Disqus - Latest Comments for jchem

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

GeorgeSorwell — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:10:24 -0000

I see a comment I made to Jchem was "flagged for review".

There were no personal attacks and no profanity was used.

Can someone tell me what's wrong with the comment under review?

Re: Global Warming Data Dumped as ClimateGate Intensifies

JSpencer — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:09:14 -0000

Jchem, that's certainly good news, and thanks for providing the link. We only stand to benefit as a nation by increasing our competitiveness and knowledge in these areas. Also, as mentioned in the article:

But the campaign is about more than generating more scientists and engineers, Obama noted. "It's about an informed citizenry in an era where many of the problems we face as a nation are, at the root, scientific problems."

Heck, I'd love nothing more than to find that the warming that's been on the increase is primarily due to "natural" cycles, and eating crow would be an extraordinarily easy price to pay for that discovery; unfortunately it would also require dispensing with objectivity - at least for me.

Btw, let's not forget, that regardless of how one comes down on AGW, all the things that would be done to combat it also combat serious problems that none of us are likely in dispute over, such as waste, pollution, etc.

Re: Global Warming Data Dumped as ClimateGate Intensifies

jchem — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:53:33 -0000

JSpencer: Maybe this is all the result of living in a country that stopped putting enough emphasis on science and mathematics for so many years...

Agreed. But at least in terms of science policy, I think we finally have someone in office who's willing to go to bat. One initiative that's generating a lot of buzz within the American Chemical Society is National Lab Day. Today's Chemical & Engineering News has an article that should make anyone involved in science education happy.

Strengthening U.S. Math and Science:

Obama also announced plans to host an annual science fair at the White House where winners from national science and technology competitions will be honored. "We're going to show young people how cool science can be," he stated.

How cool is that? Maybe its just me being a geek, but how could you not get excited about going to a science fair at the White House?

Re: Global Warming Data Dumped as ClimateGate Intensifies

jchem — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:25:25 -0000

shannonlee: The fact that their primary data is even in question is completely dumbfounding.

From my link above:

CEI and Cato Institute senior fellow Patrick Michaels argued that the "destruction of [CRU's] raw data violates basic scientific norms regarding reproducibility, which are especially important in climatology."

Ben Santer, a climate scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, dismissed that argument. "Raw data were not secretly destroyed to avoid efforts by other scientists to replicate the CRU and Hadley Centre-based estimates of global-scale changes in near-surface temperature," he wrote in comments to the advocacy group Climate Science Watch.

Santer said CRU's major findings were replicated by other groups, including the NOAA climatic data center, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and also in Russia.

I agree completely with you about questionable data, but I also am a bit skeptical of questionable groups, and the CEI is by all accounts very questionable. See the link to LGF to see who funds them and why.

Re: Global Warming Data Dumped as ClimateGate Intensifies

jchem — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:47:04 -0000

HemmD: No scientist worth his test tube throws away primary data.

LOL! This is one of the best ways I've ever heard it put. I always harp on my students about keeping data in a lab notebook, not to change anything, and so on. Of course, they argue and complain about me being so strict, but they quickly come around when they need to reproduce something that someone else did, and have only a notebook in front of them to do it. Primary data is paramount in science.

I'm glad to see a discussion on this, considering many have looked at these hacked e-mails as "proof" that scientists are just a bunch of cult followers. Regarding this data dump, though, I'm not so sure that this is just a bit of BS:

Refuting CEI’s claims of data-destruction, Jones said, “We haven’t destroyed anything. The data is still there — you can still get these stations from the [NOAA] National Climatic Data Center.”

While I would always argue to leave primary data alone, from what I can tell, nothing was actually "dumped". What these e-mails do show, however, is that there are quite a few incompetent folks who were in charge, and their arrogance has given the skeptics lots of ammunition. It wouldn't surprise me to see many of them fired. Regardless of what happens, with the upcoming Copenhagen meeting, it can't hurt to have people discussing this, at least in a rational way.

Edit: Link to original source

Re: The Black Jail and the Loophole

Don_Quijote — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:22:49 -0000

And the chances of this happening are...that's right, zero. So in the meantime its fine and dandy that we continue torturing just because the new guy has a letter behind his name that you like more.

