Morning Must Reads: Doctrine

We’re not broke, at least when it comes to some things.

But there was one line in particular he offered on “Face the Nation” this morning that stood out for me.

Lugar warned that the U.S. is investing huge sums of money in a foreign endeavor at a time when the domestic economy is still struggling.”It’s a strange time,” he said. “Almost all of our congressional days are spent on budget deficits, outrageous problems. Yet, at the same time, all of this passes, which is a very expensive operation.”

[...]We’ve grown accustomed to simply leaving costs out of the equation when evaluating the merit of national security decisions. For much of the political establishment, it seems somehow gauche — we’re dealing with a combat situation, which necessarily means money is no object.
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But to borrow a cliche, missiles don’t grow on trees. We’ve spent the last two months hearing Republican officials tells us, ad nauseam, that “we’re broke.” In fact, we’re so broke, we have no choice, they tell us, but to decimate funding for education, medical research, infrastructure, job training, and homeland security, among other things, even if it makes the jobs crisis much worse. “So be it,” Speaker Boehner tells us.

And we have heard from the left for months (Let’s ignore the fact a Democratic Congress never passed a budget last year) is the cuts are too small or they are draconian, coincidentally, talking about the same $100 billion.

What they won’t do is address entitlements, instead they want a weapon to bludgeon the right. CBO has reported Obama has lied about the deficits form his budgets projections and even using the CBO wild assumptions taxing won’t solve the problem.

The latest Congressional Budget Office report concludes that the country will average an annual budget deficit close to $750 Billion per year for the next ten years including this year. Therefore the national debt will rise by nearly $7.5 Trillion dollars to a total debt of over $21.5 Trillion (115% of the nation’s projected gross national product) putting the nation into technical insolvency.

With that figure agreed upon, what would be the impact of raising the taxes rates on those filers with modified taxable income above $200,000.00 per year? The most recent comprehensive data on income and tax filing was issued by the IRS in October 2010 and is for the 2008 taxable year. (http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=133521,00.html)

For this exercise, a few hard-to-believe assumption must be made: 1) that Congress would apply all additional revenue to the deficit and debt, 2) that no new programs would be initiated, 3) the spending assumptions for items such as ObamaCare, Medicare and Social Security are 100% accurate and 4) there would be no catastrophic natural or man-made disasters.

In 2008 there were 4,359,000 tax returns filed with modified taxable income (MTI) of $200,000 or above. The total amount of MTI above $200,000 was $1.189 Trillion. Using the simplest calculation possible, let us assume the current income tax rate of 35% was increased by a factor of 20%. The new tax rate of 42% would generate an additional $237 Billion in revenue to the government per year. If fully applied to the deficit per the CBO, then the deficit would be reduced to $513 Billion per year and the debt would increase by $5.1 Trillion over ten years to a total indebtedness of $18.8 Trillion still 100% of projected GDP.

If the current top income tax rate would be increased by 40% to a rate of 49%, then theoretically the additional income to the government would increase by $474 Billion per year and reduce the deficit to $276 Billion per year, and the overall debt would go up by $2.8 Trillion over ten years to a total indebtedness of $16.7 Trillion (88% of projected GDP)
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/03/higher_taxes_cant_solve_the_de.html

The financial sector’s attack on Elizabeth Warren continues.

Zach Carter finds that editorial writer Mary Kissel is leading the Wall Street Journal’s opinion column’s attack campaign against Elizabeth Warren. Here’s their argument: ”The consumer bureau is essentially a bureaucratic rogue. We’d like to see Congress kill the agency entirely. But at the very least Congress should remove it from the Fed, make it part of the Treasury and subject it to annual appropriations.”
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Jesus wept. Listen, the Federal Reserve had an agency called “Division of Division of Consumer and Community Affairs.” We know this because on January 20th, 1998, the Division of Division of Consumer and Community Affairs circulated to the Governors a memo urging them to vote to “adopt a policy to not conduct consumer compliance examinations of, nor to investigate consumer complaints regarding, nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies.”
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They followed this advice of the consumer affairs division of the Fed. Which juiced the subprime market through a regulatory arbitrage; regular banks had a rule that shadow banks did not, and bank holding companies suddenly were given a push to find creative ways to create nonbank subsidiaries off-balance sheet hidden from investors. This is a matter of fact. The Federal Reserve has always been involved with consumer protection; it’s just that they’ve done a terrible job of it, always treating it as subservient to making bankers happy and we need to re-conceptualize the role of it as it being the priority mission.[...]
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This anti-Warren rage never ends, though it always surprises me. [...] The GOP is going crazy accusing Warren of doing things when (a) the CFPB doesn’t exist and/or (b) the CFPB can’t do that specific feature anyway. The CFPB’s actions are subject to a veto vote from the FSOC. If anything, that makes its not independent enough, and certainly not a rogue institution.

“(Neither Reid or McConnell were involved.)”
s/b “Neither Reid NOR McConnell WAS involved.” The subject of the sentence is NEITHER.
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This has been your Elements of Style Update.

Not sure I’d put too much weight in projections based on FY 2010 tax revenue, though I’m sure it is a fun game for the ‘no new taxes’ crowd.

“[CO budget director] Sobanet pointed out that much of the revenue uptick is the result of one-time increases in income-tax collections from capital gains.”
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That darn stock market!

Newt Gingrich funneled money to hate group supporting Iowa judge ouster.

A nonprofit group led by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich channeled $125,000 through a hard-line anti-gay organization to support a 2010 campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices who voted to legalize same-sex marriage in that state, The Associated Press (AP) reported Tuesday. The donation to the American Family Association (AFA), which was designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) earlier this year, was part of a total of $350,000 Gingrich reportedly helped steer to Iowa for Freedom, which led the successful campaign against the justices, the only ones on the court who were up for reelection.[...]
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The story of Gingrich’s below-the-radar assistance to Iowa for Freedom started to dribble out on March 3, when The Los Angeles Times reported that Gingrich helped the organization get its start, offering strategic advice and arranging a $200,000 gift from an anonymous donor. The remaining $150,000, the AP reported, was raised in the form of donations to Renewing American Leadership (ReAL), a nonprofit group Gingrich founded that promotes his books, TV appearances, and films. It was ReAL Action, an arm of ReAL, that reportedly gave $125,000 of that $150,000 to AFA Action, the political wing of AFA. The final $25,000 was given by ReAL Action to Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. Both AFA Action and Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition then supported Iowa for Freedom’s efforts, the AP said.

There seems to be a growing consensus in American analysis of the Libya venture that while the targets are well-defined, ultimate goals or any clear endgame remain disturbingly opaque. Tony Karon writes the conflict could drag out. Speaker Boehner calls for clarity on the mission. Dick Lugar urges caution. Romesh Ratnesar chews over the Obama doctrine, as it were:
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-Democrats splinter over Social Security changes and Republicans break on tax increases, but, neither phenomena being new, it’s worth noting the bipartisan Senate Gang of Six is open to both.
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–64 senators sign a letter to President Obama asking him to take a more hands-on approach to the deficit reduction negotiations
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Why doesn’t Obama just make up their minds for them? Talk about CYA.

Thanks foggy, I haven’t diagrammed a sentence since the 6th grade; now i will be afraid to post.

“‘Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers,’ Mr. Daniels said.”

