Quote of the Week – Harry Reid's Cherry Blossom Picking: FAIL

Still amazes me that Sen. Reid doesn’t get laughed and hooted out of any room he walks into, basically he’s the poster child for “bad senator” – unable to get a budget done in 3 years, regularly makes baseless & stupid accusations, and some how managed to parlay his 193K /year government job into a multi-million dollar fortune during his tenure.

I do like showing the politicians up for the asses they are. Their world is sound bites not facts, once they enter an empirical environment they are stuffed, they lose their most potent weapon, Bull****.

“It is easier to fool people….
than to convince them that they have been fooled”….Mark Twain
Who better to fool the folks than an accomplished set of liars, fools and tools ?

Even if Reid’s anecdote was correct, which it is not, some year has to be the year with the earliest bloom, and 100 years isn’t very long.

It does not matter. Harry’s statement will be blown all over the media and the truth will never see light of day accept at “Denier Blogs”

Dirty Tricks in Political Campaigns
Sharon Begley, writing in Newsweek (Ready, Aim, Fire!; October 20, 2008) said that although negative campaign ads may repel viewers, the ones that engender fear are nevertheless likely to be remembered, simply because humans are hardwired to heed danger warnings.…

That is the simple explanation for the tactics of CAGW from day one.
In poking around the internet on the subject of the Media and Truth, (can one really use those two words in the same sentence,) I found this little gem.

Conscious Media
We must find innovative ways to use the new electronic media as the mirror of our positive evolutionary story, investing in their capacity to reach across differences of generation, culture, religion, wealth, and gender to build a working consensus about our collective future.
… In the U.S. 99% of all homes have a TV set and the average person watches nearly four hours per day. Television has become our primary window onto the world and the mirror in which we see ourselves. Most people in the U.S. get most of their news about the world from television. Like it or not, television has become the central nervous system of modern society…
However, the collective mind of our consumer society is dominated by the profit-making interests of the mass media and, with profits as the primary guide, our social mindset is moving out of touch with the real world. To illustrate, in the past generation in the U.S., divorce rates have doubled, teen suicide rates have tripled, a number of crime rates have quadrupled, and there is an epidemic of obesity. At a global level, physical evidence of ill health includes global warming with increasingly powerful storms, the extinction of a vast number of plant and animal species, and the rapid depletion of critical resources such as fresh water and cheap oil….

Sure sounds like implementation of Hegel’s Philosophy.
This drivel would be a lot less scary if you did not have Huffington Post, UCLA, a lot of PhDs and money behind it. Good ole’ Harry fits right in no doubt with Nancy leading the pack.
I do not know about the rest of you but I highly resent being treated as a ‘Hive Animal’ like an ant with a ‘collective mind’ seems we have been demoted from sheep to ant and they are buzy building out new Sustainable Hives in New York City.

mkelly says:
August 8, 2012 at 8:09 am
“As no fan of the good senator his statement is no worse than McCain’s about the eskimos having no word for robin when McCain was a big believer is CAGW. Maybe he still is and just is quiet about it.”
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/scarewatch/revkin_says_no_robin_inuit_word.html
“Senator McCain was not the first to say that there was no Inuit word for ‘robin’. Three years earlier, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had produced a radio program entitled No Word for “Robin”: Climate Change in the Canadian Arctic. The BBC World Service had also broadcast the program, but, like McCain and Revkin, without checking the facts.”
Revkin belieed it as well, it seems.

DirkH says:
“Revkin belieed it as well, it seems.”
Sorry, “believed” was intended. And I wanted to add: This goes to show that believing any warmist public radio program is a stupid mistake (which McCain doubtlessly comitted).

Some guy told Harry. Maybe it was in a file named Readme_Harry.

Pelosi said that some guy who know about cherry trees told Ried the trees blossomed in February. Some guy told him, that makes it a fact.

Caleb says:
August 8, 2012 at 7:40 am
…
Senator Reid must be desperate, for he is straying over the line.

Again.

Harry has been busy….
http://nevadajournal.com/2012/08/06/13-billion-clean-energy-subsidies-produce-288-permanent-jobs-quadruple-cost-electricity-nevada/
He appears very much tied up in Green Energy/Stimulus nonsense – costing us taxpayers a lot of money. This entire “Green Energy / Stimulus / Political Kickback” cycle should be being torn apart by MSM. It is difficult just to keep count of the billions of $ being wasted not to mention the thinly disguised political graft.

I forgot the links for NYC’s sustainable hives, the type of quarters we will be reduced to as energy prices skyrocket thanks to the EPA even without the help of ‘Ole Harry’s Cap and Trade Tax: The ‘Micro-Unit’ Mini-apartment building is Coming to New York City
New York Times: 200 Square Feet and Room to Swivel
nyc.gov Sustainable Building
“5 Super-Efficient Tiny New York Apartments”
What was the situation in the Soviet Union?

