Archive for the ‘Not reported on CNN’ Category

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Are We There Yet?

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

The media and Obama tell us we’re out of the recession. The authority on the matter is neither, but, in fact, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private, non-partisan organization (yes, they exist).

The media tells us that two quarters of GDP contraction is a recession and that a recession is over once there is a quarter of expansion. This is a great example of misinformation disseminated by the media.

Here is a description of the actual methodology from the NBER.

“The committee places particular emphasis on two monthly measures of activity across the entire economy: (1) personal income less transfer payments, in real terms and (2) employment. In addition, the committee refers to two indicators with coverage primarily of manufacturing and goods: (3) industrial production and (4) the volume of sales of the manufacturing and wholesale-retail sectors adjusted for price changes. The committee also looks at monthly estimates of real GDP such as those prepared by Macroeconomic Advisers (see http://www.macroadvisers.com). Although these indicators are the most important measures considered by the NBER in developing its business cycle chronology, there is no fixed rule about which other measures contribute information to the process.”

Following are some graphs from Hussman Funds as redistributed by InvestorsInsight.

The blue line is an average of the performance in each metric since 1953. The red line is the current recession. The black line marks the end of each recession, which for the purpose of this recession in these graphs is set to June 2009. The Y axis is an index of the metric (100=recession trough) and the X axis is time in months (0=recession trough).

Industrial Production

production

Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales

sales

Personal Income (less government wealth redistribution)

personalincome

Nonfarm Payrolls

employment

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Don’t Mind the Mann Behind the Curtain

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

We’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Copenhagen….

Or not.

Canada’s most widely read newspaper, The Globe and Mail, just put out a great recap of all the fabrications, exaggerations, stone-walling, and fear mongering collectively known as Global Warming. Whether you’re a believer or an infidel, you’ve got to read this. The truth is out there.

The Globe and Mail: “The great global warming collapse”

If after reading through the litany of deceit and deception reviewed by The Globe and Mail, you’re still clinging to Penn State’s Michael Mann’s “hockey stick” graph and suffering from Global Warming induced night terrors and sweats, read on.

Here’s Mr. Mann’s graph:

Global Warming Lies

The “hockey stick” is the black line that skyrockets up in the current time period at the right end of the graph. It is a different color (black) to signify that it comes from different data. IT IS NOT TREE RING DATA. It is data from thermometers. These same thermometers weren’t around before the black line starts. The graph is comparing apples to oranges. It is, to put it most accurately: bullshit. There are now many explanations of why this is so on the web. Here is one. And here is a link to an older post with more links for further explanation. With literally trillions of dollars and substantial amounts of our freedoms riding on potential responses to global warming, the truth is more than worth knowing.

Here’s Mr. Mann’s graph NOT on drugs:

Medieval Al Gore

Those medieval noblemen and their damn SUVs…. as another blogger writes, global warming is, indeed, MANN made.

Any questions?

Now you’ll note there are other differences between these two graphs. One, is the timeline. I believe there are also different methodologies and data sets between the two. I also believe there was more manipulation in the top graph, but, I haven’t gotten into it. Even so, the differences (other than the nefarious black line) prove the point that this whole climate science thing is light on the science. I for one am not about to forfeit global progress and global advancements in standards of living that tower over any the world has seen to-date based on an amalgamation of lies and junk science.

  • The world, is in fact NOT warming at alarming rates and NOT warmer than it’s been before.
  • Even IF the world were warming, humans are not a disease causing that warming.
  • Even IF the world were warming and humans were the cause, it is NOT proven that CO2 is the culprit.
  • Even IF the world were warming, humans were the cause, CO2 was the culprit, the consequences are NOT known.
  • Even IF the world were warming, humans were the cause, CO2 was the culprit, the consequences were known, the cost of the consequences have NOT been quantified.
  • Even IF the world were warming, humans were the cause, CO2 was the culprit, the consequences were known, the cost of the consequences was devastating, cap-tax-and-redistribute is NEITHER the only nor necessarily the correct solution AND the cost of such a scheme would have to be proven to be LESS THAN THE COST of doing nothing AND would have to be chosen by the free will of free people.

