Severe Space Weather: Social/Economic Impacts

post by NASA Science News , January 21, 2009

[Did you know a solar flare can make your toilet stop working?]

That’s the surprising conclusion of a NASA-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences entitled Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts. In the 132-page report, experts detailed what might happen to our modern, high-tech society in the event of a “super solar flare” followed by an extreme geomagnetic storm. They found that almost nothing is immune from space weather—not even the water in your bathroom.

Right: Auroras over Blair, Nebraska, during a geomagnetic storm in May 2005. Photo credit: Mike Hollingshead/Spaceweather.com.

The problem begins with the electric power grid. “Electric power is modern society’s cornerstone technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend,” the report notes. Yet it is particularly vulnerable to bad space weather. Ground currents induced during geomagnetic storms can actually melt the copper windings of transformers at the heart of many power distribution systems. Sprawling power lines act like antennas, picking up the currents and spreading the problem over a wide area. The most famous geomagnetic power outage happened during a space storm in March 1989 when six million people in Quebec lost power for 9 hours.

According to the report, power grids may be more vulnerable than ever. The problem is interconnectedness. In recent years, utilities have joined grids together to allow long-distance transmission of low-cost power to areas of sudden demand. On a hot summer day in California, for instance, people in Los Angeles might be running their air conditioners on power routed from Oregon. It makes economic sense—but not necessarily geomagnetic sense. Interconnectedness makes the system susceptible to wide-ranging “cascade failures.”

To estimate the scale of such a failure, report co-author John Kappenmann of the Metatech Corporation looked at the great geomagnetic storm of May 1921, which produced ground currents as much as ten times stronger than the 1989 Quebec storm, and modeled its effect on the modern power grid. He found more than 350 transformers at risk of permanent damage and 130 million people without power. The loss of electricity would ripple across the social infrastructure with “water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, fuel re-supply and so on.”

“The concept of interdependency,” the report notes, “is evident in the unavailability of water due to long-term outage of electric power–and the inability to restart an electric generator without water on site.”

Above: What if the May 1921 super storm occurred today? A US map of vulnerable transformers with areas of probable system collapse encircled. A state-by-state map of transformer vulnerability is also available: click here. Credit: National Academy of Sciences.

The strongest geomagnetic storm on record is the Carrington Event of August-September 1859, named after British astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare with his unaided eye while he was projecting an image of the sun on a white screen. Geomagnetic activity triggered by the explosion electrified telegraph lines, shocking technicians and setting their telegraph papers on fire; Northern Lights spread as far south as Cuba and Hawaii; auroras over the Rocky Mountains were so bright, the glow woke campers who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. Best estimates rank the Carrington Event as 50% or more stronger than the super storm of May 1921.

“A contemporary repetition of the Carrington Event would cause … extensive social and economic disruptions,” the report warns. Power outages would be accompanied by radio blackouts and satellite malfunctions; telecommunications, GPS navigation, banking and finance, and transportation would all be affected. Some problems would correct themselves with the fading of the storm: radio and GPS transmissions could come back online fairly quickly. Other problems would be lasting: a burnt-out multi-ton transformer, for instance, can take weeks or months to repair. The total economic impact in the first year alone could reach $2 trillion, some 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina or, to use a timelier example, a few TARPs.

Above: A web of inter-dependencies makes the modern economy especially sensitive to solar storms. Source: Dept. of Homeland Security.

What’s the solution? The report ends with a call for infrastructure designed to better withstand geomagnetic disturbances, improved GPS codes and frequencies, and improvements in space weather forecasting. Reliable forecasting is key. If utility and satellite operators know a storm is coming, they can take measures to reduce damage—e.g., disconnecting wires, shielding vulnerable electronics, powering down critical hardware. A few hours without power is better than a few weeks.

NASA has deployed a fleet of spacecraft to study the sun and its eruptions. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the twin STEREO probes, ACE, Wind and others are on duty 24/7. NASA physicists use data from these missions to understand the underlying physics of flares and geomagnetic storms; personnel at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center use the findings, in turn, to hone their forecasts.

At the moment, no one knows when the next super solar storm will erupt. It could be 100 years away or just 100 days. It’s something to think about the next time you flush.

Earth Cool, Not Heating?

by William F. Jasper on New America , May 2010

As the U.S. Senate prepares to consider enormously expensive cap-and-trade legislation, supposedly aimed at curbing alleged global warming caused by man-made emissions, scientists and policy makers at a conference in Chicago heard from experts in various scientific fields challenging the crumbling assumptions that have provided the foundation for global-warming alarmism.

