Global Warming Update

From the Goron’s home town:

Cool weather has broken a previous low temperature for July 21 in Nashville that was set when Rutherford B. Hayes was president.

When the temperature at the National Weather Service station dipped to 58 degrees at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, it wiped out the previous record low for the date of 60 degrees, which was set in 1877.

NWS forecaster Bobby Boyd noted it was the third consecutive morning when Nashville either tied or broke a daily low temperature record.

Temperatures were cool, but did not break records at several Tennessee cities.

Knoxville dropped to 59 degrees Tuesday morning, Chattanooga had 60 degrees, Tri-Cities recorded 58 degrees and Memphis was 69 degrees.

And, by the way, it seems that it was that big, yellow thingy in the sky which caused temperatures to rise…imagine that? I know, who woulda thunk it? Now it looks that the glowing, hot round whatchamacallit is going in to a period of lower activity, and thus we’ll have lower temperatures. I wish that Super Scientist Al Gore would get on this and figure out what we can do to fix this problem.

The Obama Birth Certificate Issue

Its been bubbling around out there since last summer, and now Hot Air notes that some MSM outfits are picking up on it, if only to knock it down. For those who either (a) live under a rock or (b) manage to filter out every single conspiracy theory out there, the issue goes thusly:

Obama has yet to provide a very verified copy of his birth certificate (the one provided just isn’t good enough); there are some rumors out there of Kenyans who witnessed Obama’s birth in Kenya and/or saw him and his mother there shortly after the birth; If Obama is born in Kenya, he’s disqualified to be President under the Constitutional provision requiring native birth to be President; unless we force this issue to the forefront and get Obama out of office, our entire constitutional structure will be ruined.

Here’s my view on the matter:

1. President Obama is my fellow citizen of the United States, without a doubt born to a natural-born American citizen.

2. If there was any funny business as regards Obama’s birth place, it was his mother’s doing, not his and I’m not about to visit the sins of the mother upon the son.

3. The constitution was wrecked in 1913. Its only been obeyed partially since the 1960′s. If we can survive Roe, we can survive a Kenyan birth. If the only thing wrong with obedience to the constitution was a President born in Kenya, that would be the best thing, ever. We’ve got larger constitutional fish to fry, ya dig?

4. Obama and his Democrats are setting themselves up for an epic failure in the 2010-12 time frame and if we GOPers will ride the near-revolutionary populist wave, we’ll secure a majority strong enough to repair all the damage done in the past century. If we concentrate on Obama’s birth certificate, we’ll be wasting time and resources and might waste our last chance to restore America.

So, I’m not having any of this – I bring it up because I want to be on record about it. Its a non-issue for me except in as much as it distracts from the real issue, so I’ll henceforward never mention the issue save, as necessary, to slam hard on anyone trying to make it an issue.

UPDATE, by Matt Margolis:  Here’s my view on the matter…

I was initially dismissive about the birth certificate issue… nevertheless, there are enough things, be they circumstantial or anecdotal, or whatever, that give me plenty of reason to be justifiably suspicious.

For one thing, Obama has done a lousy job putting the issue to rest. He refuses to provide the original birth certificate, only offering a meaningless computer-generated certificate of live birth.  Obama has reportedly spent a huge chunk of money getting the original birth certificate sealed from the public. It naturally leads to the question “If there is nothing wrong with the certificate, and it states he was born in America, then why not produce it?” Obama risks having this issue becoming increasingly more mainstream. If the proof is not ever produced, this will always hang over his presidency, far more than liberal whiners complaining about Florida 2000 did for Bush’s presidency.

Second, I notice liberal bloggers and pundits, when addressing this issue, have absolutely no good rebuttals to counter the claims of so-called “birthers.” There is no good answer to “Why doesn’t he just produce the birth certificate if he has nothing to hide.” The simplest explanation is that Obama doesn’t want to incriminate himself. It’s Occam’s Razor. There is no simpler explanation. Instead of addressing the facts, they attack those who bring it up and write them off as ”wingnut fringe.”

Perhaps the most damning evidence that suggests Obama has something to hide is the revoking of deployment orders for a soldier who challenged Obama’s authority as commander-in-chief with regards to the birth certificate issue.

Sorry, but you can’t blame people for shouting “Fire!” when you are the one hiding the fire extinguisher.

Obama Admits He's Clueless

The only surprising thing is he admitted it:

With the public’s trust in his handling of health care tanking (50%-44% of Americans disapprove), the White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to pass Obamacare: all Obama, all the time. As part of that effort, Obama hosted a conference call with leftist bloggers urging them to pressure Congress to pass his health plan as soon as possible.

During the call, a blogger from Maine said he kept running into an Investors Business Daily article that claimed Section 102 of the House health legislation would outlaw private insurance. He asked: “Is this true? Will people be able to keep their insurance and will insurers be able to write new policies even though H.R. 3200 is passed?” President Obama replied: “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.”

