Imagine – that nuclear fire ball at the heart of our solar system, which happens to be 1,333,000 times larger than the Earth (in volume), actually has more effect on our climate than a marginal gas making up less than 3% of our atmosphere. I mean, even the oceans – which cover 75% of the world’s surface – should have more effect on global temperature than little ‘ol CO2 wafting around in the air! News is breaking today on a study that shows cloud formation is driven more by the cosmos (that infinite beyond our small planet has wandered through for billions of years) than that magical marginal gas Al Gore (self proclaimed genius on all matters scientific)  has become fixated on.

CERN’s 8,000 scientists may not be able to find the hypothetical Higgs boson, but they have made an important contribution to climate physics, prompting climate models to be revised.

The first results from the lab’s CLOUD (“Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets”) experiment published in Nature today confirm that cosmic rays spur the formation of clouds through ion-induced nucleation.

This towering physical relationship between Earth, Sun and the cosmos was actually under debate by a bunch of PhDs who clearly were over-thinking things and somehow ($$$$’s) got obsessed with CO2 while ignoring the nuclear furnace that is our Sun – as well as the rest of the known universe. How could anyone be so egocentric to think CO2 was overpowering forces at play that dwarf the human imagination? Clearly, some of these PhDs need to cut back on their addiction to crappy statistics and re-experience reality more. Those computer screens are not reality.

The bottom line for the AGW crowd and their silly little models? Scrap them and start over:

Climate models will have to be revised, confirms CERN in supporting literature (pdf):

“[I]t is clear that the treatment of aerosol formation in climate models will need to be substantially revised, since all models assume that nucleation is caused by these vapours [sulphuric acid and ammonia] and water alone.

We have known for a decade now that the climate models were so much GIGO (garbage in, garbage out), since they could not predict the temperature response to CO2 for the last 20 years (plenty of time to verify the AGW claim). Facing the fact the IPCC, NASA GIS, CRU and a host of other bandwagon revelers were all wrong is tough for many. So tough they go into deep denial and hurl angry outbursts at those who have not drunk the Green Kool-Aid. But reality will prevail over bad theory every time.

Oh well, Darwin was right you know. Not everyone succeeds.

Tags: AGW, Al Gore, Cosmic Rays, Global Warming, Sun

OK, did we just strand our astronauts in orbit due to mindless Obama cuts at NASA? We recently witnessed the last flight of the US Space Shuttle program and now Russia’s Progress vehicle has had an accident and may not be safe for regular flights to/from the International Space Station:

Russia may fail to fulfill its obligations in delivering crews to the International Space Station after Wednesday’s accident with Russia’s Progress M-12M space freighter, a source in Russia’s space industry said.

The space freighter fell in South Siberia’s Altai Republic on Wednesday after failing to separate from the Soyuz-U carrier rocket, the first loss of the Progress freighter in the history of Russia’s space industry. A rocket engine failure is believed to have caused the accident.

“The scheduled launches of the [Soyuz] rockets are likely to be suspended because of the space freighter accident… until the reasons [of the accident] are established,” the source said.

This means that members of the International Space Station’s crew are likely to stay at the station longer than planned and that the new crew will not be able to replace them on schedule, he said.

H/T Reader lurker9876. Only a moron would cancel America’s only transportation system to the space station which we spent billions of dollars over many decades to build. As I noted in my post regarding the last shuttle flight, technically it was illegal to cancel the follow-on to the shuttle (the Orion vehicle under the Constellation program) because it is illegal to leave any critical aspect of any US Space Program to the whims and performance of other nations. We can’t fly a sounding rocket if the entire mission has a foreign element key to the success of the mission.

But apparently the White House and Democrats in Congress weren’t too worried about the human beings now stranded in space 100’s miles into space when they axed Orion.

This is just unconscionable. It borders on the criminally negligent. We have human beings stranded in conditions akin to miners trapped in a cave or sailors trapped in a sunken submarine with no immediate way to rescue them. And this is squarely on the shoulders of the White House and Dems who decided we did not need a way to move our people to/from our space station. If there is a medical emergency up there those poor folks are in possible trouble (since I don’t believe the crew recovery vehicle is yet operational).

Like I said – morons.

Addendum: Yep, looks like they forgot to make sure the lifeboats were ready.

I have to laugh at the dried up, knee-jerk and lame attacks from the tired liberal left’s old guard these days. It seems they have decided to trot out the race card and try for more white guilt. I guess they missed the memo.

