If All You See…

By William Teach August 19, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a sea rising up to swallow the seaboard all the way to the mountains, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Right Wing News, with a post illegals wanting in-state tuition here in NC.

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Hooray! Obama To Hit The Road To Talk About Affordable College

By William Teach August 19, 2013 – 9:29 am

Remember when he said that he would spend every waking moment working on the economy? Then gave a couple speeches before heading out on a 1%er vacation? Now that he’s “back”, what does he do?

(Daily Caller) With his poll ratings down, President Barack Obama is taking a two-day road trip to show sympathy for those hit hard by rising university costs during his four-and-a-half-year tenure.

The trip will allow him to make three speeches in New York on Thursday, and speak at two town halls and at one speech in Pennsylvania on Friday.

“At each stop, the President will discuss the importance of ensuring that every American has the opportunity to achieve a quality education by reducing cost and improving the value of higher education for middle-class students and their families,” a White House statement said.

Well, that’s great! Too bad there are few jobs available for all these people who get a college education, and a good chunk are low paying part time jobs.

Even if he doesn’t increase his ratings, he’s expected to use the speeches to continue his sharp invective against the GOP.

So, we should probably expect this to be the typical Neverending Campaign speeches, rather than the type one would expect from the POTUS. He’ll smear the GOP a lot, offer few ideas on how to solve the student debt crisis, then blame the GOP for failing to pass legislation that Obama hasn’t sent to Congress. This will be All About Obama, rather than any attempt to help the country. Narcissism on Display.

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Rubin: NSA Error Rate Nothing To Be Troubled Over

By William Teach August 19, 2013 – 9:00 am

Many of you know that Jennifer Rubin is the Washington Post’s token “Conservative”, and I put Conservative in quotation marks because she is really representing the Establishment, inside-the-beltline, squishy Republican school of thought that anything approaching Reagan type Conservatism. On Friday we learned about the NSA violated privacy rights 2,776 times at their D.C. area data centers erroneously. This was a report that only discussed errors, and, again, doesn’t encompass all the data centers they operate. It doesn’t touch on the intentional privacy rights violations. But, hey, the program is near perfection!

NSA scandal or near-perfection?

………

This is extraordinary. If there are 20 million inquiries each month over a year span that works out to 240,000,000. That equates to an error rate of .00001156666. If the NSA figures are accurate this is the most airtight surveillance program in history. The error rate isn’t simply “extremely low”; it is virtually nonexistent. (snip)

So about 800 Americans were the subject of some sort of error. Over a full year. Involving 240,000,000 inquiries.

I am having trouble mounting outrage over this. Moreover, it is not clear what an error really involved. The NSA hasn’t been forthcoming as to whether, for example, 800 Americans had an e-mail read or if, for example, only an individual’s identity for an e-mail was obtained. We still don’t know if the information derived from the errors was isolated and purged from the system. (snip)

If the NSA wasn’t hiding the ball and there were no instances of intentional misconduct in 240,000,000 inquiries then NSA should be given a gold star. Perhaps the NSA report isn’t accurate or we don’t have a complete picture, but right now it seems that the reaction to the report is hugely disproportionate to the problem.

There’s no doubt that the error rate is tiny. I think we can agree with that. But what of the error rate at other facilities, which would come into play for the overall number? More importantly, while this may seem like no big deal, it is part of the pattern of problems with the NSA and the way they gather data on Americans (note: I do not care if they gather data on foreigners, since that’s what they’re supposed to do). If this was a stand-alone report it would be no big deal. But it doesn’t stand-alone: it follows on report after report after report as to just how intrusive the NSA programs are.

Of course, how do we really know what all the mistakes are when it is the NSA self-reporting them?

Furthermore, we do not know what those inquiries targeted. How many targeted Americans, and saw some unintentional errors where the wrong Americans were targeted? Rubin is pushing the Establishment Republican mentality, which seems to be “we need this, and if you’ve done nothing wrong, don’t worry”, versus the true Conservative/Libertarian version, which is “hey, we have a Constitution, there should be no blanket warrants, this is intrusive and a violation of citizen’s privacy”. This is how we end up with Peter King facing off against Rand Paul.

