Cooling Down on Global Warming

Al Gore is taking one last stab at fear-mongering with his latest book, “The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change”, but his credibility is dying as is the panic over global warming. New data continues to show that not only is the sky no longer falling, it may not have been falling at all.

A recent Norwegian climate research project shows that the earth’s mean temperature rise which occurred throughout the 1990’s has leveled off nearly completely at its 2000 level. In other words, there has been no global warming for well over a decade. Another report coming soon from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides evidence of 20 years of overstated global warming.

Every change in climate patterns has been labeled ‘anthropomorphic global warming’ by progressives. Unfortunately, this has resulted in “climate change” becoming synonymous with “global warming” for those on both sides of the political aisle. The distinction is crucial for rational discourse, but that distinction has long been lost.

Since dire global warming predictions have failed dramatically, scientists are looking into reasons for changes in climate patterns and are finding many. The sun with its flares, not surprisingly, contributes much to changes in climate patterns. Rising heat from large cities also affects these patterns and, yes, the burning of fossil fuels contributes its share. However, the exact extent of each contributor is not yet scientifically discernible.

In an interview with Jeffrey Kluger, TIME magazine’s science editor, global warming was confused with climate change as Kluger likened disbelievers to flat-earthers, stating that the “scientific knowledge” was too overwhelming for disbelief. This alludes to a so-called “consensus” among scientists that simply does not exist. There are thousands of scientists who dispute this PC-created global warming “consensus”, and confusion with climate change further clouds the issue.

For ideological believers, there is no data persuasive enough to shatter idealistic notions. For Al Gore, being wrong doesn’t matter as long as his bank account continues to grow. Science, however, will take years to gain back some of the credibility it lost by allowing politics to taint research.

David J. Hentosh

Frightening Inauguration Speech

President Obama’s inauguration speech was a frightening glimpse into the next four years. He let it clearly be known that he is set to govern totally from the left and with carefully chosen rhetoric, he revealed his end game for “totally transforming” America.

Obama used his favorite obfuscating straw man tactic (clearly explained and revealed by Glen Beck) to validate his approach to almost everything. It is the smoke that carried him this far and will continue to do so as long as the mainstream media continues to inhale – and inhale they did.

Mainstream media praise knew no bounds and its bias could not be contained, exemplified by CNN correspondent Jim Acostas’ on-air giddiness at being so close to the president. Keeping in line with the adoration of Newsweek’s cover proclaiming Obama’s “second coming”, Obama’s communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, stated: “There’s a moment of opportunity now that’s important…What’s frustrating is that we don’t have a political system or an opposition party worthy of the opportunity.” That’s some arrogance on display.

Obama gave us his top priorities for his second term: equal pay, gay marriage, voting protections, immigration reform, and gun control. If you are in the 7.8% unemployed (the same unemployment rate as when Obama was first elected), that may be disheartening to hear but Obama also assured us that the economy is in recovery, eliminating the need to make unemployment a priority. He’d much rather increase spending.

National Defense and the military are not on the agenda because Obama informed us that a decade of war is now over. That must have occurred by means of one of his executive orders. Relief in Middle East countries will be immense when they learn of it. Perhaps part of his gun control priority will be an executive order for terrorists to turn in their guns and Iran to give up nukes.

Although Obama didn’t say climate change was a priority, one-trick-pony Al Gore still praised him for speaking “powerfully and eloquently” about it. Obama’s consistent first-term failures on the “green” front cooled his climate change desires but with no re-election holding him back, the “green” light is sure to be lit once more.

Obama’s focus on social issues got him re-elected but the larger, neglected issues are eroding the country. Obama is much more like Nero than Lincoln, blindly fiddling away as the country burns.

David J. Hentosh

The Keystone Cop Obama Administration

There are so many contradictions, missteps, and outright errors occurring in the Obama administration that the infamous Keystone Cops are in danger of losing their place in American culture as the epitome of ineptness. Unfortunately, the Keystone Cops were fictional and the Obama administration is real.

One need only listen to Vice president Biden speak for more than two minutes to get a taste of the clown side of this administration. Biden’s latest gaffe, asserting that the middle class has been buried for the last four years, directly goes against Obama’s ‘blame-Bush’ message on the economy he claims to have saved. Biden inadvertently spoke the truth but will surely be taken to the woodshed because of it.

