The usual Democrat concern for the truth

Excerpt:

In his town-hall meeting last Wednesday night, Edwards sang the refrain he has made the core of his big-government populist campaign: Big-business controls Washington and blocks crucial regulations and welfare programs, and John Edwards is the only man who can take it on. And the crowd loved it.

For all the free passes Barack Obama has received from the media, he's never gotten away with being as demonstrably wrong on the facts as John Edwards is nearly every time he sounds this theme. The truth of the matter is an awkward one for Edwards and his fans: the very big businesses they vilify support the very big-government policies they advocate.

In Thursday's debates, when asked about federal curbs on greenhouse gases to battle global warming, Edwards said: "first of all, we need to recognize what the obstacles are to the change that everyone believes is necessary. And the obstacles are oil companies, power companies, all those entrenched interests that stand between America and the change that it needs."

Democrats in the crowd nodded their heads at this, and reporters in the press room didn't bat an eye. That sounds natural to them: big oil and big energy oppose regulation of fuel and power, right?

Well, not Duke Energy whose CEO, Paul Anderson, has been calling for a tax on carbon dioxide for nearly three years.

Is there any more "entrenched interest" than General Electric, which every year since 1998 has spent more on lobbying than any other company in America? Hardly an "obstacle" to Edwards's favored policies, GE's Jeff Immelt on January 22, 2007, joined CEOs from Alcoa, DuPont, and other corporate titans to call for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

And oh yeah, one former big power company (the biggest in the world, at the time), lobbied two White Houses for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, pointing out in one e-mail, "This agreement will be good for Enron stock!" I could go on, but you get the point.

The same is true of health care. Edwards said Thursday that "corporate power and greed have literally taken over the government, and we need a president who's willing to take these powers on. It is the only way we're going to . have universal health care." Well, you could take them on, but that hardly seems necessary considering that many of the biggest corporations are firmly behind the big government health care plans that Edwards and the Democrats are offering.

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

DEBT AT ALL LEVELS

From Roxie of Independence Lost
Household finances are in a similar, sad shape. From this editorial by Mortimer Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report:

Yes, there are weapons of mass destruction. They are "financial weapons of mass destruction," to quote the famous investor Warren Buffett as he surveyed the morning-after wreckage of the subprime mortgage lending crisis. The continuing destruction can now be called a credit crisis—a significant escalation because credit has been the high-octane fuel powering the American economy for the past half dozen years.

[...]

People and companies are trying to cope with the debt accumulated during several years of profligate lending and spending. The real danger from a credit crunch is that everyone, from banks to corporations to households, may retrench simultaneously.

Read the entire article,"The Credit Crisis Grows," in which Mr. Zuckerman explains the vicious cyle in which our nation is enmeshed.

What remedies can be applied?...

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

IT'S OFFICIAL: WE WILL EXIT IRAQ IN ONE YEAR - 12/18/08

YOU'D THINK THIS NEWS WOULD SHUT UP THE "ANTIWAR" CROWD:

NYTIMES/AP:

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq for one year, a move that Iraq's prime minister said would be his nation's ''final request'' for help.

Authorization for the 160,000-strong multinational force was extended until the end of 2008 because ''the threat in Iraq continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security,'' according to the resolution.

Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Hamid Al Bayati called it a historic day for the country because the council renewed the mandate ''for the last time'' after long and hard negotiation. He expressed hope that the council would deal with Iraq without any military authorizations after 2008.

''We realize that Iraq still needs more time and intensive efforts to enable our armed forces to take over the security responsibilities all over Iraq from the multinational forces,'' he said, noting that Iraqi forces took responsibility for Basra two days ago and now control nine provinces.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad formally introduced the resolution Tuesday afternoon and soon after the council met to approve it.

After the 15-0 vote, Khalilzad cited ''positive developments in Iraq'' including reduced violence. He welcomed the council's support for the Iraqi government's desire ''to sustain this momentum'' and keep the force in the country.

The resolution requires a review of the mandate at the request of the Iraqi government or by June 15, 2008. It reiterates a provision of past resolutions that the council ''will terminate this mandate earlier'' if Iraq requests that.

It also says the Security Council would have to consider Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's request, in a letter on Dec. 7 to the Security Council's president, that ''this is to be the final request ... for the extension of the mandate'' for the U.S.-led force.

• WE NOW HAVE AN EXIT DATE GOAL: 12/18/08.
• AND THIS HAS THE UNANIMOUS SUPPORT OF THE UNSC AND THE MALIKI GOVERNMENT.
  
