Gene's Footnotes

I have never been impressed by the messenger and always inspect the message, which I now understand is not the norm. People prefer to filter out discordant information. As such, I am frequently confronted with, "Where did you hear that...." Well, here you go. If you want an email version, send me an email.

August 31, 2010

Climate balloon losing air

As part of my not getting too involved, I relate an article Andy sent in, from the NYT.  The title is linked to it.  For now, my few readers must be getting bored with old news.

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Review Finds Flaws in U.N. Climate Panel Structure

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations needs to revise the way it manages its assessments of climate change, with the scientists involved more open to alternative views, more transparent about possible conflicts of interest and more careful to avoid making policy prescriptions, an independent review panel said Monday.
Attila Kisbenedek/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A review has been interpreted as hinting that Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of a climate change panel, step down.

Readers' Comments

The review panel also recommended that the senior officials involved in producing the periodic assessments serve in their voluntary positions for only one report — a statement interpreted to suggest that the current chairman of the climate panel,Rajendra K. Pachauri, step down.
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, has been struggling to make the United Nations the main stage for addressing climate change. Errors in the 2007 assessment report, including a prediction that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035, have threatened to overshadow the United Nations’ message that climate change is a significant threat requiring urgent collective action.
“I think the errors made did dent the credibility of the process,” said Harold T. Shapiro, a former president of Princeton University and professor of economic and public affairs there. Being more open about the process will help the report withstand the public scrutiny it now endures, Mr. Shapiro, the chairman of the review committee, told a news conference....
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I get a kick out of:  Being more open about the process will help the report withstand the public scrutiny it now endures,...
That damned public scrutiny screw up things.  First, it was Holocaust deniers, then scientists and mathematicians, now this!  With any luck, the defective work will be able to endure.

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August 30, 2010

Obama continues subversion

In light of the meeting tomorrow, it is time the government hold a seminar for Catholics and explain how they can get more money from you, er, the government and so on.  Below is from Breitbart. 



Coming August 31: ‘Direct Access’ Stimulus Grants for the 

Muslim Brotherhood

Think of it as ACORN reborn, with a slice of Jihad on the side.
On August 31, this coming Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood-associated “Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations” (CCMO) will bring 25-30 Muslim leaders of 20 national Muslim groups to attend a special workshop presented by the White House and U.S. Government agencies (Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services etc.) to provide the groups “funding, government assistance and resources.”  The workshop will apparently provide special access for these Muslim Brotherhood organizations: the organizers pledge to provide “direct access” and “cut through red tape.” Government and Muslim groups will hold an Iftar dinner (breaking the fast of Ramadan) after the workshop.
muslim brotherhood
The event was announced in an email newsletter sent August 27 by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, long associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the global Islamist network (great backgrounder here from Hudson Institute).   Here are three key paragraphs from the email (the entire article on the August 31 event from the ISNA email is pasted below this post as reference):
This year, a phenomenal next step has been made where government iftars become coupled with workshops to provide resources and benefit the Muslim community. The US Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) have paired the first of such events, scheduled for August 31, 2010.
…Leaders from Muslim organizations around the nation, particularly social service organizations, are invited to a workshop with representatives from the DOA, Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Health and Human Services, the White House, Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and more. Twenty five to thirty Muslim leaders representing 20 Muslim organizations are expected to attend the workshop.
According to a representative of CCMO, this workshop is designed to clarify how Muslim nonprofits, mosques, Islamic centers, and social service organizations can strengthen their communities through more direct access to opportunities provided to social service agencies at the Federal level. “It will hopefully help cut through some of the red tape and shine light on the many opportunities for funding, government assistance, and resources that we just don’t know about at the local level,” said Elsanousi.
The Problem: Your Money, redistributed to the Muslim Brotherhood
This workshop constitutes an abdication of their professional responsibility by all government participants – and a taxpayer-funded government stimulus program for the attending Muslim Brotherhood-associated groups.  The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, is a global Islamist political movement dedicated to imposing Shariah law on all nations and institutions.  Their credo is “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
Why do we think some of these groups attending, possibly all, may be associated with the Muslim Brotherhood?
Because the sponsoring organization – the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO), co-sponsoring with the Department of Agriculture – has a long history of associations with the Muslim Brotherhood.  They also signed a 2009 American Muslim Task Force statement threatening to “suspend” relations with the FBI, because the FBI was investigating possible links to homegrown terrorism in mosques and other Muslim organizations.
Not so evident on the current website, of course. This happens all the time with groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood – the current CCMO website has a LOT less information than the older ones preserved at archive.org (aka “The Wayback Machine”). Here are the previous websites for the CCMO from 2004-2008. The pre-whitewashed CCMO websites are highly revealing. They expose the degree to which this Administration intends to direct taxpayer money (and “reduced red tape”) to Muslim Brotherhood-associated organizations in the U.S.
The Administration has not revealed which 20 groups and 25-30 leaders will attend the special workshop, but if they include the 41 CCMO members listed in 2007, the attendees could include the following groups , which I’ve linked to descriptions published by The Investigative Project (please support their work):
The Islamic Society of North America, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Terrorism Finance trial, and the source of  Friday’s email promoting this CCMO/Department of Agriculture Event;
The Council on American Islamic Relations, shunned by the FBI, several of its leaders indicted or convicted for terrorism,  a possible violator of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, sued for fraud by Muslim, Hispanic and African-American families, named as an unindicted co-conspirator (CAIR fundraiser advertised at the CCMO site);
The International Institute of Islamic Thought , the “think tank” of the Muslim Brotherhood, described at that link by The Grand Jihad author and former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy.  One of the current and longest serving officers of CCMO is Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, founder of the educational arm of IIIT, the Fairfax Institute and the Director of Outreach Program for Dar-ul Hijrah “Terror” Mosque – more on him below.
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee , exposed in that linked 88-page  IPT report particularly for their defense of terrorists and terrorist financers. MPAC advertised here at the CCMO site for an event co-sponsored by Islamic Free Market Institute, the latter described in Paul Sperry’s pathbreaking bookInfiltration)
The Dar al Hijrah Mosque (known as the “Terror Mosque” in Northern Virginia for its links to imprisoned, indicted or wanted terrorists as vividly described by Frank Gaffney), advertised here at the CCMO site.
The Muslim American Society “Freedom Foundation” run by three-time felon Mahdi Bray (MASFF Fundraiser advertised at the CCMO site). The Muslim American Society was originally founded as the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. MAS leader  Mahdi Bray was elected on September 7, 2003 to the Executive Committee by over 40 CCMO member organizations.
I suggest that the Administration knows these groups are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. They think that’s a good thing.
This isn’t incompetence; it’s intentional.

