Blogs For Victory

Hal Lewis’ resignation from the American Physical Society:

From: Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara

To: Curtis G. Callan, Jr., Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society

6 October 2010…

…It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist…

Do read the entire linked letter – a stunning rebuke to the politicization of science over the past few decades. And just in case you liberals out there think this guy hasn’t got any credentials:

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making).

Certainly a man who knows what science is. This issue of science being subordinated to politics is very alarming – aside from global warming, what other issues are being skewed because the scientists we rely upon for facts are being twisted by desires for grants, or worries about reputations if they dissent from reigning orthodoxy?

In my view, all of this ultimately stems from the way we allowed the hard left to infect our institutions of higher education. For a long while, the hard sciences were immune from the lies – after all, science is science and you can either prove your theory, or you can’t. But as time went on, the leftwing worldview gained hold, and anyone who wanted to advance in an academic career, regardless of their particular discipline, had to toe the liberal line. In large measure, we can’t rely upon anything coming out of a major university…it may or may not be true, and we can’t rely upon it until we’re sure that a genuinely independent group of scientists had a look at it.

The truth shall set you free – and so truth is not popular on the left. One of the tasks we’ll have to set ourselves it to revive the standards of truth in higher education. Science must be something which goes where ever facts and human reason lead – not something subordinated to whatever political fads are agitating the left at the moment.

And that seems to be the rosy scenario:

The U.S. economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, far worse than expectations for no change in employment. More Census-related temp jobs ended, as expected, but state and local governments slashed staff far more than predicted.

So far in 2010, the U.S. has added just 613,000 jobs — for a monthly average of 68,111.

Employment bottomed in December 2009 at 129.588 million — two years after peaking at 137.951 million. At this year’s pace, the U.S. won’t recoup all those 8.36 million lost jobs until March 2020 — 147 months after the December 2007 high…

And that supposes we actually added private sector jobs – I don’t think we have for several months now. Essentially, when you get the reported number of jobs created, its a guess by BLS…the real numbers don’t come in until about a year later. The BLS, basing itself upon the concept that the recession is over, figures that X number of jobs must have been created and so we get the jobs created number…a year later, when the actual data is available, they are adjusted to reflect what really happened. My bet is for heavy downward revisions.

We can’t spend our way out of this – we must work our way out of this. Our problem (outside of our crushing debt) is lack of production: we don’t make, mine or grow enough things in the United States. Until we balance the budget and set in place policies to encourage production, we’ll get nowhere.

At least, according to Barack Hussein Obama. From an email I received from Mitch Stewart at BarackObama.com (emphases mine):

“This is a threat to our democracy…And if we just stand by and allow the special interests to silence anybody who’s got the guts to stand up to them, our country’s going to be a very different place.”

That’s what the President just said about the Chamber of Commerce, a right-wing group spending $75 million to beat Democrats this fall, and reportedly taking money from foreign corporations — some even owned by foreign governments.

These groups are trying to buy our elections, backing candidates who want to tear down everything that makes the middle class strong in this country: things like Medicare, Social Security, even the minimum wage.

So now the Chamber of Commerce is an extreme right wing radical group??

What’s next, the Jaycees?

Now he’s complaining about foreign money coming in to ad campaigns against his policies – from the NY Times:

…In two campaign stops Thursday, Mr. Obama invoked what he portrayed as a specific new example, citing a blog posting from a liberal advocacy group as he teed off on a longtime adversary, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, over its political spending.

“Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations,” Mr. Obama said. “So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections.”…

First off, as the story goes on to note, there is little evidence of foreign money being used by the Chamber for politics but even if there was, Obama is not the man to be complaining about it.

As Instapundit usefully reminds everyone, back in 2008 a flood of absolutely illegal, foreign money came pouring in to the Obama campaign. And that was just the tip of the illegal money iceberg, as Obama’s campaign set things up so that it was surpassingly easy for Americans to illegally exceed contribution limits. As is typical for Democrats, Obama’s campaign was shot through with financial illegality…and now he’s got the nerve to even question someone else’s finances?

