: Appeasement Kills!

I was listening to a talk program today and a caller phoned in to say that he thought appeasement of our enemies was the right thing to do. Never mind that to appease Islamic Radicals, we would have to shred the U.S. Constitution with it's protection for women and minority rights and agree to imposition of Sharia Law.

This loon proudly proclaims "peace at any price" and insisted that British Prime Minsister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler at Munich was the right thing to do. (Munich documents here)

While we may be reasonably assured that most pacifist appeasers would not go that far, there are a great many who feel at least if you are talking to your enemy, you're not being killed. Never mind that Munich meant that up to sixty million people died and that nightmare might never have happened if someone other than Neville Chamberlain had been sitting at Number 10 Downing Street.

I've been reading Winston Churchill's six volume history of the Second World War. In volume one, after reviewing the events that led up to Munich he sums up the damage as it dawned that appeasement had failed and war would come over Poland:

The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm
By Winston S. Churchill
Pages 346-348.
churchill_karsh_photo
In this sad tale of wrong judgments formed by well-meaning and capable people, we now reach our climax. That we should all have come to this pass makes those responsible, however honourable their motives, blameworthy before history. Look back and see what we had successively accepted or thrownaway: a Germany disarmed by solemn treaty; a Germany re-armed in violation of a solemn treaty; air superiority or even air parity cast away; the Rhineland forcibly occupied and theSiegfried Line built or building; the Berlin-Rome Axis established; Austria devoured and digested by the Reich; Czechoslovakia deserted and ruined by the Munich Pact; its fortressline in German hands; its mighty arsenal of Skoda hencefor-ward making munitions for the German armies; President Roosevelt's effort to stabilise or bring to a head the European situation by the intervention of the United States waved aside with one hand, and Soviet Russia's undoubted willingness to join the Western Powers and go all lengths to save Czechoslovakia ignored on the other; the services of thirty-five Czech divisions against the still unripened German Army cast away, when Great Britain could herself supply only two to strengthen the front in France — all gone with the wind.

And now, when every one of these aids and advantages has been squandered and thrown away. Great Britain advances, leading France by the hand, to guarantee the integrity of Poland - of that very Poland which with hyena appetite had only six months before joined in the pillage and destruction of the Czechoslovak State. There was sense in fighting for CzechoSlovakia in 1938 when the German Army could scarcely put half a dozen trained divisions on the Western Front, when the French with nearly sixty or seventy divisions could most certainly have rolled forward across the Rhine or into the Ruhr. But this had been judged unreasonable, rash, below the level of modern intellectual thought and morality. Yet now at last the two Western Democracies declared themselves ready to stake their lives upon the territorial integrity of Poland. History, which we are told is mainly the record of the crimes, follies, and miseries of mankind, may be scoured and ransacked to find a parallel to this sudden and complete reversal of five or six years' policy of easy-going placatory appeasement, and its transformation almost overnight into a readiness to accept an obviously imminent war on far worse conditions and on the greatest scale.

Moreover, how could we protect Poland and make good our guarantee? Only by declaring war upon Germany and attacking a stronger Western Wall and a more powerful German Army than those from which we had recoiled in September, 1938.
Here is a line of milestones to disaster. Here is a catalogue of surrenders, at first when all was easy and later when things were harder, to the ever-growing German power. But now at last was the end of British and French submission. Here was decision at last, taken at the worst possible moment and on the least satisfactory ground, which must surely lead to the slaughter of tens of millions of people. Here was the righteous cause deliberately and with a refinement of inverted artistry committed to mortal battle after its assets and advantages had been so improvidently squandered. Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly you may come to the moment when you will have to fight withall the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.


What lesson does the Mike's America reader draw from Munich which applies to the present day?

Hillary Clinton's Listening Tour

I don't usually do jokes, but this one is good:
Hillary Clinton goes to a primary school in New York to talk about the world. After her talk she offers question time. One little boy puts up his hand. The Senator asks him what his name is.

"Kenneth." "And what is your question, Kenneth?"

"I have three questions:
First - whatever happened to your medical health care plan?
Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
And, Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?"

Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary Clinton informs the kiddies that they will continue after recess. When they resume Hillary says, "Okay where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?" A different little boy puts his hand up; Hillary points him out and asks him what his name is.

"Larry." "And what is your question, Larry?"

"I have five questions:
First - whatever happened to your medical health care plan?
Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?
Fourth - why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
And, Fifth - what happened to Kenneth?

Thanks Fursey!

Reading Between the Lines in Hillary's Prez Announcement

From our friends at the People's Cube:


Monday, January 29, 2007

US Missile Defense Shield to Be Up and Ready in One Year?

U.S. missile defense maturing, latest test a success
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
Reuters
Jan 29, 2007

Within a year, the U.S. missile defense system should be able to guard against enemy attacks, while testing new technologies, the deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Monday.
...
On Saturday, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), built by Lockheed Martin Corp, intercepted a target shot from a barge. It was the first test of THAAD since its move to the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.
...
O'Reilly said the missile defense system, which includes sea-based and ground-based interceptors, and powerful X-Band radar systems, achieved success in 14 of 15 flight tests.
...
Through the end of 2007, the program will focus on protecting the United States from threats from the Middle East and North Korea, expanding coverage to U.S. allies and boosting protection against shorter-range threats.
How long will it be before Senator Carl Levin (DEMOCRAT-MI) Armed Services Chairman follows through on his threats to defund missile defense?

A Different Kind of Speaker

This is a few months old, but I missed it earlier.

Is Senate Resolution for Defeat in Iraq Stalled?

Have you signed the Pledge?

Good news! Major Garret reports on Special Report with Brit Hume that the Biden resolution which opposes the surge of troops President Bush has ordered to Iraq is stalled and that it is likely that none of the resolutions (how many are there now?) will get any further action in the Senate this week.

I can tell you one thing with certainty: If the Democrats had the votes for the Biden resolution you can bet they would be voting on it this week.

As U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to rack up victories over the inurgents (see progress report and last update here) well in advance of the surge of troops to finally quell the violence in Baghdad, any message from the Congress that falls short of offering our troops the fullest expression of support from the American people is unacceptable.

