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Exaggerated claims undermine drive to cut emissions, scientists warn Mark Henderson, Science Editor Exaggerated and inaccurate claims about the threat from global warming risk undermining efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and contain climate change, senior scientists have told The Times. Environmental lobbyists, politicians, researchers and journalists who distort climate science to support an agenda erode public understanding and play into the hands of sceptics, according to experts including a former government chief scientist. Excessive statements about the decline of Arctic sea ice, severe weather events and the probability of extreme warming in the next century detract from the credibility...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held an "emotional" press conference to caution the rest of us "about the language" we use. "We all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words" and "any incitement they may cause." Some people aren't as "balanced" as we may think, Pelosi pontificated. It's hard to decide which is more repugnant, her acting ability or her double standard. Madam Speaker, perhaps you're the one who isn't "balanced." Consider: Would a balanced person equate the Tea Party rallies and town hall meetings you've maligned with the "violence of the ‘70s" to which you referred?

Rogue Algorithms And Other Mutually Assured Destruction Program Trading Alternatives Posted by Tyler Durden at 12:54 PM Submitted By Joe Saluzzi Of Themis Trading Why Institutional Investors Should Be Concerned About High Frequency Traders By Sal L. Arnuk and Joseph Saluzzi A Themis Trading LLC Mini White Paper It is now generally understood that high frequency traders (HFTs) are dominating the equity market, generating as much as 70% of the volume. HFTs are computerized trading programs that make money two ways, in general. They offer bids in such a way so as to make tiny amounts of money from per...

The Associated Press is at it again. This time engaging in media distortion concerning Benjamin Netanyahu and those supporting him for Prime Minister. Netanyahu is described as "hawkish". And those supporting him as "opposed to peacemaking". That is flat-out media distortion. There is no Israeli leader that does not want peace. By contrast Tzipy Livni and Kadima are described as "centrist" and "moderate". Webster defines moderate as "within reasonable limits." Engaging in appeasement policies with those who seek your destruction is not "reasonable", or "moderate", if that word is prefered. The AP and MSM have it backwards. Netanyahu, Likud, National...

Top nations 'water down' IMF reports, says regulator By Jennifer Hughes in London and Alan Beattie in,Washington Published: February 10 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 10 2009 02:00 Warnings from the International Monetary Fund about the risks posed by the financial system had often been "watered down", according to the head of the UK's Financial Services Authority. Powerful countries will have to avoid quashing reports they do not like if they are serious about creating a better early warning system for the global economy, said Lord Turner, chairman of the -regulator. "One of the problems the IMF has had...

Its from the Marx Brother’s movie Duck Soup. This is one of the great classic scenes in entertainment history and I believe that it is so memorable because it says something universal and scathing about mirrors, human behavior and illusion. The pas de deux between Groucho and Harpo starts out looking like an earnest attempt by Chico to imitate Groucho’s actions exactly- as if to fool him into thinking that he is really looking into a mirror instead of at a spy who is on a mission against him. Now, this scenario has been imitated by other pairs of actors...

"I think it's important for the American people to understand we're not going to drill our way out of this problem. It's also important to recognize if you start drilling now you won't see a drop of oil for ten years, which means it's not going to have a significant impact on short-term prices." - U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Aug. 8, 2008 If Senator Obama - as well as every other leading Democrat who's uttered some variation of the above - merely wanted to remind the American people that there are no easy answers to the ongoing energy crisis, I'd...

DALLAS - American Airlines says its new $15 fee for a first checked bag will affect fewer than one in four customers this summer and won't lengthen lines at boarding gates. The carrier said Thursday that it's taking steps, from curbside check-in to the aircraft cabins, to avoid disruptions from the new policy. American last month was the first major airline to announce it would charge customers to check a single piece of luggage. The fee takes effect on tickets bought on or after June 15. American said three-quarters of summer travelers had already bought their tickets and wouldn't pay...

