This has to be the most bizarre electoral cycle I have ever experienced. I recall highs and lows, cliff hangers and close losses. But this one feels simply empty. And I am sure most Americans feel the same way.

We need to shrink government a lot, with as little pain as possible towards those whose lives have become reliant on it. But there is no serious plan or discussion being had. None. The election process to date has been chock full of irrelevant minutiae.

Worse yet, President Obama is going down in history as having the most untruthful administration in history. Whether they believe their nonsense or not, it is completely delusional at this point. Detached from reality. This week’s jaw dropping example was the Energy Secretary claiming nonsense about energy prices:

Energy Secretary Steven Chu tried to convince skeptical Republicans Thursday that he and President Barack Obama want lower gasoline prices. …

“Both I and the president and everybody in the administration want to do what we can to lower the price of gasoline because it has a severe effect on the pocketbook of Americans it affects American businesses,” Chu said at the hearing.

That is complete BS. Everyone can list all the dumb ass decisions about drilling and pipelines that have left our own oil and gas reserves untouched. All we get from these clowns is cries to check our air pressure in our tires and look to algae and wind for salvation (though neither can drive a car.

Everyone now sees this administration as a bunch of fakers and fools (depending on if the lie is deliberate or that of an incompetent zealot). The incompetence now rampant in government is stunning. Some of this perspective may have to do with my current work on a massively failed program trying to get right, but as my generation as attempted to rise and take control of this country’s destiny we seem more lost than sure.

We have hit a point where we have to rely on the individual to take us forward. The world is too big, too complex and to fast moving for central management and policing. The concept of big government is now a proven failure. Individual decisions, choices and epiphanies are what we need to rely on to move forward now. government can do some things, but take care of every little aspect of everyone’s lives is beyond reality. It is a silly fantasy too many still cling to.

But until we see more people realizing this truth, and making plans to seriously dismantle our bloated, decaying and futile big-government mess, we will fail as a society and a generation. We will continue to allow the idiocy of consensus to fool us into believing we are progressing instead of falling. And while that goes on there is little interest in exploring the gory details of this slow moving train reck.

Virginia is participating in the GOP Super Tuesday voting today. And as a long term native of this great commonwealth, I hear rumblings of a mini protest vote in the works. The VA GOP screwed up again and somehow we only have Romney and Paul on the ballot. But that provides some interesting options to voters.

Given Romney’s inevitability to be the GOP Presidential candidate in 2012, I am betting a good number of people will cast a protest vote for Ron Paul (now safely out of the realm of potential winners). While everyone wonders if Santorum can stop Romney today, a significant Paul showing in VA would be the real surprise.

I am not banking on this happening, I am just noting how many voters in the state realize the best way to have their voices heard now is to say something very controversial.

Rush Limbaugh has taken the circular firing squad to new levels: he went into straight implode mode, and took the GOP with him.

Let’s be clear here: Rush Limbaugh was wrong, arrogant and cruel. He deserves the financial reminder that his success is not a license to hurt others. I have no sympathy for the man, and waiting for advertisers to bail before apologizing just demonstrates how much work is required to get him back into “normal” space.

Also to be clear: Ms. Fluke is not a slut or prostitute. She appears to be a fine young women with a healthy social life. What she has been advocating – however – is to be a spoiled, dead beat. She wants people to pay for her life style and that is what is so wrong with her positions. She has the freedom to do as she wishes, and she has the personal responsibility to pay for it herself.

This incident is a classic culture war screw up by the ‘true’ conservatives – a.k.a. social conservatives. We have no business classifying the personal behavior of Ms. Fluke. None!

We do have a right to question her begging others to support her lifestyle. I don’t want to pay for her contraception, her sex change, her pizza, her car, her rent, her dairy products, etc. If in need, I am all for the short term safety net (unless the condition is permanent – e.g., paralysis – then I am all for life time support). But I am not for handouts to the capable. Ms Fluke is not in need of a safety net.

When Rush dove into the personal aspect of her behavior he went beyond the Libertarian, Small Government, Tea Party line. And he deserves the shellacking he is getting. I don’t want left or right preaching to me or my children. I don’t want them searching their lunch boxes or their medicine cabinet.

And this is how too many conservatives play into the liberal left’s hands every cycle. If there is going to be government intervention in our life, then the liberal model is usually preferred than the constrained, Christian doctrine based right social approach. The best answer : No government intervention (support is an option in critical conditions).

