CERN Shoots Holes In Climate Change Theory

Perhaps in the bitter partisan atmosphere the country finds itself in today it would be appropriate to credit Barack Obama for fulfilling his most audacious assertion. Even before winning the general election Obama proclaimed the moment "when the rise of the oceans began to slow." NASA scientists say that El Nino and La Nina, weather cycles in the Pacific Ocean, have caused sea levels to fall. Ok, so economics isn't his long suit but Barack Hussein Obama has lowered sea levels, the same sea levels that were Al Gore told us would rise 20 feet in the near future. One would think an administration so bereft of good new would leap on this finding. Quite the opposite, the administration and the popular media have ignored this "inconvenient truth" because it further damages the credibility of the doomsday wing of the Democratic party and confirms Rick Perry's assertion that global warming is a hoax.
Experiments performed by a European nuclear research group indicate that the sun, not man, determines Earth's temperature. CERN conducted experiments to mimic Earth's atmosphere and concluded that solar magnetic fields do have an effect on cloud formation. This is revolutionary, at least to the AGW school, because clouds shade the Earth from the sun causing it to heat less, therefore if the sun controls the clouds and the clouds control the temperature Al Gore needs to find another cause. There is irony in CERN's position on this matter. It seems almost embarrassed by its conclusions that fly in the face of a politically correct article of faith. CERN's director general, Rolf-Dieter Heuer says he has "asked the colleagues to present the results clearly, but not to interpret them. That would go immediately into the highly political arena of the climate change debate." Of course had the conclusion of CERN gone the other way he probably wouldn't care how his colleagues interpreted the results.
Everyone of average intelligence knows that the earth has not gotten warmer each successive year as strict adherence to the AGW theory would dictate. Most of these people are not skeptics by reasoned thought but rather by an intuition that mandates they should suspect almost all popular theories. Not deny them but just hold them in abeyance until the final verdict is in. Slowly they will see the verdict is in.

North Dakota Booms

Click to enlargeOccasionally this blog likes to stray from politics and explore the good news that is out there. In an earlier post the Marcellus Shale formation and the promised cheap energy it holds were examined. In future posts we may examine the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana, the Barnett Shale in Texas, or the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas. The point is there are trillions upon trillion of cubic feet of natural gas now available because of the new technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fraking). While Washington has stymied exploration for oil and gas in the Baltimore Canyon, just a few hundred miles from DC, from the Ellwood Oil Field off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, from the Cook Inlet and Anwar in Alaska, clever drillers have discovered other riches.

Williston, North Dakota is home to more than 350 oil service companies. With a population of 14,716 according to the 2010 census it seems extreme that it would issue 99 permits for single family homes through May of this year. But extreme is the new normal for North Dakota. The other statistic that makes local hearts beat fast is the number 200. Last week the total number of drilling rigs working in North Dakota reached 200 up from 15 in 2001. The Bakken Shale formation, like the Marcellus shale formation, holds a bounty of natural gas but the Bakken holds more. Unlike its northeastern cousin the Bakken also holds oil.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the mean undiscovered volumes of 3.65 billion barrels of oil and 1.85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The 1995 estimate was 150 million barrels of oil.

Presently because of the price of oil, drillers in the Bakken have focused on it rather than natural gas. Unlike traditional Texas gushers familiar to generations of movie goers, shale oil seeps. It must be pumped to the surface. It's held in on site storage tanks, then moved by truck to central storage depots and eventually transported by pipe line or rail to the refineries. Aside from the employment directly associated with drilling a sizeable work force must be employed in machine shops, motor shops, trucking sales and service, heavy equipment service, and housing. Yes, housing in North Dakota is booming with some home owners experiencing double digit appreciation of their home values while the rest of the country frets about declining home prices. While optimism may be out of vogue don't tell the good people of Williston. Oh to be 21 and single again!

DeMint Won't Run In 2016

It seems a little early to make such an announcement but South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint says he won't be a candidate for reelection in 2016. DeMint says he believes in term limits and will limit himself to two terms . Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is also limiting himself to two terms and will retire in 2016 also.

Bustour buses flown on jets from stop to stop?

  This story is just emerging. According to LiveLeak and various sources, POTUS's buses were flown on jets around the country. The buses, which were specially built in Canada for POTUS, only transported POTUS for an hour or two at a time. Source:

He FLYS into an airport somewhere in the midwest, hops into a brand new 1.1 Million $ bus, paid for by you and me, for a “bus tour” ‘around the midwest’, and after an hour or so, gets driven back to the airport for ANOTHER FLIGHT, lands at another airport where another 1.1 Million $ brand new black bus is waiting for him… and repeats all that until his midwest bus‘tour’ is done?? Oh yes......and THEN he leaves on a 12 day vacation to Martha's Vineyard.......to REST UP from this campaign bus tour!  

And don't forget........those brand new shiny black buses aren’t DRIVEN to the location where they meet Obama. Those buses are loaded up on one or more C-17s. Then, they are flown to the destination ahead of AirForce- AND!.......this is REPEATED FOR EVERY CAMPAIGN STOP. On this 'bus tour', the Prez will lecture the 'little people' on how they need to live within their means and cut-back! Remember when very recently Obama told that family man to GO BUY A HYBRID VAN when he said he couldn’t afford to fill up his truck???? Obama's 'carbon footprint' must be as large as most cities by now. 

Perry Dominates in South Carolina

A new poll from Public Policy Polling shows Texas Governor Rick Perry dominating the Republican primary field in South Carolina. Perry gets 36 percent of the vote, Romney gets 16 percent and Bachmann 13 percent. Rounding out the field; Cain 9%, Gingrich 8%, Paul 5% Santorum 4% and Huntsman 2%. Matched head to head Perry beats Romney 59 to 28 percent and Bachmann 60 to 23 percent. If Sarah Palin joins the fray, it has no impact on Perry’s dominance but a lot on Bachmann’s standing. Palin would place third at 10% behind Perry still at 36%, Romney at 13%, followed by Cain’s 9%, and Bachmann and Gingrich tied at 7%.
Elsewhere belief in Obama's citizenship has slipped since June, when 42% believed the president was born here and 35% did not. Now, that is more than flipped, 35-44.

Peter Morici And The Broken Window Fallacy

Viewers of FoxNews and CNBC know University of Maryland economist Peter Morici. Morici is an affable and clever man but lately he has come under attack from a fellow economist, George Mason University's Don Boudreaux. In a CNBC post Morici wrote;

"However, rebuilding after Irene, especially in an economy with high unemployment and underused resources in the construction and building materials industries, will unleash at least $20 billion in new direct private spending-likely more as many folks rebuild larger than before, and the capital stock that emerges will prove more economically useful and productive."

