Reboot Congress

Chip Gerdes: Larger than Life

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:30:00 +0000

Band of Brothers

I first met Chip Gerdes in Quincy, IL, at the 2009 9-12 Tea Party and I'm so sorry he died suddenly last week. That Tea Party rocked and Chip was a large part of that. He had secured a great line up of speakers: Andrew Breitbart, Roger Stone, Jim Hoft, and Glenn Reynolds, just to name a few. I shot the whole thing and posted it to YouTube. At forty YouTube videos and over 4 hours of footage, it was and remains the longest event I've covered.

The St. Louis Tea Party was becoming a media machine and Chip was instrumental in making that happen. He was a sort of special ops political operative who played a critical role between grassroots activists and established conservative media outlets. He wasn't really interested in the long format video work I was doing; however, he recognized I had some video production skills. As a result, he asked me to make a few short videos. I never asked to be paid and he never offered. It was for the cause.

I'd post the videos to an account he had set up and he would see that they got out. Today, that account is dark. Nothing's been posted to it in quite a while. I'm sure he had dozens of other accounts. He loved to troll the left.

Chip knew how to provoke a story, too. He knew how to confront the left effectively and get them to say something stupid. So, where I was useful for the occasional video airstrike, Sharp Elbows provided the ground assault that Chip loved so much. Perhaps their finest op was Sharp's "Jackpot Brother" hit on Rep Phil Hare.

And so ended Hare's Congressional career.

Sharp and I worked together on a couple of videos during the 2010 election cycle. He had a day job that kept him busy and driving around the St. Louis region so on a few occasion when I had gotten a tip about a Russ Carnahan event that day, I'd give Sharp a call. If he could get there, he'd stick a camera in Carnahan's face and drop-off his footage with me. I'd cut, title, and post what he shot so his evening blogging would be half done before he got home. Chip, Sharp, myself, and many others--Michelle Moore, Bill Hennessey, Dana, Patch, the Editor, Hoft, too name a few--we were a band of brothers.

How the Media Works

You have to understand that the media world has two parts: content creation and distribution. Bloggers like Sharp and myself are in the business of content creation--original reporting, opinion pieces, video of news-worthy events, etc. Distribution is what we all want. In-bound links from the Instapundit or Michelle Malkin are worth thousands of views and those views translate into advertising revenue.

What the establishment understands is that they don't have to do much content creation because every fourth grader is doing it for free. Therefore, they put all of their resources into distribution. The establishment owns distribution and they operate it like a spigot. Stories they don't like never get picked up. Stories that promote their viewpoint are seemingly re-blogged, retweeted, and liked on Facebook dozens of times.

Chip had fostered a relationship with grassroots activists, but he was paid by politicians. And the politicians best able to pay him were the ones in elected office: the establishment. Chip was one of their spigots.

Treachery

It was early summer 2011. I remember it well. I got an email from Chip about a story that would be breaking later that day. Rebel Pundit had traveled to Indiana and had posted video of Indiana Republican Richard Mourdock's campaign manager going off. Chip was firing up a blogswarm against the Mourdock campaign. Chip was working--perhaps paid, perhaps volunteer, I don't know--for Mourdock's primary opponent, Dick Lugar.

A few weeks later, Dan Riehl posted a hit to Breitbart.com targeting Missouri Tea Party favorite, Ed Martin. Chip told me that he had written that hit, but Dan has always maintained that it was his work. I don't know. I do know that there's a symbiotic relationship between political consultants and the media whether that's the mainstream media, bloggers, or whatever. The consultants want stories that help their guy, but they don't want the campaign's finger prints on the story, so often the consultants and the media collaborate. Authorship really doesn't matter so long as the facts are true.

With the hit on Martin, I realized that Chip and I would be on opposite sides of most Republican primaries in the 2012 election cycle. That's ok. Primaries are family-feuds. I thought we would be able to patch it up afterwards.

