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Kick Assiest Blog
Saturday, 23 June 2007
Thompson
Mood:
 party time!
Topic: News
Fred Thompson Announcement Set For Next Week In Nashville... Thompson Announcement Set For Nashville  Headquarters To Be Based At Fall School building
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Fred Thompson is set to announce that Nashville will be the home of his national campaign headquarters, WSMV is reporting. A source close to the campaign planning tells WSMV that that Thompson planned to announce his candidacy on the steps of the historic Fall School Building Tuesday, but Thompson campaign officials deny that Tuesday's announcement is an official run for the White House.  The source tells WSMV report says that the Thompson campaign has obtained the lease for that building to turn it into a national campaign office.
"Everything's in place for tuesday," the source told WSMV. "There are three major events built around his announcement." But Bob Davis, the Tennessee Republican Party Chairman, and Thompson's former Chief of Staff says "There will not be an annoucement Tuesday." The Fall School is Nashville's oldest still-standing school building. It currently houses office space, including a local office for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander. Video: WSMV: Thompson Announcement Set For Nashville
WSMV-TV, NBC 4 News - TN ~ Dennis Ferrier ** Thompson Announcement Set For Nashville
Posted by yaahoo_
at 5:19 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 23 June 2007 5:24 AM EDT
Georgia Brown
Mood:
 special
Topic: Odd Stuff
2-Year-Old, "As Smart as Stephen Hawking"... Two-year-old 'Matilda' becomes youngest ever girl in Mensa  Her parents knew Georgia Brown was bright. After all, she could count to ten, recognised her colours and was even starting to dabble with French.
But it was only when their bubbly little two-year-old took an IQ test that her towering intellect was confirmed. Georgia has become the youngest female member of Mensa after scoring a genius-rated IQ of 152. This puts her in the same intellectual league, proportionate to her age, as physicist Stephen Hawking. According to an expert in gifted children, Georgia is the brightest two-year-old she has ever met. Parents Martin and Lucy Brown have always regarded their youngest child as a remarkably quick learner.  She was crawling at five months and walking at nine months.
By 14 months, she was getting herself dressed. "She spoke really early - by 18 months she was having proper conversations," Mrs Brown said. "She would say, 'Hello I'm Georgia, I'm one'. She was also putting her shoes on and putting them on the right feet." Georgia was so perceptive that after one outing to the theatre to see Beauty and the Beast she solemnly informed her parents: "I didn't like Gaston (the villain). He was mean and arrogant." Struck by the similarities between her daughter and Matilda, the title character in the Roald Dahl story about a gifted child, Mrs Brown began to worry about Georgia's future education. She contacted Professor Joan Freeman, a specialist educational psychologist, for advice. Professor Freeman applied the standard Stamford-Binet Intelligence Scale test to Georgia and was amazed to find this was too limited to map her creative abilities.  She said: "Even at two she was very thoughtful.
"What Georgia did on some questions was of a higher quality than that which was necessary to gain a mark. "She swept right through it like a hot knife through butter. "I would ask her things like 'give me two blocks or give me ten blocks' and she would manage it as easily as you would expect a five-year-old. "In one test I asked her to draw a circle and she did it so perfectly. "Most adults would struggle to do that. Her circle was near to being perfect. "It shows she can physically hold a pen well but also that she understands the concept of a circle." Georgia, who is at nursery school, was also able to tell the difference between pink and purple - a skill which most children learn at primary school age.  Professor Freeman said: "I said to her, 'What a pretty pink skirt, and you have tights and shoes to match'.
"She said, 'They're not pink, they're purple'. Most children go to school aged five and start to learn colours, let alone knowing the difference between pink and purple. "I have to keep reminding myself that she is only two." To the amazement of the family, who live in Aldershot, Hampshire, Georgia scored 152 points on the IQ test, putting her in the top 0.2 per cent of the population. Those with an average IQ would score around 100 points in the same test. Georgia was then invited to join Mensa, the High IQ society whose members have IQs in the top 2 per cent of the population. Georgia is one of only 30 Mensa members under the age of ten. Mrs Brown, chief executive of a charity, believes Georgia has benefited by growing up as the youngest of five children.  She has been absorbing information from her older brothers and sisters and father, a self-employed carpenter, while not receiving any special treatment.
