Monday, July 21, 2008

Senator, it's good enough for me!!

It seems that the NYT feels like Senator McCain's response to Senator Obama's recent opinion piece was simply not in line enough with Senator Obama's views to be worthy of printing.   

Senator, it looked fine to me!  Via Drudge, the text of Senator McCain's response:

The DRUDGE REPORT presents the McCain editorial in its submitted form:


In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation “hard” but not “hopeless.” Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.


   Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there,” he said on January 10, 2007. “In fact, I think it will do the reverse."


   Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that “our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence.” But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.


   Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, “Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress.” Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City—actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.


   The success of the surge has not changed Senator Obama’s determination to pull out all of our combat troops. All that has changed is his rationale. In a New York Times op-ed and a speech this week, he offered his “plan for Iraq” in advance of his first “fact finding” trip to that country in more than three years. It consisted of the same old proposal to pull all of our troops out within 16 months. In 2007 he wanted to withdraw because he thought the war was lost. If we had taken his advice, it would have been. Now he wants to withdraw because he thinks Iraqis no longer need our assistance.


   To make this point, he mangles the evidence. He makes it sound as if Prime Minister Maliki has endorsed the Obama timetable, when all he has said is that he would like a plan for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops at some unspecified point in the future.


   Senator Obama is also misleading on the Iraqi military's readiness. The Iraqi Army will be equipped and trained by the middle of next year, but this does not, as Senator Obama suggests, mean that they will then be ready to secure their country without a good deal of help. The Iraqi Air Force, for one, still lags behind, and no modern army can operate without air cover. The Iraqis are also still learning how to conduct planning, logistics, command and control, communications, and other complicated functions needed to support frontline troops.


   No one favors a permanent U.S. presence, as Senator Obama charges. A partial withdrawal has already occurred with the departure of five “surge” brigades, and more withdrawals can take place as the security situation improves. As we draw down in Iraq, we can beef up our presence on other battlefields, such as Afghanistan, without fear of leaving a failed state behind. I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.


   But I have also said that any draw-downs must be based on a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground, not on an artificial timetable crafted for domestic political reasons. This is the crux of my disagreement with Senator Obama.


   Senator Obama has said that he would consult our commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders, but he did no such thing before releasing his “plan for Iraq.” Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t want to hear what they have to say. During the course of eight visits to Iraq, I have heard many times from our troops what Major General Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, recently said: that leaving based on a timetable would be “very dangerous.”


   The danger is that extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we’ve had too few troops in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history. I find it ironic that he is emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the “Mission Accomplished” banner prematurely.


   I am also dismayed that he never talks about winning the war—only of ending it. But if we don’t win the war, our enemies will. A triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us. That is something I will not allow to happen as president. Instead I will continue implementing a proven counterinsurgency strategy not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan with the goal of creating stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic allies.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

No smoking hot spot | The Australian

Repeat after me, humans are not causing global warming, humans are not causing global warming, humans are not causing global warming . . . . .

No smoking hot spot | The Australian

 

I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.

FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris, soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I've been following the global warming debate closely for years.

When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.

The evidence was not conclusive, but why wait until we were certain when it appeared we needed to act quickly? Soon government and the scientific community were working together and lots of science research jobs were created. We scientists had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet.

But since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Power Line: One Way To Get Serious About Saving Our Economy: Shale Oil

A chart everyone should have burned into their memory.  Remember, the only people keeping us from energy independence are the Democrats and the environmentalists.  Think about that the next time you pay $4 + for a gallon of gasoline.

Power Line: One Way To Get Serious About Saving Our Economy: Shale Oil

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Nozzle Rage

The attack of the rag-headed gas nozzle!  Terrifying!

Is Pollution Slowing Global Warming?

Just too rich for words!!  Hello?????  Al????  Hello???

Is Pollution Slowing Global Warming?

A new study throws yet another wrench into our understanding of global climate change

By Stuart Fox Posted 07.09.2008 at 12:54 pm 4 Comments

Of Sun and Smog: Photo by Edwin Maolana (CC Licensed)

Wait, now pollution is preventing global warming? That’s the conclusion of a recent study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, which says rising temperatures seen in Europe over the last few years result as much from the reduction of air pollution as from the creation of it. The research, which looked at the effects of aerosols on climate, confirms an older concept known as global dimming, and complicates our understanding of how mankind affects the climate.

