Middle East Suffering from Post-Cairo Depression?

"Apparently", the new American administration doesn't have time for democracy-promoting/building...here (busy ramming a spoonful of socialized medicine down our throats) or elsewhere in the world. You see, in the words of the Democrats' (oh, the irony of the party's name!) "other candidate", Hillary, "they have a lot of other things on their plate."

Jackson Diehl reporting for WaPo:

The deflated Arab hopes for Obama

By Jackson Diehl
Monday, November 30, 2009

It's been nearly six months since Barack Obama stirred hearts and raised hopes across much of the Arab world with his much-promoted Cairo address. Many came away from it expecting a new and more vigorous U.S. attempt to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Others hoped for more American sympathy and support for liberal reform in countries where free expression, women's rights and democratic elections are blocked by entrenched autocracies.

That would be under President Bush, who liberated 50 million from a repressive regime and a murderous tyrant, before passing the baton over to #44.

The peace-process bubble burst two months ago at the United Nations, when Obama's poorly executed attempt to launch final-settlement talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapsed. Arabs who were led by Obama's rhetoric to believe that the United States would force Israel to make unprecedented unilateral concessions -- like a complete end to all construction in Jerusalem -- were bitterly disappointed.

But they are not the only victims of post-Cairo letdown. Arab reformers, who for most of this decade have been trying to break down the barriers to social and political modernization in the Middle East, have also begun to conclude that the Obama administration is more likely to harm than to help them.

Read more »

Sunday Funnies

More Sunday Funnies at Flopping Aces.

And check out Patvann's post- very comprehensive.

Is the Political and Scientific Climate Changing on Global Warming?

Paul Driessen-Cleaning Out the Climate Change Cesspool:

There has been no statistically significant global warming for over a decade,
despite steadily increasing CO2 levels – and for several years average annual
global temperatures have actually declined.
Carbon dioxide plays only a
minor role, many scientists now say, and our climate is still controlled by the
same natural forces that caused previous climate changes: periodic shifts in
ocean currents and jet streams, water vapor and cloud cover, evaporation and
precipitation, planetary alignments and the shape of the Earth’s orbit, the tilt
and wobble of Earth’s axis, cosmic ray levels and especially solar energy
output.
Far worse for the Climate Armageddon movement, newly released emails
from its leading scientists reveal a cesspool of intimidation, duplicity and
fraud that could rock Copenhagen and the alarmist agenda to their core. The
emails cast deepening suspicion over global warming data, science and models.
They reveal an unprecedented, systematic conspiracy to stifle discussion and
debate, conceal and manipulate data, revise temperature trends that contradict
predictions of dangerous warming, skew the peer-review process, pressure
scientific journals and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to
publish alarmist studies and exclude dissenting analyses, and avoid compliance
with Freedom of Information requests.
British Climate Research Unit (CRU)
chief Phil Jones to Penn State climatologist Michael Mann, of Hockey Stick
infamy: “Can you delete any e-mails you may have had with Keith [Briffa] re AR4
[the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report and Briffa’s suspect tree-ring data]. Keith
will do likewise.”
Jones to Mann: “If they [Canadian researchers Ross
McKitrick and Steve McIntyre] ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act in
the UK, I think I’ll delete the file rather than send it to anyone.”
(These
actions appear intended to avoid Freedom of Information inquiries. Jones had
previously told a researcher, “Why should I make the data available, when your
aim is to try and find something wrong with it?” Drs. J&M, that’s the
scientific method – to ensure that research and experiments are honest, accurate
and replicable. Deleting files and data also raises serious ethical, scientific
and legal issues.)
Jones: “I can’t see either of these papers being in the
next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth, lead author of two IPCC reports] and I will
keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review
literature is!” (Thereby excluding non-alarmist peer-reviewed papers and skewing
the IPCC process.)
Jones: “I’ve just completed Mike [Mann’s] trick of adding
in the real temps to each series, to hide the decline [in average global
temperatures] .…” (Maintain a warming trend, despite contrary evidence.)
Climate scientist Tom Wigley to Mann: “If you think [Yale Professor and
Global Renewables editor James] Saiers is in the greenhouse skeptics camp, then,
if we can find documentary evidence of this, we could go through official AGU
channels to get him ousted.” (Saiers was subsequently dismissed. The American
Geophysical Union is a once professional society that has likewise gotten into
the censorship, intimidation, climate alarm and money train business.)
These
are the very tip of the melting iceberg. To gauge the scope, depth and depravity
of the conspiracy, visit Bishop
Hill, ClimateDepot.com and An Elegant Chaos on the
web.
These supposed scientists built their careers and reputations on
conjuring datasets, computer models, scenarios and reports – all claiming that
modern civilization’s use of hydrocarbons is about to destroy the planet, and
all financed by well over $100 billion in US, UK, EU and other taxpayer money.
Realist climate experts have long smelled a rat. The alarmists’ data didn’t
match other data. Their models never worked. Their claims of “consensus” and
“unprecedented” warming had no basis in fact. Too many grant and publication
decisions were decided by which side of the issue someone was on.

