For those of you that follow the raging global warming debate here is a must read...it’s 21 pages, some of it technical, but most people will understand the underlying issues.

Global Warming: Forecasts by Scientists or Scientific Forecasts

Here is an excerpt from the Abstract:

“The IPCC WG1 Report was regarded as providing the most credible long-term forecasts of global average temperatures by 31 of the 51 scientists and others involved in forecasting climate change who responded to our survey. We found no references in the 1056-page Report to the primary sources of information on forecasting methods despite the fact these are conveniently available in books, articles, and websites. We audited the forecasting processes described in Chapter 8 of the IPCC’s WG1 Report to assess the extent to which they complied with forecasting principles. We found enough information to make judgments on 89 out of a total of 140 forecasting principles. The forecasting procedures that were described violated 72 principles. Many of the violations were, by themselves, critical.”

Excerpt of Summary of audit findings:

“The many violations provide further evidence that the IPCC authors were unaware of evidence-based principles for forecasting. If they were aware of them, it would have been incumbent on them to present evidence to justify their departures from the principles. They did not do so. We conclude that because the forecasting processes examined in Chapter 8 overlook scientific evidence on forecasting, the IPCC forecasts of climate change are not scientific.

We invite others to provide evidence-based audits of what they believe to be scientific forecasts relevant to climate change. These can be posted on web sites to ensure that readers have access to the audits. As with peer review, we will require all relevant information on the people who conduct the audits prior to posting the audits.”

While many in the “mob” are rushing to make bold moves to try to prevent global warming they are forgetting to look at the data and determine if it is scientifically valid.

The UK is actively perusing the capabilities! See picture here!















See the DailyMail story here.

Just for kicks what would you name this butterfly?

6.6% increase to the State Budget is what the State Senate and Assembly agreed to tonight. They agreed to spend $3,560,337,000 more over the next 2 years than they did in the past 2 years.

To Rep. Turner (D), Rep. Mason (D), and Senator Lehman (D) I am simply appalled that you would allow this to go through…not surprised…but definitely appalled.

Thank you to Rep. Vos, Gunderson, Kerkman, and the 36 other Representatives for listening to your constituents and voting against this dreadful budget.

I’m not sure how many of you are aware that the Aussies are getting ready to elect a new Prime Minister but down here the main topic of political conversations has to be about the ‘worm.’

Now I know that most of you are asking ‘what the hell does a worm have to do with politics?’

This is not some environmental issue it is truly a political one.

You see, as most political geeks will tell you, many pollsters will have groups of people watch political debates and political speeches with a small dial like device. This device is like a volume indicator with a negative at one side and a positive at the other. As a person listens to the politician they will move the dial to the negative if they disagree or dislike what is being said and to the positive if they agree or like what is being said.

This creates line over time showing how they feel about the politician as they speak. Pollsters use this regularly to gauge the effectiveness of speeches and to test new ideas.

While the use of the worm is fine for pollsters what would you think if it was broadcast live during a debate?

Think about that for a moment: Hillary and Obama contending for the Democrat nomination and while each answers questions during a debate you see what a selected audience thinks about these candidates.

Is this a good idea or bad?
What if voting was compulsory? For those of you in Crestview (sorry I love Rush’s Rio Linda bit), compulsory means mandatory.
Might this group’s opinion of the candidates sway your opinion?
Would you trust that the people are truly undecided voters or would you think that they might have an agenda themselves?
If the group was chosen by CNN or Fox, would that make a difference?

Now here we are back in Oz. PM Howard and contender Rudd are debating the other night. In the agreement for the debate both agreed that the ‘worm’ would not be broadcast. Channel 9, a noted liberal leaning station, decided to broadcast the debate with the ‘worm.’ 20 minutes into the debate the National Press Corp. in Australia cut the feed to Channel 9. They quickly grabbed the feed from ABC and placed the ‘worm’ on the screen. This too was cut after a few minutes. Channel 9, did not wish to be the only station without the debate grabbed the feed from Skynet News and again added the ‘worm.’

I watched much of this debate and would have to say that I was very intrigued. It was noticeable that when the PM was on the screen there was an immediate reaction in the negative before he even said a word…highly unusual for undecided people. By contrast the opposite was true when Rudd took the stage.