"There is always someone around to offer her something," her mother said. "But she still has temper tantrums, like you wouldn't believe, throwing herself on the floor. "She doesn't think she's better and cleverer than everyone else. She is a very kind and loving child." Georgia, who has a "wicked sense of humour" is as busy as any toddler, enjoying a schedule of ballet classes, listening to stories, dancing, singing, sport and even watching the TV. Comments
UK Daily Mail ~ Duncan Robertson ** Two-year-old 'Matilda' becomes youngest ever girl in Mensa
Posted by yaahoo_
at 4:55 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 23 June 2007 5:03 AM EDT
Friday, 22 June 2007
Scared-o
Mood:
 silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories
Libtard Michael Moore pulls out of health care debate with DeLay  (Source: Drudge Report)
SICKO director Michael Moore pulls out of health care debate against former House Majority Leader Tom Delay that was set happen Sunday morning on ABC'S THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS. According to Delay's office, Moore instigated the event but at first withheld a preview copy of SICKO and now has dropped out of the debate completely... SICKO is SCARED-OTurns out Michael Moore isn't as willing to debate conservatives as he wants the public to think. The plus-sized publicity hound is booked on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos for this Sunday and upon booking him as a guest, they all agreed to have a conservative on with him to make it a debate on health care policy. I was asked to go on with him, and after thinking it over a bit I told them I couldn't agree until I had actually seen the project and knew what exactly he was debating. They all agreed to overnight a copy of the film, I would view it this morning, and let them know ASAP.  Well, the movie never arrived. So, I wait, and then comes the news - Michael Moore has canceled the debate. Guess he didn't expect anyone to seriously take him on. Had I known he was this chicken, I would have accepted on the spot, but at least I can spare myself the agony of watching one of his mockumentaries.
Bottom line: his movies, his politics, and his incessant bullying are all an act. I guess to liberals like Michael Moore, cooking up a message isn't as appetizing when you're not the one controlling the cameras. Tom DeLay.com ** Sicko is Scared-o
Posted by yaahoo_
at 5:10 AM EDT
Witch-Hunt
Mood:
 chatty
Topic: Lib Loser Stories
Rep. Lamar Smith Accuses Judiciary Demented-crats of Witch-Hunt on the Web... House Judiciary Chairman Denies Administration Witch-Hunt on the Web  WASHINGTON -- A House Judiciary Committee Web page asking former and current Justice Department officials to offer their stories on politicization of the department "launched prematurely," but is still legitimate, Democratic Chairman John Conyers said Thursday.
The response came after Texas Rep. Lamar Smith demanded the new page be removed from the committee Web site, and called it a partisan attempt to persecute the Bush administration and misuse taxpayer dollars for a witch-hunt. Conyers said the attacks by House Republicans over the page are creating a "sideshow and a distraction" from the real issue -- the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last December, he said.  "Some have raised allegations about a Web page that was designed to give department whistleblowers a mechanism to securely communicate with the committee. The Web page was launched prematurely, but the content of it represented a good faith interpretation of House rules," Conyers said in a statement.
"Within three hours of learning about a different interpretation of the rules and to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, the Web site was edited -- removing one word -- and is now, under any interpretation, in full compliance with the rules," Conyers continued. During a Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law hearing to discuss the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and featuring Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, Smith, the ranking Republican on the full panel, complained that the new page, called Write Congress to Right Justice, seems to solicit information on politicization of the Justice Department, but in fact only seeks information about the Bush administration and not previous administrations.  Smith noted that Republicans were not consulted before the page was launched and pointed out that the Web page states that information sent by private individuals will be "received and reviewed by a select group of members of the majority staff of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives."
