Obama Sounded Like He Was Talking About His Own Government In Remarks About Egypt

By William Teach August 15, 2013 – 1:16 pm

The Egyptian government could throw some of O’s remarks right back

(WSJ) We know that many Egyptians, millions of Egyptians, perhaps even a majority of Egyptians were calling for a change in course. And while we do not believe that force is the way to resolve political differences, after the military’s intervention several weeks ago, there remained a chance for reconciliation and an opportunity to pursue a democratic path. Instead, we’ve seen a more dangerous path taken, through arbitrary arrests, a broad crackdown on Mr. Morsi’s associations and supporters and now, tragically, violence that’s taken the lives of hundreds of people and wounded thousands more.

The Obama admin does through the use of the IRS and other federal agencies, as well as left wing groups,  with intimidation, rather than violence.

We support universal rights essential to human dignity, including the right to peaceful protest.

Tell that to a certain rodeo clown.

We call on the Egyptian authorities to respect the universal rights of the people.

We call on Team Obama to do the same. NSA spying, Benghazi, IRS, Fast and Furious, picking and choosing which laws he wants to enforce, dictating law by executive order, demonizing political opponents.

As a sidebar, I would like to point out that Obama’s speech wasn’t bad, especially as he calls for piece and decries the violence. Unfortunately, he also glossed over the murder of Christians by Islamists and barely mentions the burning of churches. And

We’ve been blamed by supporters of Morsi; we’ve been blamed by the other side as if we are supporters of Morsi. That kind of approach will do nothing to help Egyptians achieve the future that they deserve. We want Egypt to succeed. We want a peaceful, democratic, prosperous Egypt. That’s our interest. But to achieve that, the Egyptians are going to have to do the work.

This might work if Obama hadn’t reduced the political might and standing of the US with all his equivocations, waffling, hand-wringing, and general wishy washyness. Whining about the US being blamed might have worked with a strong leader, but not one who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Arab Spring, then dumped Mubarak while his team called Assad a “reformer”, then backed the Muslim Brotherhood and their abuses. All with the backdrop of Obama’s abuses.

More: Ed Morrissey on Obama cancelling the joint military exercise

Given the scale of the deaths yesterday in Cairo, this hardly looks like a robust rebuke; it seems more like an expression of impotence.

Hey, remember, the US is just another country in the world.

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 15, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is an electric grid that needs to be saved from Climate Change, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Blogmocracy, with a post noting that we cannot simply magic our problems away.

Read: If All You See… »

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Climate Scientists Have A Moral Obligation To Take Action Or Something

By William Teach August 15, 2013 – 10:52 am

I agree: any who believe in man-induced climate change and think we’re doomed should practice what they preach, rather than saying that Other People should be forced to live the life

Scientists have a moral obligation to take action on climate change

Calling on all scientists to refrain from public advocacy and leadership is wrong. We are in a global crisis, and the scientific fraternity has an ethical obligation to act

Al Gore’s influential film about climate science was not called A Scientifically-Modelled Truth, or The Statistically Fairly Likely Truth, even though these would have been accurate titles. It was An Inconvenient Truth, because the key factor in the climate debate is not the truthfulness of the science, but the futile political war waged against that scientific truth. That war is still being waged by sections of the media, as well as think tanks and campaigns funded by the polluters.

First, we note that writer Dan Cass exposes that Gore’s film was all about politics, not science. Second, we should note that there are 35 problems with Gore’s film.

Third, let’s note that when “climate change” is put in moral terms, we’ve gone from science to pseudo-religion. This is all about far left politics

However we are in a global crisis, and I believe that the scientific fraternity has an ethical obligation to take action. We need some scientists to show social leadership, not just scientific leadership. Edwards is being too strident, calling on all scientists to refrain from public advocacy and leadership. I think that is unreasonable to expect and never likely to happen.

OK, then they should all give up fossil fueled travel, no hairspray, turn the air conditioning off, stop using smartphones, and, heck, even computers are bad for “climate change”. Live a “carbon neutral” lifestyle.