Al Gore to Lead U.S. Into Abyss on Warming

More warnings about the man made global warming hoax.  The cost of this hoax to the global economy is staggering.  Perhaps the foolishness is beginning to see the light of day.

Al Gore to Lead U.S. Into Abyss on Warming

Thursday, July 10, 2008 11:51 AM
By:  Paul M. Weyrich

In a remarkable speech before the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, Coleman was very serious about global warming as the consummate fraud. He began by saying that we should give credit where credit is due. There is, he said, an intrinsic connection between Al Gore’s campaign for global warming and $4 per gallon gasoline. “It comes down to . . . the claim that carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks of our power plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth. What an amazing fraud; what a scam.”

Pelosi: Drilling in protected areas ‘a hoax’

That is the Democrat answer to creating more domestic oil production??  Really??  Hell, at this rate she might actually loose to Cindy.

Pelosi: Drilling in protected areas ‘a hoax’

By Jared Allen

Posted: 07/10/08 01:28 PM [ET]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday shut the door on expanding oil and gas drilling beyond areas that have already been approved for energy exploration, drawing a clear distinction from her counterparts in charge of the Senate.

“This call for drilling in areas that are protected is a hoax, it’s an absolute hoax on the part of the Republicans and this administration” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. “It’s a decoy to punt your attention away from the fact that their policies have produced $4-a-gallon gasoline.”

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Doomed to a fatal delusion over climate change

Finally, Global Warming is being seen for the mental disease it truly is!  It's about time.

Doomed to a fatal delusion over climate change

Andrew Bolt

July 09, 2008 12:00am

PSYCHIATRISTS have detected the first case of "climate change delusion" - and they haven't even yet got to Kevin Rudd and his global warming guru.

Writing in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of our Royal Children's Hospital say this delusion was a "previously unreported phenomenon".

"A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events."

(So have Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery, Profit of Doom Al Gore and Sir Richard Brazen, but I digress.)

"The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies."

Are you paying your fair share??

Are you paying your fair share??

Obama is making much of making sure the rich pay more and the poor pay less.  So, how is it working today??  Perhaps Obama should pay attention to the facts.

 

Political Diary
July 9, 2008

Reviving Redistributionism
New data from the IRS will be out in a few weeks on who pays how much in taxes. My contacts at the Treasury Department tell me that for the first time in decades, and perhaps ever, the richest 1% of tax filers will have paid more than 40% of the income tax burden. The top 50% will account for 97% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% will have paid just 3%.

Pelosi’s bitter words on energy are catching up with her

You just have to wonder - just how much pain are the American people going to have to be in before Congress allows our natural resources to be used?

Pelosi’s bitter words on energy are catching up with her

 

By see-dubya  •  July 9, 2008 04:14 AM

Sure, San Fran Nan’s floundering around begging President Bush to release oil from the strategic oil reserve–anything but drilling any new wells, anywhere, I guess–but back in April 2006 she was blaming that darn Republican congress for these high prices:

INTELLECTUALS LIE, THE POWERLESS DIE - New York Post

It's sad that such an obvious fact needs to be pointed out.    The world is full of windbags perfectly happy to allow the less fortunate to die at the hands of monsters as long as they can point out how horrific these acts are.

INTELLECTUALS LIE, THE POWERLESS DIE - New York Post

INTELLECTUALS LIE, THE POWERLESS DIE

Mugabe: Unmoved by hand-wringers.

Mugabe: Unmoved by hand-wringers.

By RALPH PETERS

Posted: 3:50 am
July 9, 2008

THE greatest lie intellectuals tell us is that "the pen is mightier than the sword." That's what cowards claim when they want to preen as heroes.

Billions of words have been hurled at Sudan's government. The misery in Darfur not only continues but deepens. While intellectuals wrestled with compound sentences, Darfur degenerated from selective oppression to savage anarchy.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Congress | Redstate

Supreme leader Pelosi wants to limit her underlings free speech.  Color me shocked!

Congress

Posted at 6:00am on Jul. 9, 2008 Nancy Pelosi Wants to Shut Down Member Blogging

Democrats in the House Want Representatives to Only Post to "Approved" Websites

Higher CO2 levels may be good for plants: German scientists

Things that make you go hummmmmmmm. 

