STUDY: THERE HAS BEEN NO INCREASE IN RATE OR INTENSITY OF GLOBAL CYCLONES

ACCORDING TO "A team of researchers under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization has published a new review paper in Nature Geoscience" THERE HAS BEEN NO DISCERNIBLE CHANGE IN THE RATE OR INTENSITY OF CYCLONES OR HURRICANES.

NONE.

IOW: THE AGW ALARMIST CLAIM THAT HURRICANE ACTIVITY AND INTENSITY INCREASES WITH HUMAN CO2 ARE FALSE.

Cuban political prisoner has died in hospital after hunger strike.

BBC:

Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo has died in hospital after 85 days on hunger strike.

Mr Zapata, 42, had been transferred to a Havana hospital from a smaller clinic in the central province of Camaguey after his condition worsened on Monday.

Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience after his arrest in March 2003 in a crackdown on opposition groups.

He had been refusing food in protest at jail conditions.

Mr Zapata, whose family announced last week that he was seriously ill, died on Tuesday in Havana's Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital.

His death marks the first time in nearly 40 years a Cuban activist starved himself to death to protest against government abuses.

The last political prisoner to die on hunger strike in Cuba was Pedro Luis Boitel, a poet and student leader, in 1972.

'Better future'

Mr Zapata's mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, told the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald by telephone that her son had been "murdered" by Cuba's authorities.

"They managed to do what they wanted," she said. "They ended the life of a fighter for human rights.''

Laura Pollan, a dissident from the group known as Ladies in White, told the BBC: "He wasn't a murderer. He wasn't a thief. He wasn't a rapist. He was simply a young man who wanted a better future for Cuba."

Mr Zapata was among a group of some 75 dissidents jailed by the authorities in 2003. He was initially sentenced to three years in prison, but this was increased to 25 years in subsequent trials.

CUBA IS A TYRANNICAL TOTALITARIAN STATE.

CASTRO AND HIS BROTHER AND THEIR COMRADES MUST BE DEPOSED.

CUBA DESREVES TO BE FREE, AND OBAMA SHOULD BE DOING MORE TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN ASAP.

ANTHRAX ATTACK FEARED IN COPENHAGEN

Police are investigating a possible anthrax attack, after a Nordea Bank received a letter containing white powder.

Two employees are isolated in hospital.

Lets hope tests prove negative.

[THE NEWS ITEM IN ENGLISH.]

NYTIMES: CONGRESS: OBAMA'S NATIONAL TERRORISM CENTER STILL NOT FUNCTIONING WELL

NYTIMES:

The nation’s main counterterrorism center, created in response to the intelligence failures in the years before Sept. 11, is struggling because of flawed staffing and internal cultural clashes, according to a new study financed by Congress.

The result, the study concludes, is a lack of coordination and communication among the agencies that are supposed to take the lead in planning the fight against terrorism, including the C.I.A. and the State Department. The findings come just weeks after the National Counterterrorism Center was criticized for missing clear warning signs that a 23-year-old Nigerian man was said to be plotting to blow up a Detroit-bound commercial airliner on Dec. 25.

I BLAME OBAMA, BRENNAN AND LEITER. AND HOLDER AND NAPOLITANO. AND JONES.

OBAMA HAS PUT HIS SOCIALIST AGENDA AHEAD OF OUR NATIONAL SECURITY.

OBAMA SHOUOD BE FIRED OVER THIS.

AUSTRALIA'S LEFTIST PM - KEVIN RUDD - ACKNOWLEDGES JIHADISM IS A HUGE DOMESTIC THREAT

BBC: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned that his country is now under a permanent and increased threat of militant attack.

He also announced plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from 10 high-risk countries.

Mr Rudd said there was a growing threat from Islamist radicals born or raised in Australia.

Last week, five Australians of foreign origin received heavy sentences for conspiring to launch a jihadist attack.

Home grown

Mr Rudd said that many "home-grown terrorists" were inspired by what he called international jihadist narratives, as he released a new report compiled by intelligence agencies.

IT WOULD NICE IF THE LEFT IN THE USA - AND ELSEWHERE - ADMITTED SAME.

NICER YET: IF - UNITED AT LAST IN THE WEST - WE ALSO ACCEPTED THAT THE ENEMY ISN'T MERELY JIHADISM OR "MILITANT ISLAM", BUT ISLAM ITSELF.

ISLAM IS NO MORE A "RELIGION OF PEACE" THAN BUDDHISM IS A RELIGION A GLUTTONY.

THE SO-CALLED MILITANTS ARE NOT APOSTATES, THEY ARE ORTHODOX FOLLOWING THE DICTATES OF THEIR "FAITH".

AS LONG AS WE PRETEND OTHERWISE WE ALLOW THE ENEMY THREAT TO GROW...

FRENCH FM KOUCHNER RETRACTS AND BACKTRACKS

KOUCHNER HAS RETRACTED HIS STATEMENT CALLING FOR A PALESTINIAN STATE TO BE RECOGNIZED BEFORE BORDER HAD BEEN NEGOTIATED.

