Beware Jumping in Pools blog - fake news stories

Stay away from this one, not Gateway, he is good, but Jumping in Pools. Gateway Pundit: Jumping in Pools Blog is a website that specializes in writing realistic but fake stories, publishing them and then watching who will link to their bogus news story. The blog does not identify itself as a satire site and several of their satire pieces are so close to fact that it is hard to tell the difference. Don’t be fooled. Several conservatives have fallen for their pranks and Reuters even published one of their posts at least once. This is a dangerous website. The latest conservatives to fall for one of their fake news stories were Rush Limbaugh and Michael Ledeen. On August 25 Jumping in Pools posted a fake article about Obama’s far left college thesis. Obama wrote his thesis on a nuke free world. He never released it during the campaign because it is reportedly filled with radical slurs against America. The state-run media never cared much about it. So in August Jumping in Pools posted one of their fake stories claiming they found this thesis. Last week Rush’s team and Michael fell victim to the prank. Tonight the state-run media is getting a good laugh at Rush’s expense.

Censorship by Attorney General Holder

President Obama doesn't like criticism. Who does? But Obama's Attorney General took the extreme step and actively censored criticism of an Obama policy recently. It's very chilling for the top legal officer in the government to tell you to shut up. Obama talks about increasing opportunities and more flexibility in K-12 education. But his actions speak louder than his words. He is killing a D.C. voucher program that gets kids into better schools. And censoring those to disagree. Silencing Voices for School Choice - Weekly Standard:

Former D.C. Councilmember Kevin Chavous of D.C. Children First said October 16 that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had recently approached him and told him to kill the ad. The 30-second ad, which has been airing on FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and News Channel 8 to viewers in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, urges the president to reauthorize the federally-funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program that provides vouchers of up to $7,500 for D.C. students to attend private schools. The ad features Chavous and a young boy--one of 216 students whose scholarships were rescinded by the Department of Education earlier this year when the agency announced no new students would be allowed into the program. The ad also includes an excerpt taken from one of Obama's campaign statements. "We're losing several generations of kids," Obama says, "and something has to be done." "President Obama is ending a program that helps low-income kids go to better schools, refusing to let any new children in," Chavous says in the ad. "I'm a lifelong Democrat, and I support our president. But it's wrong that he won't support an education program that helps our kids learn."

Censorship is often misunderstood. Editing by the media is not censorship; it might be biased, but it's not censorship. Censorship is prior restraint of speech by the government. This is the real thing. Via Cato.

ACORN-registered voter convicted of vote fraud

ACORN claims that their fraudulent registering noneligible voters and registering people multiple times is no big deal because they never vote. PROVEN FALSE. A cross-dressing Ohio man has been convicted of illegally voting. The American Spectator : The Nine Voting Lives of ACORN's Darnell Nash: ... a cross-dressing Ohio male escort whom ACORN registered multiple times to vote was convicted of full-fledged vote fraud in addition to the lesser crime of voter registration fraud. A spokesman for Cleveland prosecutor Bill Mason confirmed yesterday that a local investigation of ACORN remains wide open. The conviction of Darnell Nash, apparently known by several aliases including Serina "Sexy Slay" Gibbs, is hugely significant for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that ACORN has long maintained that vote fraud, as opposed to the lesser crime of voter registration fraud, essentially never happens.

