"Happy Birthday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad"

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According to the Associated Press, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's spokesman P. J. Crowley sent a tweeted birthday greeting to Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday in honor of his 54th birthday. Crowley urged Ahmadinejad to release two American hikers that Iran is holding. "What a gift that would be," Crowley said.

This is yet another example of the dangerous naivety of the Obama administration and Democrats in general. Can you imagine FDR's Secretary of State Cordell Hull wishing Hitler "Happy Birthday" during the 1930's when he was railing with hatred against the Jewish people and building up Germany's armed forces in preparation for taking over Europe?

Ahmadinejad is intent on creating a new Holocaust. Many times he has stated that he intends to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, and rule the Middle East. We should take him at his word, and do everything possible to prevent him from acquiring nuclear weapons and missile technology.

I would hope that this "greeting" is just disinformation from the State Department in preparation for us bombing Iran, but Obama's other actions and inactions suggest it is not.  I believe that Obama has already acquiesced to a nuclear Iran, the takeover of Iraq by Iran, and the destruction of Israel.

If Obama had as his goal the destruction of western civilization, what would he be doing differently?   It is certainly odd that Obama has done nothing at all to contain this threat.

In the 1930's the American people were smart enough not to elect a Hitler sympathizer to the Presidency.
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Unusual US Naval Force Deployments

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According to open source information collected by STRATFOR, we now have a very large amount of naval firepower right off the southern coast of Iran, including two Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) with their associated Carrier Air Wings (CVW) and two Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG) with their associated Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU).  The ARGs are centered around Big Deck Amphibious Warfare ships -- essentially aircraft carriers under another name.

These ships have been stationed near Iran for almost two weeks now.

Here is the map:

click for larger image

In addition to an aircraft carrier, each CSG typically has two guided missile cruisers (with cruise missiles and standard missiles), one guided missile destroyer (for air defense), one destroyer (for anti-submarine warfare), two attack submarines, and at least one ammunition, oiler, and supply ship.  The makeup varies and often includes other ships.

We have not had this many ships in the area since the invasion of Iraq.

Perhaps they are to support "anti-piracy operations" near Somalia, or perhaps they are to help in "Pakistan flood relief efforts", or perhaps they are to provide force projection into Obama's favorite war zone, Afghanistan.

Or perhaps they are going to attack Iranian nuclear and missile sites.  I note that the primary site for Iranian long range missile launches was destroyed by three large and mysterious explosions several weeks ago -- perhaps taking away their ability to hit Israel.

It is interesting that another aircraft carrier from France, the Charles de Gaulle, most likely along with its support ships, was scheduled to meet with our groups on October 15th, but has been delayed "for several weeks" due to a mechanical problem with a "security valve on the aft propulsion circuit".   I am not sure where the de Gaulle is right now, but its delay may be the reason we are just hanging around for the last couple of weeks instead of doing something.

Funny that the French are a little late to the party again, as they were during the Revolutionary War.  It has been clear recently that they are probably the only friends who would help us attack Iran.

Also interesting in the presence of another CSG near Japan (where it can protect against North Korea), and three CSGs/ARGs off the east coast and three off the west coast of the US.  Usually they are scattered all over the world, but right now they seem to be stationed to protect our coasts.   It is a very unusual configuration.

I find it hard to believe that Obama would do anything about anything, but this deployment is very odd.

I think something is up.
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Before You Vote

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If you haven't read these two posts of mine from July, please do so before you vote.  They contain my thoughts on what has gone wrong with our country and how, on November 2nd, we can begin to get back on track.

1.  The Decline of Liberty
2.  A New Hope 

Also please check out this very recent post of mine for a quick look at my decision process for deciding how to vote.

3.  Voting for Freedom

To understand the historical basis, and why I view all of this the way I do, please read this post:

4. Basics of American Philosophy

Our American vision of individualism and freedom has been the beacon of hope to the world.  Do not be fooled by Obama's false hope of servitude and uncontrolled governmental power.  Help to return America to a place where people can breathe free, unencumbered by a vast and controlling bureaucracy.

Vote against those who would expand government into every aspect of our lives.   Vote for those who will restrict government power.

Gateway to the West - David Wright

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Voting for Freedom

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I use some basic rules to determine how to vote:

First of all the federal government has exceeded its Constitutional mandate.  It does way too much already.  If governmental power were reduced to only what is allowed by the Constitution, the budget would be reduced to a level where you could probably run it on donations.

State and local governments are similarly bloated.  Let them run the schools and courts, and fix the roads, and pay the police a decent salary, and you can probably run the whole mess on a half of a percent sales tax, with no property tax at all.

