Gingrich: Don't Punish Americans

100 Days - 100 Mistakes

In an effort to keep this simple, I have not provided any references, attributions or links. My apologies to those whom I've quoted without attribution. It's my fault, I waited until Day 98 to put this article together. The items listed here are in no particular order. I tried to group some items together on the basis of content (i.e., inaugural address, stimulus package, foreign policy, etc). There were more I could have thrown in, and had a tough time deciding which were the most offensive and/or well-known.

1-Obama said in his inaugural address that "44 Americans have now taken the presidential oath." The correct number is 43. Grover Cleveland served as both the 22nd and 24th President. As a "progressive", apparently Obama has no interest in or concern about history.

2-He angered the Chinese during his inaugural address with references to Communism. Chinese TV broke away from Obama on several occasions and deleted those sections from their "official" transcript.

3-He said in his inaugural address we must honor our troops and veterans, then was the first president to skip the 'Salute to Heroes' Inaugural Ball, which recognizes Medal of Honor recipients, angering vets. Over the past 56 years and 14 inaugurations, dating back to Dwight Eisenhower, no president has skipped this Inaugural Ball, until Obama.

4-He spent $49 million of taxpayer money on his inauguration -- triple the amount of Bush's first inauguration (for which Bush was highly criticized as being extravagent).

5-He waited until March 21st to repay Chicago for the $1.74 million cost of his November victory celebration in Grant Park. This, despite the fact that his city, like most cities, was struggling with the impact of the recession.

6-He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility without knowing how to deal with the terrorists being held there. The order led to a widespread NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) response from Senators and Congressmen, none of whom want the terrorists relocated to their state or district.

7-He suggested that the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay should be tried in U.S. courts, despite the fact that experts say there is no way to obtain battlefield evidence against enemy combatants. The trials could also result in the public dissemination of classified information.

8-He met with the military and ordered the withdrawal of troops from Iraq according to a timetable, thus allowing Iraq's enemies to wait out the U.S. troop withdrawal. If conditions on the ground deteriorate before the scheduled withdrawal date, Obama may have to reverse himself, and he will look foolish in the process.

9-He issued an executive order authorizing embryonic stem cell research which has been proven to be less promising than adult stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells are difficult to control and often mutate into cancer cells.

10-He signed a spending bill that contained more than 8,500 earmarks in it, costing taxpayers more than $7.7 billion, immediately after saying that the Democratic leadership was addressing earmark abuses but needed to do more. No kidding.

11-He insulted the British people by giving a set of 25 DVDs as a gift to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Brown gave Obama a carved ornamental penholder from the wood of the anti-slavery ship HMS Gannet. Worse yet, the DVDs don't work in Europe because they require a different format.

12-One of his State Department officials, when asked by the Sunday Telegraph about the DVDs, said "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment," which angered the Brits even more.

13-He gave the Queen of England an iPod full of videos of his own speeches. Even if the Queen did indeed ask for the iPod as some have suggested, it was a still a sign of bad taste, made only worse by his self-centeredness.

14-After saying he wouldn't have lobbyists in his administration, Obama made 17 exceptions in his first two weeks in office.

15-He nominated Bill Richardson for Commerce Secretary, but the New Mexico governor was forced to withdraw his name amid a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors.

16-He nominated Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary to oversee the Internal Revenue Service, but who had only recently paid $34,000 in back income taxes. Geithner was finally confirmed by the Senate after days of controversy.

17-He nominated Tom Daschle for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) only to find out that Daschle was his second major appointee who failed to pay all their taxes. Daschle finally paid $128,203 in back taxes plus $11,964 in interest. Concerning the Daschle nomination, Obama went so far as to admit, "I screwed up."

18-He nominated Nancy Killefer for Chief Performance Officer and as a Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget. Like Daschle, she withdrew her name from consideration when it was reported that the D.C. government had filed a tax lien on her home in 2005 for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. She resolved the tax error five months after the lien was filed, but administration officials refused to say whether her tax problems extended beyond that one issue.

19-He nominated Judd Gregg for Secretary of Commerce, a New Hampshire Republican viewed by most as an adversary to Obama on the policy matters that he would be tasked with formulating. The Gregg nomination was a fight waiting to happen.

20-He listened to those on the Left who protested Judd Gregg's nomination because it might affect the 2010 United States Census. As a result, Obama announced that the White House would move the Census out of Gregg's jurisdiction. This public humiliation led Gregg to withdraw his name from consideration. Gregg said he could not in good conscience support some of Obama's key economic priorities.

21-He apparently could not find his way into the Oval Office on January 28th. He attempted to enter from the outside through a paned window rather than the door which was a few feet to his right.

22-He has appointed to key positions a wide array of "collectivists and statists" which has concerned many that Obama is putting America on a path to socialism.

23-He has appointed to key positions a lot of old-timers from the Clinton administration which is contrary to his message of "change", and is in direct opposition to his nomination acceptance speech where he said: "the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result."

24-He offered the position of Surgeon General to Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, in January. In March 2009, Gupta withdrew his name from consideration for the post.

25-He nominated Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State who went to Russia with a "Reset" button that didn't actually say "Reset" but rather "Overcharge".

26-He appointed Larry Summers to Director of the White House National Economic Council, who fell asleep during a recent meeting with credit card executives, and who now predicts "the economy will continue to decline" for some time. Yipee!

27-He selected Robert Gibbs to be White House spokesperson, who is perhaps the worst speaker of all time. Gibbs stumbles and pauses, looking for the right words which is agonizing to listeners. One of his favorite lines is: "I'll have to get back to you on that."

28-He selected gaffe-prone Joe Biden to be his Vice President. Biden has embarrassed the Obama administration on numerous occasions, with such favorites as: "If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, if we stand up there and we really make the tough decisions, there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong."

29-He appointed Samantha Power, who resigned from the Obama campaign after calling Hillary Rodham Clinton a "monster," to a position on the National Security Council.

30-His Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner nominated Annette Nazareth for Deputy Treasury Secretary, but she withdrew her name for undisclosed "personal reasons" after a monthlong probe into her taxes.

31-His Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner also nominated Caroline Atkinson, for Undersecretary of International Affairs in the Treasury Department, but she also withdrew her name blaming the long vetting process.

32-His Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner still has a skeleton crew at Treasury, with no one qualified -- or willing -- to take jobs there.

33-He selected Janet Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who issued a report defining right-wing extremists as people who object to abortion, illegal immigration, and favor states' rights over federal authority. The report warned law enforcement agencies across the country that returning vets could be the targets of recruitment activity by extremist organizations and should be monitored, again angering vets.

34-His DHS Secretary Napolitano also said "suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border," implying that the 9/11 hijackers came across the Canadian border. But the 9/11 hijackers did not come across the Canadian border, angering Canadians.

35-He used scare tactics to try and get support for his stimulus package describing the economic situation as a "crisis" and "tragic". He said the economy is "sick" and a "failure", making people "fear" and "worry". His "doom-and-gloom" rhetoric was in direct opposition to his promise of "hope" and pushed the Dow below 7,000 a level from which it is only now recovering.

36-He forced passage of the $787 billion stimulus package literally in the "dark of night". The final wording of the nearly 1100 page document was not posted on the web until 10:45 PM on the night before it was voted on in the House at 2:24 PM. This was in direct opposition to Obama's promise of allowing all legislation to be available for public review for at least 5 days before any vote. The web posting was also not a "searchable" document that would allow interested parties to look for key words or phrases.

37-His stimulus package was approved by people who never read it, and who voted for it mainly along party lines (no Republicans voted for it in the House and only 3 voted for it in the Senate). He failed to work on the stimulus package with Republicans in a bi-partisan manner, breaking another campaign promise. He rejected Republican suggestions for the stimulus package, telling Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona, “I won” (a reference to the election). In doing so, Obama was effectively saying: "It's my way or the highway."

38-His stimulus package contained more than $200 billion that went directly to states and cities, but nearly 70% of that went to education and healthcare spending. Only 24% went to infrastructure spending. But the states and cities in the most trouble already spend too much on education and healthcare, pushing taxes up and sending private industry away. They don't spend nearly enough on infrastructure, which attracts the private sector and builds the real economy.

39-He rejected a Republican alternative to the stimulus package which analysis showed would have created 6 million jobs versus the 3 million jobs created by the Democratic plan. The analysis used a methodology employed by President Obama's own nominee for Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, Dr. Christina Romer.

40-His stimulus package contained very little immediate stimulus. According to the CBO, more than half of the proposed $787 billion will not get into the economy before 2011. The package was also loaded with pork projects that will do nothing to stimulate the economy.

41-He pushed Congress for weeks to pass the stimulus package, then when it was ready for signature, with the "Audacity of a Dope", he left town for a three-day vacation.