"This Web site purports to solicit evidence, but it actually appears to be a partisan persecution of the administration," Smith said. He added that he spoke to the House parliamentarian, who apparently told Smith that he is "very troubled" by the site. "This committee, I'm sure we all would agree, should not engage in the partisan persecution of the administration's public officials," Smith said.  Smith's complaint referenced several quotes from a letter on the page from Conyers, D-Mich. In the letter, Conyers tells readers that the page was created "in response to numerous requests" by former and current career attorneys at the Justice Department who are concerned about politicization there and fear that revealing their concerns will result in retribution by political appointees.
It notes that many of the expressed concerns predate the current investigation into the firing of "at least nine" U.S. attorneys that have sparked months of hearings and Democratic efforts to shame Attorney General Alberto Gonzales into stepping down. But the committee wants to receive only "information concerning the possible politicization of the United States Department of Justice since 2001. The incoming communications should be limited to those who represent that they are or were employed by the Department of Justice during that period.  "The committee is looking for concrete and specific actions taken or statements made by management-level officials of the department that have led career employees to be concerned that law enforcement actions will not be handled on a completely non-partisan, impartial manner but will be unduly influenced by partisan political or other inappropriate considerations," the letter reads.
A stock form is then offered on the next page for individuals to fill out required fields and and write the details of their experiences.  The letter says names, titles and identities of senders will be "maintained in the strictest confidence" and "the substantive information provided will be utilized for official committee business to the extent that it can be verified and confirmed."
It also recommends those wishing to contact the committee not use departmental e-mail so as to "prevent such unfortunate retaliatory actions." "We recommend that current or former employees use personal e-mail to this Web site or call or write the staff of the committee" at the majority Democrats' main line. Prior to Conyers' statement, subcommittee chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., said she was not aware of the Web page, and would review the page to determine whether it is problematic or necessary actions need to be taken to correct it. FOX News' Mike Majchrowitz contributed to this report.
Fox News.com ** House Judiciary Chairman Denies Administration Witch-Hunt on the Web It would be nice if these libtard politicians try governing for a change... instead of just criticizing and using government money to set up websites to dig up dirt against the administration, for partisan gain and witch hunts. Should you wonder why confidence in the Demented-crat controlled Congress is at an all-time low. They would've made the organizers of the Salem witch hunts proud with their tactics.
Posted by yaahoo_
at 4:18 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, 22 June 2007 5:26 AM EDT
Iraq
Mood:
 celebratory
Topic: News
US, Iraqi forces kill 41 insurgents in assault on al-Qaida  U.S. and Iraq forces killed at least 41 insurgents in two days of an all-out offensive against al-Qaida network in the volatile Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday.
During the first two days of the assault dubbed "Operation Arrowhead Ripper," at least 41 insurgents have been killed, numerous weapons caches and five booby-trapped houses have been discovered, the military said in a statement. The troops destroyed three "enemy safe houses" and a number of roadside bombs, the statement said. "Ground forces also found a house booby trapped with improvised explosive devices in the Khatoon neighborhood near Baquba. The building was destroyed with a rocket from an air support helicopter," it added. In an another development, the military called in air support to kill another four suspects seen planting roadside bombs, the statement said.  Early on Tuesday, the U.S. military said that 10,000 troops, including 2,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, have launched a massive assault aimed at hunting for the al-Qaida militants operating in and around Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad.
 "Our combined forces have begun destroying al-Qaida operatives and their resources in and around Diyala province," said Brigadier-General Mick Bednarek of 25th Infantry Division, who is also deputy commanding general for this operation.
Baquba, the capital of the volatile Diyala province, is the stronghold of the extremist Sunni militants of al-Qaida. Source: Xinhua
People's Daily Online ** US, Iraqi forces kill 41 insurgents in assault on al-Qaida
Posted by yaahoo_
at 3:34 AM EDT
Hutchison
Mood:
chatty
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to defy GOP leaders, voting against reviving immigration bill Hutchison to vote against reviving stalled immigration bill  WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has been under intense pressure from the White House and Republican leadership to support a sweeping immigration overhaul, nevertheless announced today that she will vote against reviving the legislation when it returns to the Senate floor next week.