Just to be clear, there is a debate going on between Democrats, too, we just don’t hear about it much.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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AGW Today: Social Justice, Wood Pellets, And Hotspots

By William Teach August 18, 2013 – 4:20 pm

Two of the three come via Junk Science, which actually all deserve their own longer post, but, hey, Sunday. The first is about the urban heat island effect making globull warming worse for the poor

(Toronto Star) Mitigating the Urban Heat Island effect — which can be as easy as switching roof colours — is a matter of social justice, many experts say. And as climate change continues to amplify weather extremes, that task is increasingly urgent.

Wait, I thought cities were the best thing for Everyone? No? But the big point is about social justice, another far left notion, at least in the way they push it, which highlights that the “climate change” movement is really about far left beliefs.

(News and Observer) The European Union and Great Britain have adopted aggressive targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. They have created incentives for electric utilities to cut back on their use of coal and will require renewable sources to provide 20 percent of all energy by 2020. Wind and solar power are expected to meet only a small share of that demand.

Power companies are looking to close the gap with biomass – primarily with imported wood pellets. Biomass use in Great Britain, 3 million tons last year, is expected to grow tenfold over the next five years.

Britain’s biggest carbon emitter is the Drax Group, a Yorkshire utility that operates the largest power plant in western Europe. Drax is converting half its plant from coal to wood pellets. Coal is one-third the price of pellets, but Drax CEO Dorothy Thompson said her company is responding to renewable-energy credits and a British carbon tax, introduced this year at $7 a ton, that will grow by 2020 to more than $60 a ton.

What we have going on here is that loggers are turning more and more of the logging waste into wood pellets, and making some good cash on the deal, because Europe is desperate for consistent, affordable power creation, what with all those restrictions on coal. Wind and solar cannot provide stable and affordable power at this time, and with 4 out of the past 5 winters being bitingly cold, and there having been no real spring or summer, all the “carbon credits” have been used up. Hey, anyone think this might hurt the poor?

(Climate Progress….which has been completely subsumed, BTW, under the Think Progress banner, without even it’s own URL anymore) We can confidently say that the risk of drought and heat waves has gone up and the odds of a hot spot somewhere on the planet have increased but the hotspot moves around and the location is not very predictable. This year perhaps it is East Asia: China, or earlier Siberia? It has been much wetter and cooler in the US (except for SW), whereas last year the hot spot was the US. Earlier this year it was Australia (Tasmania etc) in January (southern summer). We can name spots for all summers going back quite a few years: Australia in 2009, the Russian heat wave in 2010, Texas in 2011, etc.

Similarly with risk of high rains and floods: They are occurring but the location moves.

That’s Warmist Kevin Trenberth attempting to explain why Warmist hypotheses are failing spectacularly. Essentially, he’s just pulling crap out of his ass, like most Warmists do.

Read: AGW Today: Social Justice, Wood Pellets, And Hotspots »

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 18, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is an awesome alternative mode of transportation that Everyone Else should be forced to take, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Director Blue, with a post noting that Obamacare will help 3 people, per the CBO (I may or may not write my own post on this, but I wanted the info out there)

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Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach August 18, 2013 – 10:30 am

Patriotic Pinup Fiona Stephenson

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the once and future nation of America. This pinup is by Fiona Stephenson with a wee bit of help.

BTW, someone asked what the headline that I use for these posts every Sunday means. Well, it goes back to the mid-2000’s, where many in the blogosphere decided that Sunday should be the BlogSabbath, and blogs should take a small break, and at most have a post or two, or even none. Many of those who ran in the Blog Circle have given up their blogs (I’ve been doing this since 2004, and have seen many come and go), but you can still see this at The Jawa Report, where owner Rusty Shackleford was one of the big proponents of the BlogSabbath. You rarely see a post there on Sundays.

Double BTW, I get most of the below links from my feedreader, and I see many blogs dying. If you want on, send me your info. Or send me blogs which should be on my feedreader.

