You Will Inform On Yourself

Years ago, my college roommate and I , both very much Anglophiles, made plans to visit Britain one summer. We both got our passports and had serious plans about where we would stay and what we would see and do while there. Through a series of problems, financial and otherwise, that trip never got taken, my passport from back then quietly expired unused. That we never took that trip has always bugged me. Now, I wish I had taken that trip even more than ever. Because I am not at all sure I would enjoy a trip to Britain now. Britain is, frankly, becoming rather scary. The government now wants its citizens to inform on themselves.

Every town hall has been ordered to send out surveys demanding local residents' personal information and opinions.

The forms will ask householders to give details of their children, mortgage, ethnic background, religion and sexual orientation.

Civil rights campaigners yesterday called the survey 'intrusive and very sinister', pointing out that any information handed over will not be kept confidential.

Ministers have even given instructions that local councils must try to disguise their involvement in the survey to avoid attracting criticism.

And they have ruled that the questioning must be paid for out of council tax and carried out every two years.

The New Place Survey - which is expected to be launched next autumn after trials in the spring - is likely to cost at least £15million by 2012.

According to a consultation paper distributed by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, the justification for the survey is that it will let the Government know if councils are hitting scores of new targets imposed on them in the last six months.

Oh, by all means, do jump over to the link at look at the marvelous photo of Communities Secretary Hazel Blears. It really captures the moment, so to speak. The kicker to all this? None of the information collected is subject to ANY confidentiality. Citizens will simply send their most personal data to the government and trust it. Which seems somewhat misguided, considering that the same government keeps losing confidential data that IS protected by laws.

I think this is actually getting worse than George Orwell thought it would.

Can The 400 Hold?

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (minority report) notes that more than 400 prominent scientists, including several former members of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have raised objections - some strenuously - to the hysteria that Al Gore and his sycophants have been screeching. Even the media has begun to notice that the "consensus" is more than a bit wobbly.

Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called "consensus" on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.  

The new report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s office of the GOP Ranking Member details the views of the scientists, the overwhelming majority of whom spoke out in 2007. 

Even some in the establishment media now appear to be taking notice of the growing number of skeptical scientists. In October, the Washington Post Staff Writer Juliet Eilperin conceded the obvious, writing that climate skeptics "appear to be expanding rather than shrinking." Many scientists from around the world have dubbed 2007 as the year man-made global warming fears “bite the dust.” (LINK)  In addition, many scientists who are also progressive environmentalists believe climate fear promotion has "co-opted" the green movement. (LINK) 

This blockbuster Senate report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation.  It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their peer reviewed studies and original source materials as gathered from public statements, various news outlets, and websites in 2007. This new “consensus busters” report is poised to redefine the debate.

Many of the scientists featured in this report consistently stated that numerous colleagues shared their views, but they will not speak out publicly for fear of retribution. Atmospheric scientist Dr. Nathan Paldor, Professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of almost 70 peer-reviewed studies, explains how many of his fellow scientists have been intimidated.

 “Many of my colleagues with whom I spoke share these views and report on their inability to publish their skepticism in the scientific or public media,” Paldor wrote.  [Note: See also July 2007 Senate report detailing how skeptical scientists have faced threats and intimidation - LINK ]  

Regular readers know that I am not on any true believer Christmas card lists. But I have been looking into a couple of things lately (which will probably really get some folks angry with me.) I took a look at a bit of data and generated a graph. Then looked at some other data and looked at the graph they generated. To an engineer, these graphs show a trend. But it isn't the one you and I have been hearing from Al Gore and the media. First, data from the Rutgers University Global Snow Lab or GSL. I took the monthly snow cover numbers for the Northern hemisphere directly from their site and plugged it into a spreadsheet. I then generated a graph. No data manipulation was done at all.

(Click for larger)

The magenta line is the average, as calculated by the spreadsheet program. The black trendline is generated by the spreadsheet graph. Draw your own conclusions. Again, no manipulation of data was done.

Next, the graph from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Cryosphere Today website. This graph (no raw data) shows the amount of sea ice around Antarctica.

(Click for larger)

That does not look like a declining trend to me, nor does it to my wife who is also a trained engineer. In fact, neither look like declining trends.

So, are the 400 holding at the Hot Gates? Time will tell. But it seems that things are not quite as they seem - or as Al Gore and company are portraying them, does it?

Oh, Drat

I thought that the Hillary Clinton "Socialist Santa" ad had been pulled from YouTube, but it must have been a momentary glitch - it is now working. Oh darn.

Well, Jingle My Bells

The town in Maine that currently holds the world's record for largest snowman, a 113 feet, 7 inch behemoth named "Angus, King of the Mountain" was constructed in 1999 in Bethel, Maine. This year, they are going to top their own effort with an even taller snowwoman if all goes as planned.