Higher CO2 levels may be good for plants: German scientists



The dangerous rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may be troubling scientists and world leaders but it could prove to be a boon for plants, German researchers said Tuesday.

Increasing exposure to carbon dioxide appears to boost crop yields, Hans-Joachim Weigel of the Johann Heinrich von Thuenen Institute for rural areas, forestry and fisheries in the central city of Brunswick told AFP.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Ideas and Trends - Maybe Chicken Little Wasn’t Paranoid After All - NYTimes.com

Things that go BOOM from space.

Ideas and Trends - Maybe Chicken Little Wasn’t Paranoid After All - NYTimes.com

Maybe Chicken Little Wasn’t Paranoid After All

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Published: July 6, 2008

THE Earth is pockmarked with the evidence of ancient collisions — huge craters blasted into its surface by asteroids or comets. One such object, striking 65 million years ago in the Yucatán in Mexico, is believed by some experts to be linked to the demise of the dinosaurs.

LEVELED The result of a blast believed to have been caused by a meteoroid 100 years ago.

For a decade, NASA has been busy trying to identify what else is headed this way, particularly those potential “civilization killers” of 1 kilometer (.62 miles) or more in diameter that have orbits coming within 30 million miles of the Earth’s — too close for comfort by space standards.

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq - Las Vegas Sun

Iraq's nuclear program???????????????   WHAT?!?!?!? They had a nuclear program??????????????????? 

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq - Las Vegas Sun

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq

The Associated Press

Sat, Jul 5, 2008 (11:15 a.m.)

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program _ a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium _ reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" _ the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment _ was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

400 members of Rainbow Family surround, attack federal officers

Boy Scouts or hippies???  Need I even ask who received preferential treatment?

400 members of Rainbow Family surround, attack federal officers

400 members of Rainbow Family surround, attack federal officers Forest Service officials stoned by hippy group allowed to displace Boy Scouts' service project


Posted: July 05, 2008    6:16 pm Eastern    © 2008 WorldNetDaily

National Forest Service officials, surrounded and attacked yesterday in Wyoming with sticks and stones by 400 members of the Rainbow Family, were given reason to regret their decision to cancel a long-planned national service project by the Boy Scouts of America in favor of the unorganized annual gathering of hippies, anarchists and "free spirits" who commune with nature and each other.

Newsmax.com - Companies Begin Quest for Oil, Gas Off Florida

Note that this ability comes from a 2006 agreement.  So, Congress was painfully aware in 2006 this crisis was coming.  And, given a green light, it took oil companies two years to get a rig on-site.  The blame for our foreign dependence for oil and our inability to drill locally lies squarely in the lap Congress.

Newsmax.com - Companies Begin Quest for Oil, Gas Off Florida

Companies Begin Quest for Oil, Gas Off Florida

Saturday, July 5, 2008 5:30 AM

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide.

The early activity here stems from a 2006 Congressional compromise that allows drilling on 8.3 million acres more than 125 miles off the Panhandle _ an area that had been covered by the moratorium, which was enacted out of environmental concerns. In exchange, the state got a no-drilling buffer along the rest of its beaches.

Boys punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah

I can not even come up with a good reason to even chastise these kids.  In fact, I can not even come up for a good reason for the exercise at all.  Isn't it enough to just explain the difference between religions?  Are Muslim girls being forced to remove their coverings and kneel in prayer?  This type of act is a gift to the Islamofacists and one more nail in the coffin of European liberty.

Boys punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah

Boys punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah

'If Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war'


Posted: July 04, 2008    6:15 PM Eastern   © 2008 WorldNetDaily

Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class.

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis | Environment | The Guardian

Why on earth should this surprise anyone??  Is the whole basic understanding of supply and demand lost to the average person on the street?

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis | Environment | The Guardian

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis

Corn used for biofuel

A handful of corn before it is processed. Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Obama's Terrorist Friends

Regulators to Schumer on IndyMac: Please shut up | Money & Company | Los Angeles Times

The Democrat assault on our financial institutions continue.  Are these folks consiounsily trying to create financial chaos??

