"[Lindsey Graham] went on to argue that Beck is 'not aligned with any party as far as I can tell. He's aligned with cynicism. And there's always been a market for cynicism.'"

While Lindsey Graham is basically correct about Glenn Beck himself, I think it is quite possible to argue that the Republican Party itself is at the moment aligned with cynicism, by itself as a political philosophy, in exactly the same way Beck is.

If one felt like playing "gotcha" and trolling over Lindsey Graham's comments this year trying to find an example of Beckian pure-cynicism, I wonder what one would find.

The IOC disrespected His Most Catholic Majesty, King Juan Carlos. He even made an unprecedented (except for all the other heads of state) personal trip to lobby for his nation. How dare they!

"All the Senate Finance Committee has to do now is pass the health care reform bill."

Hopefully it will be DOA so the other four bills already passed through committee can proceed.

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet

Warning: The above url requires an above average IQ to understand. Those who trust Fox News may not grasp the significance of the data. Check it out...it's sobering.

We get so caught up in the health care debate and the bizarre socialism crap that we forget any bill won't take effect for 4 years.

That's an eternity in political time.

I think we need an immediate measure, passed on Monday, that goes something like this:

HB1234: Whereas it is deemed essential that all people in these United States shall be granted the right to health, happiness and the pursuit of freedom from mindless crap that has dominated the political debate for far too long....

"...no matter what happened, the Republicans would be claiming that [Chicago losing the bid for the Olympics] is bad for Obama..."

Not just the Republicans. The Associate Press and every mainstream media outlet that publishes their nonsense.

"Could failed Olympic bid hurt [Obama's] efforts on issues such as health care, war?"

The big news - after the revolting cheering by conservahacks of Chicago's loss - is Sarah Palin's new book and its title: "Going Rogue." Explains a lot, does it not? Heh, even Steve Schmidt (McCain's former Campaign Manager) said her running in 2012 would be catastrophic.

If President McCain tried to get the Olympics, and failed, the wingnuts would say it was because the corrupt IOC hates America.

The core tenet of the Republican party and its members of our "conservative" movement? Why of course, DOUBLE STANDARD! Their current rhetoric belies a temperment that tells us, We Republicans and conservatives will hold others to standards we will not hold ourselves to! Fecal matter and lost elections will rain down on this party in the next election cycle! -Kevo

* Dems taunt GOP: "Where's your health plan?"

Republicans are stuck. Their economics policies are Divinely Revealed and unfortunately for them, God's Chosen Prophet St. Ronald only gave them four deity-approved options:

- Tax cuts for millionaires
- Tax cuts for corporations
- Deregulatr
- Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

Even though most Republicans aren't smart enough to tie their own shoes, they're politically savvy enough to recognize that proposing God's Supply-side economic solutions for health care would be political suicide.

Did you catch David Brooks's op-ed in the NYT about Beck, Rushbaugh, et al. He ridicules them.

Tom:

When I got to that URL, I get: "The database is currently unavailable... Your request was invalid for this Data Access Service. Please attempt other data requests. Thank you for using LABSTAT." What were you trying to link?

mcc;

oops

http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab9.htm

I was trying to link to median number of weeks unemployed (historical over last decade)

trend shows median number of weeks has sky-rocketed over past year, meaning more folks are just unemployed, the duration is getting worse.

Median is, ofcourse, the middle value of a data-set, so a median duration of 17 weeks means millions are even worse off.

Here's some biofuels news: di-methyl-ether.

And there is a preview of international biofuels developments, including India's plan to become the world leader in ethanol productiion.

Unemployment news today: it was up. I think we can increase employment by changing the way business taxes work. We should allow labor costs to be multiplied by some factor, and other costs by less than one - that becomes the "adjusted cost of business." Then we tax the profit margin over that. It would cost less in effect to hire workers, and labor-intensive companies are favored. We can even fail to offer the multiplier (or use

RIGHTWING SAYS "JUMP", OBAMA SAYS "HOW HIGH?", AGAIN

Obama Meets Afghanistan Commander On Air Force One

(AFP) - President Barack Obama met Friday with the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, aboard Air Force One before flying home from Copenhagen, the White House said.

"The president wanted to take the opportunity to get together with General McChrystal," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

McChrystal had been in London, and flew to Copenhagen to meet with Obama to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The pair met for 25 minutes and McChrystal left the plane before takeoff, Gibbs said.

If Ensign's fate is in the hands of the Senate Ethics Committee, he is at virtually no risk.

Yes there is an Ethics Committee. No, in almost never actually does anything unless it has gone viral on YouTube and can't possibly be avoided.

Since Ensign did clearly violate the law as far as relationships with his former aide/cuckold-turned-lobbyist, but avoided getting caught on hidden cameras, he'll clearly walk away unscathed.

ice ipcc seeding orbital continues pre

In honor of MatthewRMarler

Old rule: Every village must have an idiot.

New rule: Every American political blog must have a resident, link-posting climate troll constantly demonstrating the irrational tendency known as confirmation bias.

koreyal, for a really good example of confirmation bias you should read about Michael Mann and the hockey stick.

Or just about anything by AGW promotors over the last 2 decades. As with common colds, just about everyone is liable.

So Republicans were CHEERING that Chicago did not get the Olympics?? Doesn't that remind you of all the Palestinians who were cheering in the streets when they heard about the 9/11 attacks?

Rhinehart,

"So Republicans were CHEERING that Chicago did not get the Olympics??"

Wasn't that SPECIAL ?

"Doesn't that remind you of all the Palestinians who were cheering in the streets when they heard about the 9/11 attacks?"

Never happened.

It was a faked video.

They're cheering because Chicago (read Obama) didn't win.