In 2008 America elected an African American (or Black if you prefer) President. The colored/minority glass ceiling was busted for all time. I come from Virginia, the home of the capitol of the confederacy, and also proudly the state with the first black elected governor – Douglas Wilder. We have moved on from the race wars of the 50’s and 60’s. In 2008 the idea of people of color being inferior as a group was finally killed. Individual failure was not.

If liberals think they are going into the 2012 election crying ‘black victim’ while this economy is in this bad of shape they need to rethink their strategy. I for one am all for it, because it is time the the old ‘victim-hood’ political complex was dismantled anyway. It is a relic filled with relics pining over times long gone. They are actually the last barrier to finally breaking down the walls between the races. It is such a failed strategy that it should consume any lingering credibility the victim-hood complex has. It will also have a negative effect on Democrats. Their call of course.

Even more insane is the left’s attempt to pit their whining against the real concerns out in the nation about irresponsible spending and incompetent government solutions. Do they really want a black verses middle America fight? Is the country even in the mood for one?

It is not racist to point out the Obama/Pelosi/Reid policies have utterly failed economically. It is not racist to point out that pathetically error ridden global warming models have failed in predicting the impact of CO2 (which is actually a lagging indicator of warming, not a driver). It is not racist to point out Obamacare will cripple this economy and its health care into ruin. There is no desire to have a race conflict right now outside the usual complainers. They don’t number enough to make a difference.

Face it, President Obama just does not have the experience required to be an executive or understand even small business (let alone the larger forms). It is a personal failing, not a racial one. Liberal ideas are dying against the crucible of reality. They are failures and so are their proponents. Sorry, but not everyone gets to be right – no matter how hard one wants it or believes they deserve it.

If someone like Maxine Waters wants to go out looking the fool and claim Obama’s problems are due to the ghost of white racism and slavery long gone – it’s a free country. And it is also a free country where you can dismiss such relics for what they are. We elected Barack Obama with great fanfare and hope – and yet he failed. If Obama was really as good as everyone claims, he would walk above the pettiness of those Neanderthals still caught up in the racist insecurity that plagues bitter failures. In fact, even in failure as President he does walk above those  racist rejects of human society.

Obama was just  not up to the job of President in these hard economic times, and the black community only shows its glass chin when it complains it is unfair to hold Obama to the same standard as every other President.

Tags: Maxine Waters, Obama, Racism, Tea Party

Well, that was an interesting day, to say the least. Like everyone else in and around DC this afternoon I was at my office desk working when I felt a shimmy run through my office. The first pulse was not enough to pull me immediately from my computer, but I looked out across the hall to peak out a window – thinking I just felt a massive wind gust hit. But all I saw was the beautiful blue skies we enjoyed all day.

I had time to get up, walk across the hall and ask someone what ‘that’ was when the bug pulse hit  (5.8 magnitude). That was the first time I experienced and earthquake (native of DC for over 50 years) and it was impressive. We all stepped into the office doorway arches while the building shimmied strongly (we are on the second floor of a two story building). But nothing much happened beyond the shaking.

Once it subsided we all moved to the parking lots and tried to call loved ones. LJStrata was impressed how I got through within about 5 seconds after the quake ended (she was in COSTCO amid towers of merchandise with the twins – not a good place to be if the quake had been a bit stronger). Sadly our discussion was brief as the cell phone system melted down.

The best move I made was after about 5 minutes outside a few of us went back in and gathered our stuff – and I immediately scooted around the beltway before the federal government closed up and sent everyone into a massive traffic jam. I actually had a short commute.

So, nothing major to report except that is an interesting experience I can live without repeating. LJStrata is from CA, so her instincts kicked in really quickly and she was much calmer.

I am impressed with the distance over which the quake was felt. Clearly this old, large tectonic plate Virginia resides on is excellent in transmitting quakes. To think this was felt as far west as Chicago and as far north as Ottawa is truly impressive. It was pretty impressive this close. Of course the news media is hyping this beyond belief. Even saw a quack left-wing ‘scientist’ claim on CBS News we were 3 failures away from a nuclear disaster (which is a crock). The drama queens on TV are really getting pathetic.

Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

Addendum: Just saw this cross my Facebook account:

via Sam Cottle: ” … There was no earthquake in Virginia, it was our founding fathers turning over in their graves…”

OK, that was a good one!

Tags: Earthquake, Magnitude 5.8, Virginia

As I said many times, credibility is a fragile and fleeting resource in politics. Once you lose it, it tends to collapse rapidly, with only a few groupies hanging on as the rest of the voters move on. Obama is now in that kind of complete collapse, which is not surprising after his tone deaf behavior before, during and after the debt ceiling debate. As the left screams at those middle Americans who have decided government is too big, too incompetent and too reckless with our money (a.k.a. the Tea Party movement that still exists, even without the smeared moniker) they have imploded and lost all their political capitol and what sliver of support they may have had after the 2010 elections.

