Happy Times Are Here Again

Or everything that is old is new again. You may get the idea that Democrats run in a loop. There were many good ideas, which weren't implemented, and most of the bad ideas were. FDR was abig loser for America, if it weren't for WWII, we may still be in the FDR Depression era.

Democratic Party Platform of 1932

In this time of unprecedented economic and social distress the Democratic Party declares its conviction that the chief causes of this condition were the disastrous policies pursued by our government since the World War, of economic isolation, fostering the merger of competitive businesses into monopolies and encouraging the indefensible expansion and contraction of credit for private profit at the expense of the public.

Those who were responsible for these policies have abandoned the ideals on which the war was won and thrown away the fruits of victory, thus rejecting the greatest opportunity in history to bring peace, prosperity, and happiness to our people and to the world.

They have ruined our foreign trade; destroyed the values of our commodities and products, crippled our banking system, robbed millions of our people of their life savings, and thrown millions more out of work, produced wide-spread poverty and brought the government to a state of financial distress unprecedented in time of peace.

The only hope for improving present conditions, restoring employment, affording permanent relief to the people, and bringing the nation back to the proud position of domestic happiness and of financial, industrial, agricultural and commercial leadership in the world lies in a drastic change in economic governmental policies.

We believe that a party platform is a covenant with the people to have [sic] faithfully kept by the party when entrusted with power, and that the people are entitled to know in plain words the terms of the contract to which they are asked to subscribe. We hereby declare this to be the platform of the Democratic Party:

The Democratic Party solemnly promises by appropriate action to put into effect the principles, policies, and reforms herein advocated, and to eradicate the policies, methods, and practices herein condemned. We advocate an immediate and drastic reduction of governmental expenditures by abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating departments and bureaus, and eliminating extravagance to accomplish a saving of not less than twenty-five per cent in the cost of the Federal Government. And we call upon the Democratic Party in the states to make a zealous effort to achieve a proportionate result.

We favor maintenance of the national credit by a federal budget annually balanced on the basis of accurate executive estimates within revenues, raised by a system of taxation levied on the principle of ability to pay.

We advocate a sound currency to be preserved at all hazards and an international monetary conference called on the invitation of our government to consider the rehabilitation of silver and related questions.

We advocate a competitive tariff for revenue with a fact-finding tariff commission free from executive interference, reciprocal tariff agreements with other nations, and an international economic conference designed to restore international trade and facilitate exchange.

We advocate the extension of federal credit to the states to provide unemployment relief wherever the diminishing resources of the states makes it impossible for them to provide for the needy; expansion of the federal program of necessary and useful construction effected [sic] with a public interest, such as adequate flood control and waterways.

We advocate the spread of employment by a substantial reduction in the hours of labor, the encouragement of the shorter week by applying that principle in government service; we advocate advance planning of public works.

We advocate unemployment and old-age insurance under state laws.

We favor the restoration of agriculture, the nation's basic industry; better financing of farm mortgages through recognized farm bank agencies at low rates of interest on an amortization plan, giving preference to credits for the redemption of farms and homes sold under foreclosure.

Extension and development of the Farm co-operative movement and effective control of crop surpluses so that our farmers may have the full benefit of the domestic market.

The enactment of every constitutional measure that will aid the farmers to receive for their basic farm commodities prices in excess of cost.

We advocate a Navy and an Army adequate for national defense, based on a survey of all facts affecting the existing establishments, that the people in time of peace may not be burdened by an expenditure fast approaching a billion dollars annually.

We advocate strengthening and impartial enforcement of the anti-trust laws, to prevent monopoly and unfair trade practices, and revision thereof for the better protection of labor and the small producer and distributor.

The conservation, development, and use of the nation's water power in the public interest.

The removal of government from all fields of private enterprise except where necessary to develop public works and natural resources in the common interest.

We advocate protection of the investing public by requiring to be filed with the government and carried in advertisements of all offerings of foreign and domestic stocks and bonds true information as to bonuses, commissions, principal invested, and interests of the sellers.

Regulation to the full extent of federal power, of:

(a) Holding companies which sell securities in interstate commerce;

(b) Rates of utilities companies operating across State lines;

(c) Exchanges in securities and commodities. We advocate quicker methods of realizing on assets for the relief of depositors of suspended banks, and a more rigid supervision of national banks for the protection of depositors and the prevention of the use of their moneys in speculation to the detriment of local credits.

The severance of affiliated security companies from, and the divorce of the investment banking business from, commercial banks, and further restriction of federal reserve banks in permitting the use of federal reserve facilities for speculative purposes.

We advocate the full measure of justice and generosity for all war veterans who have suffered disability or disease caused by or resulting from actual service in time of war and for their dependents.

We advocate a firm foreign policy, including peace with all the world and the settlement of international disputes by arbitration; no interference in the internal affairs of other nations; and sanctity of treaties and the maintenance of good faith and of good will in financial obligations; adherence to the World Court with appending reservations; the Pact of Paris abolishing war as an instrument of national policy, to be made effective by provisions for consultation and conference in case of threatened violations of treaties.

International agreements for reduction of armaments and cooperation with nations of the Western Hemisphere to maintain the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine.