Anyhow, what is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Powerline notes that Dems are rallying their hater base for 2014
  2. Glenn Reynolds highlights that the feds are threatening Lavabit founder for shutting down his service
  3. The Jawa Report points out that Oprah says you’re a racist no matter what
  4. The Last Tradition features the Obama Rodeo Clown was in L.A.
  5. The People’s Cube is worried about blindness in Germany
  6. White House Dossier notes that Obama thinks health insurance is a “right”
  7. Wake Up America points out that Bloomberg is not happy about cameras on his cops
  8. This ain’t Hell… has the feel good story of the day
  9. The Daley Gator notes that a CDC study contradicts Dear Leader’s anti-gun narrative
  10. Scared Monkeys covers illegals wanting in-state tuition in my North Carolina
  11. Rhymes With Right clowns around
  12. Maggie’s Notebook covers the army of Obamacare navigators
  13. Legal Insurrection wonders what happens with a #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag
  14. Jammie Wearing Fools notes it was a slow night in Chicago
  15. And last, but not least, Hot Air Pundit has a feel good story from El Al Airlines
  16. And one to grow on: Don Surber returns to the Blogosphere (a little bit) with his Daily Scoreboard

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page. While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check outwhat I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. (BTW, since someone asked, the reason I leave links for the previous week up (or you might see a *) is because they are place holders for later in the day or for next weeks. Easier than rewriting all the time. Also, the listing order has to do with how they are added over time, not how good a post is. I just copy and paste from the previous week, then edit. If you see one of the *’s, go ahead and check out the blog anyhow, see if there is an update. I cannot update with my Android during the day.

The posts do take a long time, so, if you want to send me your links for Rule 5 babeage or links, use ye olde email in the header bar (remove the NOSPAM part). Preferably, create the html link so I can copy and paste how you want it to read.

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NY Times: Hey, What Happened In Egypt Really Isn’t Obama’s Fault

By William Teach August 18, 2013 – 9:00 am

It must be the fault of Other People, you know

How American Hopes for a Deal in Egypt Were Undercut

For a moment, at least, American and European diplomats trying to defuse the volatile standoff in Egypt thought they had a breakthrough.

As thousands of Islamist supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, braced for a crackdown by the military-imposed government, a senior European diplomat, Bernardino León, told the Islamists of “indications” from the leadership that within hours it would free two imprisoned opposition leaders. In turn, the Islamists had agreed to reduce the size of two protest camps by about half.

An hour passed, and nothing happened. Another hour passed, and still no one had been released.

The Americans heightened the pressure. Two senators visiting Cairo, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, met with Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the officer who ousted Mr. Morsi and appointed the new government, and the interim prime minister, Hazem el-Beblawi, and pushed for the release of the two prisoners. But the Egyptians brushed them off.

“You could tell people were itching for a fight,” Mr. Graham recalled in an interview. “The prime minister was a disaster. He kept preaching to me: ‘You can’t negotiate with these people. They’ve got to get out of the streets and respect the rule of law.’ I said: ‘Mr. Prime Minister, it’s pretty hard for you to lecture anyone on the rule of law. How many votes did you get? Oh, yeah, you didn’t have an election.’ ” (snip)

The next morning, the government issued a statement declaring that diplomatic efforts had been exhausted and blaming the Islamists for any casualties from the coming crackdown. A week later, Egyptian forces opened a ferocious assault that so far has killed more than 1,000 protesters.

See? It’s the fault of McCain and Graham! And perhaps a few others. And what’s Bystander In Chief Obama supposed to do?

The violent crackdown has left Mr. Obama in a no-win position: risk a partnership that has been the bedrock of Middle East peace for 35 years, or stand by while longtime allies try to hold on to power by mowing down opponents. From one side, the Israelis, Saudis and other Arab allies have lobbied him to go easy on the generals in the interest of thwarting what they see as the larger and more insidious Islamist threat. From the other, an unusual mix of conservatives and liberals has urged him to stand more forcefully against the sort of autocracy that has been a staple of Egyptian life for decades.

Mr. Obama has found Egypt’s tumultuous political transition a headache for more than two years. Accused of sticking for too long by President Hosni Mubarak, the longtime ruler in Egypt who was ousted by a popular uprising in 2011, and then criticized when he later abandoned him, Mr. Obama gambled on Mr. Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader elected a year ago. He found Mr. Morsi a useful and pragmatic partner in handling issues like a violent flare-up in Gaza. But Mr. Obama became convinced that the Egyptian was not being inclusive enough at home to stabilize his own country.

