Fairfax County Is… Palin Country?

Apparently so.

Sarah Palin brought a taste of Alaska with her to a Saturday afternoon book signing at BJ’s Wholesale Club in Fairfax. After early drizzle and rain, flurries began in earnest about 8:30 a.m.

“I wanted to feel like I was at home,” Palin said as she walked into the store and the first snowfall of the season dusted a crowd of about 2,200 people who came to meet her.

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee signed copies of her memoir, “Going Rogue.” The weather dampened planned protests and probably deterred all but the most ardent Palin supporters.

2,200 people showed up in Fairfax to see Palin and get books signed?  And those were but, according to the Post, only “the most ardent Palin supporters”?  I wonder what the turnout would have been if it hadn’t been snowing.

Afterwards, she moved on to the Gridiron Club dinner in D.C. where according to reports she nailed it with her jokes.

CIA on the global cooling consensus in 1974

From Maurizio Morabito at Omniclimate (via Robert Costa of Planet Gore):

An eye-opening “global cooling consensus” CIA document dated 1974 has just been re-discovered in the British Library by Yours Truly and is extensively mentioned today in the (printed) pages of The Spectator (UK) and Il Foglio (Italy).

. . .

“A Study of Climatological Research as it Pertains to Intelligence Problems” will make quite an embarrassing reading, especially for:

• the most obdurate catastro-warmists (when they will notice that almost all AGW scares are a search-and-replace job from “cooling” to “warming”), and
• the history deniers fixated on ‘demonstrating’ that a scientific consensus about Global Cooling in the 1970’s were a ‘myth’(*)

And there is more (much more), from ever-improving climate models promising to become good in a few years’ time to the unsettling apparent ease with which Government agencies then (as now) could get scientists to agree on whatever they needed them to agree on.

Nobody aware of the CIA document’s contents should be able to avoid a good chuckle after reading any of the current AGW reports on famine, starvation, refugee crises, floods, droughts, crop and monsoon failures, and all sorts of extreme weather phenomena; on climate-related major economic problems around the world; on Africans getting in climate troubles first; and so on and so forth.

Why? Because it is all too clear that those scares cannot be real, since they have already been mentioned verbatim in all their dramatic effect, but about Global Cooling.

Of course, the cooling stopped, reversed itself for about a quarter-century, and the Global Cooling scare became a Global Warming scare.

Plus ça change, plus ça mème chose.

Cross-posted to RWL

Bob McDonnell Live at RPV Advance

Bob McDonnell is speaking lat the 2009 RPV Advance. Live streaming available here.

After Bob, RPV Chairman Pat Mullins will be handing out the annual RPV awards. At 7:00 PM tonight, the same link will allow you to watch RNC Chairman Michael Steele and Rep. Eric Cantor discuss taking back the House in 2010.

Tune in, and enjoy!

Climate science officially unsettles

From the Times of London, via Andrew Bolt:

The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails.

The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012.

Of course, we couldn’t have a story like this without a government trying to get in the way of real science (same link):

The Government is attempting to stop the Met Office from carrying out the re-examination, arguing that it would be seized upon by climate change sceptics.

Putting politics before science?  I thought only Texans did that.

Cross-posted to RWL

As if family, work and blogging weren’t enough…

…as some of you may be aware, I am also the president of my homeowner’s association (see if you can spot me in one of the photos on the front page of the web site) for a community with over 5,000 residents (which makes it larger than the neighboring Town of Dumfries.)  Our annual HOA elections typically draw more voters than Town of Dumfries municipal elections and we even outpaced the turnout for the 52nd Dist. House of Delegates Democrat primary for our precinct this year (for the record, the precinct is slightly larger than our community and we only permit one vote per household in our HOA elections.)

Anyway, Saturday’s WashPo has a very nice article about our community.  Be sure to check it out.

Stafford Democrats give taxpayers the finger on the way out the door

Stafford County recently found $6.2 million due to an accounting error that occurred in transfer of money between the county’s operating fund and the school administration.    The error went unfound until Stafford Treasurer Laura Rudy started to investigate.  Rudy was able to find the error and prove the money was still in the county’s account.  The error and accounts have been audited leaving Stafford County with $6.2 million of found money.