She was joined today by the state's other senator, Republican John Cornyn, who had been expected by the bill's supporters to take such a stance. They had aggressively lobbied Hutchison in hopes of adding her vote to the 60 necessary to revive the stalled legislation. "I could not support (bringing the bill to a vote) in its present position," Hutchison, criticizing the legislation as amnesty for illegal immigrants, said today. As No. 4 in the Senate GOP leadership, Hutchison is the highest-ranking Republican to break from her party on a domestic policy issue of signal importance to President Bush.  "Until major changes are made that reject amnesty and a more open, fair process emerges for debating one of the most crucial issues facing our nation, I cannot support this immigration bill," she said.
Cornyn added, "Passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill has been, and remains, one of my top priorities in the Senate. It has become clear however, that I and many others will not be able to introduce amendments to fix key areas of this very complex bill." The Republicans' top vote counter, Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi, predicted today that bill backers would get the 60 votes to bring the bill back next week, though he acknowledged the vote could be a squeaker. "I think we're going to get it," Lott said. "But senators have a way of changing their minds and things tend to slide one way or the other."  The architects of the tenuous bipartisan immigration compromise, which twins increased border and interior enforcement with a path to eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, had given Hutchison a chance to propose an amendment in hopes of securing her support.
But Hutchison acknowledged that her amendment, which would require most adult illegal immigrants to temporarily return home within two years of obtaining their visa, was unlikely to succeed. Houston Chronicle ~ Michelle Mittelstadt ** Hutchison to vote against reviving stalled immigration bill
Posted by yaahoo_
at 3:18 AM EDT
Thursday, 21 June 2007
9/11
Mood:
chatty
Now Playing: CONSPIRATARD ALERT
Topic: Lib Loser Stories
Cause of 9/11 Collapse Study Backs Up Feds' Theory... Study Backs Up Feds' Theory of Why World Trade Center Collapsed on Sept. 11  INDIANAPOLIS -- A computer simulation of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks supports a federal agency's findings that the initial impact from the hijacked airplanes stripped away crucial fireproofing material and that the weakened towers collapsed under their own weight.
The two-year Purdue University study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, was the first to use 3-D animation to provide visual context to the attacks, said Christoph Hoffmann, a professor of computer science and one of the lead researchers on the project. "One thing it does point out... is the absolute essential nature of fireproofing steel structures," Hoffmann told The Associated Press. "This is something that wasn't done originally in the World Trade Center when it was built. It wasn't code at that time." Mete Sozen, a professor of structural engineering and a lead investigator on the simulation, said Purdue researchers hope their work leads to better structural design and building codes to prevent similar collapses. "In the unfortunate development that we shall have to design structures to survive such events, the methods we have developed and will be developing will be of great use to designers," Sozen said.  The animation, intended in part to help engineers design safer buildings, begins with a map of lower Manhattan as it appeared on Sept. 11, 2001. The video then shows a plane slicing through several stories of the World Trade Center's north tower and follows the disintegrating plane through the interior and out the opposite side.
The report concludes that the weight of the aircraft's fuel, when ignited, produced "a flash flood of flaming liquid" that knocked out a number of structural columns within the building and removed the fireproofing insulation from other support structures, Hoffmann said. The simulation also found that the airplane's metal skin peeled away shortly after impact and shows how the titanium jet engine shafts flew through the building like bullets. Ayhan Irfanoglu, a Purdue professor of civil engineering, said half of the building's weight-bearing columns were concentrated at the cores of the towers.  "When that part is wiped out, the structure comes down," Irfanoglu said. "We design structures with some extra capacity to cover some uncertainties, but we never anticipate such heavy demand coming from an aircraft impact. If the columns were distributed, maybe, the fire could not take them out so easily."
