Tracking Santa The NORAD Way Christmas 2009

Illustrators’ Visions of Santa Claus - Over the years, great illustrators have created and shaped the popular vision of Santa Claus. Clockwise from top, left: Thomas Nast, who gave Santa Claus a form almost like the modern idea in the mid-1800’s, with his clay pipe and arm full of toys (including a sword). You can see some of his visions of Santa here. /// J. C. Leyendecker, who really created the modern vision of Santa, and painted a number of memorable Saturday Evening Post covers featuring the jolly elf over the years. You can find them in the SEP cover archive. /// Norman Rockwell, along with Leyendecker, provided numerous SEP covers with images of Santa, often with clever takes on the vision of his traditional role. The SEP cover archive has a section devoted to Rockwell Christmas covers. /// Haddon Sundblom was an American illustrator who became noted for his yearly portrayals of Santa Claus for the Coca-Cola company. There is a section on the Coca-Cola site, and an album of Sundblom Santas here. Image Credit: Charley Parker

Tracking Santa The NORAD Way Christmas 2009

Christmas is a time we come together to celebrate forces that are beyond our own experience.

On December 25, the birth of the son of God is the source of the excuse for additional forces we know are beyond our own experience to come to life.

The one force that creates the most wonder and awe is the force of Santa Claus and his amazing journey around the world as he drives his Reindeer powered Sleigh. The Sleigh, loaded with gifts, stops at every home throughout the world where Santa knows people believe in giving and the amazing grace of God and his power.

Santa is even known to stop and leave a gift where some people are not even aware they actually believe in him and/or God’s power because he knows what resides deep in all people who wish for a better world but have not found a conscious way to its understanding.

Technology and the internet were made for times like these.

This from the How Stuff Works website -

How Santa's Sleigh Works
by John Fuller – How Stuff Works

On Christmas Eve, millions of children around the world will settle uneasily into bed, hardly able to contain themselves. What vision could possibly dance through their heads, turning them into twitchy, restless insomniacs for just one night? Is it the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" or the sugarplums from Clement Clarke Moore's poem "The Night Before Christmas"? Can sugarplums really do such a thing?

Chances are the children are thinking about toys, Santa Claus and his team of reindeer -- if the children have been nice this year, jolly old St. Nick should be landing his sleigh on their roofs sometime late in the night.

Everyone has their own traditional image of Santa's sleigh, but could there be more to it than just a sled and a team of reindeer? Although no one may ever know for sure just how Santa operates, we at HowStuffWorks have what we think are the most logical explanations for how the big guy accomplishes all that he does: science and technology.

Sure, demystifying Santa's modus operandi puts us at risk of getting nothing but coal in our stockings this year, but it's all for the noble pursuit of yuletide knowledge. After all, have you ever wondered how Santa's sleigh flies? What about the reindeer? And how does Santa fit all of those presents into one bag? In the next section, we'll look at the possible technology behind Santa's sleigh.­

Rustic on the outside and state-of-the-art on the inside, Santa's sleigh would have to be a marvel in engineering. These are the main parts of the sleigh that would be needed to get Santa across the world in one night.

The Sleigh's Interior

The front of the sleigh's dashboard would be dominated by Santa's own GPS navigator -- the elves would map out millions of destinations before Christmas Eve, just to make sure Santa doesn't miss anyone. The device would also have a built-in Naughty-or-Nice sensor that keeps Santa updated on children's activities. This is important, as even the most minor of naughty deeds committed within the last few hours of Dec. 24 can determine whether or not a child receives a shiny lump of coal.

A speedometer on the far left of the dashboard would allow Santa to monitor his flying speeds. On the far right would be a radio communicator -- Mrs. Claus sends broadcasts, and the elves update Santa with weather reports and toy inventory.

For in-flight entertainment, we'd like to the think that the elves would have installed an iPod dock -- perhaps even a red-and-green iPod, which would come with enough memory to play Christmas songs for the entire year through. There would also be a hot cocoa dispenser in the middle of the console, and fuel for the reindeer (in the form of carrots) in a compartment located on the left side of the sleigh.

Transdimensional Present Compartment (The Bag)

Ever wonder how Santa fits all of those presents into one bag? Think of a transdimensional present compartment in the form of a traditional gift sack, which would act as a portal between the sleigh and the North Pole. However, we'd also like to think that Santa may have harnessed the power of nanotechnology and found a way to miniaturize millions of presents into one large bag. But this information remains unconfirmed.

The Stardust Antimatter Propulsion Unit

What is antimatter? Is it some kind of magical substance Santa uses to power his sleigh?

Antimatter is the opposite of regular matter -- the mirror image of normal particles that make up everything we can see or touch. The big draw to antimatter is the amount of energy it helps create. When antimatter and matter come into contact, they annihilate each other -- breaking apart into tons of smaller particles -- and 100 percent of their masses convert into energy.

Although antimatter propulsion rockets are mainly used in science-fiction shows to allow spaceships to travel at warp speed, the possibility of designing one is very real -- NASA is currently developing one that would get us to Mars within a matter of weeks. [source: NASA]

Santa's would have to be way ahead of the game, however, and we'd like to imagine that he has his own custom Stardust Antimatter Rocket. It would be small enough to install in the back of his sleigh and fast enough to deliver every present to all good children across the globe. Of course, if the rocket ever malfunctions, the reindeer would be there to back Santa up.
References Here>>

Track Santa Claus across the globe as he performs his amazing task and journey -

Santa maintains a huge list of children who have been good throughout the year. The list even includes addresses, ZIP codes and postal codes. The list, of course, gets bigger each year by virtue of the world's increasing population. This year's population right now is 6,634,570,959!

Santa has had to adapt over the years to having less and less time to deliver his toys. If one were to assume he works in the realm of standard time, as we know it, clearly he would have perhaps two to three ten-thousandths of a second to deliver his toys to each child's home he visits!

The fact that Santa Claus is more than 15 centuries old and does not appear to age is our biggest clue that he does not work within time, as we know it. His Christmas Eve trip may seem to take around 24 hours, but to Santa it could be that it lasts days, weeks or months in standard time. Santa would not want to rush the important job of bringing Christmas happiness to a child, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions on a different time and space continuum.

We believe, based on historical data and more than 50 years of NORAD tracking information, that Santa Claus is alive and well in the hearts of children throughout the world.

Santa Claus is known by many names, but his first recorded name was Saint Nicholas. Historians claim that the history of Santa starts with the tradition of Saint Nicholas, a 4th Century Christian priest who lived in the Middle East in an area of present day Turkey.

