Global Warming Goodies

Articles discussing the recent debate in Britain's Parliament to cut "man-made" emissions by 80% by 2050. All this occurring of course while London was blanketed in snow in October for the first time since 1922. Also an article on non-warming related issues across the globe

• Snow Blankets London For Global Warming Debate
• Record Snow in Switzerland
• Record Cold in Florida

And as a bonus:

• MIT Scientists Baffled at Global Warming Theory
• British Channel 4's 'The Global Warming Swindle'

Obama's Judges (and Taxes)

A WSJ article discussing what we might see in the legislative arm of government if Obama becomes our next president. I think its a good article, but the one problem I have with it is that it pits judicial nominees as being either "right" or "left" of center. To me that's asinine, why can't we just get judges that rule on the Constitution as its written, with no left or right bias?

• Obama's 'Redistribution' Constitution

UPDATE 11/1/08

Found this article from the WSJ which discusses how under Obama's "stated" tax plan we could end up having more than 50% of tax payers collecting from the government rather than paying in. Essentially loading the burden on the wealthy.

• Obama and the Tax Tipping Point

Current State of Media Coverage

Columnist Michael Malone looks at slanted election coverage and the reasons why. This guy is an ABC journalist, so he's not some right-wing nutjob:

• Media's Presidential Bias and Decline

Give Me an S, Give Me an O, C, I, A, L, I, S, M

A friend of mine tipped me off to a few articles. This scares the doodoo out of me.

Discussion how Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support and California Dem George Miller, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman, are pushing to eliminate 401k plans and make us all buy into a government version. Folks, this scares the crap out of me. The media and liberals all around the country tore into FEMA after Hurricane Katrina for the slow and pathetic response in New Orleans, and rightfully so. But then they want to turn around and give the government control of the entire Healthcare system, and now our 401k's?!?!

• Would Obama, Dems Kill 401(k) Plans?
• Democrats to kill 401(k)s for … privatized Social Security?
• House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks
• House Dems Want to Abolish 401(k) Tax Breaks
• House Democrats: Abolish 401k Tax Breaks, Create New Tax

Mickey Mouse, D - Magic Kingdom

It looks like ACORN is at it again, this time registering Mickey Mouse to vote. Note how the article plays down this whole thing by portraying this as a witch hunt.

Nationwide, ACORN is a favorite GOP target for allegations of voter registration fraud this year.

Maybe its just me, but when your organization is caught registering Mickey Mouse or the entire Dallas Cowboys football team they no longer qualify as mere allegations. Here's a few more, and what I love is that in most of these articles its pooh-poohed as a non-issue:

• fraud in Ohio
• fraud in Ohio, part 2
• fraud in Missouri
• fraud in North Carolina
• fraud in Indiana (video)
• fraud in Michigan
• other states with potential problems: Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Here are a couple of liberal blogs I found that are defending ACORN.

• Lest you think registration fraud and voter fraud are the same thing, or even morally equivalent, this article is for you.
• The NYTimes defense.
• Another article saying that registration fraud is not voter fraud.

Around the Horn

The news is coming almost too quickly to keep up with these days. I'm just throwing a bunch of articles in together since there were quite a few these past few days.

First, ACORN, the group the Senator Obama worked with back in the mid-90's in Chicago (and recently as well). They are in the news again for potential voter fraud in Las Vegas. Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

Secretary of State Ross Miller said the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team.

"Tony Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada, and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won't be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4," Miller said.

and

In 2006, ACORN also committed what Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed called the "worse case of election fraud" in the state's history.

In the case, ACORN submitted just over 1,800 new voter registration forms, and all but six of the 1,800 names were fake.

More recently, 27,000 registrations handled by the group from January to July 2008 "went into limbo because they were incomplete, inaccurate, or fraudulent," said James Terry, chief public advocate at the Consumers Rights League.

Obama and Media Bias:
Second, I've noticed a bit of increased attention to the Obama-Ayres ties in the past few days. Ayres is an admitted terrorist who tried blowing up the Pentagon and the Capital Building among other things. Obama has repeatedly stated that his association with Ayres was minimal and was years after he tried blowing stuff up. Many media outlets have also helped bury any connection (#1,#2, #3). (It should also be noted that I have scoured the mainstream media for stories on Obama and Ayres. CBS and CNN had 1 story, ABC, NBC, and the Washington Post had bupkis. The only articles in the NYTimes were OpEds). This article by former Clinton man Dick Morris sheds more light on their connection. I really don't understand why this hasn't been a bigger deal. There are a lot of articles linking the two, but no one seems to care (#1, #2, #3, #4). Who know if and when the major media outlets will actually look into this.

Third, it would appear that if you are a Democrat, you can say anything you want and get away with it.

Financial:
Fourth, maybe you heard about the SNL skit ripping the Democrats over the financial crisis. Well, the skit was quickly pulled off the SNL website. It was edited before being put back. It was okay for SNL to portray Gov. Palin's husband as an incestuous father, but we can't poke fun at liberal politicians. Apparently some humor is not allowed in the country anymore. Full transcript is here.

Fifth, more evidence for the current financial crisis being a direct result of a few liberal Democrats.


UPDATE 10/10/08:
One more article showing that Barney Frank was right in the forefront of resisting oversight for Fannie and Freddie. Apparently his life partner was an assistance director at Fannie Mae.

Gusher of Lies

So I was listening to a local radio show the other day and they had Robert Bryce on as a guest. He just released a book called Gusher of Lies.

As many people in America today, 74% actually, I have spent the last couple years under the notion that we need to move towards energy independence. Bryce takes on that notion that not only is it impossible to achieve its not even desirable. Since this went against everything I believed I decided I would give him a shot to get his point across. Even though I didn't agree with it beforehand, I thought what he had said in the interview was well thought out and he provided enough information that I was intrigued.

I've only read the introduction and the first chapter, but his main point that I've been able to gather is that energy "independence" isn't practical because the world is already so energy "interdependent". To prove his point, here are some of the facts he used:

• Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter in the world, still imports 186,000 barrels of oil per day. Iran, another large oil producing country, imports 40% of its oil and natural gas.
• The US only imports 11% of its oil from the Middle East. That's obviously nothing to sneeze at, but its not nearly as large a percentage as I had thought.
• There are 143 countries who import oil from the Middle East. If we stopped buying oil from them tomorrow, there would still be 142 other nations buying oil from Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc. So we wouldn't be putting them out of business.
• The global market helps keep energy prices down. Inflation adjusted, we pay less for a gallon of gas today than we did in 1919. He believes this is a direct result of world market competition.

One other thing he brought up that I think is a very valid question. If we are seeking energy independence, why are not seeking independence in every other area of life? I'm almost ashamed that I never asked this question myself before reading it in his book. We import over 90% of many precious metals like alumina, cobalt, platinum, and gallium and nearly all of the material needed to produce steel. I can't remember the exact percentages (since I read the book at Barnes & Noble and didn't buy it) since I don't have them in front of me, but basically all the metals this country uses on a daily basis are imported. 99% of the semiconductors we use in this country are produced overseas, semiconductors that run EVERYTHING in our society today. Why are we not seeking semiconductor independence? Obviously his point is that we are so globally interconnected these days that seeking independence is not even a feasible option anymore.

I'm interested in reading the rest of the book because he's beginning to sway me already that the term "energy independence" is the biggest crock that is being perpetrated on America by politicians on both sides of the aisle. I'll keep posting as I read more.

More on Wall St

As I said in my previous post, if anyone has video to defend Democrats in this housing scandle I'll gladly post it. Until then they look pretty guilty.