Obama To Finally Meet With Congressional Leaders On Day Sequester Takes Effect

This is leadership in the age of Obama

(Daily Caller) President Barack Obama will wait until the sequester hits to have his first sequester-related face-to-face meeting with congressional leaders on Friday, according to a report by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl:

“A congressional source with direct knowledge of the plans tells me the top four congressional leaders – John Boehner, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell – will meet with President Obama at the White House Friday to attempt to negotiate a way to avoid the spending cuts that both sides have said should be avoided,” Karl reported Wednesday.

Karl reported that the White House arranged the meeting late Tuesday.

Obama has been running around the country demagogueing  the Sequestration, which was his idea in the first place, for weeks. He’s had his people sending doom and gloom emails, making dire predictions on TV of apocalypse (some have lied), and releasing criminal illegal aliens. Yet, the Chief Executive has barely had any contact with Congressional leaders, and won’t hold actual face to face meetings with them till the Sequestration actually takes effect? But he still had time to take a vacation including $1,000 hour golf lessons? Sadly, this is the type of leadership that a bare majority of Americans voted for. Hysterical doom and gloom from the neverending campaign trail while failing to have discussions.

Oh, and if things were so darned apocalyptic, why would Team Obama be considering sending more aid to the Syrian rebels, which could easily run into the tens of millions, if not more?

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Obama To Finally Meet With Congressional Leaders On Day Sequester Takes Effect »

Climate Astrologers Come Up With New Way Of Blaming Mankind For Extreme Weather

All the doom and gloom talk about “extreme weather” has been debunked time and time again, yet the Warmists keep attempting to manufacture a link. Here’s the latest

(Guardian) Global warming may have caused extreme events such as a 2011 drought in the United States and a 2003 heatwave in Europe by slowing vast, wave-like weather flows in the northern hemisphere, scientists said on Tuesday.

There’s that super-scientific word “may” again. It either did or didn’t. This is conjecture and allegory.

The study of meandering air systems that encircle the planet adds to understanding of extremes that have killed thousands of people and driven up food prices in the past decade.

Such planetary airflows, which suck warm air from the tropics when they swing north and draw cold air from the Arctic when they swing south, seem to be have slowed more often in recent summers and left some regions sweltering, they said.

“During several recent extreme weather events these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks,” wrote Vladimir Petoukhov, lead author of the study at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

“So instead of bringing in cool air after having brought warm air in before, the heat just stays,” he said in a statement of the findings in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What this is proposing, per the press release, is that globull warming is taking these waves of weather and slowing or stopping them for longer than usual periods of time. They’ve looked at a whopping 32 years of data (because climate never changed before…hey, 32 years, 1980! Surprise!) and determined that mankind’s use of fossil fuels has caused the waves to do this. I wonder what caused the massive mid-American heat waves during the 1930’s before CO2 was above 350ppm?

Climate change caused by greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning does not mean uniform global warming…

Of course not. In this way, they can still push their junk science even when it is very cold and snowy (which is also blamed on Mankind, just not in the press release).

Read: Climate Astrologers Come Up With New Way Of Blaming Mankind For Extreme Weather »

If All You See…

…is snow that can only be created by lots of heat, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Jawa Report, with a post on tax collectors threatening to shut a business down over $144.

Read: If All You See… »

Studies Show People Aren’t Too Keen On Climate Change Issue

When compared to other issues (I had been planning to use a different article, but Tom Nelson linked to a better one)

(NORC) A newly released international study reveals that the issue of climate change is not a priority for people in the United States and around the world.

The surveys showed that when asked to rank priority worries, people were five times more likely to point to the economy over the environment. Additionally, when asked about climate change, people identified the issue as more of a national problem than a personal concern.

Coordinated surveys, conducted by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in 33 countries from 1993 through 2010, “are the first and only surveys that put long-term attitudes toward environmental issues in general and global climate change in particular in an international perspective,” said Tom W. Smith, Director of the General Social Survey, a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, and author of a paper that summarizes the surveys.

The economy ranked highest in concern in 15 countries, followed by health care in eight, education in six, poverty in two, and terrorism and crime in one country each. Immigration and the environment did not make the top of the list in any country over the 17-year period; in the United States, the economy ranked as the highest concern, while concern for the environment ranked sixth.

In terms of national averages, the order of concern was the economy (25 percent); health care (22.2) education (15.6); poverty (11.6); crime (8.6) environment (4.7), immigration (4.1) and terrorism (2.6), the surveys showed. Terrorism’s low ranking was notable in light of the widespread attention the issue has received since 2001, though it topped the list of concerns in Turkey.

And when you dig into the “environment” category

Air pollution ranked first in 13 countries, followed by climate change, which was the top concern in 10 countries. In another question, the surveys asked people which environmental problem they considered most personally dangerous and found that in only three countries was climate change listed as the most dangerous environmental problem, trailing nuclear power plants and industrial air pollution.

