Retail stores and advertisers need to take note:

Most Americans Prefer ‘Merry Christmas’ To ‘Happy Holidays’
Sunday, November 29, 2009 – Rasmussen Reports

Amidst all the holiday shopping craziness, most Americans at this time of year want to see holiday signs that wish them a “Merry Christmas.”

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 72% of adults prefer “Merry Christmas,” while 22% like “Happy Holidays” instead.

Older Americans favor “Merry Christmas” more than younger adults.

[...]

Proving, once again, your children are being indoctrinated by the federal totalitarian school system!

This is an excellent interview and well worth listening to:

Part 1:

Parts 2 – 5 are below the fold:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

H/T – MeMaw

A little late but any anti islam uprising anywhere in Europe is welcomed. No one has a right to immigrate anywhere unless they first agree to assimilate peacefully and follow existing law. History has proven that rarely happens. Violence is as much a part of islam as pedophilia. So far, I have yet to find a place where muslims have peacefully co-existed with modern man. Muslims freeing sharia islamic oppression often find it follows them like a shadow.

GENEVA (AP) – Swiss television says projections based on ballot results show Switzerland’s voters have approved move to ban the construction of minarets, which right-wing parties have labeled as symbols of militant Islam.
-This is not really about minarets, it is about uncontrolled immigration and limiting the arrival of radical muslims.

The projections contracted by state-owned television DRS say the Swiss swung massively in recent days from 37 percent support in pre-vote polls to 59 percent in the actual voting.
-The muslims have a self inflicted image problem. Like the Latinos in the USA, failure to police their own allowed for such a sharp rise in crime and forced needed resources away from other citizens that a backlash against all immigration is forming.

Claude Longchamp, leader of the widely respected gfs.bern polling institute, says the projection also forecasts approval by more than half the country’s 26 cantons, meaning it will become a constitutional amendment.

The initiative was led by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, the country’s largest.

Projections were based on actual voting returns.

The Swiss People’s Party, has campaigned in previous years against immigrants, which has stirred fears of boycotts and violent reactions from Muslim countries.
-Both boycotts and violent reactions will happen, a 6% of the population some of the minions will retaliate with violence, others will demand protection from islamophobia and “backlash.” Still more will pretend to work together with authorities to show a positive side of islam.

Muslims have been keeping a low profile so far. Still, the Geneva Mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance.

Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin’s call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.

Business leaders say a ban on minarets, the distinctive spires attached to mosques, would be disastrous for the Swiss economy because it could offend wealthy Muslims who bank in Switzerland, buy the country’s luxury goods and visit its resorts.
-Let them go to France, England or some other islamic state of Europe.

The vote taps into the anxieties about Muslims that have been rippling through Europe in recent years, ranging from French fears of women in body veils to Dutch alarm over the murder by a Muslim fanatic of a filmmaker who made a documentary that criticized Islam.
-The every present muslim victim card. Took awhile but it was expected.

Local officials and rights defenders have objected to the campaign posters, which show minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman.

Minarets are typically built next to mosques for religious leaders to call the faithful to prayer, but they are not used for that in Switzerland. The four minarets already attached to mosques in the country will remain even if the referendum passes.

Muslims make up about 6 percent of Switzerland’s 7.5 million population, many of them refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Fewer than 13 percent practice their religion, the government says.
-The low numbers of practicing muslims could change overnight. Anyone that claims the title of muslim is potentially a singe verse away from turning into a full bore frothing at the mouth, violent jihadi. We have run hundreds of stories showing second and even third generation muslims turning on the countries that gave them refuge. These “non practicing muslims” only have to open a dark evil book to turn.

Allah, or…God Almighty?

Photos of Tragic Saudi Arabia Hajj Flash Floods

AccuWeather.com
Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Associated Press says that at least 100 have been killed by flash flooding in Saudi Arabia Wednesday that affected the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is ongoing this week. Given these pictures uploaded this morning from AccuWeather.com Photo Gallery user addhna, I would think that death toll would continue to rise in this terrible tragedy; this article says that 350 are still missing.

The Associated Press says:

“The official says rescue teams were looking for possible survivors from the downpours that caused heavy flooding in the coastal city of Jiddah, the main entry point for the millions of Muslims performing the annual hajj pilgrimage. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.”

One of the things supporters of open borders do not want exposed is the vast amount of crime directed against illegals. Gangs and smugglers routinely prey on them, extort them, rape and even murder them. The illegals are usually afraid to contact the police and most crimes go un-reported. The open border types share the responsibility of crimes against illegals by resisting methods to control entry they are dooming illegals to sudden violence and risking the lives and families of those they claim they wish to protect. Human smugglers are criminals and could careless about risking a child, a family or immigration rights. The only safe way across any border is the legal method.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a suspected human smuggler who allegedly refused to release a 4-year old girl he brought across the border from Mexico at her mother’s request.
-Usually, the coyote demands sexual favors, extra money or some other “service” after the illegal makes it across the border. With no way to pay, no one to help them and nowhere to turn families are exploited, forced into the sex industry or just murdered.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday the girl’s mother had the man smuggle the child while she took another route, but he later refused to release her, demanding more and more money.
-What is not said is she had no choice but let the child take another route. The child was insurance of payment.

Authorities rescued the girl, who is a U.S. citizen, on Thursday and returned her to her mother.
-The mother is extremely lucky many are never seen again.

ICE says deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department arrested 32-year old Emanuel De La Costa-Valdiva for investigation of human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.

ICE says the mother, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, will be allowed to stay in the country to serve as a witness.
-ICE is doing an incredible job, they work for a government that employees them and then makes the job impossible to perform.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  Mrs. Bulldog and I were away visiting relatives and didn’t get back into town until after midnight, last night.  While driving home, we heard a news report on the radio about a train derailment in Russia and both figured it was terrorist related.  Sure enough, this morning, the news reports are saying that it was a bomb that caused the derailment.   As Mrs. Bulldog said last night, “Gee, I wonder which religion of peace is responsible for that…”

Russia train crash ’caused by bomb’

Richard Galpin reports on the causes of the train disaster

A bomb blast caused the Russian train crash in which at least 26 people were killed, intelligence officials say.

The Nevsky Express derailed with nearly 700 on board as it ran through remote countryside between the capital Moscow and the second city, St Petersburg.

Investigators found “elements of an explosive device” at the scene of Friday’s attack, a statement said.

Officials said a second, less powerful device went off on Saturday near the site of the first, but no-one was hurt.

There was no immediate confirmed claim of responsibility for the blast on Friday evening, which hit a train popular with government officials and business executives at peak travel time.

“Criminology experts say, on the basis of preliminary information, that an improvised explosive device, equivalent to 7kg (15 lb) of TNT, had gone off,” said Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s domestic intelligence service.