Listening to Obama’s press secretary, “Baghdad Bob” Jay Carney, rationalizing the irrational policies and actions of the administration has also been very clownish. One can almost feel sorry for Carney as he tries to spit in your ear and tell you it’s raining – almost. It usually just ends up being an insult to one’s intelligence.

Speaking of the economy, another comedy skit from this bumbling administration has Obama aide Stephanie Cutter denying they are blaming Bush while at the same time campaign adviser Robert Gibbs is blaming Bush. It seems it’s not only Biden who is confused.

The administration’s mishandling of the attacks in Libya are Keystone Cop antics displaying incompetence dangerous to our nation’s security. Furthermore, the ensuing cover-up proves that re-election is, and has been, the top priority for Obama. Admitting terrorism contradicts his boasting of beating terrorists; therefore, he blames a video.

One can only hope that at this time next year we will be repairing the damage and be able to look back with laughter at the punch lines from this administration, such as: “Solyndra green jobs”, “You can keep the coverage you have”, “Government Motors”, “You didn’t build that yourself”, “The private sector is doing fine”, “Post-racial era”, “Fast and Furious”, “Fair share”, and so many more.

If, however, this comedy show is renewed for another season, there will be little laughter and there will be little hope. We will have to resort to old Keystone Cop movies if we will want to laugh about incompetence, though they will seem like amateurs in comparison.

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s Dangerous Campaigning

Obama’s prime occupation for the past year has been campaigning for re-election. Refusing to ask hard questions, the biased media has been a willing partner in Obama’s attempt to hide his failures in order to get re-elected. Rather than investigate the administration’s glaring missteps and blunders, the media has focused on finding fault with Romney while echoing administration spin. This obsession with re-election has become a danger to the country.

Afghanistan, Obama’s “right” war, is failing and the American death toll is approaching 2000 at a current rate of approximately one per day. That’s slightly less than half the toll from 8 years of the Iraq war, and neither Obama nor the press mentions it. This is a far cry from the nightly reports of war deaths during the Bush administration. Afghanistan, for Obama’s sake, has become a silent, hidden war – and it is failing.

The economy, a definite smear on the Obama administration, continues to be spun as “recovering” in spite of all data and statistics, and voters are being told Obama has saved us from disaster. One need only look around to see the fallacy in this, yet, the spin continues in the hope of repetition becoming fact in voters’ minds.

Perhaps the most dangerous failure of Obama has been on the international front. Iran sneers at Obama and is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Recent embassy attacks and deaths have been determined to have been planned terrorist actions and the administration is still immersed in blaming them on a video clip. The cover-up is part of a re-election campaign considering danger to the country as irrelevant.

We have had an absentee president for the past year and it is taking a toll. There is no national budget, immigration reform has been ignored, the Middle East is exploding, the economy is failing, class warfare is raging, the race card is alive and well, “green” policies hamper economic recovery, the deficit is increasing, and the media has lost all credibility

Obama’s solution is fund-raising, appearances on “The View” and “David Letterman”, ignoring national leaders, cover-ups, Romney bashing, and empty rhetoric. Four more months of this kind of irresponsible neglect is frightening. Four more years would be disastrous.

David J. Hentosh

Al Gore’s Infamous Legacy

Al Gore may be laughing all the way to the bank, but the controversy he spawned over global warming has become one of the most polarizing issues in the world. Had Gore not been a politician, the attention he brought to the issue of global climate could have produced a much better result. Having already been mired in political partisanship, however, Gore’s myopic obsession produced a poisonous mixture of politics and science.

Climate change can no longer be discussed rationally or objectively and far too many climatologists have allowed politics to sway their research. The most egregious result is that “climate change” has become synonymous with “global warming” which has become synonymous with “anthropogenic (man-made) global warming”. They are not the same and that confusion permeates the media, politics, and public understanding.

Exaggerated and panic-stricken predictions about global warming have taken a tremendous economical toll. Hastily going “green” has put us in the red. The government invested heavily in the production of inefficient products that are shunned by consumers. This premature marketing effort shifted focus from research to production, stunting efforts to increase efficiency and losing vast amounts of taxpayer money. Far too many government “green” policies were rashly implemented and proving to be very costly with very little ‘bang for the buck’.