Saint Nicholas became famous throughout the world for his kindness in giving gifts to others who were less fortunate. Typically, he placed gifts of gold down people's chimneys - sometimes into stockings. It may be that the Santa we know and love emerged from the legacy of Saint Nicholas. Clearly, Santa's basic approach to gift giving is strikingly similar to that of Saint Nicholas. What we know from history is that the tradition of Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas merged.

Could they be the same person? Only Santa Claus can tell us for sure.

Long before the Wright brothers flew the first airplane or the Montgolfier brothers flew the first hot air balloon, Santa knew he had to find a way to travel quickly from house to house at great speed. We know from our Santa Cam images that Santa's choice for quick transportation was a herd of flying reindeer. Of course, to this day, detailed information on these reindeer remains a mystery. We do know, however, that Santa somehow found a way to get the reindeer to help him with his worldwide mission of gift giving. A veil of sweet mystery hides the rest.

Virginia's letter, written in December 1897, is the most famous example of a child wanting to know about Santa.

Editor’s Response>>

TRACK SANTA CLAUS's JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD HERE

We at LA Conservative Examiner & LA Motor Culture Examiner wish each and everyone a "Merry Christmas To All And To All A Good Night!"

More on the reason for the season ... Immanuel - God with us! (Matthew 1:18-25)

The day Democrats killed freedom with health care reform

Sunspots and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations - There appears to be a correlation between the rise and fall of civilizations with the rise and fall of radiation from the sun. The graph shows a long-term envelope of sunspot activity derived from the center graph of Carbon 14. More carbon 14 is absorbed in the growth rings of trees during the sunspot minima. Sunspot minima also correlates with mini-ice ages and a winter severity index based on a mean for Paris and London - for the period shown. The Maya disappeared during a sunspot minimum. Caption Credit: crystalinks.com /// Image Credit: Maurice Cottrell

The day Democrats killed freedom with health care reform

Shortest day leads to a shorter life in United States ... the day Democrats killed freedom of decision in America!

Early this morning ... 1:00am ET, December 21st, 2009, to be more precise, the Senate voted in a straight Democrat party vs Republican party vote to end debate on their version of "health care reform" which does little to repair a system under siege.

December 21st, 2009 is the Winter Solstice for the year and for those in the northern hemisphere, it is also the shortest day of the year with the longest hours of darkness. In the southern hemisphere it is the longest day of the year with the greatest number of daylight hours.

December 21st, 2009 is the official start of winter in the northern hemisphere.

Today marks the first day each and every American's freedom to choose how healthy they would like to be ... ends. The Democrats, through this bill on health care, authorizes the Government to make major decisions about the level of medical care citizens are allowed to have.

The Democrats, through this bill on health care, authorizes the Government to make major decisions about profits and the level of pay executives from a private market economy business enterprise can be allowed to have. This is fascism when the Government essentially manages the efforts of a private business.

The Democrats, through this bill on health care, authorizes the Government to make major decisions on which States will have the Federal Government pay for Medicaid and which States will not ... Federal favoritism.

The Democrats, through this bill on health care, authorizes the Government to take tax money (about one dollar per month per taxpayer) and spend it on ending the growth and development of future human beings (fetuses) - Abortion.

The Senate version of the Democrat party health care bill would pay for health reform through Medicare cuts, taxing high-cost insurance plans, increases in Medicare taxes for couples earning more than $250,000 a year, and fees on medical device manufacturers, health insurers, and pharmaceutical companies (which get passed through to the price of goods and services and becomes a tax on EVERYONE else).

So how did Claire McCaskill, Ben Nelson, Chris Dodd and others come around and feel good about saddling the American public with this effort of expanded Government CONTROL over every aspect of our lives based on health care?

This excerpted and edited from Michelle Malkin -

Cash for Cloture: Demcare bribe list, Pt. II
By Michhelle Malkin • December 21, 2009 02:48 AM

1. Sen. Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback.” The CBO says the Nebraska Democrat sellout’s special Medicaid expansion subsidy will initially cost an estimated $100 million. The Hill reports that while Nelson credited Nebraska’s governor for giving him the idea to lobby for the government preference, Nebraska’s governor assailed the payoff: “Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal,” Heineman said in a statement Sunday. In response, Nelson fired off a letter Sunday to Heineman saying he’s prepared to ask that the provision covering Nebraska’s Medicaid share “be removed from the amendment in conference, if it is your desire.”

2. New England’s Special Syrup. Vermont and Massachusetts will get similar (though less generous) special treatment by the feds in covering Medicaid expansion costs. Combined with Nebraska’s tab, the exclusive clique’s payoffs will cost taxpayers $1.2 billion over 10 years. At least.

3. Corruptocrat Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd’s Christmas wish: Hospital helper. He’s plunging in the polls and in need of a little bacon to bring home. A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election campaign, his office said Sunday night. The legislation leaves it up to the Health and Human Services Department to decide where the money should be spent, although spokesman Bryan DeAngelis said Dodd hopes to claim it for the University of Connecticut.

4. “Some insurers are more equal than others” tax exemption. The WSJ reports that nonprofit insurance companies will be exempt from a new, nearly $7 billion tax to pay for Demcare. Democrat Sens. Ben “Blank Check” Nelson and Carl Levin of Michigan pushed hard for the tax exemption, which will exempt insurers in their states.

5. The Frontier freebie. Several lucky states will see an increase in Medicare payments to hospitals and doctors, the NYT reports, — “where at least 50 percent of the counties are ‘frontier counties,’ defined as those having a population density less than six people per square mile. And which are the lucky states? The bill gives no clue. But the Congressional Budget Office has determined that Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming meet the criteria.”

6. More Democrat hospital bennies. Also via NYT: “Another provision of the bill would increase Medicare payments to certain “low-volume hospitals” treating limited numbers of Medicare patients. Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Senate health committee, said this ‘important fix’ would help midsize Iowa hospitals in Grinnell, Keokuk and Spirit Lake. Another item in Mr. Reid’s package specifies the data that Medicare officials should use in adjusting payments to hospitals to reflect local wage levels. The officials can use certain new data only if it produces a higher index and therefore higher Medicare payments for these hospitals. Senate Democrats said this provision would benefit hospitals in Connecticut and Michigan.”