However, I’m not sure which world Cass lives in, because the True Believer climate scientists have been pushing advocacy for decades. Hey, maybe it’s all the particulate matter put out by fossil fueled vehicles and planes from all the travel by Warmists that has caused this 17 year pause.

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Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Feinstein And Durbin: Hey, Let’s Use International Law For The Gitmo Jihadis

By William Teach August 15, 2013 – 8:33 am

Senators Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin are super upset that the Gitmo detention facility is still open in the era of HopeNchange

(LA Times) The detention facility on our military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is holding 166 individuals. Most of them have been there a decade or more.

Operating Guantanamo costs about $450 million a year — or about $2.7 million a detainee, according to the Defense Department. Consider this: It costs $78,000 to hold a convicted terrorist in the most secure federal prison in the United States, Supermax in Colorado. With the sequester stretching budgets and Defense Department employees under furloughs, the U.S. is spending, per Guantanamo detainee, roughly 35 times the amount it spends at Supermax detaining a convicted terrorist.

This is a massive misuse of taxpayer money.

Right, because it’s better waste tens of billions of taxpayer money on failed “green” projects designed to hook up Democrat donors and supporters, not too mention the $850 billion Stimulus itself. How about DiFi’s $4 billion pork for ritzy West La? And we remember when Durbin compared the Americans working at Gitmo to Nazi’s.

The fact that Gitmo is stop operating is apparently the fault of Congress (read: Republicans), because at no point did Democrats fully control both the House and Senate during Obama’s time as President. In fact, the first thing Obama did was sign a finding saying Gitmo would be closed. He didn’t bother doing the work to actually follow through, though. Shocking for Obama, eh?

Anyhow, neither Durbin nor Feinstein are willing to house the jihadis in their own home states, but they do want the remaining Islamists either transferred to other nations (where they will mostly be set free) or tried

The 2014 Senate defense authorization bill will come up for debate on the Senate floor this fall. Congress must pass the provisions that streamline procedures for transferring detainees abroad and allow transfers to the U.S. for trial or detention under international law until the end of hostilities.

How about under US law? No, no, wait, let’s use international law, namely the Geneva Convention, which allows summary execution of those found fighting without a uniform as spies or mercenaries. Not that that would really happen, though Obama does seem to prefer drone striking jihadis to death instead of taking them captive.

I suggest that we do prosecute them in military court, as the Geneva Convention suggest, and house them in Feinstein and Durbin’s home towns of San Francisco and Springfield, Ill.

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Posted in Democrats, War On Terrorism | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

How Extreme Is North Carolina’s New Voter Law?

By William Teach August 15, 2013 – 7:50 am

Since the new NC voter law, which includes requiring voter ID, shortens the number of early voting days, eliminates same day registration, and does away with straight party voting, liberals have been doing their typical freakout dance. They’re typical headline and/or article pushes the “voter suppression” and “disenfranchisement” memes. Here’s the Raleigh N&O Editorial Board a few days ago

And he of course didn’t linger on the other parts of the legislation clearly designed to give Republicans an advantage in future elections, blatantly political maneuvers: no more straight-ticket voting, which is favored by more Democrats than Republicans; no more same-day registration and voting, again something shown to be used more by Democrats; early voting periods will be shorter, and early voting also tends to draw more Democrats; no more pre-registration for students younger than 18, as the young tend to lean Democratic.

They’re very worried that Dems will have trouble following the law in order to vote. Do they have trouble with Liberals voting in Hawaii, Illinois, and Delaware? Because they have voter ID laws, too. Sure, the NC law allows gun registrations as ID but not student ID. Because NC doesn’t have a ton of out-of-state students. I mentioned in that link that over 30 states have voter ID laws. Now, via the John Locke Foundation we see just how super evil the updated voter laws are

  • 14 states allow straight party voting. North Carolina now joins the 36 other states that do not.
  • 15 states allow NO early voting or no-excuse absentee voting. (Those include NY and Mass)
  • 32 states allow early voting ranging from 4 days prior to election day to 45 days with an average 19 days. North Carolina allows 10 days but requires the same number of hours of early voting that was available in 2012 and 2010 when the early voting period was 17 days.
  • Only 1 state allows same day registration during early voting. NC was the only other state to allow this and has now joined 49 states in not allowing same day registration during early voting.
  • 11 states allow same day registration on Election Day. North Carolina does not.
  • 5 states allow 16 and 17 year olds to pre-register to vote. 45 states do not, including now, North Carolina.