A 2005 report following a three-year investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal engineering agency, recommended that cities raise fire standards for skyscrapers and develop new materials that can better protect tall buildings from fire. That analysis did not blame the collapse on the steel or design of the towers, but instead focused on the damage to the fireproofing. Shyam Sunder, the lead NIST investigator, said he was aware of the Purdue study and called it and his own agency's study "among probably the most prominent analyses that have been conducted in the United States." The animation is the latest project by the Purdue team to assess the structural damage from the Sept. 11 attacks. The team also studied the impact of the crash into the Pentagon. Fox News.com ~ Associated Press ** Study Backs Up Feds' Theory of Why World Trade Center Collapsed on Sept. 11 This computer model is sure to be considered invalid by libtards, unless of course we're talking about Global Warming. Then the computer models are flawless and unassailable.
Posted by yaahoo_
at 4:49 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 26 June 2007 7:28 AM EDT
Cooling
Mood:
chatty
Topic: Lib Loser Stories
Now Prepare for 'Dangerous Global Cooling'  Read the sunspots
The mud at the bottom of B.C. fjords reveals that solar output drives climate change - and that we should prepare now for dangerous global cooling Politicians and environmentalists these days convey the impression that climate-change research is an exceptionally dull field with little left to discover. We are assured by everyone from David Suzuki to Al Gore to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that "the science is settled." At the recent G8 summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel even attempted to convince world leaders to play God by restricting carbon-dioxide emissions to a level that would magically limit the rise in world temperatures to 2C. The fact that science is many years away from properly understanding global climate doesn't seem to bother our leaders at all. Inviting testimony only from those who don't question political orthodoxy on the issue, parliamentarians are charging ahead with the impossible and expensive goal of "stopping global climate change." Liberal MP Ralph Goodale's June 11 House of Commons assertion that Parliament should have "a real good discussion about the potential for carbon capture and sequestration in dealing with carbon dioxide, which has tremendous potential for improving the climate, not only here in Canada but around the world," would be humorous were he, and even the current government, not deadly serious about devoting vast resources to this hopeless crusade. Climate stability has never been a feature of planet Earth. The only constant about climate is change; it changes continually and, at times, quite rapidly. Many times in the past, temperatures were far higher than today, and occasionally, temperatures were colder. As recently as 6,000 years ago, it was about 3C warmer than now. Ten thousand years ago, while the world was coming out of the thou-sand-year-long "Younger Dryas" cold episode, temperatures rose as much as 6C in a decade -- 100 times faster than the past century's 0.6C warming that has so upset environmentalists.   View Larger Image
Most Sunspots in 8,000 Years
(See hardcopy for Chart/Graph) >>>>>
Andrew Barr, National Post
Climate-change research is now literally exploding with new findings. Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the field has had more research than in all previous years combined and the discoveries are completely shattering the myths. For example, I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations in the brightness of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of all energy on the planet. My interest in the current climate-change debate was triggered in 1998, when I was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council strategic project grant to determine if there were regular cycles in West Coast fish productivity. As a result of wide swings in the populations of anchovies, herring and other commercially important West Coast fish stock, fisheries managers were having a very difficult time establishing appropriate fishing quotas. One season there would be abundant stock and broad harvesting would be acceptable; the very next year the fisheries would collapse. No one really knew why or how to predict the future health of this crucially important resource.  Although climate was suspected to play a significant role in marine productivity, only since the beginning of the 20th century have accurate fishing and temperature records been kept in this region of the northeast Pacific. We needed indicators of fish productivity over thousands of years to see whether there were recurring cycles in populations and what phenomena may be driving the changes.