A vote for any of the current resolutions is a vote for failure in Iraq and defeat in the war on terror.

Give Senators A Piece of Your Mind

Take advantage of the delay and let your Senators know what you think. Visit the Senate web site for contact information for your senators.

Or use the links below to contact the key GOP players in this fight against failure and defeat:

Senator McConnell: Phone: (202) 224-2541 Fax: (202) 224-2499 E-mail here: http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm
Senator Lott: Phone: 202-224-6253 Fax: (202)-224-2262 E-mail here: http://lott.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Email
Senator Kyl: Phone: (202) 224-4521 Fax: (202) 224-2207 E-mail here: http://kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Senator Ensign: Phone: (202)-224-6244 Fax: 202-228-2193. E-mail here: http://ensign.senate.gov/forms/email_form.cfm
Senator McCain: Phone: (202)-224-2235 Fax (202)-228-2862. E-mail here: http://www.exploremccain.com/Contact/
Senator Warner: Phone: (202) 224-2023 Fax: (202) 224-6295. E-mail here: http://warner.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm
Senator Cornyn: Phone:202-224-2934 Fax: 202-228-2856. E-mail here: http://cornyn.senate.gov/contact/index.html
Senator Smith: Phone: 202-224-3752 Fax: 202-228-3997. E-mail here: http://gsmith.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Senator Coleman: Phone: 202-224-5641 Fax: 202-224-1152.E-mail here: http://coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

You could prepare a short message and cut and paste it to each of the above Senators. If you need some suggestions, see Skye's letter.

Crowned CrackPot Visits Cracker Bell



What a couple of DING DONGS!



"I thought you said we were going to Taco Bell?"

And a few more Ding Dongs!


Convention of International Pariahs in Switzerland!

"I know how to handle evil and bad men (unless it's my husband). "

clownse

Anti-War Protestors in Washington
(well not really, but the ones in Washington WERE clowns).

Useful idiots
There were businessmen, kids and their mommies
Joining ministers, imams and swamis
There were people galore
Shouting 'no' to the war,
Giving aid to jihadists and commies.
-- F.R. Duplantier

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Sneak Attack on U.S. Forces in Karbala Iraq an Iranian Operation?

You may have heard by now of the January 20th sneak attack on a U.S./Iraqi Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, Iraq where enemy dressed as U.S. soldiers entered the compound, killed one American and kidnapped four others and took them out into the countryside and killed them.

Armed Forces Press Service has the story.

Readers may recall that Karbala, and nearby Najaf (both of which are referred to as "Holy Cities" which means that they are hotbeds of death and violence among the faithful adherents of the religion of peace) were the scene of heavy fighting in 2004 between U.S. forces the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr.

First suspicion would certainly fall on Sadr's band of Shiite killers. But this attack doesn't seem to fit the modus operandi of Sadr's amateurish thugs. A darker force may be at work, and one that is closely allied with Sadr in their goal to turn Iraq into another bastion for radical Islam, Shiite-style.

The Political Pit Bull links to news and analysis which suggests that Iranian agents may be behind the attacks. Who else could provide the "in depth training for the agents to pass as American troops, resources to provide for weapons, vehicles, uniforms, identification, radios and other items needed to successfully carry out the mission?"

Killed in the Attack:
Army 1st Lt. Jacob N. Fritz, 25, of Verdon, Neb.
Army Spc. Johnathan B. Chism, 22, of Gonzales, La.
Army Pfc. Shawn P. Falter, 25, of Cortland, N.Y.
Army Pvt. Johnathon M. Millican, 20, of Trafford, Ala.
Army Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31
(more background here)

Jake Fritz: All American Small Town Boy

Jacob Fritz, 25 grew up in Verdon, Nebraska (population 242). He was an honor student, a basketball star, and a Homecoming King who also played football, and ran track in high school.

In 2005 he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (Captain Freeman graduated from West Point in 1999).

Fritz deployed to Iraq in October 2006 and four days before he died sent this email back to friends and family describing his service. He talked about Christmas in Karbala with his troops, the first time he was away from home for Christmas, and he wanted to thank all the hometown folks who sent him Christmas greetings.

In closing he said :"Regardless of when we come home, my soldiers and I want you all to know that we couldn't have made it this far through the deployment without your support from back home."

To paraphrase President Bush in his State of the Union Address: "There is something wonderful about a country that produces a brave and humble man like Jacob Fritz."

We honor you Jacob Fritz. Your sacrifice shall not be in vain!

UPDATE: Iran's Ambassador to Iraq Admits Iranian Agents In Country.

From the NYTreason: "“They worked in the security sector in the Islamic Republic, that’s clear,” Mr. Qumi said, referring to Iran. But he said that the Iranians were in Iraq because “the two countries agreed to solve the security problems.” The Iranians “went to meet with the Iraqi side,” he said.

No word on what such nice guys were doing with "manifests of weapons and material relating to the technology of sophisticated roadside bombs" and intelligence information that could be used to mount attacks.

UPDATE: 200 Insurgents Killed in Nearby "Holy City" of Najaf

Breitbart Reports that a religious cult called "Soldiers of Heaven" said hundreds of gunmen planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill clerics on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar. Najaf government officials indicated the militants included both Shiite and Sunni extremists, as well as foreign fighters. The attackers believed that the mass death and bloodshed their attack meant to cause would bring back the "hidden imam, a 9th-century Shiite saint who Shiites believe will come again to bring peace and justice to the world."

Funny way to bring peace and justice to the world. Last March, we posted more information on the "hidden imam" and would remind Mike's America who it is that also thinks that mass violence in destruction is the way to heaven.

Nancy Pelosi Sending Secret Message By Blinking?

Wordsmith found this at the Political Pit Bull:

Pelosi's blinking appears to be flashing out a message in Morse Code with a long blink for "-"s and a short blink for "."s.

The question to readers who may wish to decipher the Pelosi code is: Who was she signaling and what was she saying?

Have We Forgotten Kidnapped Israeli Soldiers and Hezbollah/Hamas Aggression?

