Selective Temp-erament

It is a most curious thing why the Drudge Report is highlighting that several localities in the US have seen record low temperatures so far in July.

If you click on the screen cap at right, you'd see:

Record low temps in LA...

Australia: Coldest day in 100 years...

UN Climate Panel Urges Scientists to 'keep a distance from media'...

The New York metro area just got done with one of the hottest streaks in recent history, matching or breaking record temps. In fact, Central Park saw back-to-back 100 degree days.

So, why cling to cold temperatures in Australia, which is currently in the middle of its winter (Southern hemisphere and all that). And for every record low, record high temperatures can be found to offset them.

The clear intention here is to question climate change and on this the science is well settled. Climate is changing. The question is the degree and speed with which it is changing and the role that mankind has in this change.

There are steps that we can take to reduce our effect on the environment to reduce output of emissions that pollute - including going nuclear, but the politics and NIMBY continue to block serious study and a concerted effort to reduce reliance on petroleum products.

President Obama's Weight Causes Concern At Drudge

Drudge reports that President Obama has lost quite a bit of weight.

Eyebrows raised over the weekend as President Obama walked out of the gym at Fort McNair -- appearing thin as a rail!

Rigorous workouts and high-stress basketball games are said to be behind the dramatic weight loss.

"No, he's not chain smoking," claims an insider. "He's working non-stop for the country... yes, he does occasionally skip meals."

The stress of being the President of the US is a huge weight on the shoulders of anyone who has taken the oath of office. All Presidents age tremendously under the strain in short time. It is little wonder that President Obama is losing weight under the strain. I also suspect he's quite a bit greyer than when he first took office too.

If President Obama is smoking, that isn't going to help matters any either. Playing basketball to deal with the strain is a healthier outlet.

Presidents Clinton and Bush both came into office relatively young and aged visibly and considerably in a short time; President Bush looked like he aged a decade practically overnight following the 9/11 attacks because of the nation's failures to defend its citizens from terror attacks. Keeping the nation safe means lots of sleepless nights knowing that there are evil plans afoot to cause the nation harm and that each morning's briefings can bring momentous news in some far flung part of the world that bodes ill for the US.

Obama In His Own Words

The White House wants to play Jedi mind tricks and make people think that Matt Drudge and Andrew Breitbart took President Obama's comments out of context when Obama extolled the virtues of a single payer health care system (aka government health care).

“Hi. I’m Linda Douglass. I’m the communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform, and one of my jobs is to keep track of all the disinformation that’s out there about health-insurance reform. And there are a lot of very deceiving headlines out there right now, such as this one — take a look at this one. This one says, ‘Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will Eliminate PRIVATE Insurance.’

“Well, nothing can be farther from the truth. You know the people who always try to SCARE people whenever you try to bring them health-insurance reform are at it again. And they’re taking sentences and phrases out of context, and they’re cobbling them together to leave a VERY false impression. The truth is that the president has been talking to the American people a LOT about health-insurance reform and what is at stake for them.

“So what happens is that because he’s talking to the American people so much, there are people out there with a computer and a lot of free time, and they take a phrase here and there — they simply cherry-pick and put it together, and make it sound like he’s saying something that he didn’t really say.”

However, Obama very clearly wants a single payer system. Obama has done nothing to suggest that he's not moving towards single payer with his proposals and the current health care bills making their way through Congress.

Obama thinks that single payer health care is the way to go, and even if it takes several years to achieve the changeover, it will be worth it.

But don't take my word for it. Listen to Obama himself:



He wants single payer, universal health care, and is more than willing to shift the entire health care system to government health care within 10-15 years. However, the current proposals would actually result in nearly everyone with private health care being shifted into government health care within one year when their current policies are updated and adjusted with their periodic review.

Linda Douglass very clearly chooses to ignore the multiple references to single payer and Obama's desire to see government health care imposed. This isn't a scare tactic on the part of opponents to Obama's health care plans. It's revealing Obama's policies for what they are - and exposing Obama's lies, deceit, and the deception by him and his allies in pushing forward a plan that will not improve the quality of care in the United States and will not save anyone any money, and which the CBO has found will end up costing far more than the Administration is willing to concede.

Drudge in the Tank?

What is Matt Drudge up to these days? Is he purposefully engaging in deceptive tactics with his headlines and photo choices? His latest headline for today links to the rising price of crude oil, but the photo above his link isn't all that it seems.



You'll see some eye popping prices per gallon, but that isn't what caught my attention. It was the octane ratings for those gas prices that can be clearly seen. The photographer or the editor cropped the photo to show only the bottom two fuel grades. We're talking about 93 octane and then 100 octane. You can't find 100 octane just anywhere; it's a specialty gas meant for racing and high performance situations. And both the 93 octane and 100 octane gas products are from a company called VP Racing Fuels:

Oxygenated with ethanol, this CARB-legal fuel is specifically engineered for high-performance street cars including sport compacts, muscle cars, street rods and more. It's environmentally friendly and street legal throughout the U.S. In applications with anything from 4- to 12-cyclinders or engines equipped with a turbocharger, supercharger or nitrous oxide system (NOS), StreetBlaze 100 will generate optimum power and performance. In turbocharged or supercharged applications, it allows an increase in boost without fear of detonation. NOS users can also leverage their higher octane ratings to step up to a more powerful nitrous oxide system. Dyno tests with a turbocharged application proved StreetBlaze100 generates up to 14% more horsepower compared to premium grade 91 octane unleaded gasoline. Designed for use in cast-iron head engines with CRs up to 13:1 and aluminum head engines up to 14:1. Works well on the latest generation of electronically-controlled turbo engines. Contains no metal compounds and won't harm catalytic converters or oxygen sensors.

This isn't the kind of gas you'll put into your run of the mill car, but rather is used by the racing car set to improve performance.

You can find plenty of images of high gas prices without resorting to this kind of misleading photo usage.

This follows his misleading headline on the polar ice cap from this morning.

In the case of gas prices, there really is no reason to exaggerate the high price of gas; it's plenty high already.