Dr. Don Easterbrook, emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, was among those addressing the three-day conference. According to Professor Easterbrook, author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, the Earth is now in the beginning period of a trend of global cooling.  “Rather than global warming at a rate of 1 degree Fahrenheit per decade, records of past natural cycles indicate there may be global cooling for the first few decades of the 21st century to about 2030,” said Easterbrook, speaking on a scientific panel of the 4th International Conference on Climate Change. The cooling trend, Easterbrook says, will likely be followed by “global warming from about 2030 to 2060,” which will then be followed by another cooling spell for the next several decades. As reported previously in The New American, an increasing number of scientists are viewing the accumulated climate data as supportive of the proposition that our planet may be experiencing cooler, not warmer, temperatures for the next couple of decades.

Professor Easterbrook predicted that there will be twice as many people killed by extreme cold than by extreme heat, and that global food production will suffer due to shorter, cooler growing seasons and crop destruction from bad weather. As noted in this December 2008 article in The New American, “Heat or Cold: Which Is More Deadly?“, and in this January 2010 article from The New American, “Forget Global Warming; COLD Kills,” predictions concerning the dire effects of a cooling planet versus a warming planet are supported by the evidence; a cooler earth would be more deadly than a warmer one. If  Dr. Easterbrook and other scientists who predict a continuing climate cooling are correct, then access to affordable energy will be even more important than it is at present to avoid tremendous suffering and loss of human life. However, as critics point out (see here and here), the draft legislation released by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on May 12, known as the American Power Act, will give federal bureaucrats vastly expanded powers, drastically increase energy costs to consumers, and provide huge windfall profits to favored corporations and industries—without affecting global temperatures one iota.

Global Sea Levels Are Stable —No Rising Tides—The climate conference, sponsored by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, also heard from Dr. Nils-Axel Morner, one of the world’s foremost experts on sea levels and the emeritus head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics Department at Stockholm University in Sweden.

Contrary to the frantic warnings of Al Gore, Prince Charles, and the UN‘s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as countless news stories over the past decade, sea levels are not rising, said Professor Morner. According to the computer models of climate alarmists, Venice, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Bangaladesh, the Maldives, New York City, and other coastal areas supposedly are in danger of deluge. However, Dr. Morner points out that the scientific data, from actual on-site measurements, as well as satellite data, show that the predictions of the modelers are “utterly wrong.” Morner, a world renowned physicist and geologist (and former IPCC member) who has traveled the world for decades measuring sea levels, conducted a recent study employing measurement data from 159 sites around the globe. The real-world data do not support the frightening scenarios of global doom and submerged coastal cities presented by the computer modelers.

“Models versus real observations—there’s a big difference,” Morner told the attendees at the Heartland conference. “With models, you only select what you want.” Locations like Mubai have “certainly been stable for the last 40 years,” Morner said. And he noted that even in Italy’s famed city of Venice, often cited by alarmists, the water level is actually “slowly subsiding.” “Any increase would be easily picked up, Dr. Morner said. “The sea level there has not risen for 40 years. There is no record sea level [rise].” 

[I hate when I’m right.]

But those inclined to dismiss the scientific arguments of Dr. Morner, might be more convinced by the investment choices of Al Gore, the chief prophet—and profiteer—of the Green Lobby.  Al Gore apparently doesn’t believe his own propaganda about impending calamitous sea level rises. (In his infamous film, An Inconvenient Truth,  and in subsequent speeches and press conferences, Gore has ludicrously predicted sea-level rises of 20 feet, 10 times the already-exaggerated two-foot rise predicted by the IPCC, which was many times more than the relatively few millimeters or inches envisioned by more sober-minded scientists relying on actual data. See here and here).

If the globe-hopping, champagne-and-caviar-lifestyle, multi-millionaire, former Vice President of the United States truly believes that man-made global warming is going to cause the icecaps and glaciers to melt and flood the world’s coastlines, he wouldn’t be investing in California coastal real estate. However, he has purchased property in two of the most expensive locales, and (according to his own alarmist claims) areas most vulnerable to sea level rises. In 2005, Al and Tipper Gore purchased an ocean-front penthouse at San Francisco’s St. Regis condo/hotel tower, one of the most expensive addresses in the world, apparently unconcerned that rising sea levels might soon deluge the hotel lobby, if not their own dining room.