Now Obama is trolling new depths in the Rasmussen poll (which has the President -26% with a strong positive of 19% and a strong negative of 45%) and is also way underwater with the Gallup poll (approve 38% and disapprove 54% for a minus 16%). The difference in the polls is Rasmussen is polling likely voters and Gallup the more benign ‘adult’ population. So both are actually consistent, and this consistency indicates Obama is  now – barring something major – on track to lose big in 2012.

He has no time to earn back the support. Once voters turn their backs they almost never turn back again. And the left only have themselves to blame for this. They are neither as smart as they think they are, nor are Americans as dumb as they wish we were. The over reaching by amateurs produced unsurprising results as we see now, saw in the 2009 elections for governor in NJ and VA, in the MA special election and the 2010 elections. Obama had a slim chance with people to really build a bridge away from his liberal base, but he missed that window.

Now we just count down the time to November 2012 and sift through our options for the next POTUS.

[H/T to Ann Althouse for Picture]

It turns out one of the strangest and clearly useless ‘unions’ I have ever heard of is now defunct – thanks Governor Scott Walker and the GOP legislature. It turns out that in Wisconsin, a program to help financially struggling but promising students become Teaching Assistants was co-opted by a union that used to feed off the meager pay of TAs. Now that this union has to be voted annually into existence AND has to go get its own damn dues it is folding its tent in Wisconsin:

Last week, after hours of debate, the union’s members voted not to seek state certification to continue to act as a collective bargaining agent.

…

Union leaders said that they couldn’t function well if they had to effectively be in a perpetual organizing drive for the annual union votes, and also if they had to pay annual fees to be certified.

…

The union faces challenges as it adjusts to the limits imposed by the state law. Under the old contract, union dues were automatically deducted from the paychecks of the 2,700-2,800 graduate teaching assistants at Madison. Now the Teaching Assistants’ Association must seek dues from members by itself.

Let me be clear here. When a government employee union is ‘negotiating’ legislation to increase benefits it is LOBBYING! And when they receive mandatory dues from the government they are being PAID TO LOBBY by the government.

TAs will be better off now as teachers and their TAs work out arrangements between the two that is beneficial to both. But what Wisconsin is doing is an important example for the entire country. Ever since the union stranglehold on government was broken, schools went from bankrupt to flush with funds, which means they can spend more on teaching. The monopoly on health benefits were broken, reducing costs across the board. And now teachers and their assistants can collaborate without some nosy union rep butting in and taking money from the TA.

This is why the left is furious, because now they have to actually compete for ideas and customers and money. Something they are not good at.

Tags: College, Unions, Wisconsin

Click Image For More Obama Misery Tour Fun

I have never seen a political collapse like the one we are seeing consume President Obama and the Democrats right now. Even the debacle of 2010 is beginning to pale in comparison to what is happening in the headlines. When Reverend Wright said America’s chickens were coming home to roost – he was not kidding! Sadly they are all liberal chickens packing a lot of crap.

The mortgage recession that pummeled the nation in 2008 was clearly caused by crazy liberal economic schemes enacted years before that loosened lending requirements to the point anyone could pretend they could afford a home. The result: now almost everyone in a home is much poorer, so I guess that can be a ‘mission accomplished’ for the left.

But in 2009, the liberals went into overdrive  so much that it worsened the economic wreckage of their mortgage scheme.

First came a stimulus bill which only stimulated mountains of generational debt. Not satisfied with destroying the wealth and savings of mid-life workers and senior citizens from the mortgage mess, the left now has destroyed the FUTURE life earnings of our children and grand children. All the while, the stalled and stressed liberal economy (struggling under mountains of new liberal regulation and government run health care) can’t employ our youngest workers trying to start their careers. Here is the new symbol of the Obama Economy:

We are so poor we can’t even help fend off the economic collapse in the EU – all we can do is watch it happen. We are tapped out across all the generations now. We have moved well beyond home owners.

Check out this weekend’s whopper headlines for all the signals of destruction. First, the left has latched onto fantasy (and unproven) statistics to shutdown a good portion of our power generation capacity:

Over the next 18 months, the Environmental Protection Agency will finalize a flurry of new rules to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants. Mercury, smog, ozone, greenhouse gases, water intake, coal ash—it’s all getting regulated.

