Good news - from Mars

Mars appears to have had water for longer than conventional wisdom suggests - a good sign. Of course the geologist in me is annoyed that they don't specify if it's Opal-A or Opal-CT.

Novel place for stashing bribes.

Stuffing cash in her bra. This isn't 'prostituting the office' as the clothes stayed on. And because, you know, a politician removing her clothes for money would insult prostitutes.

Oh boo-hoo, Politico's lying out it's teeth again.

Politico's (D-DC) whole article is a giant piece of lying spin, but figured I'd link it all the same. Classic Leftist fabrication of "we're not biased because we're saying we're not biased". Kind of like saying you're not a thief when you're caught walking out of the house with an armful of stuff. In a fair world Harris and VanDehei would face tar, feathering, and being run out of town.

But to these half-wits having to cover for their corruption is an annoyance!

Before answering the question, indulge us in noting that the subject of ideological bias in the news media is a drag.

Imagine that, people like we commoners having the temerity to demand a free press are a drag on our masters. Silly me.

It's a sad world when we'd find fairer coverage of the news at Al Jazeera than in places like the Politico.

John and Jim, do us a favor and ditch the Kool-Aid.

Obama urges you not to go to work election day.

Disregarding that voting takes a few minutes and polls open before and close after normal business hours, arrogant Obama wants you to tune in and drop out. Never mind the billions of dollars in lost production, it's more important that Marxist Obama's North Koreafication of America begin right away. If He doesn't make His birthday a national holiday in the first year I'll be amazed.

Of course no plans are without merits, even one as amateurish as this one. By staying home from work you get an early taste for the grinding, long-term unemployment you'll experience if even a fraction of His policies are enacted. After you ditch work to vote for the novice Obama I suggest you go stand in line at a soup kitchen then spend the night in a homeless shelter. That way you'll know just what you voted for.

Besides, your vote was already cast by ACORN - probably more than once too. Obama had to get some return on the $800,000 and organizational advice He sent to the group.

And now for something completely different - Halloween Costumes of the Damned.

Cracked.com provides a list of costumes that, frankly, if you see at a party you should just call it a night and go home. You'll be happier and the police will appreciate one less missing person.

Newspapers and endorsements.

Instapundit links an article showing which papers endorse whom this year and compares it to last cycle. It's a neat map and is of especial concern for the seventeen remaining newspaper readers in America.

Hope you don't plan to retire.

Yup, your 401ks are fair game if Obama wins. I'd add some snarky comment here, but really how can I top the Democrat concept that citizens are servants of government? It's farce made substance.

And, naturally, this would just be the start. There's always more planned by these idiots.

More data on CO2 in the atmosphere.

This excerpt talks about how the optical depth of the atmosphere hasn't changed in 60 years. That pretty much kills the man-made global warming myth. Of course undoing three decades of misinformation and reclaiming the journals like Science is a much rougher task.

H/T Fresh Bilge

A few papers due and I fall behind.

Typical of grad school, a couple of papers come due at the same time and there's no time for side hobbies like this journal. I need to work on fixing that.

Think you know about climate?

It's no real secret within the sciences that the "Anthropogenic Global Warming/Man-made global warming/global warming/global climate change" hysteria is just that, hysteria. Many scientists are proponents of it because it brings them funding and it matters little that the science itself doesn't back their position.

That said, if you're interested in the facts of the matter I recommend reading the four-part letter here.

Um, how is anyone shocked?

Drudge's headline:

GALLUP's 'traditional' likely voter model shows Obama with a two-point advantage over McCain on Thursday, 49% to 47%, this is within poll's margin of error... Developing...

makes this seem like some giant shock. The talentless Obama has always scored 4-6 points lower in the election versus the polls before hand and all the polls over the last several weeks have been weighted heavily towards Democrats (some with 6%+ Democrats over Republicans.) Add to that how heavily these polling firms are in the tank for Obama and that explains a lot.

How Gallup released this one is more a mystery.

And don't forget, I'm seeing increased ad coverage by a worried Obama here in California. He shouldn't be spending a dime out here unless his internal polls are saying something dramatic.

The real reason Murtha's sorry.

John "Slander" Murtha's (D-PA) definitely sorry. But only because his comments were reported. I often wonder how this guy keeps getting re-elected with such a visceral hatred of his voters - then I remember the corrupt Murtha's record as a Porker-barreler.

Come on western Penn, give decency a win here.

Return to sender - address unknown

This is for the best, God's lawyer would have taken Nebraska to the cleaners.

And yes, it's a great song.

Wow, simply wow - dare I say 'racism' factors into Obama's support?