They just can't get it right. Yesterday on ABC News' Political Radar, senior political reporter Rick Klein wrote of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards calling conservative author Ann Coulter a "she-devil." Part of the background Klein provided: In June, Coulter went on ABC's "Good Morning America" and said she had learned her lesson after being blasted for suggesting in a joke before the Conservative Political Action Conference that Edwards was a "faggot." "If I'm gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot," Coulter said. As Noel Sheppard...

The newsroom is a sacred, magical place where unhinged partisanship never intrudes into actual reportage. Except when it does. The actual reference occurs on page three of the article: After comparing the current war against extremists with the militarists of Japan and the communists in Korea and Vietnam in Wednesday's speech, he plans to discuss the war in Iraq in the context of its implications for the broader Middle East in a speech next Tuesday at the annual American Legion convention in Reno, Nev.

Major U.S. Newsweekly Offers Sanitized Version of Racist Margaret Sanger Entirely omits racist motivation behind vehement commitment to birth control, abortion, sterilization By Elizabeth O'Brien WASHINGTON, DC, August 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The third largest U.S. newsweekly published a highly skewed historical account of Margaret Sanger, entirely omitting the racist motivation behind her vehement commitment to birth control, abortion and sterilization. U.S.News & World Report, a rival of Time magazine and Newsweek, published an article on Sunday entitled, "The Passions Behind the Pill, helping women in poverty is what drove the development of the oral contraceptive." The story makes no hint...

A lot of people are atwitter over this addition to the Thompson advisory team of former Senator Spencer Abraham. But, it is starting to look to me like a story incorrectly reported by the MSM and rolling off track from there. It just seems that there are too many conflicting reports on Abraham's role with the AP reporting that he is a new "campaign manager" but others saying Randy Enwright is. The website IsraelToday, for instance, has posted a story full of alarm over the addition of Spence to the team. Their reaction is similar to many Israel supporters here...

BBC in more trouble over edited pieces By Patrick Phelvin , Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 5:14pm BST 15/07/2007 The BBC was involved in a fresh row about doctored footage yesterday after it admitted mixing up the chronology of a documentary about Gordon Brown. Just days before Director General Mark Thompson is hauled before the BBC Trust to explain the royal fiasco, it emerged that the sequence of a Newsnight film had also been altered. The Treasury has complained to the corporation that the 12-minute piece, on attempts by documentary-maker Jamie Campbell to secure an interview with Brown during the leadership...

BBC in row over doctored TV footage with Gordon BrownBy SIMON WALTERS - More by this author » Last updated at 23:28pm on 14th July 2007  The BBC was at the centre of a new row over doctored TV footage after it admitted that its flagship Newsnight programme changed the sequence of events in a film highly critical of Gordon Brown. Mr Brown's officials have complained to the Corporation about an 'unfair, unbalanced, unnecessarily personal, and disingenuous' film which they claim was altered in an attempt to make him look like a thug. Newsnight editor Peter Barron has admitted...

The papers this morning were full of the revelation in a BBC documentary that the Queen had had a hissy fit and stormed out of a photo-shoot with the photographer Annie Leibowitz. As the Times reported: The Queen offered a rare, public display of displeasure when she sat for Leibovitz, who is famed for her Vanity Fair photographs of stars such as a pregnant Demi Moore in the nude. A camera crew was invited to film the encounter for a fly-on-the-wall BBC One series, A Year with the Queen, made by the production company behind Wife Swap. The portrait was...

BBC apologises over Queen clips A still from the five-part programme Controller apology The BBC has apologised to the Queen for mistakenly showing footage that wrongly implied she walked out of a portrait session during a documentary. The programme trailer showed the Queen in an exchange with photographer Annie Leibovitz, followed by a clip of her apparently walking off. The footage, revealed to the press on Wednesday, was not intended to be seen and was shown in error, the BBC said. The documentary, A Year With The Queen, will be shown later this year. "The BBC would like to...

In the days following the death of David Halberstam on April 23, praise of his journalism appeared in just about every major newspaper and magazine in America. Adhering to the principle of de mortuis, I did not interrupt the paeans with remarks about Halberstam’s gross misdeeds in Vietnam, which I had exposed in a book last year. But now that the funeral period has ended, the media has made clear that Halberstam’s elevation to the status of national hero is intended to be permanent, so in the interest of national history it has become necessary to point out how much...

