UPDATE -- HUGE OPPORTUNITY FOR MCCAIN -- Knowing What He Knows Now Obama Would Still Oppose Surge -- All In For Defeat I Guess

Update:  This could be a HUGE opportunity for McCain!

McCain is comfortable making jokes about his age, how about this one:

"Wow, I though the old guy was supposed to be stuck in his ways in spite of the evidence.  Next Obama will be telling us to get off his lawn and turn that damn music down!"

Well, this presents McCain with an opportunity to frame Obama for the rest of the campaign as a staid, inflexible fool who can't seem to understand that the world doesn't revolve around his failed, inflexible policies!  It also covers McCain for changing his mind on drilling.

It hits at the premise that judgment is not just riding one decision 6 years ago but one has to have the wisdom to adjust to the changing world!
---------------------------------- End Update ------------------------------------



Special Report reported on the question asked to Obama.  His answer was useless but basically said he would still oppose the surge.  See if you can make sense of it:


Via Redlasso

Huh?
DKK

Update -- here is the text of the exchange:

Q: If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge?
A: No, because, keep in mind that…
Q: You wouldn’t?
A: Keep in mind… These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20/20. But I think that, what I’m absolutely convinced of, is that at that time we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with.

DKK

Additional -- Obama wouldn't be able to go sans flak jacket if it weren't for the surge.
DKK

Where Private Enterprise Excels, It Should Be Released To Do So!

RAND SIMBERG ON CALLS FOR an Apollo-like energy program. "It’s an understandable appeal, but it betrays a certain lack of understanding of the problem to think that we will solve it with a crash federal program, at least if it’s one modeled on Apollo. . . . Which is why John McCain’s idea of a prize for more efficient electric car batteries is a good step in the right direction. I would argue, though, that it is still too specific."

DKK
Instapundit

Global Warming Fallacy -- The Hilarity Continues

Shifting of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation from its warm mode to cool mode assures global cooling for the next three decades.

Don J. Easterbrook, Dept. of Geology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA

And

Arctic sea ice extent on July 16 stood at 8.91 million square kilometers (3.44 million square miles). While extent was below the 1979 to 2000 average of 9.91 square kilometers (3.83 million square miles), it was 1.05 million square kilometers (0.41 million square miles) above the value for July 16, 2007. (NSIDC)

And

Nutty Story of the Day: “Global Warming” is Killing the Penguins in Antarctica -- At the very least, let’s check the temperature in Antarctica, It’s winter there. Hmmm. Warmest temperature is -6° C

Eventually the facts will catch up with the likes of the Goracle, even the media can't stop it.  They will simply flip as if they knew it all along.
DKK

Foolish Choices Endanger Our Superiority In Space

NASA has to buy used spacecraft.


The next president will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first landing of man on the moon. There will be great self-congratulations by a generation that has squandered a two-generation lead in space and aeronautics.

The truer tale is not that we landed there first, but that it has been 35 years since we last landed on the moon.

Instead of advancing science, we wasted billions if not trillions on welfare payments and other social programs that have undermined society.

Like Eric the Red visiting Nova Scotia 1,000 years ago, we came, we saw, we shrugged our shoulders and went home.

Now we are reduced to this:

The US space agency, NASA, is reportedly negotiating the purchase of unmanned Japanese transfer spacecraft to replace its own aging shuttles.

DKK
Don Surber -- Space Disgrace

Through Objective European Eyes -- Dares Question Obama's Appeal

However, this question must be asked: how much political savvy do those who celebrate Obama, a man who hasn't yet had to accept any great responsibilities, really have? Obama is often praised for rekindling enthusiasm in democracy in people due to his drawing power. But mass obeisance to a charismatic leader really has little to do with democracy. On the contrary, the sociologist Max Weber describes charismatic domination as a condition that gains no legitimacy either through elections or tradition. The Obama-hype is similar to the month-long dance around the iPhone, except that the Apple cell phone will still have to submit to field trials.

