The Climate Change Outside is Frightful (UPDATE)

Recent images:

South Korea (added 3:10 p.m. EST)
Seoul socked in with heaviest snow in 70 years:

China (added 3:10 p.m. EST)
Snowplows in Tienanmen Square, Beijing schools and airport closed under the heaviest snowfall in more than 60 years:

Uttar Pradesh, Northern India
Record cold 1C - 4C (34F - 39F) responsible for 40 deaths in one week:

Minnesota
State low yesterday, -36F (-38C), Frosty 9 feet tall:

Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Wild turkeys find bird feeders frozen shut:

Washington, DC
Worst December blizzard in DC's history dumps 2 feet of snow:

Florida (Added 3:30 p.m. EST)
Farmers try to save strawberry crops from below-freezing temperatures by spraying them with water.

Wales
12 inches of snow creates winter wonderland, if you like temperatures of -9C (16F). UK climatologists rescind prediction of mild winter, now predict worst winter in decades, if not in century:

Scotland
Longest unbroken cold snap in decades, temps as low as -15C (5F). Bessie snowed in:

Hey, Al Gore, the blue and purple dots below represent record-breaking low temperatures and the white dots represent record-breaking snows, all occurring in the last week! (For map interactivity, go here.)

Hat tip: Watts Up With That.
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Related:

• Climate Change Brings Snow to French Riviera
• Earth Climate Data: Some Real Stunners
• 22 Inches of Global Warming Hit Flagstaff, AZ

San Francisco vs. the Christians: The Court Decides

Religious freedom doesn't mean much to many people who don't practice a religion, but it cannot be denied that defending freedom of religion, at the very least, defends one's ability to choose one's own values and then act on them, provided that those actions don't deprive others of the same ability.

The City of San Francisco is presently governed by a body of legislators who have chosen to believe that same-sex couples are entitled to all the benefits of heterosexual couples, including parenting children.

As in all things, Nature has something to say about that. To parent children, same-sex couples must introduce a member of the opposite sex into the equation at some point. For some same-sex couples, the answer is adoption. However, Catholic Charities in San Francisco has refused to place children in their care into same-sex households.

Scandalized, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in early 2006 passed a resolution (Resolution 168-06, click here) condemning the Catholic Church's refusal to offer children for adoption by gay couples. A week later, the Board officially condemned a rally of 25,000 Christian teenagers gathered to oppose a popular culture that glamourizes violence and sex, including abortion and homosexuality.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors labeled the Catholic Church's refusal to require parentless children to be raised by homosexuals as "hateful," "discriminatory," "insulting," "callous," and "showing a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors."

As opposed to (one cannot help observing) the tact, sensitivity, and enlightenment displayed by San Francisco's answer to the traditional religious community, namely, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (shown) whose motto is, "Go and sin some more." (I am not making this up.) It should be noted that San Francisco's Catholic churches do not prevent the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from participating in Catholic religious services. But the Church is not putting little babies into their hands.

Catholic doctrine teaches, for example, that allowing children to be adopted by homosexuals would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development," the center explained. "Such policies are gravely immoral and Catholic organizations must not place children for adoption in homosexual households."

And what did San Francisco's elected legislature think of that rally of 25,000 Christian evangelical  teenagers eager to follow that antique guideline known as the Ten Commandments? The Board of Supervisors called their rally a "fascist mega-pep rally" of "virtue terrorism." Got that? San Francisco feels "terrorized" when faced with non-fisting adolescents.

At present, the 9th Circuit Court is considering a challenge to San Francisco's resolution condemning the Catholic Church for its moral teachings. The challenge was brought by the Thomas More Law Center, which presented oral arguments to the Court on December 17, 2009.

The Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not permit government hostility toward religion. Robert Muise, who argued the case before the eleven-judge panel, said, "If the full court allows this government attack on Catholics to stand, it will likely further embolden anti-Christian attacks by government." Bill Donohue, speaking for the Catholic League, pointed out that Board of Supervisors' "invective and bigoted comments" tell "what will be happening under the 'hate crime law' recently signed by President Obama."

On the other hand, according to Muise, "Should the full court ultimately render a decision in our favor, this case will establish much needed precedent for claims alleging government hostility toward religion."

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Health Care 2010: Cardiologists Sue Kathleen Sebelius

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has filed a lawsuit against Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services, for making critical cardiology services unavailable to "the patients who need them most." 

American cardiologists must be truly worried. Joining the ACC in the suit are the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, the Association of Black Cardiolotists, and the Cardiology Advocacy Alliance.

As reported by the New York Examiner:

The complaint alleges that Sibelius "unlawfully adopted the payment rates for cardiology services in the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule in a manner that threatens access to patient care and precipitously increases Medicare costs."