The Tea Parties in Indiana had demonstrated state-wide grassroots organization at its finest. They developed the model that conservatives should adopt if they want to replace an establishment Republican. Indiana Tea Party leader Greg Fettig (video of how they did it) wrote the book on how they accomplished this: Tea Party on Safari.

They had recognized that the only way to defeat an incumbent was to have one candidate backed by all Tea Parties across the state running against that incumbent. If there were multiple challengers, then the grassroots vote would be split allowing the establishment candidate (Dick Lugar in Indiana) to win the primary. To create state-wide grassroots consensus, Indiana Tea Parties held a straw poll with representatives from all Tea Parties in attendance and they choose Richard Mourdock.

Chip knew about the Tea Party straw poll in Indiana and he sent Sharp to disrupt it. Chip was trying to discredit Tea Parties across Indiana with a video hit from Sharp that he thought would run on the St. Louis Tea Party website. He was playing one tea party off another in an effort to help establishment Republican Dick Lugar win re-election.

I really do not care which candidate someone supports in a primary, but if you foment blue-on-blue conflict, then you're a traitor to the cause. If you play one Tea Party off another in an effort to get an establishment hack like Dick Lugar re-elected, then you're a traitor to the cause. Chip, what were you thinking? You had helped build this awesome media machine in St. Louis and you wanted to use it to attack and discredit Indiana Tea Parties!? I've never been so embarrassed. Chip, why would you do that!?!

I would blog in support of Mourdock's campaign for the remainder of the 2012 election cycle. It was the least I could do for my Tea Party compatriots in Indiana.

The 2012 election is over. I've moved on. A few weeks ago, Ben told me that Chip still wanted to punch me in the face. I think he was still pissed at me over the Ed Martin-Ann Wagner kerfuffle, but that's a story for another day.

Smart Girl Summit

The last time I saw Chip was at Smart Girl Summit here in St. Louis a few years ago. I had my girls in tow. That was the only time Chip had met them. As they were playing in the background, Chip was telling me about the American Girl Doll store up in Chicago. He loved the place and he loved taking his daughter there. It was somehow easy to picture the big guy with his daughter by his side exploring aisle after aisle, shelf after shelf of pink and purple accessories for her American Girl Doll. He probably asked an attendant where he could find a toy SIG Sauer P230 and matching conceal-carry holster for his daughter's doll. He so loved to provoke a story.

This year, Smart Girl Summit will be held in Indy in early August. I'm planning to be there. I look forward to seeing my Indiana Tea Party friends. You guys showed the way in the 2012 primary and it was an honor blogging beside you.

Chip, it's been a wild ride and that's mostly your fault. Too bad you wont get to punch me in the face, but, who knows, maybe Ray will take care of that for you. I miss ya, man--you were the best frenemy I've ever had. Godspeed!

Heritage Study Estimates Amnesty will Cost $6.3 Trillion

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:07:00 +0000

The Heritage Foundation released a report earlier this week that put the cost of amnesty at a minimum of $6.3 trillion. Here's the key paragraph from the Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrantsand Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer:

Over a lifetime, the former unlawful immigrants together would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay $3.1 trillion in taxes. They would generate a lifetime fiscal deficit (total benefits minus total taxes) of $6.3 trillion. (all figures are in constant 2010 dollars.) This should be considered a minimum estimate. It probably understates real future costs because it undercounts the number of unlawful immigrants and dependents who will actually receive amnesty and underestimates significantly the future growth in welfare and medical benefits.

The legislation would also disproportionally impact low-skilled American workers, as the Heritage report notes:

A final problem is that unlawful immigration appears to depress the wages of low-skill U.S.-born and lawful immigrant workers by 10 percent, or $2,300, per year. Unlawful immigration also probably drives many of our most vulnerable U.S.-born workers out of the labor force entirely. Unlawful immigration thus makes it harder for the least advantaged U.S. citizens to share in the American dream. This is wrong; public policy should support the interests of those who have a right to be here, not those who have broken our laws.

The key to crafting public policy is making sure that it helps the public. The immigration reform legislation pending in Congress simply does not do that.

