Lisa Murkowski is repeating the same dumb move that has caused the national uproar against DC in the first place – she is not listening to the voters.

With the slogan “Let’s Make History,” Lisa Murkowski announced Friday that she’d pursue a write-in bid to keep her seat in the U.S. Senate after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller.

Lisa Murkowski lost her nod to be the GOP senate candidate this cycle. A smart move would have been to back Joe Miller and make nice with Governor Palin, and prepare to take out Mark Begich, the other Alaskan Senator who is a Democrat. But no, Murkowski makes an arrogant move and instead possibly splitting the GOP vote and putting another senate seat at risk. With this one move, she has proven the Tea Party was right to take her out – she is too wedded to the power to be a GOP senator.

Tags: Murkowski, Write In

We all know politicians spin and poll-test their phrases so as to best hide the truth of their plans by suckering the American electorate into seeing what they want, versus what the true intent is. We saw this in spades with Obamacare. It will not expand service for less money. It is a government power grab which will turn our health care plans into a different version of the DMV or Post Office. But Obama used all sorts of misleading phrases to sell it.

Then came the war on terror and our two war fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In true Orwellian form, team Obama decided to recast our efforts to stamp out radical Islamo Fascism as ‘overseas contingency operations’ against ‘man-caused disasters’. It’s like listening to some 3rd grader trying to hide the truth of his mistakes with lame cover stories.

Recently, when Obama realized his first ‘stimulus’ package did not stimulate anything except runaway deficits and massive national debt levels, his minions went out and demanded the press not call his second stimulus package a ‘stimulus’ plan. Even though stimulus II uses the exact same limp approach to job creation as the first round of wasted pork. The so called independent press was lectured on how to properly use the white house propaganda in public! Joseph Goebbels would be proud at the audacity I am sure.

Now Obama’s czar of stupid phrases has hit again. This time regarding the nearly debunked of human induced global warming:

From the administration that brought you “man-caused disaster” and “overseas contingency operation,” another terminology change is in the pipeline.

The White House wants the public to start using the term “global climate disruption” in place of “global warming” — fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.

What a bunch of crappy propaganda. The theory is human industrial activity, along with the population explosion, is pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere than Earth’s climate can handle. This is of course demonstrably false since we are experiencing one of the LOWEST CO2 levels Earth has been through. And that also includes many species of plants and animals who survived those periods to this day. Even the polar bears have survived periods of little to no arctic ice before, otherwise they would not be here now.

The theories assume (but have yet to prove) that a feedback cascade will occur in the atmosphere causing temperatures to rise. Not climate to disrupt, but temperatures to rise. That is the theory, which has been destroyed by independent outside scrutiny for years now. That scrutiny – also known as the scientific method – has discovered unscientific claims, unreported mass uncertainty in the claims, poor scientific practice and outright misleading representations (such as the theory tree rings track global climate – except for the last 40 years of course which was the decline so famously hidden by the Hockey Stick graphs).

But here is the White House demanding people use a term of their choosing to put lipstick on their pig of a policy. Is this free speech? Or is this juvenile attempt to misdirect and mislead really what has become of American leadership? Looks more like the worst of American incompetence to me.

The worst part of this propaganda stunt is the context. It has been proven with universal ‘consensus’ that all the doom & gloom claims in the IPCC’s last report are FALSE! For example, the Amazon is not at higher risk to drought at the moment, Holland is not sinking under the ocean surface, Africa’s food supply is not shrinking (but growing) and the Himalayan Glaciers will not be all melted away in 25 years. All these ‘end of the Earth’ claims in the IPCC report on the ‘science’ of global warming were debunked. All the claims of ‘disruptive’ effects have been proven to be wild exaggerations. There were not more severe hurricanes impacting America after Katrina (the number actually dropped). The number of polar bears continue to grow, and the Earth has experienced a decade of cooling.

Do these ‘czars of propaganda’ inside the Obama administration take us all for morons? Or are they the morons for thinking a few word changes and they will magically look like they have a clue as to what they are doing?

Don’t even get me started on the latest claims that embryonic stem cell research will save lives. After 100’s of millions of dollars embryonic stem cell research has not produced any cures. That is because we can’t control the cellular mechanics which control the transition of a stem cell into a specific type of cell. The combinations of factors and timing that must be controlled to succeed is astronomical. Simple math shows it will take decades, if not a century, to learn how to control the genes to create the desired results.