Set Them Free Now!
UNSC 1701: "unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers"



It's been slightly more than six months since Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel on June 25, 2006 through an underground tunnel, attacked an Israeli Army outpost on the border of the Gaza Strip killed two Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers, wounded three others and kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was 19 at the time.

Gilad became a bargaining chip whereby Palestinian terrorists continue to use negotiations for his release to secure the release of terrorists who killed Israelis.

Terrorist spokesman, Abu Mujahed declared that 'We're ready to keep Shalit for years' until their demands are met so that more terrorists can be freed to kill again.

On the same day, that Shalit was kidnapped, terrorists executed Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri, 18. The Palestinian terrorists who murdered him were captured in Ramallah, on the West Bank in July 2006. No doubt their release will be among the demands for freeing Shalit.

On July 12, 2006 Hezbollah began firing rockets at civilian targets in Northern Israeli cities and invaded Israeli territory attacked an Israeli border patrol killing three IDF soldiers, injuring two and kidnapping IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

Hezbollah used the population of Southern Lebanon as human shields to continue the attacks on civilian targets in Israel and made sure any civilian deaths in Lebanon received worldwide attention.

Hezbollah propaganda was lapped up by worldwide "news" media without question and public opinion soon forced Israel to accept a cease fire.

On August 11, 2006 The United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1701 which laid the blame for the Israel-Hezbollah war on Hezbollah and demanded the "unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers."

The Security Council also Recalled all its previous resolutions on Lebanon, in particular resolutions 425 (1978), 426 (1978), 520 (1982), 1559 (2004), 1655 (2006) 1680 (2006) and 1697 (2006), as well as the statements of its President on the situation in Lebanon, in particular the statements of 18 June 2000 (S/PRST/2000/21), of 19 October 2004 (S/PRST/2004/36), of 4 May 2005 (S/PRST/2005/17), of 23 January 2006 (S/PRST/2006/3) and of 30 July 2006 (S/PRST/2006/35) and again demanded that Hezbollah disarm.

Now that Ambassador John Bolton is no longer the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations there is likely to be even less urgency to see that UN words mean more than feckless dots of ink on paper.

And again, those who so openly violated past agreements, borders and all sense of civilized ways of resolving disputes are emboldened to use those tactics again.

Where is the outrage for the continuing situation in Palestinian terrorist and Hezbollah occupied lands?

Where is the will of the International Community to live up to the founding principles of the United Nations to secure peace?

Where is the leadership to confront the terrorists and criminals who continue to arm and plot the next round of attacks?

When will the kidnapped Israeli soldiers be freed?

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Open Mic: Hillary Clinton Recorded Singing National Anthem

You know the old cliche about dogs howling when someone sings REALLY off key?

Well at least she knew a few of the words!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

They're Cute at This Age

Berlin zoo employee Thomas Doerflein plays with polar bear cub Knut in this undated picture, released on January 24, 2007. Knut, born on December 5, 2006, has had to be hand fed by Doerflein after its mother Tosca refused the baby.

Iran Owns Hezbollah: Lock, Stock and Barrel

Not that we thought otherwise:
Iran Controls Hezbollah

The former secretary-general of Hezbollah says Iran is now controlling the terror group. Sheikh Subhi al-Tufeli tells a Kuwaiti newspaper, "Hezbollah is a tool, and it is an integral part of the Iranian intelligence apparatus.

Iran has succeeded in changing Hezbollah from a resistance force into a tool to be used in whatever "direction they want." Al-Tufeili adds "Iran is the main nerve in the activity today in Lebanon. All Hezbollah activity is financed by Iranian funds."

Just a reminder for our readers: Hezbollah, founded, funded and trained by their Iranian masters, is responsible for the killing of at least 289 Americans.

And some people say we should "talk" to Iran? What should we say? Please stop killing us?

Progress Report in Iraq

Last week we had a lengthy progress report on Iraq and the War on Terror following up on President Bush's speech announcing the "New Way Forward" in Iraq.

We noted then that a core element of this plan is the necessity of the Iraqi government to take on all the bad guys, whether they be Sunni insurgents or Shiite militias. Important progress was made with the arrest of a key Mahdi Army leader and 400 Shiites suspected of death squad activity.

The Battle for Baghdad has already begun and as we prepare for the insertion of larger numbers of U.S. troops, Iraq's Prime Minister Maliki on Thursday made his strongest statement yet on the scope of the operation now dubbed ""Operation Imposing Law:"

"We are full of hope. We have no other choice but to use force and any place where we receive fire will not be safe even if it is a school, a mosque, a political party office or home," he said. "There will be no safe place in Iraq for terrorists."

On Wednesday, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said 30 militants were killed and 27 captured. Our television screens are filled with the death toll from the latest bombing. It's a shame we don't get the same perspective on the justice being meted out to the bombers.

Senate Resolution A Lifeline to Terrorists?

Doesn't it seem unwise, to say the least, that as we undertake this key operation necessary for success in Iraq that the U.S. Senate is debating a resolution critical of President Bush's strategy? President Bush warned in his State of the Union Address that Congress should "not vote for failure" in Iraq.

Take the Pledge

Wordsmith invites those concerned that the Congress will undermine our troops and the nation's commitment to victory to take the pledge and make every effort to let Congress know that failure in Iraq is not an option. Skye at Midnight Blue has a model letter which you may wish to adapt and fax or email to your representatives.

Only Democrats Are Permitted to Be Racists!

Texas College Students Throw Party with Fried Chicken, Malt Liquor, Aunt Jemima for Martin Luther King Day. The usual suspects are outraged!

Don't these kids know the rules? Only Democrats can mock with racial stereotypes!

Oh how offensive! She Must be punished!

Here's the story. Students at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas threw a party at a private home on Martin Luther King day and photos from the event, where white participants dressed in afro wigs or as Aunt Jemima, drank malt liquor and ate fried chicken were posted on one of the student's web pages. Donald Ray Elder, president of the university NAACP chapter saw the photos and was offended. Numerous apologies from the party organizer did not suffice to quell his outrage, nor did a campus wide event held Wednesday night where no doubt the white racist crackers were informed that race relations would be defined according to the rules and standards set down by the NAACP. Kind of a one way street for guilt and accountability.

