here's my fave story from today:

A whistleblower contacted US regulators more than five years ago with allegations that Sir Allen Stanford’s businesses were involved in an “illegal Ponzi scheme�, the Financial Times has learnt, raising new questions about why authorities waited until last week to shut down the alleged $8bn fraud.

Leyla Basagoitia, a former Stanford employee, raised a series of red flags about the tycoon’s empire in a 2003 employment dispute with her company at a tribunal run by the finance industry’s self-regulatory body. Ms Basagoitia also alerted the US Securities and Exchange Commission at about the same time.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/148817be-043b-11de-845b-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

Regarding the wiretapping case -- to be honest, I always got the impression he was pursuing some of these cases for two reasons.

First, there really hasn't been time to really sort through the merits of the cases. Second, a LOT of these cases really could use some controlling precedents -- Bush kept yanking some from court to court and basically preventing anyone from really settling the matter.

And seriously -- this was an egregious example of the White House abusing the states secrets privalege, and it was in front of the 9th circuit.

That's the sort of case you only persist in because you want to lose.

If you go to the Hadley Climate Research Unit home page (http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/) you can look at the temperature plot on the upper right hand of that page, and see that temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere and the Globe in general are all falling, and have been for some time. This is not opinion, but looking at data, which folk should perhaps do, on occasion.

About those assault weapons, the article in "The Hill" said, "A number of House Democrats lost their seats after being targeted by the NRA for voting for the 1994 ban." It's no wonder that Pelosi and Reid aren't on board.

We need a strong anti-NRA to swing public opinion in the other direction over time. This is literally an issue of life or death, and current public sentiments on reasonable gun control measures seem to be facing in the wrong direction.

R.I.P. Philip Jose Farmer

The last two paragraphs are killer:

An agnostic from the age of 14, Mr. Farmer was ambivalent about humanity’s hunger for life after death. “I can’t see any reason why such miserable, unhappy, vicious, stupid, conniving, greedy, narrow-minded, self-absorbed beings should have immortality," he said in Science Fiction Review in 1975.

But he added, “When considering individuals, then I feel, yes, this person, that person, certainly deserves another chance.� Life on this planet, he said “is too short, too crowded, too hurried, too beset."

In re the southern governors and the stimulous package: Maybe Lincoln should have reconsidered that secession thing. . .

$25 Billion to Promote Electric Cars Is Untouched

Hey Obama geniuses...

Why not put aside 1 billion for a $3000 tax credit for people like me to buy the Vectrix?

Idjits! You do that...
And I am electric tomorrow...

I actually might enjoy getting Limbaugh alone long enough to find out just how tough he really is. Oooops, my inner adolescent male is on the loose again. Still........

>"We need a strong anti-NRA... This is literally an issue of life or death,"

Er... as far as the 'assault rifle' ban it doesn't appear to be the case.

I don't seem to recall seeing any 'assault rifle massacres' since the ban expired 5 years ago.

If you understand weapons, you will know that the ban was mostly targeted at weapons that looked scary to the public... ie. 'cosmetic'.

This was an issue the Dems needed to let go of... we need a progressive majority do deal with critically important things like getting health care, stable social security etc.

A broken US health care system kills many times more people than assault rifles.

I hope Morat is right. The wiretapping defense was Obama's biggest flaw.

* Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) argued yesterday, "Every major tax cut we've had in history has created more revenue." It's really annoying how often Republicans repeat this transparent nonsense.

The word "MAJOR" saves her. The righties are correct that lowering rates from 94 to 65% A 29% drop. DID increase revenue. If she thinks no other tax increase has been major, she's golden.

Not very interesting, perhaps, but more or less correct within her parameters.

To hang with "Paul Krugman and Robert Reich" would be a dream come true for me ... of course I'd need about six months of preperation.

As for Gregg .. As Plunkett, of Tammany Hall, said, "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."