As budget talks progressed this year, Mr. Norquist warned the senators in a letter that agreeing to a similar deal “would most likely be a violation” of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge. Mr. Coburn and his allies said they would support a tax overhaul only if it raised revenue by accelerating economic growth.
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In recent comments, Mr. Coburn upped the ante, attacking Americans for Tax Reform’s bona fides as a tax-and-budget watchdog. Mr. Coburn assailed the group’s past support for a widely criticized tax credit for producers of ethanol, an alternative motor fuel, dismissing the measure as “corporate welfare.”
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In an interview, the Oklahoma senator said conservatives who promote the GOP’s no-new-taxes orthodoxy have been “disingenuous” by simultaneously pushing specific tax breaks and other measures that have added to deficits. Mr. Norquist said his group opposed revoking the ethanol measure unless it was offset with another tax break, because that would constitute a net tax increase. He said that is the purpose of the group’s pledge, which dates from the mid-1980s.

I don’t think you’re being paid to write on this blog, ATI, so you’re OK

“Consequently, many Tea Party members hold views on various topics that are, frankly, nuts, and these views have been embraced by some Republican voters as well.”

This sort of rhetoric serves no useful purpose and is at best distracting. It also elevates minor differences on policy or strategy among Republicans into deep disagreements over principle. This has made it impossible for Congress to finish work on the 2011 budget, which should have been done last summer. Hard line Tea Party members keep insisting on impossibly large budget cuts despite the fact that the vast bulk of the budget is effectively off limits.
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Not surprisingly, a March 16 Pew poll found that Republicans are losing ground rapidly. Backing for their approach to the budget has fallen even with Republicans and Tea Party members. Support among the former has fallen from 69 percent last November to 52 percent now; among the latter it has fallen from 76 percent to 52 percent. Support among independents is down from 37 percent to 17 percent.
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For these reasons, I think Republicans are blowing it. They are rapidly using up their limited political capital for getting control of the budget on trivial spending cuts, such as defunding National Public Radio, that will have no long-term impact. Furthermore, we know from experience that the public’s support for budget cuts quickly ran out in 1981, leading inevitably to tax increases. And according to a February 16 Harris poll, there is less support for spending cuts today than there was back then.

I’m afraid that all my 12-yr-old daughter knows about English grammar is through texting. I can’t afford to lose her!

That is good to know. I wouldn’t want to be on your bad side; heaven knows my writing leaves me open to attack.:)

For this exercise, a few hard-to-believe assumption must be made: 1) that Congress would apply all additional revenue to the deficit and debt, 2) that no new programs would be initiated,

For this exercise it will be necessary to pretend that nothing else is happening and that we aren’t discussing cuts to the budget and that Medicare isn’t the numbet one driver of the growth of entitlements and that the military isn’t the number one driver of discretionary spending.

Having established that one of the things we can do to reduce the deficit is inadequate to the task, we therefore conclude that nothing will work therefore we will only attack the things we hate anyway.

It’s not a secret why they might want to wield a bludgeon to the right. Because the rigjht doesn’t actually give a rat$ a$$ about the deficit either.

Being an expert has a whole different meaning to the left. Expert is the equivalent to having the politically correct opinion. I wonder if Erza Klein is jealous? Seems he was a health care expert on the basis he was still seeing a pediatrician.

In 1994, Kovats was one of only 21 people in the entire world selected to work on the first IPCC chapter that examined how climate change might affect human health. She was 25 years old. Her first academic paper wouldn’t be published for another three years. It would be six years before she’d even begin her doctoral studies and 16 years before she’d graduate.

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri says this about how IPCC authors are selected:

There is a very careful process of selection…These are people who have been chosen on the basis of their track record, on their record of publications, on the research that they have done…They are people who are at the top of their profession as far as research is concerned in a particular aspect of climate change…you can’t think of a better set of qualified people than what we have in the IPCC. [bold added]

Academically speaking, Kovats was invisible back in 1994. That anyone connected to the IPCC could have considered her a scientific expert is astonishing.

I’m sorry to say that that was just the beginning. When it came time to write the next version of the climate bible, Kovats received a promotion. She was selected to be a lead author, again for the health chapter – despite the fact that her doctoral studies wouldn’t begin until the year the IPCC report was published.

What do we suppose happened with the next edition of the climate bible – the one that appeared in 2007, still three full years before Kovats earned her doctorate? Was she selected once again to be a health chapter lead author? You betcha.

But by then the IPCC, in its wisdom, had decided she was a scientific expert in other areas, as well. Kovats served as a contributing author for three additional chapters in Working Group 2:

• Chapter 1 – Assessment of Observed Changes and Responses in Natural and Managed Systems
• Chapter 6 – Coastal Systems and Low-lying Areas
• Chapter 12 – Europe
She was also an IPCC expert reviewer.

A little history and a few thoughts on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

I think his point was that the NRC, like a lot of other agencies under the Bush administration, had seen its job as protecting the industry instead of protecting the public. You had people who were overly friendly to the people they were regulating. You had the people who were looking for their next job. It was demoralizing for staffers who actually did believe in what they were doing. But the NRC has never really been a strong, independent regulatory agency. That’s because nobody except for the Union of Concerned Scientists and some other groups want it to be. Presidents and Congress have the regulatory agency they want.

[citation needed]

More unequal justice under the law of our post-racial president. “Apparently, the Justice Department is going by George Orwell’s famous Animal Farm ending: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

Here is the catch. DOJ will only investigate bullying cases if the victim is considered protected under the 1964 Civil Rights legislation. In essence, only discrimination against a victim’s race, sex, national origin, disability, or religion will be considered by DOJ. The overweight straight white male who is verbally and/or physically harassed because of his size can consider himself invisible to the Justice Department.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2011/mar/18/doj-white-male-bullying-victims-tough-luck/

Just when did we lose the logic argument? Cutting for the sake of balancing the budget and NOT FACTORING THE CONSEQUENCES usually has devastating results.
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Does that mean some things shouldn’t be cut? Of course not. But who gets hurt when you cut?
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To coin a phrase, the Republicans–er, the TEA PARTY–just doesn’t care about you.

You can’t make this stuff up. From an administration that wants to take cars off the road and spend billions on trains to no where can’t seem to get the ones they already have to work. But we have almost on cue the government subsidized train AMTRAK performing up to its usual standard by not performing at all and It’s CEO had to use an old fashion gas guzzling smoke belching car to get him to a ceremony honoring the renaming of a station in honor of its patron saint of government waste VP Biden.

Today’s the big day for Amtrak’s Wilmington train station. It is being renamed in honor of Vice President and former Delaware Senator Joe Biden following major renovations made possible with stimulus funds.
One problem: the CEO of Amtrak got stuck on the train.
ABC News Deputy Political Director & Political Reporter Michael Falcone tweeted at approximately 10 a.m. that the Acela train he was riding had been “delayed” in Baltimore and that he was sitting next to Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman.
Falcone tweeted, “Acela to NY delayed for ‘unknown period’ Should I feel better that the Amtrak CEO is sitting next to me?”
It quickly became apparent that the CEO’s presence wouldn’t fix the train. A subsequent tweet from Falcone noted, “BAD sign: Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman just got OFF the train to take a car to Wilmington.”
“Amtrak CEO abandoned his own train to make ribbon cutting ceremony for Joe Biden station in Wilmington,” Falcone reported. “When I told Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman it was a bad sign he was ditching the stranded Acela, he chuckled.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/19/amtrak-ceo-ditches-broken-train-to-travel-by-car-to-ribbon-cutting-of-wilmingtons-joe-biden-station/#ixzz1H3pxDvyY

Thanks foggy, I haven’t diagrammed a sentence since the 6th grade; now i will be afraid to post.
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Do they still teach such? I remember doing that… good times (?).
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Based on my middle son’s writing talents, I am pretty sure that spelling has been dropped as a requirement.
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At least there’s no proof it’s being still being emphasized.

