The final stretch of summer 2012 is here and as the August heat and humanity begin to simmer DC, the stench of our bloated and incompetent federal bureaucracy is also beginning to intensify. Specifically the desperation of the Democrats as they realize their dismal failures are going to actually come back to haunt them.

Stink Bomb 1 is a man blaming Romney for his wife’s death years after Romney left Bain, years after she left her job and gave up her health care, and just shows how dumb liberals view Main Street America. Today team Obama admits they knew all about this Goebbels-like propaganda stunt.

This is why America is preparing to neuter DC and put our future back in the hands of every day Americans. If this is leadership at $1.3 trillion a year in DEFICITS, I can see one quick way out of financial mess. Stop letting idiots waste our tax money. Just shut down 50% of the government and leave what is necessary – military, parks, health and safety monitoring, judicial process and maybe a few other small advisory (no teeth) roles.

Stink Bomb 2 is a juvenile attack on Rep Allan West – an officer and likely gentleman.

Stink Bomb 3 is a stupid comment from one of DC’s most stupid and over paid people.

The laugher of the day comes from Chris rock, who wonders why he and the left have to dive into the gutter:

“I wish we didn’t have to stoop to this level. I wish they made it like a real fight. I mean, we’re watching the Olympics right now and everything is fair,” the comedian said

Dude, the disaster that is the result of Democrat leadership is being fairly assessed and roundly rejected. The votes are coming in November. It will be fair – and brutal.

So, what to make of all the August polls showing a bounce for Obama and a sinking Romney?

Realize that the angry, insurgent voters from 2010 have made up their mind and tuned out DC, the media and politics. They are fed up and done listening.  Every year the GOP loses ground in August as working people take vacation and drop off the pollster’s radar. But this year the radar has been even less accurate due to the fact the Tea Party voters don’t let their presence be known until a few weeks before the election event. This happened in Wisconsin and other places all year long. Pollsters did not see the wave until it was on top of them.

It happened in Massachusetts with Scott Brown, who came out of nowhere. And it will happen this year. People are so fed up with the whole thing they will show up only to make sure it gets dismantled as soon as possible.

In the words of Ronald Reagan: “America tear down this bloated disaster called the federal Government!”

It truly is amazing how much NASA accomplishes with one of the smallest budgets in the federal government. The joke has always been that the DoD blows through the entire NASA budget before the end January. Or how the nation spends more on Pizza than on the exploration of Space each year. Today, we learn once more how some in the government spend the taxpayer’s money well and with unvarnished success (verses policies like the war on poverty, the stimulus bill, etc that are clearly NOT successes).

Today, Curiosity landed on Mars, with one of the coolest pictures ever captured in the history of mankind:

Click to enlarge. That white box outlines Curiosity as it descended to the Martian surface. This is REALLY COOL! (Especially if you are a NASA propeller head geek – and I are one). I think this is the first time we “saw” a landing on another planet from space. We ‘hear’ them all the time in telemetry data repeated back. But a visual picture I think this might be a first.

I don’t think even the Huygens probe to Titan or the Galileo probe to Jupiter were ‘pictured’ like this.

Way cool!

From the Good:

The U.S. women’s swim team punctuated a commanding performance at the London Olympics with one more gold medal and another world record, winning the 400-meter medley relay Saturday night and giving teenager Missy Franklin her fourth gold in the Summer Games.

To the Great:

Reclaiming the lead with his trademark butterfly stroke, Phelps won the 18th gold of an unparalleled career when he helped the U.S. win the 4×100-meter medley relay Saturday night.

Phelps retires with twice as many golds as any other Olympian, and his total of 22 medals is easily the best mark, too.

“It’s been a great career,” he said. “It’s been a great journey. I can’t be any more happy than I am.”

To the inspirational:

By taking the track for Heat 1 in Round 1 of the men’s 400 meters, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics. By finishing second in a season-best 45.44 seconds, the South African qualified for the semifinals Sunday. Pistorius conveyed his satisfaction with a broad smile.

The 2012 games have been uplifting. Sadly – thanks to an irritating NBC News with blathering, inane and gossipy coverage – there has been the other end of the experience.

Including the Ugly:

NBC has become the centre of a race storm after airing an ad featuring a monkey performing gymnastics, right after showing the performance of Gabby Douglas, the first African-American to win Olympic gold.

…

The unintentional, but poorly-timed ad was for Animal Practice, an upcoming NBC sitcom.

The ad was for self promotion – and it worked. NBC is one of those nose-in-the-air liberal bastions that thinks they are supreme over all. But they are just another bunch of annoying people who like to denigrate others but scream innocence when they screw up. Live by the stereotype, die by it.

