Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Global warming activists stuck in Arctic ice


Tom Nelson (via Marc M.) reports on a "mission of ...global warming activists [who] trek to [the] Arctic... to 'show the world what is happening in the Arctic due to global warming.'"

Global warming activists 'stuck' in Arctic ice! See temps drop 'dramatically' during Arctic trek & faces frost bite!

Excerpt: Sam is travelling to the North pole on an expedition to highlight climate change and keeping a travel log for Mirror.co.uk. ... “We’re stuck” - I have slept poorly. The floating ice, while thin, is so prevalent that, throughout the night, it grinds noisily against the side of the boat in a slightly alarming fashion - imagine someone scraping their nails across an old-fashioned blackboard. The then begins earlier than normal and, unusually, I am not woken by Robbie bounding into my room. Instead the ship’s engine roars to life earlier than normal - at around 5.30 - and the MV ‘Havsel’ begins to judder ominously...

I clamber out of bed and scramble up to the bridge - all the ship’s crew are there, and they look serious. I look outside and I can see why. The sea is almost entirely congested with ice floes - I would estimate 80% plus of the sea is covered by them. There is a real risk that we could get stuck up here. We have drifted in the night into a much icier area than where we stopped last night. I wake up the team, and everyone groggily makes their way to the bridge. There’s a mixed reaction in the team to the prospect of getting stuck up here.

...My split feelings about this news remind me of another paradox of my expedition up here - the fact that I am spending my days padding in ice-cold water, with a frozen, painful backside, trying to bring to the attention of the world and its leaders the necessity of stopping the world heating up.

My alternative headline for this post is Stuck on ice... and on stupid.

Related: Troublesome Arctic sea ice defies alarmists, increases from '07.

Victoria Wulsin's pitch for more Arab Oil and Socialism


In Ohio, Democrat Victoria Wulsin has been trying to unseat Rep. Jean Schmidt since, oh, around the time of the French Revolution.

Her fruitless, pathetic campaigns involve lots of dollars (generously provided by hard-left causes) wasted on egregiously fabricated campaign ads. The latest ad buy, which PolitickerOH reports is saturating Ohio airwaves, positions a 2003 vote by Jean Schmidt as having the potential of raising gas taxes.

Wulsin, of course, is a handmaiden of Nancy "No-Drill" Pelosi with a pathetic record on regressive, Marxist policies that would benefit foreign oil.

"Vic Wulsin is an astonishing hypocrite... She attacks Jean Schmidt for voting for Ohio's budget almost seven years ago while hoping people forget Vic proposed a significant tax increase less than two years ago."

The reference is to a television interview Wulsin did in 2006 on WLWT during which she said, "One more thing about gas prices... I believe we need some sort of progressive tax on gas prices. The way they work now, again the working class, the middle class, pays more than their fair share than the very wealthy. And I believe that we as a country, believe in equality for all, and that means that we who benefit from our society need to contribute."

...two years ago Wulsin proposed "a ludicrous gas tax idea that would have seriously hurt middle-class families." Pfaff called Wulsin a "protégé of Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has thwarted every attempt to make America energy independent."

And who has advocated "economic fairness", the hard left code-phrase for socialism.

Good luck, Vickie! Here's hoping you'll get more MorOn.org money to burn in 2010!

Update: QuackWatch describes the reasons Wulsin may be desperately seeking a career change.

Cross-posted at: Macsmind and Astute Bloggers.

Line o' the Day: The Community Organizer vs. the Mayor


Sara Palin (via Blue Grass, Red State):

I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.

Ouchie! He's going to feel that in the morning.

Jan Wenner's US Magazine launches another attack on Palin


Wenner, publisher of the well-nigh unreadable Rolling Stone Magazine and the questionable Men's Journal (If you like oiled-up dudes' bodies, Men's Journal could be for you, not that there's anything wrong with that), offers another highbrow publication in the form of US Magazine.

Its current cover story on Sara Palin is entitled Babies, Lies and Scandal and could be one of the most hilariously one-sided "stories" of all time. If it's not a satirical look at the mainstream media, it very well could be.

While the title of the story mentions "lies", there are no lies described within the story.

When the story mentions Palin's husband's DWI (driving-while-under-influence) charge, it somehow neglects to mention that it occurred in 1986. Otherwise known as the era in which Barack Obama admitted smoking weed and doing "a little blow."

The story was so pathetic that its author, Bradley Jacobs, stumbled badly when interviewed on Fox News. Megan Kelly shredded Jacobs, who was reduced to a quivering and stuttering invertebrate.