After three years of tax-exempt operation, Media Matters’ credibility as a media watchdog is questionable. Its leader, Brock, is a self-proclaimed liar who strong-armed sources that didn’t agree with him. While writing his mea culpa, “Blinded by the Right,” Brock was hospitalized in a mental facility where he spent time in a “quiet room” and “had delusions, he thought people were trying to kill him,” according to the Drudge Report. Media Matters stars, including Brock, Eric Alterman and Ryan Chiachiere, are hypocrites who have used the very sexist, bigoted and racist language for which they crucify others, including Imus. They...

A posting of an unredacted instant message sessions between Rep. Mark Foley and a former congressional page has apparently exposed the identity of the now 21 year-old accuser... ABC RELEASED TRANSCRIPT OF ONE CHAT BETWEEN FOLEY AND A MAN WHO WAS 18 AT THE TIME OF THE INSTANT MESSAGE EXCHANGE.... NETWORK STATED THE MESSAGE WAS TO 'UNDER AGE' TEEN... DEVELOPING... ABC ONLINE GLITCH LEADS TO IDENTITY OF FOLEY ACCUSER; FEATURED IM EXCHANGE WAS WITH 18 YEAR OLD

George Will's column has taught me several new rhetorical tricks. The first is how to use verbs to distort and impugn. In a column last week about my book Building Red America, Will wrote (emphases mine): "The GOP," Edsall laments, 'has achieved a gradual erosion of the popular consensus behind the major progressive and social-egalitarian movements of the twentieth century." This artful sentence labels me as a mindless, knee-jerk liberal. In fact, I argue that the left has not come to terms with the fact of eroding support for the liberal agenda. That may or may not be lamentable, but...

Parties to Tackle China¡¯s Distortion of History By Lee Jin-woo Floor leaders of the governing and opposition parties yesterday agreed to cooperate to address China's distortion of history. The five parties also decided to fully support a resolution unanimously proposed by a National Assembly panel on Thursday. In the resolution, members of the Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee denounced China for intentionally distorting ancient Korean history. They said the controversial research results of the state-funded Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) are not purely a scholastic product, but the Chinese government's intention to claim ancient Korean kingdoms originated in...

How to get back at China South Korean protesters tear a Chinese flag in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul September 7, 2006. China published books and articles recently which claim that Korea's Koguryo Kingdom (37 B.C. - 668 A.D.) and Palhae (698-926), which had occupied today's northern part of the Korean peninsula and the northeastern region of China, were part of China's ancient territory. South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lee Kyu-hyung said on Wednesday that South Korea would take diplomatic steps to cope with China's attempts to distort Korea's history, local media reported. The flag reads,'Stop distortion of...

The central piece of evidence leading to this conclusion is the fact, mentioned by IDF officials from the very beginning, that the building collapsed a full seven hours after the Israel Air Force bombing. Why, then, would the residents inside not have been evacuated in the meantime? As Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel of the Israeli Air Force told reporters Sunday night, "It is difficult for me to believe that they waited eight hours to evacuate it." Without additional evidence, Eshel merely left open the possibility that Hizbullah terrorists, or explosives they left behind, caused the explosion. "Indeed," writes Robert Spencer for...

A cartoon by Jack Higgins in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times incorporated inaccurate imagery to make a statement about the allegations that U.S. Marines killed Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Jack Higgins and the Sun-Times deeply regret the mistake and apologize to the U.S. servicemen, especially those in the Marine Corps, and to our readers who were understandably offended by the cartoon. Higgins, in doing Web research on the Haditha story, searched the Internet for images. A Yahoo search engine displayed a number of photos, one of which was labeled "IraqBodi...rd.jpg." Clicking on that image took Higgins to the MSNBC/Newsweek site. On his...