Many dire climate predictions have already proved false and much of the early data has been shown to be in error. The science of the issue is not “settled” as Gore would have everyone believe and the complexity involved causes climate models and data interpretation to continually change. Announcements of scientific proof of global warming are followed by scientific disclaimers – all from reputable scientists. How can one call this “settled”? Until the panic, or the planet, cools down, there can be no settlement.

The media’s knee-jerk reaction, sound bite philosophy, and political leaning to Gore fanned the flames. They did the same in the 70’s with predictions of a coming Ice Age based, again, on premature data. The idea of a man-made catastrophe appealed strongly to the misanthropic far-left and they jumped on Gore’s bandwagon. The rest is history, and Gore’s place in that history may very well prove to be one of infamy.

David J. Hentosh

Obama is Full of … Gas

At a recent press conference, President Obama dismissed accusations that his administration wants higher gas prices, saying: “Going into an election, do you think the president of the United States wants gas prices to go higher?” This sounds like a re-election concern much more than a concern for consumers and, shrewdly enough, it addresses only the current rise in gas prices.

Obama is working up a sweat dancing around his past declaration of wanting higher gas prices in order to usher in his energy policy. In 2008 he made it clear that rising gas prices didn’t bother him, wishing only that they would rise more gradually.

Steven Chu, who is now Obama’s Energy Secretary, agreed back then and wanted gas prices to rise to the level of Europe’s prices. That price was about $8 a gallon back in 2008, so the current US price that is approaching $4 a gallon must be a major disappointment for Chu. Will he admit he wants higher gas prices? Don’t bet on it as long as Obama is running for re-election.

How can Obama say “I want gas prices lower because they hurt families” when his energy policy depends on higher gas prices? Also dependent on higher gas prices was Obama’s pet project, the GM Volt, no longer in production because of poor sales. Higher gas prices may have boosted Volt sales along with Obama’s agenda and re-election chances. Do you really think he didn’t want higher gas prices?

Many were surprised and disappointed with Obama once he was elected, but they weren’t listening closely. Obama told us clearly what he wanted to do if elected but the press failed to pass that on in a responsible manner. Consequently, many did not know who they were voting for. There is no excuse this time. He told us he wanted higher gas prices and he meant it then as he means it now. Don’t get fooled again.

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s Gas Prices

Obama is now scrambling to find someone to blame for the high gas prices that are currently settling in for the coming summer. However, those prices were just one of the energy goals he proudly set when elected. His weak stance on Iran, combined with an idealistic push for a “green” everything, set the stage for rising gas prices that are coming at a time when the economy is strained.

From Victor Davis Hanson at NRO

Suddenly the administration seems to think that high energy prices are bad and, in fact, that it has done a lot to lower them…the fact that gas prices have doubled since January 2009 suggests that whatever the current Obama policy is, it has not worked…

Our departure from Iraq has had nothing to do with calming oil prices…Here at home we have increased oil production despite, not because, of Obama’s policies…(the administration) has discouraged new efforts in the Gulf, off-shore, in Alaska, and in the west — and was quite proud that it had…blocking the Keystone pipeline hardly encourages Middle East producers to make up the slack…

…why is there an administration worry about soon-to-be $5 gas, given that such European levels are necessary to make Solyndra- and Volt-like projects economically viable? When soon-to-be energy secretary Steven Chu declared…that “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” and when a soon-to-be President Obama warned that under his agenda cutbacks on domestic coal production would mean “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,” the message was clear…higher energy prices, less consumption, less global warming, more subsidized wind and solar, high-speed rail, and “millions of green jobs…So what’s the problem?

Read the rest here:  Victor Davis Hanson

DJH

Finally, A Bright Idea From Congress

Congressional Republicans struck a deal on a spending bill that funds the government through the rest of the fiscal year. They compromised by dropping policy restrictions they tried to attach to the bill – except one. They did not back down from fighting a 2007 law that would have essentially made incandescent light bulbs obsolete.

The provision left in the spending bill stops the administration from spending any money to carry out that 2007 law, thereby, stopping it in its tracks. It may well turn out to be a temporary reprieve, but at least it brings common sense back to an issue that was decided upon with knee-jerk enthusiasm.