42-He claimed at a photo-op when visiting Caterpillar, Inc. that: "[Jim Owens, the CEO], said that if Congress passes our [stimulus] plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off." Jim Owens however retorted: "I think realistically... No. The truth is, we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again."

43-He angered our trading partners around the world with a "buy American" provision in the stimulus package that implied a new protectionist policy. Obama was forced to modify the "buy American" provision in response to world-wide pressure.

44-He signed Executive Order 13502, a special interest handout to organized labor that limits competition and raises construction costs by as much as 20 percent. This means that an estimated $30 billion of the proposed $150 billion in construction spending contained in the stimulus package will be wasted. Union-only project labor agreements (PLAs) drive up costs for American taxpayers while unfairly discriminating against the 84% of American construction workers who choose not to join a labor union.

45-He apologized to the Muslim world for past American behavior in his first formal TV interview, which he chose to conduct with the Al-Aribya network, saying: "To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

46-He bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at the G-20 meeting in London, an act that American protocol has ruled out going back to perhaps the Revolutionary War against the King of England.

47-He said he is considering dropping a key demand on Iran, allowing it to keep its nuclear facilities open during negotiations.

48-He wrote a secret letter to Dmitri Medvedev, President of Russia, suggesting that the U.S. might drop plans for a missile shield in Europe in exchange for Russia's help to resolve the nuclear weapons issue with Iran. Medvedev not only made the letter public, but said he would not "haggle" on Iran and the missile shield, thus embarrassing Obama.

49-He apologized to Europeans for America saying, "In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive."

50-After trying to impress Europeans with his humble apologies, Obama made an impassioned plea for more troops in Afghanistan. Only the UK offered substantial help, most others refused.

51-He promised a strong response to the North Korean missile test but did nothing except support a "limp-wristed" UN resolution that accomplished nothing.

52-He considered dropping the embargo on Cuba without any preconditions. Cuba of course, is an oppressive communist country with major human rights violations, including the long-term imprisonment of political opponents. After preliminary signs of thawing relations from Raul Castro, Fidel Castro said Obama "misinterpreted" his brother's words, and that Cuba would not be willing to negotiate about human rights.

53-He directed the easing of restrictive measures against Cuba, including the lifting of all restrictions on the ability of individuals to visit relatives and to send cash remittances, despite the rebuff from Fidel.

54-He said at a press conference in Turkey, that although the United States has "a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation..." This was news to the 62% of Americans who, in a recent poll (since Obama took office) said that America is indeed a Christian nation. A poll taken last year showed that 69% said America was a Christian nation. Another older survey showed that 86% of Americans consider themselves to be "Christian".

55-He sat at the Americas Summit and listened to a 50-minute rant by Daniel Ortega against the United States, who went so far as to call Obama the "president of an empire." Did Obama get up and leave the room embarrassed for himself and his country? No. Instead, he sat there listening to it all, and in reference to a comment about the Bay of Pigs he said, “I’m grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.”

56-He acted, at the same summit, like he was the long-lost buddy of Hugo Chavez. There were handshakes and warm smiles all around. This, despite the fact that Hugo Chavez nationalized (i.e., stole) CITGO, an American corporation. This, despite the fact that the radical Colonel Chavez who, in 1992 (like Adolf Hitler), led a failed putsch against the elected government of Venezuela. Following the summit, Chavez said, "It would seem that the changes that started in Venezuela in the last decade of the 20th century have begun to reach North America." Of course the "changes" Chavez refers to are his moves towards socialism. I guess that's the "change" Obama was talking about during the campaign.

57-He proposed a $3.5 trillion budget that shocked almost everyone, including Democrats, with its huge deficit-spending programs. His budget included a $635 billion 'place-holder' for a universal health care system, even though there were no details about what such a program might look like.

58-He increased the FY-2009 budget deficit from $569 billion to $1.8 trillion. His programs create annual deficits that will never again fall below $500 billion and will increase dramatically after 2012.

59-He caused the nation-wide Tea Parties by frightening or angering a large portion of middle-class Americans with his reckless spending proposals, tax hike proposals, bail-outs, and moves towards socialism. Attendance at the April 15th "Tax Day" Tea Parties were estimated to range from a half-million to a million participants.

60-He said he didn't know about the Tea Parties on April 15th which made him look stupid, out-of-touch, or in a state of denial.

61-He insulted the intelligence of Americans by proposing to cut a mere $100 million from his $3.5 trillion budget, apparently in response to the Tax Day Tea Parties. The $100 million would represent a mere .0027% of the budget. Whoopee!

62-He changed the name of the "Global War on Terror" to "Overseas Contingency Operations". What does that mean? Are we fighting "terrorists" or "contingencies"?

63-He changed the term "acts of terrorism" to "man-made disasters". Give me a break.

64-He had the EPA issue a ruling that greenhouse gases "endanger public health and welfare", knowing full well that water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Not only that, but water vapor contributes 36-72% to the greenhouse effect, while CO2 contributes only 9-26%, methane 4-9%, and ozone 3-7%. I'm surprised that Obama didn't have EPA declare water as a danger to public health!

65-On Earth Day, he took (2) flights on Air Force One and (4) on Marine One to get to Iowa, burning more than 9,000 gallons of fuel in the process. So much for his "carbon footprint".

66-He worried the Chinese with his massive borrow-and-spend programs. The Chinese hinted that they do not intend to buy any more Treasury bills since they already own approximately $800 billion of American debt. They told the U.S. that they want America to protect China's investment.

67-He allowed the Federal Reserve to begin buying up U.S. Treasury bills. Since the Fed does not have any money to purchase the Treasuries, it must print money to purchase them thus devaluing the dollar. While this may prevent deflation in the short run by creating artificial inflation, it also creates a dangerous "Treasury Bill Bubble". Brokers now own record amounts of T-bills which could become worthless when the Fed decides to dump its holdings in Treasuries. If the Fed is unable to sell its T-bill holdings when the economy turns around, it could lead to massive inflation worse than that seen during the Carter administration.

68-He has worried countries around the world with the falling value of the American dollar. Some countries such as Russia and China have suggested that the world needs a new "reserve currency" other than the dollar. China recently said the global currency system, dominated by the dollar, is the root cause of the global financial crisis.

69-He is becoming known as the "teleprompter president" because he relies so strongly on the device whenever he gives a speech. He has had some teleprompter goof-ups including directing to his associates to "speed up", and starting to give a speech other than the one he was supposed to give.

70-He proposed a plan that would require veterans to obtain private insurance, where the carriers would reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs for the treatment of troops injured in the line of duty. This once again angered veterans groups who say the government is morally obligated to pay for service-related medical care.

71-He laughed about the economy during a '60 Minutes' interview with Steve Kroft. Kroft said, "You're sitting here. And you're -- you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems... I mean: Explain. Are you punch-drunk?"

72-His administration, his Treasury Secretary, and the Democrats in Congress were fully aware that AIG was going to pay huge bonuses to its top executives, but they did not get indignant about it until there was a huge outcry from citizens across the country.

73-He has hinted to Congress that he could support taxing some employee health benefits to pay for health care reform, even though he blasted John McCain for suggesting such an idea during the campaign.

74-He directed Robert Gates to cut defense spending during a time of war. He wants to transfer the money from defense to domestic spending.

75-He directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government.

76-He announced that he would cut our missile defense systems the day after the North Koreans launched a test missile showing that they had the capability of reaching parts of the United States.

77-His three candidates for ambassador to the Vatican -- including Caroline Kennedy -- were turned down by the Holy See because they support abortion.

78-He directed the Georgetown University administration to cover up all Christian signs and symbols (including the letters "IHS" in gold - a symbol for Jesus), before giving a speech there on April 14th.

79-He toured the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, taking off his shoes as tradition requires, showing more respect for the Muslim religion than he does for the Christian religion.

80-He repeated his pledge to students in Turkey that he intends to rebuild relations between the United States and the Muslim world. "I am personally committed to a new chapter in American engagement," Obama said. He again apologized for America saying that despite its flaws and past mistakes, the United States is poised for a fresh start with Muslims and the rest of the world.

81-His $15.4 billion government loan to GM.

82-His firing of Rick Wagoner as president of GM.

83-His directions to GM as to what kind of cars they should now build (i.e., "the next generation of clean cars").

84-His statement that "The United States government has no interest in running GM," followed almost immediately by his statement that "Your [GM] warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been, because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty."

85-He said during his first State Of The Union address, "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it." Unfortunately, a German invented the automobile.

86-He entered into "direct negotiations" with Fiat to sell off Chrysler -- an American auto company -- to a foreign competitor.

87-He selected Eric Holder to be his Attorney General who said, "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."

88-He selected Adolfo Carrion to be Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. Carrion is serving under a cloud after allegations that he accepted thousands of dollars in cash from developers whose projects he approved.