One of Obama's central messages is his distance from The Establishment, from the usual political scheming, from the deals of the political class. This promise, one that is naturally impossible to separate from every-day presidential life, also falls on open ears in Europe. Surveys regularly show that people are tired of political squabbling and the cumbersome search for compromise. A presidential anti-politician like Horst Köhler draws his popularity from the fact that he can call for or reject reforms without responsibility for day-to-day politics.
Financial Times Deutschland via American Thinker Blog -- Not Everyone in Europe is Crazy in Love With Obama

Ten Years To Get Oil -- My ASS!

A Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst said in a report there is a lot of offshore crude that can be produced relatively quickly. The problem: It is located off California, where politicians have built careers opposing new drilling.

The Minerals Management Service said that of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in off-limits coastal areas, almost 10 billion are off the coast of California.

"California could actually start producing new oil within a year if the moratorium were lifted," the Sanford C. Bernstein report said, because the oil is under shallow water, has been explored and drilling platforms have been there since before the moratoria.

DKK
American Thinker -- Republicans Could Tap a Gusher of Support Off the California Coast

Why The Debate Matters -- Global Warming The Multi Trillion Dollar Religion

I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.

FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris, soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I've been following the global warming debate closely for years.

When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.

The evidence was not conclusive, but why wait until we were certain when it appeared we needed to act quickly? Soon government and the scientific community were working together and lots of science research jobs were created. We scientists had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet.

But since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

There has not been a public debate about the causes of global warming and most of the public and our decision makers are not aware of the most basic salient facts.  

Here is what he means by facts:

1. The greenhouse signature is missing. We have been looking and measuring for years, and cannot find it.

Each possible cause of global warming has a different pattern of where in the planet the warming occurs first and the most. The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics. We have been measuring the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes: weather balloons with thermometers that radio back the temperature as the balloon ascends through the atmosphere. They show no hot spot. Whatsoever.

If there is no hot spot then an increased greenhouse effect is not the cause of global warming. So we know for sure that carbon emissions are not a significant cause of the global warming. ...

2. There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None. ...

3. The satellites that measure the world's temperature all say that the warming trend ended in 2001, and that the temperature has dropped about 0.6C in the past year (to the temperature of 1980). ...

4. The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon. Which says something important about which was cause and which was effect. ...

The last point was known and past dispute by 2003, yet Al Gore made his movie in 2005 and presented the ice cores as the sole reason for believing that carbon emissions cause global warming. In any other political context our cynical and experienced press corps would surely have called this dishonest and widely questioned the politician's assertion. ..

What is going to happen over the next decade as global temperatures continue not to rise? The Labor Government is about to deliberately wreck the economy in order to reduce carbon emissions. If the reasons later turn out to be bogus, the electorate is not going to re-elect a Labor government for a long time. When it comes to light that the carbon scare was known to be bogus in 2008, the ALP is going to be regarded as criminally negligent or ideologically stupid for not having seen through it.

 DKK
Via Ace and Powerline

Daily Trek -- July 21, 2008

What'd I miss?

Everything you need to know to stay informed each day in 5 minutes or less!  Read your regular news and include this and you will be able to participate in most any current events discussion.
---------------------------
Worldwide, violence continues to decline, as it has for the last few years. Violence has also greatly diminished, or disappeared completely, in places like Iraq, Nepal, Chechnya, Congo, Indonesia and Burundi. Even Afghanistan, touted as the new war zone, is seeing less violence this year than last.  All this continues a trend that began when the Cold War ended, and the Soviet Union no longer subsidized terrorist and rebel groups everywhere.

With Obama's many false historical assumptions it isn't hard to believe he failed to understand the purpose of the Marshall Plan and the Korean War.

Eight women and one man sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for adultery and sex offenses. 