And finally I read many of Philip Jose Farmer's books my favorite as a teen was "Flesh" for obvious reasons if you read it... and he had many stories in Astounding later Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact. I still ahve a warm feeling when I think of him....

Sex tourist Rush Limbaugh has way better drugs.

@Heading out

Um, I checked out http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/ and http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/. I don't see how their graphs substantiate your claim that temperatures have been falling, and for quite some time.

If Obama really only wants to pay for healthcare that works, he will:

1. Get Congress to abolish the National Office of Complementary and Alternative Medicine inside NIH. Most of the snake oil they pedal has already been disprove.

2. Taking psychology as mental medicine, he will DISBAND Bush’s office of faith-based initiatives, rather than expanding it. From faith-based substance abuse programs on down, much of this is mental health snake oil and also disproven.

Will he actually do either one of these? I doubt it. (And stuff like this is why I’m not a Green Party member, either.)

Morat, you're not Dr. Biobrain under new alias, are you? That's the type of stuff I'd expect from him.

In fact, I'm surprised he didn't already say that.

Maybe Gov. Helmethair and his Southern compadres have imbibed the Religious Right's "success gospel" so much they think the unemployed are cursed.

Hmm...tough choice as to whom I'd want to hang with:

On the one hand, we have Paul Krugman and Robert Reich--two intelligent, compassionate human beings who devote their lives to educating others on some of the most important and complex issues facing our time with a commitment and vision that aspires to will improve the good for everyone.

On the other hand, we have this "thing" called Rush Limbaugh-- an unknown alien of sorts who is decidedly lacking in one single redeeming characteristic--and prides himself (and makes a shit-load of money) precisely because of the same. His hellbent rants prove utterly debase and divisive, replete with some of the most severe hate-provoking and violence-inducing ideas known to humankind. (How he is actually called a 'comedian' or 'entertainer' is beyond me).

Still, it's really a tough choice.

I doubt the intel committee will be that interesting. How many members were told about Cheneys plans ahead of time? Smells to me like they are trying to preempt the justice committee which announce and investigation just the other day. Throw some more bad apples under the bus before Cheney testifies about just who was informed and when. "we are so disappointed Cheney refused to show up"

With respect, if, when a graph has lower values at the end than it has earlier we say it is going down. If your eyes cannot see that, then I fear there is very little I can do to help. I am, however, a great believer in people making up their own minds, so I would encourage folk to go look for themselves.

* I'll never understand what Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose was thinking.
I don't believe thinking entered the equation.

* And for the record, if I had a choice between hanging out with Paul Krugman and Robert Reich or with Rush Limbaugh, I wouldn't have to think twice.
I once had the chance to spend a few hours with Mr. Reich when he spoke to a public-private group of which I was president, and I wish there had been many more of those hours. As well as brilliant in a non-intimidating way, he's very funny, gracious, and engaging.
He's also the only person I've ever asked for an autograph. I had done some marketing for Job Corps (thus very indirectly for him) and had him sign one of the posters.

Re: Mayor Grose and the bigoted email re: our President:

See Huffington Post: His response proved as revolting as his email--he feigned shock at the complaint and claimed ignorance that watermelons are a symbol used in racist jokes--and thereby discounted the recipient's (a local black citizen who outed him) outrage at the same.

What B.S. Unless you just crawled out of a hole after a hundred years, you know how derogatory and loaded this imagery is when attached to blacks.

To shrug it off as he did is to re-victimize the victim. Talk about adding insult to injury. As though the original action wasn't offensive enough.

"Er... as far as the 'assault rifle' ban it doesn't appear to be the case.
I don't seem to recall seeing any 'assault rifle massacres' since the ban expired 5 years ago."

So, Buford, I guess only massacres count? I'd give you more examples, but these last few minutes turned my stomach.

July 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES – A 33-year-old man accused of opening fire with an AK-47 assault weapon on two LAPD officers during a traffic stop pleaded guilty today, the District Attorney’s Office announced.