At least three of the 14 carriages left the tracks as the train reportedly approached speeds up 200 km/h (130mph).

Russia’s prosecutor-general has opened a criminal case on terrorism charges, Russian news agencies say.

If terrorism is confirmed as the cause, observers say the derailment would represent the deadliest attack outside the volatile North Caucasus region for five years.

‘Attack on elite’

Pavel Felgenhauer, defence correspondent for Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper, told the BBC News website the key suspects for investigators would be “either militants from Russia’s North Caucasus region or nationalist extremists, pro-Nazi groups”.

“I think we can expect the Russian authorities to come up with some names soon, because this attack is politically very embarrassing.

“This is an expensive, high speed train, used by an elite which has been pushing to transfer parts of government functions to St Petersburg. We already have reports of several high-ranking government and local officials among the dead.

“Whoever is responsible, this attack clearly seems aimed not so much at the public, but directly at the ruling class.”

‘Loud bang’

Hundreds of rescuers and officials worked through the night at the scene near the town of Bologoye, about 400km (250 miles) north-west of Moscow.

Some reports say as many as 39 people have died.

The train was reported to be carrying around 650 passengers and two dozen or so staff.

About 90 people are in hospital, some taken there by helicopter.

Many of the injured are said to be in a serious condition.

According to some reports, the scene of the crash, in wooded countryside, was so remote it took emergency services two hours to get there.

Passengers spoke of a loud bang just before the derailment.

Russian television channels broadcast a recording of a mobile phone call from the train driver to the emergencies ministry.

“There was an explosion under the locomotive,” he said. “I do not know what we hit. We are derailed. The locomotive and carriages, I do not know yet what else, everything is in smoke. “

Federal prosecutors’ spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass news agency that a crater found at the site was 1.5m (5ft) wide and 0.7m deep.

“Indeed this was a terrorist attack,” he said.

In 2007, a bomb on the same line derailed a train, injuring nearly 30 passengers.

Two men suspected of having links to Chechen rebels were accused of planting a bomb next to the track.

Most honor killing involve a daughter, this one hides another islamic dark side. Fooling around with male children is common in some islamic communities but if the male on male action takes place between adults it can carry a death sentence. The pedophile mohammed was known to enjoy little boys but he forbid homosexuality in adults. No wonder so many muslims are confused.

BY DAN BILEFSKY, 25 Nov 09, The New York Times
ISTANBUL — For Ahmet Yildiz, a stocky and affable 26-year-old, the choice to live openly as a gay man proved deadly.

Prosecutors say his own father hunted him down, traveling more than 600 miles from his hometown to shoot his son in an old neighborhood of Istanbul.

Mr. Yildiz was killed 16 months ago, the victim of what sociologists say is the first gay honor killing in Turkey to surface publicly.

He was shot five times as he left his apartment to buy ice cream. A witness said dozens of neighbors watched the killing from their windows, but refused to come forward. His body remained unclaimed by his family, a grievous fate under Muslim custom.

His father, Yahya Yildiz, whose trial in absentia began in September, is on the run and believed to be hiding in northern Iraq.

The case, which has caused a bout of national soul-searching, has underlined the tensions between the secular modern Turkey of cross-dressing pop stars and a more traditionalist Turkey, in which conservative Islam increasingly holds sway.

Ahmet Kaya, Ahmet Yildiz’s cousin, said Mr. Yildiz was the only son of a deeply religious and wealthy Kurdish family from Sanliurfa, in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Mr. Kaya said Mr. Yildiz, a straight-A physics student who had hoped to become a teacher, was tutoring fellow students so he could make extra money to live independently. But by coming out as gay in a patriarchal tribal family, he had become the ultimate affront to both religious and filial honor, even with parents who adored him.
“Ahmet’s father had warned him to return to their village and to see a doctor and imam in order to cure him of his homosexuality and get married, but Ahmet refused,” Mr. Kaya said. “Ahmet loved his family more than anything else and he was tortured about disappointing them. But in the end, he decided to be who he was.”
-Had Ahmet followed the normal pattern of denial and hidden his sexuality he might still be alive. Muslims are all about maintaining the since of normalcy and keeping the family gossip hidden from view.

That clash of values permeates Turkish society. While Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union is pushing the Muslim-inspired government to accept and even promote civil liberties for women and homosexuals, some traditionalists remain ill at ease with a permissive attitude toward sexuality and gender roles.

Until recently, so-called honor killings have been largely confined to women, who face being killed by male relatives for perceived grievances ranging from consensual sex outside of marriage to stealing a glance at a boy. A recent government survey estimated that one person dies every week in Istanbul as a result of honor killings, while the United Nations estimates the practice globally claims as many as 5,000 lives a year. In Turkey, relatives convicted in such killings are subject to life sentences.

A sociologist who studies honor killings, Mazhar Bagli, at Dicle University in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, noted that tribal Kurdish families that kill daughters perceived to have dishonored them publicize the murders to help cleanse their shame.

But he said gay honor killings remained underground because a homosexual not only brought shame to his family, but also tainted the concept of male identity upon which the community’s social structure depended.
“Until now, gay honor killings have been invisible because homosexuality is taboo,” he said.

Gay rights groups argue that there is an increasingly open homophobia in Turkey. The military, which is the guardian of Turkey’s secular state, regards homosexuality as a disorder.

Last year, a local Istanbul court ruled in favor of disbanding the offices of Lambda, the country’s leading gay rights group, after a complaint that it offended public morality. (The decision was later overturned by a higher court.)

Firat Soyle, a human rights lawyer for Lambda, who was advising Mr. Yildiz before his death, said that three months before the murder, Mr. Yildiz had filed a complaint at the local prosecutor’s office that he was receiving death threats from his family. Mr. Soyle said the prosecutor’s office had refused to investigate or provide Mr. Yildiz with protection. The local police and prosecutors declined to comment on the allegation because the case was continuing.
-Through inaction, the authorities passively supported the murder.

The murder has divided Mr. Yildiz’s neighbors in Uskudar, an old Ottoman district on the Bosporus in Istanbul where secular and religious Turks live side by side.

Ummuhan Darama, a neighbor of Mr. Yildiz, was shot in the ankle during the attack and has filed criminal charges against his father. She said that the police had visited her in the hospital after the episode, urging her to drop the charges and to avoid becoming involved in what they called a “dirty crime.”

Ms. Darama, a religious Muslim who wears a gold satin head scarf, said she was the only one among her neighbors willing to testify.

“The police and local religious officials are trying to protect the killer because they think homosexuality is a sin,” she said. “But in Islam killing is an even bigger sin, and no one but Allah has the right to decide between life and death. Ahmet was a nice, gentle boy and he didn’t deserve to die.”
-His father was a weak man following a weak cult mentality. He cared more about his warped since of personal honor and what his friends would say than he did his own child. Many muslim men abuse their male children and that may have also played a role in this crime.