GOOD.

(EARLIER POST HERE)

BRRRRRRR!: BRRRRRRITAIN'S COLDEST WINTER IN 30 YEARS!

England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have all had their coldest winter season for more than 30 years, weather experts said:

As more snow fell in parts of the UK, MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said the provisional average winter temperature of 2.4C (36.3F) in England was the lowest since 1978/9.

There is one week left of the season (December to the end of February) to go.

MeteoGroup said that using the Central England Temperature series, which covers a large area from Lancashire in the north-west to Oxfordshire in the south Midlands, this winter is the third coldest in the last 50 years and 10th coldest in the last 120 years.

REPEAT: ... coldest winter season for more than 30 years... the third coldest in the last 50 years and 10th coldest in the last 120 years.

AGW = TFBS.

ALARMISTS SHOULD STFU.

ANOTHER UGLY FACE OF ISLAM: THE BOY SEX SLAVES OF AFGHANISTAN

IRISH TIMES:

Australian television network, ABC, is scheduled to broadcast a documentary portraying sexual slavery in Afghanistan, involving boys as young as ten.

The documentary entitled, "The Warlords Tune" shows boys involved in the practice of bacha bazi or "boy play", where young boys become entertainment for prominent men, including businessmen, police and warlords.

The child abuse that follows is condoned by some government figures even though it is deemed illegal under Afghan law.

In the documentary, to be shown on the Four Corners magazine program, Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi has filmed the dancing boys, who are in effect sex slaves.

They are lured off the streets by pimps and taught to dance and sing, wear make-up and dress like girls.

Then they are made to perform before large groups of men before being sexually abused.

TO STOP THIS - AND ISLAMO-MISOGYNY - WE NEED TO ERADICATE ISLAM.

ISLAM AIN'T A RELIGION: IT'S A POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LIKE NAZISM - ONLY WORSE.

2009 VIDEO:

MORE ON WHAT ISLAM REALLY IS ALL ABOUT HERE:



AND HERE:

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER PART OF SOLOMON'S WALL

UPDATE: HERE'S A GOOD LINK.


GULF TIME/DOHA, QATAR: Jerusalem wall ‘probably from Solomon era’

A section of city wall that enclosed ancient Jerusalem and was probably built by King Solomon in the 10th century BC was found during recent digs, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said yesterday.

The unearthed wall is 6m high and 70m long, a statement said.

“We can estimate, with a high degree of certainty, that this was built by King Solomon toward the end of the 10th century BC,” archaeologist Eilat Mazar, who excavated for three months, said in the statement.
According to the Bible, Solomon built the first Jewish temple of Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC.

The latest discovery “could corroborate written descriptions which recount construction projects carried out by King Solomon in Jerusalem,” the statement said.

The section of wall was discovered in the Ophel area, between the City of David and the southern part of another wall that surrounds the Temple Mount.

Also found were structures built at the same time as the section of wall, including a gatehouse accessing the royal district and a tower overlooking the Kidron Valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives, the statement said.

Pottery shards and the remains of two earthenware jars measuring 1.15m tall were also found, the statement said. One jar handle bore the inscription “For the King.”

EVERY TIME THEY STICK A SHOVEL IN THE GROUND IN THE HOLY LAND THEY DISCOVER MORE PROOF THE BIBLE IS TRUE.

MORE FROM AP:

The fortifications, including a monumental gatehouse and a 77-yard (70-meter) long section of an ancient wall, are located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem's Old City, next to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. According to the Old Testament, it was Solomon who built the first Jewish Temple on the site.

That temple was destroyed by Babylonians, rebuilt, renovated by King Herod 2,000 years ago and then destroyed again by Roman legions in 70 A.D. The compound now houses two important Islamic buildings, the golden-capped Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Archaeologists have excavated the fortifications in the past, first in the 1860s and most recently in the 1980s. But Mazar claimed her dig was the first complete excavation and the first to turn up strong evidence for the wall's age: a large number of pottery shards, which archaeologists often use to figure out the age of findings.

UPDATE: MORE HERE AND ROUND UP HERE. FROM COMMENTARY:

These new discoveries, along with those of a previous dig in a different area of the city of David, contradict contrary Palestinian claims that the Jews have no claim to the area. They also debunk the assertions of some Israeli archeologists who have sought to portray the kingdom of David and Solomon as an insignificant tribal group and not the regional empire that the Bible speaks about. Indeed, Mazar believes that the strength and the form of construction required to build these structures correlates with biblical passages that speak of Solomon’s building of a royal palace and of the Temple with the assistance of master builders from Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon). Moreover, contrary to those who speak of the Jewish presence in the city as a passing phase in ancient times, the discovery of Jewish seals, which speak directly of an Israelite state, proves that what Mazar has found are not the remains of a Jebusite fort conquered by the Jews but rather of a great city built by David and his son Solomon.