Howard Stern talking about the depth of Obama's supporters. I don't normally listen to Stern but this is a must listen to in my opinion. The aloof Obama could proclaim the sky is red and his voters would likely concur. Yet another reason to wish the Democrat party had had some sense for once.

HT Instapundit, naturally.

Kilauea in action.

Great webcam capture over at Fresh Bilge. All the times I've been to Hawai'i and I still haven't actually made it to Kilauea. Although that gives me a goal for next trip.

Why is Obama spending money on California?

It's not like we're in play. But I'm seeing two+ ads per hour here. It's possible that these are national ads leaking in, but still why throw money at a state he'll likely win by 15 points?

Either he's incompetent (plenty of data to support that) or California's closer than he likes (something I doubt).

And I won't even get into how the ad is factually dubious (at best) on a number of fronts. I really with Richard Daley (D-Ill) would reign in his puppet.

Rep. John Lewis - ignorant of history.

Reading John Lewis (D-GA) compare McCain to George Wallace is hilarious in it being sad. Lewis seems to forget his own party's history. The Democrat party has:

• Won the Dred Scot decision.


• Seceded 11 states and fought a war partially over keeping their slaves.


• Formed the Ku Klux Klan.


• Created the Jim Crow system.


• Won the Plessy v. Fergussion decision.


• Reformed the Ku Klux Klan.


• Fought desegregation.


• Filibustered the Civil Rights Act.


• Formed the "Separate but equal" system known as Affirmative Action.

Seems Lewis sold his honor for political gain. Not unheard of but still quite sad.

And that's not even touching on Wallace was a Democrat. Lewis may have good intentions but he's on the wrong side in this issue.

Worst drivers I've ever seen.

Seriously. Drivers here in Chico don't mind crossing a red light, have no idea about braking for pedestrians in crosswalks, and seem to think 50 is the new 25 when it comes to residential speed limits. To heck with gas prices, these local drivers are going to drive me to mass transit.

Resign to run?

Reading my favorite NFL blogger he rambled into what I think is a positively brilliant idea:

In the spring, as a dozen Democratic and Republican officeholders were crisscrossing the country campaigning for presidential nominations yet still receiving taxpayer money for jobs they were making no pretense of performing, TMQ declared there should be a federal resign-to-run law. Several states now have resign-to-run laws: They prevent officeholders from taking tax-funded salaries while not doing their jobs. Why is it assumed that saying the words, "I am running for president" makes it OK for a senator to pull in $200,000 or so per year in pay and benefits, yet perform no duties? If you told your employer you would not perform your duties for a year because you were running for president, yet still expected full pay, your employer would say two words that are not "Merry Christmas." Now we're down to four White House-seeking freeloaders, and both parties look bad. All three senators are billing the federal taxpayer to self-promote around the clock; the governor is billing her state's taxpayers to self-promote around the clock. Either presidential candidates should be required to resign to run, or at least anyone who declares for the presidency or vice presidency should have his or her public salaries and benefits suspended.

This is a brilliant help to our system because it guarantees new blood will be injected while these others are off running for office. It's not a panacea, but it's a move in the right direction. Now to find a way to get it enacted.

Update
A corollary that comes from this would be a move to fixed public financing for all federal elections. Perhaps along the lines of:

• The government provides X amount to each candidate nominated by the major parties.


• Y amount to each candidate from a minor party based on the trend of the party's votes in the previous three elections.


• Candidates may not spend any more than that unless it comes from their personal account with all such disclosures publicly divulged via the FEC.

Naturally, X and Y would vary for each office. President would get much, much more than senator which would get more than congressperson.

Astronomy news to lift you skyward.

With all the doom and gloom going around, we need more good stories. So here are two about the heavens and the progress we're still making there.

First a story about the MESSENGER mission and it's new images of Mercury. Mercury is one of the closest objects to us yet is poorly understood because its nearness to the sun has made imaging of it difficult.

And yes, the that author described the spherical Mercury as "crescent shaped". It's not in the cited article at space.com yet both claim the same authorship. Someone needs to take said author to a bakery and explain the difference between a croissant and a doughnut hole.

Second is a story about COROT-Exo-3b. COROT-Exo-3b is firmly in the defined range of a brown dwarf star and would be the first observed body confirmed in that range. The curious bit is it's density, between iridium and uranium - an obscene density for a Jupiter-sized object. So it's potentially a monumental discovery for it's composition too. Either way, it's a neat discovery.

Drunkening article on the economy.