Read the rest.

Copenhagen will be interesting in light of the recent email hacking.

Flopping Aces has been on a climate change surge of posts since:

DEVELOPING BREAKING NEWS: Premiere Brit climate AGW research labs hacked… data spreading thru cyberspace about number fudging to hide temp decline

Global Warming Emails May Have Come From Insider (Check out the debate in the comments section)

CRU Emails – “Scientists Have Been Manipulating the Raw Temperature Figures”

ClimateGate the Musical

New ClimateGate Discovery: Hiding The Decline

New Zealand’s NIWA scientists accused of CRU-style fudging of data

ClimateGate: 5 Australian MP’s Resign over Carbon Tax

Warming alarmist says CRU scandal “a major blow”, endangers EPA’s anticipated regulatory power

FYI: The Copenhagen talking points provided by climate “scientists”

Silent Scandal [Reader Post]

Looking for climate change debate in all the wrong places? Turn to Russia Today TV


*UPDATE*

Hacked Emails are the Smoking Gun Revealing the Fraud of Manmade Global Warming

The Conspiracy Of The Centuries [Reader Post] (Excellent!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm on a 16-17 hour drive from California to Colorado.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!


Thursday Funnies posted at Flopping Aces

a Barack Belt is a Ranking that is Redistributed, Never Earned

Photo: President Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Credit: EPA

Wow….a Barack belt. That’s just so many ways of awesome, right there.

Is there anything that this man can’t accomplish without ever having earned it, first?

A book deal, the presidency, a Nobel Peace Prize….now a black belt (hat tip to Patvann):

Anyway, there he was in Seoul, the last stop of his journey.

And out of the Seoul sky, President Lee Myung-bak hands over to the American leader a tae kwon do outfit. And then Lee, who practices tae kwon do himself, presents Obama with a coveted black belt.

After zero long years of study.

Apparently, President Obama does have some martial arts experience:

President Obama practiced Taekwondo for about four years with an American master in Chicago from 2001 while he was serving in the Illinois state senate. He obtained a green belt.

Well, he’s green alright. And it shows.

On a side note, my personal experience with martial arts doesn't make me put much stock in most belt ranking systems. In some schools, especially in the U.S. but I doubt exclusive to the U.S., running a martial arts school is about running a business; and belt promotions are handed out as easily as personal fitness certifications.

A black belt really doesn't signify much of anything beyond achieving a certain level of proficiency at the basics, a level of understanding and commitment; a black belt symbolizes a student who is now ready to engage in serious training. Really, it's another level of being a beginner.

Caption contest at Flopping Aces

Sunday Funnies

More Sunday Funnies at Flopping Aces

Abuse photos of U.S. Soldiers Terrorizing Muslims Posted

I know Bloviating Zeppelin chastised me about sending y'all elsewhere to read, rather than typing my stuff out over here. But I'm only mostly doing this with posts where the number of photos are just too time-consuming to upload in both places (like Sunday Funnies).