We oppose cancelation of the debts owing to the United States by foreign nations.

Independence for the Philippines; ultimate statehood for Puerto Rico.

The employment of American citizens in the operation of the Panama Canal.

Simplification of legal procedure and reorganization of the judicial system to make the attainment of justice speedy, certain, and at less cost.

Continuous publicity of political contributions and expenditures; strengthening of the Corrupt Practices Act and severe penalties for misappropriation of campaign funds.

We advocate the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. To effect such repeal we demand that the Congress immediately propose a Constitutional Amendment to truly represent [sic] the conventions in the states called to act solely on that proposal; we urge the enactment of such measures by the several states as will actually promote temperance, effectively prevent the return of the saloon, and bring the liquor traffic into the open under complete supervision and control by the states.

We demand that the Federal Government effectively exercise its power to enable the states to protect themselves against importation of intoxicating liquors in violation of their laws.

Pending repeal, we favor immediate modification of the Volstead Act; to legalize the manufacture and sale of beer and other beverages of such alcoholic content as is permissible under the Constitution and to provide therefrom a proper and needed revenue.

We condemn the improper and excessive use of money in political activities.

We condemn paid lobbies of special interests to influence members of Congress and other public servants by personal contact.

We condemn action and utterances of high public officials designed to influence stock exchange prices.

We condemn the open and cover resistance of administrative officials to every effort made by Congressional Committees to curtail the extravagant expenditures of the Government and to revoke improvident subsidies granted to favorite interests.

We condemn the extravagance of the Farm Board, its disastrous action which made the Government a speculator in farm products, and the unsound policy of restricting agricultural products to the demands of domestic markets.

We condemn the usurpation of power by the State Department in assuming to pass upon foreign securities offered by international bankers as a result of which billions of dollars in questionable bonds have been sold to the public upon the implied approval of the Federal Government.

And in conclusion, to accomplish these purposes and to recover economic liberty, we pledge the nominees of this convention the best efforts of a great Party whose founder announced the doctrine which guides us now in the hour of our country's need: equal rights to all; special privilege to none.

Raising Taxes Stops Recession

Hoover and FDR aptly proved that soaking the rich not only makes us feel better, it stops recessions dead in their tracks -- Causes depressions.

If we needed further proof, we need only look to the Carter administration. Raising the top marginal tax rate to nearly 70% and inflicting windfall profit taxes on evil oil companies once again had a delightfully cathartic effect, which helped salve the assuredly unrelated "malaise" that struck the country under his watch.

As Obamunism is rolled out as New Deal II to the Republic, it's worth keeping in mind that the FDR New Deal turned a few years recession into a full blown decades long depression, which was ended by the necessity of WWII.

India Gun Control Enabled Mumbai Massacre

Does India have gun controls? Yes, in the mid 1980s all arms were prohibited from private ownership, except in extreme undefined cases.

Russia Collasping ?

The U.K. Guardian says that Russia is “close to economic collapse.”

Russia is now lurching towards a major economic crisis, experts predicted today, following news that the price of oil had slumped to under $50 a barrel.

The collapse in the value of oil was likely to have several catastrophic consequences for Russia including a possible devaluation of the rouble and a severe drop in living standards next year, they warned. . . .

The fall in oil prices from $147 this July to below $50 today has blown a gaping hole in the government’s budget calculations. It is now facing a $150bn shortfall in its spending plans - and will have to slash expenditure in 2009. . . .

The oil slump, however, exacerbates Russia’s already severe economic problems. Since May Russian markets have lost 70% of their value. Russia’s central bank, meanwhile, has been spent $57.5bn in two months trying to prop up the country’s ailing currency.

“If the current trend continues with the government supporting the rouble, oil prices falling and a slowing economy we are going to have a major crisis,” said Chris Weafer, an analyst with the Moscow brokerage Uralsib.

He added: “There will be more pressure on the rouble and an extremely difficult first quarter next year.” Russia was more vulnerable than other countries because it was still an oil state, and had failed to diversify its economy, Weafer added.

No word how this figures into the current military exercises off Venezuela.

Obama Voters

The follow-up interviews. The election proved it is really easy to make idiot voters out of ignorant people. Proof positive video.

Freedom From Want

"Freedom From Want," a painting by Norman Rockwell.


It was Thanksgiving, and for the first time our whole family was together.

By Jennifer James
November 23, 2008
It was Thanksgiving, and for the first time our whole family was together. Mom and Dad had to drive all night just to get here, but boy was it worth it! The Grandsters really know how to do it up right. The Grandsters being Grandpa and Grandma. We were all seated at the table, and I couldn't wait to dive into those mashed potatoes and gravy. And the smell of the turkey -- I thought I was going to faint with happiness.

"What's that, Mindy?" demanded my little cousin Sam. He can be such a pain. He is 8 years old, two years younger than I am.

"What's what?" I asked.

He pointed to a little paper cup containing just three kernels of corn beside Grandpa's plate. I opened my mouth to answer and then realized I didn't know. Ugh! How I hate admitting that I don't know something!

Grandma answered, "It is to pay tribute to the Pilgrims."