May 21, 2007
Three Die in Assault Rifle Attack at Idaho Church

March 31, 2008
A Tarpon Springs man is under arrest, accused of firing an assault rifle at a fleeing man on Saturday.

Feb 21, 2009 Chicago police are looking for three "persons of interest" to talk to following Friday afternoon's shooting death of three teens on the Southeast Side. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said Friday it appeared several individuals attacked the teens, and shell casings found at the scene indicated that at least one assault rifle was used in the attack.

May 14, 2008
BROOKLYN, CT. — A 16-year-old boy with an assault rifle was disarmed last night after he approached a group of people playing basketball in Brooklyn and fired several rounds at them, according to Connecticut State Police today.

February 22, 2006
A person wielding an assault-style rifle inside a car yesterday sprayed a side entrance of Westinghouse High School with bullets, critically wounding a sophomore who stood mere feet from the safety of the Homewood school's doorway.

August 14, 2006
Chief William J. Bratton announced on August 14 that Hollenbeck Area Officer James Tuck, 26, remains in good spirits, despite sustaining serious injuries from an AK-47 assault late Saturday night.

Jan 25, 2008 (MILTON , Fla.) Two men survive an attack with an assault rifle outside a home in East Milton. One of the victims was shot in the chest and treated at a local convenience store before going to the hospital.

Jan 11, 2005
Assault Rifle Reported as Weapon Used in Ambush Attack on Police in Ceres, CA, Leaving One Officer Dead And One Critically Wounded; SKS Assault Rifles Claimed Lives of at Least Six Police Officers in 2004

February 27, 2008
A Mobile County Sheriff's Deputy, who was shot multiple times with an assault rifle, will be honored with the National Top Cops Award.
In January of 2007, Lt. Carlos Thompson was trying to pull over a car that matched the description of a vehicle used in an armed robbery. But the driver had no intention of stopping. During the chase, the armed robbery suspect began firing an assault rifle. Thompson was hit five times in his leg.

September 18, 2007
Police officers say they're outgunned by criminals who are now carrying assault rifles and using high-powered weapons when committing crimes. The North Hollywood bank robbery incident in the late 19-90's forced police departments across the country to take a look at their weapons of choice when officers were outgunned by the robbery suspects who were using high-powered assault rifles.

June 23, 2008
A six year-old child was shot late late Monday night. Mobile Fire dispatchers say the child was shot near Donald St and Gloria York Ave shortly before 9:30 Monday evening. Police believe an AK-47 may have been used in the shooting.

If you understand weapons, you will know that the ban was mostly targeted at weapons that looked scary to the public... ie. 'cosmetic'.

July 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES – A 33-year-old man accused of opening fire with an AK-47 assault weapon on two LAPD officers during a traffic stop pleaded guilty today, the District Attorney’s Office announced.

May 21, 2007
Three Die in Assault Rifle Attack at Idaho Church

March 31, 2008
A Tarpon Springs man is under arrest, accused of firing an assault rifle at a fleeing man on Saturday.

Feb 21, 2009 Chicago police are looking for three "persons of interest" to talk to following Friday afternoon's shooting death of three teens on the Southeast Side. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said Friday it appeared several individuals attacked the teens, and shell casings found at the scene indicated that at least one assault rifle was used in the attack.

May 14, 2008
BROOKLYN, CT. — A 16-year-old boy with an assault rifle was disarmed last night after he approached a group of people playing basketball in Brooklyn and fired several rounds at them, according to Connecticut State Police today.

February 22, 2006
A person wielding an assault-style rifle inside a car yesterday sprayed a side entrance of Westinghouse High School with bullets, critically wounding a sophomore who stood mere feet from the safety of the Homewood school's doorway.

August 14, 2006
Chief William J. Bratton announced on August 14 that Hollenbeck Area Officer James Tuck, 26, remains in good spirits, despite sustaining serious injuries from an AK-47 assault late Saturday night.