Bending the cost curve - Up! - Obama's health care takeover

The Obama administration analyzed Obama's health care takeover and found it will raise, not lower, costs. The Actuarial section of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did the analysis. The whole report is here (pdf). Read Joseph Ragu's column on it: America in the World: Bending the Curve -- Up!: Supposedly the whole point of ObamaCare was to 'bend the curve' and reduce the growth rate of health-care spending. Everyone now knows it will do the opposite -- as at least one corner of the Obama Administration is willing to admit. "This week, the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, released a cost estimate for the House health bill. Its projections mostly track those issued by the Congressional Budget Office, but CMS does ask some questions that CBO so far hasn't pursued. The results aren't pretty. "CMS estimates the House bill would add 2.1 percentage points to the (already high) annual growth rate of national health spending. In 2019, when the second decade of ObamaCare would kick in, the bill would add 2.7 points to the growth rate. "CMS also observes that the 'game changers' President Obama and especially budget chief Peter Orszag used to promote, like comparative effectiveness research and more wellness programs, are actually nonchangers. They'll save a pitiful $2.1 billion over a decade -- about 0.002% of the $1.042 trillion in new spending authorized by the House bill. "Even the good news isn't so good. CMS says spending growth would be even higher except that so many more people will receive their care from government, allowing Washington to economize through 'sizable discounts imposed on providers,' which is one way of putting it. (Another way of putting it: Expect long lines and shabbier treatment as fewer doctors are willing to treat government-insured patients.) "In fact, CMS estimates that seven years after the bill's provisions take effect, government's share of total health-care spending will have risen to 55% from today's 47%. Single payer, here we come.

EYMAN CONTRASTS I-1033 WITH COLORADO

I am going to vote for Initiative 1033 because it's a smart way to limit spending that has some safety valves. If an emergency occurs, like the politicians have claimed every year since I was born, they can convince the voters and the voters can choose to raise their taxes. I-1033 allows keeping a rainy-day fund; it allows tax increases by vote; borrowing is allowed; and the legislature can change it after two years. Oh oh, another emergency is coming... In the link Eyman compares I-1033 to Colorado's TABOR. His summary is below the link. Sound Politics: EYMAN CONTRASTS I-1033 WITH COLORADO: Initiative 1033 contains proven policy which is eminently reasonable -- it allows government an automatic increase every year equal to the growth of the economy. It has a built-in safety valve, the same as I-601: if government thinks the automatic increase isn't a big enough increase, they can go to the voters and ask for more. I-1033, just like I-601, allows the people, and not the politicians, to decide how fast government grows and how big a tax burden we can afford. I-601's fiscal discipline worked, it will work again with the passage of I-1033.

Dumbest RINO trick of this year

The Republican power elite chose a woman supported by ACORN, Dede Scozafava for the special election in New York's 23d district. She is not just a RINO - Republican in Name Only - but far left; she also supports Obama's health care takeover, cap and trade, and the unions taking away the private ballot with card check. Also NY Daily News. And she is dumb. She held a campaign event in front of her opponent Doug Hoffman's office and his supporters came out with their Doug Hoffman signs in front of the cameras set up for her appearance. Hat tip: American Thinker

One more day and a wakeup call

Tomorrow is my last day working at Boeing after 39 years and 10 months. My military veteran friends tell me two days to go is "one day and a wake up call." Because the duties end on the second to last day.

The Public Option Deception

Obama wants his takeover of health care to be complete. For that he needs the Federal government to be providing health care for most people. That's the "public option." It is the road to single-payer. They say they don't want this takeover - the public option. But they always have wanted it. And they said so repeatedly. Big Government ... More damning still, we uncovered video of the original architect of the public option, Yale professor Jacob Hacker, describing how it was designed to not “frighten people into thinking they are going to lose their private insurance” even though that is the inevitable result. In another clip he denies the plan is a Trojan horse saying, on the contrary, “it’s right there”. In other words, it’s not even a secret. Most relevant of all, Hacker admits in another clip that the real advantage of his plan is that “at least you can make the claim that there is competition between the public and private sectors”. In other words, this is all a marketing strategy designed to get around public resistance to government-run health care. For his part, President Obama has been an extremely disciplined salesman. The mantra of “choice and competition” has been repeated to the point that it is little more than political background noise. To this day, neither the President nor any of his spokespeople have been challenged by the media about these claims, despite the fact that there is video evidence which directly contradicts what he is saying. So confident is the President that the media will toe his line that, in a speech in front of the American Medical Association, the President explicitly denied that the public option was a “Trojan horse” for a single payer system. On this, and numerous other occasions, he has said that opponents of reform who claim this are not telling the truth. Outside talk radio, the conservative blogosphere, and a couple editorials in the Wall Street Journal, no one has been willing to suggest that the opposite is the case. With so many proponents of reform caught on tape directly contradicting the President, it almost seems as if the mainstream media has intentionally avoided covering this story. And as anyone who has been paying attention knows, that’s something they’ve been guilty of more than once since Obama took office. NY Times public editor Clark Hoyt admitted in a bombshell statement that the paper had risked appearing biased for its failure to cover the Van Jones and ACORN stories as they broke. The Washington Post was similarly chastened. And as it turns out, both papers may have an additional reason to avoid touching this story. Because politicians are not the only ones we have exposed admitting the truth about the public option. Back in June, we posted a video of Ezra Klein from the Washington Post revealing how the public option was designed as a “sneaky strategy” to move towards single payer. And we have posted videos of Paul Krugman from the NY Times admitting much the same. ...