But Kemal, 55, a Kurdish man newly arrived to the district from the southeast who declined to give his last name, said he would disown his son if he found out he was gay. “I would kick him out of the house and he would no longer be my son,” he said, fingering his prayer beads.

Even as some gay groups have sought to blame encroaching Islamic conservatism for Mr. Yildiz’s death, others argue that Turkish society is actually becoming more sexually liberated. Nilufer Narli, a sociologist who has studied gender issues, noted that gay clubs and gay bars have proliferated in big cities like Istanbul. She said homosexuality in Turkey had been tolerated since Ottoman times.

One of Turkey’s most celebrated singers is Bulent Ersoy, a transsexual, who was banned by the military government in the 1980s but has since become more popular as a woman than she was as a man.

“It is a cliché that Turkey is homophobic,” Ms. Narli said. “There has been a rise in religious conservatism, but at the same time, because of globalization, people are more accepting now of different values than they have ever been.”

That acceptance, however, has not always filtered down to Turkey’s religious heartland, with sometimes deadly consequences.

Didar Erdal, a 23-year-old gay man from Mr. Yildiz’s hometown, recently fled Istanbul for the Netherlands out of fear that his own family was hunting him.

Mr. Erdal said his family had learned he was gay last month after he applied for an exemption from military service on the grounds of his sexuality. He said his father had gone “crazy” and ordered him home, where the tribe’s elders would decide his fate.

“I know all too well,” Mr. Erdal said, “what the tradition demands must happen to me.”

This is not about reform it is about votes. The democrats know they are in trouble come 2010 and they are attempting to build up a support base. Reality is they only support “reform” when they are feeling heat. Immigrants legal and illegal need just check for themselves the record of the democratic party and they will see the democrats are not now nor have they ever been on their side. Their record speaks for itself. If those currently in the majority have not helped you in the last 40 years, take the hint.

SUZANNE GAMBOA, 26 Nov 09, (AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Beyond the noisy town hall meetings, Tea Party protests and sky-is-falling speeches characterizing much of the health care debate is a less visible, but no less intense push to broaden the face of the immigration reform movement.

With the 2010 election year looming, Democrat Barack Obama in the White House and increasing numbers of Asian-American and Pacific Islanders in Congress, many groups, including the NAACP, are working harder in the traditionally Latino-led movement, sensing a fresh opportunity to overhaul laws affecting millions of immigrants, both legal and illegal.
-Read that, as the organized immigration rights groups are willing to push votes if paid for in policy.

“For far too long, the Latino population in the U.S. has really borne the brunt of the anti-immigrant sentiment,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. Washington NAACP bureau director Hillary Shelton said: “The immigration debate needs to have, in addition to a Latino face, it needs to have a Haitian face. It needs to have an Asian face.”

Unquestionably, the immigration issue is a temperature’s-rising matter; opinions are strong, in some cases ranging to demands to close the borders. And no small part of the renewed impetus for revamping the system are the increasing immigrant crackdowns.
-Ignoring the real issues of lost jobs, high crime rates and bankruptcies caused by massive numbers of illegals by turning this issue into a moral one is an old democrat game.

Against this backdrop, the collection of voices clamoring for overhaul is expanding — Caribbean-Americans, evangelical churches, labor unions and law enforcement, besides the NAACP. And businesses, too, are becoming increasingly active.

“It’s a Godsend,” said Arturo Vargas executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “We have been trying to make the argument, unsuccessfully in many respects, that immigration is not just a Latino issue because others are affected — Asians, Russians, Africans … At it’s core, this is about the future viability of this country.”
-It is about power brokers building personal wealth and power; I have yet to see any of these concerned citizens building homes, feeding the hungry or teaching our border hopping brethren jobs skills, no this is not about people.

The immigration reform movement hasn’t been devoid of diversity over the years, however.

Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Christian and other churches and faiths have been active leaders. In 2006 and 2007, people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Legalize The Irish” in green letters were common sights around the U.S. Capitol. Even immigration groups in Caribbean American communities have participated.
-If you are a Christian and your church pushes this agenda then change churches. One issue a party does not make, support democrats and you support gay marriages, abortion and pornography as art. I’m sure your God will ask you about that when you get face to face, do what you think you can afford.

But because the overwhelming majority of immigrants are coming from Mexico and Latin America, the push for a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented has been led largely by Latinos. It was mostly Latino immigrants who turned out for the 2006 marches against immigration crackdowns, for instance. It was a massive showing, stoked in part by Spanish-language radio and television.

Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has said he fully expects work on rewriting immigration law to begin in Congress next year. But he also said Congress may have to deal with it on a piecemeal approach if Democratic leaders delay because of the elections and a hostile political climate.

For his part, Obama said in September he believed that remaking immigration policy would be difficult, “but I think we can get it done.” But he has not suggested a timetable.

Meanwhile, proponents of immigration reform are stepping efforts to expand their ranks, and present a more diversified face at the same time.

Part of the problem is that black and Latino communities have divided in the past over illegal immigration reform. There has been friction — and in some communities continues to be — over whether illegal immigrants take jobs from black Americans.

But Clarke, a second-generation American whose parents immigrated from Jamaica and the West Indies, said many in the black community, which includes many African, Caribbean and black Latino communities, realize that ignoring the immigration reform movement means giving up the chance to ensure that the unique problems of black immigrants are addressed.

California Democratic Rep. Mike Honda, a Japanese American, said he wants to make sure reforms address the long waiting periods that Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders face to get visas to legally enter the country and to help lesbian/gay/bisexual and transgender communities have equal chances to bring their loved ones to this country.

“We are being asked to lead. At 29 members strong, we are weighing in with newfound force to ensure Asian American/Pacific Islanders are included in immigration reform,” Honda said.

“No longer will we be silent on issues of immigration reform,” Bishop Orlando Findlayter, head of Churches United to Save and Heal, a coalition of Carribean-American clergy, said last month. A few moments later, about 100 ministers, pastors and others crossed Independence Avenue in Washington to join him in lobbying members for immigration changes.
-Immigration reform sounds like a great idea but ask yourselves if you are willing to deal with the devil. It is your soul.

The increased intensity behind the movement has been palpable, with many faces and organizations pitching. Activism is on the rise.

—Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., led immigration reform meetings in various churches. And more than 60,000 people attended “house parties” this month and listened in on a conference call with Gutierrez and other members of Congress.

—Lennox Abrigo, pastor of Seventh-Day New Covenant Church in Hyattsville, Md., said the pastors have a Dec. 2 meeting at the White House. He said they have seen increases in immigrants in their congregations and increases in the problems faced by those in the country both legally and illegally.