The Gores, who admonished the rest of us to “reduce, reuse, recycle” and to learn to get by with less and less, apparently wanted more and more. The St. Regis was not enough. The Los Angeles Times reported in April that Al and Tipper have added another trophy property to their San Fran penthouse and Tennessee mansion, this time in the tony community of Montecitio, between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. The Times reports—The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Al Gore’s money seems to be saying that he places more confidence in the predictions of Nils-Axel Morner than in his own predictions or those of his fellow Nobel Prize winners at the IPCC. The speeches, presentations, and panel discussions of the scientists, economists, and policy advocates at the 4th International Conference on Climate Change, which took place May 16-18, can be viewed at the Heartland Institute’s websiter Pajama Media’s “Climategate 2010.”

Science Proves: Starvation Coming

posted by Daily Mail Dec. 2009

[Yes, it’s a 2009 article, but I look for the real scientist, and they have been so suppressed that they are hard to find because they are buried.]

Copenhagen climate change summit—The world is cooling not warming says scientist Peter Taylor…and we’re not prepared. In his provocative book Chill, he warns that the world is cooling not warming and that solutions proposed at Copenhagen ignore the risks of a possible return of the Ice Age…Like a magician who fools themselves but not audience, the Anthropomorphic Global Warming (AGW) lobby have identified the wrong problem and the wrong solution. Global cooling threatens disaster for humanity in the developed and developing world alike, yet the media and the scientific consensus ignores this peril.

The Climategate controversy revolves around whether warming has been real and why it has not persisted—but it misses the point. Cycles are involved, not short-term trends, and many respected scientists, especially those in Russia and China, think that a cooling cycle is coming. The AGW brigade have mistaken the current warm period for a trend caused by carbon emissions. But the detailed science says it could be natural and part of a cycle. Behind the scenes at the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change there is no consensus—the dissenting views have been covered over in the summary documents for policy makers—and among UK and EU politicians it’s even worse, and criminally expensive for the British taxpayer.

The real science points to the sun’s magnetic cycle as the key driver by unknown mechanisms. Right now, Nasa is throwing its hands up and saying “we’ve never seen anything like it and can’t tell what it is going to do next.” Many scientists expect a repeat of the Maunder Minimum of the 17th century when the Thames froze every winter—and famine spread through Europe and China. Natural climate change, especially cooling, is already dangerous for very large numbers of people who are vulnerable to climate changing—the urban poor in the developed world, including the UK, plus the poor nations currently dependent on food aid. Cooling reduces food surpluses upon which we all depend. The biofuels programmes aimed at preventing climate change will expose them to greater risk by decreasing the amount of land available and raising costs of food, while this problem coupled with peak oil will affect everyone worldwide and drive up transport and manufacturing costs to levels even the super rich will struggle to afford. These threats are real and here now, not in 50 years time. Some dramatic changes are needed but not those proposed the EU, IPCC and UK politicians as they try to hunt down the will-of-the-wisp that is CO2 emissions.

Business as usual is not an option since cooling actually does put humanity at risk. The apocalyptic scaremongering has made us weary and casual about such threats but we need to act if we are to maintain our humanity. Our human ecosystems are threatened by the world development model and unintelligent economic growth. No one yet has found a way to develop economically without massive increase in demand for scarce resources—soil, water, timber, land and food. However, it can be done—with changes in developed economies, and restructuring development in poor countries—and it will require billions. We need to showcase the projects that work—the unglamorous grass-roots initiatives that enhance the quality of life—rather than indulge in the theatrical gestures about solving a AGW that doesn’t exist. Copenhagen won’t broker a solution—not only has the IPCC hyped the warming and misrepresented the science with regard to CO2 and warming—but it has also proposed a system of cap-and-trade and technology transfer that means huge profits for banks and brokers. These useless technology sales coupled with a massive global and unelected bureaucracy that decides which technology and which projects get funded—merely provide jobs for the boys rather than address the issues

What we need is the creation of resilience—the rich world is unstable and will try to buy its way out of problems, by buying food on the world market—the rest of the world is at grave risk of starvation. Food not energy will be the big issue we urgently need to address in the next few years. In the developed world we need to systematically restructure and reduce demand and in the developing world, people need to stay in communities on the land and not be forced to seek work in unsustainable megacities. Climategate does not just demonstrate the corruption of science and peer-review; it also demonstrates the incompetence of specialists who do not understand planetary ecology, especially its cycles. We’re being fatally led up the wrong garden path by green businesses, politicians, the IPCC and their computer geeks with their doctored spreadsheets and forecasts. They need to get out more and study the real world—not their virtual reality—because, like the asset bubbles of the financial crisis, the global warming bubble is about to burst…