• NOW... WILL HARRY REID AND THE REST OF THE DEFEATISTS PLEASE STFU.
• AND THOSE WHO CLAIM WE HAVE NO SUPPORT: STFU2.
  
• AND SHOWING A LITTLE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS WOULD BE NICE.

EVEN JUST FOR A CHANGE OF PACE!

SARKOZY POPPED THE QUESTION!

UK TELEGRAPH:

The mother of Carla Bruni, the former model dating the president of France, has suggested the couple could soon marry.

Marisa Bruni Tedeschi, who lives in a castle near Turin, told La Stampa newspaper that Nicolas Sarkozy had already proposed to her daughter and that Miss Bruni, 39, was mulling it over.

Although Mr Sarkozy has reportedly proposed, Carla Bruni has previously said that monogamy bores her 'desperately' "I am very happy for my daughter.

It gives me enormous pleasure to see her so radiant and in love," she said.

"Oh, I'm very proud but don't ask me to say any more; I absolutely cannot. I promised. We mamas always end up gossiping too much."

The newspaper claimed that sources other than Miss Bruni Tedeschi, a former concert pianist, confirmed that Mr Sarkozy, 52, who only met Miss Bruni last month, had popped the question and told her to give him an answer by New Year's Day.

SARKO RULES!

NO SURPRISE HERE: LOOK AT HER: I'D POP THE QUESTION AFTER 30 DAYS, TOO - EVEN IF SHE WASN'T AN HEIRESS! BUT SHE WOULDN'T DAY YES. :(

A Plea to my Countrymen

First of all, I just need to say--for those who have been asleep for the past year--that Harry Reid is a disgrace and an embarrassment. This gnat of a man actually suggested that America was losing the War in Iraq. No, I'm not talking about earlier in the summer; I'm talking about this week. Captain Ed put it perfectly so I will not try and improve on his description:

Harry Reid doesn't know when to give up, or more precisely, when to give up on giving up. After spending the last several months trying to live down his declaration of America's defeat in Iraq on the Senate floor, Reid once again gave al-Qaeda a propaganda boost that sounds as if he took it from Ayman al-Zawahiri's latest video message:

Indeed, Republicans have gotten their way in the battle over spending, have forced Democrats to jettison rollbacks of tax breaks for oil companies, and have beaten back attempts to pay for expanded children's health care programs with a tobacco tax increase. Even though they're in the minority, the GOP, backed by President Bush, has used the filibuster to block Democratic priorities over and over this fall.

"Who's winning?" Reid asked a group of reporters. "Big Oil, Big Tobacco. ... Al Qaeda has regrouped and is able to fight a civil war in Iraq. ... The American people are losing."

Really? I realize that Reid spends most of his days in denial, but even the media has dropped this meme. The Petraeus surge has driven AQ to the brink of complete disaster in Iraq, so much so that many of them have shifted to Pakistan. The level of violence in Iraq has starkly decreased, avoiding the "civil war" that Reid seems eager to declare.

Remember Hillary's insult to David Petraeus involving a willful suspension of disbelief? Reid must have a willful suspension of reality.

OK, now that the despicable Mr. Reid has been dealt with, I have a real need to get a few things off my chest here because I am literally about to bust and the holidays are coming. This is my outlet for this kind of stuff, so for those readers who like heavy links and less commentary, tonight is going to be something else. I am angry, and I am not going to over edit this; sometimes you just need to let things fly for a bit of catharsis, so here goes nothing:

First of all, let's stop pretending; these are not Democrats in the traditional mold. That party is long gone. These are out-and-out Socialists, who spit on the Constitution every single day, who use filibusters to bury circuit judges (also unprecedented, but what goes around will come around...) who continue the insanity of trying the same thing (surrender) over and over again, and expecting a different result.

I truly have never been so disgusted in my entire life at a group of so called "statesmen" trying to tear my country apart at the seams; I thought I had seen it all but this is--quite simply--a "renegade" Congress; renegade as in a Clear and Present Danger to the Constitution, to the economy, to our standing in the world, and to our very lives.