“Members in our church have been deported … Families are disrupted. We have families broken up just like it was done in the period of slavery,” Abrigo said.

—The National Council of Evangelicals, representing 40 denominations including the Assemblies of God and Church of the Nazarene, recently issued a resolution backing immigration reform.

Just a reminder that on this thanksgiving Christians are still being persecuted for their beliefs. I do not buy Chinese junk myself but many of you will soon see the stores pushing that crap as Christmas presents. If Chinese drywall, poisoned medicine and dog food is not enough to discourage you then think of the oppression your money supports when it falls into Chinese hands. Notice, I did not mention many of their goods are just plain crap; if it says “made in China” that should be obvious to you already.

By Matthew Robertson, 26 Nov 09, Epoch Times
Five leaders of a Christian church group in Northern China were each sentenced on Nov. 25 to between three and seven years in prison.

The five were charged with “illegally occupying land” and “assembling to disrupt public order,” according to the NGO Chinese Human Rights Defenders. The sentence was handed down at a court in Linfen city, Shanxi Province. The defendants were not allowed to respond to the charges, CHRD said on its Web site.

Li Fanping, their lawyer, told AFP: “I was shocked at the seriousness of the punishment. This shows that the government is intent on using the law as a tool to attack the church.”

-Compared to the fates of Christians in Africa, the Middle East and the Philippines (all under attack from Muslims) they got off lightly. Oppression and persecution would diminish if enough of you Christions would think before blindly spending your money. Your support of these cultures puts your own at risk and passively supports the persecution of your fellow believers. Passive support is still support.

The leaders were arrested in mid-September after trying to stop their congregation buildings from being torn down. At that time the Deputy County Chief of Fushan County in Linfen City led 400 police and unidentified men at 3 a.m. to violently attack the people in the dormitories there, according to the CHRD Web site. Some were beaten unconscious and had to be taken to hospital, the report said.
-Like islam, communism is threatened by Christianity. The ability to think as an independent and high moral standards are impossible under both ideologies. Both systems depend on a follow the leader mentality and they do need the competition from a heavenly being.

Authorities are also reported to have brought tractors and excavators to destroy the building, a farm warehouse being used as a church.

That same day Yang Rongli, one of the Christian leaders, went with eight colleagues to Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, to petition the attempted demolition. He was kidnapped en route by provincial public security officials and unlawfully imprisoned, CHRD said.

Since then at least 10 Christians in Linfen have been arrested, with some being later released, up until the sentencing on Nov. 25.

Yang Rongli was sentenced to seven years, Wang Xiaoguang three years, Yang Xuan three years, Cui Jiaxing four and a half years, and Zhang Huamei four years.
-There have been hundreds more of course but Christians are not very active at supporting their own and this Christmas many will find it easier to buy Chinese stuff than to disappoint a child. It would be almost impossible to shop and not buy something made by them but you can severely cut back and clue the store in on why you would rather they carry merchandise from non Chinese makers.

Look in the lower left circle on the following ad page from Best Buy.  Notice anything?  Yup, they’re celebrating Eid al-Adha; a non-American holiday!

Now, it should also be pointed out that Best Buy was one of the stores that refused to use the word “Christmas” in their lexicon last year, and the year before that, and the year before that…    So, what are they thinking?

This is pretty basic stuff, here.  And, it’s not rocket science:  If it is an official American Holiday, you put it in your ad flyer.  If it isn’t an official American Holiday, then you don’t put it in your ad flyer.  How freakin’ hard is that to understand?

Here’s the spokeswoman for Best Buy from a couple of years ago:

“We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them,” said Dawn Bryant, a spokeswoman at Best Buy Co. Inc., whose advertising omits any reference to Christmas.

Really?  Well then, why do you mention Eid al-Adha by name, but then go out of your way to omit Christmas?  Obviously, there is no good answer to that question, unless they admit the truth:  They are Libtards who hate Christians.

Today is the day Americans celebrate thanksgiving. One of our traditions is going around the room and telling everyone why we are thankful. No easy task as I have a house full of relatives and they are driving me nuts. Luckily they do not know how to work a computer.

I am thankful that my blessings far outweigh my problems.

Happy thanksgiving everyone.

Oh, this is going to get good!  Where’s my popcorn?

BREAKING: NZ’s NIWA accused of CRU-style temperature faking

UPDATE 15:49 NZDT – NIWA’s news release in response to this story appears to have been delayed, and according to a radio news report a few minutes ago Rodney Hide, leader of the minority Act Party and a minister in the National Government, is now calling on his Cabinet colleague, Climate Change Minister Nick Smith, to “please explain” [normal transmission now resumes]

The New Zealand Government’s chief climate advisory unit NIWA is under fire for allegedly massaging raw climate data to show a global warming trend that wasn’t there.

The scandal breaks as fears grow worldwide that corruption of climate science is not confined to just Britain’s CRU climate research centre.

In New Zealand’s case, the figures published on NIWA’s [the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research] website suggest a strong warming trend in New Zealand over the past century:

The caption to the photo on the NiWA site reads:

From NIWA’s web site — Figure 7: Mean annual temperature over New Zealand, from 1853 to 2008 inclusive, based onbetween 2 (from 1853) and 7 (from 1908) long-term station records. The blue and red bars show annual differences from the 1971 – 2000 average, the solid black line is a smoothed time series, and the dotted [straight] line is the linear trend over 1909 to 2008 (0.92°C/100 years).

But analysis of the raw climate data from the same temperature stations has just turned up a very different result:

Gone is the relentless rising temperature trend, and instead there appears to have been a much smaller growth in warming, consistent with the warming up of the planet after the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850.

[...]

Do you all see what they did here?  They used a Bezier curving “trick” to pull the temperatures down by weighting it around the year 1905 or so.  That way, it looks like the temperatures were a lot cooler in the past!

CLICK HERE to continue reading this over at the Briefing Room

I think I’m going to hurl…

Gee, I sure am glad that Our Dark Overlord has repeatedly assured us that he is now a Christian, else one might be led to believe that he is still a Muslim.

BTW – Has Obama even picked a church, yet?

H/T – Gramfan:

On Thanksgiving eve, Obama issues special message to world’s Muslims on hajj
November 25, 2009 |  4:14 pm – LA Times Blog

Statement by the President on Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha, as provided by the White House

Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions.

During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand in prayer on Mount Arafat. The following day, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha and distribute food to the less fortunate to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son out of obedience to God.

This year, I am pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with the Saudi Health Ministry to prevent and limit the spread of H1N1 during Hajj. Cooperating on combating H1N1 is one of the ways we are implementing my administration’s commitment to partnership in areas of mutual interest.