The new fee schedule, which went into effect yesterday, January 1, 2010, cuts reimbursements to cardiologists for diagnostic services performed in the doctor's office, particularly diagnostic imaging, as much as 40%.

From PR Newswire:

"These cuts will devastate patient access to care," said Alfred A. Bove, M.D., president of the ACC. "Already practices are closing their doors and their patients have nowhere to turn. Hospitals do not have the capacity or the specialized ability to absorb the influx of patients. Tests will be delayed, diseases will worsen and patients will become sicker and sicker. Many patients, especially those living in rural settings and urban centers will lose their access to critical cardiac care." [quote added 12:08 p.m., emphasis mine]

The cardiologists assert that Health and Human Services made the change in regulation based on shoddy research, namely, a defective survey that did not comply with federal government's own regulations regarding "standards, transparency and review."

No surprise there. An administration that routinely disregards the Constitution cannot be expected to show much interest in compliance with mere regulations. When it comes to transparency and review, Obama and his Obamatons could not have been more flagrant in their disregard for transparency and review throughout the entire healthcare debate.

For those suffering from heart disease, the results of the 2010 regulations will not be pretty. In ObamaSpeak, Death Panels is now pronounced Health and Human Services.

We must keep up the pressure on the House. The Democrats in Congress think the latest Senate version of ObamaCare is a great bill, but we cannot allow them to inflict it on us.

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Kevin Thompson Performs the Original "Days of Old Long Ago"

In 1788, the year in which most of the original states ratified the new U.S. Constitution, beloved Scottish poet Robbie Burns preserved some old lyrics about two friends encountering each other after a separation of many years. Here are Burns' lyrics--all of them--performed by preservationist Kevin Thompson, using the tune Burns originally intended. The English translation and original Scots lyrics are provided below.

Enjoy. And don't neglect to take a cup o' kindness, my jo.

With hearty wishes for a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.

English translation

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and days of old lang syne [long ago]?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine [dinner];
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Burns’ original Scots verse

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and days o'auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my jo, for auld lang syne, we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
and surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot,
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d i' the burn,
frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
and gie's a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.


Happy Hogmanay!

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The Christmas Bomber: Curiouser and Curiouser

Every hour or two a new bit of news surfaces concerning the Christmas bomber and his attack on Flight 253.

From the Birds of a Feather Department:

[The Christmas bomber] is the fourth president of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years. One is facing a retrial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up airliners. Two others have been convicted of terrorist offences since 2007. (Hat tip: Jihad Watch)

No chance these student leaders knew each other, I suppose.

Despite his leadership of a London Islamic society, the Christmas bomber's London mosque doesn't seem to remember him, nor does an Islamic school he attended in Houston. He was just another face in the crowd, we are supposed to believe. You know how that goes: nobody at an Islamic institution would ever notice a very devout young son of a super-wealthy international banker who happens also to be a government minister of an Islamic nation. Nah. (Hat tip: Jihad Watch)

As this information was coming out, the American Airlines pilots' union were busy complaining to the TSA (Transporation Security Administration), in writing, that, on Christmas day, all airborne pilots were not warned that a bomber had just attempted to blow up an aircraft. Only pilots of inbound transatlantic flights received a warning. Great. So much for a system that "worked just fine" after the fact. (Hat tip: Hot Air)


Dick Cheney summed up Obama's leadership plan for avoiding American deaths via man-caused-disasters :

As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of Sept. 11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.

He seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core Al Qaeda-trained terrorists still there, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, ‘war on terror,’ we won’t be at war. But we are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe. [full text here]

Over at Feed Your ADHD (which you must visit to enjoy the wonderful graphic), Jamie observed:

Most normal people are the most mad immediately after an incident… Not The One… He seems to get madder with each poll showing that the American people aren’t happy with his carefree attitude toward the MCD (Man-Caused Disasterer [formerly referred to as a terrorist]).

JammieWearingFool astutely wondered whether Attorney General Eric Holder's law firm was involved in returning one of the Christmas bomber's handlers back to Al Qaeda. Could that be why Holder is the invisible man at the moment? And what about Hillary dear? Where was the Department of State when the crotchbomber's father paid a personal visit to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria to alert the U.S. that his son had become a jihadist?

The Justice Department did manage to collect a post-bombing-attempt statement from one flight attendant who asked the Christmas bomber what he had in his pocket and was told, "Explosive device." You can't make this stuff up. If my 80-pound grandmother whispered that in an airport, she'd have been thrown to the ground by plainclothes guys inside of 3 seconds.

