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I have a new piece up at Power Line this morning, marking the death of Kodachrome, "Kodachrome, RIP."  The last Kodachrome processing lab in the world closes today, marking the end of a 75-year run for the film that made home color photography possible.  The story of how Kodachrome was invented is fascinating.  My piece is here.

DECEMBER 30, 2010

THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  The liberal Democrats went wild in Congress during the past session, but it was moderate Democrats who paid the price.  From The Hill:

Only 12 House Democrats out of the 40 who represent districts won by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008 survived the November election.

The good news: This group of mostly Blue Dog Dems made it through one of the worst national environments for Democrats in years, which bodes well for their 2012 prospects.

The downside: Several of them will be targets again, particularly Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who defeated Republican challenger Jesse Kelly by a little more than 4,000 votes.

Between retirements, runs for higher office, a primary defeat and one sex scandal (New York Rep. Eric Massa), another eight Democrats in conservative-leaning districts didn't run for reelection in 2010. Republicans went eight for eight in those open seat races.

A ninth opted for a party switch, which didn't work out any better — Rep. Parker Griffith (R-Ala.) lost a GOP primary after defecting from the Democrats.

Bottom line:  The liberals, who tend to come from safe districts, will pay no price for their recklessness.  The Democratic Party, in fact, has become more liberal as a result of the election.  And what is remarkable is that no prominent liberal has expressed any concern over the devastation in the moderate wing.  Political purity seems to be the goal, and political purity is what they got. 

Oh, by the way, that also cost them the House of Representatives.

December 30, 2010       Permalink

A SICKENING SPECTACLE – AT 9:01 A.M. ET:  This story is a warning, a warning of what government agencies can do in their own interest, even in the face of a serious emergency.  From Fox, an exclusive about the New York blizzard:

Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

We've seen, in TV reports, how many ambulances have been stranded.  One baby died because of ambulance delays.

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.

"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.

And...

New York's Strongest used a variety of tactics to drag out the plowing process -- and pad overtime checks -- which included keeping plows slightly higher than the roadways and skipping over streets along their routes, the sources said.

This story will grow, especially as we're likely to have more storms this winter.  Now let's see what Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who loves to lecture the public on its moral responsibilities, will do.

Bad snow days have destroyed the careers of many mayors in northern climates.  Mayor Mike prides himself on being a great manager.  So manage, Mike, manage.

December 30, 2010       Permalink

PRESS BIAS?  NAH – AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  Our diligent press is on the case again, demanding that government in a free society RELEASE THE DOCUMENTS THAT ALL AMERICA DEMANDS.  We refuse to wait any longer.  The future of the nation is at stake.  Hear that?  From CBS News:

Despite repeated requests dating back to October 2008, Alaska has yet to release the public record of former governor Sarah Palin's official emails from her time in office. As the Anchorage Daily News reports, the release has been delayed 14 times, and two more delays are now pending.

Four journalists, an activist and an author have been seeking emails from Palin's state email account as well as from private accounts on which she conducted state business. The activist, Andree McLeod, argues that Palin and her successor, Sean Parnell, are abusing power by delaying their release.

As the Daily News notes, the emails may eventually be released: Parnell's office this week announced a plan to release them by May 31st of next year - more than two-and-a-half years after they were requested.

I just don't know how this nation will survive without those e-mails.

Now, about President Obama's academic record, his health record, even his birth certificate...

Why would anyone want to know about that?

December 30, 2010      Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 7:48 A.M. ET:  One of the most discouraging reports in recent days tells us that the Obama administration is forging ahead with policies and regulations that blindly accept the "settled science" of climate change – that it is caused by human activity – despite substantial doubts from a number of researchers.

Climate change has become a political, not a scientific issue.  Accepting the "settled science" is demanded by the left, which wants to use the climate-change "crisis" as an excuse for transferring vast sums from developed countries to third-world countries, the "victims" of global warming.

But S. Fred Singer, the former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service and professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, has been campaigning against the "settled science" mantra.  What he says about science is worth considering:

A commonly cited "proof" for anthropogenic global warming (AGW) claims there is a "scientific consensus" - based mainly on a flawed study by University of California science historian Naomi Oreskes, published in the journal Science in December 2004. However, a 2003 poll by German researchers of 530 climatologists in 27 countries showed just 34.7 percent endorsing the AGW hypothesis, while 20.5 percent rejected it - with the rest undecided. In a 2006 survey of 793 members by the National Registry of Environmental Professionals, 41 percent disagreed that recent warming "can be, in large part, attributed to human activity." There are statements from scientific groups and professional societies on both sides of the issue.