Just because I am not willing to hold a Democratic President to a stricter legal standard than a Republican President does not mean that I approve what he is doing... But if you have a real problem with his actions, you know where to start, put Bush and his administration on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity...

Re: The Black Jail and the Loophole

TheMagicalSkyFather — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:00:06 -0000

I hope you do realize that many on the left fought against this because they knew from past experience if charges were not brought it would continue. Let me explain, when one side over reaches the other side flips out but if nothing is done the new "moderate" stance is in between those that complained and those that committed the crimes instead of those that complain and those that defend the criminal acts. In other words since they failed to impeach Bush which the left flipped out on the party brass about this is now the middle ground. I could go out and scream my head off but that will of course mean that the side that helped forge the new normal would be able to move it further to their side or I can keep my mouth shut and deal with the new normal. Personally I choose to do neither and sit back and moan and b*tch about both but that is largely because once Bush left office I knew this is where we would find ourselves. For other examples see Nixon's criminal legacy as those that were not punished moved into the Reagan and then Bush administrations and continued to push the idea of the imperial presidency all the way until we got Bush II. We did not press charges so the "moderate" stance just kept shifting right as has everything but social issues over the last 30 years.

Re: The Black Jail and the Loophole

jchem — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:36:21 -0000

DQ: As soon as I see Bush frog marched to the Hague, I'll start asking for Obama & Clinton's heads...

And the chances of this happening are...that's right, zero. So in the meantime its fine and dandy that we continue torturing just because the new guy has a letter behind his name that you like more. Oh, and he "promised" that we won't do it again.

If Obama wanted to be honest, he would make good on closing Gitmo, end the use of indefinite detention, state secrets, renditions, and all those wonderful policies that everyone used to scream bloody hell about. Yet, he has largely adopted all of these as his own. Glenn Greenwald sums this up rather well, emphasis mine:

I could understand and accept a lot more easily this blithe acquiescence to Obama's record if it weren't for the fact that progressives and Democrats spent so many years screaming bloody murder over Bush's use of indefinite detention, military commissions, state secrets, renditions, and extreme secrecy -- policies Obama has largely and/or completely adopted as his own. One can't help but wonder, at least in some cases, how genuine those objections were, as opposed to their just having been effective tools to discredit a Republican president for partisan and political gain.

In other words, when Bush did it, its bad; but when Obama does it, its OK...after all, we wouldn't want Obama to get in this messy argument about torture because then we'd take the focus off healthcare and the economy.

Re: Senate Report: U.S. Could Have Captured bin Laden in 2001

TheMagicalSkyFather — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:12:54 -0000

The only people blaming Clinton at the time were the same people trying to excuse Bush missing the "Bin Laden determined to strike in the US" memo. This is a bit different from a he said she said since not only did he miss going after the guy he used as the total excuse for the war on terror he also changed his tune around 2003 to saying that he did not think to much about Bin Laden since the war was much larger than him. Which of course is nice to say once you realize that much like the guy you mocked that preceded you, you as well missed him and not because you did not use a missile strike that may or may not have caught him but that while in invasion mode you failed to block the exits which is battlefield freakin 101.

Re: Senate Report: U.S. Could Have Captured bin Laden in 2001

jchem — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:30:10 -0000

Funny, I think we've heard this before. A simple Google News search from 2003 shows 218 articles dedicated to telling us how Clinton missed Bin Laden.

There is also this as well as this.

Democrats will say: see this shows how the Bush administration did a shabby job on terrorism.

So all that happened in the past 6 or so years is that the two parties switched places and a different president is now blamed?

Re: The Black Jail and the Loophole

Don_Quijote — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:25:29 -0000

So now that these practices are continuing under the guy who promised to end them, are we going to soon start talking about Obama war crimes trials? Somehow, I doubt that.

As soon as I see Bush frog marched to the Hague, I'll start asking for Obama & Clinton's heads...

Re: The Black Jail and the Loophole

jchem — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:13:56 -0000

From the WaPo link:

the abusive treatment of suspected insurgents has in some cases continued under the Obama administration...