Morici feels as does former Enron advisor Paul Krugman that tearing down and rebuilding a more or less modern infrastructure and replacing it with a newer infrastructure is economically simulative and therefore hurricanes and earthquakes are good for the economy. Morici's post was followed by a post from Don Boudreaux on Cafe Hayek, "An Open Letter To Peter Morici which states;

"I hereby offer my services to you, at a modest wage, to destroy your house and your car. Act now, and I’ll throw in at no extra charge destruction of all of your clothing, furniture, computer hardware and software, and large and small household appliances.

Because, I’m sure, almost all of these things that I’ll destroy for you are more than a few days old (and, hence, are hampered by wear and tear), you’ll be obliged to replace them with newer versions that are “more economically useful and productive.” You will, by your own logic, be made richer.

Just send me a note with some times that are good for you for me to come by with sledge hammers and blowtorches. Given the short distance between Fairfax and College Park, I can be at your place pronto.

Oh, as an extra bonus, I promise not to clean up the mess! That way, there’ll be more jobs created for clean-up crews in your neighborhood."

Perhaps this video explains
Don Boudreaux reasoning.

 

Richard Mourdock Talks Himself Into a Corner

No one is suggesting wrong doing but Secretary of the State of Indiana Richard Mourdock invites controversy by discussing his personal investment decisions on the Huffington Post where he is reported to have said he dumped his entire stock portfolio on August 2. Since Mourdock dumped his own stock, the value of the Indiana pension funds he oversees has declined by 11.2% or $1.2 billion. Now Mourdock says he doesn't make the day to day investing decisions but earlier his office issued a press release bragging about the 6.99% return on the funds' investments. As Brian Howey puts it, "Just as the current secretary of state says he’s not the state’s chief elections officer, Mourdock appears to be saying he’s the state’s chief financial officer - but only for the good parts." Dick Mourdock may be an honest man but his political ineptitude should make Hoosier Republicans think twice about replacing a sure to win Dick Lugar with someone who talks himself into unnecessary trouble.

Obama's Uncle Has Social Security Number

Obama's drunken uncle Omar has a social security number and has held a valid Massachusetts driver license since 1992. Would it be crass to ask if he has a birth certificate too? He is being held without bond awaiting a deportation hearing. The family has a troubled history of alcoholism and a near paranoid aversion to producing personal documentation. See an earlier post here.

Climate changers are magic realists

  Let's face it.
  We're getting into weirdo territory here.
  It's always surprising when people who are capable of carrying on normal conversations lapse into crazy talk; yet this is the case as the climate changers are becoming increasingly shrill and hysterical in trying to manipulate the public into doing what they want.
  Fewer and fewer people are believing the climate scaremongers, so the rhetoric has ratcheted up.
  Take, for example, Paul Krugman, celebrated "economist" for the NY Times.
  His latest column is entitled "Republicans Against Science."
  Here's a quote from the smug Krugman, who cannot seem to accept anyone's theories but his own when it comes to, well, anything:

And the deepening anti-intellectualism of the political right, both within and beyond the G.O.P., extends far beyond the issue of climate change. 

Lately, for example, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has gone beyond its long-term preference for the economic ideas of “charlatans and cranks” — as one of former President George W. Bush’s chief economic advisers famously put it — to a general denigration of hard thinking about matters economic. Pay no attention to “fancy theories” that conflict with “common sense,” the Journal tells us. Because why should anyone imagine that you need more than gut feelings to analyze things like financial crises and recessions? 

Now, we don’t know who will win next year’s presidential election. But the odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect.

  So if you do not see the world the way Mr. Krugman and his ilk do, you are an illiterate ignoramus who does not appreciate the knowledge and his wisdom his kind deign to gift the world.
  Ah, for the days when "intellectuals" were worshiped without question, such as the public attitude toward the 19th century writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson:

One of the most famous public speakers of his day, Ralph Waldo Emerson drew all sorts of listeners. A scrubwoman who went to his lyceum lectures is reported to have said that she didn’t really understand him, “but I like to go and see him stand up there and look as though he thought everyone else is as good as he is.” A version of this story appears in most Emerson biographies. Sometimes it is a workman or farmer who braves a snowstorm to hear Emerson talk and explains his devotion by saying, “We don’t know what he said, but we’re sure he’s giving us the best there is.” As Wesley Mott, the founder and president of the Emerson Society, puts it: “People went away tremendously uplifted—and had no idea what they just heard.”

  But obviously not everyone IS as good as Mr. Krugman and certainly not as good as Al Gore, whose stock has gone up (literally) with his push of the climate crisis theory. You know, the theory that he illustrates with fantastical slide shows and movie clips of the terrible damage that will be done to the planet if you don't stop flying and driving your carbon crunching vehicles.
 The latest dire prognostication concerning climate change is that all the bad weather incidents which are, of course, caused by global warming, is causing mental illness.

RATES of mental illnesses including depression and post-traumatic stress will increase as a result of climate change, a report to be released today says.
The paper, prepared for the Climate Institute, says loss of social cohesion in the wake of severe weather events related to climate change could be linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and substance abuse.

  Add this to some intellectuals' declaration that aliens are probably going to destroy our world because we aren't driving Chevy Volts.
  Presumably people like Al Gore, who recently equated climate deniers with racists who deny civil rights (like his own father) and who pays $30,000 in utilities a year for one of his mansions and who flies extensively spreading the gospel of climate change, will be eaten first by the aliens.
  Bjorn Lomberg, who believes climate change is real but disagrees with the scare tactics, has a film called "Cool It" which changes the approach to a more practical one:
 

  Let's all paint our roofs white. Let's not eat meat because cows fart too much. Let's limit population because people breathe too much.
  Climate change causes violent war. You're a racist if you don't believe in climate change.
  You're constructing your "own alternative version of reality" if you are a "denier."
  We need a "climate change peacekeeping force." We don't want to hear what you have to say if you are a "denier."
  The absurdity goes on and on, even as the climate changers expend more carbon than most people.
  Magic realism is the incorporation of magical elements into reality, often used in literature and filmmaking.
  This is exactly what climate changers are doing today. They are incorporated fantastical elements, things that are absolutely absurd and ridiculous, into their stories and claims to force people into doing what they want. 
  Not only are these people getting rich on their claims, they are aiming to redistribute the wealth of ordinary Americans into not only their own pockets but the pockets of underprivileged countries.
  Let's call it for what it is.
  Climate changers are constructing their own realities.