We have to rush, rush RUSH this through because it will cure all our health care ills and Obama and Co are putting out ads and other pressure assuring us of what it will do…except that Obama doesn’t know what it will do, because he doesn’t know what is in the bill. Of course, this is natural – the point of the program isn’t to do anything for health care, but to do something for the increase of government power over our lives.

You see, the whole thing about Obama and his Democrats is that they are certain that once they’ve got full control, they can sculpt our society in to what they believe is just. It doesn’t matter if people are poor, have substandard health care of what have you – as long as it is all “equal” and “fair” as liberals view it.

Its not worth it, to a liberal, that there be a fantastic health care system for some and a so-so system for others…better to have a lousy system, as long as all can access it (at least in theory). And don’t think that self-interest will thwart them – they, the elite, will not be part of the system. They’ll have special privileges which allow them to live a very nice life, all justified by the concept that as the people who know best, they have a right to special privileges to make the burden of taking care of us endurable. Keep in mind that in the old USSR, the elite had special currency good only at stores and resorts the elite could access – don’t think that Obama and his liberals won’t devise a two-tier system like that for the United States…if they feel it helps them make us more “fair”, they’ll do it.

President Obama let the cat out of the bag a little bit here – he’s not supposed to admit to anything less than omniscience. The proper answer for Obama would be “a careful reading of that provision shows that it isn’t like that at all, blah blah blah”. Count this as a proof that Truth does rule the world – and it will come out, even if its out of the mouths of the dishonest, from time to time.

A Worthwhile Space Program

From Iowahawk:

Today, America still has a space effort, but sadly it just doesn’t inspire like it once did in the heady days of Apollo and Gemini. Unmanned probes and orbiting space labs are fine, I guess, but where is the glamor? Where are the crewcut astronaut he-men with names like ‘Deke’ and ‘Buzz’ and ‘Gus,’ driving around Houston in matching big block Corvettes and Ray-Bans? Nowhere, that’s where. They’ve all been outsourced by space computers and floaty-haired National Junior High Science Teacher of the Year nerds. You tell me — do we really want dorks like these as Earth’s first line of defense against invading intergalactic aliens? No wonder my brother and I have to be half-blotto before we play pretend astronauts anymore.

If America wants to get back on the right track, scientific space mission-wise, we need to once again pick an inspiring, audacious goal, and man it with the kind of inspirational crew to make it happen. At long last, let us realize mankind’s most cherished dream — sending the entire United States Congress to the Moon by 2010.

I’m for it. And it’ll be easy – just tell ‘em there’s $35 trillion dollars up there, hidden by Nixon because he hated liberals and poor people and didn’t want them to get their hands on it.

Obama vs Romney, 45%-45%; Obama vs Palin, 48%-42%

Not looking good for Obama:

If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

The president, seeking a second four-year term, beats another potential GOP rival, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, by six points – 48% to 42%.

In both match-ups, seven percent (7%) like some other candidate, with three percent (3%) undecided.

Vastly early, but not the sort of numbers one wants to see for his Presidency. Right now, Obama is coming off more than a year of the most adulatory, servile and devoted MSM coverage imaginable, while Palin is coming off the most hostile, confrontational and unfair MSM coverage we’ve seen…for Palin to be only 6 points back of Obama, with Obama under 50%, shows how badly the Obama brand has been knocked down.

UPDATE: More from Matt at American Issues Project.

Liberals: You Got What You Wanted

Now, how does it taste?

…The program crafted by Obama and the Democratic Congress wasn’t engineered to maximize its economic impact. It was mostly a political exercise, designed to claim credit for any recovery, shower benefits on favored constituencies and signal support for fashionable causes.

As a result, much of the stimulus’s potential benefit has been squandered. Spending increases and tax cuts are sprinkled in too many places and, all too often, are too delayed to do much good now. Nor do they concentrate on reviving the economy’s most depressed sectors: state and local governments; the housing and auto industries. None of this means the stimulus won’t help or precludes a recovery, but the help will be weaker than necessary….

…There are growing demands for another Obama “stimulus” on the grounds that the first was too small. Wrong. The problem with the first stimulus was more its composition than its size. With budget deficits for 2009 and 2010 estimated by the CBO at $1.8 trillion and $1.4 trillion (respectively, 13 and 9.9 percent of gross domestic product), it’s hard to argue they’re too tiny. Obama and congressional Democrats sacrificed real economic stimulus to promote parochial political interests. Any new “stimulus” should be financed by culling some of the old.

Here, as elsewhere, there’s a gap between Obama’s high-minded rhetoric and his performance. In February, Obama denounced “politics as usual” in constructing the stimulus. But that’s what we got, and Obama likes the result. Interviewed recently by ABC’s Jake Tapper, he was asked whether he would change anything. Obama seemed to invoke a doctrine of presidential infallibility. “There’s nothing that we would have done differently,” he said.