But even if a majority of scientists had voted for AGW, that's not how science works. Unlike in politics, the majority does not rule. In fact, every advance in science has come from a minority that found that observed facts contradicted the prevailing hypothesis. Sometimes it took only one scientist; think of Galileo or Einstein.

Very well said, and the entire article is well worth reading.  The media is doing its usual absysmal job of covering this subject.  It shouldn't be too difficult for a team of trained science reporters to determine what we know and what we don't know about global warming, yet no one seems to want to do it.  Why the fear?  I think we know why.  Left-wing trendiness dominates the media, and it isn't going away.

December 30, 2010     Permalink

DECEMBER 29, 2010

OBAMA'S CONTINUED STRENGTH – AT 9:22 P.M. ET:  Supporting the theme of our first post today, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows President Obama still very much in the game as far as the American people are concerned, demonstrating once more how much work Republicans have.  At the same time, belief in a Republican Congress vastly exceeds belief in Democratic control of Congress.  From The Politico:

Americans are less supportive of President Barack Obama’s policies than they were a year ago, but a majority of those surveyed in a new poll still hope his policies will be successful.

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday, 61 percent of Americans surveyed said they hope Obama’s policies succeed. A year ago, 71 percent hoped for Obama’s policy success.

Those surveyed were also less confident that the president’s policies would succeed, with 44 percent saying they would and 47 percent saying they would fail. A year ago, 52 percent of Americans said they thought Obama’s policies would be successful, while 41 percent said they thought his policies would fail.

Fifty-one percent of Americans said they think the GOP majority in the House of Representatives will be a good thing for the country, while 42 percent said they think it will be a bad thing.

And get this:

Forty percent of Americans said they are most confident in Republicans in Congress, while 35 percent said they are most confident in Obama and 15 percent said they are most confident in congressional Democrats.

COMMENT:  We see, as we've seen before, that the GOP isn't winning any popularity contests.  The year 2011 will be a year of bitter political battles.  One Republican ace:  public resentment if Obama starts imposing regulations, not backed by legislation, that raise the costs and burdens of the American people.

December 29, 2010      Permalink

AND ANOTHER ONE – AT 10:47 A.M. ET:  One by one, the terror plots are coming to light.  Fortunately, good security services are stopping them.  But there's a law of averages at work here.  And everyone in counter-terror work knows it.  From Fox:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Denmark's intelligence service on Wednesday arrested four people suspected of planning an "imminent" terror attack against a newspaper that printed the controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

Swedish police said they arrested a fifth suspect.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service, known as PET, said three of the four men were residents of Sweden and had entered the country during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. The fifth suspect was a 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin living in Stockholm.

Jakob Scharf, the head of PET, said the arrests in Denmark were made after close cooperation with Swedish police.

"An imminent terror attack has been foiled," Scharf said, describing some the suspects as "militant Islamists." He said that more arrests could not be ruled out.

COMMENT:  They actually say, "militant Islamists."  Our official Pentagon report on the Fort Hood massacre never mentions the ideology of Major Hassan, the murderous terrorist who committed the act.  Is it possible that trendy Europe is actually getting ahead of us?  With Obama running things, it's possible.

December 29, 2010      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:

A gun-wielding man wearing a Hillary Clinton mask robbed a Sterling bank on Dec. 27, authorities said.  The man walked into the Wachovia bank in Community Plaza about 9:14 a.m., approached a teller, brandished a firearm and demanded cash, according to Loudoun County sheriff’s office reports.  The robber then fled the bank in an unknown direction with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Ridiculous.  My informants tell me it was actually Hillary herself, raising campaign funds.  She's running.

December 29, 2010      Permalink

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MAYBE – AT 9:11 A.M. ET:  Leave it to the Obamans to start something absurd while Americans are still wishing in the new year.  From The Politico:

Jan. 2 isn’t just your ordinary Sunday.

It’s the day the Obama administration will officially start regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and critics have issued dire predictions of economic destruction.

With all the fiery rhetoric about how damaging the regulations could be, the White House is under pressure to fulfill its pledge to tackle climate change while avoiding the appearance that it’s hindering job growth.