They are running Medicare and Social Security into bankruptcy, yet we are supposed to entrust them to take care of all our medical care? Are you kidding me? We already have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the entire world (except countries like Zimbabwe; and that's worked out real well for them hasn't it...)--which has already served to send thousands of American jobs overseas--yet what are the Socialist Presidential candidates doing in the name of pandering to the race-baiting class warfare vote? They want to tax American corporations higher. Yeah, that's the ticket. Let's send even more jobs overseas to more foreign corporations as the stocks of our corporations plunge and unemployment soars. Because that is the only way American businesses will be able to stay afloat in a hostile Socialist environment. Hey, but at least we'll all be able to stand in line for six months to see a doctor!

Take the energy companies: they won't let our energy companies have access to our own boundless sources of energy--which of course would both lower oil prices AND our dependence on foreign oil--so we don't have to pay our enemies for it.

But no, we can't possibly go that route: didn't you hear, the sky is falling, the end of the world is nigh. They have only been saying that for about the last 2000 years--but this time they mean it. They haven't proven a damn thing--but my how they try and "play on our fears" (hey! that's Al Gore's line...) at every turn: "We will all be underwater in 50 years", they say. And they have been proven wrong by the science.

Here is a question I heard posed on Hewitt's show the other night and it is a powerful one: If they really believed the world was about to end if we don't do something drastic, then why in the world would they continue to block nuclear energy? Again: if they actually believed that the world were really coming to an end? Hmmm? Why did THIS "Gloom and Doom" Congress keep a proposal to dramatically shift our reliance to nuclear energy to heat and cool a much greater majority our homes and cities OUT of their energy bill, if moving forward with it would clearly DRAMATICALLY reduce CO2 emissions and thus do more to "save the planet" than any other thing we are doing or could do? Just ponder that for a moment.

No, instead they block nuclear energy, hell, they block American energy companies at every turn, they keep us from getting the plentiful oil out of our own ground--and then they cry "wolf" and "profiteering" when oil prices go through the roof!

And what is the Socialists' grand idea to fix this problem? Why to raise corporate taxes on the very companies whose job it is to make us energy independent! The same companies who are trying to put research dollars into alternatives even as they also try to wean us off of the tit of Arab oil--which fund weapons and terror to be used against us.

It is madness.

And yet the brain dead American public, led on by the brain dead Socialists in our "compassionate" government and media is buying The Great Lie hook, line and sinker. And buying the propaganda blaming the Republicans for the Democrats' own policies in action--or the result of the Socialists' attempts to block the Republicans at every turn from getting us out of this Godawful mess.

And it isn't just corporate taxes--they want more of your money too. You folks reading this out there might not know it, but if you have a decent job now, you are "the rich" that the class warriors are targeting. What do they care, these "mouthpieces" who have private jets to fly them to Helsinki and Save the Planet concerts and Bali conferences. They have 30,000 square foot houses who burn more energy in a month than most of us burn into an entire year. And these are the people speaking for the "common man"??? Are the Kennedy's "common"? Gore? Soros? The Clintons? Obama? Oprah? Edwards? Angelina freaking Jolie? These guys "feel our pain". Who the hell are they kidding?

What do these gazillionaire "feel gooders" care if the mindless non-productive bureaucrats soak up every last penny of our money. They have millions. We won't have any money to buy gifts or medical care, or vacations, or products that keep Americans empolyed, or to otherwise try and live the good life--but they won't have to trifle with such problems. They all have their nest egg--much of it from ill-gotten gain or money under the table. But who cares, right? Just think of all the other countries who will love us now--because their companies will then be getting all of our jobs. What kind of world are we setting up for our children and grandchildren?

If you didn't have a good answer on the "what do they care" question, it is pretty apparent: "they" could care less what happens to you. Because the ugly truth is that the less power (read: "money") you have over your own lives means the more dependent you will be on THEM. And power is their holy grail; they thirst for nothing less than power over every single aspect of your lives. More rules to tell you how you can and cannot live, what you can and cannot say, who you can and cannot offend by offering a freaking opinion--something much better Americas than these cretins gave their lives to protect.

Talk to a person from Eastern Europe. Ask them about living under state Socialism. Once they finish laughing at you they will say something like: "why in the hell do you think that we--and the entire rest of the world is trying to come to America? Yet you dumb Americans are tying to emulate that model of colossal failure??" And they will look at you like you are insane. Because you are--like it or not--a part of a collective insanity that threatens us all.

France has seen the light. Sweeden has seen the light. Ireland has seen the light. Those countries are reducing corporate taxes (some, like Japan pay NO corporate tax). Those societies can't wait to actually experience real economic growth and get away from the nightmare of socialism. But we can't even see past the last episode of The View or Oprah or E!