Adult stem cell research, on the other hand, has had 100’s of successes. This field is going crazy, and in need of more funding. We are wasting money because a bunch of people who struggled through High School science don’t understand the challenges and mechanics of the problem. Which is why you get crude fools like John Edwards standing on stage with quadriplegics like Christopher Reeves promising he would walk again if John Kerry was elected.

We all know how well that promise turned out.

Tags: Cliimate Disruptions, Global Warming, Obama Administration

I really hate group think. I really hate being told by a mindless mob to get with them or else. It’s so socialistic.

Let me echo something I put in a comment at Hot Air while our site was down (and it may go down again – fingers crossed it won’t). There are MANY of us who have been at the Tea Party protests since 2009, been with the Tea Party in spirit since it began. Promoted it and applauded it for months now.

I never once winced when Tea Party backed candidates took on the establishment in PA, FL, CO, NV, AK, SC, etc. I believe the grass roots movement shaking DC to its core is exactly what is needed to give the nation any hope of recovering from the hyper-partisan crap we have been dealing with for the last 4 decades.

But let’s be honest here – the Tea Party is not going to be 100% right, 100% of the time. It is a grass roots effort, and occasionally results will be produced that are just not all that impressive.

Take Christine O’Donnell’s win in the GOP primary in DE. In that state there were two seriously flawed candidates for the GOP side. So flawed the only argument going on right now is which one was worse! I am not impressed by O’Donnell, though I have moments where I can connect with her (I did not know she was such a Tolkein fan). I don’t wince at her MTV discussion, I do cringe at her efforts to equate Creationism to Evolution (horribly ignorant stuff). I was not impressed with Castle – the epitome of the entrenched Political Industrial Complex. Thank god I did not have to vote in THAT primary!

But my issues with ONE candidate does not reflect at all on my views of the Tea Party or other Tea Party aligned candidates. Angle, Buck, Rubio, Miller, etc – none of them bother me. O’Donnell does. BFD! Tea Partiers need to get a grip – I don’t HAVE TO agree with your movement 100% of the time. Don’t come off sounding like big brother telling me I have to love everything your movement thinks, says, does or produces. Not going to happen.

There is no need for a silly civil war on the right (hint, hint DeMint) over the fact one Tea Party candidate did not win over the hearts of America. Heck, she did not get the support of all Tea Party organizations in DE!! Again – BFD.

The polls are showing a massive wave coming November that will easily lift nearly all the Tea Party challengers to smashing wins. For example, I am highly confident Angle will beat Reid – he is polling low 40’s. Which means over 50% of the voters in NV have decided they will not vote for him. He is the known quantity and their decisions were made months ago. Many voters have not decided to vote for Angle (yet), but there is a reason incumbents are dead when polling 45% – that is their ceiling come election day. A law of political physics. The late breakers will go to Angle. And in this year with a massive enthusiasm gap and a ‘throw the bums out’ mindset, Ried is gone.

The wave is so massive it could even raise O’Donnell to a win – especially since I believe it will wipe out Dems in WV, WI, WA, CA and CT. I don’t think Coons is a shoe-in. And being Reid’s ‘pet’ just cost him quite a few votes. So let’s not get too out of control here. The woman does not reflect the Tea Party or the conservative movement very accurately. She claims to believe in a lot of common ground, and she has some unique views too. So be it.

This is not over, but people need to chill out. Just because Tea Party supporters are not comfortable with O’Donnell it does not make them traitors to the cause (or to conservatism or the GOP). Come on folks, the right is supposed to be all about freedom of speech and freedom of choice. True patriots don’t go all ballistic when those rights are exercised. Not if they are ‘true’ patriots.

Tags: 2010 Elections, O'Donnell, Tea Party

We are experiencing a rash of performance issues that are taking the site down, and making it hard to diagnose the problem We bring it up and attempt fixes that seem to work, but later the site cascades into a slight different failure.  Sorry about the problems. No idea how long any one attempt at a fix will last.