"But why three kernels?" asked the always curious Sam. Give it a rest, I thought.

Grandpa answered, "It reminds me of what a tough time the Pilgrims had. In the beginning, three kernels of corn was each person's daily food ration." The table got real quiet after he said that.

Grandpa continued, "Against all odds, they made a life for themselves in the wilderness. Let's talk more about it after dinner."

Sure enough, dinner was over and Sam wanted to know more.

" Squanto taught the Pilgrims to grow corn!" Sam exclaimed. He's never going to forget that -- he played Squanto in the Thanksgiving Day play at school.

"That's right," Grandpa said. "But at first the Pilgrims were terrified of the Indians, as they called them. Then one day a tribesman named Samoset ventured into their encampment. He was tall and dark and by many accounts quite handsome. Loudly and plainly he proclaimed, 'Welcome!' in perfect English."

"The Pilgrims must have freaked!" shouted Sam.

Grandpa laughed and agreed. "I'm sure you're right. He had learned the language from English fishermen. For the Pilgrims, life was a constant battle for survival. Later, Governor William Bradford made a decision. Instead of the colonists sharing their crops equally, he assigned a parcel of land to each family and told them they could keep whatever they produced for themselves."

"Then what happened?" asked Sam.

"At last the Pilgrims began to prosper. Governor William Bradford wrote in his book 'Of Plimoth Plantation,' 'This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.' "

"Shoot! If you can keep everything you make, of course you're going to work harder. Everybody knows that."

Grandpa answered, "The first seed had been planted for the American Revolution. People were free to practice their religions as they saw fit and were free to keep the fruits of their labor. This had never happened before in the history of mankind. In the words of William Bradford, 'As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation.' "

"That William Bradford sounds like a pretty cool guy," said Sam.

"He was a pretty cool guy," Grandpa said with a chuckle.

Pravda And The Politburo

A little history ...

Pravda was the official state-approved news agency of the Communist Party Politburo in the USSR under Lenin, Stalin, and a host of other Soviet presidents.

In the early days of the Communist government in Russia, the Politburo consisted of 5 members--Lenin, Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, and Nikolai Krestinski.

These 5 formed the Communist Party central committee, and Pravda, as the nation's leading newspaper, served as the propaganda arm of the central committee.

It is interesting to note that Pravda had been in existence before the Bolshevik Revolution that brought the Communists to power. After the revolution the ruling central committee simply seized control of the newspaper, and it became an official part of the Politburo.

Never hurts ...

The Ghost Of Thomas Paine And The Second Revolution

Just plain Americans.

A Hoax Worn Thin

It's definitely time to put this AGW out to pasture. When Obama said last week that the science is settled, he was right. There is not one credible source of science that supports the hoax. Not one.

Nature has now set a course, and we better get with it, adapting. It's going to get colder for the foreseeable future.

Socialism Doesn't Fail

It just runs out of other people's money to give away.

In the case of Venezuela, the plan was simple, use it's vast hoard of petroleum to fund socialism and give away those dollars. Of course, a few would be kept for distribution to the ruling junta, but shush no one will tell. It looked good a few months back, oil was $145 a barrel and life was good for the ruling class. Not so good for the peasants, but who cares about them. Now with oil at $50 a barrel, the lessons are coming hard and fast.

The thug oil populist in charge of Venezuela said as recent as May 2008 that he was expecting oil to go to $200 a barrel, before finally stabilizing. So much for the predictive power of Hugo Chavez and his socialsim. The pie pantry is now empty, the and the bakers of the free "oil" pies are failing to perform as ordered.

How much of the scare run up in oil prices were designed by the cartel to try and forestall an American attack on Iran's nuclear weapons production, we will never know. But the back breaking effect of high oil prices on the world's economies is now well understood. We are all in it together.

Hugo Chavez has reduced Venezuela's support to foreign allies and is poised to make deeper cuts at home and abroad as plunging oil revenues hit his self-styled socialist revolution.

The government has warned of austerity measures after years of breakneck spending on social programmes, nationalisations, arms and diplomacy, an exhilarating splurge when there seemed no end to petro-dollars.

South America's energy giant relies on oil for half of its exports and 95% of government revenue, leaving Chavez's ideological and political ambitions vulnerable to a crunch. A much worse problem, since socialism has destroyed the economy of Venezuela, the future is not bright for the people.

How Bad Is The Crime In The 'Chocolate City' Of Chicago

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

Thomas Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting from On Crimes and Punishment, by criminologist Cesare Beccaria, 1764

After the last election, we need ask -- Where has our common sense gone.

Chicago, just a single city in the United States, all by itself experienced twice as many shootings and killings of Americans as did the entire nation of Iraq over recent months:

125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer
Total Is About Double The U.S. Troop Death Toll In Iraq

CHICAGO (CBS) -- An estimated 125 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.

n May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 125 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1.

Here is an interesting google mashup map Of the killings.

I wonder what is going on in the city of Chicago?

Bond said gang-related violence presents the most serious danger to Chicago residents.

Aww man, the same old drug gangs protecting their turf in the 'hood. Same old lame excuse for the police not doing their job you hear over and over. So what is the status of citizens having CCWs? Do you have to ask?