for the last century and a half, a great many academics and intellectuals have attempted to put down the existence of the ancient Jewish kingdom — which has always served as a symbol of Jewish nationhood — as a religiously inspired fiction. This deconstruction of both biblical literature and history has sought to undermine the very idea of the historical truth about ancient Israel, as well as the notion that Jewish nationhood had its roots in the past. This has been put to use by anti-Zionists and Arabs who have thought that if they could destroy the idea of King David’s existence as a historic figure, they could delegitimize modern Israel. Thus, Palestinian propagandists and the Palestinian Authority itself, which has steadfastly denied any Jewish connection to the Old City, the Temple Mount, or even the Western Wall, have copied revisionist scholarly work doubting Jewish history and incorporated that work into their negotiating position about the city’s future. The Muslim religious authority that controls the site of the Temple Mount has vandalized the area, destroying a treasure trove of antiquities in the ancient place because its officials fear that any find revealing the Jewish origins of the place will undermine their fallacious claims that seek to portray Jews as foreign occupiers in their own ancient capital.

It serves the purposes of the enemies of modern Israel to pretend that there is no such thing as biblical history or an ancient kingdom of Israel. But what Eilat Mazar and her colleagues have done is to illustrate once again just how deep the roots of Jewish Jerusalem run. Three thousand years.

NO SURPRISE HERE:

• JEWS HAVE BEEN PERSECUTED AND HAVE BATTLED FOR THEIR HERITAGE SINCE THEY LEFT EGYPT CHASED BY PHARAOH.

• WE HAVE NO REASON TO LIE ABOUT OUR HISTORY - MOST OF WHICH HAS BEEN WRITTEN DOWN AND CELEBRATED OR COMMEMORATED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

• IF THE BIBLE WASN'T TRUE, THEN THESE CELEBRATIONS AND COMMEMORATIONS - LIKE PESAH AND HANUKKAH - WOULD HAVE NEVER TAKEN HOLD THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO.
  

• AND IF THESE BIBLE STORIES WERE FICTION, THEN WHY WOULD THE BIBLE CONTAIN SO MUCH WHICH IS NEGATIVE ABOUT ISRAEL'S KINGS AND PEOPLE AND HOW THEY MISBEHAVED AND DISOBEYED G-D?

LIKEWISE, THE KORAN HAS MUCH TRUTH IN IT:

• MOHAMED WAS A THIEF AND A PEDOPHILE AND A LIAR AND A GENOCIDAL MANIAC WHO COULDN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GABRIEL AND SATAN.
  
• AND WHO NEVER SPOKE WITH GOD.
• ACCORDING TO THE KORAN.

THE MOST COMMON SAYING IN THE BIBLE: "AND G-D SAID TO MOSES."

I ASK YOU, WHICH BOOK WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO FOLLOW IF YOU CHOSE TO FOLLOW ONE:

ONE WRITTEN FOR A PRINCELY MAN WHO LIBERATED MILLIONS AND SPOKE WITH GOD, OR ONE WRITTEN BY A THIEVING PEDOPHILE WHO MISTOOK SATAN FOR AN ANGEL?

JUST ASKING.

Turkey's ruling Islamist party - the AKP - has begun a purge against the Turkish Army

NYTIMES: Former Top Generals Detained in Turkish Coup Inquiry

In one of the toughest actions against the powerful Turkish military in the history of modern Turkey, the police detained three of the country’s highest-ranking former generals on Monday as part of a vast and lengthy investigation into a shadowy ultranationalist movement accused of planning to overthrow the Islamist-inspired government.

News reports identified the detainees as a former deputy chief of the general staff, Ergin Saygun; a former air force commander, Ibrahim Firtina; and a former naval commander, Ozden Ornek. They were detained at their homes in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said more than 40 people in all were taken into custody during the security operations on Monday, including 14 other former high-ranking military officers.

The Turkish Army has long been the protector of Turkey's secularism - and the ruling AKP is destroying Turkey's secularism.

To finish the job and turn Turkey into a full blown Islamist state like PAKISTAN, the AKP must purge the Army.

This has begun. It goes right along with their diplomatic attacks on longtime ally Israel, their refusal to help us during the Iraq War, and their steady movement toward Iran and Syria and Hizballah and Hamas.

We should support a military coup against the AKP, or kick Turkey out of NATO.

NATO AIR ATTACK KILLS CIVILIANS: WILL OBAMA ATTACK OBAMA!?

NYTIMES:

NATO Airstrike Is Said to Have Killed Afghan Civilians

By ROD NORDLAND 45 minutes ago

KABUL — An airstrike against what was believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing at least 27 civilians in Oruzgan Province, Afghan officials said.

THIS IS WHAT CANDIDATE OBAMA USED TO ATTACK:



NOW, THE SHOE IS ON THE OTHER FOOT.

HOW DOES IT FEEL BARRY? YOU ASS.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE IS ONE REASON WAR IS HELL.

AND WE ARE FIGHTING AN ENEMY WHICH DELIBERATELY PLACES THEMSELVES AMONG CIVILIANS TO EXPLOIT THEIR DEATHS AS PROPAGANDA.