FEMA Spending Bill Forbids Acorn Funding

The reason Fema is having to shift funds from Jefferson City, Missouri and elsewhere to the east coast is the Department of Homeland Security spending bill contains this language;

None of the funds made available by this Act shall be made available to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Acorn Beneficial Assoc., Inc., Arkansas Broadcast Foundation, Inc., Acorn Children’s Beneficial Assoc., Arkansas Community Housing Corp., Acorn Community Land Assoc., Inc., Acorn Community Land Assoc. of Illinois, Acorn Community Land Association of Louisiana, Acorn Community Land Assoc. of Pennsylvania, ACORN COMMUNITY LABOR ORGANIZING CENTER, ACORN Beverly LLC, ACORN Canada, ACORN Center for Housing, ACORN Housing Affordable Loans LLC, Acorn Housing 1 Associates, LP, Acorn Housing 2 Associates, LP, ACORN Housing 3 Associates LP, ACORN Housing 4 Associates, L.P., ACORN International, ACORN VOTES, Acorn 2004 Housing Development Fund Corporation, ACRMW, ACSI, Acorn Cultural Trust, Inc., American Environmental Justice Project, Inc., ACORN Fund, Inc., Acorn Fair Housing Organization, Inc., Acorn Foster Parents, Inc., Agape Broadcast Foundation Inc., Acorn Housing Corporation, Arkansas Acorn Housing Corporation, Acorn Housing Corp. of Arizona, Acorn Housing Corp. of Illinois, Acorn Housing Corp. of Missouri, New Jersey ACORN Housing Corporation, Inc., AHCNY, Acorn Housing Corp. of Pennsylvania, Texas ACORN Housing Corporation, Inc., American Institute for Social Justice, Acorn law for Education, Rep. & Training, Acorn Law Reform Pac, Affiliated Media Foundation Movement, Albuquerque Minimum Wage Committee, Acorn National Broadcasting Network, Arkansas New Party, Arkansas Acorn Political Action Committee, Association for Rights of Citizens, Acorn Services, Inc., Acorn Television in Action for Communities, Acorn Tenants’ Union, Inc., Acorn Tenant Union Training & Org. Project, AWA, Baltimore Organizing Support Center, Inc., Bronx Parent Leadership, Baton Rouge ACORN Education Project, Inc., Baton Rouge Assoc. of School Employees, Broad Street Corporation, California Acorn Political Action Committee, Citizens Action Research Project, Council Beneficial Association, Citizens Campaign for Fair Work, Living Wage Etc., Citizens Consulting, Inc., California Community Network, Citizens for April Troope, Clean Government Pac, Chicago Organizing and Support Center, Inc., Council Health Plan, Citizens Services Society, Campaign For Justice at Avondale, CLOC, Community and Labor for Baltimore, Chief Organizer Fund, Colorado Organizing and Support Center, Community Real Estate Processing, Inc., Campaign to Reward Work, Citizens Services Incorporated, Elysian Fields Corporation, Environmental Justice Training Project, Inc., Franklin Acorn Housing Corporation, Flagstaff Broadcast Foundation, Floridians for All PAC, Fifteenth Street Corporation, Friends of Wendy Foy, Greenwell Springs Corporations, Genevieve Stewart Campaign Fund, Hammurabi Fund, Houston Organizing Support Center, Hospitality Hotel and Restaurant Org. Council, Iowa ACORN Broadcasting Corp., Illinois Home Day Care Workers Association, Inc., Illinois Acorn Political Action Committee, Illinois New Party, Illinois New Party Political Committee, Institute for Worker Education, Inc., Jefferson Association of Parish Employees, Jefferson Association of School Employees, Johnnie Pugh Campaign Fund, Louisiana ACORN, New York Communities for Change, Affordable Housing Centers of America, Action Now, Pennsylvania Communities Organizing for Change, Arkansas Community Organizations (ACO), The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, New England United for Justice, Texas Organizing Project, Minnesota, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Organization United for Reform, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, A Community Voice, Community Organizations International, Applied Research Center, or the Working Families Party.

The bill narrowly passed the House but is stalled in the Senate. The hostage taking Tea Party strikes again! This will force Senators Gillibrand, Sanders, and Mikulski to choose between their constituents and Acorn and the Working Families Party.

Soooo they talked FLOTUS into flying back with her husband....

  We've noted before that Michelle Obama seems intentionally oblivious to the optics and the cost of her tremendous vacation expenditures. 
  Now the Washington Times has been putting together some of the details here:

Then, another photo. Mrs. Obama was going to stay on Martha’s Vineyard when her husband returned Saturday ahead of the hurricane, but White House aides quickly nixed the idea. Upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, about to descend the stairs on her private 747, she could not have looked more grim. Her husband — the president — didn’t look too happy, either. 

No, there’s something going on there. How else to explain all those vacations away from President Obama — to Florida, California, South Africa, Latin America, Colorado, Spain? (That last trip was also a “mother-daughter” jaunt, although along for the ride were 40 “family” friends and a security squad of 75 agents.) How else to explain her decision not to accompany her husband to Chicago the day before his 50th birthday, when the first couple could have spent the night in their real home?

Ulsterman asks: when is FLOTUS going to be arrested?

  Admittedly the title of this post is somewhat tongue in cheek; it is also in continuation of the story about the DOJ storming the Republican Gibson guitar factory, Ulsterman notes that FLOTUS presented Carla Bruni of France with a Gibson guitar. The story is here:

An example of such a tree would be Indian rosewood, which is apparently outlawed as an export or import for manufacturing purposes by the Obama administration. Where the situation gets particularly interesting is that in 2009 First Lady Michelle Obama personally exported a Gibson guitar as a gift to the First Lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. That guitar’s fretboard was made from…wait for it…a piece of Indian rosewood. 

So if the Obama Department of Justice is storming the gates of the Gibson plant in Tennessee, how long before it turns its attention onto the illegal guitar-contraband carrying First Lady?

  So Ulsterman asks: when will the DOJ be coming for FLOTUS? 

CNN Poll Confirms Perry's Lead

Click to enlarge

This latest poll from CNN/ORC conducted August 24 & 25 and released today confirms Perry is the front runner. Two polls, the first containing Palin and Giuliani, the second without them show little difference in the relative strengths of Perry, Romney and Bachmann. The bad news in this poll is for Barack Obama and Ron Paul. Twenty-seven percent of Democrats would prefer someone other than Obama as their party's nominee. For Ron Paul the grim news is no matter how you slice it he doesn't get above 6 percent which is about half as well as he did in the previous poll.

