Coldest on record

It's been the coldest, and wettest October to May on record.  On record!  Global warming is not happening.  Climate change as a crisis, is a hoax.

Timing is almost everything

I've got a job interview - actually a phone screen interview - this morning and yesterday I came down with a wicked head cold and some sort of infection.  Timing is almost everything.  Nevertheless I will muddle through as best I can, because perseverance and preparedness have to count for something, right? Details matter.

If I were the president and these scandals were all unfolding, I would make sure that I controlled how the information about each of these scandals came out.  I wouldn't be surprised if the terrible leader was still being a very good politician and doing everything he can behind the scenes to control not only the spin on everything coming out, but the timing.

I hope his political opponents are thinking the same thing. Look at the Guardian interviews with whistleblower/traitor Snowden on the NSA leaks.  Not everything came out at the same time, and the ACORN investigation/sting run by James O'Keefe was bled out slowly with one video at a time.  It made the scandal loom larger, hold the public consciousness longer and also gave the agency enough rope (time) to hang itself by claiming, each time, that these were isolated incidents.

My point is simple - those involved in investigating these scandals are facing a hyper-political administration.  There had better be some thought going into managing the politics and the timing of revelations.  All at once could overwhelm the administration and also the public's perception, but it could also result in a temporary impact.  It could also mean that the various scandals will compete for the headlines and to a degree, cancel each other out.  That may be what the president is hoping to have happen.  On the other hand, a slower, staggered release of scandal-related material may have a longer lasting impact but take longer to take hold.  There are pros and cons to how to handle all these concurrent scandals.  I'm not sure that Republicans are staying on top of how to manage them all, but they should be.

Meanwhile, I hope my voice holds up for an hour.

Let's hope Mr. Hope and Change doesn't take credit for it.

On June 3rd, 2008, the evening he won the Democratic Party's nomination for president, Barack Obama identified the time of his nomination as the day that global warming started to end.

"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

Yes, he did say that (at 27:04 here). Set aside the ego, and consider the possibility that President Obama is both lucky and opportunistic.  When he ran for President the turning point in defeating John McCain who had begun to close the polling gap was the economic meltdown and Obama's cool response to the crisis compared to McCain's odd response. Circumstances and an opportunistic response worked in his favor.  Similarly in defeating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for President, he was very opportunistic and had a lot of breaks go his way as well.  Granted, he has not always been as opportunistic as he could be, like with the Gulf oil spill, but he is an opportunist.  But that isn't of great consequence when luck is on his side.  Indeed, either factor alone can be enough at times.  But both working together can be an unbeatable combination.

Am I brilliant or what?

No, this is not a guest post by President Obama. No, it's not a statement of fact or even a rhetorical question. I'm not that egocentric. Perhaps there is a bit of gloating involved, but don't take it seriously; I'm no Rush Limbaugh. Faint praise for Mr. Limbaugh? Hardly. He's very good at what he does, he's intelligent and articulate and successful. He's even right 99.35% of the time. So he's not gloating either.

But I digress. Eight days ago I had predicted that the next couple of weeks would see below average temperatures. In light of the Global Warming protest in Washington D.C., this may have seemed like a stupid prediction to make.

But, some empirical evidence has dropped all over the south-eastern United States.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A potent March snowstorm that blanketed much of Alabama with up to 4 inches of snow Sunday is heading to the Northeast, threatening to drop up to a foot of snow around Philadelphia, and even more in New York and southern New England.

In Georgia, the snowfall made roads treacherous and delayed flights, while in Alabama, more than 210 churches in the central part of the Bible Belt state had to cancel morning services.

Up to 7 inches of snow is expected through this morning in areas of Maryland, northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., where Mayor Adrian Fenty declared a snow emergency.

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced more than 1,300 sanitation workers would spread salt and plow city streets to prepare for the snowfall.

Here's some photographs of Atlanta,

and Birmingham,

I don't know, but that seems colder than usual to me. I'm just saying...