Underwriting Offshore Drilling

post by Jonathan Adams the Christian Science Monitor July 21, 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan

[I’m putting this on here because I have stressed this information before but no one is listening; now a second oil explosion. That article will follow this one. It’s in China. On Friday, July 16, 2010. Today, 165 miles of China coast is covered in oil. I urge you to reconsider your thoughts, your views, and look at the bigger picture. If you get to this blog, share it. The information on here has been researched.  Professors who have studied history for many years and journalist who watch current events and read past events—they ARE paying attention. This is not to scare you. States don’t draft legislation to demand the federal government to return their National Guard back to them, States don’t draft legislation declaring the Tenth Amendment for nothing. Please…a voice…that is all I have….to protect my children. A voice and a gun! If that times comes…I will use it. I know you read the post on the General….PAY Attention. I have a lot more…so much more. If I can find someone honest who will listen…so if that is you, contact me! Update—Since then there have been two additional (smaller) ones in the Gulf and one in Michigan. Still think ALL of these are accidents?]

The estimated size of an oil spill off China’s northeast coast doubled Wednesday, as workers raced against the clock to contain a growing environmental disaster. Oil is now spread over about 165 square miles of water [ 5 days], according to Chinese officials. By comparison, though, that’s still nowhere near the magnitude of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, estimated at 2,700 square miles of visible surface slick [90 days], according to the Associated Press on July 16. Chinese oil workers struggled to contain the spill, with dramatic photos from Greenpeace China showing two men thrashing around in oil-clogged waters, trying to keep afloat. Firefighters rescued the two men. But China’s state-run newswire Xinhua reported that another firefighter died in a separate incident after a wave swept him away while he was trying to fix a boat’s pump under water. The disaster began Friday in the port city of Dalian when an oil pipeline exploded. Crude oil leaked into the Yellow Sea, then burned in a huge firestorm for 15 hours. Dalian is China’s second biggest oil import port.

[Sound familiar!]

The affected Chinese province mobilized “all staff under the age of 50” at its maritime affairs office to join in the cleanup, Xinhua reported. Tourist beaches near Dalian were closed. As of Tuesday, 40 special “oil-skimming” vessels, 800 boats, and oil-eating bacteria had joined the fight, Xinhua said. While initial estimates were that the port would remain closed for a week to 10 days, according to the China Securities Journal, shipping container operations at Dalian Port returned to normal by Tuesday at 11 a.m. In a statement posted on its website Tuesday, Greenpeace China’s head climate campaigner Yang Ailun said the accident highlighted the need for serious energy reform and a shift to renewable sources. “From the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Dalian to the numerous coal mine accidents, it is tragically obvious that economic development built upon fossil fuels is unsustainable and comes at a high price,” Yang said. As of 2006, China depended on oil for 20 percent of its energy needs, the second-largest source after coal, at 70 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Yet, another accident?

Seems to be a mighty big one, too!

Okay, more water ruined for a long time.

Is anyone helping them?

Our Louisiana hearts go out to these people!

Mexican President Dictating to America?

Firing a General? Splitting Up Sounds Good!

post by G. Murphy Donovan (The author is a Vietnam veteran with 25 years of military service. He also writes at G. Murphy Donovan and Agnotology in Journalism) The American Thinker, June 29, 2010

Submitted by Clint Schneider c-jschneider@earthlink.net—Makes for great reading. Waiting for McChrystal’s first appearance. Glen Beck?  O’Riley? CNN? The author outlines what many suspect may have been the reason for the very unusual circumstances of the McChrystal resignation. We have always had both political flag officers and warriors—fortunately many more of the latter. There is a distinct difference and rarely do they have both traits. Everything comes out in the wash—if you wash long enough. Waiting for the books which will surely come—bet on it. CDS