I HAVE A FEELING THAT THE MSM WON'T PLAY ALONG WITH THE ENEMY NOW - ON ACCOUNT OF THE FACT THAT OBAMA IS AS LEFTIST AS THE MSM. SCUM.

IS CONGRESSMAN ENGEL THE JEWISH CANARY IN THE OBAMA COAL MINE?

CONGRESSMAN ELIOT ENGEL IS NOT HAPPY WITH OBAMA'S MIDDLE EAST EFFORTS AND HE IS MAKING IT KNOWN:

US President Barack Obama’s decision to re-appoint an ambassador to Syria was a “mistake,” US Congressman Eliot Engel (D-New York) told The Jerusalem Post.

Engel was the sponsor of a 2003 bill calling for sanctions against Syria if it doesn’t end support for terrorism and leave Lebanon.

In reference to the brouhaha over the Foreign Ministry’s decision not to meet with J Street members accompanying a delegation of US congressman, Engel – who was in Israel last week – defended the government’s right to meet with whom it saw fit.

“It’s up to Israeli officials to decide who they will meet with, and who not to meet with,” he said.

He pointed out that a number of the congressmen that J Street brought over vote against Israel on resolutions that generally carry massive support on the House floor.

For instance, two of those congressman – California Democrats Lois Capps and Bob Filner – voted against House Resolution 867 that slammed the Goldstone Report and re-affirmed Israel’s right to self-defense.

Another member of the delegation, Bill Delahunt (D-Massachusetts), voted “present,” while Donald Payne (D-New Jersey) did not vote. The only member of the delegation to back the resolution, deemed in Jerusalem an important pro-Israel resolution, was Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio).

The resolution passed 344-36, with another 22 voting “present,” and 20 not voting.

J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami, in a post on the organization’s Web site Friday, characterized members of the delegation his organization brought to the country as “key friends of Israel in Congress.”

Engel, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a staunch supporter of Israel in the House, said J Street takes “positions in Washington I have difficulty with.”

Engel said J Street’s statements “over-emphasize” what the organization feels Israel is not doing, “rather than putting the blame squarely where I think it belongs – the Palestinian attitude of denying Israel the right to exist as a Jewish state.”

He continued, “If you look at some of the votes we had in the US Congress pertaining to Israel and the Middle East, there are some people on that [J Street] trip who the government would be unhappy with regarding their votes – and that would be understandable. They probably feel that if people are going to criticize them, they don’t have to facilitate the criticism.”

Regarding the appointment last week of Robert Ford as Washington’s first envoy to Syria in five years, Engel said he had “reservations” about the move, saying that Damascus has been “obstructionist” and is a huge supporter of Iran, which “right now is the worst player in the region.

“Iran right now is attempting to develop a nuclear bomb, is a major financer of international terrorism, and Syria is right by their side,” Engel said. “Both Iran and Syria, in my opinion, play a destabilizing role in Lebanon, and I just haven’t seen a sign of any moderation on behalf of the Syrians. We have been down this road before.”

Engel said he viewed appointing an ambassador to Damascus as a mistake, “unless Syria has agreed to something I am not privy to behind the scenes, making themselves helpful, ready to take some steps away from Iran, ready to cooperate in the region for peace and stability.

“If there was a wink and a nod and some quid pro quo, then there is some rationale for the move, but short of that, I don’t see any rationale in it at this time.”

Engel said it was pretty clear that a year of Obama’s engagement policy toward Iran has “pretty much failed, and that all the Iranians are doing are playing for time to get more time to build the bomb.”

Engel said the Obama administration understood this now, which is why it was stepping up its call for sanctions against Teheran.

Another way to pressure Iran is to isolate it, which Engel assumed was one of the reasons for the reappointment of an ambassador to Syria, hoping that this would be a way to tear Syria out of the Iranian orbit.

Asked about Obama’s overall Middle East policy, Engel – one of the first Democratic congressmen who broke with Obama’s polices on Israel early on – said that the administration clearly “made some mistakes getting out of the box.”

Engel said Obama erred in publicly pressing the settlement issue, something that made Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “dig in his heels.”

Likewise, he said, by publicly pressuring Israel, and not simultaneously pressing the Palestinians on any issues, “it just gives the wrong impression.”

I PRAY ALL JEWISH DEMOCRATS WAKE UP AND STOP RELFEXIVELY SUPPORTING DEMOCRATS.

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS THE HOME OF ANTI-ZIONISM IN AMERICA.

LIKE MOST LEFTIST PARTIES.

SYRIA DESERVES SANCTIONS, NOT AN ENVOY.

THANKS TO PETRAEUS AND BUSH, THE AFGHAN SURGE IS WORKING

HOT AIR MISSES THE POINT BY FEATURING OBAMA WHEN THEY SHOULD HAVE FEATURED PETRAEUS AND BUSH:

Oh my: Another top-ten most wanted Taliban leader captured in Pakistan

Feb 21, 2010 7:12 PM by Allahpundit

39 Comments » | 0 Trackbacks

Score.