Al Gore Suggests Climate Change Skepticism Is Akin To Racism

Racism and climate change are the same as far as the moral component is concerned, intones sagacious Al Gore to a rapt Climate Reality Project collaborator Alex Bogusky. Gore points out that "winning the conversation" as compared to Obama's "winning the future" or Charlie Sheen's "winning" is the key to success. Gore's comparison of racism to climate change is the logical first step to comparing climate change skeptics to racists.

Ron Paul Blames America First

Maybe Ron Paul should run as a Democrat. In Iowa he said, in effect, that US intervention in the Middle East and Muslim countries were the causes of the 9 11 attack. The Des Moines Register reports;

“I don’t see Islam as our enemy,” Paul said. “I see that motivation is occupation and those who hate us and would like to kill us, they are motivated by our invasion of their land, the support of their dictators that they hate.”

Regarding 9/11, Paul said that attacks against the U.S. from Middle Eastern groups at home and abroad can be traced to the foreign presence of U.S. troops, as well as America’s relationships with dictator regimes.
[SNIP]

“After 9/11, (people said) ‘Oh yeah, it’s those very bad people who hate us,’ but 15 of (the hijackers) came from Saudi Arabia,” said Paul. “One of the reasons they attacked us, is we propped up this Sharia government and the fundamentalists hated us for it.”

In an earlier post I pointed out that Paul's staff and supporters have referred to Sarah Palin as "just another whiny liberal claiming victimization." to the Koch brothers as fascists, to Rush Limbaugh as a man with "Stalinist tendencies" and Sean Hannity as evil.

Hilarious Video as Boston Media Hypes Irene

Someone did the public a great service by making this video. It shows how hard the Boston media is trying to hype Hurricane Irene. While the reporter walks in her rain gear she meets people-children even, in shirt sleeves. There are blowing hats and flags that flap in the wind and the water beginning to puddle on the sidewalk.

 

The Lieutenant Calley School of Economics

What's a president to do? Obama cut short his "working vacation" by several hours so he could get back to Washington in time to preside over the destruction of the eastern United States and the damn hurricane fizzled out on him.
“Many Americans are still at serious risk of power outages and flooding which could get worse in the coming days as rivers swell past their banks,” said Obama. Clearly this guy is grasping at straws. Assuming the EPA isn't ready to unleash another round of carbon regulations the probability of power outages should decline not "could get worse" when the sun begins to shine and rivers don't rise after the rain has stopped unless one is talking about a fairly long river such as the Mississippi or Ohio.
“The impacts of this storm will be felt for some time and the recovery effort will last for weeks or longer." Considering that Obama thought NATO's air strikes on Libya would last "days not weeks" he might want to recalibrate his crystal ball. To be sure Hurricane Irene will be blamed for prolonged unemployment and the failing economy but it was supposed to provide the President a chance to very publicly show his concern for the wretched refuse of the teeming shores of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and any other blue or swing state. Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has been salivating for days over the infrastructure jobs that would be created by a horrific storm and last week Paul Krugman was lamenting that the earthquake that did little more than rattle windows along the east coast wasn't severe enough to do serious damage to the region's infrastructure. Clearly Democrats think they can somehow rejuvenate a failing economy through its devastation. They are of the Lieutenant Calley school of economics who said, " We had to destroy the village to save it.

Obama curse works in NYC's favor

  Usually it's sports.
  Obama publicly roots for some team.
  And then they lose.
  This time Yahoo has a headline titled "Obama takes charge at hurricane command center," complete with a photo of the CIC instructing, um, someone about, um something:

  Having cut his vacation short by 7 hours, Obama in this photo is trying to appear very, very concerned about the storm and its impact on the country.

  How Obama "takes charge" is never quite explained, other than his saying, "this is going to be a tough slog" for a while.

  Gateway Pundit chortles that numerous Yahoo readers are not impressed with the photo op of Dear Leader's performance.

  The kind of sycophantic writing the press, in this case Yahoo/AFP, exhibits is a significant reason that Obama has so overwhelmingly underperformed in his job, according to Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard:

I don’t want to exaggerate the media’s baneful influence on Obama. It’s hardly the main reason for his decline. It’s a secondary reason, and it continues to have an impact.Absent pushing and prodding by the press, the Obama presidency has atrophied. His speeches are defensive and repetitive and filled with excuses. He passes the buck. With persistently high unemployment and a weak economy, Obama recently declared, in effect, “I have a plan. See you after my vacation.” The press doesn’t goad him to lead.

  Because no one challenges the royal presidency he does not change. Those who do challenge him, like the Tea Party, are immediately excoriated, mocked and denigrated rather than reasoned with or listened to as legitimate issues.
  But back to the curse.
  The curse has been discussed again and again.
  It usually entails a sports team being endorsed by Obama and then getting killed in the game.
  This time, however, the curse of the Obama endorsement of hurricane Irene worked for NYC and New England, as it continues to be downgraded and underperform from the original breathless reports of worst storm of the century, cat 5, then 4, then.....
  President Downgrade. It worked for NYC and New England.
UPDATE: Only two locations had 85 MPH wind gusts:

NOAA said that maximum average wind speeds at landfall were 85 MPH, hurricane winds stretching outwards for 90 miles. In fact, only two locations even had gustsover 85 MPH.
The 115 MPH is a mathematical outlier from a “trained spotter” – which is not credible and should be thrown out.  The nearby weather station at Beaufort, NC, had a max speed of 53 MPH and peak gust of 70 MPH.

Obama's Uncle Arrested For DUI

President Obama's long lost Uncle Omar has surfaced. He's alive and well and living illegally in Massachusetts. Displaying perhaps the family's well known propensity to alcoholism, Omar Obama was arrested after he failed a field sobriety test. Fortunately for Uncle Omar Massachusetts doesn't report arrests of illegal aliens to the federal government so one presumes Uncle Omar can continue living unmolested until he actually kills someone. Had the President only know Uncle Omar was right there in Framingham he could have invited out to Martha's Vineyard for a drink. Update: See later post here.