Now that the Christmas bomber is lawyered up (and what a terrorist-loving lawyer he's got too, paid for by y-o-u), he won't be mentioning the names or addresses of the 25 or so other crotchbombers we're supposed to be on the lookout for. Why is that again? At Legal Insurrection, William Jacobson offered a little refresher course on the state of U.S. law concerning the GITMO detainees in 2007, when two of the Christmas bomber's handlers were released from that prison. It is time for nervous holiday air travelers of the liberal persuasion to review the effects of their vehement hatred of George W. Bush a few years back for holding terrorists at Guantanamo.

Speaking of GITMO:

The Obama administration is pushing back against calls to halt or delay closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in light of the failed Christmas Day terror attack, suggesting that shutting down the prison will undermine terrorist recruitment in the very network that claimed responsibility for last week's plot.

I think the American people will have a thing or two to say about that.

Charlie Chaplin pointed out that a day without laughter is a day wasted, and if you can't have a few chuckles about a guy who lets somebody sew an explosive into the family-jewels receptacle of his BVDs, then life has become just too serious. In that spirit, I advise you to take a laugh break over at Jeannie-ology, where some well chosen words concerning the "Banana Hammock Bomber" await.

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Related:

• A Question of Enemy Identification
• Christmas Bomber's Briefs: The Photo
• What? Two Gitmo Guys Planned the Christmas Bomb Plot
• Christmas Bomber: No Passport. No Luggage. No Problem
• Christmas Bomber: "I don't have funds" for Lawyer ...

A Question of Enemy Identification

A few days ago, as part of the holiday bonding ritual observed in families that embrace both conservatives and liberals, I pondered again the befuddling (to me) concept that "radical" Christians are just as dangerous as "radical" Muslims.

Despite considerable effort on my part over the years, I have been unable to grasp the reasoning behind the argument that being invited to a fellowship breakfast or being asked to read another denomination's religious tract is a grievous insult generally indicating a borderline willingness to serve as chief examiner at a hearing of the Spanish Inquisition. When the topic of Islam comes up, however, it seems that the liberal side of the clan has acquired dozens of close Muslim friends who are utterly peaceable and in desperate need of verbal defense from "belligerent" Christians.

Just like in the following video, which I found at Jihad Watch.

It really comes down to a question of enemy identification.

And the real enemy has stood up.

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Related:

• Christmas Bomber's Briefs: The Photo
• What? Two Gitmo Guys Planned the Christmas Bomb Plot?
• Christmas Bomber: No Passport. No Luggage. No Problem
• Christmas Bomber: "I don't have funds" for Lawyer ...

Christmas Bomber's Briefs: The Photo

There's the business end of the bomb, the white powder, neatly tucked in the crotch.

Looks like 72 virgins were in for a surprise.

The Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda found 25 other men to do this?

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Related:

• What? Two Gitmo Guys Planned the Christmas Bomb Plot?
• Christmas Bomber: No Passport. No Luggage. No Problem
• Christmas Bomber: "I don't have funds" for Lawyer ...

What? Two Gitmo Guys Planned the Christmas Bomb Plot?

The only people to be surprised by this will be President Obama and his adoring, but witless, administrators and supporters.

Gee, Secretary Napolitano, I think we might have stumbled upon a clue to what went wrong with the Homeland Security system, before nothing went wrong with the Homeland Security system.

From ABC News:

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Both Saudi nationals have since emerged in leadership roles in Yemen, according to U.S. officials and the men's own statements on al Qaeda propaganda tape

Both of the former Guantanamo detainees are described as military commanders and appear on a January, 2009 video along with the man described as the top leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Basir Naser al-Wahishi, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary.

[snip]

The suspected bomber, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, told FBI agents he was trained for his Christmas Day mission in Yemen by top leaders of al Qaeda who provided him with the explosive materials.

"The so-called rehabilitation programs are a joke," a U.S. diplomat said in describing the Saudi efforts with released Guantanamo detainees.

Saudi officials concede its program has had its "failures" but insist that, overall, the effort has helped return potential terrorists to a meaningful life.

One program gives the former detainees paints and crayons as part of the rehabilitation regimen.

A similar rehabilitation program in Yemen was stopped because so many of the detainees quickly joined with al Qaeda or its affiliates, the official said.

Yeah, that's what we want. Terrorist murderers "returned to a meaningful life." Or maybe deprived of life altogether, like they have in mind for the rest of us. One or the the other.

Note: Saudi Arabia. That is the country whose monarch, King Abdullah, Barack Hussein Obama was so eager to bow down to at a gathering of world leaders. Also the country whose countrymen paid for Obama's Harvard Law School Education.