The CFL bulbs that are meant to replace incandescent bulbs are much more costly and, arguably, have not lived up to their promises. From health issues to bulb life issues, their use has brought controversy and concerns. The increased cost, alone, is a good enough reason to put aside a mandate for their use in this struggling economy.

The mandate for getting rid of incandescent bulbs was a politically correct product of over-eager environmentalists riding a “green” wave of the progressive agenda. This is the same agenda that vehemently espouses “pro-choice” on some issues while trying to severely limit personal choice on many others.

It is certain this bulb issue will resurface in the future but, for now, there is incandescent light at the end of the tunnel. We are also relieved from having to follow extensive EPA requirements for the disposal of broken CFL bulbs. That may actually be the bigger benefit of stopping the light bulb law.

David J. Hentosh

Collision of Science and Politics

The latest round of leaked e-mails of climate scientists proves, once again, that science and politics don’t mix well. No matter how you “interpret” the e-mails or “take them out of context” as some have accused, reading them leaves little doubt that politics is a factor in the scientists’ evaluations. That is enough to taint the credibility of anything they report.

The “consensus” that the media continually tells us exists in the scientific community concerning climate is always challenged by members of that same community. Some have expressed the difficulty they have in doing so because it goes against the grain of the far-left agenda found in many of the places they work. Agenda-driven science is meaningless.

The release of the latest e-mails was carefully timed to coincide with this year’s UN climate summit. This, too, is politically motivated and suffers the consequence of appearing as nothing more than a political stunt. The entire climate issue has become a subject of public scorn, negating any facts that emerge from scientific studies.

The mixing of politics and science was the catalyst for the Solyndra scandal. The administration’s “green” agenda idealistically tried to force new, expensive technology onto a public unwilling to pay the price. Convinced of its own scientific savvy and bolstered by political opposition to it, the administration backed this failure to the tune of a half billion taxpayer dollars.

The Chevy Volt, another administration-backed technological solution, is now having problems with fires. The government agency due to investigate said it “…continues to believe that electric vehicles have incredible potential to save consumers money at the pump, help protect the environment, create jobs and strengthen national security by reducing our dependence on oil”. After expressing that much faith and belief in the Volt, can anyone really expect this agency to objectively investigate?

Government grants have historically been a boon to science, but politics has now become the fly in the ointment. Unless this stops, scientific research will become just another slice of American excellence found only in history books.

David J. Hentosh

Obama Ignores Wake-up Calls

The loss of NY Democrat Weiner’s seat to a Republican after being in the hands of Democrats for over 85 years is just another wake-up call that the current administration will ignore. The agenda set by Obama seems impervious to outside influences and continues against all odds.

Obama’s determination to increase taxes (especially on the rich who are now defined as those making $200K or more per year) has become an obsession and the only answer he offers for the country’s economic problems. His “green” agenda continues to be an ideal he chases even after losing taxpayer money on “green” companies that have folded. He continually insists that he is putting the economy on the road to recovery, a road only he seems to travel.

Obama’s re-election strategy that is now becoming clear indicates he will continue to be the political animal he was trained to be rather than the leader people want. Blaming the GOP (marginally better than blaming Bush) for not following in lockstep with his agenda is a prominent campaign tactic. He set this up with his jobs speech by insisting, repeatedly, that we had to “pass this bill”, knowing that Republicans would never vote for it. His ‘hope’, of course, is that voters will believe his repetitive rhetoric (mantra?) and blame Republicans for failure of economic recovery.

Further antagonizing voters, his administration has been enforcing hand-picked rules and regulations that fit his agenda. Obama willingly ignores major laws, such as those pertaining to immigration, when they interfere with his idealistic notions. However, under his “leadership”, dubious regulations are highly enforced as witnessed by the recent raids by armed federal agents on Gibson Guitar factories. These type of actions spotlight how clueless this administration is and how oblivious to reality it seems to be.

Polls show Obama’s declining approval ratings, but that is just more ringing of an alarm clock he chooses to ignore. The final wake-up call that can’t be ignored will come in 14 months, but a lot of damage can still occur if he is not curtailed.

David J. Hentosh