[Mostly] White SEIU protesters protest black children's school

  Watch this video as Obama's SEIU thugs harass charter school employees, march screaming the usual epithets around the property.
  Note that they are primarily and overwhelmingly white and that the well-behaved students in the charter school are sweet and compliant and overwhelmingly black.
  These thugs want to shut down charter schools; they want to ban the public from speaking to or with Governor Walker, so much so that they are willing to vandalize the school building where he was scheduled to speak, glueing the doors shut.
  Watch:

 Hot Air has commentary:

It got ugly on the street outside the facility, which is no surprise, since Messmer is a “choice school” — an alternative to the union-gripped public school system. It’s an alternative that sends 85% of its high-school graduates to college. It’s also no surprise that “choice schools” threaten the union’s power in the state, which gave them extra added incentive to protest Walker’s visit … and to attempt to intimidate Messmer staff while doing so. The video provides a jarring disconnect between the well-behaved students on the inside and Brother Bob’s explanation of teaching positive discipline and self-control to the self-indulgent nastiness taking place on the sidewalk outside.

  The anonymous Ulster Man also mentions a tie-in with Obama's modus operandi:

In 2008 these same Big Union groups spent some $400 MILLION dollars to help Barack Obama become President of the United States.  In 2012 that amount is expected to exceed a half-billion dollars.  And for those who attempt to distance Barack Obama from any responsibility for what is seen in this video, you would do well to remember it is Big Union leaders from such groups as SEIU who have and continue to be the most regular visitors to the Obama White House

  The hope is that these juvenile and barbaric tactics will expose the absolute depravity of these individuals.

Making Unemployment Pay

Part of Obama's jobs program we having been breathlessly anticipating while the President golfed his way through his in your face "working vacation" may include some "shared sacrifice" work sharing scheme. In a New York Times editorial liberal economist Dean Baker opines if people worked shorter hours and took longer vacations we would all be in hog heaven and many layoffs could be prevented. To supplement workers' lost income from working less the rules on unemployment insurance would be modified so a worker could work part time and collect reduced unemployment benefits. The editorial notes this type program was very successful in Germany but as late as last year Obama was praising Spain's wildly successful "green energy initiative" and today Spain is on the verge of default. White House spin doctors will be challenged to come up with catchy moniker for this dead horse. May we suggest; " making unemployment pay" or " spreading the jobs around".

Obama Underwater 17 In Gallup Poll

President Obama rating continues to slid. The overnight change in the Gallup daily poll is breathtaking, dropping 7 points overnight. The approval of 38% ties his previous low but the 55% disapproval is a new high. The RCP poll below shows a continuing slid and one has to wonder how the "working vacation" will work out for team Obama in the coming days.

NLRB Slowly Fading

Chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board, Wilma B. Liebman’s term expires tonight. She is a Clinton appointee and has served for fourteen years. In normal times a new appointee would be ready to be sworn in but these are not normal times. With the expiration Craig Becker's term at the end of the year, the NLRB will find itself down to just two members. The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that a minimum of three members are necessary for the board to issue any rules. Unless Republican Senators suddenly have a change of heart going into an election year the board will be neutered. A new administration could elect not to appoint any new members thus gradually killing the NLRB.

How attached to reality is Obama?

  "Ulsterman" is a pseudonym for an anonymous poster who claims to know someone on the inside of the Obama White House. Trustworthy? Who knows. He certainly makes for interesting reading.
  The problem with the writing for the skeptic is that it rings true. Very true. And consequent incidents reflect reality.
  The latest report is, well, disturbing:

President Obama, when he is in his de facto office upstairs – the one that is closer to Jarrett’s own office, and a short hop over to the residence, he spends his time there often in shorts, or sweats, a t-shirt, and those sandal things…flip-flops. There is a large screen television in there and that’s where hours of his time are spent when he is actually at the White House. Day in and day out. The First Lady rules the residence, and the president heads over to his 2nd floor West Wing study. Starting around last spring, he started to take regular briefings in there. And the instructions that went out on those briefings to the president were that they were to be most importantly – brief. Anything more than about 15 minutes is unacceptable to Obama. So let’s look through the eyes of someone heading into Barack Obama’s upstairs office at the White House to give him a briefing. Maybe it’s on national security. Maybe the economy. Energy policy. Whatever – doesn’t matter. The scenario being played out these days is pretty much the same regardless of the particulars. You knockon the door – it’s always closed. Always. Often you have to knock for some time before being given approval from inside to enter. The big screen will be on – the volume loud.

  Read the rest of it here.
  Again, it rings true because of the performance of POTUS in recent days. Ignoring terrible optics, POTUS continues to behave in a way completed detached from the reality of life for the average American.
  Take the most recent vacation. Not only did FLOTUS take a separate plane to the Vineyard, it appears she returned on a separate plane. Boston Herald:

The first family came in separate planes, and they’re leaving, ditto. Hey, it’s only money, our money.

  Over at Human Events, Dr. Zero describes the Martha's Vineyard vacation as "the strangest PR debacle of a weird presidency":

Barack Obama’s misadventures in Martha’s Vineyard are some of the stranger unforced public-relations errors in recent memory.  Spending a fortune to jet off to a fabled playground of the rich, while the country suffers from his recessionary economic policies, was a bizarre slap in the face to an electorate that has already come to view this President as arrogant and out-of-touch.  “Optics” matter.  Camp David is a nice vacation spot, too. 

  American Thinker has a breakdown of the numerous bills FLOTUS has run up for the taxpayers:

Take for instance how, after Obama encouraged America to save money by skipping vacation, less than 50 days after returning home from Oahu Michelle commissioned AF1 to ferry her as chaperone to a 2010 giggling-girls ski trip in Vail, Colorado.  Besides not heeding her husband's austerity advice, the first lady of healthy eating dined on ancho-chili short ribs at "141 grams of fat per serving."  Then, after dessert, she chose to camp out like a girl scout in the "upscale Sebastian Hotel on Vail Mountain, where rooms start at $650 a night and range up to more than $2,400 for multi-bedroom suites."  

Lest we forget, Michelle and her daughters spent time tasting and touring their way through New York City, sightseeing in Los Angeles, barbequing and memorializing on Memorial Day in Chicago, hiking in Maine, bobbing for tar balls on the Florida Gulf Coast, and recovering from a whirlwind of activity on an annual vacation in Chilmark. 

  And, as many Americans know, it goes on.
  Meanwhile, the crazy policies continue, including the demand for a more "diverse" federal workforce, which is already overrepresented with "diversity." Yahoo:

Though only 12 percent to 13 percent of the U.S. population, blacks hold 18 percent of all federal jobs. African-Americans are 25 percent of the employees at Treasury and Veterans Affairs, 31 percent of State Department employees, 37 percent of the Department of Education, 38 percent of Housing and Urban Development. They are 42 percent of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., 55 percent of the Government Printing Office, 82 percent of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency.
According to The Washington Post, blacks hold 44 percent of the jobs at Fannie Mae and 50 percent of the jobs at Freddie Mac.
The EEOC, where African-Americans are overrepresented by 300 percent, has been asked to oversee the new "government-wide initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce."

