As Powerline points out this morning, the Dems appear to be concerned (if not actually afraid) that things are going better than ever in Iraq. 

If you don't believe that Democrats are worried that America might win a war, check out the language used by congressman Clyburn in this Post report.

If Petraeus gives a good report in September, says Clyburn, 'that could be a real big problem for us'.

As has been said, Democrats used to say that troops deployed in foreign lands was a small price to pay to avoid genocide.  Now they say genocide is a small price to pay for bringing our troops home.

It seems the heavy rains in Britain have now (what took them so long) been 'conclusively linked' to manmade global warming.

Two items in this story worthy of note:

The scientist they quote is admitted as being one of the scientists who specialises in proving that mankind is ruining the globe.  Not much chance of an objective eye on the data here.

And they use a datum that's very interesting...  the water in one area is as high as it was in 1947. 

Recall, if you will, that 1947 was the early part of a 30 year COOLING trend, one that had major media predicting ice ages by the 1970s.  The fact that the water is as high as it was in 1947 could very well be taken to prove the earth is COOLING, just like it was then.

If objective eyes were on the data, that is.

Even towns full of liberals have to make money.

And some liberals in Telluride, Colorado are finding out that their proud and loud liberalism can get in the way of that necessity.

I've skiied in Colorado quite a bit, although it's been awhile, and I recall even 20 years ago the anti-Texan bias of many native Coloradans.  I'm sure some of it was 'come by honestly', as they say; nevertheless nobody in business deliberately insults their own customers without some sort of backlash, and the city of Telluride seems 'shocked, shocked' by the response to their anti-Bush council declarations.

This will generate some new Texan complaints, I'll wager. 

ht Tim Blair.

Like everyone, when I first heard of the new initiative to sell the Saudis tens of billions of dollars worth of new military equipment, I wondered if the State Dept. had gone even more insane than it already was......

Then I quickly realized that, although the press never really explains it to the public, there is a very important and large scale war, presently not a violent one, between Arab Sunni Islam and Persian Shia Islam, and that Iran is well on its way to being a nuclear nation.

Whether we should act to prevent this is another story.  Yes we should, but Condi seems to think otherwise, as does Dubya.

However, of the two sides, the Arab side is probably much easier to bring around, in diplomatic terms.  And thus we sell them arms, doubtless in some fashion to help them protect themselves against Iran. 

We're also selling Israel arms, even more than the Saudis get, so that there will be nominal maintenance of Israel's military superiority over nations with which it has no present peace treaty.

I'm seeing the 'velvet fist in the velvet glove' approach, as usual, but at least it has some rationale behind it.

I would pity this man if he didn't remind me so much of Jimmuh.... 

Mikhail Gorbachev appears to have joined the anti-American fray, commenting that the U.S. has "winner complex", whatever that is.

Bottom line?  It's all our fault.  What?  Everything. 

But the real tell comes near the end, where Gorbachev pathetically whines 'without our proposal, there would be nothing; no end to the Cold War, no decision to reduce nuclear arms.'

What he means is "without my leadership, the world would be a smoking irradiated ruin!  It was me, my greatness, and the superior wisdom of my komrades, that brought peace to the world in spite of the dangerous, egomaniacal filthy kapitalist pig American military-industrial complex!"

He's forgotten (or wants us to forget) that it was American pressure and military spending that forced the Soviets into the economic desperation and military inferiority that COMPELLED them to eventually give up.  Gorbachev talks about the military spending as if it was a gigantic negative for everyone, but I'm inclined to see it all as a mixed blessing.  Government spending is not the best way to generate economic activity, but it isn't a total failure in that area, at least in the short term-- unless you don't have a capitalist economy which can take advantage of such an artificial infusion of cash and orders for goods.  In that respect, the military spending was a whole lot worse for Soviets than for Americans, and it's part of the genius of the Reagan approach to defeating the evil empire.  And you just know the communist in Gorbachev HATES this inconvenient fact.

Gorby does get credit for negotiating the final disposition of the old Soviet Union with Bush 41 and others, but it was decidedly NOT a matter of a mutual, genteel and civilised approach to a solution.  It was America 1, Soviet Union 0, no matter what this purple-stained and red-indoctrinated old loser says.

Gorbachev is apparently jealous of the past several years of love poured out by the American people on the memory of Ronald Reagan.  And he is also more than likely to get the benefit of higher speakers' fees and more invitations by joining in the anti-American chorus that becomes more shrill and atonal with each passing day.

America-haters of the world, unite!

I'm actually kind of depressed about this.  I had hoped Gorby had enough class to keep quiet, unlike Jimmuh.

UPDATE:  Here's more on this same story from Investors Business Daily, obvious stuff and common sense.

And here is an example of the emotion-based and leading 'journalism' the IBD article discusses.

********************************

It's about time someone publicly reduced the 'fear forecast' for hurricanes this year.

It's almost August and nobody's seen hide nor hair of the beastly things.

Note the forecaster in this article claims to be reducing his forecast 'slightly' when actually he is predicting 25% fewer hurricanes than the original forecast.

Weasels. 

Be afraid, but be 'slightly' less afraid than you were, that's the ticket.

Not too long ago I referred to a Saturday Night Live skit from 1991, in which the press asked questions of military leaders whose answers would obviously damage our operation and risk the lives of our soldiers.

Back then, it was funny....  but remember, humor only works when there is an element of truth.

Nowadays the truth remains and the humor is long gone.

I was reading BlackFive's blog this morning and noted a verbatim script from that long ago sketch, and you'll note as I did that the exact wording is even more devastating to the press than I had remembered.