– AJStrata

As expected, Christine O’Donnell has a huge hole to climb out of to demonstrate purity to the right is better than winning seats in Congress:

Republicans more than likely cost themselves a Senate seat last night. Chris Coons begins the general election in Delaware with a 50-34 lead over Christine O’Donnell. Mike Castle would have led Coons by a 45-35 margin.

While O’Donnell may have ingratiated herself to Delaware’s small group of registered Republicans over the last month she’s turned off everyone else. An August Daily Kos/PPP poll in Delaware found her favorability rating at 23/33. It’s now 29/50.

If Castle had won he would have received more Democratic support than any other Republican Senate candidate in the country. Now our polling suggests with O’Donnell’s victory that Coons will win more Republicans than any other Democratic Senate candidate in the country. That’s because of a general unwillingness to support O’Donnell from Castle’s moderate base- folks from the centrist wing of the GOP are planning to support Coons 54-31.

Look, you can be pure all day long, but if you cannot guide the direction of Congress you are completely impotent. Why get out and vote or run candidates if your preference is to sit out the decision process in the bliss of purity? If we are not fighting to redirect the country with a broad coalition, we are wasting everyone’s time and money. You cannot win if your platform is to attack centrists. Geez, How did Obama and the Dems get into such deep trouble this year? Ignoring the center of course.  The end result of this easily could be that DE traded a right of center moderate for a far left marxist, and the nation traded a chance for changing our path away from economic hell in 2011 to now having to wait until 2013. This is what is known as a Pyrrhic Victory.

I hate relearning hard lessons that should be learnt by now.

Update: I must note Coon’s being right at 50% means O’Donnell could get within striking distance, as has happened in CT, WI, WV, WA & CA. The only question is besides being possible – what is probable.

This election continues to be one for the record books. I don’t think we have seen this many incumbent or establishment candidates toppled in a century. The continued, come-from-nowhere wins by Tea Party and Palin backed candidates is a clear indication that this election has a powerful and unified force behind. There is a decidedly and refreshing (in the truest sense of the word) ‘throw the bums out‘ mood in the electorate, as Mike Castle and others learned yesterday. All of a sudden there is real hope that major change is possible. This time we will fix DC, not allow DC to try once more to fix America.

I did not support Christine O’Donnell, and I think she may have some serious issues as a candidate. But I am willing to reset by expectations to neutral and see how things play out. If she straightens up and can build a coalition (which means reaching out to those she may not be happy with right now) then I will have learned something. If she turns out to be a failure in November, then the Tea Party and Governor Palin will have to have learned something. Either way, the pieces have been set and the game begins.

Right now we have a sea of outsiders marching on Washington, and that is incredibly exciting. The Political Industrial Complex has been shaken to its core, on the left and right – exactly what is required to make dramatic changes in government come January 2011 (unless the Dems hold on to retain enough control to stalemate real change for another 2 years).

Continue Reading »

Tags: 2010 Elections, DE, Primary Season, Tea Party

Final Update: Well we can add Christine O’Donnell to the list of outsiders taking on the GOP establishment. With 66% of the vote in she is leading with 55-45%, and I doubt she will lose. She will join a suite of excellent Tea Party candidates in NV, AK, CO, etc,  If she loses the general election, there will be some explaining. But this is a clear sign there is a wave out there like no one has ever seen  in living memory. Look out Dems – DE is more a sign of what is coming. Congrats to the O’Donnell campaign! (9 PM update, 78% in and O’Donnell leads 46-54%) Good night folks! – end update

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This report is mandatory reading for everyone interested in the current state of climate ‘science’. Here is a snapshot of the Forward, which should become a plank in the GOP’s new contract with America this fall:

The Government then needs to look at the serious criticisms of the IPCC made in the recent InterAcademy Report. While the IPCC presents itself as a synthesis of the work of over 2,000 scientists it appears that in practice it is a process in which a much smaller number of scientists, whose work and careers are intertwined, dominate the assessment and seek to repel those who are situated elsewhere in the spectrum of scientifi c opinion. There is no transparent process for selection of participants in the assessments. Its handling of uncertainty is fl awed and outcomes that are highly speculative are presented with unwarranted certainty. Use is made of non-peer-reviewed material without identifying it as such. The Government should then demand that the changes recommended by the IAC in practice, governance and leadership should be implemented immediately for the Fifth Assessment.