89-He released the previously classified Bush "torture" memos, giving America's enemies (present and future) a good idea of exactly how far U.S. interrogations will go. Release of the memos also negatively impacted morale at the CIA according to Michael Haydin, former Director of the CIA, engendering fears of retribution for past actions.

90-He visited the CIA, thanked employees for their work and said they're invaluable to national security. He explained his decision to release the memos, then told everyone not to feel bad because he was now acknowledging that mistakes had been made. He was talking of course, about their mistakes and not his. "That's how we learn," Obama said, as if he were talking to toddlers.

91-He promised the CIA employees that his administration would not go after anyone for doing their jobs during the previous administration, then less than 48 hours later he flip-flopped (apparently under pressure from George Soros and MoveOn.org) saying that he would leave open the possibility of investigations by Congress or an independent "Truth Commission" and, based on their findings, let Attorney General Eric Holder decide whether to prosecute.

92-His release of the "torture" memos opens up American citizens to international tribunals. A UN lawyer said that the US is obliged to prosecute lawyers who drafted the memos or else violate the Geneva Conventions.

93-His release of the "torture" memos opens the door to potential witch hunts of Bush administration officials from lawyers who advised the administration on the legality of "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", up to and including Bush and Cheney themselves. Some pundits have said this is "unprecedented" in American history and smacks of a "bannana republic" mentality where incoming regimes criminalize the outgoing regime.

94-His release of the "torture" memos endangers national security, and a Rasmussen poll says 58% of Americans concur with that sentiment. The poll also found that only 28% believe the release of the memos helps America’s image abroad. And only 28% think the Obama administration should do any further investigating of how the Bush administration treated terrorism suspects.

95-He forced banks that didn't want TARP money to take it, then added on stipulations about executive pay and government control after the fact. He secretly forced the Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch, then allowed the bank to be criticized for overpaying. He is preventing profitable banks from paying back TARP funds. He wants to convert the shares of Preferred Stock the government acquired in the banks into Common Stock, which will give the U.S. government voting rights and thus management control.

96-He authorized "stress tests" on the banks, the results of which may cause a run on banks with the weakest grades, or alternatively, will allow the government to force more banks to take TARP money hence giving the government even greater control over the banking system of the United States.

97-He enrolled his daughters in a D.C. private school, but directed Education Secretary Arne Duncan not to admit any new students into the D.C. voucher program, which would allow low-income children to attend private schools (including the one his daughters attend). Even Juan Williams of NPR is baffled by Obama's move and says it hurts minority children.

98-He announced the need for comprehensive immigration reform during the middle of a major recession when American unemployment numbers are increasing monthly.

99-He remains in campaign mode rather than governing. He's still trying to blame things on Bush and divert attention from himself. It's time for him to grow up and move on.

100-He nominated Harold Koh for the position of Legal Adviser of the Department of State. Koh is a "transnationalist" who believes in the supremacy of international law over Constitutional law. He has argured that "concepts like liberty, equality and privacy are not exclusively American constitutional ideas but, rather, part and parcel of the global human rights movement." He believes that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands takes precedence over U.S. courts. He has consistently urged the U.S. to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), also located in the Netherlands. If the U.S. were to join, the ICC’s prosecutor could bring war crimes indictments against American soldiers. He has argued that the UN should have the final say over U.S. military decisions. He believes the will of the international community takes priority over American sovereignity.

These mistakes give us frightening insight into the man who is now the President of the United States. He is clearly a "rookie". He is partisan. He is duplicitous. He is a panderer. While claiming to be a "Christian" he disdains his own religion in favor of Islam. He snubs our traditional allies while sidling up to petty dictators and repressive thugs. He is arrogant and self-centered. He dismisses anything "before Obama". He is naive and believes his own personal charisma will transform people, opinions, foreign leaders and even enemies. [Failure to be transformed is your problem, not his.]

He is clearly a socialist, statist and globalist. He is easily manipulated by left-wing individuals and groups such as George Soros and MoveOn. He has little regard for the military or veterans. He has no regard the Constitution or American sovereignity. He basically does not like America, seeks to distance himself from its greatness, and feels the need to apologize for its behavior. He has a hidden agenda which seems to include nationalization of the banks and the auto industry. This man is frightening indeed.

Global Warming News - March 2009

Real News Stories To Share With Global-Warming Skeptics

United States
March came in like a lion... and went out like a lion. In between, it wasn't too bad. The NOAA said that the average temperature for March in the contiguous United States ranked near average. It was the 63rd warmest March out of 113 years since record-keeping began in the United States in 1895. The average temperature for March was 42°F, which was 0.4°F below the 20th century mean.

On Monday, March 2nd, more than 2,000 clean-energy activists converged at a coal-fired power plant on Capitol Hill for a protest they billed as the largest display of civil disobedience on the climate crisis in U.S. history. Willing to be arrested for their cause, they encircled and blocked entrances to the plant, which powers the U.S. Capitol and House and Senate office buildings. Organized by Capitol Climate Action, the protest to fight climate change came with the inopportune backdrop of the city's worst snowstorm of the year and below-freezing temperatures.


D.C. Global-Warming Protest - Mar 2.
Parts of the Northeast United States faced freezing temps on Tuesday, March 3rd, a day after a winter storm clogged roadways, cut electricity and dumped as much as 15 inches of snow. Snow storm advisories were lifted, but parts of of New York and Pennsylvania were still placed under wind-chill advisories, which means winds and low temperatures could put exposed skin at risk for frostbite. Parts of New England received as much as 15 inches of snow as the late winter storm churned its way up the Eastern Seaboard. Earlier, the storm had dumped up to 11 inches of snow in parts of the Carolinas. Commuters in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, struggled Monday with blowing and drifting snow, freezing temperatures, gusty winds and periods of sleet and freezing rain. In New York City, schools were closed for the first snow day in five years.


Snow Day in NYC - Mar 2.
In the last week of March, two major snow storms wreaked havoc across the Plains States. As the first of the spring blizzards hit the Texas Panhandle, it caused numerous accidents, shutting down major highways and paralyzing the region as residents braced for up to a foot of snow, freezing 45-mph winds, and massive snowdrifts. The blizzard was part of a storm system that extended across the Southern High Plains, including eastern New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. About 1 million people were affected, including some 400,000 Texans. The weather left hundreds of travelers stranded in Colorado and knocked out power in Oklahoma.

The storm system moved into the region late Thursday, March 26th and by early Friday, officials had closed Interstate 40 east and west of Amarillo and U.S. 287 north of the city early Friday. All major highways around Dalhart in the northwest corner of the Panhandle were also closed. The National Guard was placed on alert to help any blizzard-stranded motorists, a DPS dispatcher in Amarillo said. Schools and businesses were shutting down in the Texas Panhandle, and most flights were canceled at the Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport on Friday. Visibility was limited, especially in flat, open fields and agricultural areas with no houses to restrict the horizontally moving snow and biting winds. The National Weather Service was predicting snowfall in Texas of up to a foot and winds gusting to more than 45 mph that could lead to snowdrifts of up to 11 feet.

On March 28th, the snow storm buried parts of Kansas under more than two feet of snow. The storm knocked out power to more than 17,000 customers. The same storm also dumped heavy snow on parts of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. The National Weather Service said the heaviest snow in Kansas by Saturday morning was 28 inches around the Pratt area. Other areas of Kansas reported snow drifts up to six feet high. Some areas were dealing with freezing rain that coated power lines and trees with ice up to an inch thick.


Gym roof collapse, Fort Supply, OK - Mar 28.
In Oklahoma, heavy snow damaged several roofs. The Woodward area received an estimated 18 to 25 inches of snow. The roof at Merriman’s, a furniture store southeast of Woodward, collapsed as did the roof of an oil field service company on 19th and Main in Woodward, the Woodward News reported. In Buffalo, emergency management officials said Grace Living Center, a nursing home, had to be evacuated after the roof collapsed, according to the newspaper. Residents were moved to Harper County Community Hospital. In Fort Supply, the roof of the school gym collapsed. Woods County Commissioner Clint Strawn said the beef building at the fairgrounds in Alva suffered some damage from heavy snow and the roof of the senior citizen center, also in Alva, was leaking following the storm.


Oil services roof collapse, Woodward, OK - March 28.
Waynoka Mayor Pat Smiley said snow damaged some building awnings, windows and several small carports. She said heavy snowfall kept one city worker clearing roads from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. He also worked eight hours Sunday clearing roads. “One of our workers was out 15 hours Saturday doing roads all day just trying to get people where they could get in and out of their houses,” she said. “We were at a standstill.”

On Sunday, March 29th, an employee at the Central Christian School in Hutchinson Kansas, discovered that a portion of the roof had collapsed under the weight of at least six feet of snow. Approximately 1500 square feet of roof (an area about 30' by 50') collapsed into the cafeteria. Blowing snow from an upper roof onto the lower roof over the cafeteria caused excessive drifts. Classes were canceled until at least Wednesday.