Hat tip: Debbie Schlussel.

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Related:

• Christmas Bomber: No Passport. No Luggage. No Problem
• Christmas Bomber: "I don't have funds" for Lawyer ...

Christmas Bomber: No Passport. No Luggage. No Problem (UPDATED)

Returning from a Christmas holiday with kind, sane, loving people to news of a Christmas bomber.

Two passengers on Flight  253, a husband and wife who are both lawyers, are reporting that they witnessed a conversation indicating that the Christmas bomber had been permitted on the flight bound for Detroit without a passport.

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.

Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich. . . . confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.

Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man. . . .

While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’”

Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab’s lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.

The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn’t see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane. . . .

About an hour after landing, Haskell said he saw another man being taken into custody. But a spokeswoman from the FBI in Detroit said Mutallab was the only person taken into custody.

Debbie Schlussel has been following this story:

You let a dude from a Muslim country and no luggage on a U.S.-bound plane with NO passport?!  Hellooooo . . .?

Apparently, for a terroist whose passport has been stamped too many times in Yemen or other terrorist hotbeds that UK Customs will no longer let him into Great Britain, it's a good idea to dump that pesky passport and start fresh. Who will stop him, especially if he is a member of a group to whom the rest of the world owes some kind of "social justice debt"?

The FBI is denying the story, but the lawyers who almost got blown out of the sky by the Christmas bomber have chosen to believe their lying eyes:

We are simply reporting what we saw, as we do not trust the government to always give all the facts and details. We know what we saw and heard. We are not stating anything but that. We do not know if he boarded without or with a passport. Kurt did hear the conversation about him not having one though.

Authorities are also denying that another Nigerian, with another twist in his shorts, was up to no good on Flight 253 two days after Christmas, because, as Janet Napolitano and the rest of the Obama administration would like us to believe, terrorists, like lightning, never strike in the same place twice (except for, say, the World Trade Center):

The man, who is in his 30s, reportedly locked himself in a toilet for more than an hour as the plane flew over the US.

Before locking himself in to the toilet the man had already been up and down to the same cubicle several times. Cabin crew became increasingly suspicious, broke the door down and dragged him out. He is then said to have become irate and verbally aggressive.

He was subdued and the pilot contacted the airport to say there was an emergency on board. Emergency vehicles gathered on the runway to meet the plane.

The passengers and crew were evacuated from the plane and the man was formally arrested. Officials said no explosive device had been found on the suspect.

The man had boarded the flight with no luggage.

 I wonder if he had a passport.

Then again, I wonder what it was that took him more than an hour to flush.

Undocumented Muslims with no luggage boarding passenger jets, no problem. (Update: Just learned from Mark Steyn on Rush that this undocumented Muslim terrorist also bought a last-minute, one-way ticket for cash! No problem.)

While the rest of the passengers sweat it out, hoping that someone's shorts or shoes don't explode, or that flight attendents can bang the toilet door down in time.

This is what Americans get in the name of social justice?

Social justice for thee, but not for me? I'm sick of it.

How about a little profiling before the flight instead of during the flight?

Update: Kurt Haskell audio account available at Big Government.
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Related:  Christmas Bomber: "I don't have funds" for Lawyer ...

Christmas Bomber: "I don't have funds" for Lawyer . . .

Cute.

His dad is the former economics minister of Nigeria, recently retired chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria, and a board member of Jaiz International, a holding company for the Islamic Bank.

While he was still a university student (I don't plan on dignifying him by mentioning his name), he was living in a $4 million central London luxury apartment on a block "lined with Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Mercedes cars" (see image). He had his high-school class photo taken at Buckingham Palace. A wild guess tells me that he wasn't living on beans and rice, and that his elbows weren't poking their way through a threadbare coat he picked out of rummage pile at a street stall.

Oh, yes. And he had no shortage of cash for airfare, even if he had amassed quite a few frequent flyer miles. Nigeria to London, London to Egypt, Egypt to Dubai, Dubai to Yemen, Yemen to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Detroit.

Yet, when U.S. District Judge Paul Borman asked him whether he could afford counsel, he replied, "I don't have funds."

I guess that means he also doesn't "have funds" to pay for the services of the doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who have been keeping him alive since he tried to destroy the lives of the 277 normal passengers and crew of Flight 253 on Christmas Day (plus whomever their burning passenger jet landed on), nor does he "have funds" to pay for his painkillers, dressings, and antibiotics, his wheelchair, the blanket he uses to keep his poor little injured lap warm, plus the services of the people who empty his bedpans, change his sheets, prepare and deliver his meals, and maintain the hospital that shelters him.