Of course he does. He’s a liberal, you see? This means that anything he does to win is good, no matter how illegal. Anything done to oppose him, naturally, is bad, no matter how legal.

But this this just the sort of garbage we’re looking to clear out on November 2nd. President Obama, your time is done – you and all your fellow liberals. We’ve had enough, and we’re going to take our country back.

Crown Publishers has just announced that Decision Points, the forthcoming memoir from President George W. Bush, with have first printing of 1.5 million copies. The book will be released November 9th. A deluxe e-book will also be released simultaneously.  This edition will be interactive, allowing readers to click on text to view additional multimedia content.

The multimedia content in the deluxe e-book edition includes,

• Videos from the defining moments of the Bush presidency, including President Bush’s inspiring speech to 9/11 rescue workers, intimate Bush family movies, and a special introduction to the edition by the President himself
• Handwritten letters from President Bush’s personal correspondence
• Full texts of President Bush’s most important speeches, including his addresses to the nation about the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and his Second Inaugural
• More than 50 additional photographs not contained in the print edition

Sounds like a good reason to get an iPad. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the memoir. Have you pre-ordered yours yet?

Personally, I cannot wait for this book to come out. I have been anxiously awaiting Bush’s memoir pretty much since he left office. Most of you know that this site was once Blogs For Bush, so you can understand why his memoir would be of such high interest for me.  I know that history will look upon his presidency favorably, and I see this memoir as the first step in setting the record straight.

Hello, everyone – running a garage sale this Saturday, so no time to write for the early AM (well, strictly speaking, there is…but I emptied the attic and then cleared up the garage, and I’m just plain and simple tired…getting old does have its drawbacks, ya know?).

Anyways, still plenty to talk about..including a report I heard that the “over/under” for GOP House seats is 245…Haven’t found the casino running that, but when I do, I’m going to bet the over.

Have at it!

I like it when I come across someone who can put the issue in to just a few paragraphs. Every now and again, I’m able to do that, myself (it is harder than you think) – but I’ve yet to be able to describe our overall condition better than this entry over at Economic Collapse:

…We are like that one couple that almost every neighborhood seems to have that has two shiny new cars in their driveway, that dresses in designer clothes and that seems to have plenty of money to take vacations and yet is in debt up to their eyeballs.

The truth is that the United States keeps getting poorer every single month. The term “trade deficit” is not very sexy, but it is critically important to understand if you want to comprehend what is happening to the U.S. economy. Every month tens of billions of dollars more wealth goes out of the United States than comes into it. We are continually getting poorer.

To cover up our declining national wealth, we have gone into staggering amounts of debt. We have maintained our lavish standard of living by piling up staggering amounts of debt on the national, corporate and consumer levels…

I’m telling you, boys and girls, our only way out of this is to balance our budget and then start making, mining and growing things here in the United States. Balancing the budget will stop the bleeding and prevent national default – while making, mining and growing things will actually create wealth with which we can then pay off the massive debt we’ve already got. If we do anything other than balance the budget and start producing, we’re economically doomed.

The United States is still, by far, the richest nation in the world – we’re just not using our wealth. We have too many people on one form or another of the government dole; we have too many people engaged in non-productive enterprise; we’ve locked away far too much of our natural resources because of environmental and other concerns; we’ve taxed and regulated ourselves to the point where business reasonably feels its just easier to do business in China, of all places – we’ve killed the goose which laid the golden eggs for us.

Decline is not inevitable – people choose to decline. What do we choose? We can get out of this – in 20 years, we could be sitting on top of the economic world once again. All we have to do is show a willingness to face harsh realities, and then get to work.

Will we do it? Time will tell.

Talk about setting the bar impossibly high:

Trying to reshape expectations for the midterm elections, David Plouffe said Thursday that the Republicans should be expected to make a full sweep of Congress – and key gubernatorial races – given the environmental advantages they have. Anything less, he said, should be seen as a disgrace…

So, if the GOP wins the House, wins 7 or 8 Senate seats and, say, 2/3 of the governorships up for election, then we will have failed by Plouffe’s definition. This is a laughable attempt to pre-spin a loss – but also a strong indicator that in Democrat-land, they know they’re in deep trouble.