North Dakota snow - Mar 30.
On March 30th, a second snow storm "hammered" the plains states dumping in some places more than a foot of snow. The storm closed hundreds of miles of highway, closed schools and offices, and caused at least 5 deaths. The National Weather Service posted blizzard warnings across sections of the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana. It said more than 16 inches of snow had fallen by early Monday night in the Bismarck area, only about 2 inches away from tying the winter record of 101.06 inches set during the winter of 1996-1997. The National Weather Service said Glen Ullin, North Dakota got 22 inches. The weather service was forecasting 20 to 30 inches of snow in South Dakota's rugged Black Hills, where the former gold mining town of Lead recorded 43 inches in the March 23-24 storm. Since autumn, Lead had 218 inches of snow.

Interstate 94 was closed for about 140 miles from Bismarck west to Dickinson on Sunday night until late Monday afternoon. South Dakota shut down 192 miles of I-90 from Murdo to the Wyoming state line, and parts of the highway also were blocked in Wyoming, highway officials said. Interstate 80 was closed around Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Monday afternoon. In Sheridan Wyoming, winds gusted to 50 mph, creating snowdrifts up to 6 feet. To the southeast, trucker Allen Harrell was stranded in Gillette. "It's a wet, icy snow and it's just sticking to everything," he said. The storm was blamed for an 18-vehicle pileup Monday in Colorado on eastbound I-76 about 30 miles northeast of Denver, and for a pileup that temporarily closed a section of westbound I-70 about 40 miles east of Denver.


Bismarck, ND - March 30.
In Bismarck, residents were beginning to say that they are sick of the snow! Complaining about the most recent foot of snow they received, Brad Feldman at KMMB-TV talked with people who were "ready to help Mother Nature pack her bags". Resident Greg Gruidl told Feldman: "I got to put it in words I can put on television... Its getting old." Len Beckler told Feldman: "I tell you what, one more year of this I am seriously considering moving somewhere south where it is a little bit warmer." See video HERE.

The ski season got off to a slow start, but the snow kept on coming in the Cascades. Another winter storm hit the Cascades on the night of March 30th into the 31st. Heavy snow pummeled the passes and peaks. An additional 1' to 2' of powder blanketed the high country from 2,000' on up, making for excellent spring skiing conditions.

Spokane Washington had its snowiest winter ever. The National Weather Service said that the four new inches that fell on Sunday, March 29th either tied or pushed the city past a 59-year-old record. Several other Northwest cities were also above average for snowfall. More than 93 inches of snow fell on Spokane this winter. About 60 of that came in December, when the city set a monthly record. More than 23 inches had fallen on Seattle, making it one of the snowiest winters in the city’s history. But that’s still less than the all-time record for a Seattle winter. Boise recorded a monthly snowfall record in December. Pendleton and Lewiston also had above average snowfall this season.

In Utah, 3 snow storms in 8 days dumped over seven feet of snow in Little Cottonwood Canyon at the end of March. Alta and Snowbird seemed to be acting like a snow magnet, drawing the Lake Effect snows the most, although other high bench areas were also hit extremely hard. Alta had roughly 90" of snow on the ground, after getting 22" in the first storm, then 39" in the second, and then another 22" on March 30th. Skiers who did not keep up their speed were seen disappearing in the powder, making skiing difficult even for the powder-hungry experts. Although Park City was sheltered by the mountains from some of the snow, nearby Parley's canyon, which includes I-80, picked up over 3 feet during the same 8 days.

Canada:
On March 31st, Canada's CBC was reporting that Prince Edward Island was hit with its second snowstorm since the beginning of spring. About 1,000 customers on P.E.I. were without power even though the snowstorm that closed schools for two days in a row came to an end that morning. Outages were reported in Charlottetown along Kensington Road and on Souris Road in the eastern end of the province. Toward Summerside, some customers in the Bedeque area were also without power. "We are experiencing windy conditions and we are experiencing snow on lines," said Jim Coyle of Maritime Electric. The thick layer of heavy snow closed schools for the second day in a row, and government offices had delayed openings on Tuesday. The snow began in the western part of the province on Monday morning, hit Charlottetown in the early afternoon and continued right through the night. Twenty-two centimetres of snow were recorded in Charlottetown Monday, with more falling on Tuesday morning.


Snow P.E.I. - Mar 31.
Europe:
On March 10th, drivers in parts of southern and central Sweden were surprised by heavy snow, causing more than 100 accidents in Stockholm county alone. Road conditions remained slick overnight in large parts of the country as motorists braced for another harrowing commute on Wednesday morning. Thick snow cover and icy roads caused traffic problems across Sweden throughout the day on Tuesday. Around 10pm, a truck skidded off the E20 motorway near Gröndal in Södermanland in south central Sweden. No injuries were reported, however. “Westbound traffic has come to a complete stop. We’ve had to direct traffic ourselves,” said Hans-Erik Åkerlund of the Södermanland police to the TT news agency. According to Åkerlund, there were around 20 accidents during the evening, but no reports of any serious injuries. Drivers in the Stockholm area struggled with difficult road conditions as well on Tuesday.

“From six in the morning until now we’ve had 108 accidents,” said Stockholm police spokesperson Thomas Johansson to TT around 9pm on Tuesday. A violent crash between two cars occurred at 4pm in Hallstavik north of Norrtälje in eastern Sweden, claiming the life of an older man. According to police, however, most of Tuesday's accidents did not involve serious injuries. In Västmanland in central Sweden slippery roads caused a number of accidents on Tuesday evening. “It’s getting worse and worse. Just now we’ve had ten [accidents] in a short period of time,” said Maria Rupla of the Västerås police to TT. Rupla added, however, that police hadn’t received any reports of serious injuries. “It’s been snowing all day and it seems to be extremely slick out there, so we’re urging people to drive carefully, or not to drive at all,” she said. Slippery roads also caused a number of accidents further west in Örebro.

Turkey:
On Monday, March 30th, the snow-covered body of a Turkish journalist was found where he had died after a helicopter crash 5 days earlier. Ismail Gunes, the only survivor of the six people aboard the helicopter, had called an emergency hot line on his cell phone, begging for rescue in the bitter cold until the cell phone lost power. He said he was wedged in the wreckage with a badly broken foot, was freezing and that all other passengers seemed to be dead. Gunes, a 34-year-old cameraman, eventually freed himself from the wreckage and used a piece from the helicopter as a sled to reach a safer place, rescue workers said. "He was found between two rocks. He probably could not be seen earlier because he was covered with snow," said Orhan Sali, his colleague from the IHA news agency.

Thousands of rescue workers had battled snowstorms and fog in an ill-fated effort to find the wreckage without knowing its exact location in a mountainous area of 12 square miles (30 square kilometers) in central Turkey. "There's snow everywhere, there's fog. There's fog everywhere," Gunes told the emergency operator who asked what he saw around him during their recorded telephone conversation. The conversation was later broadcast on television stations in Turkey. The bodies of the five others, including a political party leader, were recovered Saturday, March 28th. A small rescue party kept looking for Gunes and eventually found his body just hundreds of yards (meters) away from the wreckage.

Scientific Opinion

700 Scientists Dissent Over AGW: In December 2008, a Senate Minority report listed the names and comments of 650 international scientists who dissent against the claims of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). An additional 59 scientists have been added to the report bringing the total to over 700. This group of dissenters is now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.

The increasing number of skeptical scientific voices is accelerating unabated in 2009. A March 14, 2009 article in the Australian revealed that Japanese scientists are now at the forefront of rejecting man-made climate fears prompted by the UN IPCC. Prominent Japanese Geologist Dr. Shigenori Maruyama, a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences who has authored more than 125 scientific publications, said in March 2009 that "there was widespread skepticism among his colleagues about the IPCC's fourth and latest assessment report.

"I do not find the supposed scientific consensus among my colleagues," noted Earth Scientist Dr. Javier Cuadros on March 3, 2009. Cuadros is of the UK Natural History Museum, who specializes in Clay Mineralogy and has published more than 30 scientific papers. Award-Winning Princeton University Physicist Dr. Robert H. Austin, who has published 170 scientific papers, was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences lamented the current fears over global warming. "Unfortunately, Climate Science has become Political Science...It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomena which is statistically questionable at best," Austin told the minority staff on the Environment and Public Works Committee on March 2, 2009.

Climate Confounds Scientists: At the WattsUpWithThat Blog, Steven Goddard posted a guest article which suggests that climate scientists are having a hard time coming to grips with current cooling trend. He quotes Isaac Held of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Princeton, NJ who said, "It is possible that a fraction of the most recent rapid warming since the 1970’s was due to a free variation in climate. Suggesting that the warming might possibly slow down or even stagnate for a few years before rapid warming commences again.”