Take your pick. After you summarily dismiss them because you disagree with them keep in mind it doesn’t change the facts of the matter.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/03/ipcc_guru_was_a_student_when_w.html
http://globalwarmingskeptics.info/forums/thread-1154-post-8158.html#pid8158
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http://www.climatedepot.com/a/10203/The-Strange-Case-of-UN-IPCCs-Sari-Kovats–She-was-one-of-only-21-people-in-entire-world-selected-to-work-on-the-1st-IPCC-chapter
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http://www.thegwpf.org/the-climate-record/2668-the-strange-case-of-sari-kovats.html

64 senators sign a letter to President Obama asking him to take a more hands-on approach to the deficit reduction negotiations.

Krugman, on the ‘Gang of 64′.

I haven’t written much about the grandly styled Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; but it’s become more and more clear that the committee’s real purpose isn’t to balance the budget, it’s to provide additional plumage for deficit peacocks.

First there was the award to Paul Ryan, whose contribution to reducing the deficit is that he, well, talks a lot about the need to reduce the deficit; never mind that his actual proposals are a mixture of magic asterisks and concrete actions that would actually make the deficit bigger.
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Now there’s the fervent praise for the letter by 64 Senators whose plan to reduce the deficit is to … call on President Obama to come up with a plan. If you believe that this letter means that Republicans will actually support any plan that involves the slightest tax increase, I’ve got several bridges you might want to buy.
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So, I guess I’ll now declare myself a deficit hawk. After all, all it take to become one, as far as I can see, is to say “deficits bad! deficits bad” while continuing to insist that all of my priorities remain exempt from any kind of restraint.

(and what is a deficit peacock, exactly?)

the real purpose of the attack on Ms. Warren was to ensure that neither she nor anyone with similar views ends up actually protecting consumers.

And Republicans were clearly also hoping that if they threw enough mud, some of it would stick. For people like Ms. Warren — people who warned that we were heading for a debt crisis before it happened — threaten, by their very existence, attempts by conservatives to sustain their antiregulation dogma. Such people must therefore be demonized, using whatever tools are at hand.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/opinion/21krugman.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
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The GOP just doesn’t care about you.

In a newly released Pew poll, 68% of REPUBLICANS doubt the cuts that Republicans are proposing will create jobs.

“The Stigmatization of the Unemployed”

But I’ve seen the bias become far more ingrained over time, reinforced and rationalized by the bizarre way that companies now spec jobs. Whereas in the stone ages they’d hire a competent-seeming individual with some relevant experience, they now look for people who have done exactly the same job at a similar company. This overly narrow hiring spec then leads to absurd, widespread complaint that companies can’t find people with the right skills. That’s bunk. As Dean Baker has pointed out repeatedly, it means they need to pay more, or as I’d suggest, they need to broaden their horizon a tad. The idea that people need a lot of costly training is in most cases grossly exaggerated, a convenient “whocoulddanode” for manager who are quick to fire people and then discover when they want to gear back up that there are costs of brining new workers on, no matter how hard they try to minimize them.
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This bias against those out of work is long-standing, although it has gotten worse over time. Talented people over 40 who have lost a corporate perch are pretty much unemployable; I cannot tell you over the last 15 years how many people I’ve seen retire early (and at a modest standard of living) who’d much rather be working. They are the high class version of this problem. And from what I can tell, a significant portion of new business formation is out of necessity: people who cannot find a job setting up their own single instead.
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So this “skills” meme is basically an excuse for bad policy and lazy management. It allows for the rationalization of outcomes that would have been seen as unacceptable in the Reagan era. And it’s hard to pin this development on the Fed. This weakening of the position of workers is the result of both deliberate action and misguided economics frameworks. It’s time to take aim at the ideology, not just some of its key followers.

In another case of liberal tourettes Bill Maher managed to tie in spending on NPR and “real problems” while make it about race. The complexities of a deranged mind.
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I guess if he meant that Republicans like successful, heroic and forthright people, then yes he is correct. Which I guess means that the opposite may be true of the left. Unless you have a group of people completely dependent on you spending other people’s money on them, it would signal a loosening grip on your power. And that terrifies the left!

MAHER: But, it’s time you understood something: every black person scares you unless they look like Urkel, talk like Colin Powell and wear Bill Cosby sweaters, you fill your adult diaper. But here’s the thing, there are real problems: climate change, loose nukes, debt, infrastructure, the wealth gap, our addiction to oil from weird distant places run by monsters that want us dead – like Alaska. But NPR is not a problem.

Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/03/19/maher-every-black-person-scares-republicans-unless-they-look-urkel-ta#ixzz1H6QKlvPZ

The Progressive Agenda To Continue The “Dumbing Down of America” Is Still Evident
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They’re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

Wars, Rumors of Wars and the Obama’s Jet Set Off To Rio!!!
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In a recent conversation, a friend and I agreed that the decline of civilization could be traced to the time that students were no longer required to learn to diagram sentences.

Be Careful “Brother”!! A Warning To Obama
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The Great and Powerful Oz has spoken!!
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The public school funding crisis is part of a bigger plan to suck all sense of community out of the country.
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http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-03-03/news/the-public-school-funding-crisis-is-part-of-a-bigger-plan-to-suck-all-sense-of-community-out-of-the-country/
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The GOP just doesn’t care about you.

I actually enjoyed doing it. It was one of the few times I thought I had learned something. We did it that one year and then never did it again. Now I am lucky to know a verb when I see it.

Five years ago then-Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Republican, analyzed Perry’s 2006 tax “reform” and made a stark prediction: Perry and his Banana Republican supporters had slashed property taxes but reneged on a promise to replace them with new business taxes.

Strayhorn said Perry’s failure to do what he had promised on business taxes would create an overall state budget deficit of $23 billion in five years.

This is five years. The deficit is $27 billion. Strayhorn undershot it because she, like the rest of the world, failed to foresee the Wall Street meltdown. Otherwise it was right between the eyes.
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http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/03/rick_perrys_compassion_and_hon.php
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The GOP just doesn’t care about you

“So much for the water’s edge”

There’s no formal rule or law, but there’s been a long-accepted political norm: when prominent Americans travel to foreign soil, they should show restraint about criticizing America’s elected leaders. This standard about “politics stopping at the water’s edge” was especially pronounced during the Bush/Cheney era — it was considered outrageous if someone undermined confidence in the administration while abroad.
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Those norms obviously don’t exist anymore.

Moments after saying she wouldn’t criticize Barack Obama abroad, Sarah Palin in India on Saturday said that if she were president there would have been “less dithering, more decisiveness” on Libya.
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Pressed in a much tougher question-and-answer session than Palin has recently allowed herself to be subjected to during appearances in the U.S, the former Alaska governor told conference attendees at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi that Obama had not shown enough conviction in executing a strategy in Libya.

It was an odd display, even for the former half-term governor. She kept saying she “won’t criticize,” right before launching into more criticism.

Dessert:

“Is our children learning?”

(video at the link)

“After you summarily dismiss them because you disagree with them”
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Now, that’s irony!

We all know you only like a black man when he agrees with you, the rest are all ‘welfare Blacks’ as you’ve referred to them in the past. Rather than waste my time with your Archie Bunker bullcrap, I’ve outsourced. Read and learn.
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http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2011/03/hes-back-colorblind-herman-cain-plays.html
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I do find it curious that Herman Cain, rather than be enraged at the forces of political and social conservatism that denied him the full fruits of American citizenship, now chooses to lay in bed with them.