What would the best use of this money be, especially during tough economic times and when the county is looking at a significant tax rate hike in 2010?  You would think the logical and common sense thing to do would be to hold the money and put it to work during the 2010 budget cycle.  Perhaps the money could lead to maintaining or reducing the current tax rate, perhaps it could be applied to the 2010 budget to make up the difference the Democrats have added to the budget in anticipation of the new BPOL tax they enacted and is set to be implemented in January, or maybe it could be applied to the county’s Rainy Day fund to ensure the county continues a strong bond rating.

Not a one of those options is on the table for the departing Democrats.  Board of Supervisors Chairman George Schwartz (D-Falmouth) did not seek re-election so his term is about to come to an end, he was joined by Supervisor Joe Brito (yea right an independent – who just happens to take direction for Democrat strategists) who lost his bid for re-election by over 70%, in stealing the money from the taxpayers and giving it away to their special interest supporters.   Brito and Schwatz devised a plan embarrass the incoming majority Republican board and bow to the education unions.  They were joined by Demcorat Supervisors Woodson (D- Griffis Widewater) and Crisp (D-George Washington) in supporting resolution during a lame duck period on the board to give massive raises to school administrators.  They used a trick of selling this as an effort to bring Stafford County teacher salaries up to par with surrounding counties.  The problem   . . .the resolution included all school employees which includes educrat administrators, many of whom were recently reported to already having 6 figure salaries.

It may sound nice to be giving teachers a raise, but there are many problems with this proposal.  First using one time surplus money to fund raises – which will have to be paid for next year and future years- is just plain irresponsible.  Where is the county going to get the money next year?   Second this is money that belongs to the taxpayers and it should be returned to the taxpayers.  Property owners in county face significant tax increases next year, wouldn’t it be more responsible to use the money to provide tax relief to the taxpayers?

But the Democrats succeeded in forcing the Republican members to avoid not supporting teachers.  Republicans were able to lead efforts to ensure the money only goes to school employees engaged in classroom activities and be provided as one time bonuses.  The Republicans also provided bonuses to sheriff deputies who are also grossly under paid.

The interesting part of this whole story is where did this idea to embarrass the board of supervisors come from?  If you had ever met Supervisor Joe Brito – you can be assured it didn’t come from his empty brain.  However there was an interesting memo passed around the Stafford Democrat Committee shortly after they were significantly thumped in the recent election advocating “conduct an unrelenting guerrilla war of confrontation over the next four years, keeping a public spotlight constantly trained on the majority”.  It would be my guess that this plan to use the lame duck Supervisors to embarrass the incoming majority in the name of politics over good governance came straight from this local yokel Democrat strategist.

Because Computers Do Lie When Humans Tell Them To

Robert Grenier (Cube Antics) takes aim at the computer code used as “correction for decline” (via WUWT).  It is a genuine eye-opener.

In effect, the “value added” to the data was a wave designed to make current temperatures look something like this.

 Or, as Edward John Craig from NRO – Planet Gore put it:

CRU would adjust series of actual temperature readings so that they would be skewed toward these values. Add a little fudge, and it’s eternally hockey season.

Cross-posted to RWL

RPV Advance 2009

Although the Annual Don Huffman Republican Party of Virginia Advance starts today, the real action doesn’t begin until tomorrow. If you can make it to Williamsburg, you’ll be treated to a more interesting and more engaging slate of workshops and speakers than ever before.

If you can’t make it, don’t worry…you can still be there for the highlight events.

RPV.org will host live streaming video of the Victory luncheon where Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli will all speak, and where Chairman Pat Mullins will hand out this year’s RPV Statewide Awards.

If you couldn’t get tickets to the sold-out evening banquet with RNC Chairman Michael Steele and featuring keynote speaker, House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA7), you can nonetheless get front row seats to this event, including video entertainment put together by RPV’s video and communications guru, Tim Murtaugh.

For the lunch, visit RPV.org between noon and 2:00 PM on Saturday. Come back at 7:00 PM for the primetime banquet.

“The science has gone to bed with advocacy, and both have had a very good time”

Climategate busted through Canada’s MSM wall, thanks to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of  all places (take the worst of MSM and PBS, and you have the CBC).

The above quote is the best of several gems from Rex Murphy:

Virginia 2009 = GOP 2010?