Where Do Students Get These Ideas?

Clearly, the idea of having a party where participants are encouraged to mock other people with offensive racial stereotypes is wrong. The question is where do students come up with these ideas?

Could it be that they have professors on campus who have compared Clarence Thomas to Uncle Tom and Condi Rice to Aunt Jemima?

Perhaps they've heard the remarks of Harry Belafonte, who called both Colin Powell and Condi Rice "house slaves." Or maybe they saw any of the hundreds of cartoons and images equating black republicans as Uncle Tom's, Lawn Jockeys, Aunt Jemimas, or with stereoptyped, exagerated physical features:



Wherever these students got the dumb idea for their party, I would like to see Donald Ray Elder, the NAACP and all those outraged by this party insist also that liberal Democrats stop using racist sterotypes and language in their hate campaign directed at black Republicans.

Feel free to email Mr. Elder and express your views. You might also send a note to Wanda Mercer, the school's vice president of student life, who plans to investigate the party.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

What Do Muslims Think of Christianity?

I forgot this link earlier in the year. A protest of Muslims in London outside Westminster Cathedral, the primary Catholic cathedral in the United Kingdom in September 2006. Holding signs which read:

May Allah Curse the Pope
Jesus will R[a]ise the Sword of Islam
Islam will Conquer Rome
Jesus will Destroy the Cross
Jesus is the Slave of Allah

Joee Blogs was attending mass in the Cathedral at the time and has the story here.

It's been more than four months since this offensive affront to Catholics and Christians worldwide. Thus far, no reports of Christians beheading Muslims for insulting Jesus or the Pope. No reports of riots, or burning embassies of Muslim nations around the Christian and Catholic world. No reports of dozens of mosques burning. Nothing.

Nope. Nothing more than the realization among some Catholics and Christians that radical Muslims really do mean it when they say their goal is for Islam to dominate the world and all other religions. And they're willing to use violence to advance their cause.

Global Baloney Part One

As part of our unmasking of the Global Baloney scam, I am reprinting extensive excerpts from a series of articles by Christopher Monckton published in the Telegraph, a British newspaper, last November. Monckton surveys the entire Global Baloney scam point by point by point.


  • Part One: The Sun is Warmer Now Than for the Past 11,400 Years.
  • Part Two: Wrong Problem, Wrong Solution
  • Apocalypse Canceled. Monckton's Reference and Expanded Resource File
  • Monckton's Letter to U.S. Senator's Snowe and Rockefeller: "Uphold Free Speech About Climate Change Or Resign"
  • If have 25-30 minutes to spare, I recommend reading each of his articles in their entirety. Monckton's letter to Senator's Snowe and Rockefeller is also an excellent primer on this important topic. Apocalypse Canceled offers forty pages of scientific charts and data and references all presented in an eminently readable form suitable for most readers.

    Lord Monckton is the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a former key policy advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and journalist. His work here amounts to a Holy Grail for those wishing to understand the factual and scientific basis for discussing the global warming issue.

    The sun is warmer now than for the past 11,400 years
    By Christopher Monckton,
    Sunday Telegraph
    11/5/2006

    Last week, Gordon Brown and his chief economist both said global warming was the worst "market failure" ever. That loaded soundbite suggests that the "climate-change" scare is less about saving the planet than, in Jacques Chirac's chilling phrase, "creating world government". This week and next, I'll reveal how politicians, scientists and bureaucrats contrived a threat of Biblical floods, droughts, plagues, and extinctions worthier of St John the Divine than of science.

    Sir Nicholas Stern's report on the economics of climate change, which was published last week, says that the debate is over. It isn't. There are more greenhouse gases in the air than there were, so the world should warm a bit, but that's as far as the "consensus" goes. After the recent hysteria, you may not find the truth easy to believe. So you can find all my references and detailed calculations here.

    The Royal Society says there's a worldwide scientific consensus. It brands Apocalypse-deniers as paid lackeys of coal and oil corporations. I declare my interest: I once took the taxpayer's shilling and advised Margaret Thatcher, FRS, on scientific scams and scares. Alas, not a red cent from Exxon.

    In 1988, James Hansen, a climatologist, told the US Congress that temperature would rise 0.3C by the end of the century (it rose 0.1C), and that sea level would rise several feet (no, one inch). The UN set up a transnational bureaucracy, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The UK taxpayer unwittingly meets the entire cost of its scientific team, which, in 2001, produced the Third Assessment Report, a Bible-length document presenting apocalyptic conclusions well beyond previous reports.

    This week, I'll show how the UN undervalued the sun's effects on historical and contemporary climate, slashed the natural greenhouse effect, overstated the past century's temperature increase, repealed a fundamental law of physics and tripled the man-made greenhouse effect.
    ...
    So to the scare. First, the UN implies that carbon dioxide ended the last four ice ages. It displays two 450,000-year graphs: a sawtooth curve of temperature and a sawtooth of airborne CO2 that's scaled to look similar. Usually, similar curves are superimposed for comparison. The UN didn't do that. If it had, the truth would have shown: the changes in temperature preceded the changes in CO2 levels.

    Next, the UN abolished the medieval warm period (the global warming at the end of the First Millennium AD). In 1995, David Deming, a geoscientist at the University of Oklahoma, had written an article reconstructing 150 years of North American temperatures from borehole data. He later wrote: "With the publication of the article in Science, I gained significant credibility in the community of scientists working on climate change. They thought I was one of them, someone who would pervert science in the service of social and political causes. One of them let his guard down. A major person working in the area of climate change and global warming sent me an astonishing email that said: 'We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period.' "

    So they did. The UN's second assessment report, in 1996, showed a 1,000-year graph demonstrating that temperature in the Middle Ages was warmer than today. But the 2001 report contained a new graph showing no medieval warm period. It wrongly concluded that the 20th century was the warmest for 1,000 years. The graph looked like an ice hockey-stick. The wrongly flat AD1000-AD1900 temperature line was the shaft: the uptick from 1900 to 2000 was the blade.