So I vote "YES" on anything that restricts governmental power or reduces the amount of money it gets.  I vote "NO" on anything that gives them more money or power, including tax increases, bond issues, increases in the mil levy, etc.

I always vote all the judges out.   They tend to see themselves as an aristocracy above the people.  They should be changed frequently.  

We got into this situation because of a basic problem with democracies.  Politicians get elected by promising more and more benefits to the people -- first a chicken in every pot, now health care, food, and a house for everyone.  (That last caused the 2008 economic collapse that we are still fighting.)  Add responsibility for keeping everyone safe from anything that could possibly happen to them (i.e. all the unconstitutional government agencies), and you get a government that is totally out of control.  It consumes the wealth of the nation, and continues to amass more and more power every year -- while acting as an enormous drag on the economy.

We do not primarily lose our rights by the government taking them from us, but by allowing the government to assume our responsibilities.  It is thus that government grows to invade every aspect of our lives.

So please do not vote for politicians who promise to do more.  Instead vote for those who say they will do less.  Much less.

Knowing human nature, I suspect that the population will continue to vote for the government to do more and more, until a crisis hits where the government cannot meet its responsibilities, and a general collapse occurs.

But we have a chance now to pull away from this Obamadisaster.  Let's do it!
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Nukes Closeup

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Here are some photos of nuclear weapons being detonated.  Click them for larger versions.

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US Cooperating with Iran in Determining Iraq's Future

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The major US media are not reporting this (from STRATFOR's 4th Quarter World Forecast):

"Washington and Tehran continue to challenge one another over the future of Iraq, and ultimately over the balance of power in the Middle East. This sparring will continue in the fourth quarter, with one rather significant exception: Washington and Tehran are likely to reach a preliminary agreement on the factional balance in Baghdad, with a new power-sharing government for Iraq emerging."

The US was unable to form a government out of all the factions in Iraq.  Now the Iranians are working to do so.

The future of Iraq is Iran.
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Noted Physicist Resigns from the American Physical Society to Protest Global Warming Fraud

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An Open Letter
[emphasis mine - Scott]

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From: Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara
To: Curtis G. Callan, Jr., Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society

6 October 2010

Dear Curt:

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago).

Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

Hal

==========================================================

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)

Super-Rich Buying Gold By the Ton

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From Reuters, dated Monday:

GENEVA (Reuters) - The world's wealthiest people have responded to economic worries by buying gold by the bar -- and sometimes by the ton -- and by moving assets out of the financial system, bankers catering to the very rich said on Monday.

"They don't only buy ETFs or futures; they buy physical gold," said Stadler, who runs the Swiss bank's services for clients with assets of at least $50 million to invest.

UBS is recommending top-tier clients hold 7-10 percent of their assets in precious metals like gold, which is on course for its tenth consecutive yearly gain and traded at around $1,314.50 an ounce on Monday, near the record level reached last week.

"We had a clear example of a couple buying over a ton of gold ... and carrying it to another place," Stadler said. At today's prices, that shipment would be worth about $42 million.

read more
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Michael E. Mann Under Investigation for Fraud

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Some readers thought I was a little over the top a few days ago when I posted the following:

"The word for all of this is fraud. Global warming scientists such as James Hansen of NASA GISS, Michael E. Mann of Pennsylvania State (the inventor of the now-discredited "hockey stick" chart used by Al Gore), and Phil Jones of East Anglia University (UK) should be indicted for fraudulent misuse of government funds and sent to prison."

Well, in the case of Michael E. Mann, the fraud investigation is now underway.  Mann used to ply his con game at the University of Virginia.  On September 29th, 2010, a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) from the Attorney General of Virginia was served on the Rector of the University of Virginia, alleging a violation of the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (FATA).

The CID requires that pretty much every document, note, or correspondence relating to Michael E. Mann's work from January 1st, 1999 through December 31st, 2006, including both paper and electronic archives such as email, be delivered to the Attorney General.

It is alleged that Mann fraudulently applied for and received a grant in 2003, knowing that his previous works, upon which it was based, "contained false information, unsubstantiated claims and/or were otherwise misleading."

"Specifically, but without limitation, some of the conclusions of the papers demonstrate a complete lack of rigor regarding the statistical analysis of the alleged data....To the extent that Dr. Mann did reference or rely on his past work in these papers (or others like them) to aid in the winning of the grant when he knew or should have known of the potential of the papers (or others like them) to mislead the grantor, such actions would subject him to potential FATA liability....Further, if the work on the grant built on any prior work that suffered from the same or a similar flaw, Dr. Mann would also be subject to liability."

