• Scientific Audit of U.N. Climate Panel Concludes Alarmist Claims Lack Evidence
• Americans Remain Pessimistic
• Military Funeral Protest Flops In Central California.
• States Fumble American Military Ballots Again
• Obama Gets Nasty
• Israel Buying F-35s
• Nuclear Nuts
• Of Debates and Debating
• Angle vs Reid Tied: Angle Raises $14 Million
• Brown Leads Whitman Despite Spending Millions
• Purdue Aiming At Improved Missile Defense.

Last week’s resignation and condemnation of a renowned UCSB PHYSICIST who labeled “global warming a scam” has provoked attention to a hithe\rto ignored and similarly damning U. N. sponsored review.

Over the past few months, the scientific establishment has persistently worked to exonerate researchers caught up in the “climategate” scandal with the assistance of a compliant news media.

However, a new audit into the procedures and methodologies used within the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has added further weight to the concerns and criticisms of global warming skeptics.

The InterAcademy Council (IAC), a scientific body based in Amsterdam, was tasked by the U.N. itself to conduct the investigation. The results published on Aug. 30 raise additional questions about the science of climate change. The IAC concludes that the U.N. body was inclined toward conflicts of interest, made multiple assertions about climate change that lack scientific support and inappropriately interjected itself into the policymaking process. Yet, these findings have received little coverage in the mainstream press.

By contrast, a six-month inquiry into “climategate” that relied almost entirely on the testimony of those implicated without input from critics and skeptics was invoked repeatedly as the subject of news reports in the New York Times and elsewhere that sought to reassert the validity of global warming alarmism.

At issue, are emails linked to the Internet from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) in Great Britain that suggests researchers were willing to manipulate and distort scientific data in an effort to bolster claims about the relationship between human activity and warming trends.

Myron Ebell, the director of energy and global warming policy at The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), has described the U.K. inquiry chaired by Sir Muir Russell as a “professional whitewash” that will not endure over time.

“The Muir Russell report on the ClimateGate scandal does a highly professional job of concealment,” he said in a statement. “It gives every appearance of addressing all the allegations that have been made since the ClimateGate e-mails and computer files from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Institute were released last November. However, the committee relied almost entirely on the testimony of those implicated in the scandal or those who have a vested interest in defending the establishment view of global warming. The critics of the CRU with the most expertise were not interviewed. It is easy to find for the accused if no prosecution witnesses are allowed to take the stand.”

The other reports that have attracted press attention come from Pennsylvania State University, which cleared Michael Mann, one of its own scientists, from charges associated with the controversy. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Investigations Committee, said the university did not conduct a serious and comprehensive inquiry into the charges.

Meanwhile, the credibility of the IPCC, which is often cited as the authoritative voice on global warming science, is now in question.

“We found in the summary for policymakers that there were two kinds of errors that came up - one is the kind where they place high confidence in something where there is very little evidence,” the IAC report noted. “The other is the kind where you make a statement with no substantive value, in our judgment.”

The IAC also criticized the IPCC for its “slow and inadequate response to revelations of errors in the last assessment” and also said certain Working Groups attached a high level of confidence to findings for which there was little evidence.

“In future assessments, all Working Groups should qualify their understanding of a topic by describing the amount of evidence available and the degree of agreement among experts; this is known as the level of understanding scale,” the IAC recommended. “And all Working Groups should use a probability scale to quantify the likelihood of a particular event occurring, but only when there is sufficient evidence to do so.”

Kevin Mooney is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government (ALG) News Bureau, and the Executive Editor of TimesCheck.com.

Brett Favre has an elbow injury. The worst part is, it’s his texting elbow. - Craig Ferguson.

Americans say they have weathered the worst of the longest recession in seven decades, even as they are pessimistic about prospects for their retirement years, according to a Bloomberg National Poll.

Three in five respondents to the Oct. 7-10 poll say their economic condition has improved recently or they are confident it will get better. One in three say things have gotten worse or aren’t likely to improve anytime soon.

Jerry Brown’s staff spent the weekend coming up with their new campaign slogan: “Just say ho.” — Leno

The adherents of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas tried but failed to rally protestors to the funeral of Senior Airman Daniel J. Johnson, Wed., Oct. 13, in Santa Maria, CA Wednesday saying, among other things: “GOD HATES AMERICA & IS KILLING OUR TROOPS IN HIS WRATH. Military funerals have become pagan orgies of idolatrous blasphemy, where they pray to the dunghill gods of Sodom & play taps to a fallen fool.”

The church’s website brags about the 5,748 troops that “God has killed” in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also list links including: GodHatestheWorld.com; Americaisdoomed.com, and JewskilledJesus.com.

The church ends its news releases’ Thank God for I. E. D.s. It is shockingly hatefilled.

The fallen airman will be buried Thursday and locals are expected to turn out in droves to show their final respect.

Gamboge (gam-BOJ, -BOOZH) noun: 1. A strong yellow color. 2. A gum resin obtained from the sap of trees of the genus Garcinia, used as a yellow pigment and as a cathartic.  Etymology from Latin gambogium, variant of cambugium, after Cambodia where, among other places in Southeast Asia, this tree is found.