7. Bernie Sanders’ socialized medicine soap. He wanted a public option. Instead, he got socialized medicine satellite clinics funded to the tune of at least $10 billion. In his remarks early this morning before the cloture vote, he gloated about the funding as a crucial step toward universal care. Via the Burlington Free Press: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., scored a big victory, too, with the inclusion in the amendment package of $10 billion to expand community health centers across the country — including at least two more in Vermont. /// Vermont has 8 community health centers and 40 satellite offices. “New funding would make it likely centers could be opened in Addison and Bennington counties,” Sanders’ home state paper reports.

8. Fla.-Pa.-NY Protectionism. Via Politico: “Three states – Pennsylvania, New York and Florida – all won protections for their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries at a time when the program is facing cuts nationwide.”

And you know there are many more untold payoffs — paid by stealing your money — yet to be stuffed into this bureaucratic monstrosity.
Reference Here>>

Sunspots may not be the only way great civilizations come to an end ... it may be possible to end them just with an over-reaching lust for control over human activity and increased political power.

OBAMA-BERNANKE INFLATION - Simple dollar dynamics rears its ugly head

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2009. Last year's winner was then-President-elect Barack Obama. The 2007 winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Other previous winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush, and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. Image Credit: urbandigs.com

OBAMA-BERNANKE INFLATION - Simple dollar dynamics rears its ugly head

'Tis the season to be jolly, a Christmas season song lyric cajoles, yet all the American public can see is a political system and an economy in complete disarray.

We are treated to an endless menu of Christmas specials on television and, of course, Oprah Winfrey has to weigh in with a fluff piece of an interview that starts off with a contrived impromptu drop by visit with the President and first lady for a chat. In the interview, Barack Obama could not resist the temptation to answer a question about the "grade" he would deserve for the performance of the first eleven months of his time as President of the United States. Most good politicians would beg off answering the question ... but not this Oscar and Nobel awarded political radical. Nope, he had to give himself a B+ ... and went on to say that if he is able to sign a bill (any bill) that addresses health care, he would figure that an A- would be the better and appropriate grade.

Today, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke was tapped to be on the cover of TIME Magazine as the "Person Of The Year" stating that the economy would be much, much worse if the Fed had not taken such extreme measures to stop the panic. There's a vast difference between 10% and 25% unemployment, between anemic and negative growth.

This begs the question, however, on ... what happens when the leadership of the Federal Government passes legislation (TARP, two Omnibus, and one Stimulus bill totaling about $4 Trillion plus dollars) that open up the spending of future generations of uncollected tax revenues and places this money into an economy that is not producing goods or services to back up or justify the value of these extra dollar bills in circulation?

Too many dollars chasing the once stable prices on goods and services creates a situation where it takes two dollars to match the value of something that was once valued at one dollar when a stable and consistent money supply dictated this as the cost of the good, service and a living profit. Increase the money supply and prices have to be reset to reflect this simple dynamic.

Welcome to the age of Carter's Second Term ... welcome to the age of INFLATION!

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be running out of room to pump money into the financial markets and cut interest rates to rescue the economy. Image Credit: urbandigs.com

This excerpted and edited from the New York Post -

Economy bubbles up with wholesale inflation
By PAUL THARP, New York Post - Last Updated: 8:52 AM, December 16, 2009

So much for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke telling the country not to worry that zero percent interest rates might spark inflation.

Economists' worst fears were realized yesterday when the Labor Department said wholesale prices climbed a surprising 1.8 percent last month -- double what economists had predicted and the second-biggest November jump in a decade, following the stunning 2.7 percent surge two years ago at the start of the housing collapse.

The government report said factories are saddled with sharply rising energy and materials costs, among other growing expenses. The higher costs could be passed on to factory customers and consumers, analysts said.

The Labor Department also said core inflation, which excludes the major consumer purchases of food and energy, posted its sharpest increase in more than a year at 0.5 percent.

The surprise jump means analysts will pay even closer attention to today's government report on consumer prices, which could help determine whether inflation has spiked enough to undermine the economy's slow recovery.
----
Bernanke, meanwhile, told lawmakers the US economy is still too sluggish with lots of "slack" in factory capacity to support any lasting or serious price hikes.

"The bulk of the evidence indicates that resource slack is now substantial," Bernanke said in a written response to a lawmaker's questions. "I continue to expect slack resources, together with the stability of inflation expectations, to contribute to the maintenance of low inflation in the period ahead."
----
Some economists believe the Fed will ignore the inflationary red flags.

"The 1.8 percent jump in wholesale prices is a red herring," said economist Paul Dales at Capital Economics. "The Fed is not going to see this as any indication that their actions are triggering higher inflation."
Reference Here>>

We can expect an economy that will end up worse than any experienced during the "progressive-minded" rule of Jimmy Carter.

Get up, stand up - "Code Red" rally Dec. 15, 1:00PM ET

When emergencies occur… awareness is the key to your safety! The CodeRED system allows safety officials to send recorded messages to the entire community, or a specific area within moments. These messages will inform residents of the situation and give instructions for action. Caption & Image Credit: brunswick.oh.us

Get up, stand up - "Code Red" rally Dec. 15, 1:00PM ET

United we stand ... for the Constitution. The 2,000 plus page Healthcare reform bill is about to become law which will create an entitlement program that will effectively turn our country into a Totalitarian regime.

This Government and its leadership would want every citizen who voted for TRANSPARENCY, equity, low unemployment, mortgage stabilization, and spending control to believe that what they are proposing in the Senate on behalf of healthcare reform is inevitable.

It is time for every Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, and Undeclared voting citizen to show this country's leadership that their vote is not inevitable and the direction they are headed with the potential approval of a 2,000 plus page monstrosity of a public takeover in the decisions that are critical to our lives is the wrong direction. It is time for every voting citizen that wishes to stop the erosion of our country's Constitution to converge on the mall in Washington DC.

CODE RED RALLY - stop congress now! - The Capitol Building and Mall in Washington DC - December 15, 2009 - 1:00PM ET (speakers to address rally at 1:30PM ET - many Senators, Congressmen, and freedom fighters are scheduled to talk)

Emergency - Code Red. Image Credit: cnplocaltv.com

This excerpted and edited from Laura Ingraham's website, "Laura Unleashed" -

Code Red Rally Tuesday 1pm Dec 15th US Capitol
By Laura Ingraham - December 8, 2009, Posted 11:00PM ET

It's time we all stop pretending that what is happening with this Obamacare debate is about "helping the uninsured" or "fixing the healthcare system" or "giving the people what they want." It's about none of those things. Its about amassing as much power in a central government as humanly possible. Its about wealth redistribution. It's social engineering at its absolute worst.