  Pat Buchanan calls it a "race based spoils system." This, from a post-racial America headed by the first African American president.
  And the destruction of American businesses continues, particularly businesses owned by Republicans, even while POTUS claims he has a really big program announcement coming that will create lots of jobs. Federal taxpayer funded jobs, no doubt.

La dee dah-FLOTUS will return with POTUS

  Apparently she was going to stay and enjoy a few more hours at Martha's Vineyard; obviously that would have had further political implications, in addition to the other times when she left early, forcing the Air Force to make more than one trip to cart the royal First Family around the country. WHD:

Bringing Mrs. Obama home a day later would have forced the Secret Service to continue to provide security on Martha’s Vineyard even though the president would be back in Washington. And Mrs. Obama would have again billed the Air Force for a separate, specially equipped jet to take her home.

  This beats the time they flew Bo the dog separately, a fact which Snopes refutes with the excuse that the Obamas needed several planes and Bo's planes had presidential aides on board. Perhaps this was because Bo doesn't have a pilot's license. 
  The president's plane on that trip seated 6-19 people; therefore the dog would not fit. 
  Presumably those extra 13 people were displaced by luggage.
  Lots and lots of luggage.

More Vandalism and Arrests In Wisconsin

Vandals Super Glued the door locks of a Milwaukee school that had the nerve to invite Governor Scott Walker to read to second and third graders. Walker had planned to read "Oh! The Places You'll Go," by Dr. Seuss. Outside the school one person was arrested for battery. The protest was put together by an organization long thought to be gone, Bill Ayers' alma mater, Students for a Democratic Society. Meanwhile back in Madison thirteen demonstrators were arrested when they refused to leave the capitol building.
Several hundred chanting, cheering protesters entered the Capitol rotunda Thursday around the 6 p.m. closing time. There is a court order in effect dating back to the March demonstration mandating the Capitol be cleared at closing time. The demonstrator who refused to leave were arrested. Thursday was the day when public employees began paying part of their retirement and health insurance costs.

Perry's Support Comes From The Tea Party

Where does Governor Rick Perry's sudden support come from? From the Tea Party. Gallup has just released a new poll that show Perry polling at 35 percent among respondents who support the Tea Party. Among respondents not supporting the Tea Party Perry pulls 20%.


It's noteworthy that most of Ron Paul's support comes from who do not support the Tea Party. The same is true for Huntsman but who cares.

Heritage Foundation's Top Ten Conservatives

The Heritage Foundation has just released it conservative rankings. Find your legislator here.

Ron Paul And Your Favorite Conservatives

The Ron Paul's campaign is complaining that Paul doesn't get the attention he deserves. Maybe they are just lucky. A closer look at some of Paul's staff and supporters might make Paul a bigger joke than he already is. Jeffrey Lord, a former aide to Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan blasts Paul and his supporters in a post at the American Spectator.

Here are the views of various prominent Paul supporters about some conservatives you may be familiar with.

• Ronald Reagan: Here the late Paulist Murray Rothbard labels the conservative presidential icon as a "cretin," Reagan's two-terms in office described as "eight dreary, miserable, mind-numbing years."

• William F. Buckley, Jr.: The man who became the very gold standard of the American conservative movement is viewed as a "defacto totalitarian" here, again in another Rothbard selection from ex-Paul chief of staff Lew Rockwell's site, a site for which Paul himself has written.

• Antonin Scalia: Justice Scalia is not only no conservative in Paulville, he is -- sitting down? -- "a reliable supporter of presidential dictatorship, the police state, the torture-warfare state, and the empire." This gem was penned by ex-Paul chief of staff Rockwell himself.

• Sarah Palin: That's right. This business of Sarah Palin being a conservative, according to Rockwell, is just a ruse. In fact, Governor Palin is really a "double agent" for the "regime." From the same article as above. Oh yes… don't forget Governor Palin is quite possibly a "puppet" (as seen here by Jack Hunter, now the Paul campaign's "official blogger"). Oh, and Mr. Mulshine, the Paulist columnist? To him Palin is "just another whiny liberal claiming victimization."

• Edwin Meese: The former Reagan Attorney General beloved of conservative activists is described in Paulville as the "mouthpiece" for fascists

• The Koch Brothers: The fascists for whom Ed Meese is the fascist mouthpiece? That would be the libertarian Koch brothers who, apparently, aren't libertarian at all in the eyes of Paulville. In Paulville, libertarian conservatives David and Charles Koch are said to be supporters of a "fascist regime." Same post as above. It is surely no coincidence that the Koch brothers were targeted earlier this year by the far-left hacking group Anonymous. As seen in this Politico story. Once again, the right/left neoliberal profile surfaces.

• Clarence Thomas: Dubbed part of a fascist "tag team" by Paul supporters. Why? Because Justice Thomas, along with fellow Justice Scalia, spoke at that gathering sponsored by those fascist Koch brothers. Where Ed Meese was covering as the mouthpiece for the fascists.

• Rush Limbaugh: Rush? Rush Limbaugh? That Rush Limbaugh isn't a conservative? Nope. Not in Paulville. In the eyes of Paulvillians the Rush Limbaugh so many millions of conservatives thought they knew and loved turns out to be a man with "Stalinist tendencies" -- aka a commie. Read all about it here.

• Sean Hannity: So OK, understanding that Sarah Palin is a double agent and a puppet and Rush is pulsing with Stalinist tendencies, surely Sean Hannity -- conservative talk show and TV host extraordinaire, author of the bestselling Conservative Victory -- surely Sean is a real conservative? Naaaaaaaaah. Not in Paulville. There our friend Sean is -- no kidding -- "evil" That's right. You read that right. Hannity is, quite seriously in the minds (?) of Paulville's neolibs, part of the "pantheon of warmongers that make up the true axis of evil." Once that is understood, this  video of Ron Paul supporters literally chasing Hannity through the streets of New Hampshire in 2008 can be seen for the leftist intimidation it was intended to be. The fact that the video of Paul supporters chasing Hannity so closely matches this  video of Wisconsin leftists chasing and trapping a Wisconsin Republican legislator is a chilling reminder of the commonality of the protestors involved.