Vince Flynn at Third Place Books Monday night

Best-selling novelist Vince Flynn will be presenting his new book Pursuit of Honor Monday night at 7 PM. At Third Place Books The top level of Lake Forest Park Town Center mall: 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155 Directions and map This is my neighborhood. I like to walk there.

Not Evil Just Wrong debuts Sunday at 5 PM

Al Gore received a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for claiming in his film "An Inconvenient Truth" that humans cause global warming. Today, because of this film, school children fear that polar bears are drowning and they and their parents will be next. And extreme “cap-and-trade” legislation Gore could only dream about a decade ago is now pending approval in the U.S. Senate, estimated to cost billions of dollars, mortgaging the futures of those same children before they've earned their first paycheck. In Not Evil Just Wrong two Irish filmmakers take on Al Gore and the blind acceptance of his doomsday agenda. Over 3 years in the making with a budget of over $1million, this explosive documentary exposes the distortions and hypocrisy of Gore and the global warming “industry.” It explains the true costs of environmental policies like “cap-and-trade” now before Congress. Today over 31,000 scientists are saying Al Gore is wrong. That CO2 has little effect on planetary temperatures, and there is no climate crisis. But Not Evil Just Wrong is the film that explains it all and will decisively change the public's mind about global warming. A film that will change history. Washington Policy Center is hosting the debut in Washington. They have showings at most of the state four-year colleges and some private ones. See their site for their detailed schedule.

All showings are at 5 PM

· University of Washington, Sieg Hall 134 · Washington State University, TODD 216 · Eastern Washington University, Patterson 103 · Central Washington University, SURC Theater 210 · Gonzaga University, Jundt Auditorium 006 · Pacific Lutheran University, University Center (The Cave) · Seattle University, Admin 307 · North Bellevue Community Center, 4063 148th Ave NE, Bellevue

Online

Andrew Breitbart is hosting online viewing at Big Hollywood. Go there at 5 PM to watch.

First Lady?

There are first ladies and ... what do you think? Getting off Air Force One. Representing the US - always representing the US.

U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects

Who would imagine that the Democrats would cut the footing from our young people in uniform who are risking their lives for President Obama's Afghan war? U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects - Washington Times: Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis. Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat. While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, "in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year," said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization. Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, called the transfer of funds from Pentagon operations and maintenance "a disgrace." "The Senate is putting favorable headlines back home above our men and women fighting on the front lines," he said in a statement....

