July 23, 2008
obama prepares to wow voters in berlin
Despite what the press is reporting the past few days have been a disaster for Obama. Maybe they're so in love with him they can't see how ridiculous this whole thing has become. Today Senator Obama said...
Now, in terms of knowing my commitments, you don't have to just look at my words, you can look at my deeds. Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon.There's only one problem with this statement, Obama isn't part of that committee. Is he tired, is he making stuff up, or is he just flat out lying? To claim an accomplishment that isn't true takes the cake. That's not all though, now there's this Berlin speech and these flyers are classic.
The sea of Germans drummed up by the Obama campaign will be used as props to tell us Americans how to vote, and the campaign isn't trying to pretend otherwise. That's breathtakingly arrogant, and par for the course for Barack Obama.
Something about the image below conjures up thoughts of.... well, I'll let it speak for itself.
Posted by nemov at 7:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
saying always is always a bad practice
The election campaign is a long sprint. It's not surprising when candidates fumble their words. It's actually not uncommon for Presidents to do the same thing. Senator Obama had a couple moments yesterday and they only reason I mention it is that it's just a hilarious quote.
"You know, it's always a bad practice to say 'always' or 'never.'"That's just good plain fun. More troubling to me was Obama's response to question from Terry Moran at ABC.
Q: If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge?President Bush has gotten a lot of flak for stubbornly ignoring the facts, especially after the invasion. There is really no good reason to oppose the surge other than appeasing the base on the Left. Fortunately for Obama, he's going to lose on the foreign policy issue no matter what happens. His strength is on the domestic front so I don't expect McCain to beat him too much on this issue. Obama's real weakness right now is on energy policy.
Obama: No. Because, keep in mind that --
Q: You wouldn't?
Obama: Keep in mind, these kind of hypotheticals are very difficult. You know hindsight is 20/20. But I think that what I am absolutely convinced of is at that time we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one I just disagreed with.
Posted by nemov at 7:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 20, 2008
subverting the will of the people
Last November Sarasota had a ballot initiative for a 1 percent infrastructure tax. Taxes like these are easy to pass. It was even cleverly marketed as Common Cents. Ballot initiatives like this only prey on the ignorance of the population. The money generate from the tax can be used for basically anything the city deems important. Here's how the one-cent sales tax was worded on the ballot.
Shall ordinance 2007-087 be approved continuing the one-cent sales tax through December 31, 2024 to fund community projects, including transportation, parks, beaches, dredging, libraries, criminal justice facilities, general government, museum, transit, sidewalks, environment, water and sewer, stormwater, solid waste, affordable housing, neighborhoods, health systems, public safety, public schools; establishing county economic development trust fund; providing continuance of sales tax by referendum; requiring 4/5's vote to modify county projects/allocations; continuing citizen tax oversight committees?This is the frustrating part of trying to fund infrastructure. The city government use a tax like this to justify funding any project. In Sarasota the citizens have refused to use public funds to subsidize building a stadium for the Red Sox; however, the City of Sarasota can dip into the Common Cents fund to help pay for the rich person playground.
Some of the funding for the facility could come from capital funds -- such as the fund fed by the 1 percent infrastructure tax that voters approved last November. City and county officials expect to raise more than $800 million from that tax over the next 15 years.The organizers that are trying to bring the team here cannot be swayed by facts. Subsidizing stadiums does not benefit our economy, despite assurances from the government. Everyone who wants to see spring training in Sarasota should pool their money together and fund the project themselves. Quit making citizens pay for expensive projects that only offers benefits to select few.
The majority of that money is earmarked for particular projects, but some of it could be available for a spring training facility. For instance, the county promised voters that it would spend $5 million of the surtax on the fairgrounds, so if a ballpark were built there, that money could be used.
Continue reading "subverting the will of the people"
Posted by nemov at 7:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
obama and experience: a history lesson
Would Barack Obama be the least experienced president ever to hold the office? There have been 42 presidents and certainly someone had less experience. Presidential history is a passion of mine and I'm going to go through Presidents until I find one that is comparable to Obama.
First I have to size up Senator Obama. Barack Obama was elected to the senate in 2004. He has served for four years, but spent almost all of the that time running for President. Obama hasn't authored anything significant in the Senate and his only real accomplishment is not voting for the Iraq war. Oh that's right, he wasn't a Senator then... I think the Washington Post got it right, Obama is ultimately indifferent to the war's outcome.
Obama practices his magical stare...
Before Obama was elected Senator he served in the Illinois state Senate for seven years. He has never had any executive experience, and he doesn't have one notable legislative accomplishment. One could argue Obama's greatest accomplishment is receiving the Democrat nomination for president.
Bush didn't have a long history before he was elected Governor of Texas in 1994; however, he was able to secure a second term. He was considered a successful governor and while his foreign policy experience was non existent, Bush had plenty of executive experience. President Bush was more experienced than Obama.
42 - President William J. Clinton
Bill Clinton had over a decade of executive experience as Governor of Arkansas. His foreign policy experience was much like George W. Bush, but there is no question Clinton had a lot of experience in an executive position. Clinton was more experienced than Obama.