“One reason for the relatively low ranking of climate change is that people often believed it did not directly affect them. Climate change is seen more as a country-level problem than as a personal problem,” Smith said. “While 14.6 percent cited it as the most important environmental issue for their country, only 9 percent rated it first for themselves.”

Color me shocked that people who care about “climate change” for the country aren’t too concerned with their own behaviors. They always want Someone Else to pay the piper.

Read: Studies Show People Aren’t Too Keen On Climate Change Issue »

NY Times Trots Out “Austerity” Regarding Sequester

Nowhere in this article, which could have been written by the White House (but, really, this is just the way Liberals think) is it mentioned that Sequestration is simply a slight reduction in the growth of government

Austerity Kills Government Jobs as Cuts to Budgets Loom

I know, I know, you’re really, really, really broken up about a reduction in government jobs. The reductions are actually in state and local government, not Los Federales.

The federal government, the nation’s largest consumer and investor, is cutting back at a pace exceeded in the last half-century only by the military demobilizations after the Vietnam War and the cold war.

And the turn toward austerity is set to accelerate on Friday if the mandatory federal spending cuts known as sequestration start to take effect as scheduled. Those cuts would join an earlier round of deficit reduction measures passed in 2011 and the wind-down of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that already have reduced the federal government’s contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product by almost 7 percent in the last two years.

What the Times’ also fails to mention is that if that money isn’t in the hands of government it is in the hands of the private sector, which knows a hell of a lot more about responsible spending than government. Of course, that money is not flowing out in this horrendous Obama recovery. And, can you really call it “austerity” when there has been no actual reduction in government spending?

Total government spending continues to increase, but those broader figures include benefit programs like Social Security. Government purchases and investments expand the nation’s economy, just as private sector transactions do, while benefit programs move money from one group of people to another without directly expanding economic activity.

If government spending stimulates, why is the economy stuck in molasses almost 4 years after the Great Recession officially ended? One would think that the $800 billion plus in Stimulus would have done something.

Let’s repeat it for the low information voters: there are no cuts. None. Nothing. No federal agency is going to get less money next year than they did this year. They will simply receive slightly less than they were scheduled to see appropriated.

It’s like this: The Department of Regulating Light Bulb Use received $1 billion this fiscal year. They were scheduled to get $1.1 billion next year. Instead, they will only get $1.098 billion next year, which obviously means that all light bulb enforcement will cease and people will riot in the streets under incandescent bulbs.

Read: NY Times Trots Out “Austerity” Regarding Sequester »

Dem Barbara Lee Tries The “We Need A Department Of Peace” Route

I wonder who should lead this department? How about Bill Clinton? No, that would be the Dept of Piece. Somebody with a Nobel? How about Obama? No, wait, he loves personally picking who the recipients of drone strikes are and launching wars of choice. Anyhow

(Daily Caller) California Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee has introduced legislation to create a federal Department of Peacebuilding that would cultivate peace and take on the causes of violence and conflict.

Lee’s legislation H.R. 808 “Department of Peacebuilding Act of 2013″ also would create a Cabinet-level Secretary of Peacebuilding focused on creating peace and preventing violence.

“This culture of violence that we live in is unacceptable,” Lee said in a statement her office distributed earlier this month. “On our streets and across the globe, the pervasive presence of violence has infected the lives of millions, and it is far past time we address it as a nation. We invest hundreds of billions each year in the Pentagon, in war colleges, military academies, and our national defense universities all to develop war tactics and strategies.”

Well, in part she is correct, there does need to be something done about violence. Unfortunately for Lee (and her 8 cosponsors), Liberal/Democrat ideas on crime tend to increase crime, since they want to disarm citizens and tend to treat criminals with kid gloves. It’s not so much that they are soft on crime (sometimes yes, sometimes no), it’s that their policies tend to lead to more crime and tend to go easy on criminals.

Democrats know that when someone commits a crime, it is society that has failed and should have to pay — in the form of higher taxes and reduced freedom.

No, that can’t be right

“Now we need that kind of investment in peace and nonviolence here at home,” Lee added.

The proposed department carries on an idea initially proposed by former Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who attempted to establish a Department of Peace.

We all know what Democrats mean by “investment, which is more and more money from the taxpayers, which will be needed to run this massive bureaucracy that will accomplish nothing but reducing individual liberty. And it’s not even original.

The department would also create a four-year Peace Academy in the model of the military service academies, and offer grants and incentives for peacebuilding initiatives. The Secretary will also encourage Americans to observe and celebrate “Peace Days.”