The effort is slated to begin on Jan. 22 and take up to 20 days to complete, said Executive Director Robin Zinchuk.

"We definitely learned a lot the first time around and that's helping us know what we need to do. We really didn't know what we were doing last time," Zinchuk said.

The giant snowman was named "Angus, King of the Mountain" in honor of former Gov. Angus King.

Angus was so big that his nose was 8 feet long, his hat was 20 feet in diameter and the scarf around his neck was 120 feet long. His eyes were 4-foot wreaths, and his smile was made from automobile tires.

It took so much snow to make Angus that he didn't entirely melt away until mid-June.

Fashion ideas being tossed around for a giant snowwoman include making a skirt out of snow, adding a pink scarf and painting tires lipstick red for her mouth.

The town is looking for fashion ideas as well as a name for their creation. While "Hillary, The Ice Queen" comes to mind right away, we'd recommend they stay away from that. She might send Sandy Berger to visit and all the town's records might disappear. Besides, the ice trident might hurt someone.

A Visit From Team Hillary

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, (‘cept maybe a louse);
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The voters were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
Little did I know that Santa had been hijacked
And someone else would soon interact.

When out on the lawn there rose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see if I’d hidden the ladder,
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon, on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what should I recognize ,
But a miniature sleigh, drawn by eight tiny guys,
With a woman driver, firing words like artillery,
I knew in a moment it must be that Hillary.
More rapid than eagles her coursers they came,
And she whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Bubba! now, Mark Penn! now, Berger (no fries)
On! Character assassins and the rest of you guys—
To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall!
Now, hack away, hack away, hack away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So, up to the house-top the henchmen they flew,
With a sleigh full of smears—and that Hillary too.
And then in a twinkling I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney those folks came with a bound.

Hillary was dressed in both diamonds and pearls.
As she pretended to be one of the girls
But her visage was tarnished with traces of soot
From backfired attacks that had landed on her foot
A fresh bundle of smears she had flung on Bubba’s back
While Penn muttered “cocaine” and acted the flack
Sandy Berger was hunting for things to put in his sock
While Bubba kept looking up the tree angel’s frock
Hillary’s face was fixed in a snarl,
while she muttered quite fiercely, “I’m meaner than Karl.”

Her assassins began planting rumors ‘neath the tree
While her hard, cold gaze fixated on me
“I’m bringing new taxes, your money to spend.
And you’ll vote for me, on that you can depend
‘Cause if you don’t, I know where you live.
And I’ll come back and make sure extra you give
We’re taking your stockings, Sandy needs more socks
Welcome to Hillary’s school of hard knocks.
The tree it was now coated with slime
And Hillary shouted, c’mon boys, its time!
We’re off to Obama’s to leave him some coal
He’ll learn bucking me sure takes a toll.

With that her henchmen and her disappeared up the flue
Leaving me bankrupt and covered in goo.
As the sleigh disappeared I heard Hillary shout,
“Happy holidays, vote for me.”

“Or else.”

Merry Christmas.

UPDATE: Erick at Redstate has fixed Hillary's original ad and provided a little context:

When Sneaks Attack

MSNBC is reporting what appears to be a singularly sneaky attack by a public employees union that is supporting Hillary Clinton but has sent out a direct mailing that appears to come from supporters of John Edwards. The mailing, from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) quotes Edwards but is on the record as supporting Clinton.

Here's the kicker, though: The piece quotes Edwards from a Sioux City Journal article in November saying that that "as many as 15 million Americans would be without coverage" under Obama's plan.

But, as it turns out, AFSCME is backing Clinton. In fact, even though Clinton and her campaign have been arguing for the past month that Obama's health-care plan doesn't insure everyone, Clinton's name isn't mentioned once on the flier. The Edwards quote makes it appear to be a slam by the Edwards team. 

This tactic, it seems, could be intended to deflect the distaste that most voters have for direct attacks — even those that are policy based. But those in the know might think that this new negative mail is Iowa Nice playing a little dirty.

It isn't a little dirty. It is dirty. Period. They know that Clinton's negativity has rebounded and backfired on her, so they try to misdirect the backlash. This is likely to backfire even worse, though. Because both the Edwards and the Obama campaigns are very unlikely to let it pass without making sure people know who was really behind the attack - and who they are really backing.

Seriously, stupidly bad move. This will not play well in Iowa.

Clinton’s Negative Campaigning, V. 2.0

Yeah, so much for that "apology" from Hillary Clinton to Obama. Her campaign has just launched several brand new attack websites dedicated to savaging Barack Obama, according to ABC News.

ABC News has learned that the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has registered the names of two Web sites with the express goal of attacking her chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

It's the first time this election cycle a presidential campaign has launched a Web site with the express purpose of criticizing a rival.