Five states received waivers from the MOVE (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment ) Act, letting them off the hook for not mailing American military personnel serving abroad their ballots in the required 45-days in advance of the November 2 election.

For instance several counties in New York and Kansas are known to have missed the deadline.

The U. S. Department of Justice routinely sues states to conform to federal voting-rights laws. But  not  this year.

Why the  Obama Administration is somewhere between drowsy and counterproductive on the law breaking is raising speculation that it is entirely political.

Military voters lean more Republican than Democrat.  A survey of 1,800 active-duty troops in the April 11 Military Times discovered that these GIs were 41 percent Republican, 27 percent Democrat, and 32 percent independent. Since military voters likely support Republican candidates and causes, perhaps Obama’s Justice Department just isn’t that interested in defending the voting rights of overseas combatants.

Missed deadlines and other administrative snafus reportedly disenfranchised some 17,000 military voters in 2008. These ballots otherwise might have tipped numerous close elections.

Some projects many more of our military will be disenfranchised this year and point to the worst politics

The White House lifted part of its moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico but there are plenty of strings. The ban has deepened the recession and job loses around the Gulf while the U. S. inexplicably has been shoveling billions to Mexico and Brazil for just such offshore drilling.

In an apparent if foolishly desperate ploy Obama has blasted the U. S. Chamber and its “big business” buddies accusing it of a felony crime of using foreign money to pay for political ads slandering the 100-year old group without a shred of evidence. The Chamber categorically denies it. The New York Times says there is no evidence of any such thing.

It should not be forgotten that Obama was exposed for accepting money from the Hamas terror group in his 2008 election campaign later saying he refunded almost all of those contributions.

In a profoundly disappointing event last week Obama - the post racial president - ranted using race to extol blacks to vote

It’s being reported that the economy lost 95,000 jobs in September. And that’s just people leaving the White House. - Leno

Israel and the United States signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for the procurement of the F-35 aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

The agreement meant that Israel, which is not a partner in the project, has become the first country to order the troubled fifth-generation fighter.

“The F-35 will enhance Israel’s ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat or combination of threats, from anywhere within the Middle east,” Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, said.

The U.S. magazine Aviation Week asserted that Israel’s F-35 would include a detachable fuel tank and interfaces for Israeli avionics on the aircraft’s mission computer.

“It’s not for nothing that we have options for additional aircraft,” Israeli Defense Ministry director-general Ud Shani said.

The LOA was signed by representatives of Israel and the United States in New York on Oct. 7. Under the agreement, Israel would procure up to 20 JSF platforms in the first stage of a deal estimated at up to $2.75 billion.

“The Lightning-2 [JSF] will strengthen Israel’s national security posture both militarily and industrially,” L-M executive vice president Tom Burbage said.

Under the agreement, Israel would receive JSF from 2015 through 2017. The first batch of aircraft would be similar to those being developed for the U.S. Air Force and not include Israeli subsystems.

Billionaire financier “the man who broke the Bank of England making a billion dollars in the 1992 currency crisis, George Soros, originally Schwartz, says he’s sitting out the 2010 midterms because he’s convinced the GOP tide cannot be slowed with more of the money he used to help Democrats like Barack Obama get elected in 2008, The New York Times reported.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. Voters think finding new sources of energy is more important than reducing the amount of energy Americans now consume. 32% say conserving is more important.

Saudi Arabia, itself afloats on oil, says it has to build a nuclear power industry to meet its own electrical power needs by 2030. Skeptics wonder how much is electricity and how much is producing fissile materials for nuclear warheads. The arguments are not dissimilar to those aimed at Iran; North Korea and elsewhere.

But, those arguments could be moot if an existing powering source was used - a thorium reactor. Is hardly new but increasingly makes sense.

Granted Americans and other anti-nuclear activist are less interested in safety that a larger control agenda but, imagine this:

• a nuclear reactor that offered no possibility of a meltdown (not withstanding Jane Fonda);,
• generated its power inexpensively, created no weapons-grade by-products, and
• burnt up existing high-level waste as well as old nuclear weapon stockpiles?
• And what if the waste produced by such a reactor was radioactive for a mere few hundred years rather than tens of thousands?

It may sound too good to be true, but such a reactor is indeed possible, and a number of teams around the world are now working to make it a reality. What makes this incredible reactor so different is its fuel source: thorium.

A 2006 issue of COSMOS magazine describes the potential and a a self contained thorium reactor being designed and maybe built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories that is fully self-contained and could be moved around by rail and highway generating up to 100-megawatts for power while much large, if not portable power, is possible.

This is far from a new idea and in fact were it not for a cold war era’s quest for more and more nuclear bombs it is likely thorium reactors would have popped up long ago. Those days and purposes coined an anti-nuclear industry of hysterics supported by the ignorant who will believe almost anything based on the age old political premise that it is geomettrcially easier to be against something than for anything. A principal consequence of this thoughtlessness has been the enslavement of America to oil interest and dangerous international entanglements.