[ALLAHPUNDIT COMMENTS:]

How big is this fish? Big enough to have allegedly been appointed the Taliban’s “political affairs” director last year. Big enough as well to have merited news stories about U.S. troops chasing him in the Afghan mountains back in early 2002, just a few months after the invasion began. Eight years later, thanks to Pakistani police, he’s finally in the net.

One question I keep asking myself during these now-daily newsflashes about Taliban chieftains being pinched: How long has Pakistani intel known where these turds are, and how many American soldiers’ lives could have been saved if they had acted sooner?

ALLAHPUNDIT MISSES THE POINT.

THE CREDIT DOESN'T BELONG TO THE ISI OR OBAMA.

IT BELONGS TO PETRAEUS AND BUSH.

If HOT AIR had put a photo of PETRAEUS up on this post instead of Obama, then they’d have 500 comments by now instead of only thirty-nine.

And, it would have been more accurate:

Petraeus is the architect of the strategy that’s paying off.

All Obama did was drag his feet for 6 months.

The increased success in Afghanistan has as much to do with Obama as it does with my left nut.

IOW: zero.

And without having WON Iraq, all this would be IMPOSSIBLE.

There would be no surge in Afghanistan had there been no surge in Iraq – and if the surge in Iraq had been unsuccessful, then there’d have been no Afghan surge fer sure. And if it been up to Obama and Biden then there'd have been no Iraq Surge.

THEREFORE: ALL CREDIT IS DUE PETRAEUS AND THE TROOPS – AND THEN BUSH.

NONE TO OBAMA.

Don't Go Away Whiny, Just Go Away, Evan Bayh

Bayh's op-ed in the grey corpse today, in which he whines on and on about nothing to deflect attention from his indefensible record, is emblematic of his entire career. He goes on and on about how Congress is not friendly enough without once mentioning the corruption, the spending addiction, the generational theft, and the power grabs which have become par for the course. The problem with Congress, according to Bayh, has nothing to do with anything representatives do to their constituents, to the country, and to the unborn generations from whom they steal as a matter of policy; the problem with Congress is that representatives are not nice enough to each other.

In Bayh's universe, the fact that he is polite, friendly, and never utters an unkind word about anyone actually excuses his entire voting record. He is wrong. Americans, if anything, would enjoy less politeness and more honesty in Congress. Think 'Prime Ministers Questions' on CSPAN. Who doesn't love that? We would not care if our representatives regularly brawled out back after sessions.

In the future, Mr. Bayh, try to deal in facts, not feelings. Americans do not want whiny, nancified leaders who exploit antiquated and misplaced notions of manners in order to shut down discussion. Congress is not your grandmother's dinner table. You are there to debate substantive issues and do what we want.

The purpose of Bayh's op-ed was obviously to provide political cover for his disgraceful record, which has been particularly despicable of late. ObamaKare is still moving through Congress, and regardless of Bayh's evasive doubletalk in response to every question about it, he has not only been 100% behind it every step of the way, but he is just as corrupt as his co-sleazes Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln, if not worse.

While he most likely (but not certainly) did not wrangle us Hoosiers some sweetheart deal, he stands to make a personal fortune from ObamaKare. The mandate would be an enormous boost to Wellpoint, an insurance company with a particularly egregious record in Indiana, on whose board his wife sits. Where do greedy insurance companies meet Bolshevik plots? The Bayhs' bank account. This should offend everyone.

And he still pushed for an alcohol tax to fund Jokerkare.

And he, like everyone who voted for JokerKare, is in bed with ACORN.

Perhaps Bayh's conscience spurred him to write his op-ed, because I genuinely believe him to be a nice guy. But his "content-free populist rhetoric" does not erase his record. In fact, it is the problem with Washington. Congress needs to admit its mistakes, its problems, its failures, and it must work to fix them because they are destroying our country. Misidentifying the problem and rambling on and on about essentially nothing accomplishes nothing. Bayh has done that for the last 25 years. It is not acceptable to be "agnostic" about an unconstitutional federal usurpation of 1/6 of the U.S. economy and come out strong against unfriendliness.

The one thing he did say in his op-ed was that the party machines should now be publicly subsidized to counter private contributions, which is basically another way of robbing taxpayers to augment political slush funds because the free market and the First Amendment (i.e., the will of the people whom his job consists of representing) keep getting in the way of his party's policies.

Congress and state legislators should also consider incentives, including public matching funds for smaller contributions, to expand democratic participation and increase the influence of small donors relative to corporations and other special interests.

He wants us to pay for his campaigns like taxpayers do in North Korea, Venezuela, Egypt, Iran, and other nations with leaders who think like him. He also wants to take our guns away so that when ACORN rigs our elections and they turn out like they do Iran we can be suppressed like the Iranians.

Pre-emptively calling me "mean" for stating the facts will not stop me from doing just that. We need leaders who will honestly acknowledge problems and work to fix them, not whine about nothing of any consequence to anyone outside of Congress.