He also quotes an MSNBC/Discovery story by Michael Reilly who writes...

Earth's climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and a heat surplus that should have cranked up the planetary thermostat. "This is nothing like anything we've seen since 1950," Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. "Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La Ninas. This current cooling doesn't have one."

Kyle Swanson

...Swanson said the overall trend is flat, even though temperatures should have gone up by 0.2 degrees Centigrade (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) during that time... But just what's causing the cooling is a mystery. Sinking water currents in the north Atlantic Ocean could be sucking heat down into the depths. Or an overabundance of tropical clouds may be reflecting more of the sun's energy than usual back out into space... Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years.

--Michael Reilly, Warming Might Be On Hold, Study Finds, 2 March 2009

And yet, despite the fact that these climate scientists are "confounded" about the causes and processes of global-warming, politicians continue preparing to wreck the U.S. economy with a carbon tax "cap and trade" system. Simply unbelievable.

Global Hurricane Activity Hits 30-Year Low: Ryan N. Maue, doctoral candidate at the Florida State University COAPS (Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies), posted a guest article at ClimateAudit.org, in which he revealed that global hurricane activity has decreased to the lowest level in 30 years.

Using a well-accepted metric called the Accumulated Cyclone Energy index or ACE for short (Bell and Chelliah 2006), which has been used by Klotzbach (2006) and Emanuel (2005) (PDI is analogous to ACE), and most recently by myself in Maue (2009), simple analysis shows that 24-month running sums of global ACE or hurricane energy have plummeted to levels not seen in 30 years. Why use 24-month running sums instead of simply yearly values? Since a primary driver of the Earth's climate from year to year is the El Nino Southern Oscillation, (ENSO) acts on time scales on the order of 2-7 years, and the fact that the bulk of the Southern Hemisphere hurricane season occurs from October - March, a reasonable interpretation of global hurricane activity requires a better metric than simply calendar year totals...

Why the record low ACE? ...All of these numbers tell a very simple story: just as there are active periods of hurricane activity around the globe, there are inactive periods, and we are currently experiencing one of the most impressive inactive periods, now for almost 3 years. --Ryan N. Maue, Great Depression! Global Hurricane Activity Reaches New Lows, 12 March 2009

Global Accumulated Cyclone Energy (Click to enlarge)

Chaos Theory Explains Temperature Shifts: A new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down. Scientists at the university used a math application known as synchronized chaos and applied it to climate data taken over the past 100 years. "Imagine that you have four synchronized swimmers and they are not holding hands and they do their program and everything is fine; now, if they begin to hold hands and hold hands tightly, most likely a slight error will destroy the synchronization. Well, we applied the same analogy to climate," researcher Dr. Anastasios Tsonis said.

Scientists said that the air and ocean systems of the earth are now showing signs of synchronizing with each other. Eventually, the systems begin to couple and the synchronous state is destroyed, leading to a climate shift. "In climate, when this happens, the climate state changes. You go from a cooling regime to a warming regime or a warming regime to a cooling regime. This way we were able to explain all the fluctuations in the global temperature trend in the past century," Tsonis said. "The research team has found the warming trend of the past 30 years has stopped and in fact global temperatures have leveled off since 2001."

The most recent climate shift probably occurred at about the year 2000. Now the question is how has warming slowed and how much influence does human activity have? "But if we don't understand what is natural, I don't think we can say much about what the humans are doing. So our interest is to understand -- first the natural variability of climate -- and then take it from there. So we were very excited when we realized a lot of changes in the past century from warmer to cooler and then back to warmer were all natural," Tsonis said. Tsonis said he thinks the current trend of steady or even cooling earth temps may last a couple of decades or until the next climate shift occurs.


Political Opinion

International Conference on Climate Change: The Heartland Institute sponsored its second International Conference on Climate Change. The conference ran from March 8th through the 10th. The theme of the conference was "Global warming: Was it ever really a crisis?" According to the Heartland Institute: "The answer was a resounding 'No'." More than 75 papers and keynote addresses were presented by some of the world's leading climatologists, economists, policy makers, and opinion leaders. You can access videos, audios, and PowerPoint presentations of the proceedings HERE.

The Heartland Institute describes itself at their website, as "a national nonprofit research and education organization, tax exempt under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, and founded in Chicago in 1984. It is not affiliated with any political party, business, or foundation. Heartland's mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems."

A review of the proceedings at the link above, reveals a fairly balanced program which devoted a significant portion of the conference to scientific presentations, with a nearly equal portion devoted to economic and political presentations. It was very difficult therefore, to decide whether to place this story under the category of "Scientific Opinion" or "Political Opinion". In the end, I opted for "Political Opinion" because the Heartland Institute, although not affiliated with any political party, is clearly attempting to affect government policy which appears to be moving in the direction of a Cap and Trade scheme.

To be fair to the Heartland Institute, the entire global warming debate is nothing less than a political issue. Global warming alarmists use faulty science, faulty computer models, and faulty assumptions to arrive at faulty conclusions about the causes, mechanisms, projections and consequences of global warming. Their government-mandated "solutions" are nothing less than a power grab aimed at taxing hard-working Americans into oblivion so they can re-distribute wealth and further consolidate their power. Vaclav Klaus was a speaker at the conference. Here is what he had to say on the subject...

It is evident that the environmentalists don’t want to change the climate. They want to change us and our behavior. Their ambition is to control and manipulate us.

Therefore, it shouldn't be suprising that they recommend preventive, not adaptive, policies. Adaptation would be a voluntary behavior - our voluntary behavior - which is not what they aim at. They do not want to recognize that the capacity to adapt is arguably the most fundamental characteristic of mankind, and our adaptive capacity is increasing all the time with the development of technology.

The environmentalists speak about saving the planet. We have to ask: from what, and from whom? One thing I know for sure, we have to save it - and us - from them.

--Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, International Conference on Climate Change, 8 March 2009

Senators Refuse To Accept Evidence: Democratic senators told CNSNews in March that despite a recent study that shows global temperatures have been dropping since 2001 and that projects the globe will continue to cool for the next several decades, they think the United States should continue to push forward with aggressive action to curb climate change. The study, released on January 28th by Kyle L. Swanson and Anastasios A. Tsonis, who are professors in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found that the Earth has been cooling since 2001 and projected that due to “global variation” the climate would continue to cool for the next 20 to 30 years.


Ron Wyden (left) - Debbie Stabenow (right)
“I think there is a bipartisan consensus in the Senate that the science is in,” said Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, when asked if the government should implement new policies to apparently combat global warming despite the new study. “This is a very real problem. Now the debate is on the remedies -- but the science is in.”

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), also dismissed the study’s findings and said she thinks the debate is settled. “I don’t know what to make of them,” said Stabenow when asked about the study’s findings. “But climate change is not just about temperatures going up. It’s also about volatility. So, I don’t know. But, overwhelmingly, scientists agree that the climate is becoming more volatile and that climate change is real,” she said.

Thus, it would appear that these Democratic senators, among others, are either: a) ignorant of the real scientific facts, b) politically motivated, or c) intellectually challenged. I suspect that it is probably a combination of b) and c). The Democrats in Congress want to impose a 'cap and trade' program on Americans which is nothing less than a carbon tax that will raise hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue for the government at the expense of the taxpayer. It is a move that, if enacted, will negatively impact the economy at a time when we are struggling to find the bottom of our currrent recession. It could turn a recession into a depression. The attitude of such senators seems to be: "Don't confuse me with facts. Damn the science... full speed ahead."

Tea Parties: A Big Deal

The response of liberals to the Tax Day Tea Parties was emblematic of their fear of what the Tea Parties might portend. Let's just consider for a moment what we saw...

Some liberals said the Tea Parties were "orchestrated" by various entities ranging from the Republican Party, to GOP billionaires, to organizations like FreedomWorks, to Rush Limbaugh, to Glenn Beck, to FoxNews. Yet, others declared that the Tea Parties were "disorganized", "incoherent", not clear in their message. The discrepancy between these two views is chasmic. Were they "organized" or "disorganized"?

CNN reporter -- if you want to call her that -- Susan Roesgen, stopped reporting the news and started becoming the news at a Tea Party in Chicago. She cut off a protester in mid-sentence and started upbraiding him, saying that the people of Chicago were receiving "tax cuts" and the State of Illinois was receiving billions in Federal funding, apparently clueless to the fact that it was those very protesters who would be footing the bill. When the crowd rejected her support for Obama and his "tax cuts", she simply declared that the event was "anti-government and anti-CNN", and then she turned it over to the anchor desk in an effort to appear as though she had "won the argument".

