FROM NIMBY TO NUMBY

Not under my back yard: “[Science and technology] research group Battelle is pulling out of a $92.8 million project to test carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Ohio -- one of seven regional sequestration tests underpinning the U.S. Department of Energy's program to kick the wheels on CCS. “ ... “[S]imilar concerns are blocking European power giant Vattenfall's plan to sequester CO2 from its innovative oxyfuel coal-fired power plant in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany.”

Fear of subterranean climate change, perhaps?

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE OBAMA ERA

Victor Davis Hansen comments on what he's learned in the first 7 months of the Obama era -

[D]o not vote in any national election for any politician from Chicago — the odds are you will be getting the “Chicago Way,” like it or not.

Do not believe there is really anything much left to “race.” Just as feminism has descended into abortion rights, so too “minority” means nothing much at all.

There is no more media. The New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC, CNBC, NPR, etc. are ministries of truth for Obama.

The good life. Privilege is the proper compensation for having the “correct” ideology.

There's much more, so be sure and read his whole commentary and the comments that follow.

Hansen also notes that he's learned that America is a center-right country (which I'm sure he already knew) by following Obama's decline in popularity. My question is "Can Obama ram his agenda through Congress before his inevitable downfall?"

OBAMA APPROVAL INDEX - AN UPDATE

The following data is taken from the Rasmussen Obama approval index data from January 21 through August 31 - roughly 7 months of data. The trend lines are second-order polynomial fits, extrapolated 90 days into the future.

The first chart is the approval index, the percentage of respondents strongly approving of President Obama less the percentage of respondents strongly disapproving. The index on August 31 was -11 (30% strongly approving; 41% strongly disapproving).


The second chart contains the sample data; green is strongly approving; red is strongly disapproving; black contains the “uncommitted” - those who approve or disapprove, but not strongly. As above, the trend lines are second-order polynomial fits projected 90 days into the future.

Of interest are the green and black trend lines. Strong approvals show signs of leveling out, indicating a hardening of opinion, which in turn suggests that Obama’s base may be on the order of 25% of the polled population. More interesting is the black curve representing the uncommitted, which is both decreasing and accelerating downward from my last update on August 19.


The third chart is a summary chart; total approvals and total disapprovals plotted together. The disapprovals still show a linearly increasing trend; disapprovals are accelerating downward as the uncommitteds are increasingly moving toward disapproval.


The data suggests to me that the anti-Obama sentiment is about more than healthcare, or energy policy, or tax policy. or federal spending. It may have started with with concern over stimulus spending, and certainly health care is an issue; but I believe what we’re seeing is a general revolt against big(ger) government and, further, that the revolt may have sufficient momentum to be unstoppable.

At least, I hope so.

KENNEDY DIES; NO ONE NOTICES

I was in Texas when Senator Kennedy died, not returning home until the day before his funeral. One thing I noticed in the Texas newspaper was the relative lack of coverage. In the (Austin) American-Statesman, a very liberal newspaper, Kennedy's death was front page, but just barely above the fold.

Returning home, when I finally had time to skim the saved Washington DC newspapers last night, I noticed that on the day following Kennedy's death, the Washington Post (the liberal newspaper) had the death on the front page, above the fold, with a shared headline to other news. The Washington Times (the conservative newspaper) devoted the entire front page to Kennedy's death, with a larger than usual headline.

Huh. Two decidedly liberal newspapers downplay the Senator's death; the decidedly conservative newspaper gives a full front page to coverage. Maybe it’s just me, but my personal little conspiracy-laden snark department is wondering if it were all the direction of “The Won,” fearing a loss of worship.

BREAKING NEWS

Pot calls kettle black. “Van Jones, the Obama administration's ‘green jobs’ adviser, told a group of listeners earlier in the year that the reason Republicans are stonewalling the president is because they're ‘assholes.’”



As the saying goes, “It takes one to know one.”

SHAKEN BY ABSENCE OF GOP SUPPORT

“Embattled South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford acknowledged Tuesday that he has been shaken by the failure of a single fellow Republican to back him in his fight to save his job, but vowed to fight on .... The governor [is] trying to survive a scandal involving a widely publicized extramarital affair ... [and] a new ethics probe over his travel and personal expenses.”

Uh, Governor, unlike Democrats, you don’t get a “hypocrisy pass” just because you’re a Republican.

CARBON CALCULATOR

With all the emphasis on “global warming,” here’s a carbon calculator that allows you to check your energy consumption and compare it – on a per capita basis – to the rest of the US (and the world).

It’s somewhat involved. You’ll need

Household information (# occupants and house or apartment)
Annual electricity consumption in kilowatt-hours (kWh)
An estimate of electricity generated by coal/natural gas/oil (doesn’t need to sum to 100%; hydroelectric, solar, etc. don't generate CO2)
Home heating with natural gas or oil (in therms; tricky to calculate)
Fuel efficiency and annual mileage for each car in the household
Air travel (short/medium/long/international; business or economy class)

Once your emissions are calculated, you can link to a page giving national averages.

One note: the per-capita numbers in the linked page is in thousand metric tons/1000 people, so divide your calculated number by 1000 to convert from kilograms to metric tonnes, and divide again by the number of people in the household to get the appropriate per-person estimate [the US average is 19.4839 tons/person].

My usage appears to be just a bit below average for the US: 18.050 tons/person.

NOT DEAD, JUST BLIND

From the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web”: Not a Doctor, but I Play One on the Wires (4th item).