“When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.”
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Wonder if they drew from the same pool of respondents?

@free- I wonder what percentage of the Newsweek respondents were Republicans. You seem to be implying that it could have been a rather large proportion.

For some strange reason it seems she wanted India to join her in starting a war with China. Truly a loose screw someplace.
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Trying to show her foreign affair credentials. Pathetic.

Ok “Irony” is the liberal word of the day

In Rusty Rod’s World, everything is the progressives fault. Reality, however, eludes him.
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The real education vs party affiliation stats are more interesting than Rusty’s reflexive bile attacks against anything Beck told him not to like.
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http://dabacon.org/pontiff/?p=539.
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Dems do better with post grads and high school dropouts, R’s are a bit more distributed, doing well with High School grads. Interesting data.

I am partial to BS

“I’ve outsourced”
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Outsourced your racist hate?

“Having established that one of the things we can do to reduce the deficit is inadequate to the task, we therefore conclude that nothing will work therefore we will only attack the things we hate anyway.”
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I am glad to see you finally said out loud the left’s stance on the deficit issues.

“The Public Policy Polling found that only 28 percent of the Republicans surveyed believe Obama was born in the U.S. while 51 percent do not. Another 21 percent say they are not sure.”
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Note: PDF at link: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_US_0215.pdf

“”Consequently, many Tea Party members hold views on various topics that are, frankly, nuts”
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So says the nutty left

After you summarily dismiss them because you disagree with them..
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That’s your gig, freeper…not mine.
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…keep in mind it doesn’t change the facts of the matter.
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Actually, I believe the timeline offered, I just don’t see how it’s relevant. Does it disprove anything, or is mentioning it just another weak attempt to smear someone that you disagree with?

Worth a read.
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Another View on Libya.
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http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/03/another_view_on_libya.php#more?ref=fpblg

“”The Public Policy Polling found that only 28 percent of the Republicans surveyed believe Obama was born in the U.S. while 51 percent do not. Another 21 percent say they are not sure.”
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Isn’t it amusing that the folks who keep bringing up Obama’s birth place are 1) Obama 2) left media and 3) left wing smear groups.

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I guess when you have an empty suit as a leader its best to point everyone in another direction or try to discredit others to raise your stature.

Go right ahead mori-the-moron, defend Louis Farrakhan. I truly want to see all of the positives about this man you can come up with.

“Outsourced your racist hate?”
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That’s bold claim, Freeper. Got an example?
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Are you with Team Rusty Rod 100% now? Do you believe Obama is a Kenyan? A Muslim? The anti-Christ? Do you believe George Soros is attempting to take over the world? Do you believe we are in the end of times or that the 12 Iman and the worldwide caliphate are imminent?
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Last week, I said we need to be more critical of our own. You agreed. Now you’re teaming up with Crazy Ol’ Rusty Rod to call me a racist with nothing to back it up.
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You lie down with a cray dog, Freep, you’re gonna get crazy fleas. That what you want Freep? To be placed in the same category as Rod? With the birthers and the end-is-nigh crowd?

Nancy Pelosi Hospitalized In Rome, Italy
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Her official spokesperson has refused comment. Is it a mental disorder?

“Go right ahead mori-the-moron, defend Louis Farrakhan. I truly want to see all of the positives about this man you can come up with.”
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I do not agree with anything Farrakhan says or does.
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But I could still come up with more positives for him, than I ever could for you.

Palin Visits Israel: They Love Her!!
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“As the world confronts sweeping changes and new realities, I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the key issues facing his country, our ally Israel,” Palin said in a statement.

Rusty Rod, in his own words:
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“despite a theatrical grandstand put on by the Black Caucus Members and Nancy Pelosi attempting to re-enact some former Civil Rights look-alike March. ”
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If black people are part of a protest, they’re just trying to make white folks feel guilty about race again, right Rod?

Obama’s Abu Ghraib? This may get very interesting
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“Senior officials at Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly to the images of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-U.S. protests around the world.
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It is feared that these pictures – which show the aftermath of the murders at the hands of a rogue U.S. Stryker ‘kill team’ – could be even more damaging as the trials of the 12 accused men are currently under way in Seattle.”

.
I guess when you are jet-setting all over the world, it is hard to keep “tabs” on what is really important.

“I believe the timeline offered, I just don’t see how it’s relevant. Does it disprove anything, or is mentioning it just another weak attempt to smear someone that you disagree with?”
.
Or you believing what you want to believe. The fact that someone doesn’t come close to the IPCC own definition of an “expert” no true training and not a terminal degree in the subject passes an expert can only be described as “your mind is made up don;t confuse the issue with facts.”

.
I don;t need to smear the IPCC they continue to do the job themselves.

Yes. Did you read your own post 21.1?

Maybe she can be elected there.

“Ok “Irony” is the liberal word of the day”
.
I’ve always assumed conservatives didn’t quite get the meaning of that word.
.
(I’m kidding, Freep, no need to call me names)

“Yes. Did you read your own post 21.1?”
.
Ok, I’m curious: How is that evidence of my “racist hate”?

So what?

.

Although I am not one for naming stations after living politicians, there is no question that if anyone desreves a station to be named after him, it is Biden, who has led the battle against Republican efforts to zero out funding for Amtrak for years, and without whom we might not have any rail in America at all.

.

Unfortunately, partly due to the chronic funding shortfall to which Amtrak is constantly subjected, they have a dicey shortage of substations for the Northeast corridor, so that power shortfalls occasionally bedevil the line and cause train delays. Although slowly being addressed with a few additonal substations being built in the critical New York-Washington segmnet, there was a flurry of power outages this weekend that did indeed cause the Amtrak CEO to catch a rental car in order to get to Wilmington. But rail continues to have a vastly superior on time record relative to air and reamins an important mode for us to develop.

.

So, once again, there is little point to your cheap shot.

“But the assault about to destroy the public school system is only part of the story. We are in the midst of a radical transformation of our entire society, rapidly making America a Second World nation.”
.

What is destroying the public school system has been the lefts never ending drive to support incompetent teachers at the expense of the children. We are second in spending and 20-25 in range of achievement. The cause of the wealth gap, refer to prior sentence.
.
When we hear for the children it is once again time to protect our watch and wallet. The left tells us how much they care , but it is just one more lie. They care about money and power

…68% of REPUBLICANS doubt the cuts that Republicans are proposing will create jobs.
.
[But wait, there's more...]:

Sure enough, all of these far-right governors immediately got to work advancing a very conservative agenda. And after a few months, what do these guys have in common? Voters are finding they may not like Republican rule after all.

Take Pennsylvania, for example.

A new poll suggests a rift has opened between Gov. Corbett and many Pennsylvanians when it comes to taxing and spending.
.
The survey, by Franklin and Marshall College, found six in 10 residents support a tax on natural-gas drillers. An even larger majority — nearly eight in 10 — opposes deep cuts to public education.
.
Both positions run counter to the Republican governor’s stances…. Asked to rate his overall job performance, 31 percent said good or excellent, 39 percent said fair, and 13 said poor; 18 percent were undecided.

That’s not a straight-up approval rating in the traditional sense, but it appears that Pennsylvania’s new Republican governor — the one who’s desperate to make brutal cuts to education, while increasing spending on prisons — hasn’t exactly impressed his constituents.
.
This seems to be coming up quite a bit lately. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich (R) has seen his support plummet in recent months, and polls in Wisconsin have shown widespread opposition to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) agenda. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) was increasingly unpopular before his latest radical moves, and while I haven’t seen any polling on Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), there’s ample evidence he’s managing to offend just about everyone.