    They said they had included 24 data sets going back to 1400. Without saying so, they left out the set showing the medieval warm period, tucking it into a folder marked "Censored Data".
    ...
    • They used a computer model to draw the graph from the data, but scientists later found that the model almost always drew hockey-sticks even if they fed in random, electronic "red noise".

    The large, full-colour "hockey-stick" was the key graph in the UN's 2001 report, and the only one to appear six times. The Canadian Government copied it to every household. Four years passed before a leading scientific journal would publish the truth about the graph. Did the UN or the Canadian government apologise? Of course not. The UN still uses the graph in its publications.

    Even after the "hockey stick" graph was exposed, scientific papers apparently confirming its abolition of the medieval warm period appeared. The US Senate asked independent statisticians to investigate. They found that the graph was meretricious, and that known associates of the scientists who had compiled it had written many of the papers supporting its conclusion.

    The UN, echoed by Stern, says the graph isn't important. It is. Scores of scientific papers show that the medieval warm period was real, global and up to 3C warmer than now. Then, there were no glaciers in the tropical Andes: today they're there. There were Viking farms in Greenland: now they're under permafrost. There was little ice at the North Pole: a Chinese naval squadron sailed right round the Arctic in 1421 and found none.

    The Antarctic, which holds 90 per cent of the world's ice and nearly all its 160,000 glaciers, has cooled and gained ice-mass in the past 30 years, reversing a 6,000-year melting trend. Data from 6,000 boreholes worldwide show global temperatures were higher in the Middle Ages than now. And the snows of Kilimanjaro are vanishing not because summit temperature is rising (it isn't) but because post-colonial deforestation has dried the air. Al Gore please note.

    In some places it was also warmer than now in the Bronze Age and in Roman times. It wasn't CO2 that caused those warm periods. It was the sun. So the UN adjusted the maths and all but extinguished the sun's role in today's warming.

    Read the rest of part one here.

    Global Baloney "scientists" faked their conclusions by ignoring evidence that shows their claims are baseless? Who do they think they are? Duke rape case prosecutors?

    Give Sandy Berger a Lie Detector Test!

    GOP House Members urge Berger lie test
    By Jerry Seper
    The Washington Times
    January 24, 2007

    Eighteen House Republicans have urged the Justice Department to proceed with a polygraph test for Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser who agreed to take the test as part of a plea of guilty of stealing documents from the National Archives.
    "This may be the only way for anyone to know whether Mr. Berger denied the 9/11 commission and the public the complete account of the Clinton administration's actions or inactions during the lead-up to the terrorist attacks on the United States," the congressmen said in their letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.
    The congressmen -- led by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia -- said a prompt lie-detector test is needed to determine the extent of Mr. Berger's thievery, especially because the former Clinton administration adviser reviewed original documents for which there were no copies or inventory.
    ...
    Mr. Davis, former chairman and now ranking Republican on the House Government Reform Committee, released a report by his staff on Jan. 9, saying a Justice Department investigation of Mr. Berger's admitted document theft was "remarkably incurious."
    The report said the theft compromised national security "much more than originally disclosed" and resulted in "incomplete and misleading" information to the September 11 commission. It said Mr. Berger was willing to go to "extraordinary lengths to compromise national security, apparently for his own convenience."



    We know more about Mark Foley's emails than we do about the documents Sandy Berger stole from the National Archives and shoved under a construction trailer in downtown Washington.

    But don't expect the professional fingerpointers in the Democrat Party to support GOP efforts to learn the truth.

    Duke Rape Prosecutor Nifong on Trial

    New Charges filed against Nifong by North Carolina State Bar.

    Nifong's actions constitute a "systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion ... prejudicial to the administration of justice," the complaint read.

    Former Duke Lacrosse 'Rape' DA Charged With Withholding Evidence, Misleading Court
    Fox News
    January 24, 2007

    Nifong's actions constitute a "systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion ... prejudicial to the administration of justice," the complaint read

    The amended ethics complaint filed Wednesday points out 11 instances between May and mid-December when Nifong said in court or in court filings that he knew of no additional exculpatory evidence, additional results from DNA testing or conversations with the DNA experts that would help the defense.

    But according to the bar complaint, testing conducted at DNA Security Inc. had concluded by April 10 that none of the samples provided to police by 46 lacrosse players matched any material recovered from the accuser's "rape kit." A week later, Nifong charged Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann with rape.

    In another example cited by the bar in its complaint, Nifong referred at a Sept. 22 hearing to repeated defense requests seeking full DNA results and any underlying information as a "witch hunt."

    Defense attorneys were able to determine from other documents produced by Nifong that there may be additional test results they had not seen, the complaint said. They filed a motion in December that described the missing tests in detail.
    ...
    The bar charged Nifong in December with breaking four rules of professional conduct, including making misleading and inflammatory comments about the lacrosse team early in the case.
    (Read the hearing transcript or watch the hearing.)

    Wouldn't it be nice if you got the same level of accountability from other out of control prosecutors abusing their office for political purposes? I'd start with Ronnie Earle in Texas and add Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to the list.

    Cry Me a River in Cambodia at Christmas: John Kerry Tearfully Withdraws from 08 Run

    Boo Hoo!

    Mr. "Global Test" the man who will go down in history as an arrogant ass who insulted our troops in Iraq has decided to forego another run for the White House in 2008.

    Let's hope his tearful withdrawal will be a harbinger of things to come for similarly boneheaded Democrats.

    Tuesday, January 23, 2007

    Bush to Democrats: Do Not Vote for Failure

    White House Transcript of President Bush's State of the Union Address:

    President Bush:... Every one of us wishes this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. (Applause.) Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.
    ...
    We went into this largely united, in our assumptions and in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work. And I ask you to support our troops in the field, and those on their way.
    Expanding on the tradition that President Reagan started by introducing an outstanding American citizen during the speech, President Bush introduced four outstanding Americans. He did so to illustrate the following point:

    There is something wonderful about a country that produces a brave and humble man like Wesley Autrey. (Applause.)
    ...
    In such courage and compassion, ladies and gentlemen, we see the spirit and character of America -- and these qualities are not in short supply. This is a decent and honorable country -- and resilient, too. We've been through a lot together. We've met challenges and faced dangers, and we know that more lie ahead. Yet we can go forward with confidence -- because the State of our Union is strong, our cause in the world is right, and tonight that cause goes on. God bless.