#MO8: Congressional Candidate Forum

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:59:00 +0000

The six candidates vying for the seat vacated by Jo Ann Emerson participated in a candidate forum in Cape Girardeau, MO, this past Thursday evening. The event was sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the NPR affiliate in Cape, KRCU. The election in Missouri's 8th Congressional District will be held June 4th.

Video: Slight Problem with the Cypriot Banking System Explained

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:20:00 +0000

The Australian humorists Clarke & Dawe offer a brief summary of the "slight" problem in the Cypriot banking system. The European Union's response has not yet fixed the problem, though it has resulted in a massive exodus of deposits held by foreigners. (Note to kleptocrats everywhere: if you put an entire nation's banking system on a bank holiday, it's best to make sure that bank holiday applies to the nation's foreign bank branches, too!) As of today, Cypriots are allowed to withdraw up to €300 a day of their own money.

Video: Allen West at CPAC

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:44:00 +0000

From the YouTube description of Allen West's 2013 CPAC speech:

March 14, 2013 - Former Congressman Allen West on Thursday addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in what TheBlaze's Mike Opelka described as a "fiery" speech that had "everyone on their feet." "I'll give it to you straight," West began. "Last November we did take one on the jaw, but this movement and this fight is not determined by the punches that we take. We're defined by how quickly we pull ourselves off the mat and our perseverance."

"There're no shortage of people telling us what conservatism cannot accomplish, what we can't do, how we cannot connect, how we must change our values to fit the times."

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you: That that truly is a bunch of malarkey," he added, seemingly channeling the spirit of VP debate Joe Biden.

"Last time I checked," he continued, "a bended knee is not, nor shall it ever be a conservative tradition."

He went on to argue that people like him (i.e. a black conservative) absolutely terrify liberals.

"I'm speaking from experience when I tell you that there is nothing on this green earth that a liberal progressive fears more than a black American who wants a better life and a smaller government," West said.

Race and Republicans at CPAC

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 04:35:00 +0000

K. Carl Smith at the Rally for Common Sense

The Blaze reports on a stunningly outrageous comment made at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference during a presentation by K. Carl Smith:

A session at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) focused on the GOP reaching out to minorities descended into chaos Friday afternoon after a male audience member asked what Frederick Douglass’s former slave master had to be sorry for: “For giving him food and shelter?”

“It seems to be that you’re reaching out to voters, in the method and program that you’re offering us, at the expense of young white Southern males like myself — my demographic,” 30-year-old Scott Terry of North Carolina said during a question and answer session during a discussion called, “Trump The Race Card: Are You Sick And Tired Of Being Called A Racist When You Know You’re Not One?”

The broad brushes are out on the left in an effort to paint all conservatives and especially Republicans as holding the same racist opinions as Terry. We don't. The Blaze notes that [emphasis added]:

Terry was accompanied by Matthew Heimbach, founder of the White Student Union at Towson University. TheBlaze spoke to Heimbach Friday to verify the statements were in accurate and in context. Terry is also a member of the White Students Union at Towson.

This past Wednesday, the White Student Union's website included this announcement [emphasis added]*:

As close to two dozen of us prepare to head to the Conservative Political Action Conference labeled as independent, Towson College Republicans, Campaign for Liberty supporters, and other conservative organizations we will do our best to engage the issue of preservation of the European-American population and a strong stance against immigration.

That word--"labeled"--is an admission that they had to obfuscate their identity to gain entry. And they had to hide their political party preference because Matthew Heimbach is not only the founder of the White Student Union, but also a supporter of the radical American Third Position Party (now called the American Freedom Party).

Simply put, Scott Terry, Matthew Heimbach, and the other gate-crashers they brought with them are neither conservative nor Republican.

Perhaps some good can come of this. Last year, I shot video of K. Carl Smith--he was the presenter at CPAC who's presentation was disrupted by Terry. Smith had one of the best speeches at the Rally for Common Sense. Here's what I wrote about it at the time:

When it comes to pragmatic political outreach to the black community, K. Carl Smith's framing of the discussion around Fredrick Douglass's life and philosophy was tremendous. Make sure you watch that and then go get his book: Frederick Douglass Republicans: The Movement to Re-Ignite America's Passion for Liberty.