So here we are with our hoses plugged into some of the most unstable and unfriendly regimes on earth while erstwhile often nonsensical green political correct solutions sprout from every garbage dump and wherever a breeze stirs.

Notwithstanding every so-called green idea humankind has an insatiable appetite for energy and it will only grow. Even the enormous reserves of coal can not provide long term solution. At current consumption rate it will be gone in less than 285 years and oil long, long before that.

The Obama administration announced that they deported a record 392,000 illegal immigrants in the past year. Most of those were deported on a Friday. This way they got to spend a wonderful weekend in Mexico with their families before returning on Monday. - Leno

Candidates across the country are holding debates or arguing over whether to have them, but political debates are a mixed bag as far as most voters are concerned.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters say they have watched at least one candidate debate this campaign season. But nearly as many (45%) have not.

 However, 49% find most political debates to be informative. Thirty-six percent (36%) think most of them are useless. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

Among those who say they are following the midterm elections very closely, 66% say they have watched candidate debates this election cycle. But just 51% say most debates are informative.

As a practical matter, candidates who are behind tend to see debates as a chance to shake up the race while those who are ahead see them as an potential obstacle to be avoided.

At least one Chilean miner will have his hands full when he returned to the surface after his two month’s entombment because his wife ran into his mistress during the surface vigil. The two woman wound up in a fist fight - just wait until the guy gets up there.

Chili says it cost $1 million per man for the rescue of the 33 miners.

Former Nevada state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) raised an eye-popping $14 million between July 1 and Sept. 30 for her challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), a stunning number that far eclipses the cash-collection totals of other prominent candidates seeking Senate seats next month.

“Sharron Angle produced one of the most successful single quarters of fundraising in the nation’s history for a U.S. Senate campaign,” said Angle communications director Jarrod Agen. “This is a testament to the hatred of Harry Reid, the nation’s disapproval of President Obama, and the unprecedented grassroots support for Sharron Angle.”

Ninety four percent of the money raised in the third quarter by Angle came in the form of donation of $100 or less. Ninety six percent of the contributions were $200 or less.

Agen did not provide figures for how much money Angle had left in the bank at the end of September and it’s likely to be well less than the $14 million she raised since she relies heavily on a costly and aggressive direct mail fundraising operation.

“Sharron Angle’s fundraising number is meaningless without disclosing how much they spent to raise it,” said Reid spokesman Kelly Steele.

Reid has yet to release his third quarter fundraising totals but as of mid-summer he had collected just short of $14 million so far in 2010. For the election cycle to date, Reid has raised $18 million.

Angle’s fundraising over the last three months represent an exponential gain over what she collected during her underdog primary bid in which she was heavily outspent by two Republican opponents but managed to win the race thanks to strong support from the tea party movement.

Between April 1 and June 30, which included three weeks of fundraising in the wake of her June 8 primary victory, Angle brought in $4.75 million.

Angle’s total dwarfs other impressive fundraising hauls by GOP Senate candidates in the third quarter including former Florida state House Speaker Marco Rubio ($5 million raised) and former Washington state Sen. Dino Rossi ($4.5 million).

The Nevada Republican’s showing is only bested in modern memory by the $14.2 million Scott Brown raised in January 2010 in advance of his Massachusetts Senate special election victory.

Angle and  Reid are statistically tied - it is within the margin for error and is still rated a toss-up.

Joseph Vranich, The Business Relocation Coach.reports that 158 companies have left California so far this year that compares with 51 that fled in 2009.

 Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown third and final debate Tuesday evening was another nasty affair with mudslinging on both sides.

Whitman appears to be suffering negative after effects from a Brown camp orchestrated disclosure, with liberal activist lawyer Gloria Alred’s help, that she employed an illegal immigrant woman as a housekeeper and now trails Brown by six percentage point  as absentee ballots start to be voted and arrive at county elections offices statewide.

Efforts by Whitman to exploit Brown’s wife calling her a whore don’t appear to be gaining traction as the race seems to be dividing more along party lines. Bad for Whitman because Democrats have 7.5 million registered voters compared to Republicans with 5.2 million. When so-called “independents” are added it’s closer with them raising the combined totals to 7.1 million - but that is certainly not a homogeneous bunch. Although those independents tend toward the Republicans.

So far how Alred got involved is unclear but tending toward a partisan connection. So, we shall see.

 Researchers at Purdue University are working with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency to develop software that would improve the ability to manage the large volume of incoming data during an enemy attack.

The work aims to enable more efficient and effective battle management and command and control of the missile defense system.

“New software algorithms are needed to determine if it’s a missile and what type, then engage our missile defense system to bring it down,” said Saurabh Bagchi, an associate professor in Purdue’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

As China increases it missile arsenal and places like Iran and North Korea aspire to such an edge the concern for a massive attack has grown. The idea of high altitude detonations to generate massive electro-magnetic pulse that could cripple U. S. communications and defense systems require more distant interception, and this Purdue research appears aimed in that direction.