So why am I wasting all this time talking about this stupid ‘worm?’ It is a process that is currently used by pollsters and was amazed that Aussie’s are actually paying this much attention to a small little thing like this as opposed to the outright pilfering of the PM’s tax proposal by the opposing party.

For those of you who are wondering Sen. Kreitlow is a Democrat from the Chippewa Falls area.

Sen. Kreitlow now has the distinction of being yet another Democrat Senator to back away from his own party’s budget by calling Democrats Education and Municipality funding “Empty Promises: the Education and Local Government Deficit Act.”

You see, the Republican Assembly saw that the budget battle was going to be a long fight but instead of making education and municipalities suffer because of the massive tax increase the Democrats want the Republicans did the responsible thing and passed the Democrats version of the Education and Municipalities budget (AB 506 & 507.)

But now, nearly a month after AB 506 & 507 was passed, the Democrats are calling this funding irresponsible.

So what game are they playing? Sen. Kreitlow is accusing Assembly Republicans of trying to “saddle taxpayers with a $1 billion deficit” and “failing Wisconsin taxpayers” when it is just the opposite.

Democrats in the Senate have played games with our State Budget and now they will not even agree to fund Education and Municipalities. They like to say they are the party of the people when in reality they are the party of obstructionism.

Doyle put the out a press release Monday evening stating that the Assembly “failed once again” to do their job.

On the contrary Mr. Governor, the Assembly is doing just what they are there to do, protect the citizens of Wisconsin from dictatorial governors that believe that asinine tax increases are the only way to get the State out from their spending habit.

The Governor accuses “extreme elements of the Republican Assembly” of refusing to deal with “the cost to operate school buses, pay heating bills, and maintain roads” but it was Governor Doyle that threatened the Democrat Senate with a veto (and lord knows what else) if they were to pass the bipartisan Assembly bills 506 & 507.

Doyle has failed the people of Wisconsin and by his own words “created a fiscal nightmare for this state” by not allowing passage of AB 506 and 507 that would have secured funding for schools and the municipalities of Wisconsin at the levels that HE and Senate Democrats wanted.

So the only failure this State has had was in allowing the Senate Democrats and the Governor make a mockery of the budget process by not funding schools and municipalities. If they had we would be well on our way to making head way on the remaining portions of the State budget and perhaps not be looking at the huge tax increase that the governor would like us to swallow.

What is Sen. Robson smoking?

The reason I ask this is because any one that has read the Democrat’s Budget, Doyle’s Budget, or the new “Compromise” Budget (whose compromise…I have no idea and I’m willing to bet the Republicans on the committee are wondering the same thing) would not be able to make the following statement:

Robson noted the budget cuts state government spending by hundreds of millions of dollars.

“These cuts won’t be easy and there will be a noticeable reduction in services. We didn’t get everything we want for the University of Wisconsin System and we weren’t able to increase shared revenues for cities, but its mid-October and time for Wisconsin to have a budget,” Robson said. (link)

Once again we are playing Democrat math…If you do not understand Democrat math try the following especially if your boss happens to be a Democrat!

Next time you get a pay raise, be it COLA or a merit increase, tell everyone you know that your pay has been cut by 5%. When they ask how that happened tell them the same story Democrats use: “I budgeted for a 10% increase and I only received 5% which means that I am going to have to slash vital services in my household. My kids will have to go with out shoes. We will not be able to pay for the batteries in our smoke alarms.” Etc.

So I go back to my original question: if Sen. Robson believes that this new “compromise” cuts vital services I want to know what she is smoking or what pills she is ingesting because they must be good stuff!!!

You did not misread that it is true today in a Press Release by Senator Robson, Senate Majority Leader, and for those of you who don’t know, a major Democrat, stated the following:

“Local officials who want to make sure they have enough cops and firefighters for their growing communities and schools wanting to maintain a quality education for kids have been left in limbo.”

Whose fault is that Sen. Robson?

The Republican lead Assembly passed, not one but two, bipartisan bills (AB 506 & 507) that would have funded the local governments and schools in Wisconsin at the levels originally requested in the Senate Budget and that you have chosen not to take up.