It's a growing irony of today's Hollywood that, the more its filmmakers have come to rely on fact-based stories for their source material, the more inventive they've tended to become with the facts. These days, when we see that fateful kicker, "Based on a true story," experience tells us it's wise to be more than a little suspicious. Indeed, a kind of ritual has arisen in which a film will appear, gain media attention and critical credibility on the strength of its "true" story, and then spend weeks being cut down by people charging that the real story -- be...

"Could we do it?" one administration official who was deeply involved in planning the Iraq invasion said recently. "Sure. Could we manage the aftermath? I doubt it." Similar fears, he said, gave President Bill Clinton pause about launching a strike on North Korea in 1994. Later that year he reached an accord for a freeze on the North's nuclear production facilities. But in 2003 everything unfroze, and now the North, by C.I.A. estimates, has enough fuel for at least half a dozen bombs. The Iranians took careful notes then, and here in Washington today the Korean experience underlies diplomacy-versus-force arguments...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle illegally over the weekend when he collided with a car in his Brentwood neighborhood, the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday. Police Lt. Paul Vernon said Schwarzenegger does not have the proper motorcycle endorsement on his California driver's license, contradicting statements made by his spokeswoman since the Sunday accident that left the governor with 15 stitches in his upper lip. "He does not have the license," Vernon said. Police did not cite the governor because they arrived after the accident, Vernon said. Police referred their findings to the...

The film "Syriana" is based on the true story of a CIA operative sent to assassinate Saddam Hussein, and the agent's near murder by Palestinian terrorists from Hezbulah. But in the hands of actor/producer George Clooney, Americans are shown to be greedy and corrupt while suicide bombers are presented as freedom fighters.

"With Senator Boxer's blatant lie this morning, Democrats once again illustrated their clear commitment to distorting Judge Alito's record. What makes today's smear regarding reapportionment particularly stunning is that it was only two days ago that Sen. Specter clearly stated Judge Alito believes that one man one vote is 'very deeply embedded' and is a 'principle which is settled and beyond attack'. Every time the Democrats desperately attempt to misrepresent Judge Alito's record, they undermine their own credibility when it comes to the nomination." -- Brian Jones, Communications Director

TOKYO - Miyako Masuda is a 23-year veteran of public schools here. Like many Japanese history teachers of her generation, she dislikes new textbooks that frame Japan as the victim in World War II. It bothers her that books claiming America caused the war are now adopted by an entire city ward. In fact, Masuda disapproves of the whole nationalist direction of Tokyo public schools. Yet until last year, Masuda, who calls herself "pretty ordinary," rarely went out of her way to disagree. Few teachers do. But when a Tokyo city councilman in an official meeting said "Japan never invaded...

Just heard on Fox News that Walmart has abandoned their practive of greeting customers with "Merry Christmas." Also if you look for Christmas gifts on their web site, they send you to a Holiday Gift page. However, they have other gift sites tied to specific religions.

Ticket to Paradise? Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad's new film—fictional, but true to life—follows the journey of two young suicide bombers. What motivates them? Abu-Assad says it may be more than meets the eye. interview by Stefan Ulstein | posted 11/08/05 Paradise Now, opening in limited release on November 11, is the fictional but true-to-life story of two young Palestinians who ask to be sent together on a suicide-bombing mission in Israel. Saïd and Khaled have been friends forever, and to them, it seems only natural that they would arrange to die together. Languishing in dead-end jobs, they are trapped in...

WASHINGTON -- Pop quiz: Which of the following abortion regulations is more restrictive, more burdensome, more likely to lead more women to forgo abortion?(a) Requiring a minor to get the informed consent of her parents, or to get a judge to approve the abortion.(b) Requiring a married woman to sign a form saying that she notified her husband.Can any reasonable person have any doubt? A minor is intrinsically far more subject to the whims, anger, punishment, economic control and retribution of a parent. And the minor is required to get both parents involved in the process and to get them...