I guess I'm not that surprised that this hasn't been pointed out before. A few posts down Mr. Stein told us about the "Bush War Crime Trials". So now that these practices are continuing under the guy who promised to end them, are we going to soon start talking about Obama war crimes trials? Somehow, I doubt that.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

jchem — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:16:06 -0000

GS, I really can't find anywhere on this thread that I disagree with anything you've posted. I probably haven't been making my point as well as I should have. I would most certainly agree with you that the Dems should look at this poll as a wake-up call. It just seems to me that every few years one of the two parties needs to get taught a lesson, the result of which being the other party being put in power, regardless of their ability to govern. That pretty much leaves us in a situation where the pendulum just swings back and forth because the populace just gets too tired of the current party in power. And what bothers me is that the Repubs, in their current incarnation, aren't really open to people who disagree with them on anything. I would hate to see the Repubs come back to power simply because people tired of the Dems. Because then, it seems, we would be having this same conversation a couple of years from now when the pendulum starts to swing the other way. At this point in time, I would much rather have a Dem party in power that can't get anything done than a whacked out Repub party that will push through anything they want.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

GeorgeSorwell — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:15:53 -0000

Jchem--

I'm sorry if it seems like I don't get your point.

I completely agree that the Democrats have to do some things. I think they understand this. Certainly this poll ought to be wake-up call. So even though Democrats aren't as uniform in their thinking as Republicans, they will have to make some real progress.

I also think that the Republicans, in spite of whatever opportunities beckon, seem strangely determined to limit their appeal to a narrow audience.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

jchem — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:38:47 -0000

GS: And it's hard for me to believe that scaring the hell out of everyone is a recipe for Republican victory.

I'm not saying this is a recipe for a Repub victory. The recipe for a Repub victory is for Dem supporters to stay home, as the original post brought up. It bothers me a bit to entertain the idea of passing any power back to Repubs given the state they're in. Didn't the Repubs just lose the last two cycles because many in their party "wanted to teach them a lesson"? What good will it do if they come back to power without having learned that lesson, whatever it may be? The Dems just need to do something to give people reason to keep them there. Telling voters that the other side is just plain nuts isn't going to do it.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

GeorgeSorwell — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:43:58 -0000

Jchem--

Given the lack of anything coherent from the Repubs, it should be enough to scare the hell out of everyone.

I presume that as the election draws nearer, this point of yours will become clearer.

And it's hard for me to believe that scaring the hell out of everyone is a recipe for Republican victory.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

jchem — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:24:10 -0000

GS, what you point out though is the problem. Right now the Repubs are insane, or at the very least, giving every indication that they are. But my beef isn't totally with them. Sure, I'd love to have a coherent minority party willing to help govern faithfully, but the fact is, we don't. At the same time though, I can't see how it does any of us any good to continually focus on them, because they aren't in power. Those who actually have the wheels of power, as DQ pointed out above, have done virtually nothing with it. Its too tiresome, at least for me, to everyday see another stupid Repub say something that somehow makes its way to the presses.

With the sanity level portrayed right now by the Repubs, do you feel at all comfortable giving power back to them? People aren't going to vote for Repubs next time around, they're just going to vote against Dems. Given the lack of anything coherent from the Repubs, it should be enough to scare the hell out of everyone.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

GeorgeSorwell — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:46:49 -0000

Jchem--

With all due respect, the Republicans you're complaining about are putting themselves out there as leaders of the Republican party. And it seems to me that the Republicans are just putting out a bunch of distortions that do seem kind of insane.

It's hard for me to believe that this is a recipe for victory.

If there have been serious policy prescriptions put forward by leading Republicans, I've missed them. Perhaps you can point them out.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

DaGoat — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:57:22 -0000

Perhaps much of the problem comes from the Dem leaders and advisors to have consistently and exclusively focused in on how insane Repubs are. First it was Limbaugh and talk radio, Cheney and his blathering, more Limbaugh, the Tea Partiers, the birthers, Bachman, and now Palin.