The American people must take this political system back from those who have hijacked it in one of the most abhorrent power grabs that we the voters have ever seen. It's the holiday season so the Democrats are counting on you to be otherwise occupied and too busy to stand against their massive expansion of government.

Let them underestimate us again just as they did last summer. Let these unrepresentative politicians proceed with their legislative chicanery and self-righteous grandstanding. We can expose them and confront them in the classic American spirit--a public gathering on their doorstep.

On December 15th at 1 pm, we will remind Pelosi, Reid, Schumer et al. that they work for us and not the other way around. We will demand that they follow the will of the people, not dismiss and degrade it by putting future generations into a deficit dungeon. We will put every politician who supports this travesty on notice: enjoy your remaining time in the U.S. Capitol because we're coming for your seat.

The American people will not forget those who turned their backs on us and voted for a bill that they hadn't read and which will do nothing but ensure that one of the best healthcare systems in the world is compromised.
Reference Here>>

Many voters in the last election cycle stuffed their brains into a "hate" bucket and voted with their minds and freedoms closed putting both at risk of being totally controlled by a Government that has an Us against Them agenda based on an end result of totalitarian country ... stripped of its freedoms and sovereignty (Copenhagen).

It is time to stop this run-away spending spree, TARP slush-fund using Government and show these leaders why they are wrong when they suggest that what this leadership attempts to do is inevitable ... there is NO CONSENSUS - show up at the Capitol December 15, 2009 at 1:00PM ET and show these folks who's the boss! Affirm American exceptional-ism.

Be sure to wear the color RED!

Source>>

Climategate: Money and the global warming Flat Earthers

Top UN scientists have been forced to admit that natural weather occurrences are having a far greater effect on climate change than CO2 emissions as a continued cooling trend means there has been no global warming since 1998. But despite overwhelming signs of global cooling - China's coldest winter for 100 years and record snow levels across Northeast America - allied with temperature records showing a decline - global warming advocates still cling to the notion that the world is cooling because of global warming! [ctrl-click to launch video of Ed Begley defending AGW with Stuart Varney] Caption Credit: PrisonPlanet.com / Image Credit: blahblahblog

Anthropogenic Global Warming Scientists, the new “Flat Earth” society?

Last week, a hacker revealed that a group of powerful, government-backed European scientists are controlling the results of developing global warming theory, and preventing clear debate or the development of opposing scientific evidence to AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming). It appears that certain more objective scientists run the risk --- if they present solid evidence contrary to the popular global warming theories --- realize they run the risk of being made objects of ridicule and marginalized in efforts to gain monies from Governments for research projects designed to discover facts ... that lead to the truth.

So on one side we have the “flat earther” powerful old-world scientists … and on the other side we have the “world is round” scientific-method based researchers who are continuing to discover facts … and thereby, the truth.

Powerful forces within the scientific community have been purposely shaping information in order to bolster a concept that, at best, is speculative and seems designed to lead to one human activity that these people think is perfectly suitable for their point-of-view ... a one-world Government, based upon a socialist model of CONTROL. This CONTROL is initially focusing on calling us to “Save the Earth From Destruction”, since a fear-based program is the only way to get free people to forsake their rights and their freedoms in the concept of climate stabilization and saving humanity from imminent destruction.

South Park's depiction of Al Gore giving a lecture that will give him greater riches through the selling of "Carbon Credits" based upon a flat Earth, AGW paradigm. [ctrl-click to launch "Al Gore EXPOSED" video]. Image Credit: Malagent

This excerpted and edited National Review Online –

Krauthammer's Take
On the announcement that President Obama will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
NRO Staff, Friday, November 27, 2009

Comments From Wednesday's Fox News All-Star Panel:

The global warming science is not junk science, but it's speculative. It's based on incomplete data. It's based on computer models that rest on assumptions — that, in turn, rest on an understanding of how the globe’s climate controls itself — that [are] extremely incomplete.

So its projections are speculative. But it pretends that, of course, that it is the hardest of all sciences and anybody who is skeptical is a denier — using a term used normally about the Holocaust, which is of course an event that actually happened as opposed to projections in global warming, which are speculative science.

So what you see in the [leaked global-warming] emails are people that are on somewhat shaky grounds. It is not as if there is no science at all in this, but there is contradictory evidence, such as the flattening of the rise in temperatures, which they cannot explain.

And their response is either suppression or manipulation or, even worse, the delegitimizing of — the personal attacks on — skeptics in an attempt to write them out of the journals, to get them fired, and all kinds of nasty stuff. … It puts a lot of their research in question.

I think what's interesting about Obama is he is going to be at the U.N. [conference in Copenhagen] to announce the [new] policy about climate change on the basis of — nothing. He is going to be proposing what the House has passed — that he knows is not going to pass in the Senate.

And we are actually a constitutional democracy where the president can't announce a policy unilaterally. It actually has to pass the two houses of the Congress, and our allies abroad know that, and they’re going to look at this announcement he is going to make and think it … extremely strange.
Reference Here>>

The United States has established no formal policy, yet our President, if allowed to do so, will gladly sign away our sovereignty in order to achieve the socialist political objectives of control found in the Copenhagen accords.

Further, scientists and Government forces who choose to use or believe in their conclusions that the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a fact, are no better than previous generations of leaders in their insistence that the Earth is flat. These people should be known from this moment forward as ... "Flat-Earthers"!

From The Free Dictionary:

1) flat-earth·er (flatûrther)
n.

One who stubbornly adheres to outmoded or discredited ideas: "If you don't accept the ideas derived from Adam Smith ... then you are [considered] a flat-earther" (James Fallows).
[From the long-discredited belief that the earth is flat.]

2) flat-earther
n.
Informal - a person who does not accept or is out of touch with the realities of modern life.

UPDATE - From Atlanta Journal Constitution, ajc blog:

The focus on the story has turned from the emails the scientists exchanged to the computer code their center was using to produce its data sets, which have been an integral part of the IPCC’s reports. Declan McCullagh at CBS News reports some of the findings so far:

One programmer highlighted the error of relying on computer code that, if it generates an error message, continues as if nothing untoward ever occurred. Another debugged the code by pointing out why the output of a calculation that should always generate a positive number was incorrectly generating a negative one. A third concluded: “I feel for this guy. He’s obviously spent years trying to get data from undocumented and completely messy sources.”