Link Wray's Border Blues Was the surf guitar legend the target of racial profiling? Surf rock legend Link Wray was to perform live at the unlikely venue known as The Yale Hotel this past Sunday. When I first saw the one lone poster slapped to a pole with electrical tape at the last minute, I figured it was nothing more than some mediocre Link Wray cover band. I reasoned if it truly were Link Wray, I would have known about it far in advance, and it wouldn’t be at Vancouver’s number one "greasy-white-guys-with-mid-life-crises-trying-to-play-the-blues" bar. When I discovered that Wray really...

/begin my translation China: A Large Riot Broke Out In Anhui Province [Epoch Times, 2005/06/28]  In the afternoon of June 26, 2005, a large riot broke out in Chi-zhou, Anhui Province, China, in which about 10,000 people attacked a police substation and set fire on police vehicles.  However, crowds at the scene disagreed with the Chinese media report, and explained the situation as follows:  "At 2 pm, Liu Liang, a middle school pupil was a riding a bicycle, and it happened to graze a car which the owner of Ren-he Clinic, a private hospital, is riding, resulting in a scratch. The argument from both...

Tom Friedman implores, "Shut it down.  Just shut it down." Friedman explains, "I am talking about the war-on-terrorism P.O.W. camp at Guantánamo Bay.  Just shut it down and then plow it under.  It has become worse than an embarrassment.  I am convinced that more Americans are dying and will die if we keep the Gitmo prison open than if we shut it down.  So, please, Mr. President, just shut it down." Friedman continues, "I believe the stories emerging from Guantánamo are having a similar toxic effect on us - inflaming sentiments against the U.S. all over the world and...

CBS News, once again displaying its total disregard for journalistic integrity, has distorted the news in a flagrant attempt to tarnish the Republican Party by using a sound bite that is so out of context as to be near criminal. CBS reported that Ken Starr said the Senate Republican's plans to stop the Democratic filibusters of judicial nominations was wrong. What Ken Starr really said, was that the practice of invoking judicial philosophy as a grounds for voting against a qualified nominee of integrity and experience was wrong. CBS presented a video clip on the Monday edition of the...

Can nothing spare us from the arrogance of liberal media figures, still parading around as Guardians of the Facts and Solely Anointed Professional Disseminators of the Truth? Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank, in what reads like an early April Fools' prank, has written an article for the Post's Sunday "Outlook" section presenting himself as an objective reporter. The headline was "My Bias for Mainstream News." In it, he complains that the "cottage industry" of watchdog groups on the right and left "are devoted almost entirely to attacking the press." The most priceless sentence is this: "Regardless of the merits, the...

"I Gave It Up for Lent"Harry R. OsborneA few years ago about this time of year, a story appeared in the newspaper about a strange occurrence in France. It seems that a thief cornered a man in a dark place. He threatened to slash the man's throat with his knife unless he handed over his money. As the Victim reached for his wallet, the light caught him in such a way that the thief saw his victim was a priest. The robber quickly apologized for his behavior explaining that he was unaware of the fact that he had preyed upon...

A liberal friend of mine sent me the following distortion of Bush's Resume that I found quite repugnant. I took the time to offer my refutation in parentheses. What caught my eye was this "Articles in the BuzzFlash Contributor section are posted as-is. Given the timeliness of some Contributor articles, BuzzFlash cannot verify or guarantee the accuracy of every word. We strive to correct inaccuracies when they are brought to our attention." How about if we all copy this "corrected" resume and paste it to the servers at BuzzFlash. Then perhaps we can show them who rules the blogosphere. This...

Stone Blames ‘Unsophisticated’ American Audience, Flees to Franceby William R Alford - Jan. 16, 2005 Apparently the ill-advised heat is coming to Oliver Stone from all sides in the United States, so he is abandoning us to our galling ignorance. Quoting the clearly exasperated director from a recent New York Post article: “The gays lambasted me for not making Alexander openly homosexual and in the Bible Belt, pastors were up in the pulpit saying that to watch this film was to be tempted by Satan.” It doesn't matter so much that Stone affixes a few arguably plausible character traits...

There are thousands of Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers across the country like Joshua Peterson. They are coming home with minds twisted by what they've seen and done in Iraq.