As always it is the spending that causes the deficits. The does think money literally grows on trees. Bu they also think the government can create jobs.

“Moments after saying she wouldn’t criticize Barack Obama abroad, Sarah Palin”
.
I guess she needs to do an apology tour. Oh right that tour has already started headed by the First Tourist

“I’ll now declare myself a deficit hawk. After all, all it take to become one, as far as I can see, is to say “deficits bad! deficits bad” while continuing to insist that all of my priorities remain exempt from any kind of restraint.”
.
What’s new about this? You do it daily while bashing everybody else for doing it.

The left- where hate truly resides

“For decades, conservatives have endured the brickbats of progressive arrogance, with any resistance to their worldview labeled as ‘mean-spirited,’ ‘racist,’ ‘homophobic,’ ‘xenophobic,’ ‘misogynistic,’ ‘imperialistic,’ etc., etc. ad nauseam. … [C]an conservatism survive without progressivism? Without a scintilla of a doubt. Can progressivism survive without conservatism? Not the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell. It a testament to the obtuseness of the progressive mindset that the foundation of their worldview is built on sand. It is a sand on which the idea of ‘spreading the wealth around’ presumes either the endless goodwill of the wealth creators, or their never-ending surrender to progressive guilt-mongering. And when either emotion can no longer be manipulated, you get what you just got in Wisconsin: a hate-filled debacle of death threats, extortion and an unabashed attempt to toss the foundations of our democratic republic into a ditch. Only those without an ounce of shame could characterize an attempt to be responsible with the wealth created by the taxpayers of that state as an ‘assault on democracy.’” –columnist Arnold Ahlert

“I’ve always assumed conservatives didn’t quite get the meaning of that word.”
.
That’s the problem with liberalism they assume only they have the answers no matter how many times they are wrong

As always money is a necessity , and is useless unless spent. Lack of revenue means you go broke. Without revenue we can do nothing but die.

always the victim

“Unfortunately, partly due to the chronic funding shortfall to which Amtrak is constantly subjected, they have a dicey shortage of substations for the Northeast corridor”
.
Funding shortfall? That is rich! The only profitable line is the Northeast Corridor. It is a prime example of the incompetency of the government to adequately run a business without continually tapping the taxpayer for more money. And yet Obama wants to spend billions more under the ruse of “green jobs”.

The fact that someone doesn’t come close to the IPCC own definition of an “expert” no true training and not a terminal degree in the subject passes an expert can only be described as “your mind is made up don;t confuse the issue with facts.”
.
More word salad. You’re pasting random, rant-like thoughts and presenting them like they were commandments. Must be something in your water, freeper…
.
So, tell me: What does this person’s bio have to do with the validity of climate science?
.
Are you coherent enough to answer that question, or will you just continue being the blog equivalent of that crazy guy on the streetcorner who yells out random lunacies inbetween fits of mumbling to himself?

“Lack of revenue means you go broke. Without revenue we can do nothing but die.”
.
No spending more than the revenue you get means you go broke. Revenue in Texas is not zero or even close to it. The left runs on the assumption that spending can go up forever and any cutback is cruel. That there is always some rich person somewhere who must hand over his wealth because the left know how better to spend it

. What is cruel is promising people that you will spend countless dollars on them and make them completely dependent on that funding source regardless of interceding economic conditions. And that is the left and the height of all cruelty!

Since the dawn of progressivism they have used the tactics of name-calling, such as shouting racist during a debate on the issues. They cannot stand on their position because their position is greatly flawed.
.
It is self-evident everyday here in the swamp. When in doubt, label them. Make them back off by calling them every vile name in the book.
.
But as you are now seeing with the Unions, the left has lost major support from the people. Soon I hope, they will be driven back under ground from where they crawled out of recently. This is not new, look at any history from the time of Woodrow Wilson. Then progressives were called out as well, just like now. They quickly changed their names to “Liberals”, wonder what name they will use next?
.
LOL “Movement Democrats”. Watch them embrace God and religion. Embrace the 2nd amendment. Watch them call upon the founding fathers as their “hero’s”.

You mean like A$$WIPE or something Rusty?

Ah so you admit revenue is part of the equation.

If we are just cutting to reach a number, then take it all out of Defense. There-problem solved!

Don’t you have a state police and local police where you live? They are usually the first to investigate any crime. There are parts of the country where such things get swept under the covers and these may need federal investigation. You were a backer of the civil rights killings in Mississippi which got a quick pass by the local authorities?

You, with your attitude are that great unprotected class and are obviously fair game-good luck wit that.

“they assume only they have the answers”
.
More irony! Well played, Freep.

Donald Trump doing what comes natural.
.
“I think I probably have more experience of anybody — whether I sell them real estate for tremendous amounts of money. I mean, I’ve dealt with everybody,” the billionaire real-estate mogul told Fox News Monday morning, touting his supposed foreign policy credentials. “And by the way, I can tell you something else. I dealt with Gaddafi. I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn’t let him use the land.”

“That’s what we should be doing. I don’t want to use the word ‘screwed’, but I screwed him,” Trump continued. “That’s what we should be doing.”

In 2009, Trump came under scrutiny for renting property to Gaddafi so that he could pitch a Bedouin-style tent in an upscale New York suburb. Trump claimed ignorance in the matter, saying that he was unaware that his land had been rented to the dictator. After a day of controversy, Trump reportedly forced Gaddafi off the property.
.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/21/donald-trump-gaddafi-screwed_n_838328.html

“There’s no formal rule or law, but there’s been a long-accepted political norm: when prominent Americans travel to foreign soil, they should show restraint about criticizing America’s elected leaders.”
.
And of course you never heard Jimmy Carter, John Kerry or Barack Obama do it have you? Of course not, you are tome deaf on the left side of your body. And of course you complain about a VP candidate while ignoring an Ex-President, a sitting Senator and soon to be Ex-President.

Your pathetic.

“So, tell me: What does this person’s bio have to do with the validity of climate science?”
.
Seriously? That’s is going to be your defense? I guess from the lefts prospective you need not have any knowledge or experience to be an expert in anything.
.
Maybe we can solve unemployment by having a school janitor write our energy policy because hsi bio means nothing.

Maybe it will be resolved after the RICO lawsuit is complete
we will find out where all the data prior to 1995 is? You know the one destroyed that this “settled science” is based on!

“But more pointedly for climate sceptics, such litigation will bear the names of co-defendants, Al Gore and that ‘team’ of IPCC scientists who participated in blocking the publication of contrary research, cooking the data and whose annual income skyrocketed from the public hysteria.

Hallelujah!
.
I have been telling freep, Paulejb and others that spending is only half of the equation and finally freep has admitted to it. This surely was a difficult delivery of common sense to rw-ers……

Maybe they will keep her!

Here is a little game for you to play, allthings. Why don’t you identify any thread of comments where I have began the discussion with any name calling. Can you?
.
With the one exception of “LIBTARD”, you will not find any.

So starting the conversation with Libtard is OK? It is not name calling? So when in doubt and falling back on your position you do not resort to name calling? No you just start right in with calling Libtard and end up with A$$WIPE.
.
But hey what is LIBTARD and A$$WIPE among friends?
.

…so that he could pitch a Bedouin-style tent in an upscale New York suburb.
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I just KNOW I’m going to h*ll for asking this, allthings, but here goes…
.
How do you “pitch a tent” Bedouin-style?