Even the story's URI (slug) has a spin: sarah-palin-very-difficult-to-work-with.

Continuing with its attack today, the "magazine" has a poll that asks "Will Sara Palin's daughter's pregnancy affect your vote?"

The American people have spoken. At the present, 91% of Americans are answering "No".

With that, Wenner, I recommend you pour yourself a big, tall glass of Shut-Up Juice.

Oh, and enjoy your thousands of subscription cancellations while you're drinking it.

Update: Jammie Wearing Fool has the perfect cartoon for Wenner. Linked by: The Anchoress and Wizbang. Thanks!

You can't fix stupid


Ben sent this one.

Make sure you read the story under the picture.

This is a cake for someone who was transferring from an insurance claims office.

Okay so this is how I imagine this conversation went:

Employee: 'Hello, this is the Bakery, how can I help you?'

Customer: 'I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week.'

Employee: 'What you want on the cake?'

Customer: 'Best Wishes Suzanne' and underneath that 'We will miss you'.

An intelligent person can pretend to be a simpleton, but the reverse is never true.

Convention Highlights and Joe Lieberman's speech to the RNC


I've culled the highlights of Joe Lieberman's speech to the RNC:

What... is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?

Well, I'll tell you what: I'm here to support John McCain because country matters more than party...

...if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I'm Michael Moore's favorite Democrat.

...In the Senate, during the 3½ years that Sen. Obama has been a member, he has not reached across party lines to accomplish anything significant, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done...

...the real ticket for change this year is the McCain-Palin ticket.

Let me tell you, friends, that the Washington bureaucrats and the power brokers are not going to be able to build a pen that will hold in these two mavericks. It's just not possible...

...when others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, which would have been a disaster for the USA, when colleagues like Barack Obama were voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield, John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion, advocate the surge, support the surge, and, because of that today, America's troops are coming home, thousands of them, and they're coming home in honor...

...You may not agree with John McCain on every issue, but you can always count on him to be straight with you about where he stands and to stand for what he thinks is right for our country, regardless of the politics.

The Anchoress, in a rare (for her) spate of television watching, remarks on the differences between conventions:

I don’t love prolonged chanting of “U-S-A, U-S-A” but at least these people are chanting for the whole nation, and not in the name of one man.

And Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard catches a great riposte by Newt Gingrich:

MSNBC/Ron Allen: But to be fair, her resume is not something we're familiar seeing with presidential candidates.

Gingrich: It's stronger than Barack Obama's. I don't know why you guys walk around saying this baloney. She has a stronger resume than Obama. She's been a real mayor, he hasn't. She has been a real governor, he hasn't. She's been in charge of the Alaskan National Guard, he hasn't. She was a whistleblower who defeated an incumbent mayor. He has never once shown that kind of courage. She's a whistleblower who turned in the chairman of her own party and got him fined $12,000. I've never seen Obama do one thing like that. She took on the incumbent governor of her own party and beat him, and then she beat a former Democratic governor in the general election. I don't know of a single thing Obama's done except talk and write.

I'd like you to tell me one thing Sen. Obama's done.

Allen: Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to leave it there. I'm not going to argue the case. Thanks very much.

Good night, Gracie.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Dutch Report: Attack on Iran due in a matter of weeks


Brian at Snapped Shot reports an ominous story by Joost de Haas en Bar Mos (Der Telegraaf -- Netherlands). The machine translation:

The Dutch intelligence service AIVD has in recent years [executed] a top secret operation carried out in Iran with the aim of infiltration and sabotage of the armaments industry in the Islamic republic...

The operation [was] described as extremely successful [and] was recently discontinued in connection with plans for an imminent U.S. air strike on Iran.

...Tehran is suspected of [building] an atomic bomb and refuses to comply with the requirements of the West to stop enriching uranium.

...One of the agents, who under the supervision of the AIVD managed to infiltrate into the Iranian industry, [was] recently recalled in the U.S. because the decision would be taken within a few weeks with unmanned aircraft to attack Iran... Among the potential targets are allegedly not only nuclear plants, military installations but also partly caused by the AIVD have been identified...

...It involved parts for missiles and launching vehicles...

Palin slime chain mail posted in hundreds of forums


The lovely Candy forwarded me the following chain letter, purported to have been written by a "Jackie S." regarding the qualifications of Palin.

Interestingly, it was also posted in hundreds of forums in a matter of a few hours:

09/02/2008 Prout Assembly

09/01/2008 Topix Politics

09/01/2008 World of Warcraft

09/01/2008 Politico Forums

and many...