This particular failed mass murderer didn't even need to drag his sorry lap to court. The judge traveled to see him at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, read him the charges, and then agreed to assign him a public defender.

Now, that's sickening.


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God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

This is one of the oldest Christmas carols, dating back to merry old 15th century England, where night watchmen used to sing it to the gentry and be rewarded with tips.

Its cheering message is one that Conservatives need this day.


Merry Christmas!

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Guilty Government, Disenfranchisement, and Jacob Marley's Chains (Updated)

Taking Congress's activities personally, here.

The Senate could at least have had the decency to respect our little holiday, our few hours or days off from work, our desire to celebrate, to eat, drink, and be merry, to visit with family and friends. But no! Americans must be armored at all times, lest our own elected representatives move to a sneak attack while we take a little while off to be, well, just Americans.

In the Big Picture, the hopeful prospects of America's health care are being flushed, true enough. But as an ever-so-small part of that Big Picture, it's also my ability and my loved ones' abilities to use our wits and to rely on our doctors' wits to seek medical solutions that are being encroached upon, and I am taking that very personally.

And, while I'm at it, I'm taking very personally that my own countrymen and countrywomen in Washington are playing fast and loose with my country's laws. They've been doing it for so long, and have insulated themselves so comfortably, that they've become quite casual about it. They see no need even to pretend to be honest, as used to be the case when, for example, a divorce would present enough evidence of scandalous duplicity and the inability to remain faithful to a sacred oath to doom a political career. Nope. While the Senate Democrats approve the dictates that lobbyists have put in writing, they have no trouble including a provision that future voters and future Congresses cannot undo what they have dictated in the dark of night.

This has been bothering me, this apparent (to my non-legally-trained mind) workaround to the force of a Constitutional amendment, passage of which after all requires approval by 2/3 of the Senate and 2/3 of the House plus assent by 3/4 of the states.

A commenter (Dave) at The Volokh Conspiracy was thinking along those lines, but apparently feeling less threatened than I:

This seems simple enough. If Congress feels strongly enough about the fiscal solvency of this proposal this that it wants to bind future legislatures to it, then it merely needs to submit a constitutional amendment to the various state legislatures saying so. Any of the various balanced budget amendments that have been floated will do nicely. If, on the other hand, they wish to seem to be committed to fiscal solvency while actually doing nothing to insure it, they should do exactly what they’ve done in this bill.

However another commenter, David Sanger, like me a non-lawyer, also was taking that dictate personally:

IMHO such clauses as these are odious since they in effect disenfranchise future voters by presuming to know more than they.

If this bill were laid out in the coffin that it deserves, Sanger would have hit one of that coffin's many nails smack on the head: On its face, this bill intends to disenfranchise Americans, and says so in black and white in no uncertain terms, and this effort has so far been endorsed by 60 elected leaders. Whether this effort withstands whatever forces that may (or may not) ensue, it is nevertheless an effort to rob you and I of our votes.

And that I take very personally.

The Senate Democrats are calling this disenfranchisement "procedure," thus reducing their iniquitous attack on Americans to a trivial dispute about a minor point of order over which a chamber full of lawyers could bicker endlessly, if they cared to.

Which they don't. They are unconcerned over attacks on the American system.

Time for an excerpt from A Christmas Carol:

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.

We had best all take care that we protect our power to interfere, for good, in Congressional matters, lest we lose the power forever.

UPDATE: Nebraska's Governor Heineman asked senator Nelson to vote no on the Senate health care bill. The Governor says that Nebraska doesn't want any part of Nelson's sweetheart deal and is "angry" and "upset" about it and "embarrassed" by it.

From Fox News:

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, so will you be asking Senator Ben Nelson to tell the Senate that you guys don't -- Nebraska doesn't want that $100 million? Are you going to ask him to do that?

GOV. DAVE HEINEMAN, R - NEB.: Well, we've already made it clear, Greta, we want all these special deals removed. In fact, this afternoon, our other United States senator, Senator Mike Johanns, introduced an amendment to strip all of the special interest deals from this bill, and the Democrats objected! That is really unfortunate. All these special deals should be removed from the bill.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, now, you talk about "all these" special deals, and I take it that you mean, like, all the ones to Florida, to Connecticut. What about to your state alone? Are you willing to give up the -- are you willing to say, We don't want the $100 million in our state, Nebraska?

HEINEMAN: Absolutely. Nebraska doesn't want a special deal. We only want a fair deal. We're embarrassed by what's going on. We're very surprised. Nebraskans are angry and upset about what occurred. And so they need to set this straight.