    We live in an era where the "news" media diminishes heroes in their rush to tell us what is WRONG with the country. Tonight, President Bush selected these great Americans to illustrate what makes this country so good.

    Thank You Mr. President!

    Who is Funding the Peanut President?

    What would be the reaction if George W. Bush collected $146 million in secret contributions to fund his activities in one year after leaving office? Wouldn't you think people would want to know who was contributing, how a former president was selling his stature and whether the effort to fundraise conflicted with U.S. national interests?

    Well, we all know the rules by now: If a Republican is doing this, he or she is subject to intense scrutiny and unending questions from the "news" media.

    If a Democrat is doing it, well heck, why bother?

    But with the furor over the Peanut President's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," Carter's defense of a Nazi death camp guard and the slew of resignations from his Carter Center in Atlanta fresh questions are being asked.

    Claudia Rosett has the story in National Review. Don't expect to see anything like it in the lamestream "news" media.

    Hundreds Protest in Venezuela as Chavez Prepares Law "Enabling" Dictatorship

    Hugo Chavez stuffed the ballot boxes in Venezuelan Congressional elections and his handpicked apparatchiks are preparing to pass an "enabling law" giving him dictatorial powers to rule by decree.

    News story here.

    Students of history may already be familiar with an "enabling law" that allowed another dictator absolute power.

    We've warned about the dictatorship in Venezuela and it now appears too late to stop it. The Enabling Act gives Chavez absolute powers to create a "new economic and social model," "the transformation of the state," and the sole authority for "security and defense."

    Chavez is well on his way to complete control of the economy, the news media, telecommunications and energy. And he has already proven that any who dare oppose him will be punished. He even went so far as to enact a law making it a crime to insult him.

    Meanwhile, nearly every high priest of the American left has made the pilgrimage to Caracas in the past few years. Among them: Jesse Jackson, Ed Asner and Cindy Sheehan. Chavez's Venezuela is a model of democracy leftist-style.

    And the lefties called Bush Hitler?

    For more information, see "If Bush is Hitler, What is Hugo Chavez" from the March 2006 Mike's America.

    Monday, January 22, 2007

    Environmental Hysteria Week

    Here's a fun idea:

    All week long, I'll post tid bits and longer posts on environmental issues. I invite fellow bloggers to do the same and leave comments here with links to their own observations on the environmental scene.

    It's a rich field from which to choose topics, and one which has become heavily politicized by those attempting to use the emotional issue of the earth's environment to impose their socialist inspired viewpoint on the rest of us.

    I'll start us off today by mentioning a couple of recent articles that illustrate the problem. First Global Warming's high priest Al Gore was scheduled for an interview with Denmark's largest newspaper which also included Bjorn Lomborg, internationally known for writing the book "The Skeptical Environmentalist." At the last minute Gore declined to appear with Lomborg.

    Will Al Gore Melt?
    If not, why did he chicken out on an interview?

    BY FLEMMING ROSE AND BJORN LOMBORG
    Opinion Journal
    January 21, 2007

    ...Clearly we need to ask hard questions. Is Mr. Gore's world a worthwhile sacrifice? But it seems that critical questions are out of the question. It would have been great to ask him why he only talks about a sea-level rise of 20 feet. In his movie he shows scary sequences of 20-feet flooding Florida, San Francisco, New York, Holland, Calcutta, Beijing and Shanghai. But were realistic levels not dramatic enough? The U.N. climate panel expects only a foot of sea-level rise over this century. Moreover, sea levels actually climbed that much over the past 150 years. Does Mr. Gore find it balanced to exaggerate the best scientific knowledge available by a factor of 20?

    Mr. Gore says that global warming will increase malaria and highlights Nairobi as his key case. According to him, Nairobi was founded right where it was too cold for malaria to occur. However, with global warming advancing, he tells us that malaria is now appearing in the city. Yet this is quite contrary to the World Health Organization's finding. Today Nairobi is considered free of malaria, but in the 1920s and '30s, when temperatures were lower than today, malaria epidemics occurred regularly. Mr. Gore's is a convenient story, but isn't it against the facts?
    He considers Antarctica the canary in the mine, but again doesn't tell the full story. He presents pictures from the 2% of Antarctica that is dramatically warming and ignores the 98% that has largely cooled over the past 35 years. The U.N. panel estimates that Antarctica will actually increase its snow mass this century. Similarly, Mr. Gore points to shrinking sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere, but don't mention that sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere is increasing. Shouldn't we hear those facts? Mr. Gore talks about how the higher temperatures of global warming kill people. He specifically mentions how the European heat wave of 2003 killed 35,000. But he entirely leaves out how global warming also means less cold and saves lives. Moreover, the avoided cold deaths far outweigh the number of heat deaths. For the U.K. it is estimated that 2,000 more will die from global warming. But at the same time 20,000 fewer will die of cold. Why does Mr. Gore tell only one side of the story?
    Al Gore is on a mission. If he has his way, we could end up choosing a future, based on dubious claims, that could cost us, according to a U.N. estimate, $553 trillion over this century. Getting answers to hard questions is not an unreasonable expectation before we take his project seriously. It is crucial that we make the right decisions posed by the challenge of global warming. These are best achieved through open debate, and we invite him to take the time to answer our questions: We are ready to interview you any time, Mr. Gore--and anywhere.

    Lomborg is famous for setting up a series of exercises where he asks economists and policy makers to prioritize the world's problems according to available resources. Global warming always comes up at the bottom.


    Have Scientists Oversold Global Warming?

    This latest report is just the tip of the iceberg:
    Climate scientists feeling the heat
    As public debate deals in absolutes, some experts fear predictions 'have created a monster'
    By ERIC BERGER
    Houston Chronicle
    Jan. 22, 2007

    ...In their efforts to capture the public's attention, then, have climate scientists oversold global warming? It's probably not a majority view, but a few climate scientists are beginning to question whether some dire predictions push the science too far.

    "Some of us are wondering if we have created a monster," says Kevin Vranes, a climate scientist at the University of Colorado.