...many more.

Let's fisk, shall we?

As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that he picked her.

The most accurate description of her is red neck.

A "red neck"? Case closed. Disqualified.

Her husband works in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and races snow mobiles.

Double secret disqualified!

She is a life time member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska, particularly wolves and bears. She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial hunting of these predators from helicopters and airplanes, dollars that should have been spent, for example, on Alaska's failing school system.

Truth: The Alaskan Wolf Control Project is not a "hunt": "Wolves and bears are very effective and efficient predators on caribou, moose, deer and other wildlife. In most of Alaska, humans also rely on the same species for food. In Alaska's Interior, predators kill more than 80 percent of the moose and caribou that die during an average year... Predation is an important part of the ecosystem, and all ADF&G wolf management programs, including control programs, are designed to sustain wolf populations in the future." In other words, the program part of the Wildlife Conservation Program intended to balance the caribou population with wolves, for example.

We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the country.

Truth: According to the Manhattan Institute's most recent study, Alaska's High School graduation rate of 67% is approximately that of the nation's average and surpasses that of Alabama, Arizona, DC, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas.

Not all of you may think aerial predator hunting is so bad, but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there are many, most without teeth), could think this use of funds is appropriate is beyond me. If you want to know more about the aerial hunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links to informative web sites.

Truth: Actually including the "links to informative web sites"? Too technically daunting, I suppose. In reality, aerial predator control in Alaska preserves other species and has existed for decades (see: Current: Aerial Predator Control and Predator control, politics, and wildlife conservation in Alaska).

She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has 'green' policies.

Truth: Zogby reports that 74% of Americans favor offshore oil drilling and 59% support drilling in ANWR. While the pursuit of green technologies is admirable, until wind- and solar-powered cars, trains and trucks are commonplace, our economy hinges on fossil fuels.

The only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience.

Truth: Palin has significantly more executive experience than Barack Obama. She managed an immense energy commission, stopped "The Bridge to Nowhere", and went after corruption in both parties. Obama, on the other hand, omitted his only management experience from his official biography.

...Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska, she was mayor of Wasilla, a small red neck town outside Anchorage.

"Red neck"! "Red neck"! "Red neck"!

The average maximum education level of parents of junior high school kids in Wasilla is 10th grade.

Truth: It took about 30 seconds to debunk this assertion. The 2008 Wasilla education survey has the percentage of high school graduates surpassing both Alaskan and U.S. averages. As do those possessing Collegiate Associate Degrees.

Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every week to get groceries and other supplies, so I have continual contact with the people who put Palin in office in the first place.

Here's an astute reporter that has to trek into Wasilla for "supplies" and thinks they are out of touch!

I know what I'm talking about.

Heh!

These people don't have a concept of the world around them or of the serious issues facing the US...

Plus, they're "red necks"!

If you supported Hillary, regardless of what you think the media and the democratic party may have done to undermine her campaign, the person to support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin.

Gee, I wonder who could have originated this chain mail and posted it in hundreds of forums across the Internet in a matter of hours?

I know this is a lengthy and emotional email, but the stakes are high. I thought it might help for all of you, regardless of political affiliation, to know something about Palin from someone who has to live with her administration in Alaska on a daily basis.

Well, we know something about those who oppose Palin. They're elitists and male chauvinists who can't give a lick of credit to a Governor with an 80% approval rating, an excellent record of pursuing corruption, and who visited Iraq as many times as Barack Obama... while raising five kids!

Maybe the same guys who orchestrated this email also ran Hillary out of the Democratic race?

Disturbing Trend For Wildlife In The USA


Received from Larwyn:

The photo below captures a disturbing trend that is now beginning to affect wildlife in nearly every region of the United States.

Animals that were formerly self-sufficient are now showing definite signs of belonging to the Democratic Party. That is becoming more and more evident as they have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance.


Via: RightMind.

Monday, September 01, 2008

I'm begging McCain to run this commercial










* * *

Click on any of the pictures to donate to the GOP.

Update: Macbigot animates the ad.

Related stories: Annenberg Files reveal Obama, Ayers worked closely... Ayers, Obama and the CAC Records: Not Just "A guy who lives in my neighborhood"... Obama's Brownshirts ...and... MP3 Download of 8-27-08 WGN Show.

Palin Comparison


Wolf Howling illustrates a point-by-point comparison you won't want to miss.

Click the photo or here to visit.

