It was just a scraggly, stunted Obama until
the media kids went to work on it and made it beautiful.
Photoshop by Slublog (open tag busted by friendly neighborhood TB)

All networks, including FOX, will carry the President's primetime address from West Point tomorrow. He is expected to justify his inexcusable seven-week period of indecision on whether to win the war in Afghanistan. Do not expect him to mention his twice-weekly golf outings. I'm giving even odds he also fails to use the word "victory."

More importantly, President Narcissus will preempt "A Charlie Brown Christmas", which has my absolute favorite monologue in all of television (below the fold): more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:19 PM | Comments (296)
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The most important outcome of this is the pressure to actually release data and methodologies, something other scientists generally due without facing criminal charges for FOIA evasions.

In case you've been as away as I have this Thanksgiving weekend, here Purple Avenger's post on CRU's stunning admission that, um, their dog ate their homework. (The science is settled; PBUH.)

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years...

As PA notes, this isn't new -- they had previously given this excuse when their data was demanded. It certainly is the first time it's being prominently covered, of course.

Given Phil Jones email stating that he would rather hit the delete key than press send regarding his secret "scientific" data, this "throwing away" of data takes on the air of the ominous.

They're now agreeing to finally let people look at the data. What's left of it, anyway. Or are they?

In a statement welcomed by climate change sceptics, the university said it would make all the data accessible as soon as possible, once its Climatic Research Unit (CRU) had negotiated its release from a range of non-publication agreements.

The publication will be carried out in collaboration with the Met Office Hadley Centre. The full data, when disclosed, is certain to be scrutinised by both sides in the fierce debate.

Here's the problem: None of these guys want their data looked at. CRU has this data because the scientists they work with and correspond with have been granted non-publication agreements. CRU gets a lot of its data from people with such agreements -- apparently the entire field is dominated by them; secrecy is the watchword in this particular branch of science, or alchemy, or divination, or whatever it really is -- and they have no desire nor motive to rat on themselves.

So CRU will pretend it's the good guy here -- hey, we want to disclose this stuff! -- but all the scientists with whom they have non-publication agreements will refuse to void those agreements. The data stays safely hidden, while CRU gets a bit of a PR boost.

Hey, the tried, right?

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 AM | Comments (120)
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Laura blogged about this yesterday (and I share her mixed reaction to the news). Now the fallout is beginning.

So concerned is the government by the decision that Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer Schlumpf, watching the results come in on Sunday afternoon, apparently told her advisers there ought to be some restrictions on what the general public can actually vote on.

This, for Switzerland, is political dynamite. The country's system of direct democracy is sacrosanct. The people are allowed to vote on any policy and to propose policy themselves, which is what they did on minarets.

Of course, this is precisely the attitude that gets you to this point. It's essentially considered racism, one of the worst of all modern crimes (perhaps second only to climate change 'denial'), to even bring up the idea that, "Hey, maybe there are certain things that don't fit with our country."

When the elites stifle debate and declare subjects of great importance beyond the pale of public discussion, the people will eventually make themselves heard and in ways that might be far more drastic than if they had a say earlier in the process.

Now with this wake up call, suddenly everyone wants more talk.

Elham Manea, founder of the Forum for a Progressive Islam - an organisation dedicated to Muslim integration in Switzerland - is disappointed not just with the outcome of the vote, but with the debate around it.

"The way the discussion was conducted was simply polemic," she said.

"We didn't ask the right questions, when we talked about integration problems for immigrants with an Islamic background.

"For example what is the size of political Islam, how big is the problem of forced marriage? Do we have that problem? Yes we do, we know we do, but which groups are practising it, and how do we deal with it?"

The problem for Ms Manea, and many Swiss Muslims, is that the ban on minarets does not really address any of these problems and may even isolate the community still further.

"My fear is that the younger generation will feel unwelcome," she said.

As for Muslims feeling unwelcome, for good or ill, I think that was the message behind the vote. It seems the Swiss don't want to have to deal with issues such as forced marriage or honor killings. Quite frankly, why should they? It's simply not part of Swiss heritage. Why should a country and society that has organized itself in a certain way suddenly have to adapt itself because a group of immigrants bring their culture and problems (from a Swiss perspective) with them?