Limbaugh did nothing but make Obama more popular in comparison. And he did it in a big way. If Rush ever thought to comment on my daughters’ social life he would have me and my Marine son to deal with. And that is because we males protect their individual rights to explore their version of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. We as a family can work this out.

Chauvinism is not dead, but the religious right can sure make it stink on occasion.

Tags: Dead-Beat, Fluke, Libertarian, Limbaugh, Slut, Tea Party

The recent incident where a top global warming alarmists admitted to identity theft and wire fraud (and soon will most likely be found guilty of creating a fraudulent documents) is the latest in a chain of false information and outright lies promulgated by the debunked Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (C-AGW) community (e.g., the United Nations IPCC, the United Kingdom’s CRU, the United States EPA, etc). Note we now have to add a “C” to AGW since the fact the world warms and cools is now not such a novelty anymore.

The chain of falsehoods began with the infamous Hockey Stick graph produced by the CRU for IPCC. That graph contained numerous lies. Firstly it used poor statistics (one would have to call it statistical chicanery if done with forethought instead of by the ignorance of a zealot) to remove the measured climate variability that has been detected since the Roman Warm period. This ‘trick’ erased the climate changges seen through the Little Ice Age and into the current warm period.

Let me be clear here, Mann’s flat historic temperature record is not true. That was proven by professional statisticians many times over.

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Tags: CO2, CRU, Global Warming, IPCC, Solar Activity

Mitt Romney pulled out a weak win in Michigan last night. So that means we are stuck with him as the GOP candidate against Obama.

I don’t need to emphasize how underwhelmed I am. I was happier with the McCain selection in 2008 – and I was not thrilled then either.

Mitt has no more Mulligans. None.

I repeat: He has no more Mulligans.

One misstep and many independents, tea partiers and others will determine that a neutered Obama facing a GOP controlled Congress (with subpoena power) is far more preferable than a big-government Romney.

Here is the list of Must Not Do’s  Romney has to abide from here on out or he will lose to Obama:

1. Never give an inch to the human-created Global Warming nonsense. Promise to over turn all the regulations calling CO2 a pollutant, close down CO2 exchanges, end all Green subsidies and tell the EU no US company is paying their stupid green taxes.
2. Open up all areas of the US to oil and gas exploration and production. Hold companies to those environmental laws that make sure exploiting our resources do not harm are national treasures, overly impact animals and plants or do harm to humans. We have these rules already so this should not be a challenge.
3. Overturn ObamaCare. If you want to keep some pieces force them to be revoted into existence. Make sure we now the pros and cons of any holdovers.
4. Cut spending now (not in 5-10 years). And no net tax increases anywhere. No new revenues unless it is 100% offset by closing down existing streams. Government may only shrink – not grow.

These are his 4 weakest areas and the ones I doubt the man can hold to. But he must abide by these boundaries to win. They are also non-negotiable. He best stop rationalizing and excusing. This is what he must promise.

If he slides even a fraction on any of them, or hints at any wiggle room or gray area, or  appears to be just giving lip service so he can explore beyond these boundaries when elected, he will not be elected. I promise you that.

It will be far better and easier to block a President Obama on all fronts with a GOP Congress (and real investigations into his administration’s screw ups) than to have Romney come in, give a blanket amnesty to the prior President’s sins and then demand fealty from HIS GOP Congress. Our Imperial President needs to be Imperial only when cutting the size of government and doing The People’s bidding. No playing with government. He needs to oppose out of control government on every front.

Government has to be the solution of last resort. Closing down useless, wasteful and corrupt government can take the time required to minimize or avoid hurting those simply doing their jobs or those who need to break their government support addiction (those who truly need it will always be covered). But a GOP president in this day and age cannot slip up and start imposing his warped version of government intrusion using the powers that now exist.

And there better not be a hint of crony capitalism and lining of pockets. None.

If he remains true to these conditions he will win. He steps one inch out of line he will lose.

Tags: 2012 Election, Obama, Romney

My level of disgust with this year’s GOP primary seems to have no bounds. Today Romney is whining about a Santorum ad asking union  workers in Michigan to vote against Romney (or for Santorum). His elitist-ness is crying low blow:

“It’s a dirty trick,” he said on Fox News’ Fox & Friends. “It’s outrageous to see Rick Santorum team up with the Obama people and go out after union labor in Detroit and try and get them to vote against me.

Good lord, the man has no hope against Obama. It is well known almost half of the union membership are deep down conservative.

But our tone deaf whiner did not stop there. There was is idiotic NASCAR comment:

The full quote from Romney, when asked if he followed NASCAR, starts with an honest admission that he didn’t. “Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners.”