Americans Know ‘American Idol’ Star Better than American History

More than twice as many Americans – 56 percent -- know that Paula Abdul is a judge on “American Idol” as know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (21 percent) -- a phrase President-elect Barack Obama used in his election-night victory speech.

The average American is nearly illiterate when it comes to basic principles of American history, government and economics, according to a new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute – and politicians are even worse.

More than 2,000 people were administered a 33-question test this Spring on American history and our political and economic institutions. Of them, 71 percent -- college and non-college educated alike – got a failing mark, ISI’s Josiah Bunting III said, presenting the study at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Thursday. “It can truly be said that we are suffering from an epidemic of civic ignorance,” Bunting said. “The extent of failure is pervasive, cutting across every segment of the American population.

“Young Americans failed, but so did the elderly,” said Bunting. “Men and women, rich and poor, liberals and conservatives, Republican and Democratic, white, black, yellow and brown – all were united in their inability to master the basic features of America’s constitutional form of government.”

What Americans don’t know about civics – a subject that used to be required for high school graduation -- is shocking:

-- Less than half of Americans can name all three branches of government.

-- Only 27 percent of Americans know that the Bill of Rights prohibits the government from establishing an official religion in the U.S.

-- 54 percent do not know that the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, not the president.

Politicians, however, scored five points lower than the Average Joe, a performance that former Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok labeled “abysmal and alarming.”

-- Seventy-nine (79) percent of elected officeholders did not know that the Bill of Rights expressly forbids the government establishment of an official religion.

-- A large number (43 percent) of politicians did not know what the Electoral College does.

Only 32 percent of politicians can actually define what the free-enterprise system is – even though many of them may have campaigned for office pledging to defend it.

More here. Take the test here.

What Has Populism Done for You Lately?

The Case for Repealing the 17th Amendment

By: Chad Jimenez(Claremont Institute)

At the turn of the century, the Populists and Progressives passed many pieces of revolutionary legislation, one of which was the 17th amendment. The 17th amendment, ratified in 1913, provided for the direct election of senators by the people, bypassing the Constitutional provision that the state legislatures elect senators. On the surface, the 17th amendment seems like an excellent idea. Instead of having greedy politicians elect senators, the people would be able to hold their senators directly accountable. In our democratic society, it only makes sense that the people get to participate in the democratic process more often. The 17th amendment, however, was a bad idea and needs repealing. Indirect election of senators was essential for the practice of federalism, which is one of the basic principles of our Constitution, and one that we are in danger of losing.

Ninety-two years after its ratification, many people, including former Georgia Senator Zell Miller, are noticing the damage the 17th amendment has done. First, it has destroyed many of the essential purposes of bicameralism. These purposes include the prevention of poor legislation and the protection of states from federal intrusion on their power. The point of having a Senate is that no law can be passed without a majority of the representatives of the states. The Senate makes it difficult for the federal government to assume too much power because the senators who represent the interests of their states vote to protect their states' rights. Direct election abolished the idea that senators are supposed to represent their state governments.

Another problem with the direct election of senators is that it made both houses of the legislature subject to direct popular pressure. Before the 17th amendment, the Senate was the place were a politician could afford to do what was right for the country, and not just what was popular at the time. Instead of creating a more enlightened form of government, the 17th amendment turned the Senate into just another echo chamber of popular passion, which is exactly what the founders were trying to avoid.

In the early 20th century, proponents of the 17th amendment argued that it would get rid of the corruption involved in senatorial election. If bribery was their main concern, however, they only added to the problem by increasing the amount of people a senator had to bribe to win an election. Providing for the popular election of senators only increased the amount of lobbying in Washington, and with it the influence of special interests in politics, something the public complained about 90 years ago and still deals with today.

Another reason for the passage of the 17th amendment was legislative deadlock. State legislatures would many times reach a deadlock in electing a senator and not send anyone to Washington, sometimes going as long as 4 years without representation. Lack of representation due to deadlock should not be a problem, however. If the 17th amendment were repealed, states could make provisions in their own constitutions so that if the state legislature cannot agree on a candidate by a certain time, the governor could appoint a senator. This type of election process would encourage less-partisan politics by forcing both parties to work together to elect responsible leadership.

Repealing the 17th amendment would renew America's lost federalism and restore a more responsible form of government. Just as we have a firm belief in the independence and strength of the individual, the founders had a firm belief in the strength and independence of the states. Our country was not built on the idea of a strong federal government that undermined and bullied states into accepting restrictions on their powers, but rather the idea of balance between the federal and state governments. The founding fathers sought to preserve the balance of power throughout American government, and one way they did this was by giving state governments a voice in the federal government. Federalism is served not by directly-elected senators, but by senators elected by the representatives of the people in each of the state legislatures. Election of senators by the state legislatures would get the people more interested and involved in their own state politics and take senators' focus away from federal government expansion.

Arctic Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs in the Arctic? Has anyone else seen the documentary on NOVA, “Arctic Dinosaurs“? It is about the discovery of at least 8 different species of dinosaur bones found on the North Slope of Alaska, only a stone’s through from the Arctic Ocean. How can that be?