Crystal is not glass. Strike crystal and it rings like a bell. When it breaks, crystal makes a special noise, a sound like the end of music. The other day, we heard the end of a special elegy, the 24 notes of taps, when General Stanley McChrystal furled his flag. McChrystal was no ordinary infantryman; he chose the road not taken. Rangers are a unique fraternity where only extraordinary warriors thrive. Those who rise to the top in any calling often walk a fine line between genius and eccentricity, and soldiers are no exception. General McChrystal crossed the line more than once, but he never stepped on a land mine until Rolling Stone magazine came to do a profile at HQ Afghanistan. The agent of McChrystal’s demise was an effete freelancer who looks and sounds like a prep-school refugee. Michael Hastings was on special assignment for a magazine whose usual fare is sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Yet, like Hugh Hefner’s Playboy, Jann Wenner’s Rolling Stone has cultural pretensions. Those affectations were on full display in the McChrystal issue. Lady Gaga [sic] graces the cover; equipped with a bullet brassiere on full auto. Ms. Gaga is a performance artist whose cultural niche is defined by Madonna groupies.

Like Hefner, Wenner panders to a young and, by their own definition, hip demographic of readers under 30 years of age; both publishers might charitably be described as priapic geriatrics at 84 and 64 years of age, respectively. Like all purveyors of progressive culture, Wenner has trouble separating value and vulgarity. And to no one’s surprise, he consistently carries water for the left—as a Clintonista or, more recently, as an the puppet contributor. From any perspective, we have to assume that General McChrystal and/or his staff was aware of these things and the risks of having of an antiwar zealot in their midst. The key question to be answered is—Who was using whom?

After Afghanistan, a maverick like McChrystal wasn’t going to be selected for a political job like Army Chief of Staff. Hard to picture McChrystal, like the incumbent George Casey, making the rounds of the Sunday gab shows reminding citizens that the feelings of Moslems are more important than the safety of soldiers massacred at Ft. Hood, Texas. And surely McChrystal wasn’t a candidate to follow Mike Mullen into the political swamp at the JCS. On the Pentagon’s E Ring, Mullen is better known for social issues, like gay rights for sailors, than he is for war-fighting. There were no stars in McChrystal’s future, either; he already had his four. McChrystal is a country music fan, so no doubt he’s familiar with Kristofferson’s iconic line—”Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” When McChrystal let the fox into the Afghan hen house, he knew which huevos were in play.

Before the Rolling Stone controversy, the friction between the White House wimps and the military brass was the worst-kept secret in Washington. Yet the rift, from the beginning, was cultivated by the puppet—and what can be described only as a cabal of divisive beltway toadies. From the start, the puppet  ignored the field commander, refused to define the enemy or describe the end game—or explain to the American public why Afghanistan is a war of necessity. The party line had three soft features—don’t use the word war, don’t mention Islam, and restrict descriptions of the bad guys to either Taliban or al-Qaeda.

Shortly after the election, the puppet put on his long pants and fired the previous ISAF commander in Afghanistan—and then dithered for months over troop deployments. Since then, the White House has been driving on a learner’s permit. In the past year and a half, the puppet has met the tactical commander on few occasions; McChrystal, in contrast, has met with Hamid Karzai, face to face, over fifty times during the same period. If McChrystal claims the puppet is disengaged only on the subject of war, the general is being generous. The hapless Senate majority leader, Harry Reid (D-NV), told America that the Iraq war is lost just before the last American election. A newly elected vice-president followed up with very public carping at General McChrystal’s expense. If there were ever a toady who should be cashiered for loose lips, it’s Joe Biden (hereafter known as Joe Bite Me to troops in the field). Biden doesn’t just put his foot in his mouth; he doesn’t bother to remove his shoes after he steps in something. Biden‘s advice on Iraq was to subdivide it—i.e., into three new states [sic]—as if the U.N. didn’t have enough dysfunctional members.

Team puppet was augmented by Richard Holbrooke and Karl Eikenberry early on, both sent to Kabul, presumably, to make sure McChrystal walked the soft power walk. Unfortunately, neither Holbroke nor Eikenberry plays well with other adults. Holbrooke’s function in South Asia is as a dark swan. He doesn’t seem to get along with anyone but himself. In the foggy world of diplomacy, androgyny, and cookie-pushing, Holbrooke stands out. He is supposed to be a special envoy, but his specialties might be limited to arrogance and petulance. Holbrooke, former Clintonista and incumbent Karzai-basher, doesn’t play well with third-world leaders or allied military officers. And Eikenberry’s performance isn’t too far removed from Holbrooke’s. Soon after arriving in Kabul, Ambassador Eikenberry started to back-channel McChrystal, (i.e., send critical, uncomplimentary reports back to Washington). Indeed, Eikenberry’s pique seems to have been tweaked because a Brit, and not Eikenberry, was appointed viceroy—a slight he seems to lay at the feet of a Karzai/McChrystal conspiracy. Eikenberry was miscast in Rolling Stone as a martinet stuck in 1985; the year may be closer to 1895, and the Eikenberry character could have come straight out of Gilbert and Sullivan.