While on the move?

I found this curious, so I did a little research. Sari Kovats seems to be another name that someone on the right picked to trash. If you Google her name, almost every link is to a right wing blog with the information above.
.
However, if you look at the IPCC reports, the information that freeinpa quoted above doesn’t hold up. The earlier reports have to be completely downloaded, so while we wait for the 1995 report to finish, she was definitely not a lead in Working Group II who are listed below from the forward to the report of Working Group II.
.

We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the following individuals for nurturing another IPCC report through to a successful completion:
• Professor Bolin, the Chairman of the IPCC, for his
able leadership and skillful guidance of the IPCC
• The Co-Chairs of Working Group II, Dr. R.T. Watson
(USA) and Dr. M.C. Zinyowera (Zimbabwe)
• The Vice-Chairs of the Working Group, Dr. M .
Beniston (Switzerland), Dr. O. Canziani (Argentina),
Dr. J. Friaa (Tunisia), Ing. (Mrs.) M. Perdomo
(Venezuela), Dr. M . Petit (France), Dr. S.K. Sharma
(India), Mr. H . Tsukamoto (Japan), and Professor P.
Vellinga (The Netherlands)
• Dr. R.H. Moss, the Head of the Technical Support
Unit of the Working Group, and the talented and dedicated
individuals who served as staff, interns, or volunteers
during various periods of this assessment: Mr.
Shardul Agrawala, Mr. David Jon Dokken, Mr. Steve
Greco, Ms. Dottie Hagag, Ms. Sandy MacCracken,
Ms. Flo Ormond, Ms. Melissa Taylor, Ms. Anne
Tenney, and Ms. Laura Van Wie
• Dr. N . Sundararaman, the Secretary of the IPCC, and
his staff including Mr. S. Tewungwa, Mrs. R.
Bourgeois, Ms. C. Ettori, and Ms. C. Tanikie.

.
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sar/wg_II/ipcc_sar_wg_II_full_report.pdf
.
Chapter 18 Human Population Health
Lead Author
ANTHONY J. McMICHAEL, AUSTRALIA/UK
Principal Lead Authors:
M . Ando, Japan; R . C a r c a v a l l o , A r g e n t i n a ; P. Epstein, USA; Л . H a i n e s , UK; G. Jendritzky, Germany; L. Kalkstein, USA; R . Odongo, Kenya; J. Patz, USA; W. Piver, USA
Contributing Authors:
R . Anderson, UK; S. C u r t o de Casas, A r g e n t i n a ; L Galindez Giron, Venezuela; S. Kovats, UK; W. J M . Martens, The Netherlands; D. Mills, USA; A. R. Moreno, Mexico; W. Reisen, USA; R. Slooff, WHO; D. Waltner-Toews, Canada; A. Woodward, New Zealand
.
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sar/wg_II/ipcc_sar_wg_II_full_report.pdf
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Not exactly the very important role that was indicated in the excerpt.
.
However, the 2007 report referenced above is in .pdf on the webpage and doesn’t have to be downloaded.
.
This is a link to the appendix that has a complete list of contributors to Working Group II, Fourth Assessment Report, 2007.
.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/annexessannex-ii.html.
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I counted until I got to Sari Kovacs name. #25 is Samar Attaher, so we are not even out of the As at 25. Sari Kovats is number 170 in the list, which goes on for many more pages to end with Monika Zurek. I’m sure the same would be true of the previous one, I got tired waiting for the pdf to finish.
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This is a link to the hundreds of reviewers. It would not be at all unusual for her to be a reviewer as well. The idea of the reviewers is to catch errors.
.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/annexessannex-iii.html
.
As far as the additional sin of being a contributing author of Chapter 1, under the two Coordinating Lead Authors there are eight Lead Authors, then she is one of thirty-three Contributing Authors.
.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/ch1.html
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You can click back and look through the other chapters yourself. If you know anything about academic research, you can see this is just a smear to fool those who don’t.

When the right-wingers aren’t playing the victim they’re busy being whiners.

What’s more, the visit was scheduled months ago. It’s not as if the president woke up Friday morning and thought, “Fire up Air Force One; I’m in the mood to see Rio.”
.
I can appreciate why the timing of the trip may seem inconvenient, but the logistics of presidential travel abroad are laborious, and canceling would have proven problematic. Besides, there are always weighty issues on a president’s to-do list, and if the White House had pushed off the Latin American visits until later in the year, there’d very likely be important developments going on then, too.
.
What we’re seeing from the right, then, is criticism for the sake of criticism. The discourse has reached the point at which Republicans and their media figures have to be whining about something at all times. Obama is stopping in Chile, Brazil, and El Salvador as part of a broader economic agenda, so the right feels the need to pretend to be outraged.
.
It’s quite sad.

Here is the sum and substance of the Global Warmers or Climate Changers or Weather Wealth Re-distributors or whatever they have changed their name to this week:

.
“This is basically all we hear from global warming believers about their critics: “don’t read EPW pages, don’t listen to skeptic scientists since they are corrupt, don’t ask Al Gore tough questions, don’t ask us to debate the issue, read Gelbspan’s book but don’t question anything in it, ignore the ClimateGate stuff, there’s nothing to see there, move along”.

“Isn’t it amusing that the folks who keep bringing up Obama’s birth place are 1) Obama 2) left media and 3) left wing smear groups.”
.
Or your friend Rusty Rod. Here’s the the most recent post on his insane little blog:
.

President Barack Hussein Obama, or is he legally our President?
January 26, 2011
I have resisted for a long time to doubt Obama’s birth as a “natural born” citizen of the United States of American. The US Constitution is very specific as to the qualifications for anyone to become “President of the United States”.
.
Also known as “Birthers”, and vilified by the lame stream media types, I do believe we now have the proof needed to challenge Obama’s right to be our President. Our Congress should act on this quickly, and put all efforts into once and for all giving the truth about Obama.

And I’ve never seen you answer this question: Is Barak Obama an American citizen?
.
Or are you, Freep, just another nutcase birther like Rusty Rod?

Interesting since last week Maher was some kind of Pariah for pointing out what he thought about the Muslim religon, now he’s not so useful for pointing out how NPR is not really the biggest problem we have before us.

“Ok, I’m curious: How is that evidence of my “racist hate”?”
.
Maybe because you mentioned Archie Bunker? You’re hatin’ white people

“No spending more than the revenue you get means you go broke. Revenue in Texas is not zero or even close to it. The left runs on the assumption that spending can go up forever and any cutback is cruel. That there is always some rich person somewhere who must hand over his wealth because the left know how better to spend it

. What is cruel is promising people that you will spend countless dollars on them and make them completely dependent on that funding source regardless of interceding economic conditions. And that is the left and the height of all cruelty!”
.
Shorter – the infrastructure and living standard that we have should be free and not paid using taxes. Companies should be able use our infrastructure for free and we shouldn’t have enough public servant to make sure we have a functional society.
.
With luck we can be more like China; working for 10 cents a day, 12 hours a day in Company factory housing.

grapenuts has the audacity to complain about right wingers criticizing Obama……astonishing information when you take into account the left bombarded GWB for eight years on pretty much a non stop basis.
The indecisive Obama draws a free pass, however and nothing he does will evoke grapenuts wrathful reproach.
Yes, indeed, it IS quite sad when one’s viewpoint becomes so blatantly partisan. (and myopic)

I was just wondering if it somehow involved camels…

I found this curious, so I did a little research.
.
Thanks for that. I should have figured that freeper’s sources would not have presented even the basic information honestly.