* The St. Louis Tea Party has a policy of not linking to white supremacist blogs, so, sorry, no link.

It's Time to Defund Obamacare

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:24:00 +0000

Earlier this week, thirty Republican Representatives signed a letter to their leadership in the House of Representatives seeking to defund Obamacare. None of the Republican Reps from either Missouri or Illinois joined their conservative counterparts in signing that letter. They chose instead to support the continuing resolution that spends money we do not have on programs we can not afford.

Senate conservative Ted Cruz (R-TX) has breathed new life into the defund Obamacare movement. As the Washinton Post reports:

Outspoken freshman Sen. Ted Cruz intends to offer an amendment to the stopgap spending plan under debate in Congress this week that would defund President Obama’s health care law until the nation’s economy grows at a rate in line with historical averages.

That effort has picked up support from both FreedomWorks and The Heritage Foundation--both have key voted the Senate vote on that amendment. That means that Sen. Roy Blunt's (R-MO) vote on that amendment will be reflect in the score he earns from those organizations. Heritage makes the case for defunding it as soon as possible:

The most severe and damaging economic impacts of Obamacare have yet to occur, as they will come with the law’s full implementation and the implementation of its funding mechanisms in 2014. After that point, this law will be more entrenched and its damaging effects will be much more difficult to amend.

The Democrats control the Senate so even if the Conservatives unite behind Ted Cruz, it's unlikely that they will succeed.

In the Fight: Episode 72

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:01:00 +0000

Episode 72 of In The Fight produced by the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System. Here's their description of this half-hour show:

On this episode, the Afghan military takes control of the Coalition Forces' oldest base, we see how there are some things that technology just cannot replace, an Air National Guard unit quietly passes a significant milestone, we look at the sacrifices that have been make in Afghanistan, and we see what it's like to be the wife of a deployed service member.

Obama Tips His Hand: Defense Cuts Come First

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:56:00 +0000

That headline on Drudge takes you to a Business Insider article that reads in part:

The Washington Post's Bob Woodward ripped into President Barack Obama on "Morning Joe" today, saying he's exhibiting a "kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time" for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.

"Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying, 'Oh, by the way, I can't do this because of some budget document?'" Woodward said.

"Or George W. Bush saying, 'You know, I'm not going to invade Iraq because I can't get the aircraft carriers I need?'" Or even Bill Clinton saying, 'You know, I'm not going to attack Saddam Hussein's intelligence headquarters,' ... because of some budget document?"

American military resolve goes back even further. Reagan renewed America's military confidence after it had been eroded by the Vietnam War and a feckless President Jimmy Carter. President Carter's only use of the American military was to crash a bunch of helicopters in the Iranian desert in a failed attempt to free the hostages. But the article above also calls to mind Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. Roosevelt sent the fleet, which was based in the Atlantic Ocean, around the world, but not everyone approved of it:

Senator Eugene Hale, the chairman of the Senate Naval Appropriation Committee, threatened to cut the fleet's funding.

Responding in typical fashion, Roosevelt replied that he already had the money and dared Congressional leaders to "try and get it back."

In light of the President's recent funding priorities, is the Benghazi debacle really surprising?

Political Brinksmanship: Sequester Edition

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:11:00 +0000

Sequestration is coming. It arrives March 1st.

Heritage Action's Dan Holler reports that the sequester cuts amount to only a 2.4% cut, so instead of spending $9.863 billion per day, we'll only spend $9.622 billion per day. But even that is a little misleading because of baseline budgeting. As Paul Roderick Gregory at Forbes explains in an op-ed titled: The $995 billion Sequester Cut is Actually a $110 billion Spending Increase:

The sequester “cuts” are subtracted after increasing appropriations subject to the sequester at the rate of inflation and adding back in more than a trillion dollars (over ten years) of spending exempted from the sequester.

