MSNBC

The New York Times recognizes MSNBC's liberal bias.

COSTS OF DOCTOR'S VISIT

The costs a doctor faces when he visits with a patient for 10 minutes.

Michele Bachmann a Racist?

Another example of how comments can be edited to make a candidate say something different than he or she really did. Michele Bachmann did not ask a crowd, "Who likes white people?"

CLIMATE CHANGE

Some questions about the cause of climate change.

The first results from the lab's CLOUD ("Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets") experiment published in Nature today confirm that cosmic rays spur the formation of clouds through ion-induced nucleation. Current thinking posits that half of the Earth's clouds are formed through nucleation. The paper is entitled Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation.

This has significant implications for climate science because water vapour and clouds play a large role in determining global temperatures. Tiny changes in overall cloud cover can result in relatively large temperature changes.

Unsurprisingly, it's a politically sensitive topic, as it provides support for a "heliocentric" rather than "anthropogenic" approach to climate change: the sun plays a large role in modulating the quantity of cosmic rays reaching the upper atmosphere of the Earth.

Presidential Reading Lists

President Obama's summer reading list was published recentyl. When it comes to reading, I am a bit biased, but I think both Dubya's list (and the Stranger by Camus is not on that list) and Clinton were reading more substantial material that dealt with decision-making and policy issues.

NBC EDITING PERRY

Example of what happens on more than on this occasion in my opinion. News-oriented programs should let people speak for themselves. And it can be done by conservatives as well. What is edited out is the big question when the news is on.

JOE WILSON WAS RIGHT

Obama misrepresented government medical care policies for illegal immigrants.

DEMOCRATS DOUBT OBAMA

The London Telegraph has an article on Democrats doubting the wisdom of selecting Obama as a candidate. I think the following comment may have a lot of truth in it: Hillary is just a tougher person.

And Victor Davis Hanson had similar observations: One can continue to appreciate how brilliant was Obama’s selection of Hillary Clinton as secretary of State. It was not just that he diminished her status by outsourcing much of her job to regional and theater czars, or boxed her in with the “reset” diplomacy of the Susan Rice and Samantha Power sort, or even that her appointment suspended Bill Clinton’s lucrative speechmaking abroad, giving up millions in honoraria at the courts of foreign autocrats and strongmen. More clever yet, Obama seems to have anticipated his present bad stretch in polls and wanted no Teddy Kennedy-like distraction. A Senator Clinton right now would be under some pressure to weigh a divisive run for the nomination. But should Obama implode and see his ratings after three years drop to where George Bush’s were after six years — the 32-36% range — she would be under enormous pressure to declare her candidacy. And unlike Kennedy — who was both an inept candidate and had far too many character flaws and past sins—Hillary Clinton remains a skilled politician, with a brilliant political contortionist as her husband and, of course, has been thoroughly vetted and dissected.

WAPO published "Why the Center-Left is Fed up with Obama." Events keep screaming that the president is weak, weak, weak.

The left is beginning to sound like the right in its criticisms of Obama.

From Mickey Kaus: The federal government is still hiring and he questions whether these jobs are actually needed.

Here is the official list of federal job openings. They are still hiring. Sure, big enterprises keep hiring essential employees even in tough times. But these aren’t essential jobs. Many of them seem like the sort of job a private firm, in a financial crisis like the feds are in, would consolidate with another job or leave unfilled. (The first one that jumps out is the “Associate Administrator for Administration” at the Department of Transportation, which pays $119,554 to $179,700. It seems that this person will do administrative work to maintain the layer of bureaucracy that “coordinates” the DOTs research programs. The new hire will also give “advice and assistance in directing, coordinating, controlling” etc. this little fiefdom. You don’t have to be Peter Drucker to realize that this position does not have to exist.)

Part of the problem, of course, is that since it is virtually impossible to fire an actual underperforming federal employee, conscientious administrators have to hire new people (or consultants) to actually do the work the unfireable employees aren’t doing.

GOOD SUMMARY OF DOWNGRADE

From CNBC. Santelli raises issue of a leaderless Washington. "Leaders on vacation!" But a number of different opinions raised.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR BUDGET CRISIS

I thought this was an interesting chart. It is spending on medicare (and medicaid) that would appear to be the major problem that has to be resolved. Social Security spending growth would appear to be manageable. Read the article here.

APPOINTMENT OF MUSLIM JUDGE IN NEW JERSEY

The issue is his commitment to sharia law.

RISING URBAN VIOLENCE

A post on rising random racial violence in cities. I have been watching this rise and haven't seen the media cover it, but someone else has also noted it.

IS THE LEFT AGREEING WITH THE RIGHT ON OBAMA?

I have always enjoyed Mickey Kaus. . .he is a liberal Democrat who thinks outside of the box (of course this may get him kicked out of the Democrat establishment). He recently posted a comment on the left seemingly finally agreeing with the right on all of their criticisms of Obama as a poorly prepared candidate for President. He quotes Bryan York on a Drew Westen column from the Sunday NYT.

Perhaps Obama “is simply not up to the task” of being president. Perhaps the Democrats who were so dazzled by his campaign speeches should have noticed “some disquieting aspects of his biography.” Among those disquieting aspects: “that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president, having never run a business or a state; that he had a singularly unremarkable career as a law professor, publishing nothing in 12 years at the University of Chicago other than an autobiography; and that, before joining the United States Senate, he had voted ‘present’ (instead of ‘yea’ or ‘nay’) 130 times, sometimes dodging difficult issues.”

PRIVATE JET TAX

I believe in a progressive income tax, but my concern over raising taxes on the rich is that it can put people out of work and not raise as much tax money as expected because unemployment benefits and other cost consequences take place.

In 1991 the Democrat congress raised the yacht tax and it just ended putting people in certain states out-of-work. This is a post from 1991 from a blogger, but a Florida congressman was also concerned.

The workers at Cessna and Lear must be in fear of losing their jobs. And one could wonder why pick on yachts and private jets. . .why not a special tax on any automobile over $20,000 or a special tax if you shop at Nordstrom's vs. Walmart?

IMPACT OF OBAMA & BUSH ON SPENDING

An interesting comparison by Ezra Klein. You can't deny Bush's economic policy had some impact on where we are today. His policies generated the Tea Party and Obama's policies have continued to strengthen that movement.