That only works in one context: at home. Quell your infighting and discuss nothing politely amongst those with whom doing so is actually productive. Just go home and stay there, Evan Bayh.

Providence has given Evan Bayh a unique opportunity to actually do his job one time. His job is to do what we want him to, and what that is right now is to just fade into the background and never reemerge. Let us hope that he does not once again do absolutely the worst possible thing every step of the way and then whine about nothing in public again. I regard that annoying and evasive tactic, like Evan Bayh's entire career, as betrayal of one's constituents. Evan Bayh never represented Hoosiers. He only represented himself. And he continues to.

ANOTHER HUMONGOUS "OOOOOOOPS!" FROM THE IPCC: SEA LEVEL NOT RISING

IPCC SEA LEVEL CLAIM IS FORMALLY WITHDRAWN:

The IPCC said that sea level would probably rise by 18cm-59cm by 2100, though stressed this was based on incomplete information about ice sheet melting and that the true rise could be higher.

Many scientists criticised the IPCC approach as too conservative, and several papers since have suggested that sea level could rise more. Martin Vermeer of the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland and Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany published a study in December that projected a rise of 0.75m to 1.9m by 2100.

Siddall said that he did not know whether the retracted paper's estimate of sea level rise was an overestimate or an underestimate.

Announcing the formal retraction of the paper from the journal, Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Bristol, said: "It's one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science." He said there were two separate technical mistakes in the paper, which were pointed out by other scientists after it was published. A formal retraction was required, rather than a correction, because the errors undermined the study's conclusion.

"Retraction is a regular part of the publication process," he said. "Science is a complicated game and there are set procedures in place that act as checks and balances."

Nature Publishing Group, which publishes Nature Geoscience, said this was the first paper retracted from the journal since it was launched in 2007.

The paper – entitled "Constraints on future sea-level rise from past sea-level change" – used fossil coral data and temperature records derived from ice-core measurements to reconstruct how sea level has fluctuated with temperature since the peak of the last ice age, and to project how it would rise with warming over the next few decades.

In a statement the authors of the paper said: "Since publication of our paper we have become aware of two mistakes which impact the detailed estimation of future sea level rise. This means that we can no longer draw firm conclusions regarding 21st century sea level rise from this study without further work.

THS: Sea Level Expert: "Sea is not Rising"

Sea Level is Rising is a Total Fraud (PDF)

IPCC Ocean-gate anyone?

CLIMATEGATE, HIMALAYA GATE, POLAR ICE CAP GATE - IS ANYTHING THEY ARGUED FOR TRUE!?

NOPE. IT WAS A HOAX.

• A HOAX DESIGNED BY LEFTISTS TO ALLOW THEM TO ENACT GLOBAL SOCIALISM AND SHACKLE THE WEST, REDISTRIBUTE OUR PROSPERITY TO THE THIRD WORLD, AND DESTROY INDUSTRIALIZATION.

• AND THEY DID IT KNOWING IT WAS A HOAX, ONE THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD GET AWAY WITH: (THEY PROBABLY FELT THAT THEY COULD TAKE CREDIT FOR THE ABSENCE OF ANY CATASTROPHIC WARMING).

WEATHER CHANNEL FOUNDER JOHN COLEMAN:

Back in the 1960s, this global warming research came to the attention of a Canadian born United Nation's bureaucrat named Maurice Strong.

He was looking for issues he could use to fulfill his dream of one-world government. Strong organized a World Earth Day event in Stockholm, Sweden in 1970. From this he developed a committee of scientists, environmentalists and political operatives from the UN to continue a series of meetings.

Strong developed the concept that the UN could demand payments from the advanced nations for the climatic damage from their burning of fossil fuels to benefit the underdeveloped nations—a sort of CO2 tax that would be the funding for his one-world government.

But he needed more scientific evidence to support his primary thesis. So Strong championed the establishment of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC).

This was not a pure, “climate study” scientific organization, as we have been led to believe.

It was an organization of one-world government UN bureaucrats, environmental activists and environmentalist scientists who craved UN funding so they could produce the science they needed to stop the burning of fossil fuels.

THANK GOD: THE TRUTH WON AND THE SOCIALISTS LOST!

UPDATE: SCOOPED INSTAPUNDIT BY A DAY.

ONLY IN NANNYSTATE BRITAIN: "SEVERAL OF PM BROWN'S STAFF CALLED 'BULLY HELPLINE'"

BBC: PM staff 'called bully helpline'

Several people in Gordon Brown's office have contacted an anti-bullying charity, its boss has told the BBC.

Christine Pratt said "three or four" calls had been made to the National Bullying Helpline in recent years.

Earlier Lord Mandelson denied claims Mr Brown had been warned about his temper, saying he "doesn't bully people".

Ms Pratt said she was not saying the PM was a bully, but said some of his staff "have concerns". Downing Street has yet to respond to the claims.