As the Wall Street Journal points out, the actual act of banning minarets won't do much about these underlying issues. In fact, it "does too much and too little at once".

The vote betrays an undercurrent of fear among the Swiss—a fear that is not without cause. There is no denying the connection between radical imams and terrorist acts. Nor should anyone look away from the fact that too many European Muslims flatly reject the norms of their host countries, sometimes in ways that are criminal: honor killings, child brides and the like.

Yet banning minarets does nothing to address that fear. It merely makes it less likely that the average Swiss will be confronted by a visible symbol of Islam upon his skyline. Thus, even as a symbolic gesture, it seems to encourage a head-in-the-sand approach toward the 5% of Swiss who are Muslim. In much of Europe, this is the norm anyway, the result of political correctness and cowardice.

Immigration has been a great boon for many countries (namely the US) but it shouldn't be a national or cultural suicide pact. Unfortunately, once you move from the idea of a "melting pot" to a "multicultural mosaic" that's exactly what can happen.

Now that the people of Switzerland have the attention of their government and Muslim immigrants, will the reaction be to continue to sweep these tensions under the rug or make those groups confront some hard realities?

Given Europe's history on conflicts involving religion and ethnicity, I don't think this will end well for anyone.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:16 AM | Comments (274)
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Still at large.

The suspect in the slaying of four police officers gunned down in a coffee shop was not found Monday in the Seattle home where he was thought to have been holed up overnight, likely wounded from his bloody encounter with the officers.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said the location of Maurice Clemmons was not known, and it's possible he still could be in the neighborhood. Troyer also said people who know Clemmons told investigators he had been shot in the torso.

"If he didn't get a ride out of there, he could still be in the area," Troyer said.

If you missed it last night, Clemmons had an earlier sentence commuted by then Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The Huckster released a statement which essentially boiled down to a promise to spend the rest of his days looking for the real Governor who was responsible for releasing this career criminal back onto the streets.

I'm glad Huck is done at the national level now I just wish it didn't take 4 dead cops to do it.

BTW-everyone's favorite gay male expert of Sarah Palin's reproductive system snarked that "The base won't like that, will they?". Well, Saint Andrew of the Insane, most people won't like Huckabee's decision to let this guy out. The exception being the base of the Democratic Party which tends to have a permanent hard- on for cop killers (Free Mumia!).

Posted by: DrewM at 07:38 AM | Comments (104)
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The brave people of Honduras looked a want to be socialist dictator in the eye and said no. Actually, they said, "Hell NO!"

A conservative rancher named Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo took the Honduran presidency in elections Sunday, five months after the country's last elected president was forced out of the country at gunpoint. Now Hondurans must wait to see if the international community, which has been divided over the crisis, accepts the winner as legitimate.

The results gave Mr. Lobo 56% of the vote, well ahead of Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos at 38%, confirming voters' expected punishment of the Liberals -- party of both the deposed president and the interim government that ousted him.

While the small Central American nation is expected to get crucial support from the U.S., it will likely continue to face opposition from regional heavyweights such as Brazil and Argentina. The U.S., in agreeing to accept the winner, is now in a delicate position -- with Brazil, for example, which is housing exiled leader Manuel Zelaya in its Honduran embassy and recognizes him as president.

About 61% of Hondurans voted, and turnout, which was up from 2005, was seen as a crucial factor in persuading more countries to back the vote. The turnout was a loss for Mr. Zelaya, who had urged supporters to boycott the election. After the vote, Mr. Zelaya condemned the elections on CNN saying: "Absenteeism triumphed. ... These elections don't correct the coup d'etat."

Whatever Sparky, go to Brazil or Venezuela and party with your buddies. You're done in your own country.

It's amazing that the idea that the US will recognize the winner of this election is actually news (and surprisingly good news). That shows just how far off course we've gone in less than 10 months. Obama's reaction to the Honduran crisis is a black mark on our country bu all of that is a story for another day.

Today the story is the people of Honduras.

It reminds me of something Jefferson didn't say.