On behalf of the American people, we would like to extend our greetings during this Hajj season – Eid Mubarak.   ###

Seeing the following articles come across the AP wire, one after the other, kind of had me doing a double-take:

24 reactions to H1N1 vaccine recorded in Canada with 1 person dead+
Nov 25 05:33 PM US/Eastern – via Breitbart

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (AP) – (Kyodo)—Twenty-four people have developed a side effect known as anaphylaxis from new-flu vaccine in Canada and one of them has died, Canadian health officials said Wednesday.

The fatality was a man in his 80s who was suffering from an underlying disease, the officials said, adding they are investigating a possible linkage between the H1N1 flu vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc which the man was administered and his death.

Earlier in the week, an unusually high rate of severe allergic reactions to the vaccine was reported in Canada, prompting health authorities to recall a batch of the vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline.

[...]

Meanwhile, the CDC continues to massage the public’s pleasure center:

CDC: Swine flu vaccine safe; no big problems seen
By MIKE STOBBE (AP) – Nov 25 04:30 PM US/Eastern

ATLANTA — There’s no evidence that the swine flu vaccine is causing any serious side effects, U.S. health officials said Wednesday, in their first report on the safety of the new vaccine.

Since vaccinations began in early October, the government has been tracking the safety of the swine flu vaccine. By mid-November, about 22 million Americans had gotten the vaccine and there were about 3,200 reports of possible side effects, the vast majority for minor things like soreness or swelling from the shot.

Health officials didn’t expect to see any serious problems — the swine flu vaccine is basically the same as the regular winter flu vaccine. And there weren’t any signs of trouble in the tests done in thousands to find the right dose.

Still, it is “very reassuring” to see that confirmed in their first report, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The vaccine data so far really suggests this is a safe vaccine,” she said at a press conference Wednesday.

[...]

I guess it all depends on what your definition of safe is…

BTW – Still no data on the side-effects to pregnant women and their fetuses…

Well, this is certainly an interesting development.  I suppose CAIR is going to attempt to sue the FBI, now…

FBI swoops in to halt return of ‘Muslim Mafia’ documents
New subpoena in conflict with judge’s order on papers captured in undercover investigation
WorldNetDaily

WASHINGTON – While attorneys representing the co-author of “Muslim Mafia” were preparing late today to honor a federal court order to return documents obtained from the Council on American-Islamic Relations in an independent undercover operation, FBI agents served a warrant on a Washington, D.C., law office for the same documents.

The FBI agents entered the capital law offices of Cozen O’Connor tonight and issued a warrant for thousands of pages of documents as well as audio and video recordings gathered by P. David Gaubatz and his son Chris in a daring and lengthy undercover penetration of CAIR in which the younger Gaubatz served as an unpaid intern for the group that was labeled an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator in last year’s Holy Land Foundation trial.

CAIR claimed in a lawsuit that Gaubatz removed its papers and made recordings of employees “without any consent or authorization and in violation of his contractual fiduciary and other legal obligations.” A federal judge in Washington issued a restraining order Nov. 3 barring the Gaubatzes from further use or publication of the material – 12,000 pages of documents along with audio and video recordings – and demanding that they return it to the Muslim group’s lawyers.

However, last night the FBI stepped in with a warrant, suggesting the agency wants to see the papers and examine the recordings as part of its interest in CAIR and its Hamas terrorist links, including those involving its founding chairman and acting executive director.

Joseph Farah, chief executive officer of WND and its subsidiary, WND Books, who has been raising money for the defense of his author and son, welcomed the FBI’s interest in the papers.

“Obviously, we were prepared to honor the court order from Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly,” he said.

Kollar-Kotelly – who as head of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court made several controversial decisions against the Bush administration’s counterterrorism policies – was criticized recently by many security experts for ruling against the military’s designation of a Guantanamo detainee as an enemy combatant, allowing the Obama administration to send him home.

“Now,” said Farah, “we will have to confer with the attorneys to determine what happens next. Which takes precedence – a federal court order or an FBI warrant? I trust this will be sorted out in the days to come. Personally, I would like to see these papers in the hands of trained FBI investigators. The revelations raised about CAIR in ‘Muslim Mafia’ have clearly piqued the agency’s interest.”

In fact, adds Farah, “I would say the nature of this warrant and the way it was served strongly suggests the FBI doesn’t want these documents returned to CAIR – where they were destined to be destroyed in the first place. We have always believed, as the Gaubatzes did, that there is valuable evidence here vital to the nation’s security.”

The FBI’s grand-jury subpoena is intended to preserve the status quo and not intended to require the Gaubatzes’ legal counsel to turn over the documents immediately – or before notifying Judge Kollar-Kotelly.

CAIR contends the documents were stolen. David Gaubatz insists the research described in his book, including securing the documents, “was conducted professionally and legally” in cooperation with law enforcement officials. Much of the relevant material is already in the hands of the FBI, he said.

[...]

Too funny!  The guy is a total moron!  Here’s a tip, Ed:  In the scientific community, it’s not considered “peer reviewed” if it isn’t “independently reviewed.”  That’s the problem with the Asinine Global Warmists; they were reviewing each others work and not allowing independent researches to review the work.  There’s even a technical term for that—”scientific fraud.”

Apparently, Obama thinks Christmas is HIS holiday and will team up with Oprah for a Christmas Special.

And you thought all those Christmas specials with the Osmonds were pure, unadulterated torture when you were a kid.  Can you imagine yourself as a child being subjected to this type of cruel and unusual punishment during the holidays?

Just shoot me….Shoot me now!

ABC announces Oprah-Obama Christmas special
By James Hibberd & Nellie Andreeva – thrfeed.com

The queen of daytime will interview the president of the country during an ABC holiday special that brings together Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama.

The network has announced “Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special,” which includes an interview with the president, a conversation with the First Couple and tour of the White House.

The special marks the first time Winfrey has interviewed Obama since he took office. “Christmas at the White House” will air Sunday, Dec. 13, at 10 p.m.

Winfrey, who has never endorsed a presidential candidate before, was a strong supporter of Obama during his presidential campaign, stumping for him in key states.

[...]

Hmmm…  Dishonoring her husband’s family because she was touching men’s hair while working at a hair salon…

This will be one to watch:

Don’t dismiss honour killing claim: judge
Kenyon Wallace, National Post

A Federal Court judge has ordered the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration to consider the credibility of a woman’s claim that she will be the victim of an “honour killing” if deported to her home country of Pakistan.

Justice Michael Kelen found that an immigration officer reviewing evidence in the case of Roohi Tabassum, a 44-year-old Mississauga hair stylist who has been fighting to stay in Canada since 2001, made a mistake by characterizing as “not threatening” letters purportedly from Ms. Tabassum’s husband in which he promised to “finish” Ms. Tabassum if she returned to Pakistan.