It follows a separate story in the Observer alleging that the head of the civil service Sir Gus O'Donnell was so concerned he had a word with Gordon Brown about his behaviour towards staff.

'Without foundation'

A book by the newspaper's chief political commentator Andrew Rawnsley includes details of incidents where it is alleged Mr Brown grabbed staff by the lapels, shoved them aside and shouted at them.

A BULLY HELPLINE!?!? FOR ADULTS!?!? ONLY IN THE NANNYSTATE THAT WAS ONCE THE GREATEST EMPIRE ON EARTH.

SIGH.

AND ANOTHER THING: GORDON BROWN IS A TYPICAL DO-GOODER LEFTIST: A TOTAL FREAKIN' HYPOCRITE: LIKE A GOOD LITTLE "PROGRESSIVE" HE PORTRAYS HIMSELF AS A CARING MAN AND THE TORIES AS MISANTHROPES.

IT'S REALLY THE OTHER WAY AROUND - AND FOR A REASON:

• PROGRESSIVES ARE STATISTS WHO DON'T THINK REGULAR PEOPLE ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES. IT'S A CORE-BELIEF: THE LEFT THINKS THE PEOPLE ARE INCOMPETENT; THAT'S WHY THE LEFT SUPPORT A NANNYSTATE RUN BY AN "EDUCATED" ELITE.

OBVIOUSLY, BROWN FEELS HIS STAFF OF "REGULAR PEOPLE" IS ALSO INCOMPETENT, AND HE CAN'T STAND IT.

• BELIEVING THAT THE PEOPLE ARE BASICALLY INCOMPETENT IS MISANTHROPIC, AND IT'S WHY LEFTIST GOVERNMENTS DEVOLVE SO EASILY INTO TYRANNY AND GENOCIDE:

• LEFTISTS FEEL THAT THE ONLY THINGS BETWEEN THE CURRENT SITUATION AND THEIR VISION OF UTOPIA ARE INCOMPETENT OR EVIL PEOPLE WHO MIGHT AS WELL BE "ELIMINATED".
  

"HEALTHCARE IS OBAMA'S IRAQ": RELIAPUNDIT SCOOPS CHARLIE COOK AND GLENN REYNOLDS BY 7 MONTHS!

GLENN REYNOLDS - THE BLOGOSPHERE'S NUMBER 1 BLOGGER, LINKING TO THE ONE OF THE NATION'S TOP POLITICAL ANALYSTS - TODAY:

February 21, 2010

CHARLIE COOK: Health Care Is Obama’s Iraq.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds at 9:45 am

RELIAPUNDIT 7 MONTHS AGO:

Monday, September 21, 2009

IS OBAMACARE OBAMA'S IRAQ WAR?

Obama got elected because he is tall and has a great smile, outspent McCain 8-1, lied in a lovely warm baritone about being a centrist, and . . . BECAUSE THE ECONOMY TANKED!

Upon taking office he signed a $787 BILLION dollar "stimulus" bill which no one read and hasn't been spent. (I have previously argued it's really Rahm's and Axelrod's War Chest, a political "stimulus" package meant to stimulate support for Obama.)

Since passing the "stimulus" Obama has focuseD almost exclusively ion OBAMACARE.

Not the economy.

OBAMA HAS TAKEN HIS EYE OFF THE BALL - OFF THE BIGGEST DOMESTIC ISSUE OF OUR DAY: THE ECONOMY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH.

I think this is commensurate with the Left's constant charge from 2004-2008 that the Iraq War was DISTRACTION from the "real war" begun on 9/11 - "the good war" - the war in Afghanistan.

BUT IT'S WORSE!

Obama has not only taken his eye off the main DOMESTIC issue, he has also ignored Afghanistan - the place he swore he he was gonna focus on and get right.

It actually seems more and more like Obama is getting ready to do to Afghanistan what his comrades on the Left - the doves of the Democrats - did to South Vietnam in 1975: abandon them. Like they dd to the Shah a few years later.

It would be keeping with his character to do so.

Or should I say LACK of character.

WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.

In record time.

Dissent Accordingly.

Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:26 AM ; Permalink

AND AGAIN 4 MONTHS AGO:

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

COMPARING TWO UNPOPULAR CAUSES CHAMPIONED PRESIDENTS: THE SURGE VERSUS OBAMACARE

In 2007, everyone accepted that the status quo in Iraq was untenable. The choices were change strategy or withdraw. Bush courageously decided that a Surge in Iraq was necessary to secure the victory. It was an unpopular move, but as Commander in Chief he could do it despite its unpopularity.

It worked. Its success took Iraq out of the equation for the 2008 Presidential race.

And people look back and agree it was the RIGHT thing to do.

Obama and the Left have decided that totally redesigning the health care and the health care insurance industries - 1/6th of our economy - is necessary, despite the fact that most Americans are happy with their current health care and the fact that government run health care systems - Medicare and Medicaid are run poorly, with huge fraud and massive deficits.

The bills in the House and the Senate do not even satisfy a majority of Democrats, let alone voters.