Jan 25, 2008 (MILTON , Fla.) Two men survive an attack with an assault rifle outside a home in East Milton. One of the victims was shot in the chest and treated at a local convenience store before going to the hospital.

Jan 11, 2005
Assault Rifle Reported as Weapon Used in Ambush Attack on Police in Ceres, CA, Leaving One Officer Dead And One Critically Wounded; SKS Assault Rifles Claimed Lives of at Least Six Police Officers in 2004

February 27, 2008
A Mobile County Sheriff's Deputy, who was shot multiple times with an assault rifle, will be honored with the National Top Cops Award.
In January of 2007, Lt. Carlos Thompson was trying to pull over a car that matched the description of a vehicle used in an armed robbery. But the driver had no intention of stopping. During the chase, the armed robbery suspect began firing an assault rifle. Thompson was hit five times in his leg.

September 18, 2007
Police officers say they're outgunned by criminals who are now carrying assault rifles and using high-powered weapons when committing crimes. The North Hollywood bank robbery incident in the late 19-90's forced police departments across the country to take a look at their weapons of choice when officers were outgunned by the robbery suspects who were using high-powered assault rifles.

June 23, 2008
A six year-old child was shot late late Monday night. Mobile Fire dispatchers say the child was shot near Donald St and Gloria York Ave shortly before 9:30 Monday evening. Police believe an AK-47 may have been used in the shooting.

Heading Out - OK, I'll bite. How do higher anamolies translate to the "falling" temperatures you claim in your 5:33 comment? And how do rising graph lines translate to "lower values" as you call them in your 7:26 comment? Is it possible you used the wrong link?

Morat, you're not Dr. Biobrain under new alias, are you? That's the type of stuff I'd expect from him.

You're a real tool, Gadfly. Seriously.

And no, Doctor Biobrain never posts under assumed names. Nor do I have a position on the wiretap thing.

Skepticat, I understand what you are getting at, but the term "assault rifle" is pretty useless when trying to define a class of weapons. They have too many characteristics in common with sporting firearms. You need to look at what makes these weapons attractive to criminals.

1)Semi-automatic action permits a high rate of fire. Basically, you can fire as quickly as you can pull the trigger.

2)High magazine capacity.

3)Overall length is relatively short.

4)Cheap to purchase and cheap to feed. AK-47 and SKS rifles commonly available in the US are made in China and can fire military surplus ammunition.

Good luck regulating semi-automatic actions. There are too many sporting weapons built on semi-automatic actions. Likewise, telling Americans that they are not allowed to purchase inexpensive firearms will be a non-starter.

That leaves overall length and magazine capacity. Outside of law enforcement and the military, I can't see why anyone reasonably needs more than a six cartridge magazine. But, then you'll hear home defense arguments and god-knows-what-else if you try to regulate magazine capacity.

Barrel lengths and overall lengths could be regulated conceivably, but how does one distiguish between handguns and longarms? Some sportsmen hunt with handguns that are chambered for cartridges that are more typically used for longarms.

The whole thing is a political minefield and hands the wingnuts a wedge issue to beat up liberals with. Until Americans are ready to give up their frontier attachment to firearms, I think that Pelosi and Reid have it right. Lets work on building a society where people feel less need to shoot the place up.

Brilliantly put AK Liberal.

"Until Americans are ready to give up their frontier attachment to firearms, I think that Pelosi and Reid have it right. Lets work on building a society where people feel less need to shoot the place up."

Some people call that a practical attitude. I call that political cowardice. Truly important issues shouldn't wait for enough public support. If the civil rights movement had waited for public support, black people probably still wouldn't have the vote. We'll be waiting a similar length of time for marriage equality for gays if we merely wait for the other side to "come to their senses". And the lives being lost to gun violence also shouldn't be put on the back burner just because a lot of Americans have a hard-on for cheap, unregulated guns.