How proud our forefathers must be of us. Here, in the greatest experiment of capitalism, individual (not collective) rights and freedom that has ever existed on this Earth--we have a real nightmare in the making. And it is not as bad as I make it sound, it is worse; because this bunch of dogmatic anti-capitalist, anti-military, anti-freedom, anti-freedom of religion, anti-growth Marxists are in very great danger of consolidating even more power next year. All they have to do is to pull the wool over the eyes of enough zombie-like American "feel good, think not" automatons, who refuse to use the grey matter between their ears to think for themselves--perferring instead to go along to get along with this magnificent culture of celebrity debauchery we seem to worship--with the help of a willing media; and they get to enslave the rest of us. And I guess the bonus prize for this mental vacuity is that we all get to be flushed down the cosmic septic tank with the rest of them.

Unless we take it back.

Folks, we have got to stop this madness. We have got to pull up our bootstraps, put on our War gear and get out there and fight for what our Founding Fathers and many since have fought and died to give us. Because it is being stolen from right under our noses. And if we don't stand up now, I'm afraid four years from now will be too late. It is time for us to pick up the baton of sacrifice and to support the only party in America that can put a stop to this madness. That means giving to your candidates. That means volunteering for your candidates. That means not being too damn shy to argue with your mind-numbed liberal friends about the danger we are in. Not relying on others to do it. YOU do it. It is your country--to win or to lose. Franklin's remark in 1787 has never been more true: "A Republic...if you can keep it."

Personally, I think it is worth keeping.

I will close this rant with a few quotes from a three of the greatest speeches ever made, given by a great man who stood up against the forces of appeasement in the darkest days of the Battle of Britain:

• I hope that any of my friends and colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the political reconstruction, will make allowance, all allowance, for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

  We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim?

  I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

• "I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

  At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.

  The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

  Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

  We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
  we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
  we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
  we shall fight on the beaches,
  we shall fight on the landing grounds,
  we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
  we shall fight in the hills;
  we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

• Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.

  Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

  Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
  

We could do worse right now than to heed the words of Winston Churchill.

UPDATE: Obama is serving Kool-Aid too.

SINCE 2003, NHS REFORMS KILLING PREEMIES IN THE UK

UK GUARDIAN:

Babies dying due to NHS confusion

Reform of neonatal units botched says inquiry by National Audit Office

Scores of premature babies may be dying unnecessarily across England because the NHS mismanaged a reform of neonatal units in 2003, parliament's spending watchdog reveals today.

Health ministers provided £73m over three years to link up hospital neonatal units in 23 regional networks that could provide specialist services to save premature and low birth weight babies.

But the National Audit Office finds that the Department of Health did not issue instructions for the units to be adequately staffed.

As a result the service was overstretched. Its specialist nursing workforce was nearly 10% below strength.

There were not enough cots to respond to every emergency and there was a lack of specialist 24-hour transport to move babies and mothers to other hospitals.

• IF IT DOESN'T WORK IN THE UK - WHERE THEY INVENTED IT! - IT WON'T WORK HERE.
• YET THE DEMS BASICALLY WANT TO SOCIALIZE HEALTHCARE HERE.
• IT MAKES NO SENSE.

DON'T FALL FOR IT.

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: a moron duped by the left

In his latest attack on VB Charles of LGF ran this photo (to the right):

Charles wants us to believe that this symbol (in the black flag) is ONLY for WHITE POWER, AND... that because people displayed it at a rally which inclded VB that therefore VB is evil and must be shunned.

Charles couples this attack with info from a self-described leftist in Europe who not only attacks VB ALL THE TIME but also attacks Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Oriana Fallaci. (Oyvind Strommen.)

APPARENTLY, A MAN WHO ATTACKS FALLACI AND AYAAN IS SOMEONE WHO CHARLES WANTS TO STAND WITH.

Yipes. I will stand with Oriana and Ayaan, and STAND AGAINST STROMMEN AND LGF.

Well, a few weeks ago we posted a few photos of a recent rally in RUSSIA here at TAB and on a comment thread at LGF.

The rally was against Putin and for more democracy and transparency in Russia's politics.

Gary Kasparov was arrested at this rally.


Here are some of the photos we linked to in that post:


PLEASE NOTE THE COMMUNIST PARTY FLAGS.


These flags were not carried by bezerkly American college idiots wearing Che t-shirts.

They were carried by real commies in the same communist party which enslaved 500 MILLION people for 70 years and slaughtered 50 MILLION and put another 15 MILLION in the gulags.

