Tuesday Mashup (1/31/12)

It’s been a little while since I checked in with the Fix Noise BS factory (with an assist from the equally wretched “Daily Tucker”), but based on this, it’s still “same old, same old”…

Concerned that too many “deniers” are in the meteorology business, global warming activists this month launched a campaign to recruit local weathermen to hop aboard the alarmism bandwagon and expose those who are not fully convinced that the world is facing man-made doom.

The Forecast the Facts campaign — led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab — is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs.

If that were actually true, then how do they bother to explain the following (from here)…

The smear allegation is disturbing and important to dispense with first. Presumably (Jason Samenow of the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, echoing a similar charge) is referring to the fact that we have included quotations from climate change-denying meteorologists on our site. As yet, not one of those quoted has suggested that we have misrepresented their views. Indeed, many of these TV meteorologists are openly proud to be considered deniers. They say so on air, online, in emails to us, and in their affiliation with prominent denial sites like Icecap. Compiling a careful count of weather reporters who reject the scientific consensus on climate change hardly qualifies as a smear campaign. In fact, there are many weather reporters we have researched that we believe fall in the denial camp, but we have not quoted on our site because we do not have sufficient evidence.

There’s a lot more information about the “Forecast the Facts” campaign from the Think Progress post; it definitely makes for interesting reading.

Next, I give you more corporate media hand-wringing here on the issue of so-called “Right to Work” legislation…

The battle over the right-to-work issue may be reaching a conclusion in Indiana as the state prepares to adopt its law, but the argument over exactly what the measure means for a state's economy is likely to rage on, unresolved, as it has for 70 years.

Since the 1940s, 22 states have passed laws barring unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers for labor representation. Supporters, mostly Republicans, insist the measure helps create a pro-business climate that attracts employers and increases jobs. Opponents say the law only leads to lower wages and poorer quality jobs.

The evidence on the issue is abundant, but also conflicting and murky. The clearest conclusion, according to many experts, is that the economies of states respond to a mix of factors, ranging from the swings in the national economy to demographic trends, and that isolating the impact of right-to-work is nearly impossible.

Oh, please – in response, I give you the following from here (centered on Indiana, where former Bushie and current Repug governor Mitch Daniels is the last to try and foist the “right to work” scam)…

Not only have ‘right-to-work’ laws been found to reduce wages while not stimulating job growth in states that adopt them, this week’s Economic Snapshot shows Right-to-Work (RTW) is associated with a significant reduction in private-sector pension coverage. Private pension coverage in Indiana is currently greater than in 21 of 22 RTW states but will likely decrease if the state legislature passes the RTW law.

And on this issue, I give you the following from the National Football League Players Association (this issue affects them because the upcoming Super Bowl is going to be played in Indianapolis)…

“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana.

The facts are clear—according to a January 2012 Economic Policy Institute briefing report (“Working Hard to Make Indiana Look Bad”), “right-to-work” will lower wages for a worker in Indiana by $1,500 a year because it weakens the ability of working families to work together, and it will make it less likely that working people will get health care and pensions.

So-called “right-to-work” bills divide working families at a time when communities need to stand united. We need unity—not division. We urge legislators in Indiana to oppose “right-to-work” efforts, and focus instead on job creation.

And of course, the usual suspects have been propagandizing about “right to work” in the typical manner, as noted here.

Continuing, I give you a rather interesting bit of editorializing from The Old Gray Lady here, concerning Governor Lex Luthor Scott of Florida…

Looking for more savings, Mr. Scott pushed to privatize prisons andMedicaid and to institute drug testing for people seeking public assistance. At the same time, he provoked the ire of environmentalists by reducing financing for the state’s water management districts, directly affecting the environmentally fragile Everglades. Many of the most contentious measures, including drug testing and prison privatization, have landed the state in court.

But the governor had a few failures, too.

Umm…so, “land(ing) the state in court” over drug testing and prison privatization qualifies as “success”?

Also…

Still, Mr. Scott possesses an unshakeable belief in the free market. It is what defines him. At a lunch on Thursday about economic development, he expressed disbelief over the attacks (all-but-named Repug presidential nominee Willard Mitt) Romney has faced for being a successful private equity manager with Bain Capital.

“We shouldn’t be allowing candidates to attack people in business,” he said. “We should be saying, ‘Gosh, that’s us.’ ”

Gee, I wonder if Scott is worried that, if our august corporate media and we humble, filthy, unkempt blogger types each give Romney’s Bain antics the scrutiny they deserve, then maybe, just maybe, more attention will be paid to Scott’s tenure at Columbia/HCA, the company that “perpetrated the greatest Medicare fraud in U.S. history” according to this (as well as the fact that Scott has now transferred his interest in Solantic, a health care company he co-founded that sells cheap prescription drugs…to his wife)?

Gosh!

Finally, I give you another journey through the looking glass courtesy of Investor’s Business Daily, carping over their claim that there’s a $1.2 trillion “gap” in “Obama’s recovery” because “Real GDP climbed a less-than-expected 2.8% in final quarter of 2011” (here).

In response, I think the following should be noted from here (with a scolding for Number 44 to boot)…

Current-dollar GDP was revised down for all 3 years: $77.6 billion, or 0.5 percent, for 2008; $180.0 billion, or 1.3 percent, for 2009; and $133.9 billion, or 0.9 percent, for 2010. The percent change from the preceding year was revised down from an increase of 2.2 percent to an increase of 1.9 percent for 2008; was revised down from a decrease of 1.7 percent to a decrease of 2.5 percent for 2009; and was revised up from an increase of 3.8 percent to an increase of 4.2 percent for 2010. Current-dollar gross national product (GNP) (GDP plus net receipts of income from the rest of the world) was revised down for all 3 years: $82.9 billion, or 0.6 percent, for 2008; $174.1 billion, or 1.2 percent, for 2009; and $132.8 billion, or 0.9 percent, for 2010… Current-dollar GDP was also revised down for all 4 years from 2004-2007: $14.5 billion for 2004, $15.4 billion for 2005, $21.7 billion for 2006, and $33.1 billion for 2007.

So basically, “current dollar GDP” has been getting “written down” by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis for some time, even predating Obama back to the ruinous reign of Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History.

And I think this pretty much tells us why (and how sad is it that a publication in China has such a firm grasp of our predicament, while our supposed genius policy makers continue to caterwaul about “austerity,” insuring nothing but slower growth and/or economic contraction?).

Oh, but look – Romney is outpolling Gingrich in Florida, and the latter just made another speech calling that “Kenyan Muslim Socialist” the “food stamp” president while invoking Saul Alinsky once more.

…

(Sssh, don’t wake the American sheeple – will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?)