The fanatics still accept the "science" of climate change.  Facts on the ground don't matter.

GOP lawmakers have already launched a series of efforts to hamstring the Environmental Protection Agency — and that’s before the rules have even officially kicked in. Those efforts are expected to increase in frequency and in force in the next Congress as Republicans claim the House majority and industries continue to lobby furiously against the greenhouse gas regulations.

Incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) last week accused EPA of advancing a “long regulatory assault” against domestic energy producers. “The EPA has its foot firmly on the throat of our economic recovery,” he said. “We will not allow the administration to regulate what they have been unable to legislate.”

The fact is that the rules are opposed by almost all Republicans and by a number of Democrats as well.  They will do enormous economic damage and raise the price of energy, as well as other products.  They will make the United States less competitive. 

Yesterday, we ran a piece containing predictions by knowledgeable people that gas at the pump may rise to five dollars a gallon by 2012.  The administration doesn't seem to care.  There are a number of environmental religionists who want high energy prices, to drive us away from carbon-based fuels.  They think they're being smart, not understanding that the economic damage by these premature actions, without new fuels in place, will harm the very people they claim to care about. 

This reminds me of the banning of DDT, a move the environmental "community" claimed would improve the health of the planet.  The result has been a catastrophic rise in malaria in Africa, far overshadowing any good the ban might have done.  The environmentalists remain unmoved.

December 29, 2010      Permalink

WHEN WILL THIS STUFF STOP? – AT 8:35 A.M. ET:  The following falls under the category of, "You can't make this up."  From Minnesota's startribune.com:

As the Muslim student population grows in Minnesota, some educators detect a glaring gap: a dearth of books the students can relate to and from which others can learn.

"There wasn't a whole lot in our library that provided a sense of 'this is what's normal,'" said Julie Scullen, a reading intervention specialist at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids, where she took stock of books about Muslims growing up in America.

When colleague Beth Braun, a Northdale media specialist, launched a full-blown national search, she didn't have much luck, either.

"The books are more about what it's like to live in another country and be a Muslim, or what it's like to be from a war-torn nation, not what it's like to be a teenager in America and be a Muslim," Braun said. "Those books are few and far between."

Librarians in some other school districts tell a similar tale.

"I have really not come across anything," said Linda Goering, library media specialist at Robbinsdale Middle School.

Oh please.

When was the last time these "educators" expressed concern about books that never depict Cuban immigrants who escaped from Castro; Vietnamese immigrants who fled the Communists; Catholic teenagers who are pro-life; teenagers whose fathers or mothers are in the military?  I wouldn't bother to ask.

I note the presence of the word "librarians."  You know librarians.  They're those nice, gray-haired ladies behind the desk.  Right?  Not necessarily.  One of the most underreported stories in education was the takeover of the American Library Association by extreme leftists, and Castroites, years ago.  Terrific investigative journalist Nat Hentoff, the best of the best (and a liberal), exposed the takeover and was greeted by silence from the mainstream media. 

The takeover of the ALA was so complete that the organization refused to condemn the imprisonment of librarians in Cuba.  Again, silence in the media.

And now we find anguish over the failure of books to include Muslim teenagers.  No anguish about the exclusion of other groups.  Why am I not shocked?

December 29, 2010     Permalink

NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE... – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  It's little more than a month after the Republicans scored one of the most smashing electoral victories of our era...and Barack Obama is rising dramatically in the polls.  His successes, one after the other, in the lame-duck session of Congress, has given him an enormous boost.

Scott Rasmussen reports:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11.

While still in negative territory, the president was polling about -16 or -17 in the days right after the election.

Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove.

In the days after the election, the split was more in the area of 45-54.

This should serve as a warning to the Republican Party, which historically has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  The Republicans had little control over the lame-duck session as it was the "old" Congress in session, run by liberal Democrats and entirely indifferent to the will of the people, as expressed in the election.

The Republicans' turn comes within days, when they will control the House, increase their numbers almost to parity in the Senate, control an increasing number of state legislatures and increase their number of governors.  The party must understand that it can't only win yesterday, it must win today, and tomorrow, and all the tomorrows after that. 

We've been reading about plans the GOP has in the House.  They look good.  The leadership is smart.  Lets start the show.

But remember, Obama is president.  The presidency carries with it enormous political clout.  We've just seen that.  We have an enormous fight ahead. 

December 29, 2010      Permalink