For years, they followed the rules as best they could, attending Mass at least once a week, teaching religious education, helping in the office or the rectory. But for weeks now, in a quiet but extraordinary uprising against the church authority they had been taught to respect, hundreds of Catholics in eight communities in and around Boston have been occupying churches the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is attempting to close. They have taken over the roles formerly administered by priests and paid church employees, doing everything from leading worship to cleaning buildings. One major thing they cannot do, consecrate the...

Hungry, Homeless Figures Increase in U.S. Tue Dec 14, 6:05 PM ET U.S. National - AP By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Requests for emergency food and shelter increased in many large U.S. cities this year, but not by as much as in recent years, according to a survey released Tuesday. AFP Photo Requests for food rose by 14 percent, while appeals for shelter increased by 6 percent, said the annual report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, based on surveys of 27 large cities. The numbers have risen every year since the conference began the survey 20...

It's always a sad, and sometimes an uncomfortable thing to see someone who was once at the pinnacle of their game try to remain long after their days at the top have gone. Show me someone who doesn't wince when they see an over-the-hill Hollywood elite trying to recapture their glory days, dozens of facelifts stretching their skin over their skull like plastic wrap on a Tupperware container, and I will show you someone who is truly desensitized to their surroundings. Such is the case with White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Recently, in an impromptu interview with a NewsMax correspondent,...

90% of violence is in few Sunni areas, he says Here's an example of how the media have it wrong about the violence and insurgency in Iraq, according to professor James Mayfield: Earlier this year, while he was in Iraq helping to establish local governments as part of a State Department program, Mayfield spoke to a gathering of Iraqi high school teachers in Karbala. The teachers, he said, gave him a standing ovation. Later that night, on CNN, Mayfield watched a news report headlined "Chaos in Karbala." "I had just been in Karbala. There was no chaos," said Mayfield, University...

Bush Cuts President Duties for Campaign 1 hour, 33 minutes ago By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Since August, President Bush (news - web sites) has welcomed just one foreign leader to the White House — the interim prime minister of Iraq (news - web sites). No other meetings with foreign dignitaries are on the horizon until Bush goes to Chile in late November for a gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders. AP Photo Latest Headlines: · La. Senate Outcome Not Likely Before Dec. AP - 3 minutes ago · Changes May Lead Voters to Wrong Polls AP - 17...

I clicked through MSNBC last night as saw Swift Boat Hero O'Neill being interviewed by Pat Buchanan. O'Neill usually provides some new insight into the filthy lies and distortions that Traitor John ("Viet Cong") Kerry spreads.With Pat was a blonde guy named Lawrence Sanders (Saunders?) who was labeled as some sort of MSNBC correspondant. He may have been drinking.As O'Neill presented his litany of irrefutable fact, overwhelming proof of Kerry's mendacity and the refusal of Kerry to respond to any of these facts, Sauders started screaming, at the top of his lungs, "Liar." He was raving! Of course, he had...

Nicholas Warr, Chapter President 1/5 Vietnam Veterans Unit Chapter 1st Marine Division Association P. O. Box 2680 Hendersonville, N. C. 28793 FLASH: READ & DISTRIBUTE http://www.1-5vietnamveterans.org/ To All Vietnam and other Veterans: Please read the attached plea from a Marine fighting in Iraq. If after reading it you feel as I do, that no matter what your politics are we should be doing everything possible to support our troops, pass this on to your family and friends. Semper Fidelis! FROM MARINE NOW IN IRAQ Hello Everyone, I am taking time to ask you all for your help. First off, I'd...

Last week, the Pentagon noted a bleak milestone: More than 1,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives to the misguided mission in Iraq. And with the insurgency once again intensifying, hundreds more will die in the coming months. That's an awful lot of sons and daughters, fathers and brothers who won't be coming home. Some have died in those meaningless battles that yield not a square inch of territory nor a single bit of intelligence. After U.S. troops started a fierce assault on Fallujah in April, following the discovery of the mutilated and burned corpses of four American contractors, U.S....