To me, for the GOP to “win” in 2010 we will have to secure the House – anything less than that would clearly be a rebuke, as well as greatly demoralizing to the GOP base, which scents victory. Indications are pretty solid that we will do so – and we’ll also do quite well in the governorships, with only Colorado looking like a sure-loss for the GOP. In the Senate, even a two or three seat net gain will be quite a stunning victory – and would be preferable for the GOP rather than winning a Senate majority. This would leave us strong enough to block the worst of liberalism, but still in a position to lay full blame on the Democrats for all that will go wrong in 2011.

Things tend to get cast in stone in politics about 30 days out from the vote – only something really out of the ordinary can shake up the race. Democrats – like Plouffe – are going on the theory that they are just now getting busy and thus closing the gap. I doubt it – you don’t close a gap like this, you just try to limit losses (and Democrat actions speak louder – they are pouring money in to what should have been safe seats…trying to build a fire wall around their core base of power). Actions like the maid smear against Whitman in California indicate a growing level of desperation on the part of Democrats. Meanwhile, poll after poll is coming out now on House races showing un-funded, unknown GOP challengers closing in on long term, supposedly safe Democrats.

It could be a blow out on November 2nd, boys and girls – we might even get a victory by Plouffe’s definition. Am I predicting this? No – it can’t be predicted. It all depends on who shows up – I think that the GOP and GOP-leaning Independent turnout will be stupendous while Democrat turnout will be low. But just because I think that may happen doesn’t mean that it will. If it does come out like that, then just watch history being made…if, on the other hand, Democrats can motivate their base, they’ll probably shave some points off the GOP score.

Time will tell – but I look forward to seeing Plouffe on television on November 2nd.

This ad says it all:

From Reuters:

U.S. lawmakers pushed for the country’s largest mortgage lenders to suspend foreclosures in all 50 states after Bank of America Corp announced on Friday it would temporarily halt evictions nationwide.

BofA, the largest U.S. mortgage servicer, is the first U.S. bank to institute a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures, expanding on a 23-state suspension announced last week while it conducts a review of its procedures…

While those immediately facing foreclosure will get a bit of relief because of this, the actual effect will be bad – this will put an even larger question mark over our entire housing market and, by extension, our already insolvent financial system. This, to me, is just a symptom of the break down of our financial system.

One thing to keep in mind is that the people running the financial show are not necessarily people who have a clue about finance. Oh, to be sure, they know the game we’ve got right now – or, at least, the game we had until 2008’s crash – but they don’t really know how money is made and how it is invested. I work for an absolutely gigantic, multi-national banking firm and from what I can gather, senior management was blithely going forward even as recently as a month ago thinking things were going swell (there have been some indicators of late that this is changing…a few moves in senior management which make me think they realize, at long last, that fake money and huge debt do not make for prosperity).

Its not better on the government side as our government finance people are drawn from the same pool as private sector financial firms…business school graduates who are instructed in Keynesian economics as if it were revealed truth. Given all this, it does not surprise me at all that even in something as straightforward as foreclosure (which, remember, means that a person borrowed money and didn’t keep paying), they still screwed it up. And now, I’ll bet, all major banks will have to halt foreclosures as everyone tries to figure out what to do – complicated by the fact that Democrats scent a chance to scare up some votes by taking a populist stance against the banks (to be sure, we GOPers should, too…but not in the manner of the Democrats…they just want to whip up anger, we should be demanding reforms which make banks rational).

This mess will be a long time being cleaned up – and until we do, housing won’t even stabilize, let alone recover.

UPDATE: California gets in to the act – asking Wells Fargo to halt foreclosures (which is a spreading demand…and likely wrapped up in election year politics; the CA AG is Jerry Brown, currently running for governor).