Because this is almost exactly how they act these days.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/07/what-was-hillar.html

 To add to my musings below about the weather in Europe, I give you this chart, which shows us that Scotland's average temperature is well above the weather they're experiencing this week, as much as ten degrees F more than it was today at Carnoustie.

Meanwhile Paris, my other compared area, will this week fluctuate between one and ten degrees below the average daily high temperature for this time of year.

Scotland's average high for July (in lowland Glasgow, less than a hundred miles from Carnoustie and almost the same longtitude) is 66 F.  Midafternoon today, as I mentioned, it was 54 F at the British Open. 

Paris averages 76 F for a daily high in July, but this week's forecast calls for highs between 65 and 75 F.

These are not colossal variations, don't get me wrong.

Still, they do not strike me as unambiguous evidence for steady and ominous 'chauffage mondiale', as it were.  It may well be that in some areas of this ole' world it is hotter than usual.  But it is all too easy to discover areas that are cooler than usual, and overall, the 20 foot ocean rises and coastal devastation of 'An Inconvenient Truth' are starting to look, well, LAME.

I've been a critic of the BBC for years now, having had plenty of firsthand exposure to its international news division and being the worse for it.  :-)

Now the Beeb appears to be suffering from a crisis in all around credibility, not to mention in the moral decency of its decision-makers at several levels.

Don't get your hopes up that the all-consuming leftism of the network is one of the things to be repaired, though; if I know my Beeb, they'll highlight their anti-Americanism, their hatred of George Bush, their failure to speak against radical Islam and their socialist tendencies as GOOD points.

I was watching the British Open on TNT today and noticed that most players were wearing not only sweaters but jackets.

I watched long enough, and eventually the temperature appeared on the screen-- 54 deg. F.

Curious, I now checked the intellicast weather site for the week's weather forecast in Paris, France.  Paris is quite a bit south of Scotland, so it's warmer there...  the next week should be between 65 and 75 for highs.

Remember, this is the country where almost 15,000 people DIED in the heatwave of a few years back (socialized medicine decidely did NOT come to the rescue of those poor suffering elderly folks).

Now, in 2007, the July/August weather is a balmy 75 degrees.....  

So much for la catastrophe, la chauffage mondiale, la fin du civilisation... 

Meanwhile here in Dallas, where the temperature is normally over 100 F, we've got a dry and windy 94.  Don't get me wrong, it's bloody hot.  :-)  But it's not as hot as USUAL.

If Al Gore's managed to choke down his double portion of the endangered Chilean Sea Bass, perhaps he'll explain all this mildness. 

With any luck at all, this will be the last we ever hear about Valerie Plame.

Then again, that kind of luck has been mighty hard to hold onto lately. 

My dad's staying down in Florida this hurricane season, and has therefore a heightened interest in the big storms... 

He's been keeping track, and told me the other day that 'all's quiet' on that front.

I got curious, and googled the predictions for this season.

This article came up, and I hope you'll read all the way through the final paragraph.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070403172305.htm

But if you don't have time, or if you're stifling a yawn right now, I'll summarize--

A guy who works with the Colorado State University's hurricane forecasting team, and has been forecasting these storms for almost 25 years, says there are no links between small increases in current atmospheric temperatures and increases in number or strength of storms. 

And in fact the Atlantic was the ONLY cyclonic basin to experience increases in 2004 and 2005.  Most areas of the globe were normal or less than normal in storm production.

Not to mention the almost complete LACK of serious storms in 2006.

Still, they predict a busier than average hurricane season this year.

(toe tapping under desk)

(fingers drumming atop desk)

hmmm hm hm hmmmm  da deeeee da daaaaaa... 

still waiting.  :-)

It is known in the blogosphere that the blogger is responsible for, and should maintain the full transparency of, every word he writes.  There are few sins more heinous than removal of words under the pretense you never wrote them.

I've always tried to leave everything I write in a readable state, and simply add to it when mistakes are made and clarifications necessary.

So I've overcome my temptation to remove the posts of a couple of days ago, in which my good friend Ixman and I get a bit crossways. 

You see, I'm embarrassed to report that I misapprehended his metaphor, and that in the misapprehension I became mildly bellicose and defensive. 

So that both my readers may know, I believe I owe him an apology for my reaction, well-argued though it was, :-)) on the grounds that the response was not necessary.  He was not implying what I thought he was implying.

I may still remove the offending post and its accompaniments in time, but for now, transparency is the order of the day.

Along with 'read more carefully and think harder before writing'.

I'll call you friday Ixman, cuz I might have time to join you for nine holes.  ;-)

While we're reading Tim Blair's blog and discussing the pet peeves of the glow-ball hero Al Gore, lets not forget that his youngest daughter got married last Saturday.

Big to-do, of course.  Rehearsal dinner had 75 guests.

And on the menu, the currently PROTECTED "Chilean sea bass".

The fish does not reproduce until it is 8 years old.  Limits are strict and designed to protect the young ones so they can grow to that age.

Currently the 2 year olds are being caught, frozen and shipped far away from south American countries, where such activities will put captain and crew in the hoosegow.  This fish is vanishing quickly, and South American authorities pursue these pirate fishing boats with navy cruisers, investing millions in law enforcement to try to save the Chilean sea bass. 

But nothing's too good for Sarah Gore.

I wonder if the hors d'oevres included spotted owl eggs or fried snail darters?

With a tip o' the hat to everyone's Ozzie pal Tim Blair down under, here's new evidence that we're all going to die in a blaze of orange and yellow sun-torture, parched and broiling slowly as we gasp out our last dry regrets that we did not act sooner to stop Global Warmening...