Emphasis mine. There has been no global warming in the past 15 years, and all the science now shows CO2 levels are not driving warming, but actually are a natural response to warming. Yet these tools in DC – with high school level math and a greed for tax money that can’t be satiated – are going to make Americans suffer even more for their fantasy ideology:

The regulations, they say, will cost utilities up to $129 billion and force them to retire one-fifth of coal capacity. Given that coal provides 45 percent of the country’s power, that means higher electric bills, more blackouts and fewer jobs.

And look at the crap the DC buffoons peddle on the witless, math-challenged media to rationalize this mess:

… the EPA estimates that an air-transport rule to clamp down on smog-causing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide would help prevent 21,000 cases of bronchitis and 23,000 heart attacks, and save 36,000 lives. That’s, at the high end, $290 billion in health benefits, compared with $2.8 billion per year in costs (according to the EPA) by 2014.

What a crock. I would wager one look at the analysis behind these bogus numbers would uncover a 3rd grade level of thinking. I have seen government reports like this and they are always pure science fiction at a child’s level. This is what happens when bureaucrats are let lose with a spreadsheet and an agenda. There will be no NO health impacts from these extra energy costs. The amount of sulfur and nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere is tiny – and not all man-made.  This is made up BS.

But why stop there? Once government got into the car business with Government Motors, we find the service is worse and there is little recourse when union workmanship fails. Remember, this is now a union run enterprise in partnership with government bureaucrats. The GM flagship electric car is in trouble, just like the rest of the government – no surprise here. Wait until these groups team up to save your life on the operating table.

And what about Obamacare – the fantasy which liberals wrecked themselves trying to get into place?  It seems to be so toxic – quality wise and economically – that thousands of left wing special interests have been given three year wavers from its pain. The rest of us of course get to suffer from the brilliance of the left.

Of all I have read and heard about the crumbling of Obama and left wing economics, this has to be the best summary:

We’re almost three years into this administration, and there’s never been a plan. And that’s what everybody feels. And the president didn’t lead. He waited. The quintessential image, sadly, of an administration that I supported and hoped for much better, is the president waiting by the phone to hear what Congress calls to tell him. It doesn’t work in this country that way. It’s not a matter that it’s August. It’s a matter that it’s August 2011. So we’ve been drifting for a very long time. And we’ve been drifting down. And we had a short-term plan that failed. A short-term stimulus that was supposed to get the economy back on track, but it failed. And now we have nothing behind it. And we have no agreements, and we have no leadership. And, frankly, I do think it’s pretty odd the president’s on vacation right now. Normally I wouldn’t care about such things, but the world markets are in deep crisis. It’s no joke. This isn’t just an up-and-down little blip. This is a very serious situation.”

No, it is not a joke. Liberal nonsense has been playing out in painful reality now for 3 years and the damage it has caused is mind boggling. The only hope we have is the damage can be corrected in 2013. Any left wing case who thinks these changes are permanent is crazy. With the mountain of evidence rising on how bad all these whacky ideas have turned out to be, removing them will be seen as salvation.

Now, if only the GOP can resist trying to replace them – that will be the key. We need to shrink government, not fix it.

Addendum: Forgot one of those chickens. As the nation reals from test score cheating scandals across the nation, the Obama answer to the problem is not to go after the teachers and administrators who falsified children’s results to garner income, but to just throw the kids under the bus all together and stop even pretending they are learning a damn thing!

State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn’t answered the call.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.

Any school that wants to avoid being exposed as unable to educate can now get a note from President Obama, excusing them from doing what we pay them to do. Moronic.

 

The bottom is falling out of President Obama’s public support. Apparently it never occurred to Obama, Reid and Pelosi that their risky liberals schemes actually had to work in order to avoid destroying the Democrat party and burying liberal Keynesian economics for all time. From the left wing mortgage lending disaster (now everyone in a home is poorer), to their failed stimulus bill (lesson learned: no such thing as shovel ready, government trickle down jobs) on to Obamacare (bending our health care cost curve into bankruptcy) the results of liberal policies as been the epic fail.

And now polls show what happens when you promise heaven on Earth and you provide food stamps and lost homes, starting with Gallup and the President’s approval on jobs and the economy:

A new low of 26% of Americans approve of President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy, down 11 percentage points since Gallup last measured it in mid-May and well below his previous low of 35% in November 2010.

Obama earns similarly low approval for his handling of the federal budget deficit (24%) and creating jobs (29%).

