Number of Americans who believe in global warming plummets

A new poll from PEW:

The percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence the earth is warming has fallen sharply over the last year. In an April 2008 survey, 71% said there was solid evidence of global warming, and almost half of Americans (47%) said it was the result of human activity. In an October survey, however, just 57% of Americans said there was solid global warming evidence, and only 36% of the public said it was the result of human activity. While the declining acceptance of global warming evidence has come from across the political spectrum -- even among Democrats the percentage seeing strong evidence of global warming has fallen from 91% in 2006 to 71% in 2009 -- the decline has been precipitous among independents in the last year. While 75% of independents said there is solid evidence the earth is warming in 2008, only a small majority (53%) continue to see such evidence now. Republicans have always been more cynical about global warming evidence but doubters have mounted quickly in recent years, after a very slight increase in support of global warming evidence in 2007. Fully 62% of Republicans said there is solid evidence the earth is warming in 2007, but currently just slightly more than a third (35%) agree.

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Public option opponents should make up the $25bn now lost

An excellent point from Ezra Klein:

According to the Congressional Budget Office, even the weak public option would have saved $25 billion over 10 years. As part of the compromise, shouldn't the moderates who wanted that removed from the bill have to come up with the revenue to replace it? If not, why not? I've been hearing this gripe from liberal offices lately, and Russ Feingold makes the point publicly today, and it seems pretty spot-on.

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Dem. Alan Grayson tells Cheney to STFU

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Sarah Palin climate change op ed causes controversy

I'll join in too. What are Palin's credentials for having anything to say at all on Climate Change? She's not the leader of the Republican party. She's not even a politician anymore. So, other than being a proven intellectual lightweight who wants to be president, what credentials does she have for the Washington Post to accept an op ed from her on this topic?

And another thing. I know for a fact that the Washington Post has published ghost written op eds in the past. But I'm not aware of them ever having published one that didn't at least pass the laugh test of credibility. Does anyone in their right mind actually believe for a moment that Sarah Palin knows the difference between the Chinese and Indian climate change proposals? Get real.

Much more over at Huffington Post. Read the rest of this post...

WH spokesman Gibbs says President did everything he could to push for public option, then refuses to endorse public option in the House bill

From today's White House press briefing:

Q Would he rather have had a public option --

MR. GIBBS: You know, you ask me if the President would rather have won the lottery. It's an interesting hypothetical that --

Q We do hypotheticals now -- (laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: He'd disagree with you on that.

Q It's not hypothetical, it's in the House bill. I mean, does he support that --

MR. GIBBS: We're making progress. The President supports this process in terms of both good policy and as a way of moving that process forward.

Q To follow, now that the Democratic senators have reached this compromise on the public option, does the President feel that he did everything he could to push specifically for a public option --

MR. GIBBS: Yes.

Q -- especially since that was his preferred measure of choice and competition?

MR. GIBBS: Yes. And he's continued to meet with senators in order to make progress. Absolutely.

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Should the UK return the Rosetta Stone?

It's an interesting debate going on about what should be considered "stolen" artifacts from the colonial era. Egypt would like to receive the famous Rosetta Stone back from the UK and the request is under consideration. To some degree, I agree with countries such as Egpyt or Cambodia who would like to have their art back. It was never a gift but simply taken during the colonial years. On the other hand, I've seen enough museums in the other countries to believe that it's not always possible to properly protect the magnificent pieces of history and art.

The Egpytian Museum in Cairo has an amazing collection. Each room is overflowing with incredible artifacts. It's also an outdated museum that lets in the harsh sun and has no climate control. When I was there in August 2007 I wondered how long things could last in such conditions. They are building a new museum in Giza so perhaps that will solve these problems. (You still have to travel to that Giza, which I disliked immensely.) The famous tombs in Egypt are another example of where the antiquities department is failing the country. Egypt generates a substantial amount of money from visitors yet they continue to do a poor job of properly protecting the magnificent art inside the tombs. It hardly gives confidence that there is much interest in preserving their history.

Looking at the Cambodian example, the French pilfered countless pieces which serve as the cornerstone of the Musée Guimet. This spectacular museum (one of my favorites anywhere) definitely helps introduce people to some of the finest examples of Asian art. It also inspires many to travel to Southeast Asia to see it in its original setting. When you walk around Angkor and see the damage done by the Khmer Rouge and later by art thieves (including missing pieces hacked out of the stone) you wonder how much more would have been stolen and ended up in posh antique stores had it remained in Cambodia.

There's little question about whether or not this art has been stolen. Should the art remain where it is today or should it be returned? Or, should both sides look for a middle ground of sharing and promoting travel to see it both at home and abroad? Read the rest of this post...

Federal school lunch meat wouldn't pass muster at McDonald's

Scary. From USA Today:

In the past three years, the government has provided the nation's schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn't meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants, from Jack in the Box and other burger places to chicken chains such as KFC, a USA TODAY investigation found.