The Uselessness of Paul Krugman

There’s nothing liberals love more than apologizing for the misdeeds of others. Pajamas Media » The Uselessness of Paul Krugman: Apologizing for others... Recently in the New York Times Magazine, Paul Krugman took it to an extreme with his 6,670-word article titled “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?”. Don’t bother reading it. It’s clear that he still doesn’t get it and definitely isn’t looking for any real answers. Just the length of the piece is comical. We imagine poor Paul gazing out the window of his New York Times office searching for just one more quote, one more study, one more insight to help redeem his profession and his reputation in the wake of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Because in Krugman’s ivory tower and on the Times editorial board, economics still matters and no debate about stimulus packages or health care plans or financial regulation would be complete without his unique and important insights. He’s too big to fail and worth every word. And who could edit him anyway? He won a Nobel Prize. Over here in reality, most of us already know that he and those that follow in his footsteps have no reputation to salvage. As the chief hand waver for the liberal establishment, Krugman is ready at a moment’s notice to pen op-eds and cite studies that support any policy that his progressive paymasters dream up, even if it defies the most basic economic principles. Economics is a subject that students love to hate, and I was no exception. Much of it is so theoretical that it is not just a waste of time, but in obvious conflict with the real world. For example, in Macro, I was taught that having both low inflation and low unemployment was impossible, even though thankfully America has accomplished this for most of my working life. Still, two economic concepts did penetrate the fog: “supply and demand” and “incentives matter.” They are intuitive, easy to understand and apply, and deadly weapons against progressive economic policies. Take ObamaCare, an easy target. According to the Democrats’ dubious accounting there are 30 to 45 million uninsured. But once the government starts to offer quality health insurance priced below-market, why wouldn’t every single American have an incentive to sign up? Especially when their employers decide that it is easier to pay the fine than to provide care? Incentives matter. Then supply and demand enters the picture. More patients means more demand for doctors, which would normally be a good thing for the profession. Yet the government is capping and cutting reimbursements, which reduces the supply of medical care. It’s Jimmy Carter all over again, but with lines at the “free” clinic instead of the gas pump. Does it end there? No, it never ends. Patients still want care, so they buy supplemental private insurance policies. The best doctors exit public care and patient wait times increase and quality deteriorates. And although the government should be happy to get a few patients off the rolls, just ask anyone in the UK or Australia what the general attitude is to private insurance and care. Apply supply and demand and incentives, and its obvious that progressive policies disrupt markets, kill jobs, and destroy wealth. History is full of examples, and we don’t need to turn to the wreckage of the Soviet empire. Amity Shales wrote an excellent book, The Forgotten Man, that describes how President Roosevelt’s policies during and after the Great Depression harmed the very people they were supposed to help for at least a decade. What’s maddening is that Krugman and his kind aren’t completely ignorant of supply and demand and incentives.

Top Quotes From This Year's Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Gateway Pundit: Obama on his political opponents:

"They Bring a Knife...We Bring a Gun"

Obama to his supporters:

"Get in Their Faces!

Obama on ACORN mobs:

"I don't want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I'm angry!"

Obama to his mercenary army:

"Hit Back Twice As Hard"

Obama on the killer Iranian regime murdering their own people in the street:

"The Iranians are having a robust debate."

Obama on defending genocide (2007):

The United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

Obama defending killing babies who survive an abortion:

"Essentially adding an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision."

Truly, this is a man of peace.

How to make $ trillion in new spending appear to improve the deficit

The Congressional Budget Office is part of the smoke and mirrors game this time. Their finding that the Baucus Bill might add spending, but it will improved the budget deficit it nonsense. And they know it; everyone knows it. First, there is no Baucus Bill. There is a "plain-English" outline of over 200 pages. But the real bill has not been written. Semi-legible though it is now, Senate staff will turn the current into legalese to be the real bill. Of course the result will not be exactly the same. CBO should expense out the real bill, not this. Second, CBO assumed that we will go for increased taxes like sheep. They dutifully accept Baucus's assumptions about his proposed taxes being enacted and Americans going along and not changing their habits to avoid new taxes. But people always change their behavior when the incentives change. [REFERENCE] His claimed increased tax revenues are unlikely to come about. But that happens with every tax increase. Third, Baucus pulled a very obvious trick. He put all the tax increases and cuts to Medicare up front - in the next two to three years. But the new benefits are delayed for three to four years. The cost estimate Congress uses is the next ten years. But this start up is not an accurate picture of a typical ten years. The increased costs are greatly understated. If you understate the increased costs and overstate the revenues how can you claim to have an accurate picture? This "bill" will clearly increase the deficit that Obama promised to reduce.