41 - President George H. W. Bush
The elder Bush had all kinds of experience. He had served in the House of Representatives, as Vice President, Director of Central Intelligence, Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, and as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Bush was more experienced than Obama.
40 - President Ronald Reagan
The last great President of the United States had served for 8 years as the Governor of California. Reagan's success in California ultimately propelled him to the presidency. Reagan had more experience than Obama. One could make the argument that Arnold Schwarzenegger has more experience as well.
39 - President Jimmy Carter
President Carter rose quickly after one term as Georgia Governor. He was helped by political climate after Watergate and by President Ford's pardon of Nixon. Carter's presidency was a disaster, but he was more experienced than Obama.
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Posted by nemov at 3:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
the apostle of fennell
Is Barack Obama the Messiah has another classic moment from Elle associate publisher Samantha Fennell. She has left her position to become a devoted disciple of the Obama campaign.
Barack Obama must be elected President of the United States. It's his worldview, his clarity of judgment, and his just plain right-mindedness that resonate with me. Figuring that my efforts were best spent raising money for the campaign, I have thrown myself into a new world--one in which fluffy chatter and frivolous praise are replaced by a get-to-the-point directness and disciple-like devotion. It's intense and intoxicating. ...In the grand scheme of things the world isn't going to change because of the next administration. The President doesn't weld supreme world authority. Despite the adoration from the press and the derangement from people like Samantha Fennell Obama is tied with McCain. What will all these devoted disciples do if Obama loses? Will all the love from the press and psychotic messiah episodes from shallow minded people up hurting Obama in November? One thing is for certain. Senator Obama is going to be a political force regardless of what happens in November.
Posted by nemov at 8:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 17, 2008
global warming: anthropogenic hot air
It appears that the "consensus" argument on anthropogenic Global Warming is finally falling apart. I wonder how long it will take all the fear mongers to get the memo. The theory of Global Warming is now firmly entrenched into our culture. It's accepted as religious fact by millions of people. The American Physical Society has now reversed its stance on climate change. Perhaps this will lead to more debate about this issue and less fanatical devotion.
In an email to DailyTech, Monckton says, "I was dismayed to discover that the IPCC's 2001 and 2007 reports did not devote chapters to the central 'climate sensitivity' question, and did not explain in proper, systematic detail the methods by which they evaluated it. When I began to investigate, it seemed that the IPCC was deliberately concealing and obscuring its method."Chief fear panderer Al Gore is still peddling himself is some kind of climate expert. He gave a big speech today on ManBearPig or something. Honestly, I don't even care what the man has to say anymore.
According to Monckton, there is substantial support for his results, "in the peer-reviewed literature, most articles on climate sensitivity conclude, as I have done, that climate sensitivity must be harmlessly low."
Monckton, who was the science advisor to Britain's Thatcher administration, says natural variability is the cause of most of the Earth's recent warming. "In the past 70 years the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years ... Mars, Jupiter, Neptune's largest moon, and Pluto warmed at the same time as Earth."
In it, he cited military-intelligence studies warning of "dangerous national security implications" tied to climate change, including the possibility of "hundreds of millions of climate refugees" causing instability around the world, and said the United States is dangerously vulnerable because of its reliance on foreign oil.I still can't believe Gore received a Nobel Peace Prize for a movie about the climate. When this theory is finally widely accepted as a fraud the Nobel committee are going to look like idiots. I don't think think they really mind though, they're used to making bad choices.
Posted by nemov at 10:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 15, 2008
crazy poll statistic
There's a new New York Times CBS poll out. It's not a very reliable poll for the upcoming election (registered voters), but there's a fascinating statistic buried at question 80.
Just as your best guess, about what percentage of all Americans are black: less than 10%, between 10 and 20%, between 20 and 30%, between 30 and 50%, or more than 50%?It's amazing how little people know about population in the United States. 41% of registered voters believe African-Americans make up at least 30% of the population. Maybe that's not so shocking and I'm just a fact nerd. Unfortunately there are no questions in the poll about black-holes. Just for the record, 13.1% of the US population is African-American.
Posted by nemov at 9:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
now global warming increses glaciers
Fresh on the heels of yesterday revelation that Global Warming will cause more kidney stones we learn that it also creates glaciers in California. I'm not sure which claim is more ludicrous. First of all, someone actually (two colleges in Texas) wasted time researching global warming's relationship to kidney stones. It's amazing what passes for research these days. Just to prove that global warming can do anything, now we learn that it helps increase glaciers as well.
The glaciers on Mount Shasta in California are growing because of global warming, experts say. "When people look at glaciers around the world, the majority of them are shrinking," said Slawek Tulaczyk, a University of California, Santa Cruz, professor who studied the glaciers.Did anyone ask the experts why the ocean isn't warming? For this crackpot theory to work the Ocean has to be warming and much like everything else on this topic the facts are irrelevant. What will these "experts" do if the Earth enters a cooling phase? My guess is they'll blame Global Warming.
But the seven glaciers on Shasta, part of the Cascade mountains in northern California, "seem to be benefiting from the warming ocean," he said. As the ocean warms, more moisture evaporates. As moisture moves inland, it falls as snow -- enough on Shasta to more than offset a 1 C temperature rise in the past century.
Posted by nemov at 6:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