No wonder I can never find any matching socks!


What the he**?

Audacity of Hypocrisy: Gustav vs. Katrina


Townhall's Matt Lewis (hat tip: Jerry):

Flash back to 2005 when President Bush was criticized for not visiting New Orleans until after the hurricane:

"And now the best he can do is look out the window of his plane at the hurricane. His government says he'd like to visit — maybe even tomorrow — but the White House wants to make sure the president doesn't impede the rescue effort."

...compare to Obama today:

"But I don’t want to be a distraction, what I’m going to do is focus on what needs to happen after the hurricane strikes and to monitor it over the next 48 hours to make sure we are doing everything we can."

Any questions?

Annenberg Files reveal Obama, Ayers worked closely


No wonder his long directorship of the Annenberg Challenge was curiously missing from Barack Obama's official biography.

During the April 16 2008 Democratic Debate ABC's George Stephanopoulous asked Obama why his campaign had said the candidate was "friendly" with terrorist and communist William Ayers. The candidate replied, "George, but this is an example of what I'm talking about. This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis... And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense, George.

Unfortunately for Barack Obama, the just-released document entitled Chicago Annenberg Challenge: Assessment of the First Three Years provides the backdrop of a history in which Obama and Ayers are explicitly named as the leaders of a failed, ideologically-driven nine-figure giveaway.

"Anne Hallett, Warren Chapman, and Bill Ayers [were] all founding members of the Chicago Challenge..." (page 5)

[Ayers said]: "When Annenberg announced that was gonna give out half a billion dollars, I heard it on the radio at six in the morning. At seven in the morning, I had talked to Anne and Warren, and the three of us met for lunch... We began to plot a strategy... [to see whether] we could get some of that money to Chicago..." (page 11)


"The [group] that brought the grant to Chicago... created an organization that was also novel... A Board of Directors [including Barack Obama] ...was responsible for fiscal operations, developing a procedure for securing matching funds and making grants... ...More unusual was the body that came to be known as the Chicago School Reform Collaborative [including Bill Ayers], made up of members of the original Working Group..."


"The final, accepted proposal to the Annenberg Goundation lists the wide range of Collaborative responsibilities... a letter dated before the proposal from two of the founders, Anne Hallett and Bill Ayers, simply says, "The Collaborative will be the operational policy and planning group." (page 54)

For Barack Obama to claim that Ayers was simply "a guy who lives in my neighborhood" rather than a close colleague and ideological cousin is outrageous. Further, it is devastating evidence that Obama represents "more-of-the-same" political sleaze... and anything but "change".

Hat tips: Steve Diamond's Global Labor Blog and Larwyn. Special thanks to: Stanley Kurtz. Linked by: Jawa Report and Minority Report. Thanks!

Line o' the day: Unanimous Winner


Commenter Jane at Just One Minute:

"What kind of mother raises a daughter that gets pregnant at 17 outside of wedlock?"

"The kind of mother that raised Barack Obama?"

Runner-up goes to Mike Huckabee: "You know Sarah Palin got more votes as a mayor in Alaska than Joe Biden did for President."

Update: The Stuffington Roast's Lee Stranahan backhands the Kos whackjobs:

That diary got 'rec'd' -- voted as one of the 'Best Of' on DailyKos. The diary is uncited, breathless, and spins a story that's totally far-fetched. Without going through the whole hot mess point by point, I'll mention that no doctors, nurses, hospital workers or other patients have come forward to say anything was amiss. Plus, there's this picture.

The irony for me, of course, is that despite making over fifty short political videos with a clear progressive point of view, I was banned on DailyKos for saying that it seemed reasonable that John Edwards was seen at the Beverly Hilton late at night.

Why does the Kos inevitably lead to 108-degree flu-symptom crazy? One might simply ask why a bear craps in the woods. Or why Michael Moore always buys two first-class seats for air travel.

Hat tip: Larwyn

Check out the flags in Palin's office!


That's gonna tick off some moonbats.

Spotted in Alaska Pod Show's Hike of the Week.

Update: Jammie Wearing Fool:

The loonies are out trolling the Internet. Found this one earlier... Interesting search phrase, huh?

sarah palin is mossad jew bolshevik


Linked by: Ace of Spades, Gateway Pundit (who survived a sack of concrete thrown on his bus by far-left anarchists as he headed for the RNC) and American Thinker. Thanks!