Someone please show NBC the door and let’s get another network to present the Olympics.

As for Gabby – she was amazing! Our twin girls are now very inspired.

Is this really a shock – or just a fait accompli?

General Motors’ profits fell 41% in the second quarter as troubles in Europe undercut strong sales in North America.

America’s largest automaker made $1.5bn in the second quarter of 2012, compared with $2.5bn for the same period last year. Revenue fell to $37.6bn from $39.4bn in the second quarter of 2011.

One of THE WORST commercials playing with the Olympic games is this socialist pile of sh… crap:

Every time this moronic ad plays I bet GM loses 100 potential Chevy customers. What kind of sales pitch is this? I don’t want a deal, I want all of us to be treated the same no matter the cost to me? Since when?!

Between this and the Chevy Volt disaster it is not surprising that discerning car buyers just aren’t buying Government Motors.

Barack Obama is now experiencing why his lack of experience is so damning. In 2008, riding a wave of anti-Bush frustration from a pliant (if not brain dead) news media, The One had an easy coast to election as everyone WISHED for something better. No analysis, no vetting, no looking at warning signs. Just wishful thinking.

And the price the nation paid for this impatience and laziness has been brutal.

Thankfully, the news media is paying as well – as in they lost their only, true commodity – trust. No one is listening to CNN anymore, and the other liberal news sites are dying out while the more balanced Fox News takes off (see here). The news media is going bankrupt because it failed its job and drowned in the left-wing Kool Aid

The Democrats, too, were hammered in 2010 for putting up a cardboard President- who reads from a teleprompter – to try and hide their socialistic putsch. They and their support groups are still being hammered (see Wisconsin for the union future).

And of course the people paid with massive career losses, savings losses and generations of debt.

But the penultimate example of Obama’s ignorance came with him uttering the words “You didn’t Build That” to a nation of proudly independent, self motivating, success-seeking people. And think of the wonderful timing of this peek inside the confused mind of Barack Obama – right before the Olympics, where individual effort and success is the cornerstone of games!

Are Obama (and Lizzie Warren) going to now explain to the medalists and contenders they did not achieve their successes on their own, that government workers are the true ones to thank?

Interestingly, one story does indicate the government will be taking a slice of their success – in the form of brutal taxes:

Continue Reading »

The news media – and to be honest many on the religious right – wish to confuse the Tea Party with social conservatism. But this is a complete misread of where the Tea Party started and its core tenants. The Tea Party is Libertarian at its core – small, minimalistic government. It is not super small government. But it is all for shrinking the bloated beast significantly.

The Tea Party is not for replacing our activists, all-in-your-life, leftist government with a conservative version. Social issues that are based on government intervention in people’s lives and behavior are not going to gain support from the grass roots Tea Party. Religious freedom, freedom of speech, etc will be supported (see Chick-fil-A brouhaha and TX primary). But the main goal is to dismantle government and let Main Street reign supreme once again – for it is there (not Wall Street or Capitol Hill) where America’s greatness and future lies.

So it was good to see the TX primary results yesterday where another Tea Party-backed candidate took out a political careerist:

Continue Reading »

I have discovered a new role model for our young girls: Missy Franklin. Her story is one of Middle America shunning the lime light and promises of money (for now). I loved her back story (fixed and updated link), how she decided to stay with her coach, her family, her friends and her school. I loved how she put off corporate sponsors (for now) so she could swim with her High School team. Missy shows so much wisdom and patience and balance. She knew instinctively that her core success was built on family, friends and community. As she said, why change what was working?

I think this was why she was so strong when she swam a semi-final and then 10 minutes later swam to a Gold Medal. She had the core self confidence and heart that made her fearless, and willing to just enjoy herself.

For doing it right. For doing it from the heart of Main Street America. For putting family, friends and community ahead of fame and fortune – and winning. Missy Franklin is my hero for these games. And I have NEVER had a hero in the Olympics. I have been impressed, but never moved.

Go Missy, Go USA!

Tags: Missy Franklin, Olympics, Sponsors

Lord Mockton does a scientific smack-down on the apparent PR stunt that is the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature Project.  The BEST Project is devoid of science and full of theater for the scientifically challenged. In an absurd announcement this weekend, the man playing the lead role as an AGW skeptic-turned-IPCC-groupie, Professor Muller has concluded his initial faux resistance to Al Gore’s siren song was all wrong, and in fact humanity has caused the last 250 years of warming (coming in at a ho-hum 1.5° C, or a tortoise blazing pace of 0.06° C/decade). How did he come to this stunning conclusion (as opposed to the more obvious conclusion the Earth warmed from the Little Ice Age – the coldest cold snap since the last glacial period)? Here is the basis for his new Chicken Little suit:

The greatest error in the Berkeley team’s conclusion is in Dr. Müller’s assertion that the cause of all the warming since 1750 is Man. His stated reason for this conclusion is this: “Our result is based simply on the close agreement between the shape of the observed temperature rise and the known greenhouse gas increase.”