I've also asked Senator Nelson -- I'm going to repeat it again tonight. He has a chance tomorrow to vote no on cloture. That would be the best thing for Nebraska, the best thing for America. Send this bill back to committee. Go home for Christmas and think about it and get it right.

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Retire-a-Cheatin'-Pondscum-Crapweasel Fun

Pat Austin at And So It Goes In Shrieveport has started a campaign to send retirement cards to you-know-who. I find the idea irresistible:

In light of this morning's 1 a.m. vote on cloture for Obamacare, and in light of the treachery imposed on Americans by their representatives in Washington, I'm starting a campaign to send retirement cards to every single one of the cheatin', connivin', corrupt scumbags that voted to inflict Obamacare on Americans and not on themselves.

You can go to Hallmark here, and look at cards. I think we should send real cards, of course, and not e-cards.

Mailing addresses are here.

 I will definitely be sending one to Mary Landrieu. I think I'll send one to Ben Nelson, too.

It doesn't matter if you're a constituent of the pondscum crapweasel that voted for this or not. Send him, or her, a card and wish him well in their upcoming retirement.

Spread the word. Help send a message!

Because it's coming. America does NOT want this.

I've been making a list and checking it twice. My list includes Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), appointed last January by the NY Governor to replace Hillary Clinton.

I like American Greetings. They have an online printables section where you can design and print your own cards online if you join up (for a price). And then, there's always the folded-paper model with the hand-printed message.

This is going to be fun!
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I Know Who I'm Not Voting For--Ever

ObamaCare: No, No, No, and No Conferees, Either!

Our mush-brained, money-grubbing, noodle-spined, socialist Democrat senators oppressors have co-opted America's votes and trust to jam ObamaCare down our throats. They planned to keep our objections to a minimum by timing their vote to coincide with our holiday preparations: welcoming family and friends, wrapping presents, decorating trees, baking cookies, traveling to visit loved ones, attending worship services. Of course you and I are very, very busy, but not too busy for one more phone call, or, in Nebraska, one more visit to Nelson's office.

Over at RedState, Dan Perrin has come up with a real plan, an informed plan, a ray of hope that involves Republicans objecting to the conferees who will be slicing and dicing the ObamaCare bill in conference to make it as objectionable as possible. I suggest you give it a read. Considering that our country's future and our individual destinies are at stake, if you have a Republican senator, it isn't too much to insist that he or she object to the conferees. Imagine how difficult it will be for the oppressors to conduct their dirty business in full view of the American people.

If we can stop this outrageous bill, we'll be reclaiming a huge amount of future time spent waiting in hopelessly long lines, filling out reams of ridiculous paperwork, struggling to undo errors in the government's computer system, traveling long distances for routine procedures, and lying awake at night sick with the knowledge that someone dear to us is suffering needlessly because he or she used to be able to get much better care. Been there, done that.

And that's just on the health care side. If we can stop this outrageous transgression against us, we will also conserve trillions of our hard earned dollars, plus the dollars our children and grandchildren haven't even had a chance to earn yet. And save several important pieces of the Constitution of the United States. Also send an effective message to the oppressors that the American people don't intend to have their tax money used as bribes to pay off politicians.

We've come a long way from the time when ObamaCare was supposed to be a shoo-in, we weren't supposed to be watching, and we weren't supposed to be attending town hall meetings, never mind read 1,000+ page bills, analyze them, and speak out. But we did watch, and we did read, and we did show up, and we did make ourselves heard. We pushed. We were ignored, but we didn't give up.

We need to keep pushing. Not quite sure opposing this bill is worth your time? Read why Professor Jacobson thinks this is "the political fight of our lives for the future of the country."


(Update: The Wall Street Journal has pointed out that "even in WWI there was a Christmas truce." Congress won't even give us that. And they pretend to represent us? And have our welfare at heart! There's some real humbug for you.)

Key Senator Contact information from Michelle Malkin, via NiceDeb:


Olympia Snowe:
Mailing Address:
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5344:
Toll Free: (800) 432-1599
Fax: (202) 224-1946
Email form here.

James Webb and Claire McCaskill:
Webb contact info…
Washington, D.C.
248 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-4024
Fax: 202-228-6363
Toll Free Number
1-866-507-1570
Email form for Virginians here.