    Vranes, who is not considered a global warming skeptic by his peers, came to this conclusion after attending an American Geophysical Union meeting last month. Vranes says he detected "tension" among scientists, notably because projections of the future climate carry uncertainties — a point that hasn't been fully communicated to the public.

    The science of climate change often is expressed publicly in unambiguous terms.

    For example, last summer, Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, told the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce: "I think we understand the mechanisms of CO2 and climate better than we do of what causes lung cancer. ... In fact, it is fair to say that global warming may be the most carefully and fully studied scientific topic in human history."

    Vranes says, "When I hear things like that, I go crazy."
    ...
    Scientists have substantial evidence to support the view that humans are warming the planet — as carbon dioxide levels rise, glaciers melt and global temperatures rise. Yet, for predicting the future climate, scientists must rely upon sophisticated — but not perfect — computer models.

    "The public generally underappreciates that climate models are not meant for reducing our uncertainty about future climate, which they really cannot, but rather they are for increasing our confidence that we understand the climate system in general," says Michael Bauer, a climate modeler at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in New York.

    Gerald North, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, dismisses the notion of widespread tension among climate scientists on the course of the public debate. But he acknowledges that considerable uncertainty exists with key events such as the melting of Antarctica, which contains enough ice to raise sea levels by 200 feet.

    "We honestly don't know that much about the big ice sheets," North says. "We don't have great equations that cover glacial movements. But let's say there's just a 10 percent chance of significant melting in the next century. That would be catastrophic, and it's worth protecting ourselves from that risk."
    ...
    Would junior scientists feel compelled to mute their findings, out of concern for their careers, if the research contradicts the climate change consensus?

    "I can understand how a scientist without tenure can feel the community pressures," says environmental scientist Roger Pielke Jr., a colleague of Vranes' at the University of Colorado.

    Pielke says he has felt pressure from his peers: A prominent scientist angrily accused him of being a skeptic, and a scientific journal editor asked him to "dampen" the message of a peer-reviewed paper to derail skeptics and business interests.
    Pay special heed to the note about climate models. As any of us who live in the hurricane belt know, weather models cannot reliably predict what course a hurricane will take in a few days. Why is it that we think computer models forecasting twenty or thirty years ahead are more accurate?

    Get in on the program! Send in your links on environMENTALism and Global Baloney!

    Sunday, January 21, 2007

    Progress Report in Iraq and the War on Terror

    On January 10th President Bush outlined a "New Way Forward" to victory in Iraq. The plan includes sending in over 20,000 U.S. reinforcements to assist in ending the sectarian violence around Baghdad and going after Al Queda elements in Anbar province.

    --Ending Sectarian Violence Means Tackling Shiite Death Squads

    President Bush described one key element in the New Way Forward this way:

    President Bush: "In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter those neighborhoods -- and Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."
    Only last week we saw the first signs of progress on that important element for success with the arrests of large numbers of Mahdi Army supporters who were suspected of participating in the death squads which have fueled sectarian violence. A top aide to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army, was also arrested.

    Maliki promised President Bush: "The Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation." It appears initially that he is living up to his word.

    --Ending Iranian Interference

    President Bush also promised to tackle the problem of Iranian and Syrian troublemakers in Iraq:

    "This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

    The President didn't waste any time. He authorized moves to crack down on Iranian agents, and the arrests of five Iranians ,members of the notorious Revolutionary Guard, led to discoveries of a network of Iranian assistance to those planning violence in Iraq. Of course the Iranian government insisted it's personnel were "diplomats" and we all know how much Iran respects diplomats. They should have claimed the arrested men were "students" just as Iran did when "students" overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.

    Somalia: A Victory for Allied Cooperation

    During John Kerry's failed presidential campaign in 2004 he insisted that he would "do a better job" in fighting the war on terror. Such a promise was part of his "global test:"

    From CNN: John Kerry: "If you do things that are illegitimate in the eyes of the other people, it's very hard to get them to share the burden and risk with you."

    Kerry said he intends to be a president who understands "that America is stronger when we are leading global alliances and when we are leading the world, and that's how we are going to do it.
    Ever since September 11th President Bush has been leading a coalition of nations to combat terrorism. And under the plans that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld implemented, we forged a successful partnership with Ethiopia to root out the Al Queda presence which had taken control of Somalia last fall.

    In the past few weeks Ethiopian forces, with close but limited U.S. military cooperation, drove the Al Queda linked Islamic Courts, some of whom are suspects in the bombing of U.S embassies in Africa in 1998, out of Somalia. A new transitional government is now in place which may provide the first opportunity for Somalis to rise from the darkness that fell upon them shortly after President Clinton withdrew U.S. forces after the Black Hawk Down fiasco in 1993.

    An added bonus to the Somali operation was the capture of 6,000 Islamists fighting on behalf of the ousted Islamic Courts Union, a number of whom were found holding U.S. passports. Those prisoners are now being interrogated in Kenya (no doubt according to the very nicest "pretty please" standards demanded by the U.S. Senate). According to sources, "one of the American Islamists had received pilot training in the past."

    Democrats Reaction Negative. What a Surprise!
    • Democrats propose a resolution demanding that no further troops be sent to Iraq. Essentially stopping all efforts to end the violence and leaving no other option than defeat. Senator Reid claimed that the Senate resolution would be the "the beginning of the end of the present policy in Iraq." Nancy Pelosi, whose earlier comment about the President desiring to put more troops in "harm's way" was described as "poisonous" went on to say that "'It is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen our involvement in Iraq." Democrats see no hope of progress, only defeat.
    • After President Bush authorized the arrest of Iranian agents in Iraq, Democrats knocked themselves over in a rush to the microphones to warn President Bush he had better be nice to the Iranians.
    • And who would be surprised that after demanding we work with allies and let them shoulder some of the burden in the war on terror, Democrats would also object to Ethiopia's successful ousting of Al Queda in Somalia. Peter Beinart, former Editor of the New Republic writing in Time Magazine called this effort "outsourcing" and warned that "America will pay dearly for its inability to lead."

    Once again, this proves that good news for America is bad news for Democrats.