My research team began to collect and analyze core samples from the bottom of deep Western Canadian fjords. The regions in which we chose to conduct our research, Effingham Inlet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, and in 2001, sounds in the Belize-Seymour Inlet complex on the mainland coast of British Columbia, were perfect for this sort of work. The topography of these fjords is such that they contain deep basins that are subject to little water transfer from the open ocean and so water near the bottom is relatively stagnant and very low in oxygen content. As a consequence, the floors of these basins are mostly lifeless and sediment layers build up year after year, undisturbed over millennia. Using various coring technologies, we have been able to collect more than 5,000 years' worth of mud in these basins, with the oldest layers coming from a depth of about 11 metres below the fjord floor. Clearly visible in our mud cores are annual changes that record the different seasons: corresponding to the cool, rainy winter seasons, we see dark layers composed mostly of dirt washed into the fjord from the land; in the warm summer months we see abundant fossilized fish scales and diatoms (the most common form of phytoplankton, or single-celled ocean plants) that have fallen to the fjord floor from nutrient-rich surface waters. In years when warm summers dominated climate in the region, we clearly see far thicker layers of diatoms and fish scales than we do in cooler years. Ours is one of the highest-quality climate records available anywhere today and in it we see obvious confirmation that natural climate change can be dramatic. For example, in the middle of a 62-year slice of the record at about 4,400 years ago, there was a shift in climate in only a couple of seasons from warm, dry and sunny conditions to one that was mostly cold and rainy for several decades.  Using computers to conduct what is referred to as a "time series analysis" on the colouration and thickness of the annual layers, we have discovered repeated cycles in marine productivity in this, a region larger than Europe. Specifically, we find a very strong and consistent 11-year cycle throughout the whole record in the sediments and diatom remains. This correlates closely to the well-known 11-year "Schwabe" sunspot cycle, during which the output of the sun varies by about 0.1%. Sunspots, violent storms on the surface of the sun, have the effect of increasing solar output, so, by counting the spots visible on the surface of our star, we have an indirect measure of its varying brightness. Such records have been kept for many centuries and match very well with the changes in marine productivity we are observing.
In the sediment, diatom and fish-scale records, we also see longer period cycles, all correlating closely with other well-known regular solar variations. In particular, we see marine productivity cycles that match well with the sun's 75-90-year "Gleissberg Cycle," the 200-500-year "Suess Cycle" and the 1,100-1,500-year "Bond Cycle." The strength of these cycles is seen to vary over time, fading in and out over the millennia. The variation in the sun's brightness over these longer cycles may be many times greater in magnitude than that measured over the short Schwabe cycle and so are seen to impact marine productivity even more significantly.  Our finding of a direct correlation between variations in the brightness of the sun and earthly climate indicators (called "proxies") is not unique. Hundreds of other studies, using proxies from tree rings in Russia's Kola Peninsula to water levels of the Nile, show exactly the same thing: The sun appears to drive climate change.
However, there was a problem. Despite this clear and repeated correlation, the measured variations in incoming solar energy were, on their own, not sufficient to cause the climate changes we have observed in our proxies. In addition, even though the sun is brighter now than at any time in the past 8,000 years, the increase in direct solar input is not calculated to be sufficient to cause the past century's modest warming on its own. There had to be an amplifier of some sort for the sun to be a primary driver of climate change. Indeed, that is precisely what has been discovered. In a series of groundbreaking scientific papers starting in 2002, Veizer, Shaviv, Carslaw, and most recently Svensmark et al., have collectively demonstrated that as the output of the sun varies, and with it, our star's protective solar wind, varying amounts of galactic cosmic rays from deep space are able to enter our solar system and penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. These cosmic rays enhance cloud formation which, overall, has a cooling effect on the planet. When the sun's energy output is greater, not only does the Earth warm slightly due to direct solar heating, but the stronger solar wind generated during these "high sun" periods blocks many of the cosmic rays from entering our atmosphere. Cloud cover decreases and the Earth warms still more.  The opposite occurs when the sun is less bright. More cosmic rays are able to get through to Earth's atmosphere, more clouds form, and the planet cools more than would otherwise be the case due to direct solar effects alone. This is precisely what happened from the middle of the 17th century into the early 18th century, when the solar energy input to our atmosphere, as indicated by the number of sunspots, was at a minimum and the planet was stuck in the Little Ice Age. These new findings suggest that changes in the output of the sun caused the most recent climate change. By comparison, CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales.