Sen. Robson also states that passing a budget is important because: “It’s our job.”

Senator Robson you have failed at your job and should be fired. You want to accuse the Republicans of “pointing fingers” and push us to “rise above the fray” when if fact your press release is full of the vitriol that we have come to expect from Democrats who have failed to get their way.

Do you believe that “Days of debate evolved into an embarrassing stalemate that gave our great state a black eye?”

I believe that this is fight defines the difference between Democrats and Republicans (Liberals and Conservatives).

You believe that the only way to run the state is by using oppressive taxes that will hinder the poorest in this state more so than anyone else (tobacco & oil tax). You believe that all taxes are by nature good. You believe that by stating lies over and over and over (such as lack of funding to communities will endanger safety) will win you the debate.

I believe that your reign of terror is coming to an end. People are waking up to the idea that taxes on business only mean that we all pay more in the store. I believe that people understand that taxes do more harm that good. I believe that people who think for 2 seconds will realize that cutting government spending will not endanger safety and if it does they will elect people that know how to properly prioritize our spending.

Sen. Robson and the Democrats have made matters worse by stating falsehoods and have used scare tactics to try to pressure Republicans to cave into HUGE tax increases.

Enough is enough; pass a budget that does not increase taxes and the deal is done. Try to pass a tax increase and consider yourself fired.

I was surprised to find most of my fellow bloggers not having fun with Algore’s winning of the Noble “Peace” Prize. AP: Al Gore, UN panel share Nobel for Peace

The only blog’s I found that were talking about Algore were An ‘Ol Broad’s Ramblings and the Daily Dollop. Here is what they had to say:

From the Daily Dollop: The Ten Commandments of Climate Change
And from An ‘Ol Broad’s Ramblings: Proof!

My thoughts are this...how whacked out was the committee when they made that decision. Why didn’t they give the award to JK Rowling? At least the books she writes are somewhat more believable than the drivel and unscientific material that Algore puts out.

The committee actually chose the one person (and committee) that has done the LEAST for humanity!!

Thích Quang Đo has done many things to help people and to warrant the Peace Prize. Just look at his bio: Thích Quang Đo

The frontrunner for the Peace Prize (excluding Algore) was Sheila Watt-Cloutier who is an Canadian Inuit Activist. She too has done many things to actually impact people. Her bio is here: Sheila Watt-Cloutier

So what exactly has Algore and IPCC Actully done?

• They have made a natural event look like it is the doomsday scenario.
• Algore has made millions by selling phony carbon credits to himself.
• But in the end they have done nothing but talk.

The Prize has forever been tarnished.

AP: Clinton proposes 401(k)s, matching funds

This woman has no shame! She just wants the size of the federal government to be HUGE!!!

Democrats should be outraged that a member of their party is calling for such extreme expansion of the government. They were all opposed to allowing individuals to invest a portion of their social security how is this different…other than is being a blatant “buy-your-vote-scheme”?

If she keeps opening her mouth this way…I’m going to become even more hopeful of a Republican victory!

Does this mean Coors will be a better beer or will Miller become a worse beer?

AP: Molson Coors, SABMiller combine U.S. ops

I was one of the participants in Sunday’s Chicago Marathon but thankfully I was not one of those who had to be hospitalized.

You can read my race report here.

On today’s CBS2Chicago.com site there is an article asking if the problems with the race will hurt Chicago’s bid for the Olympic Games. Link

I find the whole issue interesting…do you think that this event should in any way sway the Olympic Committee’s decision?

Personally, as one of the thousands of runners told that I would not be able to complete the course, I think that this should have no bearing on the outcome.

Imagine a politician using his political office and influence to obtain confidential financial records (violating the law in the process) and using that information to leverage his political will…its happening right here in Wisconsin!

Charlie Sykes has the details right here.

I read this article (JT: Johnson Foundation goes solar) this morning and saw a glaring problem in the article…or more likely the obvious omission from the story.

Can you spot the problem?

If you’d like to read a little more about this before making your guess here is an article from the Johnson Foundation itself: Renewable Energy.