Parliament then needs to start moving forward. Parliament, whether Commons, Lords or a joint venture between the two, should undertake or sponsor two pieces of work. The fi rst would be a study into the ethos and governance of scientifi c work in the fi eld of climate change. From this I hope would emerge an acceptance that, contrary to the words of eminent scientists who should know better, science is never “settled” or “unchallengeable”. That is what the Church said to Galileo. Scientifi c progress always proceeds by proposition and challenge. Dissent must be accepted and not suppressed, and evidence and methods must be transparent and readily shared. There should be full and willing compliance with FOI. Scientists should remain scientists and not become politicians or NGO activists.

The second piece of work should be a fundamental review of the science itself, which was the task which the Select Committee thought had been assigned to the Scientifi c Assessment Panel but which the latter defined more narrowly.

Climate science is immensely complex. There is a wide spectrum of methodologies and data and substantial differences in the conclusions which scientists reach. But instead of the full gamut of scientifi c thought being displayed with all its uncertainties, the public has been fed a particular variant of the climate change story with many of the caveats stripped out. There is, however, a much richer but more complex story to be told which recognizes the complexities and uncertainties and also recognizes that there are strong natural variations upon which manmade emissions are superimposed.

Only if the integrity of the science is reestablished and the strengths and weaknesses of the main propositions are acknowledged will there be the basis of trust with the public that policymakers need.

No surprise here – given that the House is gone and the Senate is 2 races from being gone (out of 13 in play):

In my experience, ‘the big-time Democrat’ has hardly ever been wrong. He does not dislike President Obama. On the contrary, like most big-time Democrats, he worked hard for his election in 2008 and would much rather see Democrats hold onto Congress this Nov. 2 than lose.

He just doesn’t think it’s going to happen. A few months ago, he told me Democrats could win the House in a squeaker and also retain the Senate. We talked again a few days ago, and things had changed.

“There is going to be a total wipeout, and it is totally going to be in Obama’s lap,” he said. “He should drop plans for Congress and plan for Nov. 3 and what he does next.”

That wave is here. The only question is how historic it will be. I am still betting it will be one for the all time record books.

Tags: 2010 Elections, Congress, Obama

Governor Palin and others may be upset that their lemon of a candidate in the DE GOP primary is imploding – but if Christine O’Donnell does implode it will be because some people performed the due diligence on this candidate that should have been done on President Obama. We have learned a lot about Christine O’Donnell, and none of it makes are admirable or worthy of support.

The latest salvo out is a testimonial from her own former campaign manager:

The call features the voice of Kristin Murray, who ran O’Donnell’s 2008 Senate campaign against then-Sen. Joe Biden, and who charges that her old boss “is no conservative.”

“I got into politics because I believe in conservative values and wanted to make a difference. But I was shocked to learn that O’Donnell is no conservative,” says Murray, according to a script obtained by POLITICO.

“This is her third Senate race in five years. As O’Donnell’s manager, I found out she was living on campaign donations – using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt,” she says.

Perhaps the most biting line in the call delivered by Murray: “She wasn’t concerned about conservative causes. O’Donnell just wanted to make a buck.”

…

Murray’s call marks the second time a former O’Donnell campaign staffer has come forward in recent days to publicly rebuke the former television commentator’s candidacy.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42141.html#ixzz0zWqvveFI

This story fits the rest of what we have learned pretty well. She supposed lived on less than $6,000 last year. She has been sued by former employees for back wages, she has sued her former employer for firing her when she was caught doing a side business on company time. She exaggerates and has a serious martyr complex.

Face it, the Tea Party and Governor Palin and a lot of other people got snookered. This woman has been held up as some kind of paragon of conservative virtue. All I see is a con artist who says what people – who don’t REALLY know her – want to hear.

We let one delusional martyr get into office in 2008, and look what it cost this nation. No need to repeat it in DE.

Those who thought from afar O’Donnell was the second coming of conservatism need to wake up. She is a cypher, and unknown and unproven entity. At best she is a question mark no one should be expected to take at face value, especially when it is a given her opponent can pick up a senate seat for the GOP.

Everyone makes mistakes, it is not admitting it that destroys credibility.

Tags: Christine O'Donnell, DE, GOP Primary, Governor Palin