New natural gas technology greatly expands the supply

There are new discoveries of natural gas fields. And new technology allows extracting gas where it could not produced before. This is a game changer. Ambrose Evans-Prichard summarizes: Telegraph - UK:

America is not going to bleed its wealth importing fuel. Russia's grip on Europe's gas will weaken. Improvident Britain may avoid paralysing blackouts by mid-decade after all. The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected. Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, said proven natural gas reserves around the world have risen to 1.2 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, enough for 60 years' supply – and rising fast. "There has been a revolution in the gas fields of North America. Reserve estimates are rising sharply as technology unlocks unconventional resources," he said. This is almost unknown to the public, despite the efforts of Nick Grealy at "No Hot Air" who has been arguing for some time that Britain's shale reserves could replace declining North Sea output. Rune Bjornson from Norway's StatoilHydro said exploitable reserves are much greater than supposed just three years ago and may meet global gas needs for generations. "The common wisdom was that unconventional gas was too difficult, too expensive and too demanding," he said, according to Petroleum Economist. "This has changed. If we ever doubted that gas was the fuel of the future – in many ways there's the answer." The breakthrough has been to combine 3-D seismic imaging with new technologies to free "tight gas" by smashing rocks, known as hydro-fracturing or "fracking" in the trade. The US is leading the charge. Operations in Pennsylvania and Texas have already been sufficient to cut US imports of liquefied natural gas (LGN) from Trinidad and Qatar to almost nil, with knock-on effects for the global gas market – and crude oil. It is one reason why spot prices for some LNG deliveries have dropped to 50% of pipeline contracts. Energy bulls gambling that the world economy will soon resume its bubble trajectory need to remember two facts: industrial production over the last year is still down 19pc in Japan, 18pc in Italy, 17pc in Germany, 15pc in Canada, 13pc in France and Russia. 11pc in the US and the UK and 10pc in Brazil. A 12pc rise in China does not offset this. OPEC states are cheating on quota cuts. Non-compliance has fallen to 62pc from 82pc in March. Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela et al face a budget crunch. Why comply when non-OPEC Russia is pumping at breakneck speed? The US Energy Department expects shale to meet half of US gas demand within 20 years, if not earlier. Projects are cranking up in eastern France and Poland. Exploration is under way in Australia, India and China. Texas A&M University said US methods could increase global gas reserves by nine times to 16,000 TCF (trillion cubic feet). Almost a quarter is in China but it may lack the water resources to harness the technology given the depletion of the North China water basin.

Needless to say, the Kremlin is irked.

"There's a lot of myths about shale production," said Gazprom's Alexander Medvedev. If the new forecasts are accurate, Gazprom is not going to be the perennial cash cow funding Russia's great power resurgence. Russia's budget may be in structural deficit. As for the US, we may soon be looking at an era when gas, wind and solar power, combined with a smarter grid and a switch to electric cars returns the country to near energy self-sufficiency. This has currency implications. If you strip out the energy deficit, America's vaulting savings rate may soon bring the current account back into surplus – and that is going to come at somebody else's expense, chiefly Japan, Germany and, up to a point, China. Shale gas is undoubtedly messy. Millions of gallons of water mixed with sand, hydrochloric acid and toxic chemicals are blasted at rocks. This is supposed to happen below the water basins but accidents have been common. Pennsylvania's eco-police have shut down a Cabot Oil & Gas operation after 8,000 gallons of chemicals spilled into a stream. Nor is it exactly green. Natural gas has much lower CO2 emissions than coal, even from shale – which is why the Sierra Club is backing it as the lesser of evils against "clean coal" (not yet a reality). The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said America may not need any new coal or nuclear plants "ever" again.