Votingpresent.com and Votingpresent.org are domains hosted by the same IP address as official Clinton Web sites, such TheHillaryIKnow.com, which was launched with much fanfare this week.

The Clinton campaign intends to use these new Web sites to paint Obama as cowardly.

Clinton has attacked Obama for having occasionally voted "present" as an Illinois state legislator when it came to contentious legislation.

If you believed Clinton was sincere in her apology and meant it when she said that negative campaigning wasn't part of her philosophy, raise your hand.

Then slap yourself until you wake up.

New Email Contact Address

Please be advised that I have had to change the email address that is listed on the "About" page. Spammers somehow compromised the original contact address. This applies to that email address only at this time. A human should be able to figure the addy out, but hopefully a spambot will not. But I may be forced to change this periodically, as it appears to be a WordPress weakness that allowed the exploit - at least that is what the hosting company is telling me.

If anyone did get any spam that supposedly originated from this site's email, I apologize and assure you it did not come from here, but was spoofed. The original address is being shut down, effective immediately and all emails in it will be lost. The address book there was always very small, on purpose, but that will be lost as well.

Sorry for any inconvenience. If you meet a spammer, slap him.

UPDATE: The old contact email has been deleted, taking all emails with it. I did not feel it was a good idea to try to save anything since the spammers have been able to exploit it.

Terror And Torture

US forces in Iraq have uncovered a suspected al Qaeda torture center. Oh, there is no doubt that it is a torture center. It just isn't completely clear who ran it. But the bodies in a mass grave, the chains on the walls, the blood sprayed room and the iron bed frame rigged up to a battery make it pretty clear what they found.

The discoveries of the mass graves and torture center near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, came during a Dec. 8-11 operation.

The torture center, which the U.S. military said it suspected was run by al-Qaida in Iraq, was found based on tips from Iraqis in the area, where the al-Qaida insurgents are very active. Graves containing 26 bodies were found nearby.

"We discovered several (weapons) caches, a torture facility that had chains, a bed _ an iron bed that was still connected to a battery _ knives and swords that were still covered in blood as we went in to go after the terrorists in that area," said Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq.

Soldiers found a total of nine caches containing a surface-to-air missile launcher, sniper rifles, 130 pounds of homemade explosives and numerous mortar tubes and rounds, among other weapons.

The operation also saw multiple battles between U.S. troops and militants, and the military said it killed 24 insurgents and detained 37 others.

Elsewhere, police in France have rounded up eight men suspected of supporting al Qaeda in Algeria in raids in and around Paris:

The suspects, seven Algerians and one Frenchman aged between 30 and 35, were arrested on Tuesday morning in and around Paris, as well as in the region of the northern city of Rouen, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed source.

It said the men were part of "an important support network linked to Algerian terrorism" and were suspected of having links with the al Qaeda branch which claimed responsibility for twin car bombs in Algiers last week that killed more than 30 people.

A police official contacted by Reuters confirmed the report but added that three of the suspects had since been released.

British authorities welcomed three men released from the US facility at Guantanamo Bay by promptly arresting all of them. One has since been bailed out after a judge ruled in his favor.

A former Guantanamo Bay detainee wanted for extradition by Spain on terrorism charges is to be released after being granted bail by a London magistrates' court.

Jamil el-Banna, 45, was one of three British residents arrested after landing back in the country last night following their release from the controversial US military prison on Cuba.

Spain wants to extradite two of the men because of suspected terrorist activities. Funny thing about the report: nobody seems to know where the bail money is coming from.

This global conspiracy is what we are fighting, folks.

Surprise: Enforcement Actually Helps Control Illegal Immigration

The Tucson Citizen reports that many illegal immigrants are fleeing Arizona in the face of the new state laws mandating sanctions on employers who hire illegals. It is still only a trickle, but the numbers will almost certainly increase if the new law survives the latest legal challenge and actually goes into effect in January.

The number returning to Mexico is difficult to calculate, but there is no question that many families are leaving, according to Mexican government officials, local community leaders and immigrants themselves.
 
"The situation in Arizona has become very tough," Jorge said minutes after driving into a Mexican immigration and customs checkpoint south of the border on Mexico 15.
Dozens of immigrants are leaving the U.S. daily, and even more are expected to leave once the sanctions law takes effect in January, provided the law survives a last-minute legal challenge, said Rosendo Hernandez, president of the advocacy group Immigrants Without Borders.
 
"If people can't find work, they won't be able to pay their bills, so they will leave," Hernandez said.

In what are considered bellwethers of permanent moves back to Mexico, the Mexican consulate in Phoenix has seen a dramatic increase in applications for Mexican birth certificates, passports and other documents that immigrants living in Arizona will need to return home.
In November alone, the consulate processed 240 applications for Mexican birth certificates, three times as many as the same month last year, said Carlos Flores Vizcarra, Mexican consul general of Phoenix.
 