    Saturday, January 20, 2007

    Hillary Clinton Enters Prez Race. Needs More Furniture?

    Hillary Clinton announced today "I'm in" signaling that she is officially forming an exploratory committee for a presidential campaign.

    She made her announcement not in some large auditorium with cheering supporters waving signs while balloons dropped, but with an internet video. Claiming that her exploratory efforts will be focused on a "conversation directly to the people of America" similar to her "listening tour" before her Senate run, she also vowed to "spend two years doing everything in my power to limit the damage George W. Bush can do."

    No doubt Hillary chose the warm and fuzzy video rather than a large rally style announcement because she comes off a bit, well, SHRILL in those settings.

    To remind Americans who the REAL Hillary Clinton is, we need only listen to this short audio clip: "I'm sick and tired." Does this sound like a woman capable of listening or interested in a conversation with anyone who dares to disagree with her?

    Towards the end of Hillary's video, she says "Let's chat, let's have a dialogue. Because the conversation in Washington has been just a little one sided lately don't you think?"

    You're right about that Hillary. All I've heard for the last six years is the constant negative drumbeat from Democrats like you who have yet to offer their nation ANYTHING by way of an effective, practical alternative to deal with the problems we have.

    Chance to Get White House Furniture Back?

    Hillary's video is a SLICK production to be sure. It appears to have been filmed at one of her two residences (either Chappaqua or Washington). The video might be distracting to some who view furniture and objects in the room and wonder if perhaps they were among the pieces donated to the White House that mysteriously went missing as the Clintons departed.

    Perhaps if Hillary is elected she will return the missing furniture along with the "W" keys missing from the computer keyboards.

    Mike's America Flashback: Meeting Bill And Hill. I know who wears the pants.
    Also posted at the Wide Awakes.

    TV Viewing Alert: "Hezbollah Inside America" Saturday

    Hezbollah in Lebanon demonstrating the Nazi connection.
    Thanks Always on Watch for reminding us that Fox News has a special program on tonight: "Smokescreen: Hezbollah Inside America" airing Saturday, January 20th, at 8 p.m. EST.

    Hezbollah, founded, funded and trained by Iran has been responsible for the deaths of at least 289 Americans and countless others. Readers will recall that last summer it was Hezbollah who crossed the border from Lebanon and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers sparking off the Israel-Hezbollah war where the civilian population was used as human shields, their bodies for propganda.

    This the same Hezbollah which has been training Sadr milita death squads in Iraq fanning the flames of sectarian violence.
    This is the same Hezbollah that left incoming Democrat Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Silvestri Reyes, sputtering about answering in Spanish when it was obvious he didn't have a clue who they were.
    Here's a thought for viewers of this program: make a tape and send it to Reye's Congressional office.

    Thursday, January 18, 2007

    South Carolina's CONSERVATIVE Senator Takes on Harry Greid and WINS!

    If you watch TV news programs you would probably think South Carolina only has one Senator, Lindsey Graham, otherwise known as John McCain's "Mini-Me."

    But even though conservatives are disappointed we voted for "Mini-Me" expecting more, we got what we voted for with our junior Senator Jim DeMint.

    Here we learn how he took on Senate Democrat Leader Harry Greid on the subject of hidden earmarks (remember the culture of corruption?) and WON!

    Funny! I thought Democrats were the party of change and reform?

    Thanks SCHotline!

    More Democrats FOR More Troops in Iraq Before They were AGAINST Them

    We could do this all day. America's Anchorman, the Truth Detector provides further examples of Democrats who were FOR more troops in Iraq before President Bush decided to agree:
    DODD October 3, 2004: Certainly I think today people realize here that -- that the number of troops we have there, given the magnitude of the problem, given the problems we're facing, probably has to be increased.

    DODD January 17, 2007: The idea that further military, escalating military, involvement is going to produce the desired results will work -- I'm very much opposed it.

    BIDEN November 11, 2003: Because we haven't won the war yet. Everybody talks about winning the peace. We haven't won the war yet. There's a real counterinsurgency out there. It's genuine. It's made up of forces. It is more than just outside forces, more than Al-Qaeda, and we have to stamp it out, and we need more forces. There are not enough forces there.

    BIDEN January 17, 2007: Mr. President, do not send more troops! It would have the exact opposite impact you intend.

    HILLARY December 7, 2003: What I have said is that I do think we need more troops.

    HILLARY January 17, 2007: Rather than escalation of US troops -- which I do not believe will contribute to long-term success in Iraq -- we should be begin a phased redeployment of US troops as a way to put pressure on the Iraqi government to take responsibility to its own security and future.
    Notice how that word "escalation" has been making the rounds? You would think that a party with the discipline to enforce such rigid talking points on the prima donnas at the top of the ladder could come up with some IDEAS to go along with them.

    But then, YOU would think!

    Clean House or Corruption By Another Name?

    "Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history."
    --Nancy Pelosi, November 8, 2006

    Remember the cry "culture of corruption" in regard to Republican control of Congress? Remember Nancy Pelosi's promise to "clean the house?" Perhaps then, there is another way to explain this:

    Washington's 'Revolving Door' Under Scrutiny
    By Brit Hume
    Political Grapevine
    Wednesday, January 17, 2007

    Ethics Rules
    Congressional ethics rules place all sorts of limits on what people who leave government can do, including restrictions on their ability to communicate with and lobby their former colleagues. But for people who leave the private sector to work on Capitol Hill there are no such restrictions.

    The Washington Post reports there are a number of people now in position to help their former employers if they choose to do so.

    The chief of staff to the House Energy and Commerce Committee is a former lobbyist and strategist for DaimlerChrysler. The chief counsel for that committee is a former lobbyist for Verizon. The chief of staff for the House Rules Committee is a former lobbyist for a firm representing a major automaker and the oil industry. And the senior adviser to House Democratic Whip James Clyburn is on unpaid leave from Microsoft, where he is director of federal government affairs.

    Is this the "change and reform" voters wanted?

    This just popped up on my random quotes box in the sidebar. It fits perfectly:

    "The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right."

    More quotes from GK Chesterton

    fsg053d4.txt Free xml sitemap generator