The guys from Project Virginia, the organization that did so much to help various House of Delegates candidates take advantage of social media in the 2009 elections, have penned an interesting column for the American Spectator arguing that the trail blazed by Republicans this year in Virginia is the same path for nationwide Republican success next year:

So, how does a 2010 GOP campaign actually translate this “McDonnell Strategy” into a meaningful plan? The obvious first step is to address the important local issues of the district and determine which national themes can be localized. The even more important second step is to tell voters what you specifically plan to do for them. As the voters in 2009 demonstrated, they are very aware of the problems. What they desperately want are leaders who are really listening and who are willing to offer solutions — not just slogans — that make sense. This need to communicate with voters brings us to our second point.

Social media matters.

The crux of their argument, which is compelling, is that for the GOP to enjoy the same kind of historic victory nationwide as it did in Virginia it will take a focus both on the common sense conservative message like that championed by Bob McDonnell, as well as an effort to reach out and engage voters, donors, and activists directly. As Ford and Steve note in closing, “Both the message and the medium are in play for 2010. For the future of our country, we hope that Republican candidates can master both.”

If you’re able to make it to the RPV Advance in Williamsburg on Saturday, Project Virginia will be hosting a workshop entitled “Digital Politics for Campaigns and Organizers” starting at 2:00 PM.

The latest Climategate news

First up: Gore’s claim of ManBearPig melting the Kilimanjaro ice is debunked (Pajamas Media):

Professor Sinninghe Damste’s research, as discussed on the site of the Dutch Organization of Scientific Research (DOSR) — a governmental body — shows that the icecap of Kilimanjaro was not the result of cold air but of large amounts of precipitation which fell at the beginning of the Holocene period, about 11,000 years ago.

The melting and freezing of moisture on top of Kilimanjaro appears to be part of  “a natural process of dry and wet periods.” The present melting is not the result of “environmental damage caused by man.”

Whoops!  Maybe Gore was talking about the other Kilimanjaro peak (Flying Circus via Youtube).

Meanwhile, the professors at the heart of Climategate are beginning to resemble, shall we say, rattlesnakes committing suicide (Daily Telegraph):

One of the scientists to whom the emails were addressed, Professor Michael Mann, the Director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University has moved to distance himself from some of the comments in the emails that suggest scientists did not want the IPCC, the UN body charged with monitoring climate change, to consider studies that challenged the view global warming was genuine and man-made.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight, Prof Mann said: “I can’t put myself in the mind of the person who wrote that email and sent it. I in no way endorse what was in that email.”

This may start to get ugly.

Cross-posted to RWL

McDonnell Announces First Appointments to Administration

McDonnell Announces First Appointments to Administration

Martin Kent, Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia, to Serve as Chief of Staff

RICHMOND- Virginia Governor-elect Bob McDonnell announced the first appointments in his incoming gubernatorial administration today during a late morning press conference at the State Capitol.

McDonnell named two longtime senior staff members in the Office of the Attorney General, Martin Kent and Marla Decker, to serve as his Chief of Staff and Secretary of Public Safety, respectively. He announced that he would reappoint the Commonwealth’s current Secretary of Finance, Ric Brown, to the same position. McDonnell named Eric Finkbeiner, who previously served under Governors Doug Wilder and George Allen, as Senior Advisor for Policy, a cabinet level position in the McDonnell Administration. Rounding out the initial round of appointments, McDonnell announced Tucker Martin as Director of Communications.

Speaking about incoming Chief of Staff Martin Kent, McDonnell remarked, “I have known and worked closely with Martin Kent for the past few years. He is dedicated, diligent and tireless. He has a comprehensive understanding of state government, an understanding matched by very few. As my Chief Counsel in the Office of the Attorney General, and most recently as Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia under current Attorney General Bill Mims, Martin has earned his deserved reputation as a trusted and respected public servant who values good government and sound policy. I thank Martin for being willing to take on this critically important responsibility.”

McDonnell also spoke about his first Cabinet appointments, stating, “Marla Decker has been with the Office of the Attorney General for over 25 years. She has worked with Democratic and Republican Attorneys General alike. As my Deputy Attorney General for Public Safety, Marla was instrumental in leading the fights against gangs, terrorism and drugs in the Commonwealth. The daughter and granddaughter of New York City police officers, Marla has built longstanding and positive relationships with law enforcement leaders statewide that will prove of great benefit in her new capacity.”