The Russian commies killed MILLIONS AND MILLIONS more people than white supremacists in Belgium.

Yet Kasparov - a true freedom fighter - was proud to march with them against Putin's emerging tyranny.

BASED ON CHARLES REASONING (REALLY LACK THEREOF!) WE SHOULD ATTACK KASPAROV FOR BEING A COMMUNIST OR AN COMMUNIST ENABLER!

That. Would. Be. Idiotic.

IN A BIG STAKES WAR, YOU IDENTIFY YOUR REAL ENEMY AND JOIN FORCES WITH WHOEVER YOU CAN OR MUST IN ORDER TO DEFEAT THEM.

• FDR DID THAT WITH STALIN AGAINST HITLER.
• KASPAROV STANDS WITH THE COMMIES AGAINST PUTIN.
• WE CAN CERTAINLY AND MORE EASILY AND WITH FAR LESS MORAL QUALMS DO THAT WITH VB. AND GATES OF VIENNA.

BOTTOM-LINE:

1 - I don't believe the LEFTISTS who make charges against VB - especially NOT leftists who hate Fallaci and Ayaan.

2 - I will accept the alliance of MANY unsavory people to defeat global jihad: Musharraf, the Turks, Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Tribal Chiefs - AND SO ON.

The fact that Charles cannot, only proves he's an immature, ignorant ass.

NEED MORE PROOF CHARLES IS AN ASS? HERE: HE BANNED ME. LIKE HE DID GATES OF VIENNA.

Well, well, well:

AT LEAST NOW, I AM IN BETTER COMPANY THAN WHEN I POSTED COMMENTS AT LGF.

ON THE ROAD WITH OBAMA: "THE SURGE ISN'T WORKING; I'M AGAINST PERMANENT BASES IN IRAQ; AND WE'RE LOSING IN AFGHANISTAN"

THE REASON THAT OBAMA IS DOING SO WELL IS THAT DEFEATISM AND RETREAT ARE POPULAR VALUES AMONG DEMOCRATS.

READ THIS POST AND WATCH THE VIDEO. IT'S UNBE-EFFIN-LIEVEABLE.

• WHAT MAKES IT WORSE TS THAT BY THE TIME THE 2008 ELECTION ROLLS ALONG - 11 MONTHS FROM NOW - IRAQ WILL NOT BE A MAJOR ISSUE.

• BECAUSE WE WILL HAVE WON THE WAR - AND IRAQ WILL DISAPPEAR FROM THE MSM ENTIRELY, AS IF IT NEVER EXISTED!

• SO FOR THE DEMS TOP PICK SOMEONE WHO WAS AN IRAQ WAR DEFEAFTIST, WELL, IT'S SORT OF LIKE THEM NOMINATING A COPPERHEAD IN 1868 OR A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR IN 1948! IT'S IDIOTIC.
  

WELL, THEY'RE IDIOTS. THEY DESERVE A NOMINEE LIKE OBAMA: A SMOOTH AND SHALLOW APPEASER .

PREDICTION: HILLARY FAILS TO WIN NOMINATION AND DIVORCES BILL

• Chelsea is grown up.
• Bill is Bill.
• She won't have any reason to put up with his crap at that point.
• She'll get half of his money.
• And she can come out.

Just guessing...

The Death Rattle of the Outrageous AGW Scam

GOV:

... this essay released by Marc Morano@ EPW.Senate.gov:

MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING BITES THE DUST

Washington DC - An abundance of new peer-reviewed studies, analysis, and data error discoveries in the last several months has prompted scientists to declare that fear of catastrophic man-made global warming “bites the dust” and the scientific underpinnings for alarm may be “falling apart.”

The latest study to cast doubt on climate fears finds that even a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide would not have the previously predicted dire impacts on global temperatures.

This new study is not unique, as a host of recent peer-reviewed studies have cast a chill on global warming fears.

“Anthropogenic (man-made) global warming bites the dust,” declared astronomer Dr. Ian Wilson after reviewing the new study which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Another scientist said the peer-reviewed study overturned “in one fell swoop” the climate fears promoted by the UN and former Vice President Al Gore.

The study entitled “Heat Capacity, Time Constant, and Sensitivity of Earth’s Climate System,” was authored by Brookhaven National Lab scientist Stephen Schwartz.

• I WONDER WHAT THE LEFT WILL COME UP WITH NEXT, TO JUSTIFY THEIR TRANSNATIONAL SOCIALIST TAX AND REGULATORY SCHEMES?