The lawyers for North Carolina will have these facts readily available as they fight of the Democrat led suits. When Pennsylvania was sued for their voter ID law, the judge upheld the law because most of the claims of the liberal organizations were found to be mule fritters. It’d be nice if (supposed) news organizations like the News and Observer, NY Times, Washington Post, and others, especially in North Carolina, would give the actual details.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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Posted in Election Fraud, Elections, NC News | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times: Mostly Unnamed North Carolinians Fear Something

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 4:29 pm

I’d like to know what the NY Times actually knows about “the middle way”, considering they operate out of a heavily Progressive city in a pretty heavily left voting state

North Carolinians Fear the End of a Middle Way

When Pat McCrory, a Republican former mayor of Charlotte, was elected governor last year, he pledged to “bring this state together,” and to focus on bread-and-butter issues amid an ailing economy.

But with Republicans controlling all branches of the state government for the first time in more than a century, the legislature pushed through a wide range of conservative change. The Republicans not only cut taxes and business regulations, as many had expected, but also allowed stricter regulations on abortion clinics, ended teacher tenure, blocked the expansion of Medicaid, cut unemployment benefits, removed obstacles to the death penalty, allowed concealed guns in bars and restaurants, and mandated the teaching of cursive writing.

And some whining about voter ID. But, what is this really about?

But the agenda that did pass was unquestionably a right turn for a state that only five years ago voted for Barack Obama, the first Democratic presidential candidate to win here since Jimmy Carter. With a run of Democratic governors stretching back to 1993, North Carolina was considered such a promising state for the Democrats that they held their convention in Charlotte in 2012.

Progressives/Liberals are afraid of losing the momentum they made in the South, replacing Blue Dog Democrats, and competent ones too boot, with hard left Progressives like Bev Perdue (governor from 2008-2012, and so incompetent that she refused to run for a 2nd term) and Mike Easley, who preceded Perdue.

In fact, other than liberals, most North Carolinian’s are happy with the way things are going.

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Posted in Democrats, Wonky Media | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible canine using up all of Gaia’s resources and dooming the planet to boil, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Scared Monkeys, with a post about Hooters telling Bob Filner he’s banned.

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Grist Is PIST Or Something

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 12:43 pm

No, really

(Grist) Here at Grist we’re PIST, and we want you to be, too.

PIST is People in Support of Tomorrow. We’re people just like you, coping with the prospect of a frying planet.

Once we were irked. Peeved. Irritated. Now, we’re just PIST. And we want you to join us and share your PISTness.

We need 250 — at least — of you to show your support by helping us spread more PISTaciousness on Twitter.

Warmists have been “spreading awareness” since 1988, yet their belief sets are so weak that they refuse to practice what they preach.

..a mass effort to coordinate tweets that’s super easy to sign up for, and that will surely shake the rafters of the Twittersphere.

Yeah, about 20 tweets. Several by the same people.

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Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Bummer: AGW So Bad That A Grand Solar Minimum Would Barely Make A Dent

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 10:05 am

Why? Because you refuse to give up your fossil fueled travel, still have a fridge with an ice maker, and dare to use hair spray before work

(UK Guardian) Recent articles in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (translation available here) and in the Irish Times both ran headlines claiming that another grand solar minimum could potentially trigger an “ice age” or “mini ice age” this century. These articles actually refer to the Little Ice Age (LIA) – a period about 500 to 150 years ago when global surface temperatures were approximately 1°C colder than they are today. This is quite different from an ice age, which are more like 5°C colder than today. The LIA was not actually very cold on a global scale.