In all seriousness, the full measure of Blame is on Egypt. But, Mr. Obama surely hasn’t helped, and has made the situation worse with his leading-from-behind whishy washyness. His vacation time-out comment on Egypt last week has been called tepid and timid by people on the left and right, and seemed to highlight his preference for the Muslim Brotherhood. We saw little else from Obama during the previous years that Egypt has been having issues. This is not to Blame Obama, but as an ally of Egypt’s, and a nation that is supposed to stand for liberty, this whole Smart Power schtick is a bloody failure.

One thing to note: we can’t fault Obama and his admin for condemning the violence. While they certainly do not seem to understand the threat from the Islamists in whole and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular (something Egyptians seem to understand), the US can’t be seen as supporting this type of crackdown. But, we should also note that Team Obama is failing to condemn that his buddies in the Muslim Brotherhood are burning Christian churches all over Egypt.

And, unsurprisingly, Egypt may be turning to Russia in the face of worthless measures by the Obama administration, which seems to practice “how to lose friends and alienate people.”

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: NY Times: Hey, What Happened In Egypt Really Isn’t Obama’s Fault »

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Warmists Wonder If Climate Agitprop Can Be Made More Conservative Friendly

By William Teach August 17, 2013 – 7:53 pm

Here’s one of my favorite Warmists, David Roberts

Can climate science be rendered conservative-friendly?

One common criticism of the way climate science has been communicated over the last decade or so is that scientists and advocates have led with a liberal perspective: Here’s a big problem that we need to solve with government regulations and mandates. It didn’t help that climate change came to prominence via Al Gore, a partisan liberal long loathed on the right. (snip)

But it is worth asking: Could climate hawks have made a pitch that appealed to conservatives? Is there such a pitch available today?

Yes, except it would have required action, not “spreading awareness”. As I’ve note time and time and time again, Warmists could have practiced what they preach. They mostly don’t. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter what they say, because we can see that a) their so-called science is deeply flawed, to the point where their models consistently fail and they have to change data as well as simply make it up, and b) we understand that the end game is simply bigger and bigger government with more and more power taking more and more freedom and money away from citizens and private entities.

Roberts finds that there is no way for Conservatives to accept what he calls “climate science”, but, mostly because we are supposedly big meanies and flat earthers and stuff, which is funny, because Warmists mostly ignore 4.5 billion years of history, along with the way the climate has acted during the Holocene, and they mostly/solely ignore the effects the natural world has on climate. There are things we could work together on, such as real environmental issues, using alternative energy in a wise, worthwhile, economically sound manner, fixing the energy infrastructure, but, really, these same warmists who yammer on about these often refuse to allow implementation.

As a sidebar in the article, let’s look at

Read More »

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NY Times Notices That Navigators Are Super Necessary For Obamacare

By William Teach August 17, 2013 – 1:15 pm

Who would have possibly thought that a 2,000+ page bill with over 20,000 pages (so far) of regulations would be so difficult?

(NY Times) Navigators are seen as crucial to the success of the law. As the Jan. 1 deadline approaches when most Americans will be required to have health coverage or pay a fine,  navigators are supposed to explain away confusion and fear among the legions of uninsured, helping them understand how new health insurance markets will work and whether they will qualify for subsidies to help with the cost of coverage.

Wasn’t Obamacare supposed to make things easy? I wonder if the Navigators will be able to explain why people can’t keep their insurance and doctors?

But as the navigator effort gets under way across the country, it is clear that their impact will vary from state to state, with wide discrepancies in how much will be spent to hire and train navigators and how many people they will be able to reach. Many will be operating on shoestring budgets, with extremely tight time frames and hostile political climates.

That’s because of this

The federal government did not anticipate having to cover the cost of running the insurance markets in 34 states, which is why it has only $54 million — transferred from a fund for public health prevention programs — for navigators in those states. The health care law set aside much more money for states that built their own markets, assuming that most would do so.

Who would have thought that such an unpopular piece of legislation would cause States to say “nope, we aren’t creating our own exchanges”?

Anyhow, the Navigators will get super detailed training of about 20 hours in order to explain just how super awesome Obamacare is.

Read: NY Times Notices That Navigators Are Super Necessary For Obamacare »

Posted in Healthcare, Liberal World | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 17, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a Gaia killing dog, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Real Science, with a post noting that the US Summer Maximum has plummeted since 1930.

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