Anyway, I think this is a post worth taking a look at. You have to understand just how terribly our soldiers have mistreated Muslims. It will help you understand why Nidal Hasan did what he did.

Sunday Funnies

More Sunday Funnies

Veterans Day

Standing in awe, in the presence of giants...


Morgan Styke, 5, stands in a formation with her dad, Sgt. Jeremy Charlet, at a dismissal ceremony for his NG unit Monday at the Civic Center in New Ulm, Minn. The New Ulm-based 125th Field Artillary HQ and HQ Battery unit returned home after 22 months of active duty.
john Cross, Mankato (Minn.) Free Press, via AP

To all those who have served in our Armed Forces and to all those currently serving, a heartfelt

THANK YOU!!!

"It's not a crime to call al Qaeda, is it?"

Clueless Chris Matthews:

"See - we have a problem," Matthews said. "How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al Qaeda. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?"

Here's a list of 34 clues for Chris Matthews.

I love it how Dr. Jasser is trying to get a word in, and the host just goes on and on....and on with his blathering ramble. Just unbelievable to watch this news guy tie himself up in knots, trying to rationalize and come to terms with the fact that Islam played an influential role in Nidal Hassan's murderous act of terrorism, and all the signs for taking preemptive action were present, yet ignored for fear of being branded racist/bigoted/intolerant/discriminating/etc. Thank you PC!

Incidentally, Zuhdi Jasser, who considers himself a devout Muslim, believes in the virtues of profiling:

Read more »

American Muslims Who are Americans First

I think others within the Muslim community in America are not only being misled by Islamist imams who'd rather promote political Islam over spiritual Islam and speak on American foreign policy matters; but they are also being misled by the anti-Americanism and foreign policy criticism of leftists within our country. Muslim-American youth are going to the same schools and universities, being indoctrinated by the same liberal bullcrap schooling when it comes to American history and current events.

Nor are decent Muslims being served well by political correctness, anymore than the rest of us; political correctness is a disservice to all who seek clarity:

The question, though, is how representative of the wider American Muslim community is Dr. Jasser and other liberal Muslims? This is a question you cannot expect to learn from our media. Just this morning I opened the New York Times, and found on the op-ed page an editorial telling us not to draw prejudicial conclusions about the Fort Hood attack, and two columns characterizing the attack as a wake-up call to mental stress faced by soldiers in wartime -- which is interesting, because Hasan had never been in combat. When it comes to covering Islam in America, the news media is all about managing the story, not telling it in all its complications.

Sunday Funnies

More at Flopping Aces

Wife of One of the Victims of Yesterday's Shootings was Commenting at FA

I had set up a quick blogpost yesterday on the Fort Hood shooting, before heading off to work, so readers at Flopping Aces could talk about the days events. It turns out that one of the commenters was the wife of Spc. Jason Dean Hunt,1st Cavalry Unit 2-8 Infantry, stationed at the post. Married for only 2 months, the 22 year old soldier, who served 15 months in Iraq, was one of the 13 murdered on Thursday.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims; and most of all with Jenn Hunt, who knew by the end of the day what she could not have ever fathomed happening at the beginning of it: The senseless loss of her husband who survived war-torn Iraq, only to be gunned down by a fellow soldier in the most unlikeliest of places, here at home.

"O"

By Glenn Garvin McClatchy/Chicago Tribune News (Hat tip: NoisyRoom.net):

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.

The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."

So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?

Read more »

Obama's America

Bloviating Zeppelin has a good article from Steve Huntley of the Chicago Sun Times. It concludes:

Is this the America Obama promised when he campaigned to end the cynical and divisive politics of the past?

Welcome to Obama Nation!

The dithering and Bush-blame is wearing thin.

Sunday Funnies

More Sunday Funnies at Flopping Aces (and Halloween Funnies yesterday)