Besides, sensible gun control, like registration and background checks, already has majority support in America. Why waste our time fretting about what the defunct GOP and the divorced-from-reality villagers and pundits think?

Gentle Folk:
We seem to have a little problem with visual acuity. If you go to the sites cited at Hadley (and I am looking at them as I write, and carefully copying down, again, the URL using copy:paste

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/
(If we could post in the actual graphs it would make this a little easier) and you zoom at the time interval in each case after 2000 (its actually a little earlier but these are small plots) all three curves have been inclining towards the bottom of the page- i.e.downwards over the time interval since 2000.

If you want to talk trends, you might note that we can divide the graph into about 30 year periods. 1850-1880 - upward temp, 1880-1910 downward temp; 1910 - 1940- upward temp, 1940 - 1970 downward temp (the George Will interval); 1970 - 2000 the upward temp, and 2000 - ?? downwards.

You have to look at the end and not the middle to see the current trend, rather than the intermediate bits (and this trend is hidden in the way they are presenting the data at the GISS site.)

If you want to talk trends, you might note that we can divide the graph into about 30 year periods. -Heading Out

Heading Out, 30 year increments are not sufficient enough a time frame to draw conclusions concerning global atmospheric trends.

Obviously, one only needs to note the trend of the entire graph to realize you're ignoring reality.

I am very hopeful that these ReThugs governors turning down expansion of unemployment insurance FUNDED BY THE FEDS will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and these ReThug governors will all be defeated at the polls next time.

Even La Palin could be "term-limited" by her electorate if she follows this line of thinking.

I'll betcha they all look harder at the Stim and see they can change their laws back once the Stim runs out and change their tunes, very publicly.

Any of these states have recall?

"Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) argued yesterday,..."

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) lied yesterday, ...

There, fixed for you.

It's really funny how wingnuts manage to reproduce wildly racist stereotypes without having any knowledge of them.

ESP?

AK Liberal, I agree strongly with your last 'graph.

Just as Krugman is cheered by Obama's budget (after feeling ready to be disappointed for months), so am I by this little tidbit, which didn't get much notice in view of larger issues:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-conscience27-2009feb27,0,6549166.story

There is a legal way to get rid of guns--amend the Constitution.

I do have a problem with fascists who pick and choose the parts of the Bill of Rights that they like for themselves.

Here are the NASA temperature data.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt

There does not seem to be any net warming over the last 10 years, but 1998 was kind of unusual. Also, the warming is only supposed to be about 0.1C - 0.2C per decade, which may be nearly impossible to detect on any one decade. Will correctly points out that we do not actually yet know whether the next two decades will produce the predicted warming. The solar cycle enthusiasts are predicting 2 decades of cooling: they have evidence, a theoretical mechanism, evidence for the theoretical mechanism -- and critics as well.

As Will pointed out, he quoted his sources accurately. Those sources have made contradictory claims from time to time. Also as Will pointed out, there was a broad scientific consensus in the 1970s, which those scientists really want to ignore now, that global cooling was an imminent threat.

Reforestation and biofuels are good for diverse reasons, as is fuel efficiency. Investments now will pay off, and are a step toward alleviation GHG accumulation if that proves necessary. But there are problems in the GHG-forced theory of global warming.

Folks here is a statistic that everybody should ponder. One out of two households in America have a firearm of some type. That is every other household in America. Tell me again about just how wildly popular gun control is outside certain high crime areas urban areas. Trying to ban something found in every other household in America is a non-starter. Wanting to try is political suicide.

@Heading Out

The group which published http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/ must also suffer from problems with visual acuity. To wit, another page on their site, http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/myths/2.html, states:

Temperatures are continuing to rise

The rise in global surface temperature has averaged more than 0.15 �C per decade since the mid-1970s. Warming has been unprecedented in at least the last 50 years, and the 17 warmest years have all occurred in the last 20 years. This does not mean that next year will necessarily be warmer than last year, but the long-term trend is for rising temperatures.