"I think the remarkable part of the first day of coverage wasn’t the Maliki muddle, but the degree to which McCain successfully insertedand, even from home, kept pushing and counterpunching Obama. . . . His foreign policy message did break through: his surge worked."


James Dobson hits reality, may actually endorse McCain as the least of two evils!

Obama's support is falling with Jews and evangelicals.

In preparation of the Democratic convention Denver bans possession of human waste (um for protesters I'm sure!

So Obama didn't get the Brandenburg Gate -- he got the Victory Column instead.  Who cares that it symbolizes German superiority and the victorious wars against Denmark, Austria and France pre WWII.  Adolf even moved it where it stands and gave it a taller base!

Did Israel's Mossad help with the rescue of the FARC hostages?
-------------------------
DKK

Sanctuary City Insanity -- San Francisco Is Directly Responsibility

The man charged with killing a father and two sons on a San Francisco street last month was one of the youths who benefited from the city’s long-standing practice of shielding illegal immigrant juveniles who committed felonies from possible deportation, The Chronicle has learned.

DKK
Michelle Malkin -- Gang-linked San Fran sanctuary case charged with murder of a father and two sons

Is Our Obama Learning -- Barack Fails Presidential Math

"(T)he objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years. . . ."

That would be the vaunted Barack Obama describing why he is on his Rainbow Tour.

He would do better to spend a few days studying the constitution and brushing up on his math so he can recall the length of a President's term, the maximum terms allowed, and how many years that is total(hint: 4 and 2 -- you do the math).

Maybe he can get the 58 states he campaigned in for the primary to repeal 22nd amendment!
DKK
Via -- Instapundit

(The title is a riff on President Bush's, "is our children learning," gaffe -- after all he is soooo stupid, according to the left -- but Barack seems to be matching him when it comes to gaffes)

The Dark Knight -- Destroys Movie History -- Brings Hollywood Along For Ride

Batman has sent Spidey packing as king of Hollywood's box-office superheroes.

"The Dark Knight" took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, topping the previous best of $151.1 million for "Spider-Man 3" in May 2007 and pacing Hollywood to its biggest weekend ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released "The Dark Knight." The movie should shoot past the $200 million mark by the end of the week, he said.

Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers. (AP)

The final numbers:

1. "The Dark Knight" $155.3 million 
2. "Mama Mia" $27.6 million
3. "Hancock" $14 million
4. "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" $11.9 million
5. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" $10 million

(credit Fox News Television)
 DKK

B-52 Crashes Off Guam

Rescue crews were searching a vast area of floating debris and a sheen of oil Monday for crew members of an Air Force B-52 bomber that crashed off the island of Guam, officials said.

At least two people were recovered from the waters, but their condition was not immediately available, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Six vessels, three helicopters, two F-15 fighter jets and a B-52 bomber were involved in the search, which had covered about 70 square miles of ocean, Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Elizabeth Buendia said.

"We have an active search that's going to go on throughout the night," she said Monday. The Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and local fire and police departments were involved.

The B-52 bomber based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana was en route to conduct a flyover in a parade when it crashed around about 30 miles northwest of Apra Harbor, the Air Force said.

DKK
Fox News
.

The Obama Rainbow Tour -- Day 2, Iraq

There you are, I told you so
Makes no difference where she goes
The whole world over just the same
Just listen to them call her name
And who would underestimate the actress now? 
Evita - Rainbow Tour

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was in Iraq on Monday for talks with local leaders and US commanders, after pledging to pull out US troops in 16 months if he takes over the White House next year.

He will meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and senior US military commanders, Iraqi and US officials said.

"Senator Barack Obama arrived in Iraq this morning as part of a Congressional delegation, along with Senators Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel," embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello said.


...
Obama's camp has said the aim of his tour is to make an on-the-ground assessment of the war in Iraq and to meet the country's leaders, whom he has criticised for not doing enough to rebuild their country.

"Iraq's leaders have failed to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the (US troop) surge," Obama wrote on July 14 in The New York Times.