The original discovery was made in 1961 by Shell Oil geologist Robert Liscomb who came across a large fossil. He sent the specimen back to his office, intending to have it classified by a paleontologist.

Unfortunately, Liscomb died the next year, in a rock slide, so they were in a Shell warehouse until about the mid-1980s, when Shell was cleaning house, and they sent them to the U.S.G.S. There, a paleontologist by the name of Charles Repenning, found the bones and immediately recognized that they were dinosaur bones.

Early March 2008, Alaska's North Slope, the frozen Colville River: a team of scientists has pitched camp here, at the base of these cliffs, willing to brave the perilous polar winter to investigate a startling discovery.

They've unearthed dinosaur bones near the North Pole. The animal was called Edmontosaurus, a gentle giant, a 35-foot-long, four-ton, duck-billed plant eater, a member of the Hadrosaur family, found in 70-million-year-old rock, a mere 50 miles from the Arctic Ocean, where temperatures can drop as low as minus-60 degrees Fahrenheit. According to conventional wisdom, it shouldn't be here, because this is how dinosaurs are typically pictured: cold-blooded reptiles living in tropical climes, not in cold, arctic environments like this one. And the Hadrosaur is not alone.

In two sites along Alaska's Colville River, paleontologists have recently unearthed eight distinct species, represented by hundreds of fossils.

Dinosaurs living in the Arctic, a few miles from the current Arctic Ocean. How can that be? Well one things seems sure, it was considerably warmer on Earth when this was going on. Similar have been made discoverys, at about the same time in Earth's history, have been made near the South Pole in Antarctic.

Another interesting thing is conifers and ferns grew right up to the shore of the Arctic Ocean. Finds in the permafrost regarding about the vegetation of the region shows the area was much warmer than today. This implies a temperature that is about 30 degrees warmer than it was today. It means that 70 million plus years ago, when things were warm, dinosaurs were living in the area excavated. They would not be able to survive there today, because of the colder temperatures.

Two-hundred-thirty-million years ago, the Earth was even warmer than it was at the end of the age of dinosaurs. Those conditions fostered a great flowering of diversity, including the evolution of dozens of species which came to dominate the land, the air, the water, and eventually filled every corner of the globe.

And then, 65-million years ago: a devastating blow to the planet...a massive asteroid impact. The prevailing theory is that the resulting explosion threw massive clouds of gas and ash into the air and plunged the Earth into a global winter. The theory held that dinosaurs, tropical animals, were unable to cope with the darkness and the cold that followed. But the discovery that dinosaurs already lived in non-tropical conditions, enduring long periods of darkness, suggests that there must be more to the story.

Who knew that dinosaurs roamed the shores of the Arctic Ocean 70 million years ago, and 230 million years ago it was considerably warmer than it was 65 million years ago, and it was considerably warmed then than it is today. Since about 5 million years ago, Earth has cycled between an ice age and what is referred to as an interglacial period -- Which is what the condidtions are today ... And Interglacial Perido, soon to be followed by a period of glaciation.

There is an online viewable video at the NOVA site.

Celebrate Jim Jones

Thirty years ago today more than 900 followers of Jim Jones committed "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid. The lessons to be learned from that, should be studied by all. Jim Jones was an evangelical communist who became a minister to infiltrate the church with the gospel according to Marx and Lenin.

Dan Flynn has written a piece, "Don't Drink the Kool-Aid on Jonestown" where he explores how liberal pols and liberal media enabled the Jonestown tragedy in a Guyanese jungle clearing.

The scary quote:

On November 17, 1978, Jim Jones was a hero to American leftists. On November 18, 1978, Jones orchestrated the killings of 918 people and strangely morphed in the eyes of American leftists into an evangelical Christian fanatic.

...

It's worth remembering that before the people of Peoples Temple drank Jim Jones's Kool-Aid, the leftist political establishment of San Francisco gulped it down. And without the latter, the former would have never happened.

Are we living a repeat, Barack Obama, another creepy messiah of the new "People's Temple", only this time we are talking about the whole of America?

Refresher video



Newsbusters on the CNN documentary about Jonestown, with the part about the Democrat connections strangely absent.

What Global Warming Causes

If this film version isn't enough, you can get all the things global warming causes, at least according to what was formerly known as the news media, from this list.

Reject Obamism in all it's forms.

Must Watch Video On Climate Change by Roger Helmer MEP

In Alaska, winter's chill comes early as Fairbanks records fourth-coldest October

The colder weather froze Interior lakes quicker and deeper than usual, but rivers are still in the process of freezing solid, said Larry Rundquist at the National River Forecast Center in Anchorage.

The ice on the Yukon River has stopped moving in several Interior villages, including Circle, Galena, Tanana and Nulato, Rundquist reported. The ice on the Tanana River at Manley stopped running on Oct. 23, he said.

The early part of winter has been much colder this year than normal in terms of “freezing degree days,” which Rundquist said are the driver for freeze-up and ice thickness. Freezing degree days are accumulated when the average daily temperature drops below 32 degrees. One freezing degree day is the equivalent of one degree below freezing. For example, if the average daily temperature is 22 degrees, it equals 10 freezing degree days.