CNN's Anderson Cooper and others, resorted to childish humor as they mocked Tea Party protesters using sexual inuendo referring to protesters as "teabagging". Apparently "teabagging" (verb) is a crude slang term meant to describe a sexual act. Brent Bozell, President of the conservative Media Research Center, said such coverage was "insulting." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow with guest Ana Marie Cox of Air America, also exploited the double entendre. By one count, the two of them used the word "teabag" more than 50 times on a single show. MSNBC's David Shuster did no less when he filled in for Countdown host Keith Olbermann. The protests, he explained, amount to "Teabagging day for the right wing and they are going nuts for it." He described the parties as simultaneously "full-throated" and "toothless," and continued: "They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending."

Some went so far as to label the protesters "racists", inferring that they simply hate Barack Obama because he is black. Janeane Garofalo delivered probably the lowest slur imaginable, incorporating the sexual inuendo with the racist label. "Let's be very honest about what this is about," Garofalo said. "It's not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes... This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks."

Democratic adviser Robert Shrum wrote an article in The Week about the Tea Parties, in what the US News and World Report called "a diatribe that seems to border on hysteria." Shrum called the Tea Parties "insubstantial," "incoherent," "hate-filled," and "paranoia on parade." He compared protesters to those who supported McCarthyism and anti-Catholicism. He also threw in references to anti-Muslim rhetoric, swastikas, and rising gun sales.

Some outlets tried to downplay the size of the event in an attempt to make it look insignificant. Tea Party protests took place in over 800 locales drawing anywhere from half a million to a million people. One organization -- Americans for Tax Reform -- started an unofficial counting of the Tea Parties HERE. Having counted only about half the events nationwide (364), they are estimating that 449,385 people attended those events. Yet, some of the liberal media reported attendance as only "thousands" or "tens of thousands", knowing full well that close to 20,000 people attended a single event in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the Tea Parties were "the largest single-day turnout of protesters in the US since 750,000 people marched in Los Angeles in support of rights and protections for immigrants on March 25, 2006." Despite that, "Critics of the movement said the numbers aren't really that impressive."

Another liberal smear of the protesters was the suggestion that the Tea Parties were composed primarily of hard-core, right-wing extremists. Again from CSM, "Jeffrey Kimball, a professor emeritus of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, says the protesters seemed to represent the most extreme adherents of American conservatism, hardly representative of the average American. "We may have just seen the whole movement" at these protests, says Mr. Kimball. "I don't see it as a groundswell, but a manifestation by those people who form the core of... the extreme right reacting both to the condition of our time and President Obama – he's black and he's liberal." [emphasis added]

Nancy Pelosi referred to the Tea Parties as an "astro-turf" campaign. "This [Tea Party] initiative is funded by the high end -- we call it 'astro-turf', it's not really a grassroots movement. It’s 'astro-turf' by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class."

"The White House says the president is unaware of the tea parties and will hold his own event today," ABC’s Dan Harris said on "Good Morning America" on April 15th. Could it really be that the President of the United States with all of his intelligence sources and poll watchers didn't know anything about the Tea Parties? Or was it more likely that he just didn't want to acknowledge them?

Obama advisor David Axelrod on the Sunday morning talk show, Face the Nation, said the Tea Parties could "mutate into something that's unhealthy." This of course was an obvious inference to right-wing domestic terrorism or violence. You know, the kind of implications that were in the Department of Homeland Security's advisory report issued to all law enforcement agencies across the country just a week before the Tea Parties. Funny about the timing of that DHS report, isn't it?

Well, let's set the record straight. The Tea Party protests were A BIG DEAL. By any measure, they were a HUGE SUCCESS, and the liberals know it. Their reaction to the events clearly demonstrate that. The Tea Party campaign scared them and they reacted to it in a way that revealed those fears. Allow me to elaborate. When a person is frightened by something, the typical human response is "fight or flight". You either stand up against your perceived enemy, or you run away from it. The reactions of the liberals outlined above can be neatly classified into these two categories.

Those who got angry and shouted back against the Tea Parties are in the "fight" category. Slam your enemy with ad-hominem attacks. Call them names. Argue with them in front of a live TV camera. Actively try to make them look foolish or silly. Smear them by trying to associate them with wildly inaccurate historical counterparts (i.e., Nazis, McCarthyists, etc). Make fun of them using pre-pubescent sexual jokes. Suggest that they are "dangerous" extremists or fanatics.

Those who tried to ignore them, and downplay their size or importance are in the "flight" category. They pretend like it didn't even happen. It's not a big deal. The whole thing was a non-event. Like Obama, pretend you don't even know about it. Deny its true significance. Say it's not a grassroots movement, it's a subversive plot by "rich guys". These people are running away from reality. They are in complete denial.

What undoubtedly frightens liberals most, is that Barack Obama has not yet been in office for 100 days and already he has turned off a large segment of middle-class America. Sure, they're conservatives and libertarians, but who would have thought they would get testy so soon. ["Hey. We won the election, remember? Shut-up you conservatives!"]

Worse still, these conservatives are the very people liberals are counting on to pick up Obama's spending tab -- the ones who pay the taxes. They see a huge, grassroots backlash rearing up that may well derail or hinder their socialist agenda. They know that this whole movement was organic in nature motivated primarily by a viral Rick Santelli YouTube video. They realize that this was the same sort of technology that launched Obama into power, and that this same technology might now be working against them.

They also know that when grandmothers and families with children come out to protest, they are facing a real groundswell of opposition. They know that if half a million to a million people come out to protest in the middle of a work day, that the crowds might have been much larger if the events were held on a Saturday or a holiday. They know that there were people who wanted to go, but couldn't -- people who were sick, previously engaged, unwilling to face bad weather, didn't know of a Tea Party in their area, or were working hard that day to pay the taxes Obama wants to appropriate.

Liberals know that if this movement continues to grow, the next four years are going to be a living hell. They also know that the Tea Parties really WERE a big deal, and that they could "mutate into something that's unhealthy" for the Democrats in 2010.

EPA Ruling Spurs Controversy

The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Friday that greenhouse gases linked to climate change "endanger public health and welfare." Carbon dioxide and methane were among the culprits cited by the Agency. The announcement generated a flurry of activity and a lot of buzz within the Beltway. Of particular concern was the fact that human beings emit carbon dioxide every time they exhale. Humans also produce methane gas via flatulence.

Nancy Pelosi (D-Moon) immediately introduced a bill that would call for the extermination of all human life on the planet. "If humans produce greenhouse gases, then we've got to go right to the source of the problem and address it HEAD-ON," she said. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), said he didn't think HEAD-ON™ would work, saying it's OK for headaches but not for gas. Other lawmakers reminded Pelosi that Congress does not have jurisdiction over the whole world and described her proposal as "too sweeping". Speaker Pelosi responded by saying, "Then let's start with America. We're the cause of all the world's problems anyway, aren't we? If we exterminate all Americans, other countries will follow our lead."

Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano was inclined to agree with Pelosi. Napolitano said, "Let's see. Global warming is 'man-made'. Global warming is a 'disaster'. Therefore, global warming is a 'man-made disaster'. We now refer to terrorism as 'man-made disasters'. Therefore, humans who create 'man-made disasters' such as global warming are 'terrorists' by definition. So, if we exterminate all the humans, we then get rid of all the terrorists, and we eliminate all man-made disasters including global warming. Yep. Sounds logical to me."

CIA Director Leon Panetta suggested that a new "Overseas Contingency Operation" should be launched to attack the "Man-Made Disaster Masters". But the details of Panetta's plan are somewhat vague. Some believe Panetta wants to introduce a revolutionary new plan where the CIA would go overseas and covertly hire thugs and killers who would then come to America disguised as illegal aliens. "It's a no-brainer. Anybody can get across that border," said an un-named source at the CIA. Once here, these secret cells of foreign killers would wait to be activated. At the proper time, these cells would attack all the "Man-Made Disaster Masters" in this country. Most experts agree that such a plan could produce positive results. Members of Congress would likely be the first targets of the CIA, since it is well-known that they produce the largest quantity of hot air in the country.

It is also believed by some that a significant number of guilt-ridden Liberals will commit suicide when confronted with the fact that their mere existence is a violation of Pelosi's new law and that they themselves are polluting the planet. Others however, are not so sure. A writer who contributes to American Thinker said that if the past is any indication, Liberals will be the last to go...