Obama also confirmed his pledge to declare an end to the Iraq war from the first day of his presidency if he wins in November, and to withdraw most US combat troops within 16 months.

Residents of Baghdad's Sadr City, the stronghold of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were sceptical of Obama's plans.

"This proclamation is a mere political stunt," said Abu Ali, 43. "The American policy would not change with the change in the president, especially the military policy which is planned by far-sighted commanders."

Wait, did this guy just call Evi, er um, Obama short sighted?  Even Abu gets it!

All the while our Media Messing Itself in Describing Obama's Trip? and the European press is being excluded -- probably to help control the appearance of being a post nationalist.

DKK
AFP

Another First For Obama!

Bill Kristol on Fox News Sunday explains another first for Barack Obama! 

Never before have we had someone running for president in a time of war who was so unqualified to be commander in chief!


Via Redlasso
DKK

The Past Is Today Is The Future? -- Obama And The Media's Long March

While researching my posts from years ago I stumbled across a very revealing and fascinating post from August of 2004, that linked to an American Spectator column, The Obama Myth.

Then there is Iraq. Like Dean, he opposed the war calling it a "dumb war" and even opposed the $87 billion reconstruction appropriation. Not until Obama was pegged to give the keynote address did we hear anything about staying the course. Like a good party man, Obama has flopped over to the Kerry camp. Yet, as with Sen. John Kerry, there's no reason to believe that his core principles have altered.

In the area of crime, Obama appears downright pro-criminal. He cast the lone vote against legislation in 2001 that would have eliminated time off for "good behavior" for sexual predators. Obama's backers have tried to explain the vote away by tying it to the principle of uniform sentencing guidelines, but 55 to 1 makes that a tough sell. He has consistently voted against tougher sentences for, among other things, cop killers, and drug dealers.

Because of the media's complete unwillingness to explore Obama's record in the same manner they explored the civil court records of his opponents, the Hyde Park Liberal has gotten a free ride. Democrats tout him as a future President and even Republicans find themselves charmed and envious of the young star. But his wings of wax will not last. In the realm of national politics where merit matters and the press actually vets candidates, we can be confident that a Senator Barack Obama will become the next Paul Wellstone -- a nice, bright guy relegated to the back benches of the liberal fringe. If we're lucky, Illinois voters will wise to this potential fate before they go to the polls in November.

You have to read the whole thing, it could have been written today.  Too bad the media never has looked into Obama's record!

DKK

The Only Thing Holding Back America Is Our Government

Unleash America in all her glory to drill, innovate, conserve, and complain!
DKK

Republican Congress Delegation Goes To ANWR -- Finds Nothing, Because There Is Nothing There

(O)ff to ANWR with several House colleagues. Their trip is intended to draw attention to ANWR as an ideal place to drill for oil. Michele writes:

Let’s be clear about this. The Coastal Plain of ANWR, also known as the 1002 Area, is neither wilderness nor refuge. It was set aside by Congress and President Carter in 1980 for future oil development. Development would be limited to 2000 acres of the Coastal Plain or 0.01% of the entire 19.6 million-acre refuge. These lands were set aside for America to produce its own energy resources. What are we waiting for?

ANWR can economically produce over 10 billion barrels of oil.

DKK
Powerline Blog

How The Debate Is Silenced!

Earlier this week I posted about an article reporting on the flaws in the mathematical assumptions of the IPCC as demonstrated by The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, former science adviser to Margaret Thatcher, in the APS newsletter Physics and Society.

When the press picked up the news of this article the stuff hit the fan and the pressure to remember that 'the debate is over' kicked into high gear.  Lord Monckton's article it seemed was no longer acceptable and was prefaced in red with the following comment:

"The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review. Its conclusions are in disagreement with the overwhelming opinion of the world scientific community. The Council of the American Physical Society disagrees with this article's conclusions."