Ayers, Obama and the CAC Records: Not Just "A guy who lives in my neighborhood"


The Democratic Presidential Debate, April 16, 2008:

STEPHANOPOULOS: ...on this issue, general theme of patriotism, in your relationships. A gentleman named William Ayers. He was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He's never apologized for that.

And, in fact, on 9/11, he was quoted in the New York Times saying, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." An early organizing meeting for your State Senate campaign was held at his house and your campaign has said you are "friendly."

Can you explain that relationship for the voters and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?

OBAMA: George, but this is an example of what I'm talking about. This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.

And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense, George.

The just-released Chicago Annenberg Challenge 1996 Annual Report (PDF):

Page 12: 7 directors including Barack Obama

Page 13: Leaders of the School Reform Collaborative: William Ayers

The just-released Chicago Annenberg Challenge 1999 Annual Report (PDF):

Page 15: 10 directors including Barack Obama

Page 16: Leaders of the School Reform Collaborative: William Ayers

Under the watch of Ayers and Obama, the CAC accepted grant requests from:

* Chicago Forum for School Change
* ACORN
* Metro Area Council of Black Churches

And during this time, the CAC declined grant requests from:

* Chicago Algebra Project
* Loyola University School of Education
* Argonne National Laboratory

Put simply, Ayers and Obama not only directed the operations of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge together, they utterly wasted between $110 and $160 million. Improved student achievement? Well, no. But...

The Challenge allowed Barack Obama and Bill Ayers to work together, no doubt closely, in the heat of political battle to help disburse more than $100 million to allies, particularly in the LSCs, in the Chicago School system.

Under the circumstances, it seems more than a bit disingenuous of Senator Obama to dismiss Bill Ayers as “some guy who lives in my neighborhood.”

That's putting it kindly. By any reasonable estimation, it's an outright lie.

Kind of like the Senator's initial attempt to convince folks that, although he sat in the pews for 18 years, he heard absolutely none of Jeremiah Wright's virulently racist sermons.

Hat tips: Steve Diamond's Global Labor Blog and Larwyn! Special thanks to: Stanley Kurtz. Linked by: The Astute Bloggers. Thanks!

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Here's a real "Change we can believe in" poster


Click on it to zoom.


Idea first seen at: Gateway Pundit and Jawa Report.

Yes, let's compare the record of Obama with that of Palin!


Who is the real reformer? Who brings real change? Review their respective careers and you quickly arrive at a single irrefutable answer.

In 2003, Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski appointed her to the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Bear in mind that Mr. Murkowski had already served as junior U.S. Senator from Alaska for 22 years. Mr. Murkowski was junior senator for so long because Senator Ted Stevens (who was recently indicted for corruption) had lifetime tenure in the senior post.

Shortly [thereafter], Mrs. Palin commenced an ethics probe of the state's Republican party chairman, Randy Ruedrich, involving conflicts of interest with oil companies. The probe resulted in a $12,000 fine for the party chair.

She crossed party lines in 2004 to join a Democratic representative's ethics complaint over an international trade deal against the Republican Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who had ties to the Murkowski machine. Mr. Renkes resigned.

In late 2005, Mrs. Palin announced her run for Governor before then-Governor Murkowski had announced his intention to stand for re-election. In a three-way primary, Mrs. Palin got 51% to Mr. Murkowski's 19%. At the center of this campaign was a debate over competing proposals to build a natural gas pipeline across Alaska.

These columns wrote about Gov. Murkowski's smashing defeat by Mrs. Palin, noting that his pipeline proposal had been tainted by reports of sweetheart deals with energy companies. The editorial ended: "If Republicans are run out of Congress in November, one big reason will be that, like Mr. Murkowski, they have become far more comfortable running the government than reforming it." That is what happened, as disgusted GOP voters turned away from their own party and ceded control of Congress to the Democrats.

Against the odds, Mrs. Palin won that 2006 election against the state's former Democratic governor Tony Knowles. Most recently, she promoted the effort of her GOP lieutenant governor to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young, who with Senator Stevens created the earmark that sank the GOP, the notorious "bridge to nowhere."

Experience?

...Governor Palin's credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama's. Mr. Obama rose through the Chicago Democratic machine without a peep of push-back. Alaska's politics are deeply inbred and backed by energy-industry money. Mr. Obama slid past the kind of forces that Mrs. Palin took head on. This is one reason her selection -- despite its campaign risks -- seems to have been so well received by Republicans yesterday. They are looking for a new generation of leaders.

Looking for a "tale of the tape"? Red State lines 'em up for easy comparison purposes.

Update: Not Ready '08 has the must-see video board.