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Press Snippets…. Tinny Words!

From Walter Russel Mead:

Third, this President doesn’t do ‘tough’ very well. I am not saying he can’t be tough and decisive as a person; he can be. He has made decisions — on Afghanistan, on drone attacks in Pakistan and on the raid to get bin Laden — that were gutsy and hard, whether you agree or disagree with the choices he made. But he isn’t convincing as a Chuck Norris impersonator. Often when he tries to sound tough he comes out tinny.

Like This!

I’m Just Asking.

The New York Time wrote this about Joe McGinness writing about Sarah Palin in his soon to be released book I won’t be reading called The Rogue:

It also says that she lacked boyfriends and was a racist. And it includes this: “A friend says, ‘Sarah and her sisters had a fetish for black guys for a while’ “.

Um… Can you be a woman racist and have a fetish / sleep with black guys who aren’t your slaves??? I’m just asking.

Though I have a certain amount of disdain for Mrs Palin, at least her qualifications for President, with the exception of Andrew Sullivan, I can’t think of anyone who would enjoy reading this sort of tabloid styled book.

Editing For Results – Does The Tea Party Audience Want People to Die?

Here is the Headline:

Tea Party Debate Audience Cheers Idea Of Letting Sick Man Without Insurance Die

Translation… The Tea Party Are Monsters!!!!!

When presenting video or film, the editing process and decisions can have a huge impact on the emotion you want to evoke.  Today, we are provided with a perfect example. It’s politics, of course. Here is the set-up, compliments of TPM:

The last two Republican presidential debates have been some of the most macabre on record. Last time around, at the Reagan Library, the crowd gave the biggest applause of the night to the 234 executions that have occurred in Texas while Rick Perry was governor.

In Tampa, Florida at the CNN/Tea Party Express debate Monday night, the tea party-filled audience literally cheered aloud for the uninsured to be allowed to die.

The moment came during an exchange between moderator Wolf Blitzer and Ron Paul, whose libertarian views often make for good theater at Republican debates.

Blitzer asked if under Paul’s libertarian philosophy, a sick man without insurance should be allowed to die in the hospital rather than have the state pay his medical bills. Before Paul could answer that question, shouts of “yes!” and cheering bubbled up from the audience.

Here is the video they provide.

Note how it’s cut off. That’s important, because you only have a couple of “Yeah’s” and maybe five or six hand claps. But what happens after? Here is the full video:

The audience as a whole stirs with discomfort. They don’t show it, but you can hear it. TPM is being a bit disingenuous by suggesting the whole audience is agreeing with the few. It simply is not the case.

This isn’t an easy question, and I think both Blitzer and Paul handle it well. TPM? Not so much. You may not like Ron Paul’s answer, but he’s as steady as ever. They guy just doesn’t rattle easy.

PS. I am not a member of the Tea Party. i just don’t like misleading and dishonest video editing to score political points.

Hat Tip: Althouse.

The Speech…. Bill… Outline….. Thingy.

Let’s get this straight… this is not a “jobs” bill! This is just a way to try and get his beloved $250,000 tax hike passed.

It’s weird, on the one hand, he goes on and on about taxing millionaires and billionaire so they can pay their fair share. It’s fine class warfare rhetoric. If he put together a package that did that, and only that, where the tax rate increase STARTED at one million, I think he could get enough votes from Republicans in competitive districts to get it passed. I’m sure of it! But he just can’t let go of that $250,000 figure….

Why?????   It doesn’t make sense.

By proposing that over and over and over and over again, and failing every time, he just paints himself into ever deepening corner. It’s not hard for Republicans to point out that people who make $250,000 a year are not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination! I thought this guy was supposed to be smart and reasonable… You know… The adult in the room!

Science FAIL!!!! The Dynamic Duo!

First… Prince Charles, who just the other day said this:

Despite campaigning for years on global warming, he said climate change was not the only problem but merely speeding up the “rapacious” destruction of natural resources like water, land and food that humans need to survive.

Got any proof of that???  Besides the old “it’s obvious things are happening worse now than they were before” thing. Example –  Irene is supposed to be proof of global warming, yet it was only a category 1 hurricane when it made landfall. It’s extremely odd to use that as an example… but they do. Oh, the earthquake in Japan was also proof of the effects of global warming, even though no one has ever shown a plausible link to show how global warming causes earthquakes… it just DOES! OK!!!

Not mentioned by Charles in his speech, a recent move by the European Parliament to spend 1.8 million Euro’s on homeopathic research on cows. Prince Charles, the standard barer of all things supposedly science, is a strong advocate of homeopathic medicine. While the European Zone is headed straight into insolvency – Greece is poised to default at any time, the EU decides to throw away 1.8 mil on giving cows magic water. Though Charles strongly promotes homeopathy, and that advocacy does influence the opinion of policy makers in Europe, I’m willing to give him a pass here. Just barely.