Programmer-written comments inserted into CRU’s Fortran code have drawn fire as well. The file briffa_sep98_d.pro says: “Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!” and “APPLY ARTIFICIAL CORRECTION.” Another, quantify_tsdcal.pro, says: “Low pass filtering at century and longer time scales never gets rid of the trend – so eventually I start to scale down the 120-yr low pass time series to mimic the effect of removing/adding longer time scales!”

At Pajamas Media, which has been producing some of the most in-depth coverage of this story, Charlie Martin examines the code further and concludes:

To put this in the context of what else we know from the CRU data dump:

1. They didn’t want to release their data or code, and they particularly weren’t interested in releasing any intermediate steps that would help someone else

2. They clearly have some history of massaging the data — hell, practically water-boarding the data — to get it to fit their other results. Results they can no longer even replicate on their own systems.

3. They had successfully managed to restrict peer review to what we might call the “RealClimate clique” — the small group of true believers they knew could be trusted to say the right things.

As a result, it looks like they found themselves trapped. They had the big research organizations, the big grants — and when they found themselves challenged, they discovered they’d built their conclusions on fine beach sand.

But the tide was coming in.

Even if the CRU crew are only guilty of promising more than they could deliver, that’s still a hugely important turn of events in the climate-change debate — and reason enough to put the policy debate on pause while this new information is sorted out.

It is time for the Flat Earth global warming scientists who were gaming the system for more and more money, and thereby, more and more prestige and power to get their "A" (for anthropogenic) in the global warming science out of the equation. In fact, they should take their Anthropogenic and pretty much put it where the data don't shine!

Finally, on a more humorous note, check out this video created for Minnesotans for Global Warming by the folks at JibJab.com.

LA Conservative Examiner>>

Science, Facts, Fraud, & "Climategate"

The AGW Myth: An increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere, especially a sustained increase great enough to cause changes in the global climate. The Earth has experienced numerous episodes of global warming through its history, and currently appears to be undergoing such warming. The present warming is generally attributed to an increase in the greenhouse effect, brought about by increased levels of greenhouse gases, largely due to the effects of human industry and agriculture. Expected long-term effects of current global warming are rising sea levels, flooding, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, more frequent and stronger El Niños and La Niñas, drought, heat waves, and forest fires.Image Credit: The Minority Report

Science, facts, fraud, and "Climategate"

What are we to believe? ... what are we to believe?

Is nothing sacred anymore?

The simple answer was spoken by Ronald Reagan in his negotiations with the USSR during the run-up to the end of the "Cold War" ... "trust, but verify"!

Last week, it was discovered to what lengths the science based community (and economy) would go to protect what it held on to most dearly ... the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth (aka AGW).

The conspiracy that was propping up this expensive world CONTROL (Copenhagen) gimmick --- has been suddenly, brutally and quite deliciously exposed after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka CRU) and released 61 megabytes of confidential files onto the internet.
(ht: Watts Up With That)

These exposed hacked emails, exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory, suggest conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organized resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.

One of the alleged emails has a gentle gloat over the death in 2004 of John L Daly (one of the first climate change skeptics, founder of the Still Waiting For Greenhouse site), commenting:

“In an odd way this is cheering news.”

The Gore effect in its full glory: The subject of climate change (formerly known as ‘Global Warming‘ until the planet refused to cooperate) is highly controversial and considered a ‘religion’ in some European circles. This climate change concept has now been exposed as a mass fraud perpetrated to gain money, power, and control over all human activity. Image Credit: CapnBob.us

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media -

Climategate: Alarmism Is Underpinned by Fraud (PJM Exclusive)
November 25, 2009 - by Ian Plimer - Pajamas Media

In the geological past, there have been six major ice ages. During five of these six ice ages, the atmospheric carbon dioxide content was higher than at present. It is clear that the colorless, odorless, non-poisonous gas called carbon dioxide did not drive past climates. Carbon dioxide is plant food, not a pollutant.
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In the 600-year long Roman Warming, it was 4ºC warmer than now. Sea level did not rise and ice sheets did not disappear. The Dark Ages followed, and starvation, disease, and depopulation occurred. The Medieval Warming followed the Dark Ages, and for 400 years it was 5ºC warmer. Sea level did not rise and the ice sheets remained. The Medieval Warming was followed by the Little Ice Age, which finished in 1850. It is absolutely no surprise that temperature increased after a cold period.

Unless I have missed something, I am not aware of heavy industry, coal-fired power stations, or SUVs in the 1,000 years of Roman and Medieval Warmings.
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There was warming from 1860 to 1880, 1910 to 1940, and 1976 to 1998, with intervening periods of cooling. The only time when temperature rise paralleled carbon dioxide emissions was 1976-1998. The other warmings and coolings in the last 150 years were unrelated to carbon dioxide emissions.

Something is seriously wrong. To argue that humans change climate requires abandoning all we know about history, archaeology, geology, astronomy, and solar physics. This is exactly what has been done.

The answer to this enigma was revealed last week. It is fraud.

Files from the UK Climatic Research Unit were hacked. They show that data was massaged, numbers were fudged, diagrams were biased, there was destruction of data after freedom of information requests, and there was refusal to submit taxpayer-funded data for independent examination.

Data was manipulated to show that the Medieval Warming didn’t occur, and that we are not in a period of cooling. Furthermore, the warming of the 20th century was artificially inflated.

This behavior is that of criminals and all the data from the UK Hadley Centre and the US GISS must now be rejected. These crooks perpetrated these crimes at the expense of the British and U.S. taxpayers.

The same crooks control the IPCC and the fraudulent data in IPCC reports. The same crooks meet in Copenhagen next week and want 0.7% of the Western world’s GDP to pass through an unelected UN government, and then on to sticky fingers in the developing world.

You should be angry. Very angry.
Reference Here>>

We, at MAXINE, say Pull The Plug!

Pull the plug on almost every (public and private) expensive, well meaning, based on fraud CO2 reduction "EXCHANGE" (read that as cap & trade) program that exists. Investigate Al Gore and others who have profited greatly on this public money supported science enterprise and SCAM. Pull the plug on all activity envisioned through accords reached and projected through meetings in Kyoto and Copenhagen!

Let us all demand that the Science community gets back to establishing tested scientific FACT ... and thereby, get its truth back ... while we demand a refund on all of our tax money that has been spent (fleeced) on this concept and myth of Anthropogenic Global Warming - let us demand our money back!

Today's vote in the Senate - Slavery?