Each year federal spending is increased based on population growth and inflation. That increase becomes the new baseline budget. That annual bump is about 6% this year, so a 2.4% sequester half-way through the fiscal year means that this year's budget will be more than 4.5% larger than last year's.

But, according to the President, this trivial cut is the end of the world. The White House has launched the classic FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) campaign against the coming sequester. Politico reports that the administration is: "releasing state by state details of the pain and suffering the sequester will cause..." TrimTabs president and CEO Charles Biderman doesn't think that they can be serious:

Biderman goes on to make the point that the government does not want to cut anything.

Nonetheless, as Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) made clear earlier this month (video): "Spending cuts will occur on March 1st. Sequestration will happen."

It's a classic game of brinksmanship. The Democrat view of the economy is that economic success is driven by government spending so cutting government spending will harm the economy. Republicans see a world where smaller government gets out of the way of business unleashing economic growth.

This is only the opening act. The real fight will occur after the sequester goes into effect on March 1st and both sides try to get the press to report their economic outlook.

Standing Firm Against Medicaid Expansion

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 04:21:00 +0000

Yesterday, both 24thState.com and Hennessy's View reported that the Missouri GOP seems to be flirting with the Medicaid expansion.

I just listened to St. Louis Public Radio's Politically Speaking Podcast. They had some surprising comments. Around the 22:30 mark in the NPR audio at that link, Chris McDaniel, Jo Mannies, and Jason Rosenbaum speculate that Republican Speaker of the Missouri House, Tim Jones, may be moving toward compromise with Liberal Gov. Jay Nixon on Medicaid expansion.

At last weekend's state-wide Lincoln Days, Jones was crystal clear on the Medicaid expansion. At 24:45 in the video below, he's asked about Gov. Nixon's effort to implement Medicaid expansion. Jones takes a hard line against it, which is exactly what the conservative grassroots expects.

Country Club Republicans and the Country Class

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:31:00 +0000

Angelo Codevilla has a great article in Forbes: As Country Club Republicans Link Up With The Democratic Ruling Class, Millions Of Voters Are Orphaned:

The ever-growing U.S. government has an edgy social, ethical, and political character. It is distasteful to a majority of persons who vote Republican and to independent voters, as well as to perhaps one fifth of those who vote Democrat. The Republican leadership’s kinship with the socio-political class that runs modern government is deep. Country class Americans have but to glance at the Media to hear themselves insulted from on high as greedy, racist, violent, ignorant extremists. Yet far has it been from the Republican leadership to defend them. Whenever possible, the Republican Establishment has chosen candidates for office – especially the Presidency – who have ignored, soft-pedaled or given mere lip service to their voters’ identities and concerns.

Read the whole thing--it's quite good.

#IL02: Paul McKinley has the Chicago Machine Panicking

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:21:00 +0000

Paul McKinley is the Republican running to replace Jesse Jackson Jr. Earlier this month, Jackson plead guilty to misusing campaign funds. In fighting among the Democrat candidates may create an opportunity for McKinley to pick up this traditionally Democrat seat.

#MO8: Interview with Jason Smith

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:03:00 +0000

Jason Smith was recently chosen to represent the Republican Party in the special election to fill the vacancy in Congress created by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's departure. I had an opportunity to catch up with Smith at the Missouri GOP's Lincoln Days in St. Louis. I asked him about his background, what he hopes to accomplish in DC, and what he's doing to win the June 4th special election. You can learn more about Jason Smith, donate to his campaign, or volunteer to help him in the special election at his website: ElectJasonSmith.com.

Photos: 2013 Lincoln Days in St. Louis

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:11:00 +0000

The Missouri Republican Party held their annual state-wide Lincoln Days gathering in St. Louis in this weekend. These are the photos I got at the event.