And that, dear Liberals, is from Robert Samuelson – hardly a card-carrying member of the Vast, Right Wing Conspiracy. And here’s the real kicker – we done told you and we done told you. This is not in the least a surprise to us. We’re spending vast sums of money and none of it is really going to stimulate anything. And Obama and Co would not have done anything different because the whole point of the exercise was to reward those special interests who swung behind Obama during the primaries – and to cement their support for 2012. Obama doesn’t care if the economy gets better – he’s convinced he’s some sort of chosen one who will be re-elected come what may…and believes this because, after all, he managed to get elected even with someone like Wright hung ’round his neck. If Obama can carry that over the finish line, then he’ll easily convince himself that 15% unemployment in 2012 is no obstacle.

He is your man liberals – he is what you went to the mat for; he is the man you backed over and above far more experienced Democrats and then carried him to victory over the vastly more experienced McCain. He said he was going to control spending, lower taxes, rebuild America’s reputation abroad – hope and change everything to heck and gone and he never for a moment intended to do any of it. He suckered you and he fully expects you to remain suckered. I expect it, too. Critical thinking skills seem to be optional for liberals. I mean, if the fact that he’s chicken-poop hiding budget numbers until after a vote doesn’t move you to the GOP camp for 2012, nothing will.

The Final Degradation of American Government

The news story:

After some hesitation and a time shift, three major broadcast networks have agreed to carry Barack Obama’s latest primetime news conference.

The event was announced Friday afternoon as Obama battles to bolster congressional support for an ambitious health-care overhaul while facing dropping approval ratings.

But broadcasters are struggling with falling approval ratings of their own; Nielsen’s audience measurements show viewership in a summertime slump.

The conference will mark the president’s fourth primetime press event since he took office six months ago. Such interruptions tend to wreak havoc with network schedules and can cost millions in lost advertising.

CBS, which airs only repeats that evening, agreed early Monday to cover the conference.

But for NBC, Fox and ABC, the decision was tougher. During a summer that’s otherwise strewn with repeats, Wednesday includes all of their top-rated reality programs.

Fox declined outright to air the news conference. NBC and ABC fell into line late Monday after the White House shifted the event’s time from the previously announced 9 p.m. to the lesser-watched hour of 8 p.m.

No comment necessary.

Phrase of the Day

Since we’ve been talking on this general subject a bit lately:

Nevertheless the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music. – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Banks Being Stupid, Again

Well, the financial system failed. And so we bailed it out. But we bailed out the people who were a very large part of the problem to begin with…and so:

Banks have failed to make adequate provision for the losses on loans and securities they face before the end of next year, Moody’s Investors Service said.

U.S. banks may incur about $470 billion of losses and writedowns by the end of 2010, which may cause the banks to be unprofitable in the period, the ratings company said in a report published today…

…Any economic recovery is likely to be “weak and bumpy hook-shaped,” Moody’s said. Banks will also be challenged in an environment where government support is replaced by tighter regulation, the report said. Higher credit and funding costs may force a re-pricing of credit, Moody’s added.

“The fundamentals of financial institutions are still traveling on a downward slope,” Moody’s said. “No-one should consider recent improvements as assurance that the current rebound can be sustained.” (emphasis added)

Which is something I could have told anyone who asked – until banks start acting like stewards of wealth, the banks will continue make foolish decisions. Banks have to realize that they hold our money in trust – its not there for them to merely make profits, but for them to use wisely…if they use it wisely, they’ll make money…maybe not the huge profits short-sighted corporate leeches desire, but profits quite large, none the less.

We should have let them fail last year – we must let them fail when their day of reckoning comes again.

$23,700,000,000,000.00

That is what TARP might cost us:

Some numbers are so large they simply become incomprehensible.

Remember when costs of the bailout were projected to be $0.5 Trillion, then $1 Trillion, then $3 Trillion.

Now, Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program says U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion.

U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Treasury’s $700 billion bank-investment program represents a fraction of all federal support to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve, Barofsky said in a report released today.

“TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale and complexity,” Barofsky said in testimony prepared for a hearing tomorrow before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

And if anyone is wondering why the financial institutions showed a profit this past quarter which is making Obamaniacs go nuts thinking there’s a recovery going on – well, when you dump that much money in to an industry, if you don’t show a profit then you’re pretty darned stupid. Give me a billion dollars next week and I’ll show you that Noonan, Inc. had increased profits on a grand scale. Now, the liberal/socialist theory here is that now that the banks have all this cash they’ll start to lend and otherwise invest it and, presto!, we’ll have an economic recovery. This isn’t just incorrect, its mind-bogglingly stupidly wrong, wrong, WRONG!

The money the banks got came out of some other part of the economy – what the Obama gives with one hands, the Obama takes with the other. We’d be lucky if it were a wash, but given the higher interest we’re going to have to pay on debt and the depreciation of our currency, we’re in for quite a large loss on the deal. Obama can pump up this bubble for a quarter or two, but eventually the bill has to be paid – and if we don’t find several trillion dollars under the White House mattress, it will have to be paid in lost jobs, lower wages, higher taxes, higher interest rate and inflation.

Welcome back, Carterism.