…when you take into account the left bombarded GWB for eight years on pretty much a non stop basis.
.

As it turns out, Bush easily eclipsed Ronald Reagan’s previous record for presidential sloth. By March 2008, Bush had spent all or part of 879 days at his Crawford, Texas ranch or at Camp David, surpassing Reagan’s mark of 866. By the time he left office, George W. Bush had made 149 trips to and spent 487 days at Camp David, with another 77 getaways to (and 490 days at) Crawford. Toss in 11 visits and 43 days at his folks’ compound in Kennebunkport, Maine and President Bush spent 1020 days – 35% of his presidency – getting away from the White House.

Not that it’s a bad thing to get out of the White House occasionally, mind you – as President, it’s not like you’re ever truly OOtO…but criticizing actions like eating birthday cake while a major American city drowns is more warranted, because it’s vastly different from going on a trade mission.
.
Context matters, even if you choose not to think so.
.
The indecisive Obama draws a free pass, however and nothing he does will evoke grapenuts wrathful reproach.
.
I’ve criticized Obama plenty enough, when it’s deserved. A trip to South America to promote trade is not something any reasonable person should take issue with.
.
Yes, indeed, it IS quite sad when one’s viewpoint becomes so blatantly partisan. (and myopic)
.
Yes, and you’re as non-partisan as they come, earljr1…I don’t know which is the worst thing about you; that you are a hypocrite or that you’re not smart enough to realize that you are a hypocrite?

Typical liberal response…get called for hypocrisy and grapenuts responds with insults.
Sorry to interrupt your love fest with Obama by drawing attention to YOUR hypocrisy and I laugh out loud at your self proclamation of intelligence.
You are what you are, grapenuts…a far left partisan hack with a propensity for self promotion.

I know the guy is a cartoonist, but remembered this from the 2/14 WaPo.
.
“People don’t like being called stupid, but let’s face it. One side or the other is sometimes being stupid. Let’s see if we can decide which.
.
On the climate change side we have:
.
Plausible theory:
-Carbon Dioxide, a long-acknowledged heat-trapping gas, is increasing in the atmosphere due to human activity.
-Scientists measure this, and do their best with imperfect data to model and predict consequences.
-The measuring of CO2 levels throughout history and the effect on climate is tabulated. The effects of current increases are predicted and confirming/refuting evidence is accumulated, analyzed, reported and discussed.
-A range of possible outcomes is forecast. They range from not good to catastrophic.
-A suggestion that, as a precautionary step at least, carbon emissions be reduced is made.
-After DECADES of study, the data solidifies, the range of predicted outcomes becomes more dire, and the speed of observable current changes accelerates.
-Leaders in BOTH parties acknowledge the problem and start discussing legislative responses.
-The responses will include a shift from conventional burning of fossil fuels to alternatives. An interesting, difficult political discussion is underway.

Continued.
.
The opponents’ side:
.
-A realization that some familiar consumption patterns will need to change and that there will be some costs.
-The conversation suddenly goes backward from “what is the best way to deal with this?” to “the whole problem is just made up.”
-The only way to get around the science is to construct a theory that all the scientists in the world have gotten together in a deliberate conspiracy to subvert their field of study, and hoax the world for personal gain. Virtually ALL of them. Pay attention ONLY to the tiny tiny minority.
-The threat of climate change is no longer discussed as a range of possibilities, but is recalibrated down to ZERO, or next to it.
-If the deniers are right, then they may have saved themselves a few dollars and some personal convenience in doing things the way they have become comfortable with.
-If the climate science is correct, vast destruction may ensue, up to and including millions of deaths. But let’s not even CONTEMPLATE that as a possibility, because maybe, just maybe, it’s all a conspiracy. In fact, not maybe. It’s definitely a conspiracy. We’re sure of it.
-So sure we will bet the whole planet on that supposition.
.
Nobody likes being called stupid. What would you call this? –Tom Toles

Here is a little game for you to play, allthings. Why don’t you identify any thread of comments where I have began the discussion with any name calling. Can you?

Does insulting journalists count? Rusty’s done that a lot….
.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/11/13/latest-installment-of-make-em-filibuster/comment-page-1/#comment-110378
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/03/25/deja-vu/comment-page-1/#comment-150456

Typical liberal response…get called for hypocrisy and grapenuts responds with insults.

Grape, note the irony: earl gets called on medical errors / lack of verified MD credentials quite often, esp. by patrick, and earl only responds with insults.

Low voltage problem that they had no idea what caused it. So unusual that there was an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (which is nowhere near the affected area), as well as in the NY and Boston papers.
.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11078/1133298-100.stm
.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid=1324530&srvc=rss

I wonder if KT gave up waiting for rusty’s apology….
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/24/and-speaking-of-reconciliation/comment-page-1/#comment-137146

Quit flirting with me, decondiva, I have already told you there is NO interest on my part.
You are twice my age, a chronic complainer and poorly educated, to boot. You confuse harassing with affection and wonder why all the guys give you a wide berth.
Here’s a clue….a little less lip and a whole lot more silence.

Thanks for proving my point, earl. Now if only you could prove your own point that you claim to be a doctor.

Diagramming sentences was always one of my favorite tasks in elementary school. I am sorry that it seems to be a lost art.
Also, it disturbs me that many schools have stopped teaching cursive writing. I know we use texting and word processing for many of our recording needs. However, when researching historical artifacts, many are in cursive. Will we be asked to print our signatures on documents or just put an X?

Do you understand that bullying isn’t a federal crime? After local authorities have made a judgement, the DOJ may be called in to clarify whether the Civil Rights Act has been broken. Otherwise, they have no jurisdiction. If little freeper beats up on little new rusty the DOJ has no jurisdiction.

http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-20/business/29148235_1_employers-jobs-advocacy-group
.

The job, posted on Indeed.com, seemed promising – an opening in Texas for a quality engineer with experience in dimensional gauging and benchtop test equipment, offering up to $62,000 a year.
.
But the advertisement included a caveat: “Client will not consider/review anyone not currently employed regardless of the reason.”
.
That kind of advertisement does not surprise Ted Fitzer, a laid-off financial controller from Chalfont. It reminds him of one he saw about six months ago for a job “in the financial arena.”
.
“Sometimes the unemployed are unemployed for a reason, and the reason is they are lousy,” said Ken Dubin, president of the Dubin Group, a Bala Cynwyd recruiting agency that specializes in accounting and finance.
.
Dubin estimates that about one in four unemployed fall into that category.
.
“These assumptions don’t fit the new reality,” countered Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group.
.
“There is a reason” the unemployed have been unemployed for so long, she said. “The economy has been crappy, people have lost their jobs, and they haven’t been able to find new ones.”

newrusty:
Aren’t you the person who posted here on Swampland a defense of Bachman and her ignorant statement that the founding fathers worked to end slavery? You pointed to John Quincy Adams. You gave us an interesting look at the history of JQ Adams. However, you failed to note he was a child when the constitution was written and was not a founding father, and omitted the fact that Lincoln, decades later, ended slavery.
.
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=91938556778&topic=14847&post=105749
.
Boehner:

“This is a copy of the Constitution that I always carry . . . or else it might be the original, I’m not sure. Anyways, I’d like to read an exert from it to all of you. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all rich, white men are created equal . . .’
.
Boehner then went on for several minutes before someone who actually passed the sixth grade reminded him that he was reading a badly botched excerpt, not from the Constitution, but the Declaration of Independence.

.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/02/limbaugh-constitution-ignorance/
.