McCaskill Missouri Offices
(Please visit our Missouri offices)

Cape Girardeau
555 Independence Room 1600
Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63703
Phone 573-651-0964
Fax 573-334-4278

Columbia
915 E. Ash St
Columbia, Mo 65201
Phone:573-442-7130
Fax:573-442-7140

Kansas City
4141 Pennsylvania, Ste. 101
Kansas City, MO 64111
Phone 816-421-1639
Fax 816-421-2562

Springfield
324 Park Central West
Suite 101
Springfield, MO 65806
Phone 417-868-8745
Fax 417-831-1349

St. Louis
5850 A Delmar Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63112
Phone:314-367-1364
Fax: 314-361-8649

Washington D.C.
For those visiting D.C., please stop by our office at:
Office of Senator Claire McCaskill
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building, SH-717
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-6154
FAX (202) 228-6326

Don't forget to mention how much effort you'll put in to make sure that they'll never be re-elected if they vote for ObamaCare. A few ideas on that topic at Gateway Pundit (and thanks, Jim Hoft et al. for the Claire, Obama's Joker image).

Here's a little theme music to listen to while you dial that number:

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BREAKING: Live Stream, Huckabee Addressing Omaha, Nebraska Rally

Thank you, Nice Deb:


On one day's notice, so far 2500 people (more coming) arrive to rally against ObamaCare.  Live stream here.

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Meditation: Angels From the Realms of Glory

Here Norwegian soprano Sisel Kyrkjebo Rolf joins the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in singing "Angels from the Realms of Glory," a Christmas carol written by James Montgomery and first printed on Christmas Eve, 1816. In the United Kingdom the hymn came to be sung to the French carol tune "Iris," the tune used for "Angels We Have Heard on High." Montgomery wrote more than 400 hymns, about 100 of which are still being sung.

 

ANGELS FROM THE REALMS OF GLORY

Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o'er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation's story,
Now proclaim Messiah's birth:
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
(Glory to God in the Highest!)

Shepherds, in the fields abiding,
Watching o'er your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing,
Yonder shines the infant Light;
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great desire of nations,
Ye have seen His natal star;
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Saints before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear:
Gloria in excelsis Deo!

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Climate Change Brings Snow to French Riviera

Hat tip to Don Dwinell, who took these photos of Jack Frost's Global Warming's preparations for last year's visit from Pere Noel and his team of reindeer at Antibes, France, on the French Riveria, where freezing days are "practically non-existent." The average November temperature in Antibes is 61F (16C); the average December temp is 57F (14C). Really, there's nothing quite like a palm tree covered with snow. Maybe Santa is planning to relocate from the North Pole to La Cote d'azur.

Don wrote:

I am an American Expat living in Antibes (Nice) France. I live 5 blocks from the beach, and 3 blocks from Port Vabaun, the 2nd largest yacht port in the world. I thought living here, I would escape the ice and snow of my native Cincinnati, Ohio. Boy was I wrong!!!

For video of the event, go here.

Via Watts Up With That? 
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Friday Nite Movie: Climate, Clouds, and Cosmic Rays

This few minutes of documentary about Henrik Svenmark's alternate climate change theory is quite beautiful. Pour yourself a beverage, relax, and enjoy.

There are five more segments to this documentary, "The Cloud Mystery," which you can find here.
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Lord Monckton Knocked Unconcious at Copenhagen Conference

Reprinted from SPPI:

Is the European police state going global?

From The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in Copenhagen

Today the gloves came off and the true purpose of the “global warming” scare became nakedly visible. Ugo Chavez, the Socialist president of Venezuela, blamed “global warming” on capitalism – and received a standing ovation from very nearly all of the delegates, lamentably including those from those of the capitalist nations of the West that are on the far Left – and that means too many of them.

Previously Robert Mugabe, dictator of Rhodesia, who had refused to leave office when he had been soundly defeated in a recent election, had also won plaudits at the conference for saying that the West ought to pay him plenty of money in reparation of our supposed “climate debt”.

Inside the conference center, “world leader” after “world leader” got up and postured about the need to Save The Planet, the imperative to do a deal, the necessity to save the small island nations from drowning, etc., etc., etc.

Outside, in the real world, it was snowing, and a foretaste of the Brave New World being cooked up by “world leaders” in their fantasy-land was already evident. Some 20,000 observers from non-governmental organizations – nearly all of them true-believing Green groups funded by taxpayers – had been accredited to the conference.
However, without warning the UN had capriciously decided that all but 300 of them were to be excluded from the conference today, and all but 90 would be excluded on the final day.

Of course, this being the inept UN, no one had bothered to notify those of the NGOs that were not true-believers in the UN’s camp. So Senator Steve Fielding of Australia and I turned up with a few dozen other delegates, to be left standing in the cold for a couple of hours while the UN laboriously worked out what to do with us.
In the end, they decided to turn us away, which they did with an ill grace and in a bad-tempered manner. As soon as the decision was final, the Danish police moved in. One of them began the now familiar technique of manhandling me, in the same fashion as one of his colleagues had done the previous day.