In some fields the science is indeed "settled." For example, plate tectonics, once highly controversial, is now so well-established that we rarely see papers on the subject at all. But the science of global climate change is still in its infancy, with many thousands of papers published every year. In a 2003 poll conducted by German environmental researchers Dennis Bray and Hans von Storch, two-thirds of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 countries surveyed did not believe that "the current state of scientific knowledge is developed well enough to allow for a reasonable assessment of the effects of greenhouse gases." About half of those polled stated that the science of climate change was not sufficiently settled to pass the issue over to policymakers at all.  Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age, should be a priority for governments. It is global cooling, not warming, that is the major climate threat to the world, especially Canada. As a country at the northern limit to agriculture in the world, it would take very little cooling to destroy much of our food crops, while a warming would only require that we adopt farming techniques practiced to the south of us.
Meantime, we need to continue research into this, the most complex field of science ever tackled, and immediately halt wasted expenditures on the King Canute-like task of "stopping climate change." R. Timothy Patterson is professor and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University.
Financial Post ~ R. Timothy Paterson ** Read the sunspots The Deniers: The National Post's series on scientists who buck the conventional wisdom on climate science.
The National Post is a Canadian national newspaper. Here is the series so far:
Statistics needed -- The Deniers Part I
Warming is real -- and has benefits -- The Deniers Part II
The hurricane expert who stood up to UN junk science -- The Deniers Part III
Polar scientists on thin ice -- The Deniers Part IV
The original denier: into the cold -- The Deniers Part V
The sun moves climate change -- The Deniers Part VI
Will the sun cool us? -- The Deniers Part VII
The limits of predictability -- The Deniers Part VIII
Look to Mars for the truth on global warming -- The Deniers Part IX
Limited role for C02 -- the Deniers Part X
 End the chill -- The Deniers Part XI
Clouded research -- The Deniers Part XII
Allegre's second thoughts -- The Deniers XIII
The heat's in the sun -- The Deniers XIV
Unsettled Science -- The Deniers XV
Bitten by the IPCC -- The Deniers XVI
Little ice age is still within us -- The Deniers XVII
Fighting climate 'fluff' -- The Deniers XVIII
Science, not politics -- The Deniers XIX
Gore's guru disagreed -- The Deniers XX
The ice-core man -- The Deniers XXI
Some restraint in Rome -- The Deniers XXII
Discounting logic -- The Deniers XXIII
Dire forecasts aren't new -- The Deniers XXIV
They call this a consensus? - Part XXV
NASA chief Michael Griffin silenced - Part XXVI
Forget warming - beware the new ice age - Part XXVII
Posted by yaahoo_
at 4:00 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, 22 June 2007 4:45 AM EDT
Iraqi oil
Mood:
 suave
Topic: News
Iraqi politicians agree deal on sharing oil, says Kurd minister  Iraq's Kurdish leaders said last night they had struck an important deal with the central government in Baghdad over a law to divide up Iraq's oil revenues, which is seen by the Bush administration as one of the benchmarks in attempts to foster national reconciliation.
Ashti Hawrami, the minister for natural resources in the Kurdistan regional government, told the Guardian the text had been finalised late last night after 48 hours of "tough bargaining" with Baghdad. The deal represented "a genuine revenue sharing agreement" that was transparent and would benefit all the people of Iraq and help pull the country together, he said. Iraq's oil revenue accounted for 93% of the federal budget last year. Iraq sells about 1.6m barrels a day.  Mr Hawrami said the law provided for the setting up of two "regulated and monitored" accounts into which external and internal revenues would be deposited. The external account would include items such as oil export earnings and foreign donor money, while the internal fund would consist largely of customs and taxes. The federal government in Baghdad would take what it needed, and the rest would be automatically distributed to the Kurdistan regional government, which would get 17%, and to Iraq's governorates "according to their entitlement". Revenues would be distributed monthly, he said.
Mr Hawrami said the system would better enable Iraqis to track how and where the oil funds were being spent. The Kurds, for example, have complained that remittances to their self-rule region have been being held back by up to six months in Baghdad. Iraq's Sunni Arabs had also expressed concerns that they might miss out on their share. Iraq's finance minister, Bayan Jabr, and the oil minister, Hussein Sharistani, were accompanying the president, Jalal Talabani, on a state a visit to China and could not be contacted for comment.  The new deal came days after a visit to Iraq by the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, during which he rebuked politicians for failing to reach consensus on sharing oil revenues. The US sees the deal as a benchmark of progress toward reconciliation.