The U.S. Preventive Service Task Force announced Nov. 16, 2009, that it now recommends against annual mammograms for women 40 to 49 because the potential harms of routine screening in this age group outweigh the benefits. These downsides include radiation exposure, cost and the trauma of false positives. Many doctors agree with the new guidelines. But some breast cancer survivors back the screenings. ABC News asked BreastCancer.org and Breast Cancer Network of Strength for stories from women who believe that mammograms they received before age 50 saved their lives. Here are the experiences of a few of the women who shared their stories with us. Image Credit: Stephanie Scott/Jaclyn Fisher/Joann Long/Susan Lorenz

Today's vote in the Senate - Slavery?

Today, we will see a forced vote in the Senate brought about by the Democrat Political party and the leader in the Senate, Harry Reid (D-NV).

People would like real reform of our healthcare system as it has evolved over these last five decades, but what the Senate is voting on does nothing to reform or correct where our healthcare system has strayed off of the tracks. Instead, this 2,000 plus page monstrosity is designed to make average citizens economic line items of the state while creating a defined ruling class who do not have to subject themselves to the same life determining rules, assistance (or lack thereof), and costs as the rest of us.

The clear signal of what this Administration and Congressional leadership intends for the healthcare management for the rest of us came early this week when a committee working in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius came out with recommendations to reduce screening for breast cancer in women. The new mammography guidelines, released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Monday, suggest fewer mammograms for those 50 and older and no routine mammograms at all for those younger than 50. For those opposed to the health care bill going before the Senate today, the guidelines have become a rallying cry against comparative effectiveness -- which, simply put, means the comparison of different medical approaches to determine which one delivers the best balance of benefits with the fewest possible downsides.

To add even greater insult to injury, for the second time in a week, another group of medical experts has recommended that some women can be tested less frequently for cancer … in general. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists just recommended that young women can hold off until 21 before getting their first Pap smear and get them every two years through the rest of their 20s, instead of annually. Previously, the doctor group had said young women should get a Pap smear three years after first having sex or age 21, whichever came earlier.

I do not understand why this Government is targeting women and showing them “the door” now, just before the Government is poised to vote to take over all decision-making on healthcare issues while exempting themselves from the process … but these recommendations appear to be sexist at best.

The real problem comes when this type of discernment is applied to all of the citizens in the population while the members of Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Supreme Court remain exempt from being forced into Government run healthcare system sets up a structure of slavery.

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media –

Congress: Gov’t healthcare for thee but not for me
By Roger L. Simon - November 20th, 2009 4:52 pm

I guess many Members of Congress secretly realize the Dean of Harvard Med was correct when he attacked the proposed healthcare legislation as a virtual anti-health boondoggle in the WSJ last week, because those members aren’t signing onto the legislation for themselves. They are only signing on for you.

Yes, the healthcare legislation still does not require Members of Congress to be part of the public plan, option, call it what you will, only poor sucker citizens. Those Congressmen are no fools. They know government-run medicine hasn’t worked in Canada and the UK. You think they want their wives lining up for a mammogram?

Here are some interesting tidbits that have been pointed out to me on my current brief visit to DC:

Ways and Means Committee – Rep. Heller (R-NV) offered an amendment to require all (”exchange eligible”) Members of Congress and their families to get insurance through the government-run plan. It failed, by a vote of 18-21, with three Democrats supporting the amendment: Berkley, Davis (AL), and Yarmuth. You can read all about it on p. 518 of this interminable document. (Who says PJM isn’t a full-service media company?) When a similar amendment was offered at the Energy and Commerce markup, it was dismissed by chairman Henry Waxman as “nongermane.” That’s my Congressman, of course. No comment necessary.

Over at the Rules Committee several amendments were filed on this subject, but ultimately not permitted under their rules. Rep. Sessions moved to make an order and provide the necessary waivers for amendment #1 offered by Reps. Fleming (R-LA), Wilson (R-SC), Gingrey (R-GA), and Herger (R-CA), which would automatically enroll all Members of Congress and all Senators in the public option. His motion was defeated on a party line vote of 4-6, with the following Members absent: Slaughter, Matsui, Pingree.
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You won’t read about this nonsense in the MSM, of course, but we’re going to try to deliver more on PJTV and the pages of Pajamas Media.
Reference Here>>

Do your best to end slavery … medical (and life sustaining) slavery now. Call or email your Senator TODAY, before it’s too late!

We need 41 NO votes on cloture!

We need to lean hard on the below Senators, they are our best chance of this getting this stopped in the Senate:

Mark Begich-AK- phone. (202) 224-3004, , toll free. (877) 501 – 6275* fax. (202) 224-2354,
Email: http://begich.senate.gov/contact/contact...

Blanche L. Lincoln –AR-Office: 202-224-4843; Fax: 202-228-1371,
Email: http://lincoln.senate.gov/contact/email....

Mark Pryor-AR Phone: (202) 224-2353, Fax: (202) 228-0908
Email: http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/

Joseph Lieberman- CT-(202) 224-4041 Voice,(202) 224-9750 Fax
Email: http://lieberman.senate.gov/contact/

Thomas Carper-DE Phone: (202) 224-2441, Fax: (202) 228-2190
Email: http://carper.senate.gov/contact/

Bill Nelson- FL- Phone: 202-224-5274, Fax: 202-228-2183
Email: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/ind...

Even Bayh-IN (202) 224-5623, (202) 228-1377 fax
Email: http://bayh.senate.gov/contact/email/

Mary Landrieu- LA Voice: (202)224-5824,Fax:(202) 224-9735
Email: http://landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index...

Susan Collins –( R ) ME-Phone: (202) 224-2523, Fax: (202) 224-2693
Email(http://collins.senate.gov/public/continu......

Olympia Snowe-( R ) ME – Phone: (202) 224-5344,Toll Free: (800) 432-1599 Fax: (202) 224-1946
Email: http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm.....

John Tester-MT Phone: (202) 224-2644, Fax: (202) 224-8594
Email: http://tester.senate.gov/Contact/index.c...

Kent Conrad-ND-Phone: (202) 224-2043, Fax: (202) 224-7776
Email: http://conrad.senate.gov/contact/webform...

Ben Nelson-NE- Tel: 1-202-224-6551, Fax: 1-202-228-0012
Email: http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact-me.c...

Ron Wyden-OR Phone: (202) 224-5244, Fax: (202) 228-2717
Email: http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/

Robert Byrd-WV- Telephone: (202) 224-3954,Fax: (202) 228-0002
Email: http://byrd.senate.gov/contacts/

Mark Warner- VA- Phone: 202-224-2023, Fax: 202-224-6295
Email: http://warner.senate.gov/public/index.cf...