Yet, the Democrats feel that once a bill is signed into law, that its effects will somehow match the effects of the Surge, and people will look back and agree it was the right thing to do. Before the 2010 election.

This is insane.

Any positive effects Obamacare MIGHT have, (and I don't think there will be any at any time, but if there are any, they) can't possibly be felt until 2012-14. But its negative effects will start AT ONCE: taxes will go up, and plans will change immediately.

So, the Democrats are wrong: unlike the unpopular Surge, Obamacare will not have a political payoff for the Democrats.

Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:32 AM ; Permalink

REGULAR READERS KNOW I BEAT THE BIGGIES WITH INCISIVE ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME.

SPREAD THE WORD.

BREAKING: IAF HAS DRONE FLEET CAPABLE OF ATTACKING IRAN

UPDATE #4 (MORE BELOW): WELCOME HOT AIR READERS!

JPOST:

The Israel Air Force on Sunday introduced a fleet of large unmanned planes it claims can fly as far as Iran.

Air force officials said the Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 26 meters, making them the size of passenger jets. They said the planes can fly 20 consecutive hours, and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads.

The drones, built by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, were first used during Israel's Gaza war last year.

At an inauguration ceremony Sunday, officials refused to say how large the new fleet is or whether the planes were designed for use against Iran.

THEY CAN REACH IRAN - AND DON'T HAVE TO REFUEL AND RETURN TO ISRAEL.

THEIR JOB IS DONE WHEN THEY DELIVER THEIR PAYLOADS.

THEY WILL DELIVER THEIR PAYLOADS SOONER THEN IRAN THINKS.

THAT'S WHY THEY ANNOUNCED THIS TODAY!

UPDATE: DIG THAT IAF BABE!

UPDATE #2: WE WERE THE FIRST IN THE BLOGOSPHERE TO POST ON THIS NEWS ITEM.

UPDATE#3: WE BEAT ARUTZ AND THE NYPOST, TOO.

UPDATE #5: WE BEAT DRUDGE AND JAWA TOO - JAWA HAD THIS VIDEO:

IPCC CHAIRMAN PACHAURI'S TERI INSTITUTE HAS A LUXURY GOLF COURSE

PACHAURI'S GOLF COURSE...

... IS NOT UNLIKE TOM FRIEDMAN'S SASQUATCHIAN HOME

THEY'RE TYPICAL LEFT-WING ELITIST HYPOCRITES.

HOW DO YOU SAY, "LET'S GIVE THEM A STATE" IN FRENCH?

French FM calls for recognition of Palestinian state even before borders set.

A Palestinian state needs to be recognized even before its future borders are finalized, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche set for publication Saturday.

"The issue before us at the moment is the building of a reality: France is training Palestinian police, businesses are being created in the West Bank," AFP quoted from the interview. "It follows that one can envision the proclamation soon of a Palestinian state, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before negotiating its borders."

Kouchner also commented on the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, which he said was further proof of the need for peace in the Middle East.

"[The affair] shows the need for peace and a Palestinian state, immediately," Kouchner told the French paper.

THIS IS INSANE.

A NON-SEQUITOR.

LET'S ASSUME FOR A SECOND THAT THE MOSSAD DID TARGET THE HAMAS AGENT IN DUBAI TO ARM HAMAS.

HOW CAN THAT POSSIBLY ARGUE IN FAVOR OF A PALESTINIAN STATE!?

IT'S INSANE.

IF GAZANS BEHAVED AS IF THEY WERE WORTHY OF A STATE, THEN THEY'D HAVE A STATE.

INSTEAD THEY BEHAVE JUST AS THE KORAN TELLS THEM TO BEHAVE: LIKE FILTHY, MURDEROUS - NAY GENOCIDAL, MISOGYNISTIC ANIMALS.

WILD DOGS IN PACKS BEHAVE BETTER.

ISRAEL LEFT GAZA YEARS AGO, AND HOW HAVE THEY TRANSFORMED IT?

IT'S A FILTHY SEWER RUN BY RATS WHO'D RATHER HAVE BOMBS THAN WATER TREATMENT PLANTS AND WHO'D RATHER TEACH THEIR KIDS GENOCIDAL HATE THAN SCIENCE.

A SEWER IN WHICH ARABS BATHE IN THEIR OWN FILTH AND HATRED.

KOUCHNER MUST BE FIRED.

UNTIL HE IS, SARKOZY MUST BE SHUNNED.

WHAT MAKES NYC TICK: "OVER-ACHIEVERS LIVING IN CRAPPY OVER-PRICED APARTMENTS"

RTWT.

AL HAIG DEAD

ALEXANDER HAIG - DEAD.

He ran the White House and the Executive Branch as COS when Nixon was "ineffective" during Watergate.

He saved Israel during the Yom Kippur War by ordering resupply- including missiles.

(UPDATE: MORE ON HAIG AND ISRAEL HERE.)

He will also be remembered for his propensity to commit gaffes and misspeak.

But he did it far less often than either Obama or Biden.

RIP.