Al Gore, on the other hand… Here is what one of his lackeys says will be in the “24 Hours-In-A-Row Inconvienienter Truthier” thing he’s doing on his… Current Channel???? Web site??? Something????…

Wait, I just went to the web site, and I’m unclear how this will all play out. Am I supposed to sit in front of my computer all day for this?

Oh, well, I guess I CAN do that. But to watch JUST ONE THING???…. That Isn’t PORN??????????????

I don’t know! That’s a pretty tall order!!!!

Lost my train of thought there for a moment. I get distracted sometimes when things don’t make sense. Here is what the lackey says of this latest media blitz:

“There will be 200 new slides arguing the connection between more extreme weather and climate change,”

<sarc> New Slides????…. AWESOME!!!!!!!! Consider me converted!!!!!! </sarc>

It would be better if they had 200 peer reviewed papers based on actual observation to bolster their case… But hey, I ask too much.  As has been shown over and over again, this all hand waiving by an alarmist sect of science. Real honest science is not what’s really important to them anyway… It’s this:

“There will be a full-on assault on climate skeptics, exploring where they get their funding from.”

Exxon and other Big Oil associates gave President Obama almost $100,000 that we know of during the 2008 campaign… Wonder if he’ll be on the list of bad people?

Yep. it’s not about science, it’s about the same old ad-hom attacks on scientist and bloggers who don’t tow the alarmist party line. (where is my Exxon paycheck btw?) They are going to spend all this time and money, broadcasting to people who are already the true believers! On that – Keep in mind, though this is being labeled as a “broadcast”, it’s nothing of the kind. It is just series of lectures by people that most of us have never heard of, on a topic that most simply don’t care about. Does anyone really think that anyone but the already “very concerned”, who have heard all this before are going to take the time to watch this??? Look at the web site. This is really nothing more than a fund raiser.

PS: From the Reuters article:

The film was criticized by some climate change skeptics for being one-sided.

No. It was criticized for being an Al Gore aggrandizing puff piece and for being scientifically inaccurate, sometimes grossly so.

PSS:

Concern about climate change in the United States, the world’s second biggest emitter, has fallen steadily to 48 percent in 2011, from 62 percent in 2007, an opinion poll showed in August.

Whoa!!!!! We used to be the first!!!! Shouldn’t the new first place holder get some mention in this article? Or is it somehow not important what China and and it’s population thinks about climate change? Also, there are two reasons we Americans don’t care as much about climate change as we used to. Worries like that are a luxury for the rich and well off. That was easy to worry about when you had job security and all. Well, we don’t have things as easy as we did five years ago, and climate change really isn’t very important when you are worried about keeping a house over your families heads. Plus, ummmm… I hate to bring it up… But… you… don’t…. think… you…. may…. have…. a….. problem…. with… the …. messenger? Do you???????

My Car Is Sick…

In a bad way!  🙁    Needs new catalytic converters.

Here is Murphy in happier times, up in the Sierra Nevada’s near the little town of Mariposa.

9/11. A Moment Of Silence.

……..

There. That’s it.

I don’t feel the need to do some elaborate post to “celebrate” the day that turned our country down a divided path, a day that heightened the ability of partisan hacks to declare someone “unpatriotic” simply because they have differing views or suggested different solutions to a problem. Instead of people working to reunite and heal the wounds from the 90’s, both parties used 9/11 to ratchet up the finger-pointing and make things worse. It’s disgusting.

That’s all I have to say today on this topic..

Aardvarks!

Just because.

The Speech… Pt 3

The Errors.

It’s been pointed out that Obama screwed up his understanding of Lincoln’s role within the Republican Party. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not that big a deal.

This Is! From Reuters:

Georgia jobs program cited by Obama has big flaws

Quote:

“This jobs plan builds on a program in Georgia that several Republican leaders have highlighted where people who collect unemployment insurance participate in temporary work as a way to build their skills while they look for a permanent job,” Obama told Congress.

But Georgia Work$ is being restructured to overcome significant flaws. Even within the state, it is seen as “not a marquee program,” said state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, the Republican elected official who oversees it.

More than 30,000 people benefited from the program in the past, but in its current form, Georgia Work$ is tiny. Only 12 unemployed people signed up in August and 92 have done so since February, according to state Department of Labor statistics.

The voluntary program places unemployed people with firms for eight weeks of job training similar to an internship. Participants receive unemployment insurance plus a small stipend and have the chance of a job at the end of it.

Butler said the program he inherited in January was virtually bankrupt and “fraught with problems,” so he is surprised it has attracted so much national attention.

Doesn’t anyone in the White House believe in fact checking anymore?

PS. I do love the way the President demands that we pass the bill before there even is one.. is that so we can see what’s in it?????

Sound Advice For A Better Life……

IGNORE ME!!!!!!