Stuff like this is almost incredible:

"Any and all e-mails or pieces of correspondence from or to Dr. Michael Mann since he left the University of Virginia that are in your possession, including but not limited to, those stored on any computer, hard drive, floppy drive, tape drive, optical drive, desktop, laptop, file server, database server, email servers or any other systems, and all backup copies used for archive, continuity or disaster recovery purposes, where data was transmitted or stored on purpose, or captured as a result of transient use of a system or application in the course of day to day research or to produce any work product or result.  Include messages that may have been kept by individuals who interacted on the grant."

I am amazed by the scope of the investigation.  The Attorney General is requiring any and all records whatsoever, and requires documentation of any removal or destruction of any records in the past.  In the appendix, there is a large list of people with whom Mann may have corresponded that includes all the "guiding lights" of world climate science.

They should all go to prison for fraud.
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Israel and Iran and the Mideast

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With the recent Iranian military incursion into Iraq, and the extensive support of Shiite insurgents, and a veiled threat to help form the Iraqi government (since the Americans failed at building any kind of coalition), Iran is looking to forge the first conquest of the New Caliphate. See the latest little blurb below.

I also note an enormous number of Iranian diplomatic initiatives in the last month (not reported in the major US media, but available in the Iranian and Gulf States media, as well as STRATFOR). Now that Iran has their reactor, and no one can bomb it without causing a radiological incident, all the countries in the region are meeting with the Iranians to improve relations. Iran is now the big cheese in the region. "Everyone else is number two." Even Sri Lanka sent a delegation recently.

Iran will take it slow, especially with tons of US combat troops still in Iraq. (Obama lies about that, by the way.) But their intent is clear: Iraq will be a part of Iran sometime in the next 10 years, Israel will be destroyed, and the Caliphate will rule the Mideast.

There is not much anybody can do about it without a war, and our leader is not about to start a war, especially if nukes are involved.

We had a window to attack the facilities in the summer of 2008, but Bush decided not to take it, mostly because he was afraid that starting a war and sinking the economy would put Obama in power.  He should have done it. 

I really believe it is too late to do anything to stop Iran short of nuclear missiles. A conventional attack would be ineffective long term -- and maybe even short term. But I doubt that Israel has the guts to fire off their Jericho II's and III's. Once Iran has their own nukes and missiles, it will be too late even for that.

Unfortunately, now is the time to put together a plan to move yourself, your family, and your business out of Israel, and indeed out of the Mideast. You may have a couple of years yet, but if it were me, I'd go now.

In ten years, even Europe will be at risk.

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STRATFOR
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October 3, 2010

IRAQ: IRANIAN ENVOY WARNS OF 'SECURITY REPERCUSSIONS'

Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Hasan Dana'ifar said there may be "security repercussions" in Iraq if the formation of a new Iraqi government is delayed, Al-Sharqiya reported Oct. 3. Dana'ifar said any country that interferes with the formation would be insulting the Iraqi public, and said Iran does not have a specific candidate it is backing for prime minister.

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Basics of American Philosophy

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I wrote the following on August 19th, 1994.

When I mention "our current administration", I am referring to Clinton.  But Clinton never even dreamed of the sweep of power wielded by Obama.  We are now, in 2010, much further down this completely un-American road. We have further separated into two camps: those who still believe in freedom, and those who believe in government control of just about everything.  I have watched these trends for 30 years or more.  It is an inevitable march to crisis.

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Basics of American Philosophy

As a free American, I have a right to own anything I want, and to do anything I want.  I can own land.   I can own and carry firearms.  I can defend myself at all times.  I can start a business and reap its rewards.  I can build what I want, how I want it.  I can travel wherever I want to go.  I can say what I want and print what I want.

I don't have to get permission from anyone to exercise these rights.  I am not beholden to any master on earth.

My only restriction is that I may not violate the right of others to be free in their lives and property.  In that restriction, I am responsible for my actions.

I don't have a right to be fed, or a right to a house, or a right to medical care, or any other "right" that is dependent on others providing it to me.  To grant these things to me would violate the rights of others.  I do have a right to be free from force and other interference as I purchase whatever I want.

I do have important moral responsibilities to my fellows, but it would be immoral if any person or organization took my property from me by force and gave it to others.   Besides, to be dependent on handouts can destroy any future ability to provide for yourself -- just like animals in a zoo.

Americans have delegated certain things, for the sake of convenience, to an association of citizens that we call a "government."  It provides a structure for common defense, for criminal punishment, for settling disputes, and for coordinating those few efforts that involve us all.  But it is a small thing, with strictly limited power.  If it were to become oppressive, we would simply dissolve it; after all, we brought it into being ourselves.