PROBABLY: GLOBAL COOLING! (ER UM... THAT WOULD BE CLIMATE CHANGE TOO, RIGHT!?)

GOD BLESS THE NAVY: SAVES TEENAGER WHOSE APPENDIX BURST WHILE AT SEA ON CRUISE

AP:

A teenager whose appendix ruptured at sea, hundreds of miles from help, got safely to shore Tuesday after an unusual rescue in which the Navy airlifted her from a cruise ship for emergency surgery. Laura Montero, 14, fell ill aboard the Dawn Princess cruise ship off the coast of Baja California.

The Bahamian-registered ship sent out a distress call Friday that was answered by the USS Ronald Reagan, which was on training maneuvers about 500 miles away.

The nuclear carrier was the closest ship with a hospital facility, according to a news release from the Navy. It steamed overnight toward the cruise ship, which was about 250 miles northwest of Cabo San Lucas when the call went out.

A helicopter took off from the Reagan around 5 a.m. Saturday to close the final 175-mile gap between the ships. The crew arrived after a 45-minute flight and lowered a medic onto the cruise ship deck in a basket because there wasn't space to land, said Lt. Cmdr. Gregory Leland, the pilot.

Montero, who was on an antibiotic drip, was loaded into a litter basket, lifted into the helicopter and flown back to the Reagan for an appendectomy. Her mother stayed aboard the cruise ship.

• THE SHIP WAS FITTINGLY CALLED THE REAGAN.

• OUR MILITARY DOES STUFF LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME - FOR A FEW PEOPLE, FOR THOUSANDS, FOR NATIONS AND MILLIONS.

• AT THIS TIME OF YEAR WE SHOULD BE ESPECIALLY THANKFUL FOR A LL THEY DO.

GOD BLESS THE US MILITARY.

MAN OF THE YEAR, OR SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY SNAFU

General David Petraeus is undoubtedly the man of the year. He is accomplishing in 2007 what General Tecumseh Sherman accomplished in 1864. Let's see if Time Warner, Inc. can recognize that.

He has saved the United States of America. Not because victory in the battle for Iraq is in and of itself so important to the future of the United States. But because without victory in the battle for Iraq, the West would be completely dispirited and unable to withstand the Long War against a resurgent jihad.

*******UPDATE: O'REILLY AGREES. VIA IAN SCHWARTZ:

Le Pen on trial for remarks about WWII

In France you can be head of a major political party that millions vote for but still not be free to say what you think:

"JEAN-MARIE Le Pen, the leader of the French far-Right National Front, went on trial at the weekend accused of condoning the Nazi occupation of his country. He was prosecuted for allegedly conspiring to justify war crimes in an interview with a magazine. The offence carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a E45,000 ($75,300) fine....

The 79-year-old provoked outrage when he told Rivarol, a weekly publication, in 2005: "In France at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhumane, even if there were a number of excesses - inevitable in a country of 550,000sq km. "If the Germans had carried out mass executions across the country, as the received wisdom would have it, then there wouldn't have been any need for concentration camps for political deportees."

Rivarol editor Marie-Luce Wacquez, who is also on trial, said: "If you exclude the deportations, the occupation was pretty moderate compared with what happened in the Netherlands and Belgium."

Source

Le Pen's comments were too close to the truth. The French and the Germans DID generally get on fairly well during the occupation. Widespread French antisemitism was one factor in that. And any reader of Trotsky will be aware that 19th century French "Bonapartism" was a precursor of Fascism.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Why are civilized countries still supporting the UN and its corruption?

The UNICEF Photo of the Year has been announced, and I couldn't possibly think of something more appropriate. Recall that the agency has tasked itself with-and is held responsible for-the well-being of children around the world. Check out how UNICEF decides to illustrate this calling:



The photograph shot by U.S. freelance photographer Stephanie Sinclair shows a wedding couple in Afghanistan who could not be more opposite. The groom, Mohammed, looks much older than his 40 years. The bride, Ghulam, is still a child; she just turned 11. Stephanie Sinclair works as a freelance photographer based in Beirut, Lebanon

What better way to care for the well-being of children than by celebrating the forced marriage of an 11-year-old girl to a man over 30 years her senior, right?