Instead of AGW, we must be suffering from AGM (anthropgenic global myopia).

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) argued yesterday, "Every major tax cut we've had in history has created more revenue."

The Obama budget cuts taxes on 95% of Americans.

I don't know the total dollar amount, but it's gotta be a 'major tax cut'.

So, Sen. Bailey, are you now an Obama supporter?

You thought Jonah pantload Goldberg was scary for wanting to get out of paying taxes? Pardon me if PA already aired this, but: at http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=17812o.typepad.com/ there's a scary rundown of "respectable" sites like Hannity putting up a poll about what kind of revolution his fans want (to overthrow Obama's program) and the result:
Military Coup 16.67%
Armed Rebellion 44.44%
War for Secession 38.89%

Most of the commenters there are making fun of it all, but really: these same people who constantly picked on anyone just criticizing George Bush etc., are making noise about overthrowing the current Administration because they don't like what it's doing. I don't think that's funny. This isn't a call for legitimate protest, however snarky such polls may be taken (I don't see them as perceived like the nutty polls in Kos etc.) These people are scary, they are unAmerican.

Doubtful:
Ah, well if you want to expand the graph, then we get into the periodicity of the Warming Periods and the Bond Periods. There is a Global Temperature Cycle which runs on about a 1200 year period that causes the Globe to warm and cool. The Little Ice Age that we are now emerging from was preceded by a Warming Period (the Medieval Warming Period) before which was a Bond Period, and before which was another Warming Period (the Roman Warming Period). The glaciers have advanced and retreated as these various periods have come and gone. (As have the ice fields in for example Greenland - some 3 cycles ago the ice fields (as identified by morraine locations) were about 10 miles back from their current locations.

Thus it is quite likely that we are entering the stable warm segment of a Warming Period. The down side to this, sadly, is that they are marked by droughts of decade long durations in California.

The Doughy Pantload needs to find him some dirty f'n hippies. They've been trying to figure out the "no tax $$ for stuff I don't like" for 40 years. The creativity of the conservative intellectual.

temperatures ... in general are all falling, and have been for some time Heading Out (5:33)

We seem to have a little problem with visual acuity...and you zoom at the time interval in each case after 2000 Heading Out (9:19)

"Since 2000" is not "for some time" in the context of climate change. Go back to AEI and do some more thinking. Miserable lowlife.

The rack-up of US assault rifle crimes was useful, but those deaths seem to pale in the face of the Mexican carnage being inflicted by criminals with AK-47s bought by the truckload in the US. Progressives should value the lives of Mexican drug police as highly as those of American school boys.

"Trying to ban something found in every other household in America is a non-starter."

And conflating gun control with gun ban is evidence of sloppy thinking. Registration and background checks are just two of several forms of gun control that still allow people to buy and possess guns. Is that really so difficult to wrap your mind around?

i followed one on the links provided by a commenter as pushback against global warming [http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/]
and quickly read this: "The 1990s were the warmest complete decade in the series. The warmest year of the entire series has been 1998, with a temperature of 0.546°C above the 1961-90 mean. Thirteen of the fourteen warmest years in the series have now occurred in the past fourteen years (1995-2008). The only year in the last fourteen not among the warmest fourteen is 1996 (replaced in the warm list by 1990). The period 2001-2008 (0.43°C above 1961-90 mean) is 0.19°C warmer than the 1991-2000 decade (0.24°C above 1961-90 mean)."

thoughts?

"If you go to the Hadley Climate Research Unit home page (http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/) you can look at the temperature plot on the upper right hand of that page, and see that temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere and the Globe in general are all falling, and have been for some time. "

You realize those plots you linked to refute your own contention, don't you?

Not if you look at the period post 2000 I'm not. you need to look at the ends of the graph.