Club for Growth Dumps Joe Walsh

I suppose everyone knew the new freshmen class in Congress would not likely be composed of certified saints. Indeed, a little irreverence and maybe a misdemeanor from college days made some even more appealing. While a troubled past might be overlooked a troubling present cannot. It's sad too. Joe Walsh, photogenic and funny quickly became a YouTube sensation and at least one of his videos has been posted here, but Joe Walsh is $100,000 behind in his child support and that is a major ethical lapse that cannot be overlooked. Also Walsh has been driving on a suspended license. The Club for Growth has backed away from supporting Walsh noting that "character matters". Through reappointment Walsh will find himself facing another freshman, Congressman
Randy Hultgren. The Club for Growth will back Hultgren. Something happened in the last two days. On Wednesday The Hill reported that the Club would back Walsh only to report the opposite a few hours ago.

After Irene Don't Buy the Excuses

The economy is sputtering along, growing at an anemic 1.0% rate and Hurricane Irene may just well send us into the long predicted double dip recession. Before team Obama adds another act of God to its litany of lame excuses for its indefensible lack of leadership and imbecile fiscal policies it's worth remembering that Texas and Texas alone bore the brunt of Hurricane Ike just three short years ago. Ike was the third costliest hurricane to make land in the United States. Rick Perry was the governor of Texas then and even while still coping to handle the infusion of tens of thousands of refugees from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and having been hit by Hurricane Dolly 52 days earlier, managed to put Texas into the top spot in jobs created from 2000 to 2010. See Politfact if you don't believe Perry's job numbers.

Another business under attack

  So the makers of musical instruments now have to worry about the DOJ swooping in, confiscating instruments, fining the makers, putting them in jail... these are not just business unfriendly government employees. They're attempting to criminalize behavior for unknown reasons. From the WSJ:

It's not enough to know that the body of your old guitar is made of spruce and maple: What's the bridge made of? If it's ebony, do you have the paperwork to show when and where that wood was harvested and when and where it was made into a bridge? Is the nut holding the strings at the guitar's headstock bone, or could it be ivory? "Even if you have no knowledge—despite Herculean efforts to obtain it—that some piece of your guitar, no matter how small, was obtained illegally, you lose your guitar forever," Prof. Thomas has written. "Oh, and you'll be fined $250 for that false (or missing) information in your Lacey Act Import Declaration."

  Department of Fish and Wildlife are the ones, you'll remember, who came after the woman who saved a woodpecker, demanding she pay a fine of $500. 
  According to the WSJ report, one individual who simply did not have the proper paperwork  to prove that the ivory keys on his piano were grandfathered in from a time when ivory was not illegal faced criminal charges, ultimately pleading guilty to avoid the prospect of going to jail.

Facing criminal charges that might have put him in prison for years, Mr. Vieillard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey Act, and was handed a $17,500 fine and three years probation.

  TWO DOZEN federal agents raided his home to enforce this rule. 
  There's a scene in the musical 1776 which is about the process of the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence in which a character (Caesar Rodney) who is dying of cancer, nearly faints. He's held up by his fellow patriots and then exclaims his dismay at Britain's squeezing of Americans' lives and livelihoods. "They're cutting off our air," he cries. "We cannot breathe."
  Sound familiar?
UPDATE:

SO APPARENTLY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT JUST WANTS JOBS MOVED OFFSHORE: Gibson Guitar Responds To Federal Raid: “The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.” More, including video, at the link.

Texas Leads in Jobs Created, Illinois Leads In Jobs Lost

Talk about contrasts! By now everyone knows Texas is leading the nation in job creation but which state is leading in job losses. Well, that would Mr. Obama's home state, Illinois. Competition in the race to the bottom is pretty keen and various indices of failure ie the unemployment rate, the number of people employed, first time unemployment claims etc. have a way of clouding serious analysis. Just in the number of jobs lost as opposed to"created or saved" Illinois beats out California since it, unlike neighboring Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio capitulated to the public sector unions and raised taxes. The chart below from the Heritage Foundation makes that point both dramatically and literally graphically. So how's that tax and spend working out for you, Governor Quinn?

A good first cousin to the above graph illustrating Obama's Hunnsian economics (as in Attila the Hun) has been posted before on this blog but look at it again just for auld lang syne. It shows the downturn in the recovery that occurred with the passage of Obamacare. Going into the presidential campaign team Obama will have a hard time proving its case that the current mess was inherited when graphic evidence such as this argues it was created on his watch.

The Rick Perry Mezuzah

Is there any such thing as a Barack Obama mezuzah? No but there is a Rick Perry mezuzah. A mezuzah is fixture, sometimes very ornate, that contains a small scroll with two verses of the Torah written on it.
The commandment to affix a mezuzah is widely followed in the Jewish world, even by Jews who are not religiously observant. Normally a mezuzah is only about 4 inches long and is affixed to the right side of the front door post, hardly an ostentatious display of religiosity but rather a polite and sedate way of expressing ones faith to friends who enter through that door. I simply cannot understand the religious intolerance some people in this country have. Normally these bigots must grit their teeth and get over it unless they form a majority on some Condo board. First in Florida, then in Chicago condo board bullies forced Jewish residents to remove the mezuzahs. When they tried this bigotry in Texas the state legislature passed a bill exempting any mezuzah less than 25 inches in length (Texas size) from control of the PC Condo police. Governor Rick Perry signed that law and the Rick Perry mezuzah was created that measures 26 inches long, daring the PC police to measure it. If they didn't like the little one this should really make their day!

Pictured above is the Rick Perry mezuzah next to a normal size mezuzah. You can buy it here for $999.00.

Two Obama Videos That Will Haunt Him

Youtube never forgets. Here are two Obama videos he is going to have a hard time countering. He would never do that personally anyway but even is best and brightest spin doctors will be hard pressed to explain his way out of these. In the first video Obama makes seven promises he broke or tells seven lies as some would say.

In this video Obama says Bush is unpatriotic for adding $4 trillion to the national debt in his eight years in office, something he has done in less than three years.

That flag still stands for freedom

  The judge's sentence handed down on shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2003 can be found here at Legal Insurrection. It's worth the read. Of course, this was 2 years after 9/11. Who knows where many people stand now.  

We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is all too much war talk here. And I say that to everyone with the utmost respect.

Here in this court where we deal with individuals as individuals, and care for individuals as individuals, as human beings we reach out for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. Whether it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be your view, you are a terrorist.

And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not treat with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists.