The people we choose to lead this association can never create a tyranny and threaten us because we retain the right to be well-armed.  We are always careful to stay more powerful than the government.

Our freedom is our most prized possession.  Many Americans have died for it.  In other countries -- even the so-called 'free' countries -- the people are tightly controlled.  They may be democracies, but their people are not free.  They have traded away their freedom for a false security -- false because it is the security of the slave.

Americans are always skeptical when other countries are portrayed as examples for us to emulate.  Americans' love of individual liberty makes us unique among all nations.  We don't want to be like England, or France, or Japan.  We value our freedom more than governmental promises of protection from want, crime, and the pressures of a free market.  We would rather control our own lives, accept our own risks, and pay our own way, than be told what to do.

We don't need or want a governmental parent constantly protecting us, providing for us, and scolding us.

Americans have always known intuitively that if you must ask permission, you are not free.  If much of your wealth is being taken from you, you are not free.  If you are denied the tools to defend your life and your freedom, you are not free.  If you are being watched, measured, and monitored, you are not free. If you let others provide for you, you are not free.

When the founders of our country decided to revolt against British rule, these thoughts were basic to their philosophy. We remained true to their ideals for many decades, but in the middle of this century we tentatively took the first steps down a completely different path.

We began innocently enough by providing more aid to people.  But now every necessity for living is considered a 'right,' the only question being how to tax enough to provide them.

The government is larger and more controlling than anything the founders could have ever conceived.  We pay more in tax and have less liberty than the colonists did under British rule.

We still have a democracy -- so far -- but almost all of the thousands of new laws created every year are made by un-elected bureaucrats in government agencies.  They are authorized to do whatever they think the people will tolerate.  Every aspect of human behavior has become an excuse for a new program, more control, more government.

With our current administration, this process has greatly accelerated. Soon everything in your life will be infiltrated by the government.

Thomas Sowell explained the situation well in the November 19th, 1993 New York Post:

"What the welfare state is saying, whether in this new 'Health Security Act' or in a thousand other programs, is that we are not to be a nation of independent people controlling our own lives, but a nation of clients whose lives are controlled by bureaucrats, dispensing taxpayers' money according to the vision of the anointed.

"This is not a new idea, however much the advocates of the welfare state proclaim 'change.' Most of the history of the human race has been a history of the masses of ordinary people having their lives controlled and their destiny decided by some elite.

"It has taken centuries of struggle, agony, sacrifice and bloodshed to get out from under the thumb of those who acted as if they had been born into this world 'booted and spurred, to ride mankind.' Now we are turning around and heading backward, toward a world where people's fates are not in their own hands but in the hands of some puffed-up political 'leaders.'"

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I am fascinated by Mr. Sowell's reference to welfare state advocates proclaiming "CHANGE" all the way back in 1993.  Nothing is new, is it?

We have an opportunity this November to turn the tide.  Obama's policies are not part of the America I know and love.  He may or may not actually be a foreigner, but his policies are certainly foreign, and indeed are repugnant to true Americans.

If you love freedom, vote against those who support him.  Throw them out now.

Then throw him out in 2012.

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The Problem with James Hansen

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James Hansen, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) was arrested again on Monday 27 September 2010 at an environmental protest. He was arrested once before at another protest in 2009.

Hansen is a radical environmentalist.

• He is credited with starting the global warming movement with his testimony to Congress in June 1988 (in a room with the air conditioning purposefully compromised).
• He predicted in 1988, that the West Side Highway in New York City would be underwater by 2008 due to global warming making the ocean rise.
• He encourages people in the US and in Great Britain to rise up and protest power plants, and “coal trains of death” in order to stop global warming.
• He has said that “deniers” of global warming should be tried for “high crimes against humanity”.

Oddly, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has nothing to do with studies of space anymore.  Hansen has completely overthrown its original mission. It is now devoted solely to studies of global warming. In his role as director, Hansen is responsible for the creation and management of:

• Climate models that predict global warming, and whose results are used in the IPCC reports to world governments.
• The most well-known and frequently cited temperature database (GISTEMP), tracking the overall temperature of our planet.

Please note that the man in charge of modeling the climate to predict global warming is also responsible for the database of temperatures that is used to verify the model -- an enormous conflict of interest.  The “corrections” to the raw temperature data are the foundation of global warming. There is no warming without the corrections (his and others). He is one of a handful of scientists that control the various models and databases of global warming.

And he is a radical environmentalist.

Do you see the problem?

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