Consider for a moment that Liberals are always whining about helping the poor, social injustice, and all that 'bleeding-heart' stuff. Yet, when it comes down to it, they personally do little or nothing to actually help others with their own time and money. It's a well-known fact that Conservatives give more than Liberals. That's why Liberals want the government to do it for them. They feel guilty, so they get the government to take money out of somebody else's pocket to assuage their own guilt. I would bet that Liberals will probably make sure that they are the directors of the death camps so they can kill off all the Conservatives first... for the good of the planet of course. --Ima Goodman, American Thinker

Republicans are expected to oppose such measures, but it is not clear if they will vote as a block on this issue. Some RINOs including former Republican presidential candidate John McCain are known to have fallen for the global warming hoax. The Republicans have said they intend to introduce alternative legislation that would not be as dramatic as the Pelosi plan. Their plan would merely require all Americans to wear gas-masks. However, the gas-masks would not be used to protect humans from the carbon dioxide or methane in the air. Rather, the masks would be reversed to protect the atmosphere from humans. "It's quite simple really. We just install a CO2-absorbing filter in the outlet port of the mask, and it collects all the CO2 when you exhale," said an un-named Republican environmental consultant.

But Democrats say the Republican plan doesn't go far enough. "How can we be sure that all Americans will wear the masks religiously?," asked a Democratic environmental nut-job. "And what about the methane from flatulence? A gas-mask won't take care of that. Until the Repulicans are prepared to stick a methane filter up everybody's butt, I don't think their plan will get any traction in this Congress," he continued.

Debate on the issue is expected to begin next week.

Open And Transparent

Click to enlarge.
This is my first attempt at a cartoon... (but I guess you figured that out). Sorry for its crudeness.

Study: Why Liberals Are Odor-Free

The results of a new study were released today in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding an abnormality which primarily seems to affect Liberals. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia cooperating with doctors from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, recently concluded a ten-year study into the mystery of why the fecal matter of Liberals does not stink. According to the report, the answer lies in the relative proximity of Liberals to "traditional" forms of media.

"The data was clear and unambiguous," said one of the researchers. "We found that Liberals who were most closely associated with newspapers such as the New York Times, or Los Angeles Times for example, were ten times more likely to have fecal matter that emitted no odor." And the results were similar for TV as well. Liberals who claimed some association with CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, CNN, or MSNBC were 7 to 9 times more likely to have fecal matter that did not offend. "Even those who had an association to National Public Radio (NPR), were more likely to have odor-free feces," said the researcher.

"This is good news", said Swedish doctor Jans Hopkinstrom of the CDC. "Dehurdeschmurlesch verrly... Excuse me... We feared at first that it might be a grotesque deformity. We were concerned that Liberals might be absorbing the toxic fecal odors into their livers." That would produce a condition that could lead to untold diseases and complications later in life, according to medical authorities. Some in the health community secretly feared widespread contagion from Liberals with exploding fecal-tainted livers. "Our greatest concerns have now been averted," said Hopkinstrom.

More interesting, the study found that one's association with the "traditional" media was not necessarily limited to being a journalist, reporter, editor, producer, executive, pundit or occasional news contributor. "It was fascinating to learn that even members of the general public who were exposed to several hours per day of the 'traditional' media, were more likely to have olfactory-deficient dung", said one of the researchers. Readers, viewers and listeners whose exposure to 'traditional' media sources exceeded 60% were most likely to be affected. Defecation odor levels dropped linearly as exposure levels increased, according to the report. Those who were exposed ONLY [100%] to 'traditional' media sources had fecal odor levels that were below 0.001 parts per trillion (or undetectable to the human sense of smell) the study said.

Not unexpectedly, the fecal residue of Liberals did not fair so well in experiments with "non-traditional" media outlets. Liberal fecal odor levels were "off-the-charts" on conservative talk-radio programs. Liberal fecal matter also exceeded olfactory limits at FoxNews TV, FoxNews.com, and in the vast majority of the right-wing blogosphere, according to test results. A You-Tube interview with Dr. Jans Hopkinstrom of the CDC will be forthcoming... any day now... soon.

Tea Party - Piscataway, NJ

I attended a local Tea Party in Piscataway, NJ today at 5:00 PM in Johnson Park. Mayor Steve Lonegan was one of the main speakers. Lonegan is a Republican running for Governor against Jon Corzine and there were plenty of campaign signs in the crowd. With at least 500 people in attendance (one estimate ventured closer to 1000), Lonegan warned of "creeping socialism". He said, "The very core values of our country are under attack like never before." He also noted how New Jersey was the setting for several important battles during the American Revolution. There were a lot of signs and banners with sayings such as "Throw The Idiots Out" and "Can We Bankrupt The Country? Yes We Can."

Ron Tolles of Bridgewater, wearing clothes he typically wears to Revolutionary War re-enactments, said "I don't need a sign. My clothes are the message... I'm just a member of the militia fighting for our country." Tolles, who traces his roots to Connecticut in the 1600s, said those who attended today's events were kin to American patriots who dumped tea into Boston Harbor in 1773 to protest British taxation.


Taxpayer Amnesty

TEA - Taxed Enough Already

God Bless America

Pre-Event Crowd

Born Free - Taxed 2 Death

Event Starts - National Anthem

We ARE the People!

God Only Requires 10%
Chains You Can Believe In!

First Speaker

Ron Tolles

What's In Your Wallet?

Stop The Spending & Pork

This Country Began As A Tax Revolt

Mayor Steve Lonegan

Crowd Still Growing

Smile! You're On DHS Camera

Americans For Prosperity

Obamanomics: Trickle-up Poverty

Chant: "Liberty & Integrity"

Crowd Still Growing

I really love this picture...
Tea-bags, Tri-corner, Great sign, Red-White-Blue kid
(Click to enlarge)

More great flags

Jersey Boys - 101.5 FM

Great outfit!

Hawkeye: Right-Wing Extremist

Well, the news is out and I'm not afraid to admit it... I am a "Right-Wing Extremist" (RWE). Don't believe me? Just ask Homeland Security chief and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. Her agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity", in a report entitled: "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." To see the full report in PDF format, go HERE.

A footnote attached to the report defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority. "It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning says.

According to that definition, I am a "Right-Wing Extremist" along with many others. Because I now or have in the past supported single-issue groups which oppose abortion and immigration, I am a RWE. Because I oppose the authority of the federal government in areas where it does not belong, I am a RWE. Because I believe in states' rights, I am a RWE.

But I am not ashamed of being called a "Right-Wing Extremist". According to the definition in the DHS report, I find myself in good company. By that definition, Ronald Reagan would be considered a RWE. So would most of our Founding Fathers. Thanks for the compliment Janet.


Right Wing Extremists

View: 4 Years Old

Understanding The Crisis

For more information go to http://www.stopspendingourfuture.org/#

Stop!

For more information go to http://www.stopspendingourfuture.org/#

When I Grow Up

For more information go to http://www.stopspendingourfuture.org/#

Tax Day Tea Party

For more information go to http://taxdayteaparty.com/

Atheism Makes Perfect Sense

Obama: Pants On Fire

Prior to the presidential election, I was reluctant to call Barack Obama a "liar". For example, in my article "36 Reasons Against An Obama Presidency", you will note that I said, "a lot of people seem to think that Obama has lied on more than one occasion, and some would say on many occasions." And I went on to say that, "To be fair, not all of the supposed lies are valid." And I went even further to quote John Derbyshire at the National Review Online as saying that, "Obama's lies are 'not so much lies as a sort of slippery sleight-of-mouth'". I was in fact attempting to be gracious to a man who does not deserve my grace.

Today, I am convinced that Barack Obama has no compunction about lying with total impunity. Obama's speeches and statements often contain unbelievable contradictions. Obama has not merely contradicted his own words with subsequent repudiating actions, he has contradicted his own words with others, within the context of the same speech! I now firmly believe that Obama is a "Serial Liar" as suggested by John Hinderaker at the Power Line Blog. I also believe that Obama is the most deceitful, wicked and evil President to have ever been elected. Obama may be the ultimate example of "Double-Think". In his novel 1984", George Orwell defined "Double-Think" as...

The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth. --George Orwell, Definition of Double-think, 1984

I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist, so I cannot say with any certainty whether or not Barack Obama is clinically ill. Like the Orwellian 'double-thinker', Obama may actually possess the power to hold two contradictory beliefs in his mind simultaneously. I cannot however believe that Obama is unaware of his lying. Lying is an important brush in the Obama pallete. Where others are artists in oil or clay, Obama is an artist in deception. He works the poll numbers once a week and knows how to tell people exactly what they want to hear, even when it bears no resemblance to the truth. Lying is a tool that Obama developed years ago to propel him through his meteoric political career and which he has refined over the years. What started as "slippery sleight-of-mouth", has now become something much more. But it was easier to fool a small neighborhood in Chicago years ago, than a nation of 300 million people today. A famous man once said, "You can't fool ALL of the people, ALL of the time..."

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What He Said: "In 2007, the new Democratic leadership in Congress began to address [earmark] abuses with a series of reforms that I was proud to have helped to write. We eliminated anonymous earmarks and created new measures of transparency in the process, so Americans can better follow how their tax dollars are being spent... In my discussions with Congress, we have talked about the need for further reforms to ensure that the budget process inspires trust and confidence instead of cynicism. So I believe as we move forward, we can come together around principles that prevent the abuse of earmarks." --Barack Obama, Obama Earmark Reforms, 11 March 2009.