And of course if he hadn't gone to make the pitch, they'd be shouting, "Every other contender sent their big guns. Chicago is Obama's hometown. Doesn't he love America enough to go fight for his hometown. Why does he hate us? What would you expect from a Kenyan?"

Zero tolerance for climate trolls

Old Voltaire
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

New Voltaire
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it on your own blog.

Every wonder about the indefatigable nature of climate trolls? They are a phenomenal lot. They sometimes dominate threads. Are they being paid? Or just zealots? Maybe both?

I was very happy to see New Scientist's blog Short Sharp Science initiate a new commenting policy. They had to do that. They had a plague of climate trolls. Allowing them to post their nonsense was no longer an option. They would gum up every thread devoted to the latest scientific news on climate change.

The time has come for all bloggers to consider such a policy. You did read Krugman the other day, didn't you? There is a very powerful paragraph in there that bears repeating:

Nor is it just a matter of vested interests. It’s also a matter of vested ideas. For three decades the dominant political ideology in America has extolled private enterprise and denigrated government, but climate change is a problem that can only be addressed through government action. And rather than concede the limits of their philosophy, many on the right have chosen to deny that the problem exists.

Leftblogostan should no longer permit any such prevarications on climate change. The time has come to do something serious about climate change. And too, the time has come to update Voltaire and purge these troll posts dispassionately.

Looking at the various Republican health reform suggestions, tax cuts lead. I don't know if they don't understand what a tax cut is or if they think people making diddly squat don't understand what a tax cut is. If you are only making enough to pay say $2000 in taxes per family ($18,700 reportable income married filing jointly, $16,000 married filing separately), and if health insurance costs $12,000 a year, then your 100% tax cut will pay for two months of insurance. Where is the other 10 months of premiums going to come from? And where are the co-pays and deductibles going to come from? What are these people thinking?

koreyel, very well said. Some of the trolls here can sound "reasonable" and "independent" to those unfamiliar with the nuances of climate science and policy. Climate change is so complex that it's challenging to discuss even when everyone is on their best behavior. Add a few commentators whose mission is to obfuscate, confuse or even lie, and all hope of a meaningful discussion vanishes.

Today's News in Song:
(For representative Ensign)

Why Me - Planet P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svl1t4b1RD4

I live OUTSIDE the US, and come from a nation that fights oil wars ALONGSIDE the US.
Traveling TO the US is a fucking nightmare even though it's supposed to be easier for me. Hell, I've got security clearances and NATO mobilization duties that should make me totally risk free.

Haven't gone to the US for a long time. Wouldn't even dream of bothering going to Chicago for the Olympics, though I've been to a few.

steve t:
- Tax cuts for millionaires
- Tax cuts for corporations
- Deregulatr
- Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

...

you left out one...

invasion...

I posted this at the NYT as well.

I have had a series of dreams about the headlines that would have followed had Obama not gone to Copenhagen:

“Obama fails to support USA”
“Obama lets Chicago fail”
“Obama to Chicago, ‘Fuggetaboutit’”
“Noshow-Bama!”
“What was he afraid of?”

and from the right

“Obama hates the USA”
“What can you expect from This President”

Join in, it is fun.

In the same vein as some comments above:

If Chicago HAD been chosen, wouldn't we be hearing about "...good ol' fashioned Chicago-style politics with shady backroom deals. What did he promise them? We want an independent prosecutor!"

Wikipedia has amusing (to me anyway) background on Chicago's successful bid for the 1904 Olympics ... which were then held in St. Louis, as the promoters of the 1904 World's Fair demanded. Don't know how far back the IOC's institutional memory goes...

Also look up L.A.'s 2 successful bids, which L.A. won by default because there were no challenging bids. That's how ya show 'em, by God!

I guess that makes Atlanta the only U.S. city to win 'em & host 'em fair & square. 'Course, that one was bombed by a wacko 'winger. Read his statement at trial...jeez Louise.

The 29 failed U.S. bids were all laid at the feet of the sitting presidents, of course. And conservatives all gloated and condemned, of course. Oh, wait ... they didn't? Hunh, waddya know.

Chicago 2016 was always 'heads we win, tails you lose' for the right.

Krugman, via koreyel: It’s also a matter of vested ideas.

that's true of all parties. Hansen, for example, began to sound the alarm after a "trend" lasting about 10 years (indeed, slightly shorter than the current cooling/stable trend), and he has never acknowledged the validity of any criticisms, or contradictory data.

You really should read Wegman et al (the report of the committee empanelled by the NAS to review the "hockey stick".) I don't think you appreciate how thin and selected (biased by the "confirmation bias" that you wrote of earlier) are the data in favor of AGW, and how much evidence there is for other causes of climate fluctuations.

AGW could be happening, but the continuing ad hominem attacks on the sceptics are, at minimum, unscientific.

The Chamber of Commerce idea for a "trial" isn't such a bad idea. At such a trial, Mann and Briffa could be required to answer under oath exactly how they chose a small minority of the totality of the data that they had: complete disclosure of all methods and data is an ethic of science, but Mann and Briffa have basically said that they could just "tell" that the excluded data were less reliable, and they kept the excluded data secret for 10 years after having been asked to disclose them. The "peers" of the "peer reviewed" literature took their selections, hence their results, on faith. The semi-scientific reviews by the IPCC are narrow, and do not ask probing questions.

A question: Since the IPCC 10-year projection in 1999 was so completely wrong, why would anybody believe any current projection? Shouldn't you withhold belief, and retain a sceptical attitude, until they have made at least a short uninterrupted series of predictions? No one is to be "believed", but the solar theorists have a better record of accurate predictions than the AGW theorists have.