Tuesday, January 26, 2010

One-term wonder

"I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president," says President Obama. I think this is a worthy sentiment, for which all Presidents should strive.

But I'm thinking more Franklin Pierce or Jimmy Carter, than John Adams on this one. I certainly hope I'm wrong.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Petty criminal

guilty of crimes of murder, armed robbery of citizens, state banks and post offices; assaulting a justice of the peace, raping a virgin of the white race, statuatory rape of a minor of the black race; derailing a train in order to rob the passengers, bank robbery, highway robbery, breaking out of the state prison, promoting prostitution, blackmail, intention of selling fugitive slaves, and counterfeiting. Cattle rustling, horse thievery, supplying Indians with firearms, misrepresenting himself as a Mexican General, unlawfully drawing salary and living allowances from the Army. Crimes against places of high authority, including burning down the courthouse and sheriff’s office, theft of sacred objects, arson in a state prison, perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children, inciting prostitution, kidnapping, extortion, receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods, passing counterfeit money and contrary to the laws of the state using marked cards and loaded dice.

Guesses on who the accused is?

Football!

The NFC Championship game was exciting. A game that was so closely played that there wasn't a boring moment in it.I was rooting for the Vikings for no particular reason.

The Vikings had the best of it, and if you looked at the stats, they won by a score of something like 35-14. Unfortunately, they had two liabilities. One being, one of the best running backs to ever play the game, Adrian Peterson, who appeared to be carrying a greased pig rather than a pigskin. The other, future Hall of Famer Brett Favre, who seems to go wobbly in his decision making in the most important games.

The Saints did what they had managed most of the season, hang on until they could pull out a win. It is a pleasure to see a franchise with such a poor history finally make it to the Super Bowl.

I doubt the Super Bowl will be nearly as entertaining as this game was. Somehow, I feel that the Peyton Manning led Colts will not let the Saints hang on.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Turmoil in Pelosiland

Perhaps the biggest loser in Tuesday's election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate is Speaker Pelosi.

Pelosi represents San Francisco, probably, the most liberal Congressional district in the country. She has operated as Speaker as though the whole Democratic caucus is as liberal as she and her constituency. The Massachusetts Senate election was clearly a repudiation of the liberal agenda that she, Majority Leader Reid and President Obama have advanced. The healthcare reform bill now in conference is a dead letter. Cap and trade didn't have much chance before the election, it has none now.

Senator Reid has lost his 60 seat majority, so the filibuster can be more easily invoked by the opposition. This gives him political cover, and may well save his seat in Nevada. Speaker Pelosi has seen no change in the make up of her caucus. But the Democratic members of the House who are in competitive districts must now face the political reality that if they comply with the Speaker's mandates they will very likely be unelected in November.

The Speaker cannot legitimately move toward the political center. First of all, she has no concept of what that is, and secondly, the left-wing of the party will start screaming for her head if she attempts to do so. The Moveon.org and DailyKos group are already pissed that the agenda they espouse has not been forced through the House and Senate.

She has the option of working with the more centrist and conservative parts of her caucus, as well as approaching the Republican caucus. The Republicans certainly have no incentive to work with her in anyway, unless she is willing to offer very real concessions to their agenda.

Pelosi, as the Speaker, wields tremendous power. That power is dependent on the other members willingness to follow her as a leader. I doubt we will see a challenge to her leadership, but it is likely to become very difficult for her to whip up the votes to pass any legislation that is not acceptable to the more moderate members of the House.

It will be very interesting to watch and see how she manages what has become a very difficult situation for her.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Now Krugman?

Wow the NY Times opinion staff is turning on President Obama. First it was Dowd, now Krugman jumps ship.

This is a highly positive development. Despite Krugman's Nobel Economic prize he seems way off base on what America wants or needs. He has decided that Obama is not "the One."

The Progressive agenda appears to be off the rails.

Bobsledding is a dangerous sport

we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people

President Obama feels that "we" lost a sense of speaking directly to the American people. Notice the odd use of "we", with the President it is usually "I".

The problem is not that he, the Administration or the Democrats lost the sense of speaking directly to. There is entirely to much of speaking to, and not nearly enough of speaking with, or listening to, the American people.

Perhaps there is a lesson learned here, and the President will actually start to fulfill some of the promise that so many believed in upon his election.