What He Did: Immediately after President Obama said these words, he signed a spending bill that contained more than 8,500 earmarks in it, costing taxpayers more than $7.7 billion.

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What He Said: "I've laid out plans for a budget that begins to restore fiscal discipline so we can bring down the $1.3 trillion budget deficit we've inherited... we've produced an honest budget that makes the hard choices required to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term in office." --Barack Obama, Obama Earmark Reforms, 11 March 2009.

What He Did: For his first lie, Barack Obama did NOT inherit a $1.3 trillion deficit. He inherited a 2008 budget deficit of $459 billion according to an article by Karl Rove at the Wall Street Journal. Rove was quoting figures from the Congressional Budget Office (see graphic from Washington Post below). The 2009 budget deficit is one that is shared between Bush and Obama (not inherited). Bush did indeed start a series of bail-outs which pushed up the deficit beyond $459 billion, but the deficit when Bush left office was still only $569 billion. Obama's new proposals add another $1.276 trillion to the deficit this year alone, for a total of $1.845 trillion. Obama did not inherit a $1.3 trillion deficit, he CREATED a $1.3 trillion deficit and added it to Bush's $569 billion deficit.


His second lie is that he did NOT produce "an honest budget" that makes the hard choices required to cut our deficit. He produced a deceitful budget that uses false assumptions and makes false claims. If Obama wants to cut the deficit he inherited in half, then he needs to get the deficit down to half of $459 billion, or even half of $569 billion. Rather, Obama is planning on cutting in half the $1.3 trillion deficit which he himself created. To add insult to injury, the White House budget estimate uses "rosy" scenarios that have the economy growing at a faster pace than the Congressional Budget Office projects.

His third lie is now plain. Obama has done NOTHING to reduce the deficit. He has made NO hard choices whatsoever. Obama's proposals only INCREASE the deficit. The deficit will soar massively this year. As the economy starts to recover, the deficits will start to decrease, but never to a level below where they were when Obama took over... and nowhere near half of what he "inherited". Worse yet, the projections of the CBO show the deficit dramatically climbing in the out years (beyond 2012).

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What He Said: "At the end of the day, the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is not with a budget that continues the very same policies that have led us to a narrow prosperity and massive debt. It’s with a budget that leads to broad economic growth by moving from an era of borrow-and-spend to one where we save and invest." --Barack Obama, Obama Press Conference, 24 March 2009.

What He Did: From the graphic above, it should be evident that Obama's statement here is simply ludicrous. He is indeed correct to say that we should move away "from an era of borrow-and-spend to one where we save-and-invest", but that is exactly the OPPOSITE of what Obama's proposals are doing. The increased deficit spending proposed by Barack Obama is nothing more than a new wave of "borrow-and-spend". If the government does not have the money it intends to spend, a budget deficit is created. There are only two ways to live with a budget deficit: 1) borrow the money from others who have it, or 2) print more money, which reduces the value of the money already in circulation, thereby causing inflation.

Obama is counting on other countries like China to invest in U.S. Treasury Bills to pay for his massive deficit spending spree. Obama needs to BORROW the money he wants to SPEND on his programs because the government simply does not have it. If China or other countries become unwilling to loan America the money that Obama wants to spend, then the United States will go into a period of inflation similar to (or worse than) the double-digit inflation of the Carter era. If in fact China or other countries DO subsidize Obama's spending spree, then the U.S. will increasingly become a debtor nation, beholden to the whims of our creditors. Neither scenario is a pleasant one.

Perhaps Barack Obama simply does not understand the concept of "saving". He throws around the word "investment" with regularity. Obama says he wants to "invest" in energy efficiency, in "green" technologies, in education, and the health care system. So, he seems to understand what "investment" is all about. Yet, he never talks about "saving". Obama's "investments" always come at the expense of someone else. Obama doesn't know how to "save-and-invest", only how to "borrow-and-spend".

Well Mr. Obama, here is a brief explanation of "saving": Saving occurs when you are able to set aside the excess of your income after you have paid all the expenditures for your consumption. In other words, in order to have "savings", you need to have a "surplus" of income over expenditures. As I recall, the definition of "surplus" is the exact opposite of "deficit". In order to "save-and-invest" you cannot therefore have a deficit, or be adding $1.3 trillion to it! The only way to reduce a deficit is to increase income, or reduce expenditures. You cannot spend your way into prosperity. You cannot borrow your way out of debt!

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What He Said: "Let me be clear. The United States government has no interest in running GM. We have no intention of running GM." --Barack Obama, Obama Speech on Auto Industry, 30 March 2009.

What He Did: Obama established a "government task force" on the auto industry to review "government-mandated" plans prepared by Chrysler and GM "to restructure, to modernize, and to make themselves more competitive." After reviewing those plans, Obama and his government task force decided that "none of them goes far enough." In other words, "the government" is already running the auto industry and is telling it what to do. Thus far, "the government" has not been happy with how the industry plans to operate.

So, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, Obama has given Chrysler and GM more time to re-do their plans, because he is "confident" that we can once again have "a great American industry" that is "out-competing the world... manufacturing the fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will carry us towards an energy-independent future". In fact, Obama is "absolutely committed to working with Congress and the auto companies to meet ONE GOAL... The United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars." In other words, "the government" is now dictating to the auto industry what products it must make. [Editor's Note: Socialism = governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.]

According to Obama, "our auto industry is not moving in the right direction fast enough to succeed in a very tough environment." Therefore, on behalf of GM, Obama announced "after broad consultation with a range of industry experts and financial advisors", that "Rich Wagoner is stepping aside as chairman and CEO." In other words, Obama didn't like Wagoner's performance, and so... he fired him. Again according to Obama, "This [decision] is not meant as a condemnation of Mr. Wagoner... Rather, it's a recognition that it will take new vision and new direction to create the GM of the future." In other words, Mr. Wagoner didn't understand or didn't agree with Obama's "new vision" and "new direction" for GM, therefore he was terminated (fired, sacked, or thrown under the bus -- take your pick). As I recall, only those who manage a company are authorized to fire a company employee.

As for Chrysler, Obama did not think the company merited any further support and told Chrysler that it needs to find a new partner if it wanted to "remain viable". Apparently, Obama's government was no longer willing to be a partner with Chrysler -- a tacit acknowledgment that the government had been their "business partner" in the past. He suggested that Chrysler should form a partnership with Italian automaker Fiat (to whom Chrysler had apparently reached-out), no doubt because Chrysler was not a part of Obama's "vision".

However, Obama demanded that Chrysler pay back any debts to the U.S. government before Fiat takes a majority ownership position. He also announced that the U.S. government was in direct negotiations with Fiat to establish facilities in the U.S. to produce new fuel-efficient engines. Obama said, "I am committed to doing all I can to see that the deal can be struck". He said that the U.S. would support Chrysler for 30 days to allow Fiat and Chrysler to reach a final agreement. He said he would be willing to invest up to $6 billion of taxpayer funds, but that's all. In other words, Barack Obama is wheeling-and-dealing. He is choosing to support some parts of the auto industry but not others. He is willing to sell off an American auto company to a foreign company if it suits him. Obama is running the U.S. auto industry.

Obama also said that the problems in the auto industry are "not the fault of our workers... Rather, it's a failure of LEADERSHIP, from WASHINGTON to DETROIT, that led our auto companies to this point." In other words, the unions that represent "our workers" (and donated heavily to Obama's election campaign) bear no responsibility whatsoever for the problems in the auto industry. Instead, it was the fault of those wicked auto executives in Detroit, and the U.S. government in Washington. Apparently Obama thinks that the U.S. government has not done enough "year after year, decade after decade" to correct "problems" in the auto industry, and to make "tough choices" FOR the auto industry. Obama thinks the U.S. government is at fault for not getting MORE involved in the private sector "even as foreign competitors outpaced us".


Despite what Obama says, he has EVERY intention of running GM. Despite what Obama says, he IS interested in running GM (but not Chrysler however). According to Fred Barnes at FoxNews' Special Report w/ Bret Baier...

Look, he says they don't want to operate GM for instance, but he owns GM now, in effect. He kicked out the head of it. The White House will obviously have to approve whoever comes in to run the company. He has his guy from the University of Maryland, some academic economist, who is going to be head of the whole auto recovery. And then he has tax subsidies that helps them sell GM cars, and we heard about the warranties, and all that stuff. This is government intervention like we haven't seen very often. We have seen a little of it now. --Fred Barnes, Special Report w/ Bret Baier, 1 April 2009

I'm sure there are plenty more examples of Obama's lies (both pre-election and post-election). Feel free to note them in the commment section.