No Classically trained scientist could ever have uttered such a lamentable sentence in good conscience.

Pure idiocy.  Sounds like something akin to the Scientology of Neurosurgery. Want to know what happens when people draw bold conclusions from a casual and shallow glance at data? This is what happens:

In the Challenger accident, it was the dismissal of classic and prudent engineering and science that led to a horribly wrong conclusion. A casual glance at existing test data, some wild extrapolations by people who had a desired outcome, and you end up with 7 dead American heroes. One of the reasons I have zero tolerance for the crap that passes as science in the Church of Al Gore/IPCC climate science is the fact it is an insult to real scientists and engineers who are held to standards of proof, confidence and error analysis that AGW fails on its face. It is this politicized posing as science/engineering that ends up in disaster that is repulsive. For Challenger, people wanted to explore the universe, for IPCC they want to save the planet. Both illustrate why motive needs to remain out of science and one must stick to provable, repeatable, and unambiguous facts.

Mockton applies the true scientific method to tear into what has to be a grand PR stunt from the Berkley Players:

Natural variability, therefore, is sufficient to explain all of the warming since 1750. No other explanation is necessary. Accordingly, it is not legitimate to claim, as the Berkeley team claim, that in the absence of any other explanation the warming must be attributed to CO2. That claim is an instance of the argumentum ad ignorantiam, the fundamental logical fallacy of argument from ignorance. It is not sound science.

Dr. Müller’s assertion that fluctuations in solar activity are too small to have any effect on the climate is fashionable but erroneous. At the nadir of the Maunder Minimum, the 70-year period from 1645-1715, there were almost no sunspots. During that solar Grand Minimum, the Sun was less active than during any other similar period since the abrupt global warming that ended the last Ice Age 11,400 years ago. The weather was exceptionally cold both sides of the Atlantic: the Hudson in New York and the Thames in London frequently froze over in the winter.

…

It is worth noting, in passing, that solar activity increased quite rapidly from the Grand Minimum of 1645-1715 to the Grand Maximum of 1925-1995, peaking in 1960, during which the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years.

I.e., solar behavior is linked to the last great cold snap in over 10,000 years, and the warming that followed. The Little Ice Age’s passing is still occurring. Why is this not the true reason for the warming that has not even returned us to the warmth of the Medieval and Roman Warm periods?

Since CO2 emissions have risen at a record rate during the past 15 years, it necessarily follows that the failure of the planet to warm at all over that period points to a natural influence strong enough to overcome – at least temporarily – the rather weak warming effect of the large additional volume of CO2.

What might that natural influence be? Step forward the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a naturally-occurring warming and cooling cycle. In 1976, the PDO switched suddenly from its cooling to its warming phase. Global temperature rose rapidly till late in 2001, when the PDO switched just as suddenly to its cooling phase, since when there has been no global warming.

I.e., Muller’s lazy eyeballing of data aside, there are recurring, cause-effect, historic correlations between the temperature record and the PDO that align with the temp record – where CO2 levels have diverged. Doh!

The global temperature anomalies since 1850, compiled by the Hadley Centre for Forecasting, show three periods of warming that lasted more than a decade: 1860-1880; 1910-1940; and 1976-2001. … Yet in all three periods the warming was at the same rate: just 0.17 C° per decade.

Conclusions: CO2 levels have been rising, but  temperature is not since the last POD chamge. Temperature is following the PDO cycle, showing the same response every time – meaning that can be NO measurable human effect on global temperature since it is now the same as prior to the industrial revolution.

But even more than this, where’s the beef?

Every biologist is familiar with the concepts of evolution and adaptability, as well as reality of ecosystem and population dynamics and resilience. Since every day we experience temperature changes much larger than 0.6°C (the century rise claimed by Muller and his band) – not to mention the range we experience over a year –  it is obvious this barely measurable (and I would argue this resolution at a global scale is in fact impossible) rise is not signaling the end of humanity or life on Earth.

So even if true, why panic? Like I said, theater of the absurd.

Just watched the Olympic opening and I was very impressed. I do have to wonder about some aspects (like the smoke stack backdrop to the modern era). There is so much more the UK and Great Britain could celebrate – but OK, no big deal.  The themes were good, the stagecraft good, the pace excellent (note to future openers, keep the music track fast paced!).  All in all, a great opening.