Unfortunately for the APS Lord Monckton's article was subjected to extensive peer review and rewrite prior to publication and Lord Monckton is demanding an apology as well as the removal of the preface.

The religion of the eco-wacko's is just as touchy about any debate of its basic tenants as any religion past or present.  They will do anything to cut off any debate or doubt.  Scientology could learn a few things from them!

Both Watts Up With That and  The American Thinker has the whole story including the full letter Lord Monckton sent to the APS stating his case.

I am again reminded of Eisenhower's farewell speech, which I have quoted often, that warned:

“The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present — and is gravely to be regarded.

"Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” (emphasis added) 

DKK

The Obama Rainbow Tour -- Day 2

There you are, I told you so
Makes no difference where she goes
The whole world over just the same
Just listen to them call her name
And who would underestimate the actress now? 
Evita - Rainbow Tour

US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has met President Hamid Karzai while on a visit to Afghanistan.

Details of the talks have not yet been given. Mr Obama said earlier this week he would send extra US forces to the country if he is elected US president.
The senator, who flew to Kabul as part of a US congressional team, also had breakfast with US troops in the city. 

DKK
BBC News

Alternative Energy -- Today It's 'Just A Religion' -- Al Gore Says Drilling Is Like Invading Iraq!

In order for "alternate energy" to become feasible, it has to satisfy all of the following criteria:

1. It has to be huge (in terms of both energy and power)
2. It has to be reliable (not intermittent or unschedulable)
3. It has to be concentrated (not diffuse)
4. It has to be possible to utilize it efficiently
5. The capital investment and operating cost to utilize it has to be comparable to existing energy sources (per gigawatt, and per terajoule).

If it fails to satisfy any of those, then it can't scale enough to make any difference. Solar power fails #3, and currently it also fails #5. (It also partially fails #2, but there are ways to work around that.)

The only sources of energy available to us now that satisfy all five are petroleum, coal, hydro, and nuclear.

My rule of thumb is that I'm not interested in any "alternate energy" until someone shows me how to scale it to produce at least 1% of our current energy usage. America right now uses about 3.6 terawatts average, so 1% of that is about 36 gigawatts average.

Show me a plan to produce 36 gigawatts (average, not peak) using solar power, at a price no more than 30% greater than coal generation of comparable capacity, which can be implemented at that scale in 10-15 years. Then I'll pay attention.

Since solar power installations can only produce power for about 10 hours per day on average, that means that peak power production would need to be in the range of about 85 gigawatts to reach that 1%.

Without that, it's just religion, like all the people fascinated with wind and with biomass. And even if it did reach 1%, that still leaves the other 99% of our energy production to petroleum, coal, hydro, and nuclear.  Chizumatic

Meanwhile Al Gore continues to preach the tenants of this religion from his bejeweled alter!

“The idea that we can drill our way out of this is just so absurd,” he said, comparing the push for offshore oil drilling — which has gained popularity and put environmentalists on the defense — to dealing with a hangover by having another drink.

“The defenders of the status quo are the ones who have dug us into this hole,” he said, commenting that Americans have been “so often fooled into finding a remedy for a problem" that has nothing to do with the problem at hand — pointing to the invasion of Iraq when America was attacked by terrorists in Afghanistan as an example.

“The engines of distraction and the great concentrated power of communication that you’ve seen turned on this issue or that issue is already hard at work," he says. "They will say we can’t switch away from oil."
“We have to switch our electricity generation system,” he says, noting that changing transportation fuels will take longer, before reiterating his plan to ensure that “100 percent of our electricity [comes] from renewable sources and carbon-constrained fuels over the next 10 years.”  

Politico -- Gore compares offshore drilling to Iraq

DKK

Additional:

The point that needs to be made is that the Republicans are willing to do EVERYTHING but the Democrats are NOT!  They continue, however, to mislead by accusing the Republicans of only wanting to drill when in reality they are the ones with restricted options.
DKK