On the U.N. side of Kabul, the blue helmets were having a civil war of their own. Norway’s Kai Eide and his American deputy, Peter Galbraith, had a transnational shootout over the legitimacy of Hamid Karzai’s election in 2009. Galbraith got fired, Karzai got a second term, and Eide took the Quisling special back to Scandinavia. Eide was and remains an ardent fan of accommodation with the Taliban. These team players were supplemented by a gaggle of second-guessers back in Washington, with the puppet’s national security adviser, Jim Jones, on point. Jones‘ most recent contribution to the clueless sweeps was a greedy Jew joke spliced into a speech that was supposed to underline (undermine? FRH) American support of Israel. After eighteen months in office, the puppet has traveled to several Arab, Turkish, and Muslim capitals, yet never to Israel. The puppet’s Islamic globetrotting sends a message consistent with Jones‘ taste in jokes. From the beginning, the former Marine commandant, like Joe Biden, also made loud noises that undermined or contradicted McChrystal’s strategy at the front.

So what’s a soldier to do when a president hand-picks him to lead the charge in combat and then allows lower-echelon cockroaches to eat his lunch? McChrystal did what any good guerrilla fighter would do—He let another insect carry a poison pill back to a dysfunctional nest. Indeed, General McChrystal performed one final service for his country—He used a press nitwit to expose a confederacy of national security dunces using the prescribed soft tactics—things like toxic ridicule.

[Put very plainly like this it all justifies my assumptions. Read the rest of this year’s entries. McChrystal saw the plan. He saw what this dictator and his conspirators are up to.]

The clincher in all of this is Hillary; she comes off like the Cheshire cat, grinning from ear to ear while the Oval Office tries to put lipstick on another pig. Clinton has kept her distance—”Give him [McChrystal] what he wants,” says she. If and when the puppet national security crowd self-destructs, Hilary can say “I told you so,” pick up the pieces, and do a pantsuit rendition of what Bobby Kennedy did to Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Any idea that McChrystal was insubordinate or threatened civilian authority is bravo sierra, as they say in the barracks. The general simply raised the blinds and let in some light. He even helped the puppet to grow up a bit. On the day the puppet let his field commander go, the puppe used the word war to describe the Afghan conflict. That’s progress! The puppet then appointed a third field commander in eighteen months; demoting the CENTCOM commander to replace McChrystal in Kabul.

And yes, the new guy is the old David Petraeus, who, when serving in Iraq under George Bush, was vilified by the left, including then-Senator the puppet , as a liar and traitor. Indeed, the same news outlets that published those scurrilous George Soros ads now celebrate the Petraeus choice as inspired. General Betray Us under a Republican has morphed into General Save Us under a Democrat. So much for politics stopping at the water’s edge. So, what’s the plan now? It appears the exit strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan is on schedule (according to Joe Bite Me) and Petraeus will be the happy face of at least one success, even if it belongs to the previous administration. Yet the puppet is still hostage to a campaign slogan, that war of necessity. Unfortunately, the Oval Office position is already flanked left and right. The incumbent does not want to carry any war, of choice or necessity, into the next presidential cycle. And the Cheshire cat just grins and waits.

All of this highlights the distinction between politics Chicago-style and principled soldiering McChrystal-style. Given a choice between sacrifice and survival, which road do men of character take? McChrystal has answered that question—He fell on his sword. The  puppet will get back to us in thirteen months. Stanley McChrystal may have furled his flag, but let’s hope he has not spiked his guns. In or out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat whose name we dare not speak will get worse before it gets better. When it does, real soldiers will need to strap on their irons again. Keep your powder dry, Stan.

[I’m totally ready!]

Boehner Video Hits: Executive Branch Jobs/Oil Spill

posted on NewsMax , July 3, 2010

House Minority Leader John Boehner is striking back at the puppet with a video that questions the puppet’s leadership on key national issues. The YouTube video, titled What About the Country, the  puppet?” is in response to the puppet’s speech in Racine, Wis., on Wednesday in which he ripped into Boehner for telling a newspaper that a major banking overhaul bill is like “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.”