The global wealth redistribution scheme contemplated by the Copenhagen mob, by Hugo Chavez, by the man sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and by so many disillusioned and/or deceitful others is nothing more than just that – a scheme.

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Secret Republican Healthcare Plan

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

super-obama-man-thumb

Obama is on another media tour; this one to try, try again to pass $1.X trillion Obamacare.

(The “X” is a reference to the fact that the ten year “cost” of the bill includes 10 years of taxes but only 4-6 years of spending.)

Tuesday, at one stop on the tour, Obama boldly proclaims in his signature “I’m just like you” mannerism:

“I’ve said to the Republicans; show me what you’ve got. You’ve been sitting on the sidelines criticizing what we’re proposing…you got a better idea, bring it on.”

Here’s a link to a fairly detailed proposal from the House Ways and Means Republican Committee. It’s dated November 5th, 2009. That’s almost three months before Obama’s latest claim that the Republicans have been sitting on the sidelines all this time. Of course, it’s also about 3 months before Obama made the same nihilist accusation on national television during his State of the Union address.

Now, I’m not supporting Republicans and especially not the Republican plan. I frankly think there is a strong case to make that government – especially the Federal government – should focus more on governing and less on extra-curricular activities that don’t seem to pop up in the Constitution (”interstate commerce” springboarding notwithstanding), be it healthcare or energy or any of the innumerable other decidedly non-governing roles we now pay big government to play.

However, it’s disingenuous to say the least to confuse opposition to a colossal expansion of government with nihilism or obstructionism. The Republicans are deliberately opposing Obamacare as a means, not an end. That definitionally is not nihilism. The intended end is the protection of healthcare, Americans’ freedom, and the fruits of Americans’ labor that would otherwise be destroyed by Obama and Obamacare. Oh, and probably the fiscal integrity of the nation as well as a prayer in hell to pay for the existing socialist programs we’re already saddled with (medicaid, social security, and medicare – including Bush’s prescription drug plan). It’s one thing to disagree over what the end should be, but it’s just another partisan lie from Obama to claim the Republicans are obstructionist nihilists as a function of that disagreement.

It’s a whole other lie to claim “the other guys” haven’t proposed a plan when they, in fact, have done exactly that. To try to sell that lie to the American people repeatedly is a real head-scratcher and to hear people repeat it makes me feel like an Orwellian character.

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Posted in Fascism in America, Federal government, Healthcare, Not reported on CNN | Comments Off

U.S. Debt: Tick Tock Tick Tock

Friday, January 29th, 2010

I haven’t yet read the New York Times best seller, This Time is Different by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, but I plan to. Reinhart and Rogoff, two well-pedigreed economists, have analyzed over 250 financial crises in 66 countries over 800 years.

One of their key conclusions:

“But highly leveraged economies, particularly those in which continual rollover of short-term debt is sustained only by confidence in relatively illiquid underlying assets, seldom survive forever, particularly if leverage continues to grow unchecked.

This time may seem different, but all too often a deeper look shows it is not. Encouragingly, history does point to warning signs that policy makers can look at to assess risk – if only they do not become too drunk with their credit bubble – fueled success and say, as their predecessors have for centuries, ‘This time is different.’”

Sound familiar?

jm012210image001_5F00_5FD82FE4
Chart from John Mauldin’s redistribution of work by Van Hoisington and Lacy Hunt.

Are we there yet?

How can we as a nation possibly contemplate spending trillions of dollars on some convoluted new government handout when we haven’t even figured out how to pay for social security and medicare AND have a national debt of ~$12 trillion that is rapidly approaching our GDP of ~$14 trillion? We quite literally cannot afford our own government. When will somebody say when? When will bond investors say when?

Do Obama and his socialist brethren truly believe “this time IS different”? Do they just not care? Or, worse, do they want to topple America?

When Obama stands in front of the country and deceitfully proclaims that it’s time for Republicans to do what’s right for the country, just what exactly does he mean? When Nancy Pelosi says that she will pass Pelosicare for the American people, what does she mean?

Do they want us to take direction from the government debt gluttons of Japan who continue to lead their country out of its own debt crisis 20 years after the fact?