Limbaugh misquotes Constitution while arguing Obama policies are ‘bastardization’ of Constitution
.
He attempted to prove his devotion to the document by quoting from it.
.
Limbaugh then quoted from the Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution.

.
I guess Boehner took civics from Limbaugh.

grape: In the tradition of right wing hyperbole in regard to the Dixey Chicks, I think we should gather all of Sarah Palin’s books and writings, bring together our liberal posses and run a tractor over them and set the remains on fire.
Then I think we should boycott any media that uses her or quotes her opinions.

Maybe she can convert them to Christianity before the End Times when Jews will be destroyed. An event the Christianists look forward to with sacred glee.

I hope for your sake the President didn’t forget his golf clubs.
I’d love some pics of Obama on the links just to see your reaction.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/violence-directed-liberal-and-govern
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With interactive map.
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Since all those isolated incidents involving terroristic violence directed at “liberals” and the “government” keep adding up into a serious trend, we’ve decided it’s time to start keeping systematic track of the problem — especially because mainstream media seem intent on refusing to recognize the trend.

grape: Be thankful earljr1 has taken time from his hectic medical practice? to share his enlightened world view with us. Note the sophistication of his comments and his noble attempts to educate the masses.

For the right wing crazy reactionary file:
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http://www.lvrj.com/news/assembly-bill-would-end-early-voting-118270429.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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Assembly bill would end early voting
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Assemblyman Cresent Hardy said he was asked by a Las Vegas group, which he declined to name, to introduce Assembly Bill 311.
“It is popular with some people. But the concern is it leads to a lot of voting violations.
While the group behind the bill believes voting violations have occurred because of early voting, Hardy said he did not personally know of such violations.
To be honest, I don’t think it (the bill) will go anywhere,” said Hardy . “But I told these people I would introduce it.”

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http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/war-poor-minnesota-republicans-want-b
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Minnesota Republicans say: Poor people with money should be outlaws
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Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.
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There is an obvious target on the poverty stricken in this country. Let’s not forget, just as many poor people are Republicans. This won’t fare well and they’re signing their own Get Out of the House certificate. As the classes divide even more with their assistance, this is further proof that their campaign against government spending was simply to gain power and now, they’ve gone power mad.

HBO 9PM tonight:
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Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
100th Anniversary of fire
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Fire
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The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent immigrant Jewish women, age 16-23. Many of the workers could not escape the burning building because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. People jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

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Previous to the event:
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Meanwhile, the fiercely anti-union owners of the Triangle factory met with owners of the 20 largest factories to form a manufacturing association. Many of the strike leaders worked there, and the Triangle owners wanted to make sure other factory owners were committed to doing whatever it took—from using physical force (by hiring thugs to beat up strikers) to political pressure (which got the police on their side)—to not back down.
Soon after, police officers began arresting strikers, and judges fined them and sentenced some to labor camps. One judge, while sentencing a picketer for “incitement,” explained, “You are striking against God and Nature, whose law is that man shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. You are on strike against God!”
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The Triangle company held out, the workers went back, and the safety concerns they raised went unaddressed. That New York’s garment workers had been fighting for better treatment, and that many of the fire’s deaths might have been prevented had they succeeded, is a central part of the context Triangle: Remembering the Fire provides

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The freemarket solution in action.
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The fire brought about stronger unions and pesky regulations.

Oh my, april, your level of sophistication will hardly set any high water marks.
Beyond touting the manifesto, what have YOU done today helpful to the masses?
I performed a thoracolaparotomy on a twelve year old cancer patient that will likely save her life.
Have you or decondiva done ANYTHING approaching this magnitude? (in your entire, woefully misspent lives?)
As stated previously, a lot less lip and more silence would be beneficial from you both.

And you, april, remain delusional. Poor thing, you are SO certain Che Guevara will rise from the ashes, clutching the red banner and leading the misguided on yet another march to oblivion.
Old socialists never die, do they, april? You remain one toke away from your valhalla of enlightened pot smokers and disenfranchised union thuggery.
Keep dreaming your impossible dream and while you are doing so, conservatives will correct the many wrongs perpetrated by Unicorn riding star gazers with no concept of reality.

Geez, I was an English major in college and I didn’t even catch that one. But then, I first read the story while at work, while 3 teen aged boys (18-20) were vying for my attention and I was also trying to get them to do their chores. I really should stop reading the swamp while I’m supposed to be working.

Let me get this straight. Charlie Sheen can make a “porn” family; Kelsey Grammer can end a 15 year marriage over the phone; Larry King can be on divorce #9; Jesse James and Tiger Woods, while married, can sleep with Everyone but same sex marriage is going to destroy the institution of marriage? Really??
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Re-post this if you are proud to support equal rights for everybody and not just the few.

Timeline, schimline. I had a professor in college who was considered an expert in her field and she never finished her doctorate. She was offered a book deal the year before she was to begin studying for her phD. and decided after the publication of her book not to go any further in her studies. This lady is a world reknown philosopher among academics, has been key note speaker at dozens of philosophy conferences and co-authored three text books. Even though she never got a degree higher than her masters, she was offered teaching positions at Yale, Harvard and the U of PA; but she decided to live and eventually retire in her hometown of Erie, PA and to teach at a small local catholic college. She retired a millionaire the same year the Srs. of St. Joseph closed the college.

@free: I seem to recall hearing something about that “citizen test” on the news this morning as I was getting ready to leave the house. You seem to have a missed an important from what I can tell. While your numbers are accurate, they are the percentages of the people who said they don’t vote or have no party affiliation. The accuracy was much higher for people who vote and scores much better overall than what you portray.

It hurts to know that republicans have been so abused by the Democrats. It is regretable that this has caused so much distress among people who think to the right of Attilla the Hun. I feel for you!
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LOL

@ 34.1 What in your post actually disputes apr’s post? Surely you can do better doc. When in doubt, read the links and become informed, otherwise be silent and maintain your ignorance.

Thank you for your contribution,rwbbinla.
If you read these links you will find most are highly subjective. She usually references left wing publications touting the wonders of free spending and unlimited entitlement….things near and dear to her heart.
I vehemently disagree with this ideology and you associate this with ignorance. (go figure)
History has proven you wrong time and time again.
Out of control spending ALWAYS leads to failure (in government, as well as your personal life)

For all you cowardly pukes attacking teachers.

Now STFU

There was something on PBS a few days ago about this.

earljr: I don’t fill my days congratulating myself on the contributions I may make. That seems to be your obsession. Letting us know how important you are.

Thanks rwbbinla. Earl always refers to my pot smoking, something I did more than 30 years ago on a few ocassions. He loves to mention my elder status. He rarely brings anything but invective to his comments. It is his bedside manner.

allthings, PBS did have a documentary on the Triangle fire. 60 Minutes also had a segment on it. Because of the 100th anniversary and the new interest in unions there has been more attention paid.
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I watched the HBO documentary tonight and it was the most heartbreaking. Their were interviews of the victims descendants. It really made the connection between the events prior to the fire, the fire, and the reforms that followed. As someone stated, it really was the inspiration for the New Deal.
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It will be repeated on HBO I am sure.

troubador222: He really does it sum it up perfectly. I sent this video a couple of days ago to the retired and current teachers in my family and acquaintances.

apr2563, I have figured out the only things the right wing likes to spend money on. It’s demonizing other Americans.

Nope, not me little april2563. Hallucinations or you are finally in the last stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, take you pick.

A more light hearted take on the story can be found here:

http://newzealandclimatechange.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/a-leading-scientist/

A bit of humour about the Kovats story