Glenn Reynolds warned of this back in 2009

But I wanna pway!

We’re increasingly hearing that America is “ungovernable”. Is that truly the case, or is the problem that we have an incompetent leader?

Someone on the Sunday talk shows pointed out to Chris Matthews that his old boss Tip O’Neil shut down the government 17 times over legislative disputes yet was never labelled a terrorist, by Mathews or anyone else.

“But those were just for a day or two”, Matthews responded, “it was just about money”.

A day or two, then a deal was struck, and business as usual resumed, unfortunately. Which leads to this point: Tip O’Neil and LBJ and in fact many of the old inhabitants of the swamp were professional politicians and, love them or hate them, they knew how to govern and advance their agenda: cilvil rights, poverty laws, whathaveyou. Obama, an incompetent amateur, does not, and Professor Reynolds predicted he wouldn’t be able to after observing the man for just nine months in office:

SEPTEMBER 5, 2009

A PATTERN OF INCOMPETENCE? “Who could have warned us that a man who served seven years in the state legislature and three years in the Senate would not have been prepared for the toughest executive position in the Free World? We did. Repeatedly. So did John McCain, and for that matter, so did Hillary Clinton.” Expect this to play out in thumbsucker columns on whether America is “ungovernable.”

Too bad Hothaus didn’t speak to this guy

We can burn the UN climate report for fuel I suppose, eh Nanook?

MIT scientist: UN report of global warming “hilarious”.

Not all scientists are panicking about global warming — one of them finds the alarmism “hilarious.”

A top climate scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technologylambasted a new report by the UN’s climate bureaucracy that blamed mankind as the main cause of global warming and whitewashed the fact that there has been a hiatus in warming for the last 15 years.

“I think that the latest IPCC report has truly sunk to level of hilarious incoherence,” Dr. Richard Lindzen told Climate Depot, a global warming skeptic news site. “They are proclaiming increased confidence in their models as the discrepancies between their models and observations increase.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claimed it was 95 percent sure that global warming was mainly driven by human burning of fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. The I.P.C.C. also glossed over the fact that the Earth has not warmed in the past 15 years, arguing that the heat was absorbed by the ocean.

“Their excuse for the absence of warming over the past 17 years is that the heat is hiding in the deep ocean,” Lindzen added. “However, this is simply an admission that the models fail to simulate the exchanges of heat between the surface layers and the deeper oceans.”

“However, it is this heat transport that plays a major role in natural internal variability of climate, and the IPCC assertions that observed warming can be attributed to man depend crucially on their assertion that these models accurately simulate natural internal variability,” Lindzen continued. “Thus, they now, somewhat obscurely, admit that their crucial assumption was totally unjustified.”

Scientists have been struggling to explain the 15-year hiatus in global warming, and governments have been urging them to whitewash the fact that temperatures have not been rising because such data would impact the upcoming climate negotiations in 2015.

The Associated Press obtained documents that show the Obama administration and some European governments pressured UN climate scientists to downplay or even omit data that shows the world hasn’t warmed in over a decade.

Good – I won’t have to fear ending up next to him on my next flight

 

But what about his unused frequent flyer miles?

Bawling meteorologist Eric Hothaus swears off flying over concerns about global warming.  He’s already converted to vegetarianism to cut his contribution to methane production and vows, “if this doesn’t end CO2 emissions, I’ll just quit breathing – Mother Gaia, I hear you!”.

I hope he sets an example for all the celebrities, politicians and junket-loving UN staffers who love to jet off to global warming conferences in Bali. Especially the bit about breathing.

Cry me a (chlorine) river

Mr. President, drain this pool!

The NYT is out with a front page story today announcing with great fanfare that half of the 250 accidental deaths of children each year are unreported.

How about what the CPC calls “the leading cause of death for young children?  390 deaths for children under fifteen? If it saves the life of just one child, shouldn’t we ban residential swimming pools? Doesn’t that carnage merit front page coverage on its own?

Or is there some other agenda at play here?

Malloy to shape Supreme Court

The last one had big tits; I don’t think we have to go there this time.

Governor Dannel Malloy is set to make a third appointment to the Connecticut Supreme Court and he already knows what he’s looking for: “A colored person, ” Malloy told FWIW. “I did the gay guy first, then a Hispanic chic, now I need a genuine Affffricaan – American, or that’s what my staff tells me. They’re still checking on whether that gay male was counted as a male or something else, but if it was ‘something else’, then I can probably use a male for this slot. Or a transgender carpet-muncher, I suppose – I’m waiting to hear.”

Asked about the qualifications of the jurist he’d select, Malloy smirked: “I just listed the qualifications.”

TV “news” doesn’t include coverage of IRS

Not when it involves the crushing of dissent. 

“We do, however, provide 24/7 coverage of the important stuff citizens should know about”, boasts Deborah Turness, British flack and newly installed director of NBC entertainment news division. “We had the Royal Baby story absolutely saturated, and next week’s five-day profile of Miley Cyrus will leave our audience simply gobsmacked!”

Wall Street Journal: IRS documents show agency flagged groups for “Anti-Obama rhetoric” – Big Three won’t touch it.

ABC, CBS and NBC have so far refused to report the latest bombshell in the IRS scandal – a newly released list from the agency that showed it flagged political groups for “anti-Obama rhetoric.” On September 18 USA Today, in a front page story, reported the following: “Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about ‘anti-Obama rhetoric,’ inflammatory language and ’emotional’ statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status.”

Not only have ABC, CBS and NBC not reported this story they’ve flat out stopped covering the IRS scandal on their evening and morning shows. It’s been 85 days since ABC last touched the story on June 26. NBC hasn’t done a report for 84 days and CBS last mentioned the IRS scandal 56 days ago on July 24.

Going up?

(Greenwich Time photo)

Greenwich Time profiles Old Greenwich couple who raised their storm-damaged home on Heusted Drive. Nothing wrong with the idea of lifting one’s skirt to avoid an inrushing tide, but those considering buying down in the flood zone of Old greenwich might want to consider the ten-foot climb from the car to the kitchen with groceries and infants (and for God’s sake, don’t break a leg next time you’re in Gestaad). I have a friend who built new along Pine Creek in Fairfield a decade ago and even back then the code required a house on stilts. She dealt with the long climb upstairs, loved her views across Long Island Sound, and reported after Sandy that hers and the other homes on that Road that were elevated did fine, while the original beach houses were wiped out.

So that’s all good – just don’t plan on an enclosed, lockable garage or storage area, or easy access to the living quarters of your home.