According to documents submitted to Citizenship and Immigration obtained by the National Post, Ms. Tabassum claims her husband, Faisal Javed, thought to be living in Dubai, began sending her letters and emails in 2006 in which he threatens to kill her for “dishonouring” his family by touching other men’s hair while working at a Mississauga salon.

She also claims her husband and his family have become erroneously convinced that she is living with another man in Canada, after a friend’s husband answered the phone at her apartment one night.

“What you are doing there, does it look better to you and does your religion allow you to touch other men? It is better to die hungry,” says one 2006 letter translated from Urdu and allegedly written by Mr. Javed.

“Tell me everything true otherwise you know that I can do anything for my honour. Do you know how much I believed in you? Other than this you are also aware that your life is seriously in danger in Pakistan…. Everybody is against you. I am also very combative to you. If you are here, I could not leave you alive.”

After asking her husband for a divorce, Ms. Tabassum received another letter dated February 2007 in which Mr. Javed alledgedly writes: “My doubts about you are real and right but keep this in mind that now I will finish you myself.”

According to court documents, Ms. Tabassum and her husband fled Pakistan in 2001 on fear of persecution from Sipah-e-Sahaba, a Sunni Muslim religious group that was declared a terrorist organization by Pakistan’s former president, Pervez Musharraf. Ms. Tabassum claimed she and her husband were targeted by the organization for their religious activities on behalf of Pakistan’s Shia Muslim community.

She made it to Canada, while her husband feld to the United Arab Emirates.

In 2003, Ms. Tabassum’s refugee claim was denied on the basis of a “lack of credibility and the availability of adequate state protection” in Pakistan, according to the court. She remained in Canada, however, and in 2007 filed an application for a “Pre-Removal Risk Assessment” in which immigration officers determine if deportees face any danger in their destination country.

Earlier this year, Citizenship and Immigration determined there was insufficient evidence to support Ms. Tabassum’s claim.

But in his ruling released yesterday, Justice Kelen said the immigration officer reviewing Ms. Tabassum’s case “mischaracterized the letters as not threatening” and should have instead focused on the credibility of the letters.

The decision is something of a reprimand for immigration officers conducting these kinds of assessments who decide to label evidence as “insufficient” or “not threatening” instead of calling a hearing in which the applicant is interviewed to determine their credibility, said Max Berger, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer acting for Ms. Tabassum.

Calls to Ms. Tabassum last night were not returned.

The judge referred the case to another officer and suggested a hearing to “determine if these documents containing the threats are credible, or self-serving documents created by persons close to the applicant to buttress her case to be allowed to remain in Canada.”

If the letters are found not to be credible, Ms. Tabassum will be deported.

Yes, if I were him (perish the thought), I’d be laying low, too!

"When I get back, you will all pay for your insolence!!!"

Al Gore “laying low” in Canada
By Judi McLeod  Wednesday, November 25, 2009 – CFP

Where does Al Gore stand on Climategate?

He doesn’t stand up in debate but hunkers down in hiding, holed up in Canada.

Gore, in Toronto for the MTS Allstream Inc. fundraiser dinner last night, which raised $100,000 for the David Suzuki Foundation, according to MTS Allstream Inc. “supporting its efforts to help transform the Canadian economy in ways that are consistent with a sustainable future”, is staying in Canada for about a week.

While the Internet world reeled in shock at a time when the U.S. considers a probe of whether prominent scientists who are advocates of global warming theories are cooking the books on the truth about climate change, Gore was telling the same old jokes to a friendly green Canadian audience.

“I am Al Gore.  I used to be the next president of the U.S.,” he quipped to the by-invitation-only Canadians inside Toronto’s Allstream Centre.  “Now I’m a recovering politician.”

They laughed just like Gore is laughing all the way to the bank.

There was no sign that the curtain had been pulled back revealing the Global Warming Wizard of Oz in England last week after computer hackers who got into the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in England leaked personal emails and documents pointing to the orchestration of global warming by prominent scientists, advocates of global warming alarmist theories willing to fudge the truth about climate change.

“But Gore’s supporters at the dinner shrugged off the allegations,” TorontoSun.com, Nov. 25, 2009.  “It doesn’t matter who or where you are, there’s always going to be some corruption,” said Port Elgin green activist Victoria Serda, 36.  “There’s still substantive evidence we need to act as quickly as possible.”

Protesters were rushed off the scene with threats of arrest.

“I arrived at the protest at around 7 o’clock with my friend.  When we arrived at the All Stream Center with our signs protesting Al Gore, we were met by a security guard who told us about an incident with protesters earlier on and that, if we did not leave immediately, we would be arrested,” Eddy Ashton told Canada Free Press (CFP) photographers on the scene.

Ashton emailed CFP late last night.  “What I really wanted to inform you about is that once we left the All Stream Center, my friend and I took our Infowar to Yonge Street and drove down the street with our signs showing from our car’s sunroof.  We even circled the Air Canada Centre after the Raptors game with the signs showing outside our windows.  We easily reached over 1,000 people when we were stopped at the traffic lights.  All I could see was mobs of people with their heads turned reading our signs with smiles on their faces.  We even had cab drivers talk to us about our signs at stop lights and pedestrians on the sidewalks cheering us on and giving us thumbs up.”

A security guard watching over Gore’s black Town Car told CFP that Gore would be “laying low in Toronto area for about a week and would attend a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) television interview at noon today.

Gore, in his Canadian hide-y-hole, obviously hopes that Climategate will have blown over by the time he returns to his Tennessee mansion, which,  as one Canadian blogger points out “produces more pollution a month than a normal household in one year.”

As Doug Henning would say, “It’s Maaagic!”

We Pay Them to Lie to Us
By John Stossel – Real Clear Politics

When you knowingly pay someone to lie to you, we call the deceiver an illusionist or a magician. When you unwittingly pay someone to do the same thing, I call him a politician.

President Obama insists that health care “reform” not “add a dime” to the budget deficit, which daily grows to ever more frightening levels. So the House-passed bill and the one the Senate now deliberates both claim to cost less than $900 billion. Somehow “$900 billion over 10 years” has been decreed to be a magical figure that will not increase the deficit.

It’s amazing how precise government gets when estimating the cost of 10 years of subsidized medical care. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill was scored not at $850 billion, but $849 billion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her bill would cost $871 billion.

How do they do that?

The key to magic is misdirection, fooling the audience into looking in the wrong direction.

I happily suspend disbelief when a magician says he’ll saw a woman in half. That’s entertainment. But when Harry Reid says he’ll give 30 million additional people health coverage while cutting the deficit, improving health care and reducing its cost, it’s not entertaining. It’s incredible.