August 27, 2010

Klavan: Does Islam Suck?

Don't kill me in the quest for peace and kindness, Andrew Klavan is asking the question:

Does Islam Suck?

I read earlier today, from a note Rod sent in, that Mr. Obama once recited the beginning of  Islamic Call to Prayer in proper accent.  This is the part used when one declares himself to be Muslim - forever.

No, you may claim, as he says he is a Christian and even went to a church claiming to be Christian!  But don't forget, Islam condones lying on behalf of itself and that the Chicago revolutionary church reflects no Christianity that I am familiar with.

I would submit that finding what appears in front of you as not possible because it doesn't make sense only applies where your sense is the standard.  In the meantime, the administration is fixing up 5,500 mosques throughout the world.

You may recall doubting my past claims of Marxism, socialism, economic collapse, and destabilization of the Constitution.  I doubt you harbor any current dissension.

You may want to hold your skepticism in abeyance and think about what you see.

The New Yorker gets it.

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A photo of Judge James Burge, Ohio, while he was discussing the death penalty by injection with USA Today:


If you don't get what is going on, there are those who do and they count on you being asleep.

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August 26, 2010

Another voice: U.S. government a mess

Jim sent this along.  Surprisingly strong. We have mentioned reality upon occasion, here is a current view of what is happening in the economy:




Intel CEO Blasts Obama Administration, Says Anti-Business Policies Are Killing The Country


By Henry Blodget at August 25, 2010 Comments (0)    Share
intel paul otellini
Silicon Valley leans Democratic. Based on comments made by one of the Valley’s biggest hitters, that may be changing.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini got a lot off his chest at the Aspen Forum last night–with most of his frustration directed at the business-stifling policies of the Obama administration and the decline and fall of American competitiveness.
Here are some key quotes reported by CNET’s Declan McCullagh:
  • “Unless government policies are altered… ‘the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here.’
  • “The U.S. legal environment has become so hostile to business…that there is likely to be “an inevitable erosion and shift of wealth, much like we’re seeing today in Europe–this is the bitter truth.’”
  • “Not long ago…’our research centers were without peer. No country was more attractive for start-up capital… We seemed a generation ahead of the rest of the world in information technology. That simply is no longer the case.’”
  • “Otellini singled out the political state of affairs in Democrat-dominated Washington, saying: ‘I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs. And I think they’re flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working.’ “
  • “If our tax rate approached that of the rest of the world, corporations would have an incentive to invest here,” Otellini said. But instead, it’s the second highest in the industrialized world, making the United States a less attractive place to invest–and create jobs–than places in Europe and Asia that are “clamoring” for Intel’s business.”

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August 25, 2010

Bonzai

I was enjoying a week away and goofing around, sort of working on vaguely useful things that required walking about. Then, Ken sent the Goldman Sachs view of the GDP, see below.

So, now it begins.  Do we know what to do?  I get confused with all the data and projections; all that matters is we are at the cliff.  I can't see any stocks as interesting unless they do most of their business out of the country.

I will return to silver and peanut butter.

I was thinking that our present collapse does not seem so bad, to those working, because we have so much stuff. We have acquired money and stuff all our lives and that is a fine insulation, until it is not.  One hopes the stuff is paid for.

The thing to do is batten down the hatches, clear the decks of loose debt, fill the hold and kitchen so you have a tight ship if it has to go into the storm, lest it be thrust upon the rocks. Invest in Viet Nam, what the hell.

Have a nice day.




ART OF THE DAY: Goldman Sachs Thinks The End Of The Stimulus Is Going To Crush GDP Growth

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Goldman Sachs (via Zero Hedge) have released what certainly is a depressing sight in their latest GDP report. The bank continues to predict that U.S. GDP will remain positive through 2011, with 1.5% growth in H2 2010 and 1.5% growth for Q1 2011, rising to 3% growth by the year's end. But that's pretty much anemic growth, and below consensus.
More interesting might be the impact of the withdrawal of fiscal stimulus on GDP growth for the U.S. economy.
The positive impact of said stimulus can be viewed in the first half of this chart, pointing to how it dragged up the U.S. growth rate through some more difficult quarters. But now with its withdrawal, its absence will be felt through 2011, where the pace of growth might have been lifted by its retention.
This could partially explain Goldman's projection that unemployment is set to rise back to 10% in the middle of 2011.
Goldman Sachs (via Zero Hedge):
chart of the day, effects of fiscal stimulus on gdp growth, 2009-2011


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-gdp-growth-fiscal-stimulus-2010-8#ixzz0xfhsQVUr

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