Perhaps it should tell liberals to be peaceful, because they do tend to get out of control quite often.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Dem Barbara Lee Tries The “We Need A Department Of Peace” Route »

Sec State Kerry: You Have A Right To Be Stupid

At first, I was ready to criticize Kerry for this, but, he is kinda correct

(Reuters) “As a country, as a society, we live and breathe the idea of religious freedom and religious tolerance, whatever the religion, and political freedom and political tolerance, whatever the point of view,” Kerry told the students in Berlin, the second stop on his inaugural trip as secretary of state.

“People have sometimes wondered about why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade even though it’s the most provocative thing in the world and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another,” he added.

“The reason is, that’s freedom, freedom of speech. In America you have a right to be stupid – if you want to be,” he said, prompting laughter. “And you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be.

“And we tolerate it. We somehow make it through that. Now, I think that’s a virtue. I think that’s something worth fighting for,” he added. “The important thing is to have the tolerance to say, you know, you can have a different point of view.”

It’s put inarticulately, stupidly, if you will, but, he is right, you do have the right to be stupid. We have to wonder just in what context he meant this, such as people daring to be religious and/or speak their minds. Unfortunately, we have quite a few stupid people who voted for Obama.

Read: Sec State Kerry: You Have A Right To Be Stupid »

If All You See…

…is a horrible fossil fueled vehicle creating a flooded world, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Flopping Aces, with a post on the Obama presidency being for sale.

Read: If All You See… »

Fish Wrap: Hotcoldwetdry Arguably Most Important Issue Evah!!!!!!!

Doom?

(NY Times) Climate change is arguably the most important issue humanity has ever faced. The Earth’s average surface temperature continues to climb and weather is increasingly volatile. Our current trajectory looks perilous.

Except, there has been no global warming in 16 years. The average global temperature has risen a whopping, humongous, immense .28 degrees Fahrenheit between 1990 and 2012. Oh, and if it’s so damned important, why they hell is it being discussed on the crosswords pages of the Times? That’s write, this whole article about the mathematics of climate change is on the puzzle page.

Is the situation really that critical? I asked atmospheric chemist Dr. Laura Foster.

The future world will be a warmer place with different weather patterns and disease patterns and coastlines. We will have to adapt to these changes.

The pessimist in me thinks of human beings on Earth like bacteria in a petri dish: we’re going to pollute our petri dish to the point that we can no longer survive in it.

The situation is that critical. Climate change is real. Responding to it will be full of challenges. But there will also be opportunities — an aspect of climate change emphasized by Dr. Emily Shuckburgh, a climate scientist based at the British Antarctic Survey.

Dr. Shuckburgh speaks widely about climate change, and if you happen to be in San Francisco next week, you’ll have the opportunity to attend one of her talks. Dr. Shuckburgh will be giving a public lecture titled “Climate Disruption: What Math and Science Have to Say” as part of a Mathematics of Planet Earth series being sponsored by the Simons Foundation.

Wow, the climate of the planet can actually change? Who woulda thunk it? That never happened before. Oh, and how does Dr. Shuckburgh get to Antartica? I’m sure she take a wind powered sailboat from Antarctica to San Fran, right?

Read: Fish Wrap: Hotcoldwetdry Arguably Most Important Issue Evah!!!!!!! »

Kentucky Senate Passes Gun Nullification Legislation

Kentucky wants no part of the draconian gun ‘n law abiding citizen restrictions flowing from federally elected Democrats

(Kentucky.com) The state Senate on Monday overwhelmingly passed a nullification bill that would prohibit Kentucky from enforcing new federal gun control laws if they’re enacted, despite concerns about the bill’s constitutionality.

The vote was 34-3. Three of the Senate’s 14 Democrats voted no, stating that the measure would be trumped by the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

Sen. Jared Carpenter, a Berea Republican, sponsored the bill. He said the Supremacy Clause applies only if Congress is acting in pursuit of its constitutionally authorized powers, which he said wouldn’t apply to stricter gun measures.

“If I thought the bill would be symbolic, I would’ve written a resolution,” Carpenter told the Associated Press. “I thought it needed more than that.”

It’s not just laws that could be passed, but Obama regulations that will be ignored as “unenforceable”, particularly when it comes to scary looking guns, also known as “assault rifles”. Whether it would hold up in federal law is questionable. At least 20 other states are attempting similar measures. Of course, Democrats are claiming that the Central Planning Office is not coming for your guns, but if that was the case they’d be focusing on legislation that would target actual criminals, instead of turning law abiding citizens into criminals.

Meanwhile, in the federal Senate

(The Hill) Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has scheduled Thursday votes on four separate gun-control measures, including proposals to ban assault weapons, to make gun trafficking a federal crime, to provide schools with enhanced security protections and to expand background checks surrounding gun sales.

These votes will be in committee. Expect all to make it out, but, as for an actual floor vote, Harry Reid is a big guns supporter, so the assault weapons ban may not ever make it. Fortunately for Team Obama, there can be no retroactive application of the gun trafficking legislation.

Read: Kentucky Senate Passes Gun Nullification Legislation »

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