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Independent panel: TARP “can be credited with stopping an economic panic"

NYT:

"[T]here is broad consensus that the TARP was an important part of a broader government strategy that stabilized the U.S. financial system by renewing the flow of credit and averting a more acute crisis.”

It added, “Although the government’s response to the crisis was at first haphazard and uncertain, it eventually proved decisive enough to stop the panic and restore market confidence.”

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Hospitals are going to have to learn to live on less revenue

Ezra Klein:

Which brings us to the second point: At some point, hospitals are going to have to learn to live on less revenue. This is a when, not an if. Otherwise, the government goes bankrupt, and so too does the private sector, and then no one can pay hospitals anything anyway. The sooner we begin the process of transitioning to a leaner system, the more time we'll have to complete the transition, and the less disruptive the transition will be. Medicare buy-in for a small slice of the population is dipping a toe into the pool. It's safe, and we can always back off and try another approach if we don't like it. But the longer we wait, though, the more likely it is that we get pushed in altogether.

Remember what the per night charge was for my hospital in France? Under $30. My emergency room visit? $32. My in-patient eye surgery? $2400. The US price for my eye surgery was "at a minimum $20,000," according to my eye specialist back here in DC. Joe's appendicitis, which wasn't even an emergency, $24,000. Our costs are absurd. Read the rest of this post...

Climate change deniers without borders

The teabaggers and anti-change crowd may have found their soul mates in Australia. Even in the face of harsh reality, they still deny the world around them. Of course, plenty of the deniers also are more than happy to accept government handouts to keep going. Not that they are lefties or anything like that. Oh dear, no. Good luck with that approach and send us a letter when you make it back to planet earth.

To save the Murray River, though, the government has moved quickly and aggressively. Without partisan bickering, politicians have set aside $11.8 billion for a science-backed program that, among other things, pays irrigators not to suck the river dry.

Yet along the Murray, there is a climate-change conundrum that responsible politicians and smart scientists have yet to solve: Most farmers, the biggest losers as the river shrinks, simply do not buy the notion that southern Australia's climate is changing in a way that is probably irreversible. Their skepticism has withstood nearly 13 years of unrelenting drought, falling incomes and daily encounters with a river that is dying in front of their eyes.

Skepticism? That's being quite generous. Read the rest of this post...

Howard Dean gives contradictory answer as to whether Health Care bill is sufficient

He tells Greg Sargeant that the compromise contains "real reform" and progressives should support it. Then he says that the compromise doesn't contain "enough" reform. He goes on to say that the Medicare deal, letting those aged 55 and up buy into Medicare, could be a "deal-breaker" if people aged 55-64 don't find their premiums subsidized. He adds that it's not even clear who will be able to buy into Medicare at 55 - those without insurance or just those at "high risk." (No mention of the self-employed.) If it's just those at high risk, then that could "fall short of real reform."

It sounds to me like someone put Dean up to this. They cajoled him into supporting the legislation, since he had been so outspoken about not supporting a bill that didn't include the public option, and progressives listen to him. But he didn't have all the facts, and wasn't entirely convinced that the bill was good enough, so he kind of wavered. That's my take. Read the rest of this post...

"On Fox News, percentages don't add up to 100 and, apparently, 'zero tolerance' means unless we get caught."

Media Matters busted FOX News -- again.

Yesterday, during FOX and Friends, the network provided these misleading numbers on a poll about climate change:



Notice the double counting there? This poll adds up to 120%.

Being climate change deniers, the talking heads on Fox and Friends loved those numbers. Media Matters pointed out the error to FOX, but FOX denied the mistake. When confronted with the error, the executive producer of the show, Lauren Patterson, denied any mistake. 120% worth of responses to a poll isn't an error in FOX world. And, this was a denial despite the new FOX "zero tolerance" policy for mistakes.

Media Matter's Ari Rabin-Havt summed it up:

"Lauren Petterson clearly did not watch the segment in question. Host Steve Doocy agreed with Media Matters’ interpretation seeing as he attempted to add up these numbers as they appeared on air and said “so you get 90 – you got a lot of people.” On Fox News, percentages don't add up to 100 and, apparently, 'zero tolerance' means unless we get caught."

FOX is on a mission. Silly facts can't get in its way. FOX falsified research to support its views. Read the rest of this post...

Palin gets a Washington Post op-ed trashing science and polar bears

The former Governor of Alaska has added an op-ed in the Washington Post on the dangers of science to her literary achievements. It's absurd. She doesn't believe in climate change, which is no surprise. It is, after all, science-based. A couple years ago, I was in Alaska on vacation. Almost every Alaskan I met described changes in teh environment because of global warming. But, not Sarah.

Palin also continues her vendetta against polar bears:

This scandal obviously calls into question the proposals being pushed in Copenhagen. I've always believed that policy should be based on sound science, not politics. As governor of Alaska, I took a stand against politicized science when I sued the federal government over its decision to list the polar bear as an endangered species despite the fact that the polar bear population had more than doubled. I got clobbered for my actions by radical environmentalists nationwide, but I stood by my view that adding a healthy species to the endangered list under the guise of "climate change impacts" was an abuse of the Endangered Species Act. This would have irreversibly hurt both Alaska's economy and the nation's, while also reducing opportunities for responsible development.