We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice. [SNIP]

See that flag, Mr. Reid? That’s the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag still stands for freedom. You know it always will. Custody, Mr. Officer. Stand him down.

But he really LOOKS like he's working, right?

  Who cares about how many days they go on vacation?
  You can't escape the presidency, although it sure seems like *Our Guy in Washington* is trying.
  But the phony photo ops (they all do it, I know) kinda grates. 
  It's probably because I just, frankly, don't like the guy's policies. 
  But then I see these photos and I think, geez, who's he trying to kid?

  The furrowed brow, the studied pose, the listening pose (poseur?)....it all means he's working, right?
  Except it's the other guy doing the real work, splaining. 
  Brutal honesty...all he's thinking about is the fact that the camera's on and this:

  This is a secret picture taken, I believe, by Fox News, as *The Prince* skipped the link that would have revealed him golfing to the pool.

Team Obama Seeks Online Help To Fight Perry

Forget the Gallup poll showing Perry leading the GOP field. Proof positive that Rick Perry is strong medicine is this online form on Obama's campaign web site where malcontents are invited to complain about Rick Perry's policies as governor of Texas.

We Texans who have experienced Gov. Rick Perry's failed policies firsthand have an important story to tell the rest of the country.

Then the aggrieved Texan is presented with a text box to describe the the atrocity.

"Your feedback will help hold him accountable on the campaign trail, inspire fellow Texans to get involved, and introduce his record -- his actual record -- to voters across the country," Hector Nieto, the campaign's Texas director, told Texas supporters by email blast today. "Your words will remind him that even as he runs, he won't be able to hide -- a lesson he apparently hadn't learned as recently as last week. That's when his campaign explained that the positions he took in the book he wrote just nine months ago, like saying that Social Security is unconstitutional and `a crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal,' no longer represent his views."But what other Americans are just starting to learn about -- and, frankly, reject -- Texans have dealt with for more than a decade. It's up to us to make sure he doesn't get to run away from the truth."

It's not just Perry's record as governor that scares the Democrats. Like Sarah Palin he is the liberal's anti-Christ. Unlike Sarah Palin, Rick Perry has been in public life years longer than Obama in a large state with an aggressive news media. There probably will not be much in his public record that has not been reported, debated, spun, and archived for future reference. There are a few issues in Perry's governorship such as the Gardasil mandate and the Trans-Texas Utility Corridor, that while contentious issues in Texas, probably wouldn't attract much more reader attention than the legal notices sections in local newspapers. It not the Perry policy that gives liberals heartburn it's the Perry persona, something they may just have to live with for eight long years.

Gabrielle Giffords May Face a Primary Challenge

Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Congresswoman who was critically injured in a shooting may face a primary challenge. A special education school teacher, Anthony Prowell, has outraged Democrats by indicating that he intends to enter the primary. When Prowell called Giffords' office to see if she intended to seek reelection he was told Giffords would not make that decision for another 10 months. Before you jump on the hate Anthony Prowell bandwagon with the Arizona Democratic establishment be warned this gets tricky.
Three states, Arizona, Florida, and Michigan want to jump ahead in the primary order, some wanting to go all the way to the week after the New Hampshire primary but as yet no one is sure when the Arizona primary will be held. It seems asking someone to wait 10 months is a little much. But, you ask, should Giffords recover should she not have first shot at her old job. Yes, if that's what she wants but she is also being mentioned as a senatorial candidate. Giffords is the Democrat's first choice to run for the seat of retiring John Kyle, polling 46 percent among Democrats in the latest PPP poll. Parenthetically that same poll shows that while Arizona Republicans don't like Sarah Palin much for president she is their first pick for senator. Keep in mind Sarah campaigned for John McCain in his primary battle so Arizona voters know her better than most.
Prowell makes the point that Giffords has not demonstrated that she can handle the job. Aside from her celebrated visit to the House floor during the debt ceiling debate she has remained out of sight. He adds further the people of her district are entitled to representation and if Giffords can't fulfill that role she should step aside. Giffords held off Jesse Kelly in the last election by a 49 to 47 percent edge so even a fully rehabilitated Giffords isn't a sure win. Prowell, on the other hand, is a political novice. He probably would never have the temerity to challenge a health Gabrielle Giffords. Ok stop and make up your mind now before you read the next sentence.
Prowell is not a registered Democrat. He is an independent. Tricky isn't it?

The Miserable Voter Guide To Elections

The Conference Board was founded in 1916 as the National Industrial Conference Board. It is a non-profit non-partisan organization concerned primarily with business issues and collects economic date. It's primary forecasting index is its Consumer Confidence Index. Currently that rating is 59.5. In the above chart see how previous parties in power have fared in elections when the confidence measure dropped below 100.

PPP; Perry by 13 Percent

Confirming the results of the Gallup poll just posted earlier today, Public Policy Polling (PPP) finds Rick Perry leading the GOP field with 33 percent of voters. Romney comes in second with 20 percent followed by Bachmann at 16 percent. None of the other candidates break into double digits. When Sarah Palin is included in the poll the results are: Perry 27%, Romney 17%, Palin 13%, and Bachmann 10%. Compared to last month's poll Bachmann is down 5%, Romney is even and Perry is up 21%. In a two way match up Perry beats Romney 52-36 and Bachmann 56-26.

“There have been a lot of flavors of the month in the Republican Presidential race and it’s possible that Rick Perry is just another of those,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But his support right now is stronger than Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain or Donald Trump or Mike Huckabee’s ever was which suggests he should have more staying power.”

Giuliani Endorses Turner in NY 9th Race

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has endorsed Republican Bob Turner in the special election to replace twitter flashing Congressman Anthony Weiner. Former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat has already endorsed Turner. The ninth congressional district of New York is spread over parts of Brooklyn and Queens. In the past it has been represented by the late Geraldine Ferraro and Senator Chuck Schumer. It has not elected a Republican since 1921 nevertheless the polls show the election to be a toss up. In many ways the Democratic party's future among Jewish voters is on the line. The district has a large Orthodox Jewish population that is not the least bit enamored with Obama's maltreatment of Israel. While the Democratic candidate has tried to guide the debate to jobs-God knows why considering Obama's record-and indulged in Mediscare demagoguery Turner has hit hard on the hot button issues such as the ground zero mosque and the lack of support for Israel in the Democratic party.

Milton Friedman on the Public Sector

One of the frequent arguments we heard in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Ohio was that the public somehow benefits from paying high public sector wages to often incompetent employees. In this vintage video the late Milton Friedman demolishes that fallacy.