The Associated Press, seeking to defend Canada's government monopoly on health insurance, attempts to debunk the TV ad spotlighting a ... Canadian woman, Shona Holmes, who spoke of suffering from a brain tumor and declared she would "be dead" had she relied on her [Canadian healthcare].

According to the Mayo Clinic, which operated on her, Holmes's life wasn't in much danger ... just her vision.

So Holmes probably could have survived the Canadian wait and been none the worse for wear--well, except for the minor inconvenience of being blind! America's health-care system saved a Canadian woman's vision. A Canadian-style system south of the border could turn all of North America into the land of the blind.

Hmm. Don’t I recall something about “in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?”

Why does that phrase strike me as a metaphor for Obamacare?

NOT THE EXPECTED LOCATION

Glenn Reynolds posts a picture of a "Taxed Enough Already" bumper sticker in an unusual place, noting that he finds it "less surprising than some might."

On reflection, I find that I'm also less surprised than I thought I would be. In an earlier post, I noted that I got a "thumbs up" for the sticker on the bumper of my truck. It has happened twice again more recently, and I'm also noticing a gradual disappearance of Obama stickers in the Washington DC metro area as I return from an extended vacation to my normal daily commute.

All is not well in the land of the "Won".

OBEDIENCE SCHOOL FOR POLITICIANS

Frank J. Fleming thinks that we should train our politicians like we train our dogs.

Instapundit isn’t sure: “But dogs are fundamentally loyal.”

Also, dogs are smarter.

A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE

Neil Cavuto on government waste:

Perhaps it insults some that I raise this issue ... , but this big government money pit issue isn't passing. It's growing, and it's growing all the more as our leaders dismiss it all the more.

Because that's the thing about a government that doesn't learn from mistakenly sending out money to the wrong people; it ends up sucking dry the right people, the good people who pick up the pretty good-sized bill, and are insulted for having the gall to question the items on that bill.

Can anyone spell "t-e-a-p-a-r-t-y"?

THEY CAN'T PRINT OIL

Or can they?





I worry. The Obama administration has only a nodding acquaintance with reality.

Shoe can be found here.

A LITTLE LOVE

Very little love. AlfonZo Rachel on Bill Maher: “... cocky, smug, condescending, egotistical, sarcastic, conceited, pompous, elitist, jackass ....”

So, AlfonZo, tell us what you really think.

LEMON PICKER

Go see Don Surber. Do it now.

DO AMERICANS LOVE GOVERNMENT?

Nope. 57% would like to replace the entire Congress.

Count me in that 57%.

Some other interesting results:

... Fifty-nine percent (59%) now believe that members of Congress are overpaid.

... [M]ost voters say they understand the health care legislation better than Congress. Just 22% think the legislature has a good understanding of the issue. Three-out-of-four (74%) trust their own economic judgment more than Congress’.

... Seventy-five percent (75%) say members of Congress are more interested in their own careers than they are in helping people.

The last item interests me because it's symptomatic of the fundamental problem: government is too damn big.

It strikes me as axiomatic that congresscritters are always more interested in their own careers than on the people they represent; it's just that when government is big, their careers no longer depend on the interests of the people they represent.

Via Instapundit.

CLEVERLY PUT

It's an old one, updated, but eerily appropriate:

Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel "Pick up your shovel, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the promised land."

Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel; this is the promised land."

Now Obama has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of Camels, and mortgaged the promised land.

We have spaceflight now. Maybe it's time to go full circle, pick up the shovel, leave the asses behind, and seek out a new promised land.

IT'S ALL BUSH'S FAULT

Obama Asks Federal Workers to Sacrifice: "Citing the current economic recession -- and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks eight years ago -- President Obama says he will use emergency powers to cut the programmed across-the-board January increase in federal employees' pay from 2.4 percent to 2.0 percent, according to a letter he sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday."

It's not about Obama. It's never about Obama.

Via Instapundit, who has his own opinion on the "cuts."

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Attributed to Marie Antoinette before she was beheaded during the French revolution. In his opinion piece flacking Obamacare, E.J. Dionne quotes Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has his own "Marie Antoinette" moment.

Schumer "argues that the administration should use a simple analogy to drive home the idea that government has the capacity to expand the choices people have. 'In my state and every state, we have excellent private universities and excellent public universities,' he said. 'People have a choice.'"

Uh, Chuck, it's a good idea to engage the brain before opening the mouth.

What is the cost differential between an "excellent private university" and an "excellent public university?" What percentage of public universities can truly be rated as excellent?

And now for the $64,000 question: Which university do you think most Americans can afford to attend? The excellent private university? The excellent public university? The average public university? Or the local community college?

POST STILL PUSHING OBAMACARE

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne is flacking Obamacare.

President Obama can still secure major health-care legislation this year if he learns from his mistakes in recent months and spends more time reminding Americans why they were once eager for fundamental change.

I've been following the debate fairly closely, and all the polls I've seen tend to indicate that most Americans recognize the system needs improvement but are not "eager for fundamental change."

[A]dvocates of the status quo filled the vacuum -- often with outright lies.

And advocates of Obamacare never, ever, lied? C'mon, EJ.

[T]he administration now needs to lay out clear and understandable goals, so it can bargain from a position of strength. Dare one say it? That was Ted Kennedy's way.

And Ted Kennedy didn't get his way, either.

AFTER 42 YEARS, FLYOVER DENIED

What's next? No flyover of the Super Bowl if "God Bless America" is played?

Obama's going to be a one-term President, unless he's impeached first (which is looking more likely every day he's in office).