I call this a "drunkening" article because after reading it I had the urge to just go and get very smashed in hopes I'd forget it. A lack of quality beer prevented that, so here we go all the same.

H/T Fresh Bilge

Also, if anyone has a better suggestion than "drunkening" let me know, I'm too much of a grammar nut to just sit on this one.

Yup, Angels couldn't do it.

They did manage to beat the Red Sox in one game but went down again. My dream of a Dodgers-Angels World Series is delayed further.

Go Dodgers!

Congratulations to the Dodgers winning their first series in 20 years. Cubbies had a great year and I hope this year was the final ignominy their fans will have to suffer.

Oh, the Angels? Love the franchise but they'll need to get over themselves and beat the Red Sox before they get a subject label.

Dubai-ous construction goals.

Seems the shaikh thing to do is building mega-buildings. Dubai already hosts the world's tallest building which makes the announcement for a super-3281' building more astounding. (And a bit perplexing being caught between the active tectonics of Iran and the Red Sea.)

Still, I wish them the best of luck and I look forward to their reaching orbit on some project 30 years from now.

Do the math - Taps for Starbucks.

The Sun's title is rather dramatic, since Starbucks paying for the water kind of rules out the "robbery" aspect. Still, 23.4 million liters per day is an incredible amount for a 'socially conscious' firm. With 10,000 stores around the world it means each store lets 2340 liters go down the drain every day.

For the metric-optional crowd, that's a bit shy of 618.5 gallons per day per store. Or almost 124 of those five-gallon bottles you see delivered to offices and the rooms of trendy college students. So the next time you buy a drink from Starbucks look for the little spigot and drain. Part of what you just paid is heading down that.

As a two-fer here, the Sun mentions that water could supply Namibia with all the drinking water it needs and then makes another reference to supplying Africans later in the same piece. While noble of the author, and an effective way of pulling at the heart strings of the audience, it's nonsensical from the shipping standpoint. 23.4 million liters is about 6.2 million gallons which is 22,504 tonnes of cargo - per day. The energy required to ship this water to Namibia (or anywhere) is naturally enormous and that's why we don't do it.

Ultimately the problem with water isn't that there is a shortage of it. The problem is it falls in the wrong places (at sea, in high mountains, deep in Siberia).

Why so low?

Instapundit talks about how 59% would vote to replace all of Congress. I'm shocked that it's that low personally. Given everything that's happened over the years, given the open corruption of Congress, and given their abysmal approval rating. Add to that Reid's attempt to cause an insurance panic and Schumer getting a run on a bank going and it's disgusting.

Good thing the Demo leadership's not in the tank for Fannie Mae or something. Oh wait.

Why discuss the charge when you can slander the messenger?

Another example of how the AP (D-NY) shills for an unprepared Obama can be found here. The headline of:

Analysis: Palin's words carry racial tinge

is meant for an internet reader to associate Palin and racial, not to add any real discussion to Palin's factually valid comments. And this is part of how the Media serves their masters so well - replying with ad hominem slander.

Make no mistake that this is a vitally important election. And that the novice Obama is going into this with a media that refuses to investigate or 'vet' him. Yes, that's insane. And what's even more insane is the number of people who will still vote for a ruthless Obama because of this deceit by the media.

ADDENDUM:

Looks like Instapundit is all over this already. If you think Bush was bad, the race-baiting Obama will be miles worse.

Do the math - Sharon Stone addition.

Reading about the custody drama going on with Sharon Stone and how she is a hypochondriac when it comes to his health. What got my attention here is:

The "Basic Instinct" star is in the midst of a custody battle with ex-husband Phil Bronstein over their 8-year-old adopted son, Roan. The couple adopted the boy in 1997, married in 1998 and divorced in 2004.

Let's see, adopted in 1997. It's 2008. The boy is 8. Maybe the kid really does have a major medical condition.

Actually, it's just bad reporting - as shocking as that is. According to Wikipedia, Roan is:

They have an adopted son named Roan Joseph Bronstein, born on May 22, 2000.

Worth Bookmarking - Answers to Palin smears.

Explorations does yeoman's work with a round up of the Palin smears. It's worth keeping handy if you have to deal with any of this junk.

"Rally Darling"

Looks like Sarah Palin can still pack them in. Of course, since she's willing to call ascheming Obama out it's simply natural patriots would respond by showing up.

Considering the slander she suffered at the hands of Obama's allies it's amazing she's kept her cool. Like Hillary, Palin may be one of the few men left in politics.

Modern British morality.

Normally I'll try to include a bit of what I'm thinking here, but this is sick enough on its own. A great example how Britain's dying days are fast upon us.