Nightly Ramble Tuesday

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere…The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• CLIMATEGATE? That’s what Iain Murray is callling it, and I suppose it fit was well as any moniker.
  

  This may seem obscure, but the science involved is being used to justify the diversion of literally trillions of dollars of the world’s wealth in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out fossil fuels. The CRU is the Pentagon of global warming science, and these documents are its Pentagon Papers.

  Exactly what I called it in Friday’s Ramble.
  Murray then goes on to explain in some detail why this revelation is of far greater import than the guys like George Monbiot make it. Oh, speaking of Murray, you may want to examine his recent NRO column as well.

  Oh… and Doctor Tim Ball adds his two cents here:

  
  One point that Doctor Ball makes clear in this interview is the idea that these people are all here reviewing each other’s work.  The idea of pure review was to make sure that honesty was prevailing.  In this case, it appears as we have long suspected that “peer review” means “giving support to the other writers lies” .

• OBAMA AND AFGHANISTAN: Obama’s reportedly agreeing to 34,000 troops to Afghanistan… some 8000 less than his commanders… McChrystal, particularly, are asking for if I recall right. He waits for three months with his finger in the political winds and still comes up with this?   And of course he’s going to raise taxes over it, too.  When you’re a Democrat, I guess any excuse to raise taxes will do.All the while short-changing the troops trying to win the war he said all through the campaign, that we ‘must win’.  Ed Morrissey isn’t happy… and with some justification:
  

  

  Ed Morrissey

  The new plan contains the “off-ramps” Obama demanded from his national security team. Those begin to arrive as early as June, according to McClatchy, giving the US a few easy outs if Obama chooses to retreat. If the “political side” or the war itself doesn’t improve, Obama apparently wants to get out altogether. In other words, this looks like McChrystal’s last stand. Next week, McChrystal will return to DC in order to help Obama roll this out, where Obama will almost certainly get significant pushback from Democrats in Congress over the cost and the need to keep fighting.

  The increase in troops is a good decision, but the off-ramps almost completely undermine it. The point in extending our footprint is to win the trust of the local communities and prove our reliability in providing them security, which is the central thrust of McChrystal’s COIN strategy. By getting them to trust our commitment, we can get them to help fight the Taliban themselves, as we did with the Anbar Awakening in Iraq against al-Qaeda, and greatly improve the intel we get from the locals. If we send 34,000 more troops but give ourselves a six-month time frame for success or bug-out, the locals will very quickly come to the realization that allying with us will be suicide. The COIN strategy only worked in Iraq because George W. Bush was adamant that we would stay until we won.

  A Commander in Chief doesn’t need “off-ramps.” Any President can call an end to a deployment based on his own judgment. Putting these conditions into the American strategy signals weakness — a desire to pull out without getting blamed for the decision. Obama wants to be off the hook for an eventual withdrawal by claiming that he’s forced to do it because of these benchmark failures. And if Obama’s that keen to retreat, he should just do it now.

  Well, look… I tend to agree with Ed, here but let’s be honest about the reason for this ‘offramps’ nonsense.   They are the political cover Obama and his minions have spent three months worth of dead soldiers trying to find.  From Obama’s narrow visual, he’s protected politically, either way the war falls out so long as his stick to the policy… as if he’s actually answerable to the policy he himself sets. Andhe wonders, I suppose why his numbers are falling like (…fill in the blank…)

• THE REAL JOBLESS RATE:  According to CNBC, it’s up around 18%.  Among black males, the unemployment rate is in the 30’s.  (BBCT Lorie Byrd via Facebook)  Of course, I have a rather impertinent question to add to this; what would the unemployment rate be if we didn’t have a few million illegal aliens , I wonder?
• AS IF IT NEEDED THE HELP: Saint Andrew (The Incontinent) Sullivan’s credibility, that is. (Used the cahce in case Bedwetting Andy gets a case of the guilts. )  Yep… Turns out the death of Bill Sparkman down in Kentucky was in fact a suicide not a lynching and not the “Southern Populist Terrorism” he tried to say it was. Interestingly, Stacy McCain notes the same thing and ups the ante a bit with Rick Ungar who uttered those famous words “Send the body to Glenn Beck”. Stacy also adds the official report, along with much addtional commentary and roundup.