Once again, conscious that a police helicopter with a high-resolution camera was hovering overhead, I thrust my hands into my pockets in accordance with the St. John Ambulance crowd-control training, looked my assailant in the eye and told him, quietly but firmly, to take his hands off me.

He complied, but then decided to have another go. I told him a second time, and he let go a second time. I turned to go and, after I had turned my back, he gave me a mighty shove that flung me to the ground and knocked me out.

I came to some time later (not sure exactly how long), to find my head being cradled by my friends, some of whom were doing their best to keep the police thugs at bay while the volunteer ambulance-men attended to me.

I was picked up and dusted me off. I could not remember where I had left my telephone, which had been in my hand at the time when I was assaulted. I rather fuzzily asked where it was, and one of the police goons shouted, “He alleges he had a mobile phone.”
In fact, the phone was in my coat pocket, where my hand had been at the time of the assault. The ambulance crew led me away and laid me down under a blanket for 20 minutes to get warm, plying me with water and keeping me amused with some colorfully colloquial English that they had learned.

I thanked them for their kindness, left them a donation for their splendid service, and rejoined my friends. A very senior police officer then came up and asked if I was all right. Yes, I said, but no thanks to one of his officers, who had pushed me hard from behind when my back was turned and had sent me flying.

The police chief said that none of his officers would have done such a thing. I said that several witnesses had seen the incident, which I intended to report. I said I had hoped to receive an apology but had not received one, and would include that in my report. The policeman went off looking glum, and with good reason.

To assault an accredited representative of a conference your nation is hosting, and to do it while your own police cameramen are filming from above, and to do it without any provocation except my polite, non-threatening request that I should not be manhandled, is not a career-enhancing move, as that police chief is about to discover to his cost.

Nor does this incident, and far too many like it, reflect the slightest credit on Denmark. We must make reasonable allowance for the fact that the unspeakable security service of the UN, which is universally detested by those at this conference, was ordering the Danish police about. The tension between the alien force and the indigenous men on the ground had grown throughout the conference.

However, the Danish police were far too free with their hands when pushing us around, and that is not acceptable in a free society. But then, Europe is no longer a free society. It is, in effect, a tyranny ruled by the unelected Kommissars of the European Union. That is perhaps one reason why police forces throughout Europe, including that in the UK, have become far more brutal than was once acceptable in their treatment of the citizens they are sworn to serve.

It is exactly this species of tyranny that the UN would like to impose upon the entire planet, in the name of saving us from ourselves – or, as Ugo Chavez would put it, saving us from Western capitalist democracy.

A few weeks ago, at a major conference in New York, I spoke about this tendency towards tyranny with Dr. Vaclav Klaus, the distinguished economist and doughty fighter for freedom and democracy who is President of the Czech Republic.

While we still have one or two statesmen of his caliber, there is hope for Europe and the world. Unfortunately, he refused to come to Copenhagen, telling me that there was no point, now that the lunatics were firmly in control of the asylum.

However, I asked him whether the draft Copenhagen Treaty’s proposal for what amounted to a communistic world government reminded him of the Communism under which he and his country had suffered for so long.

He thought for a moment – as statesmen always do before answering an unusual question – and said, “Maybe it is not brutal. But in all other respects, what it proposes is far too close to Communism for comfort.”

Today, as I lay in the snow with a cut knee, a bruised back, a banged head, a ruined suit, and a written-off coat, I wondered whether the brutality of the New World Order was moving closer than President Klaus – or any of us – had realized.

__________
Related:    

• Copenhagen Meets Chicago: And the Snow Job Really Starts to Fly
• Global Warming Lies: Making the Obvious Obvious
•  ClimateGate: Cooking the Books, Swiss Edition
•  Copenhagen: The "Multitrillion-dollar Shakedown"
• ClimateGate: Science Fiction Level of Accuracy?
•  Earth Climate Data: Some Real Stunners
•  Copenhagen Update: Goodbye, UN, Goodbye?
• Copenhagen Climate Conference Gets Off to a Sick Start
  
• Copenhagen: The Climate Fiction Experience Begins Today
  
• Copenhagen Countdown: 3
• Copenhagen Countdown: 4
  
• Copenhagen Countdown: 5
  
• Copenhagen Countdown: 6
  
• ClimateGate: New Zealand Climate Scientists Aren't So Hot
  
• What ClimateGate Really Means
• Meditation: Issac Newton on Truthful Reporting of Data
• ClimateGate Who's Who
• Make Way for the Code Breakers
• Obama's Science Czar Holds a Whip in the Tree-Ring Circus
  
• What You Did Was Such a Crime
• Heh, Heh, Heh. Vincit Omnia Veritas