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

HAR HOMA'S STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

Lenny Ben-David writes in the Jerusalem Post (via One Jerusalem) about why the Har Homa neighborhood in southern Jerusalem is important, and also why the US secretary of state's opposition to expanding it can incite more violence against Israeli citizens just like what happened in 2000.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS POWER LINE ON THE SIZE OF THE CHINESE ECONOMY - BY ONE MONTH!

POWER LINE TONIGHT:

China's Economy: Not So Big After All

Most measures of countries' economies are distorted by currency exchange rates. The World Bank has developed a new method of measuring economic activity that is intended to correct for this distortion. The results are quite interesting:

The size of China's economy is overestimated by some 40 percent based on most current measures, but is the world's second largest, the World Bank said Monday.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS NOVEMBER 17 - ONE MONTH AGO:

CHINA'S ECONOMY ACTUALLY 40% SMALLER THAN PREVIOUS ESTIMATES

YAHOO/AFP:

China's economy is 40 percent smaller than most recent estimates, a US economist said Wednesday, citing data from the Asian Development Bank and guidelines from the World Bank.

Albert Keidel, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former US Treasury official and World Bank economist, made the comments in a report published by the US think tank and in a commentary in the Financial Times.

Keidel told AFP he made the calculations based on a recent ADB report that made its first analysis of China's economy based on so-called purchasing power parity (PPP), which strips out the impact of exchange rates.

• CHINA IS A POTENTIAL THREAT AND AN EMERGING POWER, BUT STILL A THIRD WORLD NATION.

• WE SHOULD PRESSURE THEM MORE AND MORE ON THEIR LACK OF LIBERTY AND SHODDY IF NOT NON-EXISTENT MANUFACTURING STANDARDS.

• THE WEAK DOLLAR HELPS OUR CASE HERE: THE CHINESE WOULD PREFER IT TO REMAIN STRONGER - AS WOULD THE SAUDIS.

• THIS PROVES ONCE AGAIN THAT WE AT THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS JUST DON'T FOLLOW THE PACK; WE LEAD.

• WE FREQUENTLY POST ON IMPORTANT YET UNDER-REPORTED NEWS WELL BEFORE ALL THE BIG BLOGGERS.

SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US!

*******UPDATE:

Just like yesterday, we've found another story on which we scooped two BIG BLOGGERS: ROGER SIMON links to BREITBART on SARKOZY AND BRUNI AT DISNEYLAND.

We had this yesterday. WITH HOT JPEGS THEY DIDN'T HAVE!

You know... if these big bloggers - like Simon and Breitbart and Glenn and Power Line etc.- read The Astute Bloggers everyday, then they'd be more up on the news! But you know that!

Spread the word! Blogroll us!

GOVERNMENT WITHOUT CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED IS TYRANNY: WELCOME TO THE EUSSR

VIA GOV - protest within the EU parliament that you've probably read nothing about:



RTWT. The Old Media in Europe is worse than it is here, according to Bruce Bawer, and this is why this protect has gone unreported. It's like the good news from Iraq, and the reports from scientists who DON'T agree with Al Gore: since it does against their leftist agenda, they just don't report it.

If the EU bureaucrats thought the member states could win a referendum, then they would be sure to recommend that each have one.

They know that they would lose, and so they don;t want any member states to have one.

That's why they have gone the "treaty" route, and signed off on what is called "The Lisbon Treaty."

Only Ireland is going to have a referendum.

The rest of Europe will just be told it's a done deal.

The Lisbon Treaty reduces each nation's sovereignty over its own affairs and makes each nation - and the citizens of each nation - more subject to laws they have never voted on - and can't.

This is not democratic. It is tyrannical.

Between this burgeoning statism and the attacks by jihadism and encroaching dhimmitude, I feel I Europe will not survive as a Western democratic continent, but will come to more resemble Turkey or Algeria.

Pity.

A Picture that really IS Worth a Thousand Words

This goes out to all those Kool-Aid drinkers who are still trying to perpetuate the myth that the surge isn't working. Scoreboard.

And even more evidence here.

GLOBAL SNOWJOB: CANADIAN SNOW RECORDS SMASHED

OTTAWA CITIZEN:

Winter storm wallops Ontario Ottawa residents and snow removal crews continue to dig out from a record-breaking snowfall.

"You can brag to the grandchildren that you lived through the biggest snowfall ever ever in Ottawa," said Environment Canada meteorologist David Phillips.

In total, 37 cms was reported to have fallen in the weekend storm.

That sets a record for the most snow in a single December day since Environment Canada started keeping records in 1938.