Hottest Hoax Around

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, run by global warming alarmist James Hansen, has been a chief source of the world's "data" to support climate hysteria. Repeatedly, though, GISS data have been shown to be flawed, if not fraudulent. Now, it's happened again:

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.

As the scientific evidence continues to accumulate, it becomes increasingly clear that "global warming" hysteria is based on a combination of bad science and fraud. It is also easy to spot the outright fraud that is taking place these days, when you consider Arctic sea ice growth in the Arctic Ocean, that's the ocean just north of the very same Siberia where the hottest temperatures were recorded, has been at record rates. One wonders, how can you possible square those two statements, when you can watch on satellites the ice growth. All we have for surface temperature is the word from fraudulent hoax propagating government scientists.

Consider this before deciding if spending trillions of your money on a fraud is really the right thing to do.

Gov Palin At The RGA

Isn't It Coincidental

That the Barack Obama channel's parent company, GE, just got their $139 billion dollar bailout.

The US Government also agreed to insure as much as $US139 billion in debt for GE Capital Corp, the capital lending arm of GE.

Coincidence I'm sure.

Remember the original bailout, if we don't do this the sky will fall? So we did it, and the sky continues to fall. Was it all just an election ruse?

Saddam Hussein's WMDs

Could it be that Saddam Hussein's nuclear program was contained in the Syrian reactor that was bombed by Israel in 2007. Where else would Syria have gotten the material and plans needed?

IAEA Finds Uranium Traces at Syrian Blast Site

United Nations investigators have found traces of uranium contamination at the site of an Israeli air strike in Syria, diplomats told Reuters and German media sources on Monday. The report is the first sign of a “smoking gun” proving that Syria was in fact building a secret nuclear reactor on the site, as Israel and the United States have insisted.

Very likely.

Malaria, The Scourage Of The Earth

Massive malaria vaccine trial to begin in Africa

Malaria, caused by parasites and spread by mosquitoes, kills nearly 1 million people every year, most of them children in Africa. The trial may start as early as next month, and should be well under way by January, said Cohen

On average, one African child dies every 30 seconds from malaria, and still the world's leftists hold to the hoax that DDT is bad for the environment. That has been proved false, after 30 years of study. There have been over 30 million malaria caused deaths, mostly children under age of five, since DDT was banned by fiat in 1972.

The travesty in lives lost is on the hands of the leftist who push the DDT hoax.

Global Warming Accelerating

OK, it's a laugh line, not a question.

Rub Raw The Sources Of Discontent

Communism went out of favor 20 years ago when the Soviet Union fell on it's literal face. Calculate the age needed to remember what communism was all about. It's no wonder that Democrats want to try again.

If you want to understand the why's you need to read Saul Alinsky and understand how liberals operate. Alinsky's method is the concept of "agitation"-- making someone angry enough about the rotten state of their life that they agrees to take action to change it -- or, as Alinsky himself described the job, to "rub raw the sores of discontent." It is very likely they have no idea what the change means or encompasses, it's just change -- Not all change is good, and that is the part left out of the agitation.

President Bush is the current source of liberal agitation, and the rest of the 'soup line America' bile that comes from the mouths of the hate America first crowd. I think you can see how the global warming hoax figures into the agitation equation as another rally point. The Obamas and the Clintons for that matter, are ardent students of Saul Alinsky, their 'Bible' is his community organizing manifesto titled "Rules for Radicals". It is about how to agitate and organize the populace to gain power over them, diabolical at it's base.

The reason Hillary's college thesis was hidden for so long is she cites Alinsky and his influences on her in it. People have said that if only they had read Mein Kampf they wouldn't have voted for Hitler ... Buy the book "Rules for Radicals", read the book, understand the book, before it is too late for America. We don't want to be the next Germany.

Bill Ayers, Barack Husein Obama's friend, is the premier Saul Alinsky prodigy. Bill Ayers is the strategist, Obama is just the delivery vessel.

Something to keep in mind in the coming days, Communism and it's brethren 'isms' murdered over 100 million people in the 20th century, in the name of the 'common good'. There is only one state of humankind, and it is freedom. Obamunism is just the world's latest attempt of a charismatic demagogue trying to save a world that does not need saving. The reason for murder as the final solution, Karl Marx's theories were fundamentally flawed, freedom will not be denied, and in the end, remember this fact -- Communsim didn't fail, it just ran out of other people's money to give away. And then out comes the bayonets ...

Climate Change Explained

Professor Bob Carter uses the scientific method on the popular theory with global warming being linked to CO2 levels. He examnines the hypothesis and it fails the test. Does this surprise you?



Climate Change - Is CO2 the cause?- pt 1


Climate Change - Is CO2 the cause?- pt 2


Climate Change - Is CO2 the cause?- pt 3


Climate Change - Is CO2 the cause?- pt 4

Tough Race

Dinosaurs are done.

I'll Be Back

Penn and Teller -- Bullshit Being Green

Reagan's Farewell Address

Complete text here -- the prescription, common sense. Things like if oil supply is short, drill for more.

Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the people's tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before. The economy bloomed like a plant that had been cut back and could now grow quicker and stronger. Our economic program brought about the longest peacetime expansion in our history: real family income up, the poverty rate down, entrepreneurship booming, and an explosion in research and new technology. We're exporting more than ever because American industry became more competitive and at the same time, we summoned the national will to knock down protectionist walls abroad instead of erecting them at home. Common sense also told us that to preserve the peace, we'd have to become strong again after years of weakness and confusion. So, we rebuilt our defenses, and this New Year we toasted the new peacefulness around the globe.

"in which the people of America created--and filled--19 million new jobs."

"cut taxes and regulation, started to cut spending. And soon the recovery began."

One last nugget of truth ...

Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. And let me offer lesson No. 1 about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.

Reagan -- class act, great American.

Footnote: The Democrats resisted cutting spending at every turn. And government never created one useful job.

Russia's Medvedev Salutes Obama

And for laughs ... If the first toon wasn't enough for you

I'm Sorry World

I would like to get my apology to the world among the first. I apologize for the ignorant American people who voted this Obama travesty upon an unsuspecting world. I'm truly sorry, there weren't enough of us smart American people to save America and the world from the horror of Obamunism.

Oh how much fun we are going to have. I think Obama deserves the same respect that everyone found so funny after the 2004 re-election of President Bush, don't you? Democrats always forget, tomorrow always comes.

Obamunism

Who's Dragging Down Who?

Boat anchor wouldn't have drawn 30% without Gov Palin.

Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

How Did We Lose Our Way, Reagan 1964

Reject Obamunism

New "Near Perfect" Solar Design Could Change Entire Industry

This may be huge, and then again it may be false, like so many other 'breakthrough disopcveries' for funding purposes of late. New "Near Perfect" Solar Design Could Change Entire Industry:

New coated cell 43 percent more efficient, can be easily produced with current production lines

Solar breakthroughs are relatively commonplace. However, typically they are iterative -- small increases by a percent or two in efficiency. Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have invented a new solar cell that is anything but iterative as it blows away past offerings by a large margin; something RPI calls a "game-changer" for the solar business.

Journalism Died In America In 2008

Obamunsim doesn't fail, it just runs out of other people's money to give away.
America's first principles freedom, liberty and self-reliance will never fail.

Proof AGW Is A Hoax

'Proof' we are causing polar warming melts away in the cold light of reality

On the basis of real data, there is no likelihood of the Antarctic ice cap melting nor of the Greenland ice cap sliding into the sea and causing a 7m rise in sea levels, as has been fancifully suggested. The Argo buoy system launched in 2003 to search for increasing ocean temperatures can find none, nor can the Topex/Poseidon satellite find any evidence of rapidly rising global sea levels, unless you call 2.5mm per year rapid.

The climate industry relies on alarmism to maintain a steady flow of research grants and financial contributions but none of its apocalyptic visions are coming to pass. Politicians should take note.

(DR) WILLIAM FLOOD

Weather Pattern Changing

[Anthony] Watts says a major shift has taken place in the Pacific Ocean which will shift weather patterns for years to come.

"The biggest thing that's happened is a shift in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation," Watts says. "We've gone from 30 years of a warm phase to a cool phase. That will have an impact on our long term weather patterns."

But, Watts says it's not global warming or "climate change" that's caused the shift.

It's part of a natural cycle that's been happening for thousands of years.

Due to this new system, Watts predicts extended drought and below normal temperatures for the next five to 15 years.

China Sends Global Warming Ransom Note

China has now destroyed Western hopes for a new global warming agreement, just weeks before global talks in Poland aimed at writing a successor for the Kyoto Protocol— which expires in 2012. China has attached a ransom not to its Polish meeting RSVP: They might go along with a new warming pact if the rich countries agree to hand over 1 percent of their GDP—about $300 billion per year—to finance the required non-fossil, higher-cost energy systems the West wants the developing countries to use.

Bad timing: The U.S. and Europe are trying to bail their financial systems out of Barney Frank’s Fanny Mae/Freddy Mac sub-prime mortgage adventure. “Climate change policies need a lot of money to be invested. However, developed countries have not made any substantive promises about how much they are going to spend on this,” said Gua Guangsheng, head of China’s Climate Change Office on Oct. 28. “And they did not fulfill some of the promises they made in the past very well either.”

China, India, Brazil, and Mexico had already demanded—in July— that the developed countries cut their own emissions by 80–95 percent by 2050. Very unlikely. The EU has loudly boasted of trying to set an 80-percent cut in its emissions, but that now looks impossible. Italy, Poland, Hungary, and Greece are part of a “blocking force” saying says they can’t afford to give up coal and oil during a financial crisis. Especially when the only alternative is imported Russian gas; Russia recently “invaded” Georgia, many think to stop Georgian efforts to build a gas pipeline that would have competed with Russia’s.

If the science is so settled, why do we need "more knowledge about the cause of climate change"?

Netherlands Puts EUR 78 Million in European Climate Research

THE HAGUE, 04/11/08 - The Netherlands is making 78 million euros available for building a European instrument that should carry out measurements of the composition of the atmosphere. "This is intended to gather more knowledge about the cause of climate change and air pollution."