George Gilder - creativity and wealth

Discovery Institute had a celebration of the life and career of George Gilder yesterday with a live interview by Discovery President George Gilder. George is a senior fellow there: Discovery Institute - George Gilder: He has had a long, distinguished career as a thinker, writer and leader in cultural issues, economics, high technology and more! His annual Telecosm conference attracts leaders in technology and finance. As an undergraduate at Harvard College he was Bruce Chapman's roommate; they are still working together. In a class by Henry Kissinger he wrote a 150-page paper on nuclear arms limitation. He got a C- because it was three days late and was only supposed to be ten pages. Later he used game theory to show that an arms race that is in the technology is relatively stable, but when technology is frozen the race is in numbers and is unstable. So a freeze on testing leads to instability. He rocked the cultural world with Sexual Suicide, later renamed Men and Marriage, where he was the first to take on the feminist movement by predicting how damaging it would be to men. It's still in print after over 35 years. He was instrumental in the supply-side approach in the 1980s that launched 15 years of uninterrupted growth with Wealth and Poverty. It came out just after the 1980 election; Gilder reports that when President-elect Reagan took a copy as a gift when he visited Senator Bob Dole in the hospital. Quoting Discovery:

Mr. Gilder pioneered the formulation of supply-side economics when he served as Chairman of the Lehrman Institute's Economic Roundtable, as Program Director for the Manhattan Institute, and as a frequent contributor to A.B. Laffer's economic reports and the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal,. In the 1980s he also consulted leaders of America's high technology businesses. According to a study of presidential speeches, Mr. Gilder was President Reagan's most frequently quoted living author. In 1986, President Reagan gave George Gilder the White House Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

His interest in wealth creation focused on creativity. The Spirit of Enterprise. That led to two decades of detailed work studying entrepreneurs.

That many of the most interesting current entrepreneurs were to be found in high technology fields also led Mr. Gilder, over several years, to examine this subject in depth. In his best-selling work, Microcosm (1989), he explored the quantum roots of the new electronic technologies. A subsequent book, Life After Television, was a prophecy of the future of computers and telecommunications and a prelude to his book on the future of telecommunications, Telecosm (2000). ... His latest work, The Israel Test, relates his work on capitalism to the safety and prosperity of Israel, what Gilder calls "the central issue in international politics" in our time. What critics have hailed as a "unique contribution" to the debate, Gilder argues that hostility toward Israel arises primarily from hostility toward capitalist creativity. How we react to that creativity -- by resenting it or admiring and emulating it -- will impact the future of Israel, the United States, and the world.

Throughout his life his focus has been on opportunity and growth. Grow the pie, so there is more for everyone. Creativity is a key. The material world is the slave of the thinker and inventor. Material resources are resources only because someone finds a way to use them. Oil seeping out of the ground was a valueless pollutant until someone found a use for it. He is about 70 years old and going strong.

Fashions inspired by Darwin - Alexander McQueen in London

Alexander McQueen's 12-inch boots on Paris catwalk were not made for walking... | Mail Online: 12-inch platform shoes were part of a collection inspired by Charles Darwin’s The Origin Of The Species. But the fantasy fauna inspired fashion didn't end there. Models with their hair teased into devil-like horns, strutted the catwalk in minidresses decorated with all manner of colourful, elaborate skins. Ruffled hemlines were frilled to resemble feathers, and vibrant fabrics were printed to resemble amphibian-like breastplates. The high-tech show set then morphed into a prehistoric underwater scene, lending something of an otherworldly feel.

Support investigative journalism Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm

The Seattle Times has the story but has not investigated it. Why be so shy? A group of citizens is going to encourage them to move forward. As Sound Politics reported in early September: According to their expenditures report filed to the PDC, Citizens to Uphold the Constitution, paid $11,300.25 to Washington, D.C.-based vendor, "The Clinton Group," to perform robocalls attacking Susan Hutchison. The sponsor of the group who purchased the vendor services is named as Jason Bennett, who, according to the Seattle Times article, is also Dow Constantine's treasurer. The situation appears to be a violation of RCW 42.17.020 and WAC 390-05-210. The RCW, in section 28, defines independent expenditure, which forbids collaboration between a candidate (the candidate's campaign staff or any agent of that campaign) and a group or person purchasing advertising for that candidate or against the candidate's opponent. Event: Help the Times Speak Truth to Power Host: Citizens for Fair Reporting Tuesday, October 6, 2009 2:00pm - 3:00pm Location: Seattle Times Building 1120 John Street, Seattle, just north of Denny on Fairview Avenue See also at Facebook WHAT THIS IS ABOUT: Investigative reporters at the Seattle Times have unearthed a HUGE scandal of dirty money blatantly corrupting the elections process. The story they are sitting on could especially be a game-changer in an important non-partisan, county-wide race. A local blogger broke the story, but the Times has been unwilling to follow up--yet. Join us as well rally together to show our support for the paper, and encourage them to come forward with this important information to the voting public at-large! Bring a sign showing your support for the paper, and condemning the influence of special interest money on our elections process. Then join us for FREE PIZZA after the event. BACKGROUND: The Seattle Times has a long and proud history of excellence in investigate reporting... of "Speaking Truth to Power" (see below for links). Part of the Times mission is: "Be fiercely independent. Hold those with power accountable and call readers to action. Look for stories that compel readers and community leaders to act. Challenge authority. Give voice to the powerless. Right wrongs." RIGHT NOW the Times needs your support and encouragement. Show up and let the newspaper know you support their efforts to keep our elections process honest, and keep special interest money form buying elections. Thank them for their hard work in the past, and encourage them to keep at it, no matter how much pressure they are under. SEE THE LINKS POSTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR MORE SPECIFIC INFO ON THE STORY THE TIMES IS SITTING ON. If you are working towards a career in journalism or media this MATTERS to you! If you think our community is stronger with a great independent paper, this MATTERS to you! SO SHOW UP! As the Times says: "Freedom of the press belongs to the people." HOW TO GET THERE: BUS ROUTES NEARBY: 70, 71, 72, 73, 83 Links: Hutchison Campaign Says Constantine May Have Engaged in “Illegal” Campaign Activity - Publicola The trouble with Dow Constantine | Angie Vogt - Federal Way Mirror INFO ON SEATTLE TIMES AWARDS FOR JOURNALISM: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/specialreports/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/pulitzers/ http://www.seattletimescompany.com/awards/news.htm TIMES' ELEVEN ELEMENTS OF EXCELLENCE, SEE: http://www.seattletimescompany.com/newsroom/11elements.htm

MIT science by roulette wheel

MIT scientists released a press release with a photo showing how they analyze global warming. This is their photo. Take it seriously. They just spin the wheel? Via WhatsUpWithThat

Sixty years of Communist rule in China

How many did Mao kill? I am not talking about wars, but killing his own people. How many did he kill in order to establish and maintain his iron rule? Why are today's leaders Communists? Political scientist R. J. Rummel at University of Hawaii has spent his career tallying "death by government," that is, when governments kill their own people. His figure for Mao Tse Tung is:

Civil War-Sino-Japanese War 1923-1949 = 3,466,000 murdered Rule over China (PRC) 1949-1987 = 35,236,000 murdered At that time, I did not include China’s Great Famine, 1958-1961. From my study of what was available in English then, I could not define it as democide. However subsequent research has convinced me that it should be included. This changes Mao’s total to 76,692,000 (rounded off to 77,000,000) murdered.

So why would we celebrate the cause that killed almost 77 million of the people it represents? Rummel on his blog says that it would be like celebrating the Holocaust (of the Jews by Hitler). Click the photo to enlarge it.

The Obamas Violated the First Three Rules of Selling

I am not rejoicing in Chicago's loss of the Olympics despite Obama's personal investment in the cause. But I am astonished that he let his ego so overrule his brain. The casual observer - like me - could see that the odds were in favor of Rio de Janeiro, since the Games have never taken place in South America. So his smart analysts told him that he had a low-odds hand. But his ego told him he could beat the odds, because he is The One. He shouldn't have invested the office of President in the effort unless the odds were near-certain. What an ego. Edmund Wright looks at the sales aspect. American Thinker

Of course Barack and Michelle Obama failed in Copenhagen. Their strategy could not possibly succeed. In their academic arrogance, they thought they could sell a product they clearly do not believe in (the United States) and moreover, they could do so by stressing the benefits to the seller (Chicago) and not the buyer (the IOC). And to top it off, they committed the faux pas of talking too much about the sales force (themselves) and not about the product or the buyer. Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

He develops his ideas. Read it. * * * ALSO Illinois's sleep-walking-inducing senator says it was President Bush's fault.