This started even further back, probably with Reagan but really was galvanized in 1994 against Newt Gingrich. Even when Democrats are in power they still seem to feel that just demonizing Republicans is enough reason to vote for them.

There is a whole generation of Democrats that knows nothing else and that is reflected in the MoveOn/DailyKos bunch. In their political lifetimes they have no statesmen like Hubert Humphrey or Scoop Jackson as models, indeed moderate Democrats are demonized as well and lumped in with Republicans.

The GOP has largely adopted the same strategy although as underdogs that strategy has a better chance of working.

Re: Poll: 2010 Promises Democratic Losses Due To “Enthusiasm Gap”

jchem — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:01:08 -0000

Perhaps much of the problem comes from the Dem leaders and advisors to have consistently and exclusively focused in on how insane Repubs are. First it was Limbaugh and talk radio, Cheney and his blathering, more Limbaugh, the Tea Partiers, the birthers, Bachman, and now Palin. The point is that the Dems just seem to be saying "at least we're not as crazy as them", all the while not managing to really accomplish anything other than lip service to the folks who elected them. The only motivation to show up at the ballot box is to vote against one party rather than for the other. If that's "teaching the party a lesson", then I suppose its time to gear up for another several years of mindless partisanship.

Re: Key Senate Health Care Reform Vote Today: Did Reid Do His Homework?

jchem — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:51:42 -0000

The Repubs are being tools in this whole process, and I think the cartoon at the top of the post is a perfect example of what they are doing. Having said that, I'm not sure the Dems are being very smart about the whole thing either. As Ron pointed out, insurance is going up with or without a bill.

From one of your excerpts:

The retirement system (Social Security) and health insurance for the elderly (Medicare) are headed for bankruptcy, with state and local pension funds and the federal pension insurance fund not far behind.

Gee, the government is doing such a great job with all of this...how about we let them do some more? Sooner or later, they're bound to get something right. If they don't, then it will just be a failed $1T experiment.

Re: America: The Debt-Ridden Land of Pointy Partisan Fingers

jchem — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:50:52 -0000

CO: Instead of jawboning, let's actually resolve the matter. I'm in for either number as long as everyone does the same.

The problem is that no one appears to be remotely serious about solving anything. I posted a link above to show what California is trying to do by raising their tuition so high. What happened? Protests, of course. If anyone in government even mentions taxes, people go ballistic. If someone's pet program gets cut (i.e. the $100M for LA), people go ballistic. At this rate, nothing will get fixed. Votes are bought and paid for and we will continue spending money we don't have.

Re: America: The Debt-Ridden Land of Pointy Partisan Fingers

jchem — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:46:26 -0000

and talking more about belt-tightening; anyone notice how the California regents intend to do it?

How about a 32% tuition increase?**

A University of California governing-board committee today approved a proposal that would increase undergraduate tuition by 32 percent over the next year, an unusually large jump that was met by student protests at campuses in Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Sometimes tightening the belt isn't very popular.

**note - from the Chronicle of Higher Education; subscription may be required for full article

Re: America: The Debt-Ridden Land of Pointy Partisan Fingers

jchem — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:38:34 -0000

Folks are going to have to suck it up and do without a pet project or cause for while — no matter how worthy or near-and-dear it may be.

Unless of course votes are needed to pass a bill. $100 million for one vote; quite a bargain, eh?

Re: Poll: 52% of Republicans Think ACORN Stole Election For Obama

jchem — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:01:53 -0000

This headline certainly makes for some entertaining stuff to read, but I agree with mlhradio and Polimom that some perspective is in order. From the comments in the link:

Your sample is skewed: 53% of those surveyed say they voted for Obama's opponents or don't remember. But he WON with 53%.

Also, a little math shouldn't hurt anyone. The poll was conducted with a sample size of 1,066 registered voters, 33% of whom identify as Republicans. So in the pool we get roughly 352 people who identify as Republicans. If you want to call this representative of a solid national sample, fine. But it doesn't take a lot to actually read through the results. One bit missing that I thought could have also been a headline was the question regarding healthcare: 40% support it while 52% oppose it. But then again, talking about these crazy Repubs is much more fun than talking about something that's been in the news for the past several months.