I for one will not willingly choose to live the life depicted below nor the one that will likely follow in the years ahead for the Japanese.

commentary010510

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Posted in Economy, Federal government, Not reported on CNN | Comments Off

Obama Freezing Federal Budget – The Truth

Monday, January 25th, 2010

So Obama says he’s going to freeze the Federal budget. That would be a great start. Unfortunately, Obama’s not telling us the whole truth. What he really means to say is that he will ask Congress to freeze 16% of it.

2009 Federal Budget Breakdown

Worse, that 16% shrinks to an even more insignificant number once you add in Obama’s $787 billion of “stimulus”. And then, of course, there’s the nearly $800 billion of TARP and the literally hundreds of billions we’re giving to Fannie and Freddie.

How about cutting the 57% of the budget for socialist welfare and wealth redistribution programs (depicted in cheery tones of gray)? A good place to start would be the $80+ billion we’ll be shelling out this year for Federal employee pensions. I don’t know about you, but I ain’t got no stinking pension.

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The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

It’s been a banner week for freedom:

1) “Progressives” – more accurately and honestly, “Socialists” – and the rest of the Democrat party had their historic loss of a Senate seat held since 1952.

2) Better still, the winner of that seat pounded a wedge between his agenda for smaller government and the heretofore astray Republican agenda that developed – no, festered – during the Neocon Bush years.

3) Nancy Pelosi ate the biggest, nastiest crow I’ve ever seen when she finally said, “In its present form without any changes I don’t think it’s possible to pass the Senate bill in the House.”

4) Howard Dean showed the world yet again that he’s a lunatic socialist.

5) The Supreme Court actually ruled in favor of freedom in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission finally giving all corporations and presumably other organizations the same right to free speech as media companies (e.g. NPR, MSNBC and Fox) and bands of Neo-Nazis.

Pachauri_185x360_657120a

And finally, to top it all off, we’ve got more news of lies and phony data on the global warming front. Being taken to task now is the infamous 2007 report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This is the report that global warming militants claim was signed by thousands of scientists, but was actually only signed by 25. It’s also the report that won the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize (13 years after Yasser Arafat).

Pictured to the right is the head of the IPCC, Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

The full article cites several more problems with the report, but is mostly about an oft repeated claim that the glaciers in the Himalayas will melt away to nothing by 2035. Turns out, that’s probably not true. Here are two of my favorite parts:

“But it emerged last week that the forecast [for the Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035] was based not on a consensus among climate change experts, but on a media interview with a single Indian glaciologist in 1999.”

Better still, Syed Hasnain, the Indian glaciologist, who was erroneously quoted as making the 2035 prediction, said, “There are many mistakes in it. It is a very poorly made report.”

Aaahhh… to dare to dream of Cap and Tax in a world of glaciers and just a bit more freedom than a socialist would like….

UPDATE: The IPCC author of the Asia chapter that cites Hasnain admits they included the bogus 2035 melting date not only knowing that it was most likely bogus but also with the intent manipulating world governments: “We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action.” Read the article.

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Is the Obama Administration Buying Congressional Votes?

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

My friend who works in the House of Representatives tells me that members of the Obama administration have been making deals with Democrat congressmen and senators who may be fired by Americans in 2010. They’re promising to trade their votes for Obamacare in exchange for “plum jobs” in the Obama administration come 2011.

This isn’t the sort of thing you’d read about or see on TV. It is, however, entirely consistent with the assorted other undemocratic tactics the socialist-led Democrats have employed of late. Especially, how different is this sort of scheming from Senator Ben Nelson’s infamous “cornhusker kickback” and the vote buying of at least three other senators?

If you or I tried to buy a federal congressional vote with either the promise of jobs or cash (or sweetheart mortgage deals), we’d be escorted to a quaint prison cell.

This is wrong.

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Posted in Fascism in America, Federal government, Freedom, Healthcare, Not reported on CNN | Comments Off

Insider’s View on Obamacare

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

This is from a friend of mine who’s a senior staffer in the House. It’s his report on what’s behind the facade reported by the liberal mass media.