Is that a Dukakis tank moment or what? The head set accents his ears quite nicely. As Marisa Tomei quipped in the movie My Cousin Vinny: “Like you blend?”

Example 3: two Cadillacs for the little wife. Oh the humanity

The guy is an elitist just like Obama,  but does not even come close to making the kind same populist connection with the average voter as Obama can. Obama was/is capable if spinning anything and sounding genuine. Romney fails on the most basic levels.

With any luck voters in Michigan, and possibly even Arizona will save us from this tone deaf, wooden candidate.

BTW, if anyone has not yet realized Ron Paul has made a deal with the GOP establishment to be the permanent also-ran candidate to attract Libertarians but now actually win, they do not understand how everything out of DC is heavily staged.

It is obvious to note that in 2008 the country turned down the wrong path by handing the reigns of government over to a bunch of incompetent liberals. Since that election cycle this nation’s economy has been crippled, the Democrat led US Senate has blocked congressional budgets for years on end going back to the prior president (making them the most notorious gang of outlaw pols in memory), our national debt has expanded beyond our capacity to pay it off, and there are so many greedy hands in the government coffers we could never hope to prosecute all the thieves in my lifetime.

It’s pretty bleak, but we have not hit bottom yet. We had a chance after 2010 to change our direction, but the GOP elites were too afraid for their own jobs to stand on principle.

One recent report shines through as prime example of what the left has done to this great nation in 6 short years (2 under George W Bush):

In the nine months since David Prystash was named Chief Financial Officer of A123 Systems — the battery manufacturer that received $390.1 million in federal and state subsidies — the company has laid off 125 employees and had a net loss of $172 million through the first three quarters of 2011.

A123 Systems also learned earlier this month that the company that was to be the main purchaser of its batteries — Fisker Automotive — had its federal funding cut off for missing milestones and had to lay off its own employees. A123 Systems had invested $23 million into Fisker.

Yet, this month A123’s Compensation Committee approved a $30,000 raise for Prystash just days after Fisker Automotive announced the U.S. Energy Department had cut off what was left of its $528.7 million loan it had previously received.

The workers get the shaft, the taxpayers get the bill and the execs drive off into the sunset in their limousines. All because of promises made and never kept, and no one will to be hold accountable for the mess.

The problem with liberals is they believed so much in the idea of corrupt corporate America they decided it was now their turn. Since they came to power they have been doing nothing but pillaging companies, distorting government programs, abusing workers and the emptying the treasury since Obama, Reid and Pelosi were sworn in. All the left saw was it was their turn at the corruption. A corruption that never existed outside a bad few apples. Now we have an entire government of bad apples.

This week the GOP primary states will be making a decision. Do we go with another establishment elitist like Romney and get more of the same? Or do we re-run 2010 with another insurgent vote to kick out the crooks and cronies in DC and start to get our country back?

Tuesday is the night – in Michigan and Arizona – whenwe find out if America has had enough, or is so worn down and impotent it will continue on its current path to extinction. Sadly, my bet is on one more round of split (in)decision.

The longer we delay in making the massive changes we need, the deeper the hole will be we need to crawl out of. Sadly we are stuck with only two options: the hard path out of the mess or an easy path to oblivion. This week America decides which way it will go.

All in all I think the large number of debates for the GOP primary was a good – if not torturous – exercise in democracy. But now thankfully we have seen the last debate. It was not really extraordinary and each candidate had good and bad moments. I think Romney’s worse moment was on ear marks. Newt nailed him on using them for his projects when it was fine and then trying to claim they were bad for others.

Feel free to weigh in below

When good liars lie, they do so by only telling half the truth, leaving out that part of the truth they need to hide. One definition of a half-truth is this:

A deceptive statement, especially one that is only partly true, is incomplete, (misrepresents reality by telling part of the truth), or alters the time sequence of truths.

Right on the heels of ClimateFakeGate, we learn that the entire next report out of the IPCC is one big fat half-truth lie:

For the 1750-2010 period examined, two variables correlate strongly with the observed warming (and hence with each other). Solar magnetic activity and atmospheric CO2 were both trending upwards over the period, and both stepped up to much higher levels over the second half of the 20th century. These two correlations with temperature change give rise to the two main competing theories of 20th century warming. Was it driven by rapidly increasing human release of CO2, or by the 80 year “grand maximum” of solar activity that began in the early 1920?s? (“Grand minima and maxima of solar activity: new observational constraints,” Usoskin et al. 2007.)