Processing applications

The consulate also has processed more than 16,500 applications for Mexican passports this year, nearly twice as many as last year. Vizcarra attributed some of the demand for passports to stricter travel regulations among the U.S., Mexico and Canada slated to take effect in January. But he said many illegal immigrants are applying for passports in case they lose their jobs due to the sanctions law or a slowdown in the economy and therefore want to go back and live in Mexico.

"People are fearful. They are getting ready as much as they can (to leave)," he said.
Mexican officials and border authorities expect southbound traffic to rise significantly this week as Christmas approaches.

The exodus has drawn cheers from foes of illegal immigration.

The story should enrage people. The family they profile used falsified documents to obtain work. They are finally leaving because of the new law - which is already doing what it was intended to do before it goes into effect. It took the threat of the law for their employers to bother to check - whereupon the forged documents were discovered and both were terminated. They were then unable to find other jobs because the law, again, functioned as designed.

The paper fails to ask if the two used stolen identities, which would be nice to know, especially for the people who had their identities compromised. They're too busy trying to make the family into sympathetic figures. It would be nice to see some concern for their fellow citizens as well.

Clue to the politicians: enforcement actually works. We can severely reduce the number of people entering this country illegally, control the borders and liberalize the legal immigration system. A high fence, a wide gate and a hearty welcome for those who follow the rules. Short shrift for those who break them.

Skating On The Edge

The Los Angeles Times actually does a reasonably good job of reporting the way that the Clinton campaign has been skating along at the very edge of going fully negative. Their report actually covers the way Clinton has used surrogates to launch 'deniable' attacks while keeping up a steady drip of cheap shots, innuendo and rumor.

Recent polling shows that Obama would be competitive in the general election; a USA Today-Gallup poll showed that he fares a bit better than Clinton in head-to-head contests with three top Republicans.

But Clinton's message is that once the GOP finishes sullying him, he won't look so pristine. In contrast, she is, she said, "ready and able to run a campaign against whatever" — a word she emphasized — "the Republicans decide to throw our way."

In addressing voters, she does not specify what "whatever" might encompass, nor does she mention Obama by name. But some of her surrogates have.

During a recent newspaper interview, her New Hampshire campaign co-chairman invoked Obama's teenage drug use, which the senator from Illinois has publicly discussed. Such indiscretions, said Bill Shaheen, could make Obama vulnerable.

"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?' " Shaheen said.

Clinton's campaign repudiated the remarks, and Shaheen quickly resigned. But there have been other cases of Clinton aides and loyalists zeroing in on aspects of Obama's history that she won't publicly mention.

In a television appearance, her top strategist, Mark Penn, used the word "cocaine" in talking about the Shaheen episode. An advisor to another campaign jumped in and chided Penn for making a gratuitous reference.

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), who endorsed Clinton on Sunday, later gave an interview where he mentioned Obama's middle name — "Hussein," a family name — and added that Obama's Kenyan father and paternal grandmother were Muslim (the candidate is Christian).

Kerrey has said that he was merely trying to compliment Obama, casting him as a worldly figure — but his words could also serve to agitate voters.

Better coverage than many media outlets even though it is still going easy on Clinton. They do point out Penn's cheap shot, but they fail to note that it came after Hillary "apologized" which indicates the real direction the campaign has received. But the polls are still not showing that Clinton has stopped her slide. Clinton still holds a comfortable lead in the national polls, but the Iowa and New Hampshire ones are still a problem. The Clinton campaign is indicating today that they see Edwards as a real threat in Iowa. Because of the way the Iowa Caucuses work, the second choice votes are very important. Clinton could, quite conceivably finish in third place there. That might be a real problem and may really damage her nationally.

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — Advisers to Hillary Clinton have been pushing the notion that John Edwards poses a growing threat in the Iowa caucuses, suggesting their internal data show something of a mini-surge for the former senator from North Carolina. Barack Obama's advisers have countered that it makes for a convenient story line — and is evidence that the Clinton campaign is threatened by a two-way race with Obama.

On Wednesday, Clinton took Edwards on over his signature issue, indicating that she may view the Edwards improvements as quite real. "People talk about poverty in this campaign," Clinton said during a crowded event here, noting that her husband's administration was an era of great progress on the issue. "Well, we lifted more people out of poverty during the 1990s than at any time in our history.

In a way, Clinton's attacks on Edwards - and public "leaking" of the campaign's concerns are another attack on Obama. His campaign is correct about that. This sends the signal that Hillary doesn't regard Obama as all that big a threat. It is subtle, but it is vintage Clinton.