Begin Quote:

I wrote up three reasons why the health care bill doesn’t really reduce the deficit. And I managed to complete the entire analysis without calling Obama a Nazi.

First, there are the much-discussed cuts to Medicare providers, amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years. It’s very telling that Democratic congressional leaders, supported by the White House, have simultaneously pushed through these health care bills while also advancing legislation to reverse permanently very similar Medicare cuts to doctors that were enacted back in 1997 – paid for by additional borrowing. How Democrats can, with a straight face, claim these new provider cuts will survive while at the very same time they are trying to reverse previously-enacted cuts is beyond my sense of shame.

Second, more than half of the 10-year deficit reduction in both bills ($72 billion of the net $105 billion in the House bill and $130 billion in the Senate bill) comes from inclusion of a new long-term care (read: nursing home) entitlement program called the CLASS Act. Even Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) has described CLASS as “a Ponzi scheme”. To understand the budget gimmick, consider that the government uses the cash method of accounting, not the accrual method. Because in the first 10 years, the program will pay out very little in benefits, Democrats get to count the premiums being paid into the program as “deficit reduction”. But both CBO and the CMS Chief Actuary have found that the CLASS Act is not actuarially sound – in the long term when it starts paying out large benefits, premiums will be insufficient and it will require massive borrowing to meet its obligations. The cost, however, falls outside the budget window and therefore effectively gets ignored, while the initial premiums get counted. It is a fiscal catastrophe, and the mother of all budget gimmicks.

Third, although CBO estimates that the two bills probably will not increase the deficit beyond the 10-year window, this is only because both bills include large tax increases on high-income individuals, with income thresholds that are not indexed for inflation. The only reason these revenues will grow at a rate as fast as the subsidies is good old-fashioned bracket creep. But as the annual exercise in “patching” the Alternative Minimum Tax has proven, Congress will not allow these tax increases to creep down into the middle class, which in turn means the revenues will not grow at nearly as fast a rate as CBO projects — or as fast as the spending in the bill. Democrats made a conscious decision to disallow inflation indexing of these tax brackets, so that they could claim the bill is something other than what it is.

End Quote.

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Global Warming as Pushed by Obama, Al Gore, the IPCC, and CNN is a Lie

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Full article: CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL: 100 REASONS WHY

Highlights:

begin quote

8 ) The IPCC theory is driven by just 60 scientists and favourable reviewers not the 4,000 usually cited.

19) A petition by scientists trying to tell the world that the political and media portrayal of global warming is false was put forward in the Heidelberg Appeal in 1992. Today, more than 4,000 signatories, including 72 Nobel Prize winners, from 106 countries have signed it.

67) Global temperatures have not risen in any statistically-significant sense for 15 years and have actually been falling for nine years. The “Climate-gate” scandal revealed a scientific team had expressed dismay at the fact global warming was contrary to their predictions and admitted their inability to explain it was “a travesty”.

91) The accepted global average temperature statistics used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998.

98) The Leipzig Declaration in 1996, was signed by 110 scientists who said: “We – along with many of our fellow citizens – are apprehensive about the climate treaty conference scheduled for Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997” and “based on all the evidence available to us, we cannot subscribe to the politically inspired world view that envisages climate catastrophes and calls for hasty actions.”

99) A US Oregon Petition Project stated “We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of CO2, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.

end quote

Remember, John Holdren, Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology says: Human activity is “beyond any reasonable doubt” the primary cause of warming temperatures. I hope Holdren’s definition of “reasonable doubt” never becomes the standard for our justice system.

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Al Gore and climate scientists

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Al Gore at Copenhagen:

“Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

Dr. Wieslav Maslowski (expert from US Naval Postgraduate School whom Gore cited in the above quote):

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at. I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Richard Lindzen (climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who does not believe that global warming is largely caused by man):

“[Dr Maslowski] just extrapolated from 2007, when there was a big retreat, and got zero.”

See more at Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his North Pole sums don’t add up.

For the record, it seems that Richard Lindzen is a bona fide climate scientist (Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT) from an institution at least as prestigious (sarcasm) as the University of East Anglia who is apparently NOT amongst those in “universal agreement” in the “scientific community” that global warming exists or is caused by carbon or humans.

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