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:32 AM | Comments (82)
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If you're just joining us after a long weekend, scroll down for some big stories that broke late last night.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:26 AM | Comments (59)
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Apparently, they tracked Maurice Clemmons to a house in east Seattle around 8:00pm last night, but they haven't moved on him yet. My friend @redhk, who lives a few blocks away from the scene, says the police helicopters hovered all night. A thorough round up is here, including witness statements from the crime that I hadn't seen anywhere else.

UPDATE (8:30AM PST): Police entered the home, but Clemmons wasn't there.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:25 AM | Comments (52)
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...n a statement welcomed by climate change sceptics, the university said it would make all the data accessible as soon as possible, once its Climatic Research Unit (CRU) had negotiated its release from a range of non-publication agreements...

: "These guys called climate scientists have not done any more physics or chemistry than I did. A lifetime in engineering gives you a very good antenna. It also cures people of any self belief they cannot be wrong. You clear up a lot of messes during a lifetime in engineering. I could be wrong on global warming – I know that – but the guys on the other side don't believe they can ever be wrong."

That was not always the case. As railroads were spreading across North America in the 1800's, roughly 1/3 of the early railway bridges collapsed soon after being built. That epidemic of bridge collapses was a major scandal. It wasn't that anyone wanted those bridges to collapse, it was that structural analysis techniques were in their infancy.

Similarly, the early era of Aviation saw some horrendous designs put forth. Yes, they were capable of staggering into the air, but they were not necessarily stable and/or exhibited some very evil handling traits when placed in certain attitudes (ex. the GeeBee R2 racing plane, which was fast as hell, but pretty much killed the majority of pilots who tried to fly it).

The history of science and engineering is very closely tied with the history of failures. Failures are what teach us that we don't know all we thought we knew. They humble us and make us reexamine our assumptions and data.

I expect to see a number of significant "failures" to be found when CRU releases this data. The real work comes after the jeers and giggling though. To keep all the money spent on those failres from being a waste, we'll need to learn something from it.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 11:39 PM | Comments (126)
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Hope everyone had a good T-Day weekend. And now we return you to your regularly scheduled program of drudgery, drinking, and last-minute desperation shopping.

A Tour of the Airbus A-380, the Largest Passenger Jet in the World
Returning a little luxury to air travel. These pictures are from an Emirates plane.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:00 PM | Comments (503)
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Huckabee's chickens coming home to roost:

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors.

"This is the day I've been dreading for a long time," Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings.

Back when Huckabee was governor, the people of Arkansas were so worried about his commutations of violent criminals, they looked at amending the state constitution to limit the governor's pardon power. This is what Huckabee had to say about executive clemency:

“I would not deny that my sense of the reality of redemption is a factor,” the former Baptist pastor said in a radio interview with KUAR in Little Rock. “And I don’t know that I can apologize for that because I would hate to think of the kind of human I would be if I thought people were beyond forgiveness and beyond reformation and beyond some sense of improvement.”

Our previous coverage of Huckabee's misguided and, well, dangerous use of the pardon power is here and here.

Via @redhk.

More:I'm sure a thousand people are digging up old news reports on Huckabee and Clemmons. And there will be a hundred stories in all the media tomorrow on Huckabee's future in politics. Here's the summary in advance:

(1) Huckabee pardoned Clemmons because they had a mutual acquaintance, he labored at the governor's mansion under a prisoner work program, or a minister intervened on his behalf. No, I don't actually know why he did it and Huckabee was notorious for refusing to give reasons for his pardons. These characteristics are what many of Huckabee's pardons had in common.

(2) The possibility that Huckabee will run for president in 2012 has moved from "less than likely" (see sidebar) to "not a chance in hell." Which, is the way I like it. He always was just a populist with a Bible. His shameful Mormon-baiting in Iowa ultimately gave us McCain last year. We no longer have to worry what Certain Fuckin' Doomabee will bring us next time.

Last Thing (for now): Huckabee's statement that it is "less than likely that I will run in 2012" preceded the assassination. Unless he has magic preacher clairvoyance, the two are unrelated.

Late Update: Huckabee makes a statement, passes the buck.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:18 PM | Comments (423)
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