Video: 2013 Missouri Lincoln Days with John Barrasso (R-WY)

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 06:52:00 +0000

The Missouri Republican Party held their state-wide 2013 Lincoln Days gathering in St. Louis this weekend. The Friday night dinner saw speeches from party Chairman Ed Martin, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, State Rep. Tim Jones, State Senator Tom Dempsey, 2012 GOP gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence, GOP candidate for Missouri's 8th Congressional District, Jason Smith, Auditor Tom Schweich, Rep. Ann Wagner, Senator Roy Blunt, and keynote speaker Senator John Barrasso (R-WY).

#MO8: Jason Smith Promises to take Missouri Experience to Washington, DC

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 07:48:00 +0000

Ed Martin, Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, introduces Jason Smith at the 2013 Lincoln Days in St. Louis. Smith was recently chosen to represent the Republican Party in the special election to fill the vacancy in Congress created by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's departure. Smith has served in the Missouri General Assembly as a State Representative since January of 2006.

Republican Jason Smith gets GOP Nominiation in #MO8

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 21:13:00 +0000

The video above is of Republican State Representative Jason Smith at the Cape Girardeau candidate forum last month. The Kansas City Star just reportsed that Smith has won the Republican nomination in Missouri's 8th Congressional District:

State Rep. Jason Smith prevailed after six rounds of voting by an 84-person committee of local Republican leaders, and immediately becomes the favorite in a June 4 special election in the GOP-leaning 8th District.

Smith is the favorite to win this conservative district in the June 4th special election.

#MO8 Republican Candidate Forum

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:44:00 +0000

Twelve of the Republican candidates candidates who are vying to replace Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) in Missouri's 8th Congressional District made their case in Cape Girardeau last Thursday. Each candidate answered a series of questions from moderator Faune Riggin at this candidate forum.

Video: Ed Martin on his new job as MOGOP Chairman

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:53:00 +0000

Ed Martin was recently elected to replace David Cole as the Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party (MOGOP). In this interview I ask Martin about the Chairman job and what his plans are for the position.

EPA's Lisa Jackson Leverages NJ Connections for Princeton Job

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:04:00 +0000

The Washington Post is asking if EPA Administrator

Lisa Jackson is heading to Princeton:

We’ve known that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson has been planning her exit from the Cabinet, and now we hear she’s exploring that well-worn path from government-officialdom to academia.

Jackson is talking to some university officials, we’re told, and her name is among those being floated as possible candidates for the presidency of Princeton, the institution where she got a graduate engineering degree.

When news of Jackson's use of an EPA email address under the assumed name "Richard Windsor" was reported, an EPA official claimed that she chose that name... well, here's how Politico reported it:

The name came from that of a family dog when Jackson lived in East Windsor Township, N.J., an EPA official said Tuesday.

Again I ask: who the hell names their dog Richard? And why would a once-respected school like Princeton want to be led by that person?

East Windsor, NJ, is conveniently close to Princeton--just 26 minutes away according to Google:

View Larger Map

Maybe her dog, "Richard", has an in with Princeton's Board of Trustees and she's leveraging his connection to get back to her old stompin' grounds.

#SCSen: Representative Tim Scott (R-SC) to be Appointed to Replace departing Jim DeMint (R-SC)

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:39:00 +0000

The Washington Post reports that conservative Tim Scott will replace Jim DeMint in the US Senate:

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) will announce Monday that she will appoint Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to the Senate, according to two sources with knowledge of the pick.

As Wikipedia notes, Tim Scott's rise to Congress in 2010 was propelled by grassroots Tea Party support and a host of endorsements including one from Sarah Palin. Scott will be an excellent replacement for the conservative favorite Jim DeMint.

Congratulations to Nikki Haley and South Carolina for doing their part to Reboot Congress!

Climate Data Show Alarmist Trend

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:51:00 +0000

The draft of the next IPCC report, AR5, is now available online. The graph above is Figure 1.4 from that draft report. It shows the projected upper and lower temperature anomaly bands over time for the four previous reports: FAR, SAR, TAR, and AR4. The black candlestick marks plot the observational data--the ground truth against which all climate models should be judged.