Regulators to Schumer on IndyMac: Please shut up

5:47 PM, July 2, 2008

Sen. Charles E. Schumer publicly taunted bank regulators last week about IndyMac Bancorp's financial condition, which helped trigger a sudden outflow of deposits from the Pasadena thrift. Now the New York Democrat is getting some harsh blowback from one current and one former regulator.

The Volokh Conspiracy - - - Who met more goals, the US Congress or the Iraq Government??? NOT EVEN CLOSE!!

The Volokh Conspiracy - - Who met more goals, the US Congress or the Iraq Government????  NOT EVEN CLOSE!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Which Has Met More US Congressional Goals: Iraq or the US Congress?--

In the most recent report on political goals for Iraq, it appears that 15 of 18 benchmarks set by the US Congress have been met:

On page 8 of the Washington Post’s news section today, we learn that, according to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq has met all but three of the 18 original benchmarks set by Congress. The only three that have not met are (a) enacting and implementing laws governing the oil industry (though it’s not clear why formal laws are necessary), (2) disarmament of militia and insurgent groups, and (3) making the Iraqi police more professional.

The Post hastens to add, however, that other recent assessments find that Iraq has failed to achieve “many of the goals that the Baghdad government and President Bush said would be reached by the end of 2007.”

This would seem to compare with progress on the political goals that the Democratic Congress set for itself in 2006. Remember its “Six for ‘06” proposal made in the summer of 2006:

Magazine Preview - Rush Limbaugh is Just Getting Warmed Up - NYTimes.com

An excellent interview with el Rushbo.

Magazine Preview - Rush Limbaugh is Just Getting Warmed Up - NYTimes.com

Late-Period Limbaugh

By ZEV CHAFETS
Published: July 6, 2008

The anteroom was empty when I stepped off the elevator one afternoon in mid-February. Limbaugh receives very few visitors at work, and no journalists from the hated “mainstream media.” When I was buzzed into the control room, I was met by Bo Snerdly — a very large man in a Huey Newton beret — who glared at me. “Are you the guy who’s here to do the hit job on us?” he demanded in a deep voice.

“Absolutely,” I said.

Snerdly, whose real name is James Golden, held my eyes for a long moment before bursting into emphatic laughter.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Chris Satullo: A not-so-glorious Fourth | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/01/2008

What a pathetic man.

Chris Satullo: A not-so-glorious Fourth | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/01/2008

Chris Satullo: A not-so-glorious Fourth

U.S. atrocities are unworthy of our heritage.

By Chris Satullo

Inquirer Columnist

 

Put the fireworks in storage.

Cancel the parade.

Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.

This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.

For we have sinned.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Excite News - Blind Special Forces soldier: determined to serve

A reminder of what a true American Hero looks and acts like.

Excite News - Blind Special Forces soldier: determined to serve

Blind Special Forces soldier: determined to serve


Jun 30, 7:25 AM (ET)
By KEVIN MAURER

(AP) Capt. Ivan Castro, executive officer of the 7th Special Forces Group headquarters company salutes...
Full Image

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.

"Once you're blind, you have to set new goals," Castro said.

He set them higher.

YouTube - Harry Reid Says "Coal Makes Us Sick"

How can such an  ignorant man rise to such a powerful position??

YouTube - Harry Reid Says "Coal Makes Us Sick"

FrontPage Magazine

EMP is a threat I talked about long ago.  With Iran rushing towards completion of a nuclear weapon, this article is a good reminder that the US does not have to be turned into a nuclear wasteland to be returned back to the 1800s.

FrontPage Magazine

The Next High-Tech Threat to U.S. Security

By Paul M. Weyrich
FreeCongress.com | Tuesday, July 01, 2008

It now has been four years since Dr. William Graham, Science Advisor to President Ronald W. Reagan and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, and a distinguished panel completed a study of High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and its potential effects upon this country. The conclusions of this study are the most frightening I have seen concerning modern-day threats.

The American Spectator

The future from Der Fuehrer Obama.

The American Spectator

Freedom and the View From Obamaland
By Jeffrey Lord
Published 7/1/2008 12:08:10 AM

Pull back for a moment from the day-to-day and see the pattern.
Talk radio. Oil. Guns. Global warming. Smoking.
On the surface this is a seemingly unconnected laundry list of issues, their connection one to another tangential at best. Or is it?
In the increasingly disturbing view we are all getting of the messianic world that is Obamaland, these subjects in fact have a chilling commonality.