Clipfile - January 22, 2010

“If you are going to base a large part of your self-worth on the proposition that you are smarter than your political opponents, and if every third sentence of your critique is going to reassert that you are smarter than your political opponents, at some point is is incumbent upon you to say something smart, or insightful, or nuanced, or at least novel.” - Ace

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Blowin’ on the winds?

NOAA Press Release:

Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is largest when the air originates in Asia.  These increases in ozone could make it more difficult for the United States to meet Clean Air Act standards for ozone pollution at ground level, according to a new international study...

“In springtime, pollution from across the hemisphere, not nearby sources, contributes to the ozone increases above western North America,” said lead author Owen R. Cooper, Ph.D., of the NOAA-funded Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  “When air is transported from a broad region of south and east Asia, the trend is largest.”
...
The analysis shows an overall significant increase in springtime ozone of 14 percent from 1995 to 2008.  When they included data from 1984, the year with the lowest average ozone level, the scientists saw a similar rate of increase from that time through 2008 and an overall increase in springtime ozone of 29 percent.

“This study did not quantify how much of the ozone increase is solely due to Asia," Cooper said.  “But we can say that the background ozone entering North America increased over the past 14 years and probably over the past 25 years.”

The influence of ozone from Asia and other sources on ground-level air quality is a question for further study, Cooper said.  Scientists will need to routinely measure ozone levels close to the surface at several locations along the West Coast to see whether similar trends are impacting ground-level air quality.

Immediate questions:  If it turns out the inflows introduce a significant amount of ozone (with respect to legislated target levels), should the targets be revised upward?  Or suppose the inflows exceed the target levels - do we ban all economic human activity?

Via:  FuturePundit, via Instapundit

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Horkage

Roberta X:

We Temporarily Interrupt This Blog

Because a cat has horked on the keyboard.  Very seriously.

“Mycroft Holmes” (in the comments):

Well, no wonder!

You’ve been forcing the poor dear to use the Indy Star and apparently she accidentally read an editorial.

(Linx added by O.G.!)


(Loosely) Related:

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Words of love from a Bitter Clinger

Mike explains all that hatin’ goin’ ’round:

To all you Zombie Media/Democrat Socialist liberal-idiot losers: it ain’t blacks we hate.  It ain’t the poor, it ain’t gays, and it ain’t women.
It’s YOU.

There.  All clear now?

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Haiti WTF

USA Today:

Food handouts were shut off Tuesday to thousands of people at a tent city here when the main U.S. aid agency said the Army should not be distributing the packages.

It was not known whether the action reflected a high-level policy decision at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or confusion in a city where dozens of entities are involved in aid efforts.

“We are not supposed to get rations unless approved by AID,” Maj. Larry Jordan said.

Jordan said that approval was revoked; water was not included in the USAID decision, so the troops continued to hand out bottles of water. The State Department and USAID did not respond to requests for comment...

And from the White House?

Via:  Instapundit

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Why all the politics?

Richard McEnroe speaks for many of us:

Understand this:  I don't like politics.  I don't like politicians.  I would have been perfectly happy drinking my sangria and telling my offcolor jokes and writing my novels.

But these bastards won't leave us alone.  We are faced with a government that is determined to intrude into every aspect of our lives at this point, from our health care and our homes to our lightbulbs and our freaking yard sales...

And the Admiministration that nominally heads this government, fronted by an arrogant, ill-informed store mannequin, is placing the responsibility for this intrusion in the hands of a group of people so comprehensively corrupt, criminal, ignorant and insular that they can’t or won’t even keep an accurate count of how many people’s lives they’ve ruined...

...This calls for a fundamental change and fundamental action by a lot of people.

(There’s much more, RTWT.)

And today, C. Edmund Wright:

And no, MS-NBC, this [yesterday’s Brown victory] was not a Tip O’Neil “all politics are local” referendum on potholes and such.  Thanks to big government liberals, no politics are local anymore.  Not even an obscure congressional district known as NY-23.

Every single seat may now hold the key to Washington’s ability to reach into the homes and wallets and lives of every American for any reason they deem necessary.  And that’s what this was about, with health care as the key issue but only one of many concerns about intrusive government.
...
The message was consistent.  Washington was trying to “fundamentally change” America, and beyond their notice, Americans were waking up to what that means and were shouting not “no" -- but “hell no.”

...and we’ll continue shouting “hell no” until they cease playing their usual D.C. games, start listening, and get Washington TF out of our lives.

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Name that candidate

Hey CNN, what was the name of the guy who won that Senate seat?


LATER, Related (100120 22:05):

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Hark, hark, the snark!

Instapundit:

Democrats lean toward pushing Senate health-care bill through House.  “The argument is, you’re already pregnant.”

I thought these people believed in abortion?

Cybrludite:

No need for those wind turbines off Hyannis anymore.  Just rig up a big alternator to Teddy...

Ace:

A few more catastrophic defeats like this and it might be safe to elect Democrats again.

Richard McEnroe:  What Can Brown Do For You?

(Probably more to come...)

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I was going to pop up some popcorn when I got home...

Didn’t even make it home yet, and it’s all over but the whining.

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A little nervous, Evan?

ABC News/The Note (via Hot Air, via Ace)

Even before the votes are counted, Senator Evan Bayh is warning fellow Democrats that ignoring the lessons of the Massachusetts Senate race will “lead to even further catastrophe” for their party.

“There’s going to be a tendency on the part of our people to be in denial about all this,” Bayh told ABC News, but “if you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up.”

Sounds worried, doesn't he?
D’ya suppose his numbers might have anything to do with it?
From The Hoosierpundit):

I’ve now heard from a couple of people of a new poll of Bayh's numbers placing him in the low fifties in approval ratings and the high thirties in disapproval ratings.

So ponder Evan Bayh’s approval trendline for a moment:

May:  74%
November:  63%
January:  50%-55%

And the disapproval trendline:

May:  23%
November:  31%
January:  35%-40%

That can’t be good news for the army of consultants Evan Bayh is paying for with his warchest flush with a gazillion dollars from Washington insiders and special interests.

In a bit over six months, Evan Bayh’s approval rating has been slashed by a third and has fallen by almost 25%. His disapproval numbers have almost doubled.

Related:

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