The politicians have a hat full of tricks to make their schemes look cheaper than they are. The new revenues will pour in during Year One, but health care spending won’t begin until Year Three or Four. To this the Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner asks, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could count a whole month’s income, but only two weeks’ expenditures in your household budget?”

To be deficit-reducers, the health care bills depend on a $200 billion cut in Medicare. Current law requires cuts in payments to doctors, but let’s get real: Those cuts will never happen. The idea that Congress will “save $200 billion” by reducing payments for groups as influential as doctors and retirees is laughable. Since 2003, Congress has suspended those “required” cuts each year.

Our pandering congressmen rarely cut. They just spend. Even as the deficit grows, they vomit up our money onto new pet “green” projects, bailouts for irresponsible industries, gifts for special interests and guarantees to everyone.

Originally, this year’s suspension, “the doc fix,” was included in the health care bills, but when it clearly pushed the cost of “reform” over Obama’s limit and threatened to hike the deficit, the politicians moved the “doc fix” to a separate bill and pretended it was unrelated to their health care work.

Megan McArdle of The Atlantic reports that Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin asked the Congressional Budget Office what the total price would be if the “doc fix” and House health care overhaul were passed together. “The answer, according to the CBO, is that together they’d increase the deficit by $89 billion over 10 years.” McArdle explains why the “doc fix” should be included: “They’re passing a bill that increases the deficit by $200 billion in order to pass another bill that hopefully reduces it, but by substantially less than $200 billion. That means that passage of this bill is going to increase the deficit.”

From the start, Obama has promised to pay for half the “reform” cost by cutting Medicare by half a trillion over 10 years. But, Tanner asks, “how likely is it that those cuts will take place? After all, this is an administration that will pay seniors $250 to make up for the fact that they didn’t get a Social Security cost-of-living increase this year (because the cost of living didn’t increase). And Congress is in the process of repealing a scheduled increase in Medicare premiums.”

Older people vote in great numbers. AARP is the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. Like the cut in doctor’s pay, the other cuts will never happen.

I will chew on razor blades when Congress cuts Medicare to keep the deficit from growing.

Medicare is already $37 trillion in the hole. Yet the Democrats proudly cite Medicare when they demand support for the health care overhaul. If a business pulled the accounting tricks the politicians get away with, the owners would be in prison.

Dropping in on the rock is a requirement for islamic minions if they are of good health and can afford it. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with exploiting the elderly for propaganda purposes. At 87, granny is not capable of walking around mohammed pet rock once – much less seven times. The hajj is full of stupid ceremonies designed to keep the insane from figuring out that islam is a sham. The unwritten story is who paid for grannies trip and why?

Mecca, 25 Nov. (AKI) – The grandmother of US president Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the ‘Hajj’ or Islamic pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, a Saudi daily said on Wednesday. Sarah Obama, 87, is being accompanied by a nephew and Obama’s cousin, Omran.
-Made trip-check, male relative escort-check, propaganda that the obama’s are pious mulsims-check.

On Wednesday Sarah Obama was in the valley of Mina with an African delegation, according to the Saudi daily Okaz.

Obama, the mother of the American president’s father, lives in a village in Kenya and is one of the many guests of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud.
-Well now we know whom but why? Could it be as simple as encouraging more tourist dollars-nah, not that simple. Anothor question-why didn’t obama pay for the trip? He has money. He let grandma down; at 87, she should be done with this requirement. It seems obama takes about as good of care of his family as he does our country.

About two million Muslims converge on Mecca each year for the Hajj pilgrimage but Saudi officials were expecting fewer pilgrims this year due to the threat of the H1N1 virus known as swine flu.
-Most will never catch the flu but all of them will join mohammed in hell. That is also a requirement for spending a life in support of evil.

Crowds of pilgrims have been converging on the holy city of Mecca in recent days, and started the Hajj rites on Wednesday.

At the weekend, Saudi health authorities said that four people attending the Hajj had died from the H1N1 virus but sought to play down the risk.
-Many more die each year from heat related illnesses and or terror attacks by muslims that prey on pilgrims.

The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. It is an obligation for all able-bodied Muslims to attend at least once during their lives, provided they can afford it.
-It is easy to afford if your saudi buddy is looking to build a propaganda campaign around your trip.

Ah, yes.  I love reading stories like these:

Store manager shoots robber
BY KAUSTUV BASU • FLORIDA TODAY • November 25, 2009

COCOA — A store manager shot and wounded an armed man during an attempted robbery at a Chevron gas station near U.S. 1 and Peachtree Street on Tuesday night.

At about 9:20 p.m., a man entered the store and pointed a large-caliber handgun at the store manager and demanded money. The store manager, Sowann Suy, 40, instead pulled out a gun from below the counter and started firing.

The man was shot once in the abdomen. He did not fire his weapon and immediately left the store, collapsing in the parking lot, where Cocoa police found him when they arrived a few minutes later. Suy called 9-1-1 right after the shooting.

Police did not release the suspect’s name.

No other customers or store employees were in the station at the time of the incident.

The man, 40, was flown via helicopter to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, where he was undergoing surgery at press time. His condition was critical but stable, said Officer Barbara Matthews, police spokeswoman.

Suy is a member of a family that has owned the gas station for about five years, police said.

“He absolutely had the right to defend himself,” Matthews said.

[...]

While I’ve been busily scratching my head while playing with the raw data sets from the CRU files on and off for the past few days, Marc Sheppard has been digging into the CRU Code that was used to generate the graphs used by the Asinine Global Warmists.

Being a physicist, myself, it has been drilled into my head that any filtering of data MUST be referenced in any published papers.  Now, you don’t need to include your source code, but you MUST include the formulas you used to filter the data sets.  Well, after reading the following article on CRU’s source code, I now understand why I was having no luck with the raw data sets:  I didn’t have a program that automatically put a “fudge factor” algorithm into the mix!

Note:  I have shortened the following article so as to concentrate on the fudge factor:

CRU’s Source Code: Climategate Uncovered
By Marc Sheppard – American Thinker

[...]

One can only imagine the angst suffered daily by the co-conspirators, who knew full well that the “Documents” sub-folder of the CRU FOI2009 file contained more than enough probative program source code to unmask CRU’s phantom methodology.

In fact, there are hundreds of IDL and FORTRAN source files buried in dozens of subordinate sub-folders.  And many do properly analyze and chart maximum latewood density (MXD), the growth parameter commonly utilized by CRU scientists as a temperature proxy, from raw or legitimately normalized data.  Ah, but many do so much more.

Skimming through the often spaghetti-like code, the number of programs which subject the data to a mixed-bag of transformative and filtering routines is simply staggering.  Granted, many of these “alterations” run from benign smoothing algorithms (e.g. omitting rogue outliers) to moderate infilling mechanisms (e.g. estimating missing station data from that of those closely surrounding).  But many others fall into the precarious range between highly questionable (removing MXD data which demonstrate poor correlations with local temperature) to downright fraudulent (replacing MXD data entirely with measured data to reverse a disorderly trend-line).