Bob Bennett- UT-Phone: (202) 224-5444 (no fax)
Email: http://bennett.senate.gov/...ex.cfm?p=ContactForm

Byron Dorgan- ND Phone (202) 224-2551 , Fax (202) 224-1193
Email: http://dorgan.senate.gov/...tact/contact_form.cfm

Max Baucus-MT (202) 224-2651 (Office),(202) 224-9412 (Fax)
Email: http://baucus.senate.gov/...ilForm.cfm?subj=issue

Today is the day we end the slavery movement … again. This time without guns.

Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Anti-corruption, Public enterprises, Industry, Tourism, Trade and Communications, Fiji (left); and Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU (International Telecommunications Union) Secretary-General (right). Image Credit: ITU / V. Martin

Media Watch: Hugo Chavez, Barack Obama, Mark Lloyd, and Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum

What do Hugo Chavez, Barack Obama, Mark Lloyd, and Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum have in common?

Almost everything as it relates to their desires to CONTROL what is broadcast and who broadcasts it.

The big difference here is that Venezuela's dictator President, and Fiji's Military Coup Government appointee have actually asserted Government control over their media outlets where as the Obama Administration and its FCC Diversity Czar, Mark Lloyd are still in the planning stages of its strategy to dictate the terms of broadcasting to media outlets (especially those outlets that offer a balanced, counter-point or conservative political view of current events on the ground) here in the United States.

This excerpted and edited from The Australian -

Fiji strips licences from broadcasters
By Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor From: The Australian - November 21, 2009 12:00AM

THE military-installed Fiji government has removed all broadcasting licences and given Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum the absolute power to renew or redistribute them without any compensation to those whose licences are stripped.
Television and radio stations are broadcasting this weekend on a temporary basis, as the owner, managers, staff and audiences await the determinations of Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.

He is the second-most powerful figure in the government after military commander and prime minister Frank Bainimarama.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum is also Minister for Justice, Anti-Corruption, Public Enterprises, Industry, Investment and Tourism, and Communications.

The action was carried out this week by decree - the chief tool of government since the parliament was scrapped and the constitution abrogated.
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Anyone broadcasting in contravention to the minister's directions can be jailed for five years.

The dominant television broadcaster, Fiji TV, is owned by Yasana Holdings, which represents the 14 ethnic Fijian provinces, and which also owns the monopoly Papua New Guinea TV broadcaster EMTV.

Fiji TV established a reputation for impartial news coverage, although the military installed two officers on its board following the coup three years ago.

It, like the country's other media, is now subject to stringent military censorship.

All the country's VHF TV frequencies are in the hands of Fiji TV.

It is now expected that at least one of these frequencies will be reallocated to the government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, which operates a radio service and has expressed an intention to establish a TV network, towards which it has allocated several million dollars.

The corporation's chief executive, appointed earlier this year, is Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, younger brother of the Attorney-General and formerly a TV journalist.

The government broadcasts directly from 7-9pm nightly, except on Sundays, on a frequency it pays to rent from Fiji TV.
Reference Here>>

So, hold on to your freedom of the press because it is about to be challenged, just as every other civic right this country has to offer is under assault and being challenged ... we are all just a short stone's throw from becoming ... Fiji!

You know, all of the Government oppression, however, with little of that island paradise.

Paint the Obama Administration with Halliburton brush coated with AIG

Officials handling the multibillion dollar bailout of insurance giant American International Group Inc. mismanaged an initial rescue attempt and may have overpaid other banks to wind down AIG's business relationships, a government watchdog says. Image Credit: Mark Lennihan

Paint The Obama Administration With Halliburton Brush Coated With AIG

The facts are surfacing about the activities of Timothy Geithner and his transition into the Obama Administration and the bail-out of AIG.

These facts should have the press take out the Halliburton brush and begin painting the Obama Administration with a healthy coat of AIG.

The reference here is to compare the point of view that the Mainstream Media held with respect to the relationship the Bush Administration had with the exclusive contract bid process they used to engage Halliburton Corporation in providing services on a sub-contract basis in the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With Halliburton, however, the argument can be made that this corporation was unique in being able to provide the services required and the Government did, in fact, receive the services contracted for. The American people got what they paid for.

What did the American people get from the management of its money spent on AIG and how was this effort managed.

For his part, Barack Obama assured us all how the Government would operate in a speech just after the $787 Billion dollar Stimulus Bill was passed by Congress.

With the party-line voting on the stimulus marking a defeat for his push for bipartisanship, Obama shifted focus to something else most un-Washington: making government spending transparent.

"Washington hasn't set a very good example in recent years, and with so much on the line, it's time to begin doing things differently," he said.

"I've tasked my Cabinet and staff to set up the kind of management, oversight, and disclosure that will help ensure that."

Enter (tax-cheat) Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner ... it was revealed today in an article appearing in the Washington Post that he did not negotiate with the AIG corporate primaries, let alone the additional connected web of companies associated with AIG, a discount on the money to be paid to financial institutions to secure their sub-prime portfolio assets in order to save these institutions from collapsing. The taxpayer money committed paid 100% on the value of the assets purchased.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York didn't even try to get a good deal for taxpayers when it caved to demands from AIG's creditors that they should be paid in full. Image Credit: Clusterstock

This excerpted and edited from the Washington Post -

Fed criticized for not negotiating harder with AIG creditors
Inspector general says decisions during bailout 'came with a cost'
By Brady Dennis, Washington Post Staff Writer - Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Federal Reserve officials made only a passing attempt to negotiate discounts from the creditors of American International Group last fall before directing the company to fully pay what it owed on its troubled derivatives contracts, according to a report from the special inspector general overseeing the government's financial rescue program.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who was then the president of the New York Fed, concurred with advisers that it would be impractical to impose losses on AIG's counterparties and that they essentially should be paid at 100 cents on the dollar, the report by special inspector general Neil Barofsky states.
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The government extended an $85 billion loan to AIG in September 2008 as the company struggled to pay obligations related to derivatives contracts at its Financial Products unit. According to Barofsky, that initial loan came with a high interest rate, which "inadequately addressed AIG's long term liquidity concerns, thus requiring further government support."

Later, New York Fed officials agreed to buy tens of billions of dollars worth of complex securities that would allow Financial Products to cancel its most troublesome contracts, and staff members developed talking points that stressed to AIG's trading partners that they were benefiting from the bailouts and asked them to agree to concessions, according to Barofsky.
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Ultimately, AIG's trading partners received more than $62 billion, which many critics have branded as "backdoor bailouts."