“That’s what he said—he compared the financial crisis to an ant,” the puppet said at the town hall meeting. “This is the same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly 8 million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes and their life savings. He can’t be that out of touch with the struggles of American families.” Boehner’s video reply was swift and biting, and it came on the heels of a Labor Department report showing that employers cut 125,000 jobs in June amid signs the economic recovery is slowing.

“This week the puppet traveled to Racine, Wis., a city with 14 percent unemployment,” Boehner says in the video. “And he used his time there to attack me. I’d ask the puppet several questions—“Why aren’t you focused on stopping the oil spill in the Gulf [of Mexico], and getting the Gulf cleaned up? Why aren’t you focused on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Why aren’t you focused on cutting spending now? Why isn’t the puppet focused on creating jobs that the American people are asking for? Mr. President, what about the country?”

[Left Boehner’s words as is here for his benefit. Hate it, but I’m honor Boehner.]

Democrats Vote Down 5 Percent Rule

post by unknown author

In a bid to stem taxpayer losses for bad loans guaranteed by federal housing agencies Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) proposed that borrowers be required to make a minimum 5% down payment in order to qualify. His proposal was rejected 57-42 on a party-line vote because, as Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) explained,  “passage of such a requirement would restrict home ownership to only those who can afford it.” Hold that thought…, November’s getting closer!

A New Independence Day

post by David Zanotti, President & CEO, The American Policy Roundtable, National Headquarters, 11288 Alameda Drive, Strongsville, OH 44149 July 7, 2010

Independence Day—In late 2008, plastic yard signs began to appear across the nation. I will never forget the picture of one of those signs, in front of a house badly in need of repair. The yard sign did not contain the name of a candidate or an office. It simply bore an oval symbol and a single word—HOPE.

Where does real hope come from? Does it flow from a charismatic hero who rides across our television screens promising to make us feel better about ourselves? Does it flow from a political party promising to rescue us by winning Congress in the November elections? Does it come from electing a new President in 2012? Does it flow from a bull market surge on Wall Street, or a rebound of consumer confidence and fresh orders from old customers?

The men and women who celebrated the first signing of the Declaration of Independence 234 years ago were filled with hope even against immeasurable odds. John Adams described it this way in a letter to his wife Abigail—“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America…. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God† Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory…”

Sam Adams, the true philosophical Father of the Declaration of Independence, described the act of Congress on July 2nd in this way—“We have this day restored the Sovereign, to Whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and…from the rising to the setting sun, may his Kingdom come.”

What did these men know that we have forgotten? Surely their hope was not in their financial wealth. John Adams served his country while his dear wife scrubbed floors and tended the fields and the family. Sam Adams was so broke that his friends had to buy him new clothes so he could go to serve in Congress. Surely they did not place their hope in the volunteer army being assembled by General Washington. These minute men were few in number and standing against the most powerful military force in the world. They could not have placed their hope in public opinion polls. Many people living in the colonies had NO desire to go to war with the mother country. Only a small percentage of Americans strongly supported the actions of the Congress on the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. So, where did they anchor their hope that such an enterprise of Liberty could possibly succeed?

The answer is crystal clear. They placed their hope in the Creator† and the truth that flows from His† character as revealed in the sacred Scriptures. They put their hope firmly in the Lord†. They knew they could not succeed without His† aid. The Declaration of Independence is first and foremost a worldview treatise. It is a statement of faith, a declaration of self-evident truths and a practical application of those truths in the sphere of civil government.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator† with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The Founders placed their hope in the living God† of the Universe—but why? What did they know about this God† that gave them the courage to believe that He† would hear their cry for deliverance and bring them out of bondage?

The Founders knew God† takes delight in His† creation and that He† longs for mankind to be free. And they knew this God† of the Universe is just and loves justice. (Psalm 11:7, 33:5, 45:6, 89:14, 103:6, Isaiah 28:17, 30:18, 42:1, 61:8, Amos 5:24, Zechariah 7:9, Matthew 12:18-20, Luke 11:42, 18:8, Acts 17:31, Romans 3:25, Hebrews 11:33, Revelation 19:11)

Some will say—“Wait a minute—these same people were slaveholders and looked the other way on the bondage of African slaves.” An accurate reading of history reveals not all the founders were slaveholders. Many who owned slaves knew slavery was wrong and worked to free their slaves and liberate the nation from slavery. This is no excuse but it is real. Washington released all his slaves upon his death and Jefferson called slavery a haunting “alarm bell in the night.” John Adams’ son remains the only man to run for Congress after being President. He served for the purpose of petitioning Congress for the abolition of slavery. John Quincy Adams died in the Capitol building working till his final hours for abolition. The failure of Congress to embrace abolition fueled the Civil War and cost 650,000 more lives.