A western diplomat in Baghdad said last night: "Fair-sharing of Iraq's oil revenue is important to finding a sustainable political solution in Iraq. But on its own it will not halt the sectarianism." UK Guardian ~ Michael Howard in Sulaymaniya ** Iraqi politicians agree deal on sharing oil, says Kurd minister
Posted by yaahoo_
at 3:51 AM EDT
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Rep bill
Mood:
chatty
Topic: News
House Republicans introduce their own immigration bill (would bar amnesty for illegal immigrants) The measure, a rebuke to Bush, would bar amnesty for illegal immigrants and require legal-status checks for all workers.  WASHINGTON -- In a sharp rebuke to President Bush, House Republicans unveiled legislation Tuesday that would bar illegal immigrants from gaining legal status in the U.S., require tamper-proof birth certificates for Americans and make English the nation's official language.
The measure's core principles include gaining control of the border and enforcing existing immigration laws -- it does not provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants as the Bush plan does. The House bill stands virtually no chance of becoming law, or even advancing, in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Still, it casts in bold relief the split between Bush and many fellow Republicans in the immigration debate. The bill surfaced one day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., working with the White House, resurrected efforts to pass the broader legislation Bush wants. The authors of the House bill also are pushing for a congressional resolution detailing ways in which they believe the federal government has failed to enforce immigration law and made it easier for illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. "The current illegal immigration crisis is a direct result of this and previous Administrations failing to enforce or adequately enforce at least eight immigration laws," the resolution said.  The bill's authors, Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said it was meant to challenge the immigration bill the Senate plans to return to later this week.
That measure, King said, goes "against the wishes of the American people." In another sign of GOP restiveness over the immigration issue, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., introduced a resolution Tuesday calling on Bush to enforce existing immigration laws in order to halt "the lawlessness at our borders." Sessions has been a vocal critic of the Bush approach to revamping immigration laws. The president, however, travels to Alabama later this week to headline a fundraiser for the senator. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel rejected the criticism that the administration has been lax in border enforcement. As one example, he cited a sharp rise in funding under Bush for stricter border control.  In 2001, enforcement funding totaled $4.6 billion; that has increased significantly and in his latest budget request, Bush is seeking $11.8 billion.
Stanzel also noted that the Senate bill includes goals for border security that would have to be achieved before other aspects of the overhaul could proceed. Reid wants the Senate to decide the fate of the immigration bill before Congress breaks for its July 4 recess. But even if the measure passes the chamber, it faces an uncertain fate in the House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has told administration officials that she will not take up the bill unless about 70 Republicans are brought on board to help pass it.  The bill unveiled Tuesday is the equivalent of a warning flag that conservatives intend to fight for those Republican votes.
"It seems a formal way of putting proponents on notice that there will be resistance from those quarters in the House," said Roberto Suro, director of the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center. He added that the number of co-sponsors the bill attracted could act as "an indication of how many votes there are to oppose something that resembles the Senate bill or ... includes the legalization program." The measure would require that 18,000 border patrol agents be deployed by Dec. 31, 2008. Currently, the force totals about 12,000. It would also require the full implementation of US-VISIT, a program that is meant to track entries and exits at all ports-of-entry but has fallen short of that goal. U.S. citizens would be affected by many of the changes proposed for work site enforcement, including mandatory checks of all employees' eligibility and a nationwide electronic system for tracking birth and death records.  LA Times ~ Nicole Gaouette **
House Republicans introduce their own immigration bill
Related: This Blog *** House rejects security fence at the border
This Blog *** Rare Tactic May Allow Immigration Votes
Looks alot better than the bill the Senate is trying to cram down our throats. Just waiting for the libtards and their buddies in the press to call this bill racist... 5...4...3...2...1
Posted by yaahoo_
at 1:27 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 20 June 2007 1:34 AM EDT
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The source tells WSMV report says that the Thompson campaign has obtained the lease for that building to turn it into a national campaign office.