In fact, workarounds for the post-1960 “divergence problem”, as described by both RealClimate and Climate Audit, can be found throughout the source code.  So much so that perhaps the most ubiquitous programmer’s comment (REM) I ran across warns that the particular module “Uses ‘corrected’ MXD – but shouldn’t usually plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures.”

What exactly is meant by “corrected” MXD, you ask?  Outstanding question — and the answer appears amorphous from program to program.  Indeed, while some employ one or two of the aforementioned “corrections,” others throw everything but the kitchen sink at the raw data prior to output.

For instance, in subfolder “osborn-tree6\mann\oldprog” there’s a program (Calibrate_mxd.pro) that calibrates the MXD data against available local instrumental summer (growing season) temperatures between 1911-1990, then merges that data into a new file.  That file is then digested and further modified by another program (Pl_calibmxd1.pro) which creates calibration statistics for the MXD against the stored temperature and “estimates” (infills) figures where such temperature readings were not available.  The file created by that program is modified once again by Pl_Decline.pro, which “corrects it” – as described by the author — by “identifying and “artificially” removing “the decline.”

But oddly enough – the series doesn’t begin its “decline adjustment” in 1960 — the supposed year of the enigmatic “divergence.”  In fact, all data between 1930 and 1994 are subject to “correction.”

And such games are by no means unique to the folder attributed to Michael Mann.

A Clear and Present Rearranger

In 2 other programs, briffa_Sep98_d.pro and briffa_Sep98_e.pro, the “correction” is bolder by far. The programmer (Keith Briffa?) entitled the “adjustment” routine “Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!” And he/she wasn’t kidding. Now, IDL is not a native language of mine, but its syntax is similar enough to others I’m familiar with, so please bear with me while I get a tad techie on you.

Here’s the “fudge factor” (notice the brash SOB actually called it that in his REM statement):

yrloc=[1400,findgen(19)*5.+1904]
valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,

-0.1,0.3,0.8,1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6,

2.6]*0.75         ; fudge factor

These 2 lines of code establish a 20 element array (yrloc) comprised of the year 1400 (base year but not sure why needed here) and 19 years between 1904 and 1994 in half-decade increments.  Then the corresponding “fudge factor” (from the valadj matrix) is applied to each interval.  As you can see, not only are temperatures biased to the upside later in the century (though certainly prior to 1964) but a few mid-century intervals are being biased slightly lower.  That, coupled with the post-1930 restatement we encountered earlier, would imply that in addition to an embarrassing false decline experienced with their MXD after 1960 (or earlier), CRU’s “divergence problem” also includes a minor false incline after 1930.

And the former apparently wasn’t a particularly well-guarded secret, although the actual adjustment period remained buried beneath the surface.
Plotting programs such as data4alps.pro print this reminder to the user prior to rendering the chart:

“IMPORTANT NOTE: The data after 1960 should not be used.  The tree-ring density records tend to show a decline after 1960 relative to the summer temperature in many high-latitude locations.  In this data set this ‘decline’ has been artificially removed in an ad-hoc way, and this means that data after 1960 no longer represent tree-ring density variations, but have been modified to look more like the observed temperatures.”

Others, such as mxdgrid2ascii.pro, issue this warning:

“NOTE: recent decline in tree-ring density has been ARTIFICIALLY REMOVED to facilitate calibration.  THEREFORE, post-1960 values will be much closer to observed temperatures then (sic) they should be which will incorrectly imply the reconstruction is more skilful than it actually is.  See Osborn et al. (2004).’

Care to offer another explanation, Dr. Jones?

Gotcha

Clamoring alarmists can and will spin this until they’re dizzy.   The ever-clueless mainstream media can and will ignore this until it’s forced upon them as front-page news, and then most will join the alarmists on the denial merry-go-round.

But here’s what’s undeniable:  If a divergence exists between measured temperatures and those derived from dendrochronological data after (circa) 1960 then discarding only the post-1960 figures is disingenuous to say the least. The very existence of a divergence betrays a potential serious flaw in the process by which temperatures are reconstructed from tree-ring density.  If it’s bogus beyond a set threshold, then any honest men of science would instinctively question its integrity prior to that boundary.  And only the lowliest would apply a hack in order to produce a desired result.

And to do so without declaring as such in a footnote on every chart in every report in every study in every book in every classroom on every website that such a corrupt process is relied upon is not just a crime against science, it’s a crime against mankind.

[Exactly!!!]

CLICK HERE to read this article in its entirety

Hmmm, even I missed this one while trying to sift through all those emails:

H/T – HyperConservative

(From the searchable online database HERE)

From: gjjenkins@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
To: p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx, deparker@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: 1996 global temperatures
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 11:23 +0000 (GMT)
Cc: llivingston@xxxxxxxxx.xxx, djcarson@xxxxxxxxx.xxx, ckfolland@xxxxxxxxx.xxx

Phil

Remember all the fun we had last year over 1995 global temperatures,
with early release of information (via Oz), “inventing” the December
monthly value, letters to Nature etc etc?

I think we should have a cunning plan about what to do this year,
simply to avoid a lot of wasted time.

I have been discussing with David P and suggest the following:

1. By 20 Dec we will have land and sea data up to Nov

2. David (?) computes the December land anomaly based on 500hPa
heights up to 20 Dec.

3. We assume that Dec SST anomaly is the same as Nov

4. We can therefore give a good estimate of 1996 global temps by 20
Dec

5. We feed this selectively to Nick Nuttall (who has had this in the
past and seems now to expect special treatment) so that he can write
an article for the silly season. We could also give this to Neville
Nicholls??

6. We explain that data is provisional and how the data has been
created so early (ie the estimate for Dec) and also

7. We explain why the globe is 0.23k (or whatever the final figure is)
cooler than 95 (NAO reversal, slight La Nina). Also that global annual
avg is only accuirate to a few hundredths of a degree (we said this
last year – can we be more exact, eg PS/MS 0.05K or is this to big??)

8. FROM NOW ON WE ANSWER NO MORE ENQUIRIES ABOUT 1996 GLOBAL TEMPS BUT
EXPLAIN THAT IT WILL BE RELEASED IN JANUARY.

9. We relesae the final estimate on 20 Jan, with a joint UEA/MetO
press release. It may not evoke any interest by then.

10. For questions after the release to Nuttall, (I late Dec, early
Jan) we give the same answer as we gave him.

Are you happy with this, or can you suggest something better (ie
simpler)? I know it sound a bit cloak-and-dagger but its just meant to
save time in the long run.

Im copying this to DEP and CKF also for comments.

Cheers

Geoff