In a letter commenting on Barofsky's report, Fed officials called the original AIG loan "appropriate in light of the circumstances at the time." In addition, they argued that the Fed had done what it could in trying to negotiate with AIG's trading partners.

"We believe that the Federal Reserve acted appropriately in conducting these negotiations, and that our negotiating strategy, including the decision to treat all counterparties equally, was not flawed or unreasonably limited," the letter said. It said the Fed actively sought concessions from AIG's counterparties, "but was unable to obtain any such agreements." The officials added that they were wary of using their supervisory authority on behalf of AIG to impose losses on other companies.
Reference Here>>

The American taxpayer got what it paid for ... through the tens of billions of dollars to AIG and its network of companies. A 'still ugly' economy with a group of financial executives that will be giving some of the money they received with their intact multi-million dollar pay bonuses, political contributions to this one-party "CONTROL" Government regime we have three more years (hopefully, only one) to endure.

It is high time to start painting!

Obama As Commander-In-Chief ... From A Law Professor Perspective

President tells Jake Tapper it was important to let the investigation play itself out so the details as to how and why the rampage happened are known before he comments further [ctrl-click to launch video]. Image Credit: ABC News

Obama As Commander-In-Chief ... From A Law Professor Perspective

Yesterday, Jake Tapper of ABC News had a sit down interview with President Barack Obama at the White House that covered many of the pressing issues of the day from the economy (unemployment at 10.2%), the Congress passing its version of a Health Care system overhaul (that included a ban on Federal funding of abortion procedures), Afghanistan and a slow-paced troop build-up, and a small discussion on the mass murder rampage by Major Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood and its meaning in the face of 9/11, jihad, and acts of terrorism.

One would expect that President Obama, as Commander-In-Chief over all of our American military, would have a profound and decisive response to almost any act that would be damaging to the moral, unity of purpose, and overall readiness of our armed forces. Sadly, Barack Hussein Obam(Mmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmmm)a's response, and this in light that this Nov. 5 shooting rampage happened 4 days ago, was anything but one that had the steely resolve of a Commander-In-Chief.

No, the response from Barack Obama was one of a Chicago university law professor, ending a discussion where he wanted the students to think of the professor as one burdened with so much knowledge, that a direct and resolved answer would give away too much and spur the students to want to study more.

ABC News is out front on the Fort Hood massacre story. Correspondent Brian Ross is reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Hasan was attempting to contact associates of Al Qaeda [ctrl-click to launch video]. Image Credit: ABC News

This excerpted and edited from ABC News -

Obama: All Necessary Steps Will Be Taken to Prevent Another Tragedy Like Fort Hood
By JAKE TAPPER, KAREN TRAVERS, SUNLEN MILLER and DEVIN DWYER - Nov. 9, 2009

On Tuesday, Obama will attend a memorial service at Fort Hood for the 13 killed in last week's shooting. Today he reiterated that the nation is "heartbroken" by what happened there Thursday, but said there are many questions to be answered.

The president was asked about an ABC News report that intelligence officials learned months ago that Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan had reached out via the Internet to al Qaeda affiliates, and had passed it into military intelligence, though no official actions seem to have been taken. But he wouldn't say directly whether he was concerned that the U.S. government failed to communicate with itself as was seen in the investigation into 9/11.
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Asked what philosophically separates an act of violence from an act of terrorism, the president said, "I think the questions that we're asking now and we don't have yet complete answers to is, is this an individual who's acting in this way or is it some larger set of actors? You know, what are the motivations? Those are all questions that I think we have to ask ourselves. Until we have these answers buttoned down, I'd rather not comment on it.
Reference Here>>

Obama's statement on May 31, 2009, just hours after George Tiller's death (the assassination of a renowned abortion doctor at the hands of another): "I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."

Why couldn't have Obama issued a statement similar just hours as opposed to days after the murderous act to the statement he issued for the Tiller murder like ... "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as religious freedom and jihad, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."

As Commander-In-Chief over all of our American military, President Barack Obama has an obligation to lead and protect - not to philosophize over what type of mass murder this act represents ... but to make sure it does not happen again beyond any considerations of Political Correctness.

Obama Administration: Horse Trading For Healthcare Control

Nancy Pelosi couldn’t have announced the new House healthcare reform bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), with any more pomp and circumstance. It was certainly more impressive than the Senate’s mouse-like rollout, apparently intended to avoid rubbing salt in the Baucus “bipartisanship” wound. H.R. 3962 is definitely a major milestone in attempting to reform our broken system-less healthcare; it’s historic, certainly. But no, it’s not the best our legislators could do. Image Credit: Wikipedia

Obama Administration: Horse Trading For Healthcare Control

Many have said it over these last several months ... "It's the Chicago way." What pundits have been reacting to is the way Barack Obama and the Administration around him negotiate in bad faith in order to get what they want, politically, even when the outcome will create more damage to our Constitutional country than fix the problems they say they are trying to address.

Just this last week, President Obama was able to come to the microphones Friday and tout the fact that he has received the endorsements of some pretty recognizable health care and special interest advocacy groups in the run up to the close approval of the House of Representatives Bill for the radical overhaul of America's health care insurance industry - HR-3962.

This excerpted and edited from The Doc Is In -

Health Care Reform 2009: Why Did the AMA & AARP Back Obamacare?
by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann

Here are the deals:

* The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians’ reimbursements under the current law.

Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors and as of this point in time, they have risen to 21 percent. With this leverage as blackmail, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill … or else!

* The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill.

Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues.

Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP — which supposedly represents them — will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group; contact sbarton@americanseniors.org. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it).

* The drug industry backed ObamaCare and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in prescription drug costs.

This represents chump-change to HR-3962's almost $3 trillion projected costs over the next decade. They also got administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.

* Insurance companies get access to 36-40 million potential new customers.

When the Senate Finance Committee lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don’t buy insurance from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and opposed the bill, albeit for the worst of motives - so the fine stood.

The only industry that refused to knuckle under was the Medical Device Makers (MDM). They stood on principle and wouldn’t go along with Obama’s blackmail strategy for an endorsement. The Senate Finance Committee reacted to this stance by imposing a tax on the MDM marketplace targeting medical devices such as automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stents, prosthetic limbs, artificial knees and hips and other necessary accouterments and consumables of healthcare.
Reference Here>>

So, these endorsements were not freely given, but were bought and paid for by an administration that is intent on passing its "Control of Healthcare" program at any cost. This is not the American way, you know, for the good of the country ...

... It's the Chicago way!