Watts Up With That notes that this caption accompanies the graph above:

Estimated changes in the observed globally and annually averaged surface temperature (in °C) since 1990 compared with the range of projections from the previous IPCC assessments. Values are aligned to match the average observed value at 1990. Observed global annual temperature change, relative to 1961–1990, is shown as black squares (NASA (updated from Hansen et al., 2010; data available at http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/); NOAA (updated from Smith et al., 2008; data available at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cmb-faq/anomalies.html#grid); and the UK Hadley Centre (Morice et al., 2012; data available at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/) reanalyses). Whiskers indicate the 90% uncertainty range of the Morice et al. (2012) dataset from measurement and sampling, bias and coverage (see Appendix for methods). The coloured shading shows the projected range of global annual mean near surface temperature change from 1990 to 2015 for models used in FAR (Scenario D and business-as-usual), SAR (IS92c/1.5 and IS92e/4.5), TAR (full range of TAR Figure 9.13(b) based on the GFDL_R15_a and DOE PCM parameter settings), and AR4 (A1B and A1T). The 90% uncertainty estimate due to observational uncertainty and internal variability based on the HadCRUT4 temperature data for 1951-1980 is depicted by the grey shading. Moreover, the publication years of the assessment reports and the scenario design are shown.

With the observed temperature anomaly for the past dozen years trending to the lower bound of the IPCC models, why do governments around the world continue to fund the climate scientists who make inaccurate alarmist predictions?

I've posted the full IPCC AR5 draft report to Scribd (h/t: Alec Rawls of StopGreenSuicide.com).

Infamy and the EPA

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 05:29:00 +0000

Christopher Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and author of the Liberal War on Transparency has uncovered evidence that Lisa Jackson uses an email account under a false name in her role as EPA Administrator. Horner believes that the alternate email address has been used to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests including several that he and CEI have filed with the EPA. EPA maintains that Lisa Jackson's account under the name "Richard Windsor" is part of a policy dating back to Clinton's EPA Administrator Carol Browner.

That's interesting because there was a Florida environmental lawyer named Richard Windsor who worked for Carol Browner when she was Secretary of Environmental Regulation for Florida. Sadly, that Richard Windsor died four years ago today.

Christopher Horner filed a FOIA appeal (embedded below) today to reverse the EPA's initial decision to deny his November 12th, 2012, request for emails sent to/from Lisa Jackson's "Richard Windsor" email account. EPA objected to Horner's FOIA request on the grounds that it did not sufficiently specify the records he sought. As Horner points out in the letter:

The stated search parameters in this standard format would be, as follows:

Copies of all emails sent to, from or copied to any email address used by EPA’s Office of administrator (OA);

Filtered on: (Time Message Sent Later Than 12/15/2008 12:00:01 AM
and Time Message Sent Earlier Than 12/10/2012 11:59:59 PM;

and (Display “To:” Contains “Richard Windsor”
or Display “From:” Contains “Richard Windsor”
or Display “CC:” Contains “Richard Windsor”
or Display “Bcc:” Contains “Richard Windsor”

The ease with which this is done, contrasted with EPA’s unsupported claim that a search is not possible, suggests that EPA’s initial determination is no more than a delaying tactic for a request which it found particularly unwelcome.

That and the other examples Horner provides strongly suggest that EPA is stonewalling. What do they have to hide?

CEI Appeal EPA Richard Windsor FOIA

Unemploymnet Down to 7.7% on 540k Fewer People in the Labor Force

noreply@blogger.com (dsm) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:34:00 +0000

ZeroHedge nails it on today's job numbers:

Confused why the unemployment rate dropped? The same, favorite BLS adjustment - a drop in the labor force participation rate which declined by 0.2% to 63.6% once again, as the number of people out of the labor increased by over 540K to 88,883,000.

The Employment Situation Report (link will break in a month) dismisses the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the jobs numbers:

Our analysis suggests that Hurricane Sandy did not substantively impact the national employment and unemployment estimates for November.

While the falling unemployment rate of 7.7% and the addition of 146k NFP which beat estimates is great news, the big question is: what happened to the half million people that left the work force?

Reboot Congress

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