Hitler is not impressed with Brown's victory



"Bush got C's, Obama probably failed lunch."

ht Althouse

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Massachusetts elects a Republican

According to the Drudge Report Coakley has called and conceded the race to Brown.

Massachusetts is as firmly Democrat as Texas is Republican. I don't see any way to read this but as repudiation of the Democrats over-reach in the past year. Specifically the attempt to force a national health care bill on the country that is wildly unpopular. The Liberal side of the party has sacrificed all support in a rush to produce a more socialist government.

I have always believed that America is centrist. The religious Conservative branch of the Republican Party is not popular with the average American, and neither is the Progressive branch of the Democratic Party. Unfortunately the seniority system in the legislative branches ensures that the fringes will be over-represented in the legislative process.

We will hear a lot about what this means for the November elections, but that is a long way off, and the Democrats have a chance to salvage some of the inevitable losses. If they continue to legislate against middle America's wishes their losses will make 1994 look like a minor loss.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Hubris

Why do the Democrats in charge, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, insist on inflicting a healthcare bill on us. Popular support is abysmal. According to Rasmussen polling released today (Jan 18) 18% strongly favor, while 44% strongly disapprove of the proposed plan.

Last I checked this was a representative democracy. Meaning the elected represent their constituents.

Inflicting this law upon America at this time looks like political suicide for the Democratic Party. Sure Pelosi will be re-elected, but Reid looks like a lock to lose to anyone not named Reid in Nevada.

I'm confused. I just don't get it. What is the point of this?

Ocean depths and glacial heights

As Cousin Mark says in his comments there is a study out which supports the theory that deep ocean temperatures more closely track changing climate than other data being used.
Prof Latif, who leads a research team at the renowned Leibniz Institute at Germany’s Kiel University, has developed new methods for measuring ocean temperatures 3,000ft beneath the surface, where the cooling and warming cycles start.

His findings indicate that the warming of the deep currents in the 1980's-2000 started deep in the ocean. These temperatures have now reversed and are colder. He believes these currents account for as much as 50% of climate change.

More on the scandal front: it appears that the whole chapter in the IPCC report about the rapid disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers was based on one magazine article which was based on one phone interview with one Indian scientists who made a statement based on supposition without any research or data to support it. Scientists who actually study glaciers say that the statements made in the IPCC report are virtually impossible.

P.S. The UN admits they made a mistake. (This is pretty rare.)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Global warming scams go global

No longer is the manipulation of data to reinforce the preconception of warming a British fetish. Now we learn that our NASA Goddard Science and Space Institute at Columbia University in New York, and the NOAA National Climate Data Center in Ashville, North Carolina, are reducing the number of temperature measurement stations by about 75%, and maintaining those at lower altitudes versus higher. You don't need to be a meteoroligist or climatologist to know that this will create higher average temperatures.

In Canada the number of stations dropped from 600 to 35 in 2009. The percentage of stations in the lower elevations (below 300 feet) tripled and those at higher elevations above 3000 feet were reduced in half. Canada’s semi-permanent depicted warmth comes from interpolating from more southerly locations to fill northerly vacant grid boxes, even as a pure average of the available stations shows a COOLING. Just 1 thermometer remains for everything north of latitude 65N – that station is Eureka. Eureka according to Wikipedia has been described as “The Garden Spot of the Arctic” .


How can we possibly reorder the world's economy based on information provided by our, formerly, trusted scientific community. Read Delingpole for a more detailed story.

Perhaps we should just confine temperature readings to stations between 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south. Then we could really prove some warming compared to historical global temperature measurements.

Shami for Governor

Back in April Cousin Mark stated that he would have to vote for Kaye Bailey if there was no credible Democratic candidate for Texas Governor. Thank goodness he has Farouk Shami to vote for.

Shami is so ashamed of his religion that he lists himself as a Quaker. Upon further questioning he says he's a Quaker/Muslim. Perhaps the honest answer is he doesn't have a religious preference. Muslim certainly doesn't sell to the voters of Texas, and the last broadly elected Quaker I can think of was President Nixon.

Oh bother, neither will garner many votes in the general election.

Help Haiti

It is easy to donate to the relief effort in Haiti. If you have texting, and who doesn't, just text "HAITI" to 90999 and donate $10. This is easy to do and it really adds up. By Thursday of last week $7 million had already been donated this way.

Come on, all three of you reading this, donate.