McDonnell continued, “Secretary Ric Brown has been a dedicated servant to the citizens of the Commonwealth for more than 35 years.  His in-depth knowledge of state government finances is unparalleled.  Thus, I have asked Secretary Brown to stay on as my Secretary of Finance until such time as I believe my administration has a complete understanding of our current economic situation. ”

Finally, McDonnell added, “Eric Finkbeiner has played key roles in two prior gubernatorial administrations. He is a noted policy expert, and his counsel has been regularly sought out by elected officials in the Commonwealth. We ran a campaign of ideas, and this will be a policy-driven Administration. As Senior Advisor for Policy I will call on Eric often, and he will be directly involved in the development and implementation of numerous important initiatives in the years ahead.”

Below are bios of each of today’s appointees.

Further announcements regarding additional appointments in the McDonnell Administration will be made in the weeks ahead.

Click the more link before to see the whole post with profiles of the new appointees.

Apparently, Huckabee and His Staff Thought Commutations Were a Big Joke

Unbelievable!

January 13, 2004

Mike Huckabee
State Capitol Building, Ste. 250
Little Rock, AR 72201

RE: Your letter dated January 5, 2004, regarding my standing objection to clemency requests

Dear Governor Huckabee,

I’ve received your letter of January 5th in which you state that you “judiciously” review each clemency application “on a case by case basis, carefully analyzing the merits of each.” After reading your letter, I was surprised to hear that your spokesman stated that you “just do what the Post Prison Transfer Board recommends.” These statements seem to be mutually exclusive. Do you analyze the merits of each case or do you rubber stamp Board recommendations?

Secondly, it seems clear that you did not finish reading my December 29th letter. As I stated last month, if you have a case which merits clemency, I requested that you contact me with the reasons you believe clemency is appropriate for persons incarcerated and allow me to research the facts and then determine whether I would withdraw my objection. I did not–as you stated in your letter–declare that everyone from Saline County “is beyond any consideration for extra-judicial relief, no matter the facts.” Perhaps your anger at having your judgment questioned prevented you from reading the entire letter.

Finally, I believe your administration’s policy of granting clemency is fatally flawed. You would be wise to take the time to re-evaluate your procedures. I suggest an approach that is more public, and that you announce specific reasons for granting clemency at the time you announce your intent. An open system along these lines would be more respectful to the people of Arkansas, and allow them the opportunity to understand why a convicted murderer (or rapist) should be set free.

It is inevitable that citizens will question the motives of public officials who take such dramatic action without offering the slightest explanation or justification whatsoever. This type of situation damages the credibility of everyone in public service, and is harmful to our democracy.

I hope you will consider updating your policy to reflect the suggestions above.

Sincerely,

Robert Herzfeld
Prosecuting Attorney
22nd Judicial District of Arkansas

The response from Huckabee… (At the above link, click to go to the next page.)

STATE OF ARKANSAS
MIKE HUCKABEE
GOVERNOR

January 16, 2004

Robert L. Herzfeld Jr.
Prosecuting Attorney
22nd Judicial District
102 South, Main St.
Benton, AR 72015

Dear Robert,

The governor read you letter and laughed out loud.

He wanted me to respond to you. I wish you success as you cut down on your caffeine consumption.

Sincerely yours,

Cory Cox,
Deputy Legal Counsel and
Adviser on Criminal Justice

CC:ddc

How many more of the 1,000 or so criminals that Mike Huckabee commuted their sentences went on to wreak more havoc on society? And Huckabee “laughed out loud” about the prosecutor’s concerns?

(And for the record, I’m sick of Sean Hannity acting as an apologist for Huckabee.)

Carbon-credit fraud in Denmark passes $1.5 billion

Just on time for Copenhagen to host the Climategate-denier summit, the Copenhagen Post reveals a massive fraud operation in Denmark’s CO2 quota market (h/t SDA):

Denmark is the centre of a comprehensive tax scam involving CO2 quotas, in which the cheats exploit a so-called ‘VAT carrousel’, reports Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

Police and authorities in several European countries are investigating scams worth billions of kroner, which all originate in the Danish quota register. The CO2 quotas are traded in other EU countries.

The “billions of kroner” total 8 billion, which translates to more than $1.5 billion.

Cross-posted to RWL

“Load of hot air underpinned by fraud”

Those were the words professor Ian Pilmer used to describe “climate change” (Daily Express, UK, via Andrew Bolt).

I am now certain this is beyond any effort the alarmists make to control it, because it is now nearly beyong my capacity to keep track of it.  The only reason exhaustion was prevented from robbing the readers of this was an urge to try pumpkin-flavored egg nog, which led me to look over the blogs just one more time . . .

I should note that pumpkin-flavored egg nog is actually quite good.

Cross-posted to RWL