Gov Palin Votes

Lots of snow to walk around on.

Country First

VOTE

Cavuto Goes Nuclear On Sen Menemdez(D-NJ)

A really lively exchange with the Senator Menendez, whose face resembles a glazed fruit cupcake. Hey I don't know why, but it is what occurs to me when I see him and his round little face. Neil really got in his face and wouldn't let go. The Sen doesn't do math, doesn't do truth, doesn't do very well with real questions. Neil was right on all points, which is probably what prompted the meltdown of Sen Menendez.

Obama’s Attack Ad On … Obama

Mary Katharine Ham has collected a number of Barack Obama’s contradictory statements, and proved once again that Team McCain could have used her as a captain. This, truly, is change you can really believe in:

Coal, You Can't Have Any

Almost excatly half of America's electricity comes from coal burning power plants.





Coal is also quite useful for transport fuel, no not the steam engine trains, but automobiles. Did you know that during WWII Germany ran their entire war machine on coal? Yep, sure did, airplanes ships, tanks all of it -- Using the Fisher-Tropsch process, often called coal-to-liquids, developed in the 1920s. It yields gasoline and diesel at $30-$40 per barrel oil equivalent.

The USA has about 27% of the world's coal resource.

Spread The Wealth Around

This little number about socialism, I dedicate to Joe the Plumber -- Joe started the fall.

Ben Bernanke, Please Send Me Some Green!

Special tribute to those who thought the bailout was not going to work.

Flux Transfer Events

An artist's concept of Earth's magnetic field connecting to the sun's--a.k.a. a "flux transfer event"--with a spacecraft on hand to measure particles and fields.

The Earth and the Sun each have magnetic fields, and it was thought that they had a somewhat continuous interaction -- With charged particles flowing from the Sun to Earth in a steady stream. But new data and theories from the THEMIS satellite constellation has shown this to not be so! It turns out that there are“portals“ that open and close. These portals are called Flux Transfer Events (FTE`s) by the scientists involved, the Earth and Sun momentarily merge their magnetic fields to form a conduit for the ionized particles from the sun to the Earth.

Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected, but didn't understand exactly how. Earth's magnetosphere (the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet) is filled with particles from the sun that arrive via the solar wind and penetrate the planet's magnetic defenses. They enter by following magnetic field lines that can be traced from terra firma all the way back to the sun's atmosphere.

"We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active," says Sibeck. "We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic."

Amazing, and unexpected discovery. How do FTE`s effect the Earth`s climate? Have they slowed as a result of the weakening solar wind or the Earth`s weakening magnetic field? Maybe they have speeded up, with more forming? We simply don't know what is the ramifications of all this, how the Earth's climate is affected, we just know something is happening.

Yet more climate complexity NOT figured into the IPCC report and Al Gore`s Global Warming hoax.

There is a short NASA video about the THEMIS Constellation, and the science involved, here.

Electricity Prices Will Skyrocket

In another clip from the same January 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in which Barack Obama promised to bankrupt anyone foolish enough to build coal-burning power plants, he also made an interesting admission about his entire energy plan. Obama told the editors that his policies would make energy prices “skyrocket” as the energy industry passed along the exorbitant costs of his cap-and-trade policy:





Transcript:

The problem is not technical, uh, and the problem is not mastery of the legislative intricacies of Washington. The problem is, uh, can you get the American people to say, “This is really important,” and force their representatives to do the right thing? That requires mobilizing a citizenry. That requires them understanding what is at stake. Uh, and climate change is a great example.

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.

They — you — you can already see what the arguments will be during the general election. People will say, “Ah, Obama and Al Gore, these folks, they’re going to destroy the economy, this is going to cost us eight trillion dollars,” or whatever their number is. Um, if you can’t persuade the American people that yes, there is going to be some increase in electricity rates on the front end, but that over the long term, because of combinations of more efficient energy usage, changing lightbulbs and more efficient appliance, but also technology improving how we can produce clean energy, the economy would benefit.

If we can’t make that argument persuasively enough, you — you, uh, can be Lyndon Johnson, you can be the master of Washington. You’re not going to get that done.

Skyrocketing energy prices will destroy the USA's economy.

Obama, Bankrupt The Coal Industry And Tax The Hell Out Of What Is Left

Authoritative dictator in the making ...

Another audio tape of Obama talking to his friends hoping they are all his friends.

Update: Free Republic transcribed this video (via Gateway Pundit):

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It’s just that it will bankrupt them.

End transcript.



Obama is just a crazy squirrel pushing fairy tale voodoo economics and hallucinogenic drug induced world visions. How else can you explain this nonsense.

Schwarzenegger Levels Obama

My guess, why the sudden switch? Bill Ayers book, Pairire Fire, the weathermen's communist manifesto, dedication to assassin Sirhan Sirhan, Bobby's relatives didn't like that one bit, would you?

Who Is Barack Obama

Journalism died in the year 2008, and this is what used to be called journalists.

Obama On Defnse of The USA

Tortise And The Hare

American brains, dear hare, American brains.

Closing It Out

McCain, for all his faults, is in fact a great American.