But for an event that is supposed to be beyond, devoid or outside politics, NBC was a frigging disaster. At every chance we were reminded of politics ancient and new. I was about ready to mute Costas and NBC because they had to continuously bring up political issues in a non-politicel venue. It was grating to say the least.

And then there were the Obama campaign ads. Talk about tone deaf!

Why should we be barraged with Obama’s lame walk-backs of his rampage against individual success – especially associated with the Olympics! All I could think of is “did you win that gold medal? well you did not achieve that by yourself’….

NBC and Obama kept ruining the core tenant of the Olympics. Which is to take a break from politics and celebrate the individual. Sad. Really, really sad.

Update: I should add the leftist undertone of the ceremony was a bit thick. The tribute to the National Health Service was really bad. There are so many true British achievements – poor medical service just doesn’t seem to the one most would pick. I bet that one rebounds a bit. But it was their Olympics to open as the please. It would have been better if there was no commentary from NBC than than the dribble we had to sit through last night.

Update: Too funny. Apparently even before Obama’s success-envy snark he was losing support among those who create jobs:

 U.S. business owners’ approval of President Barack Obama fell in the second quarter of 2012 to 35%, essentially tying farmers and fishers for the lowest approval among major occupational groups.

No wonder there is a need for damage control. Sadly for the left (but good for everyone else) what we see coming is just digging a deeper hole with the voters… – end update

Seems there is some serious ‘success envy’ rippling through the left-wing these days. Leading the charge is our inexperienced, nothing-significant-achieved-in-his-life President, who is lashing out at those who actually succeeded in something by doing a little (or a lot) more than the average person.

This whole brouhaha is because of a completely moronic point of view from the left. Which means the rest of America – who can point with pride to some form of individual accomplishments big or small – are pretty much rejecting Obama and this liberal nonsense. Even so, the socialist herd cannot just let go their ‘success envy’, and keep digging their hole:

Today, the Romney campaign is hosting an entire series of campaign events based on President Obama’s misinterpreted comment about small businesses. While Obama’s full speech made a “no man is an island” argument, the Romney campaign has seized on the quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that” as evidence of Obama’s disdain for small business owners.

…

But, like the New Hampshire business owner showcased in Romney’s attack ad on the issue, many of these business owners have received significant support from the government

What kind of ‘support’ is this person babbling about? Government contracts. Which is my business area. Which is one of the hardest business areas to succeed in without political clout and tithes in the form of political donations. I can say with pride we require neither to succeed. We do it the old fashioned way – we are better than most. We earn our pay by working. This is not a handout or a loan or government service provided. We have to provide the best quality to be on these contracts.

Government contracts are not ‘support’ (thus illustrating the depth of ignorance this socialist herd animal displays). Government contracts are by admission the need of government to purchase skills, services, products, engineering marvels, etc from those same successful private sector companies that built this nation. Government (a.k.a teachers, tax collectors, etc) don’t have the skills to build bridges, warships, airplanes, power plants, roads, schools, etc.  All these wonderful icons of bureaucracy were built by private industry.

And who paid for these things? Business and individuals in the form of taxes. If someone wants to know who would not be here if it were not for others, the entire government behemoth is the entity that exists on the shoulders and sweat of others.

So We The People paid for and built all those government services and common infrastructure. They did not just pop up out of the ground.

Those who have successful business took a huge risk with their retirement years to try and create something people would purchase. As one of those who did this (with currently modest success), I can attest to the fact that while myself and tens of thousands of my neighbors over the years came up through the public school system, drove on public roads and paid for the use of utilities, only a few of use were able to create a thriving business. Nearly all are hard working people, but few had the ability and opportunities to actually employ others, verses being employed.

Those who have businesses know we cannot do it without our employees. Otherwise we are just individuals trying to make money one customer at a time. Employees allow businesses to grow, reinvest in people, and – yes – reap the rewards. If there was not an upside, why would anyone fight through all the red tape, cronyism and headaches? There has to be a payoff in the end to be an employer verses and employee, or else we would all be employees and only a few would run the country (or the world).

What irritates people on the left is that they have to recognize they are not all knowing, all pure and all moral.  They have to recognize most people in business are good, hard working Americans who don’t have to ask others for permission or support. That really irks the socialist herd animal, because deep down I suspect they wish they could be like that – successful enough to employ others and help them achieve a good life. It must look pretty impressive to view success from the herd, but you also have to understand how much work and effort it takes to succeed in business. It is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact it can be quite consuming.

Success-envy is just one of the many ‘issues’ that plagues the left and make them incapable of leading this dynamic – and individual driven – nation. They will always fail due to these gaps between their simpleton fantasies and reality. And they will always blame those without these gaps in judgement for their own shortcomings. It is an old and tiresome story.