All this only makes the basic point stronger. God† is just. “For I the Lord love justice.” (Isaiah 61:8). Whether justice against bondage from King George III or justice for the enslaved against the slave industry and a blind Congress—God† is not looking the other way. Not then, not now, not ever! Herein lies the hope of America. God† is just. He† sees. He† knows. He† exercises justice on earth every day. He† is waiting for us to call out to Him† for deliverance. No matter how great the odds—God† is greater and His† justice will prevail on Earth.

So what is our role to play in all of this? Do we just cry out to God† and wait for a magical deliverer to appear? Let us return again to the example of the Founders. They clearly understood the cost of the Declaration of Independence on the day they signed it beneath these words—“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence†, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Then they made good on that pledge by their actions. Is it not time for all of us to do the same? Here is what that looks like today—We repent, we pray, and we get up off our knees and bring the truth back to the mission field of public policy in word and deed. In roughly 100 days, the election of 2010 will be upon us. This is just the beginning.

• Action item—Are you praying today for the hundreds of new candidates running for Congress and the State Legislature? Are you looking to find new leaders you can support?

Together our partnership in building out the iVoters strategy is beginning to bear real fruit. Since the April 19th release of Free Agents, almost 3,000 people have downloaded or purchased a copy of this new book. Think about that one for a moment—almost 3,000 people mostly in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania being trained in the core principles and practical strategies of bringing new leadership to America.

• Action item— Have you ordered just two extra copies of this book to give to someone you know cares about restoring justice in America? Have you emailed everyone on your contacts list with the link to download this book for free at iVoters.com? Have you posted the link on your Facebook page?

In just a few weeks the iVoters.com Forum will go live. This new voter information forum is going to rock the political world! iVoters is empowering millions of independent voters no political party can reach.

• Action item— Have you made your most generous contribution to help pay for the development, hosting and advertising of this new site that can change everything in key communities in key states? Are you helping tell the world about iVoters.com?

On September 30th a whole new MAD 2010 Celebration event will be unveiled. The first venue will be in Medina, Ohio. Over 1000 friends from across the nation will be gathering to celebrate Liberty and make financial commitments to the work of Roundtable and Freedom Forum.

• Action item— Have you ordered your tickets? Space is limited so please contact Allison Allen (800-522-8683 ext. 104) today. Will you join us in praying that this new format will spread to key regions across the nation?

Two hundred and thirty four years ago, the God† of Justice heard the cries of those calling out for deliverance in the American colonies. What might that same God† do today—if we the people cried out to Him† again and began to walk obediently in His† path? For Hope that is real.

Another Block on Louisiana

post by Senator David Vitter, Louisiana, July 21, 2010

Seeing Louisianians unite is a powerful image to witness. Today I attended the Rally for Economic Survival at the Cajun Dome in Lafayette along with approximately 15,000 other Louisianians who want to lift the puppet’s moratorium. The puppet administration’s latest offshore drilling moratorium could destroy more than 140,000 jobs along the Gulf Coast while costing billions of dollars in lost wages. In just six months, it could end up doing more damage to our economy than the oil spill itself.

Just what does Louisiana stand to lose? Thousands of workers and millions of dollars in lost revenues from taxes and lease sales directed to coastal restoration would eventually affect every Gulf Coast resident. The oil spill has been an unprecedented disaster, and Louisianians are heartbroken not only by the initial loss of life, but also by the ongoing devastation to our coast. But shutting down drilling altogether is a mistake that would only make the long-term economic situation far worse, as uncertainty forces energy companies to relocate their assets and jobs overseas.

Yet, the puppet administration has rejected a careful, balanced approach in favor of a heavy-handed blanket moratorium. Even after losing multiple legal challenges, they’ve devised a new moratorium that affects deep-water and shallow-water rigs alike. That’s why I immediately authored legislation to end the puppet’s moratorium.

Louisiana’s economy is struggling and we can’t afford to let the puppet administration kill thousands more jobs and move our energy production overseas. Instead, let’s focus on enforcing the current regulations and improving the overall safety so that folks in the energy sector can get back to work and Louisiana’s economy gets back on its feet. It was great to see many of you today and thanks for all your hard work keeping the pressure on the puppet to lift his job-killing moratorium!