Obama is under water himself on all major measurements with independents. Which means he cannot win election in 2012. At Rasmussen the news is the same, with twice as many likely voters strongly disapproving than strongly approving. As I said early this week, Obama’s ridiculous posturing before and after the debt limit debate pretty much sealed his demise. He pushed for more debt and more inept government, then tried to blame the people’s emissaries from the 2010 election for not caving in to his demands.

Now we wait and see what options we have in the future, and see how badly the Dems lose the Senate. The GOP is not the golden child of the electorate by a long shot – they just make a hell of a lot more sense than the liberals.

Barack Obama is out of ideas (that he is willing to consider). Now all he has is endless complaints.

As he notes on his Magical Misery tour this week, there are lots of options in front of us to right the economy. Proven methods for getting money into consumer hands and into the private sector – like tax cuts, deregulation and cuts in government spending. But NONE of these options are on the table in the liberal fantasy world of DC. Obama threatened vetoes and the Senate killed a lot of viable ideas that PASSED the House of Representatives. So his whining in Town Halls across the country is pretty pathetic.

“We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again,” Obama told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa.  “But over the last six months we’ve had a run of bad luck.”  Obama listed three events overseas — the Arab Spring uprisings, the tsunami in Japan, and the European debt crises — which set the economy back.

Pullease. All of these events could have been absorbed by our normal economy with ease. Actually, all of them could have been turned in our favor if the White House and Senate weren’t run by stubbornly blind left wing ideologues. The Arab Spring should have pushed us to explore and tap our OWN energy reserves now walled off by obsessed enviros (we are the cleanest users of energy, so if someone must drill and keep the planet clean it should be us). The Japanese situation should have reduced imports, and Japanese companies have production sites all over the world – even here (think cars). And the European debt crisis would be a boon to us as an economic save haven if Obama, Reid and Pelosi hadn’t gone on a mad and useless spending spree. We can’t help them because we are out of money thanks to Democrats.

So while the Complainer-in-Chief runs around the country pointing fingers and proving he is not a leader and is out of ideas he is willing to face up to, we now read about the poster child for Liberal Economic success stories: a green stimulus boosted company that is now as bankrupt as liberal Keynesian economics:

Evergreen Solar Inc., the Marlboro clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies to build an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy.

…

The company also said it will lay off another 65 jobs in the United States and Europe, mostly through the shutdown of its Midland, Mich., manufacturing facility. That would leave Evergreen with about 68 workers according to a headcount listed in the bankruptcy filing.

That about sums up the failed liberal economic schemes in a nutshell. No surprise after their monumental failure playing with mortgage lending requirements – which we all know wiped out the life savings of tens of millions of people.

I have no clue where this White House thinks its going with all this, but it seems hell bent on testing how low a President can go in public support. Every time the nation’s leading partisan politician complains about stubborn, partisan politicians getting in his way he just emphasizes what is wrong on DC – all by himself. Everyone remembers the veto threats from just a few weeks ago. Our attention spans may be brief, and our memories imperfect, but they are not that bad.

He also reminds us he failed in his one unifying promise that created his winning coalition in 2008 – to bridge the partisan divide. Everything the guy has touched has failed, which is why his party was shellacked in 2010. His frustrations with stubborn opposition is actually with the voters who sent a counter balance to DC – which is how it works in democracies.

Obama is really complaining to the voters that he should get his way and not be bothered by their preferences. I can’t think of a dumber move for someone asking for votes in about a year. But we now see a clear trend of disastrous decisions by this White House – so I guess we should not be surprised with the Complainer-in-Chief is on his Magical Misery tour berating We The People for getting in his way to avoid producing even more disasters.

As it always should be, credibility is earned through results and not by claims of superior motives (something the rabid liberal left will never grasp). So it is no surprise to see this crushing poll from Rasmussen regarding the credibility of liberal verses conservative economic approaches:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 62% believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending when it comes to creating jobs. Twenty percent (20%) say increased government spending does more to create jobs, while nearly the same number (18%) are undecided.

Ignoring the 18% who don’t want to express – or don’t have-  an opinion, the credibility of liberal policies is in shatters at only 20% support. Three times as many people prefer government get out of the economy and leave it to Main Street. That is a damning, but not unexpected, change in the political landscape.

It means if Obama and the Dems continue down their big-government path, and keep shunning American ingenuity and drive to bring us back economically, they will be crushed in 2012. I hate to say this, but here is to hoping the left remain as stubbornly clueless and in denial as they are right now. If they don’t swing to the middle this fall they will implode for decades to come (if not permanently). It is probably better all around they finish their drive off their ideological cliff and end the pretense they still have an iota of viability and credibility.