Congress Is Cooking the Books on ObamaCare

Last week we were concerned that the Senate Finance Committee rejected making the final text of their health care takeover bill available for people to read before they vote. But we missed another trick they were pulling - hiding the cost! Senator Cantwell and the other members will not see the cost projection on the bill before they vote. That's irresponsible. Michael D. Tanner of Cato Institute covers this bad, very bad news. Cato Institute How Congress Is Cooking the Books Last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted 12-11 not to wait for the Congressional Budget Office to "score" its health-care bill before the committee votes on it. Imagine that: Some senators actually wanted to know how much the bill costs before voting on it. Let them get away with something like that, and before you know it they'll be demanding honest accounting practices — sending the whole legislative process to hell in a hand basket. When it comes to the health-care-reform debate, you see, honest budgeting is nowhere to be seen. Start with the simple matter of how much health-care reform will cost. The House bill, HR 3200, will cost roughly $1.3 trillion over 10 years — or so we're told. By the same token, the Senate Finance Committee bill is supposed to cost just under $900 billion. Sure, that's a lot of money — but it still badly understates the true cost. The CBO provides 10- year projections of a bill's cost. But most provisions of the health bill don't take effect until 2014. So the "10-year" cost projection only includes six years of the bill. Plus, the costs ramp up slowly. In its first year, the House bill would only cost about $6 billion; in its first three, less than $100 billion. The big costs are in the final years of the 10-year budget window — and beyond. In fact, over the first 10 years that the House bill would be in existence (2014 to 2024), its costs would be closer to $2.4 trillion. Similarly, the real cost of the Senate bill over 10 years of operation is estimated at $1.5 trillion. Worse, the trajectory of the costs after 10 years rises dramatically — meaning "reform" would cost even more in its second 10 years and beyond. Such gimmicks also infest the projections of how much reform will add to the deficit. CBO says the House bill adds $235 billion to the deficit. But that, again, cuts off arbitrarily in 2019. Beyond that date, the bill adds enormously to the deficit, about $1.5 trillion in the second 10 years. In fact, if the health-reform bill were treated like other entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicare, which are required to have a 75-year actuarial forecast, its unfunded liabilities would exceed $9.2 trillion. Of course, the Senate Finance Bill is supposed to be deficit-neutral. But that claim relies on other forms of budgetary flimflam. For example, the Senate bill relies on Medicare "savings" that Congress keeps refusing to make. Specifically, Medicare has long been ordered to cut 21 percent from what it pays health-care providers — yet, each year since 2003, for reasons both good and bad, Congress has voted to defer the cuts. Does anyone else really think that Congress is simply going to slash payments to doctors and hospitals by 21 percent across the board?

Mystery of Rainier survey marker melts away

Global warming? No. An exposed marker on Mt. Rainier was always exposed. Seattle Times Newspaper: s global warming shrinking Mount Rainier? A survey marker atop the Northwest's tallest peak sure makes it look that way. Protruding from the summit with nearly 2 feet of pipe high and dry, the marker appears to have melted out of the ice cap that covers the mountain's highest point. But records from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) tell a different story. The marker was never buried beneath the ice — and wasn't installed on the summit in the first place, said surveyor Larry Signani, who led teams that remeasured the mountain's height in 1988 and 1999. "It looks like the original," he said after examining photos of the marker. "But it didn't melt out of the ice." The marker was installed by the USGS in 1956 on bare ground on Rainier's crater rim, more than 200 feet from the actual summit. The rocky rim is almost always snow-free, swept bare by wind and warmed by steam that rises from the volcano's depths.