I can't believe Sarah Palin actually wrote this line:

I've always believed that policy should be based on sound science, not politics.

She probably believes it because she doesn't know what actual science is.

Meanwhile, Reuters just posted a slideshow on a polar bear who has started eating other polar bears, noting:

Climate change has turned some polar bears into cannibals as global warming melts their Arctic ice hunting grounds, reducing the polar bear population, according to a U.S.-led global scientific study on the impacts of climate change.

But, that's not Sarah's kind of science. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is meeting with a group of Senators and Representatives from both parties this morning. They'll be talking about creating jobs and the economy. In the spirit of bipartisanship that permeates Washington, I'm sure all those GOPers who show up to the meeting will be ready to help Obama create jobs for unemployed Americans. Yep, just like they all helped so much with the stimulus when the economy as on the verge of collapse because of the GOP's failed leadership.

Tonight, Obama leaves for Oslo to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize.

Well, no surprise, but it looks like a real public option is gone from the Senate health care bill. I'm not calling it a "health insurance reform" bill anymore. When the insurance industry can crow "We WIN," they're not being reformed. Now, we'll be told that the public option is still in the bill -- but, we're not stupid. Let's see if those progressives in the House know how to flex their muscle.

Let's get threading... Read the rest of this post...

Blair informed Iraq had been disarmed, still invaded

There's been a lot of criticism in the UK about their Iraq war inquiry. Many say that it's too "clubby" and easy going. Compared to the 9/11 joke of an inquiry in the US, I might take "clubby" to see so much come out. Sure many thought as much as we've been discovering, but it's still valuable to get to the bottom of so many myths. Publicly shaming people who can no longer hang on to their lies has a value. True, prosecuting would be better but knocking a few back into their hole is better than letting them tell lies without question. The Independent:

Sir John Scarlett, who was the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the run-up to the war, said that two reports received in March 2003, which suggested that Iraq's weaponry had been taken to pieces, were sent directly to the former prime minister. He also said that Mr Blair was made aware of doubts over Saddam's access to the warheads needed to deliver them.

Sir John, who was responsible for the Government's dossier that claimed Saddam had weapons that could be used within 45 minutes, denied that he had come under pressure to "sex up" the document. However, he admitted for the first time that a crucial part of the dossier was not clear about the threat posed by Saddam, meaning that the seriousness of the claim that the Iraqi leader could launch an attack was "lost in translation".

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Doctors not sure if Tamiflu is effective

Just as we've witnessed with countless other pharmaceutical studies, test results appear to have been limited. With Big Pharma, it's never possible to trust their word on much of anything.

Roche, the manufacturer of Tamiflu, has made it impossible for scientists to assess how well the anti-flu drug stockpiled around the globe works by withholding the evidence the company has gained from trials, doctors alleged today .

A major review of what data there is in the public domain has found no evidence Tamiflu can prevent healthy people with flu from suffering complications such as pneumonia.

Tamiflu may shorten the bout of illness by a day or so, the investigators say, but it is impossible to know whether it prevents severe disease because the published data is insufficient. Roche has failed to make some of the studies carried out on the drug publicly available, the scientists say.

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British bankers furious over 'supertax'

Heavens no! It's "populist, punitive and penal" so call out the legal teams and lobbyists. Oh please. Where were the screams about unfair special tax breaks when this system was being constructed in the first place? You know, the one where the gamblers pay a fraction of the tax rates as others. Where were the cries of unfair bailouts by the bankers when they crushed the economy yet somehow landed on their feet to pay themselves bonuses on par with just before the crash? It would be nice to see someone stand up to this bunch of bullies, for once.

Even this "supertax" that is being discussed is only for one year. As in twelve months. The strong reaction to mild change again provides us with an opportunity to see how selfish the bankers are. It's always all about them and to hell with the rest. Reading about this reminds me of a good friend who ran a hedge fund until the bubble burst. He had to shut down the fund and close his business. Today he's working as a trader for a large firm, so yes, a step down in many ways. It's no longer his own business and indeed, he's making much less money. But guess what? It's a job that pays the bills and he's damned happy to have it.

Listening to this banker outrage (including the clowns at AIG who want to leave) is similar to listening to the the other right wing loons who go crazy anytime change is suggested. It's completely manufactured outrage, so don't believe them for a second. Lying is simply what they do.

The chancellor intends his targeted, one-off levy as a clear message that the City has to "start living in the real world" as the financial sector prepares to lavish hefty payouts on its staff.

The new super-tax rate will be aimed at any bonus above a fixed rate, rather than the basic salary of the employee. It is intended to hit many thousands of bankers, but low-paid staff in bank branches will be exempt.

The tax will be set higher than the 50% income tax rate coming in from April for those earning more than £150,000 a year, sources indicate.

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