The empirical evidence in favor of the solar explanation is overwhelming. Dozens of peer-reviewed studies have found a very high degree of correlation (.5 to .8) between solar-magnetic activity and global temperature going back many thousands of years (Bond 2001, Neff 2001, Shaviv 2003, Usoskin 2005, and many others listed below). In other words, solar activity “explains,” in the statistical sense, 50 to 80% of past temperature change.

…

As I will fully document, all of the evidence for a strong solar magnetic driver of climate is simply left out of AR5. Of the many careful empirical studies that show a high correlation between solar activity and climate, only three papers are obliquely referenced in a single sentence of the entire First Order Draft.

…

Nothing could be more perverse in such a circumstance than to unplug the modern world in a misbegotten jihad against CO2. The IPCC’s omitted variable fraud must stop. AR5?s misattribution of 20th century warming to CO2 must stop. The evidence overwhelmingly supports the solar-magnetic warming theory.

This is a damning report from an actual AR5 reviewer.

Around 2000 the infamous Hockey Team’s tried to hide the fact that tree rings had diverged from modern temperature records in the late 20th century (and showed cooling instead of the predicted warming). They did this by splicing in different data  and deleting the important part of the tree ring data record. This was an instance of fraud by a small cadre of egotistical klutzes. They made their bed and now have to wallow in it.

But to have the entire scientific record of solar induced warming ‘hidden’ by the IPCC stinks of Orwell’s Big Brother and the tricks employed by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels (one of the most gifted propagandists of all time). These fanatics (no one should ever confuse them with real scientists) are desperate to save their failing CO2 theories. So desperate they have tried to hide the truth.

Bunglers and liars. That’s all these people are. All true scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and professionals should shun these people.

Update: An interesting open letter response in the WSJ nails one of my points below:

The continued efforts of the climate establishment to eliminate “extreme views” can acquire a seriously threatening nature when efforts are directed at silencing scientific opposition. In our op-ed we mentioned the campaign circa 2003 to have Dr. Chris de Freitas removed not only from his position as editor of the journal Climate Research, but from his university job as well. Much of that campaign is documented in Climategate emails, where one of the signatories of the Trenberth et al. letter writes: “I believe that a boycott against publishing, reviewing for, or even citing articles from Climate Research [then edited by Dr. de Freitas] is certainly warranted, but perhaps the minimum action that should be taken.”

The truth cannot be silenced – end update

Background: Some people on the skeptic side of the climate debate do not like harsh and pointed commentary on the forging, faking and mud slinging habits of the alarmists crowd. Personally I cannot understand this, but then again I don’t come from industry (Steve McIntyre) or the news media (Anthony Watts) or Academia (Judith Curry). The level of tolerance to mistakes, etc in these areas is not wrong – it is just very different from mine.

I work in a world were sloppy statistical or inaccurate mathematical work can have horrific results. And where the act of silencing dissenting voices kills:

The Challenger accident has frequently been used as a case study in the study of subjects such as engineering safety, the ethics of whistle-blowing, communications, group decision-making, and the dangers of group-think. It is part of the required readings for engineers seeking a professional license in Canada^[56] and other countries. Roger Boisjoly, the engineer who had warned about the effect of cold weather on the O-rings, left his job at Morton Thiokol and became a speaker on workplace ethics.^[57] He argues that the caucus called by Morton Thiokol managers, which resulted in a recommendation to launch, “constituted the unethical decision-making forum resulting from intense customer intimidation.”^[58] For his honesty and integrity leading up to and directly following the shuttle disaster, Roger Boisjoly was awarded the Prize for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Many colleges and universities have also used the accident in classes on the ethics of engineering.^[59][60]

Information designer Edward Tufte has used the Challenger accident as an example of the problems that can occur from the lack of clarity in the presentation of information. He argues that if Morton Thiokol engineers had more clearly presented the data that they had on the relationship between low temperatures and burn-through in the solid rocket booster joints, they might have succeeded in persuading NASA managers to cancel the launch; to demonstrate, he took all of the Thiokol data given during the briefing and placed it on a single graph of O-ring damage versus external launch temperature, clearly showing the effects of cold on the degree of O-Ring damage, then placed the proposed launch of Challenger on the graph according to its predicted temperature at launch. The launch of Challenger was so far away from the coldest launch with the worst damage ever seen to date that even a casual observer could have determined the danger level was severe.

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Tags: Alarmists, Climategate, CRU, Forgery, Heartland, Theft