It breaks the record of 30.4 cm of snow from Dec. 21, 1977.

• HMMM... RECORDS SNOWS IN NEW ENGLAND, CANADA, AND EUROPE.

• THERE IS NO REAL, NO SIGNIFICANT GLOBAL WARMING - NOT OUTSIDE THE NORMAL, NATURAL, HISTORICAL LEVELS, AND IT MIGHT BE ENDING. LOOKS LIKE IT TO ME.
  

BUT WHO ARE YOU GOING TO BELI9EVE, AL GORE OR YOUR LYING EYES!?

FOR THE FIRST TIME, MUSHARRAF PUBLICLY SPECIFIES WHERE OSAMA IS HIDING

SATP: Pakistan

Osama bin Laden hiding around Bajaur, says President Pervez Musharraf

President Pervez Musharraf has for the first time identified an area where he thinks al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden may be hiding, according to Dawn.

When asked where he thinks the Osama could be, Musharraf said in an interview to The Washington Post that he could be in the area that borders Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency and Afghanistan’s Kunar province.

WHY TAKE CHANCES: LET'S JUST NUKE THIS AREA IN BAJAUR-KUNAR.

UPDATE: THIS IS AN AREA WE'VE LONG AND RECENTLY ATTACKED FOR THIS VERY REASON; FROM ASIA TIMES (VIA VWT JULY 17, 2007):

The Bajaur area has been hit twice by Central Intelligence Agency predator drones, one specifically after Zawahiri. However, at a time when al-Qaeda is reactivated and the Taliban's main focus is to lay siege of Kabul, via adjacent Nooristan province in Afghanistan, aerial surveillance is considered insufficient.

... As a result, a large US base is under construction on a mountaintop at Ghakhi Pass on the Pakistan-Afghanistan (Bajaur) border.

Militants believe this is in preparation for an operation inside Pakistan to clamp down on them as well as to renew the hunt for bin Laden and his associates. As a result, the militants have attacked the new base in an attempt to delay its construction.

MY GUESS: MUSHARRAF WOULD ONLY SAY THIS IF:

• A MAJOR ATTACK IS AFOOT;
  
• OSAMA IS TRAPPED -
• AND THIS LEAK IS MEANT TO FLUSH HIM OUT A LITTLE;
• AND THEREFORE I FEEL THAT OSAMA WILL SOON BE DEAD.

"EVERY BUILDING IS A TEMPLE TO SOMETHING"

The Aztecs built many huge pyramids with alters for human sacrifices to a pantheon of bizarre gods...

Romans built a Colosseum for cruel sports and many other temples with all kinds of bizarre rites...

The Jews built one Temple to the One God... the 2nd Temple was destroyed and since Jews have devoted themselves to Torah, the Words, the Law...

The Roman Catholics built soaring cathedrals in which the focal point was a figure of the crucified Jesus...

Modern Industry has built huge skyscrapers and mega-domes to sport, in complex cities articulated by a vast networks of spectacular bridges and intricate highways and rails and an artificial neuron network of wire - and a wireless network, too... (and don't forget the internets!)

The biggest projects a group of people see through to completion says a lot about what they find important, what they are devoted to... what they "worship."

The money committed, the people hired, the calories burned all reflect devotion to whatever that project is in its heart.

In this sense, every building is a temple to something; its very existence is an expression of that devotion - of the will to bring it into the world. And to maintain it... see it passed down to the generations to come. Maybe it's just a lovely and loving home - a modest one where good values are nurtured. In a way, that's a fine temple.

Each of our lives also reflects our devotions. What we are willing to sacrifice for, the joys we want shared.

People have long said our bodies are our temples - so take care of them. What I am adding here is that our lives - our life project - is our temple, too - in the way I've described.

SO... WHAT DO YOU WORSHIP? HOW DOES YOUR LIFE REFLECT WHAT YOU THINK IS REALLY IMPORTANT?

WHEN YOUR LIFE IS DONE, WHAT WILL REMAIN? WHAT WILL IT HAVE TESTIFIED TO?

JUST ASKING...

I hope it is a noble and good and joyful thing. Worth the struggles.

'Cause everything noble and good and joyful comes with struggles. To test your devotion. Pass the test. You can do it. You can find the time. You can find the will. And the cause.

JOHN BOLTON INTERVIEW ON ARUTZ 7

Israel National News ran an interview with John Bolton about the Dubya administration's intel report on Iran's nuclear capabilities. You can both read the article and listen to the audio recording.