Oh, really?

Of course, the idea is to say that the LIA was simply a localized incident, mostly in Europe (it was worldwide), while also attempting to erase much of the deep cold of the LIA.

So, in order to trigger another LIA, a new grand solar minimum would have to cause about 1°C cooling, plus it would have to offset the continued human-caused global warming of 1 to 5°C by 2100, depending on how our greenhouse gas emissions change over the next century.

And boom, science just went out the window in favor of reading tea leaves and looking into crystal balls. The Warmists models have failed spectacularly, as they did not predict this current pause in warming, which has increased a statistically insignificant .14F since 1997. Most of that warming came during the El Nino years. Other data shows a 0.0F increase since 2000. But, since 1999 some data shows a decrease of 2.4F per century for the US lower 48. Climate models really are complete disasters.

Of course, the same Guardian article also trots out the notion that all the warmth is doing a Where’s Waldo? in the deep oceans, which Warmists are expanding on ever-more. The article ends thusly

The science is quite clear that the human influence on climate change has become bigger than the sun’s. At this point, speculation about another mini ice age is pure fantasy.

Yup, cult. Yet the members of the cult refuse to modify their own behavior to comply with their pronouncements, which should tell you all you need to know about their true motives, namely that they are political, creating bigger and bigger government with more control over people and private entities, and not about science.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Bummer: AGW So Bad That A Grand Solar Minimum Would Barely Make A Dent »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Climahypocrites, Collapsing Science, Global Warming, New Climate Deniers | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

97% Of Federal Workers Overwhelmingly Prefer To Keep Their Own Insurance

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 9:33 am

That’s what a real 97% consensus looks like, but, it can’t be that bad, can it? One would think that those who work in the federal workforce are overwhelmingly Democrat. In fact “35.1% of those who participated identified themselves as a Republican. 30.8% identified themselves as independents and 30.7% identified themselves as a Democrat.” A 2008 survey found that Obama was preferred by 7%. For 2012, 58.2% said they did not want Obama re-elected.

(Daily Caller) Less than 3 percent of U.S. federal workers want to give up their current health plans and join Obamacare, according to a new poll.

92.3 percent of federal workers think that they should continue with their current health insurance program, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), while just 2.8 percent think they should be required to join Obamacare exchanges and 4.9 percent are not sure, according to an August survey conducted by FedSmith.com, a website for federal employees.

“There is apparently little debate among the federal workforce. Federal employees do not want to be part of the new system… Employees who are already retired have a much stronger negative reaction to being moved to a new system,” FedSmith.com noted.

Let’s consider that federal workers tend to have a pretty sweet deal with their government provided healthcare. Also, federal workers, other than Congress and their staffs, do not actually have to enroll in Obamacare. But, will the plans last? The plans are actually very cost friendly, with the government pitching in around $5,000 per consumer (2010 costs were $40 billion, with approx 8 million enrollees, which includes spouses and dependents). I usually hate to cite Wikipedia, but

Over time, however, the FEHB program has outperformed original Medicare not only in cost control, but also in benefit improvement, enrollee service, fraud prevention, and avoidance of “pork barrel” spending and earmarks.

Then there’s this

One of the most prominent features of the FEHB program is the choices it allows. There are three broad types of plans: fee-for-service and preferred provider organization (PPO), usually offered in combination; HMOs; and high-deductible health plans and other consumer-driven plans.

Ah, but consider that Obamacare does away with many of these plans, ones that do not include all the massive out of control coverages, ones that are basic, and most high deductible ones. The legislation establishing the FEHB is only a few dozen pages long. Federal employees have lots and lots of choices. Costs tend to be controlled, even as federal unions attempt to pull more and more during contract negotiations.

If Obama and the Dems were going to push a national health plan, why couldn’t they model it on one that works? But, no, the idea was to have the federal government control everything about one’s health insurance and care, moving towards single payer.

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