Industrialized building in the Soviet Union
…The Soviets uses a term “net living space” which refers only to the area of the living room and the bedrooms…per capita net living space in the USSR fell from 6.45m2 to 4.67m2… The housing task is admittedly incomplete…The USSR raised that 1950 figure… to …7.4m2 in 1969… and goal of 15m2 for every person….

15m2 for every person is 160 ft2, isn’t it nice we are head towards the same goal as the old Soviet Union /sarc
This is the goal towards which the “Cap and Trade” tax, the EPA, UN agenda 21 Sustainability and Obama are all driving towards.
Hansen, Reid and the Media’s job is to get the American people’s buy-in of CAGW to give legitimacy to “Global Governance” (It is a “Global Problem and therefore needs a Global Solution)
Never forget “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” ~ H. L. Mencken
So one must ask oneself exactly where they are trying to herd us.

Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization: Global governance is the globalization of local governance
…The last challenge that I see is that of legitimacy — for legitimacy is intrinsically linked to proximity, to a sense of “togetherness”. By togetherness, I mean the shared feeling of belonging to a community. This feeling, which is generally strong at the local level, tends to weaken significantly as distance to power systems grows. It finds its roots in common myths, a common history, and a collective cultural heritage. It is no surprise that taxation and redistribution policies remain mostly local!…

Global Governance: Lessons from Europe By Pascal Lamy
…Growing interdependence requires that our laws, our social norms and values, our mechanisms for framing human behavior be examined, debated, understood and operated together as coherently as possible. This is what would provide the basis for effective sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimension…
The challenge of global governance is distance — as legitimacy depends on closeness of the relationship between the individual and the decision-making process….
It also needs to provide legitimacy, which is essential to ensure ownership over decisions which lead to change — ownership to prevent the built-in bias towards resistance to modifying the status quo.
A legitimate governance system must also ensure efficiency. It must bring about results for the benefit of the people.
Finally, a governance system must be coherent…. “good” global governance — a system which offers a good balance between leadership, efficiency and legitimacy, and which ensures coherence…
Under the classical framework of legitimacy, citizens choose their representatives collectively, by voting for them. It also relies on the political capacity of the system to bring forward public discourse and proposals that produce coherent majorities and provide citizens with the feeling they are participating in a debate…. [THAT is the key folks a feeling that we have a say CG]
Since legitimacy depends on the closeness of the relationship between the individual and the decision-making process, the challenge of global governance is distance. The other legitimacy challenges are the so-called democratic deficit and accountability deficit, which arise when there are no means for individuals to challenge international decision-making.
In sum, the specific challenge of legitimacy in global governance is to deal with the perceived too-distant, non-accountable and non-directly challengeable decision-making at the international level….
each country has one vote may not be enough to create a sense of legitimacy in the actions of the organization. More is required.
National actors — political parties, civil society, parliaments and citizens — need to ensure that issues which are part of the “global level” are discussed at the “domestic level.”….
This would constitute a potent mix of leadership, inclusiveness and action to ensure coherent and effective global governance….
And this is precisely what German Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed with the creation of a Charter for Sustainable Economic Activity. It is a commendable effort to provide a “new global economic contract,” to anchor economic globalization on a bedrock of ethical principles and values which would renew the trust that citizens need to have that globalization can indeed work for them….

If you type “sociopath” into wikipedia you get:
DSM-IV
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM IV-TR), defines antisocial personality disorder (in Axis II Cluster B) as:[1]
A) There is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three or more of the following:
failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;
irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another;
Looks to me like many/most of our rulers qualify, if not always on the issue of CAGW, then almost always on foreign policy or fiscal policies.

“… us mere bloggers have to point out…”
It should be “… we mere bloggers…”
[REPLY: Fixed. Thanks. Feel better now? -REP]

The pattern of false climate hype from extremists remains unbroken.
Self parody from our elected leaders is a bit pathetic, even when they are as entertaining as Senator Reid’s.In this one, the good senator uses phony accusations and groundless claims to make the case that skeptics are….using phony information to make groundless claims.
The larger issue- that climate change extremists rely on false accusations and hisotrical illiteracy is one that voters should be very wary of.
People like Sen. Reid, who seem to rely on misrepresenting the case and making false claims as a standard practice do not imply good will towards the electorate.
His refusal to produce budgets- the basic way to hold elected officials accountable for expenditures- and his relentless and incorrect claims about those who he dislkes politically implies a cha

While everyone has been researching cherry blossoms there is something far more tangible for Harry Reid to wring his hands about. From his quoted article:
“Twenty-five years ago, President George H.W. Bush promised to use the “White House effect” to combat the “greenhouse effect.” Yet a quarter century later, too many elected officials in Washington are still calling climate change a liberal hoax. They falsely claim scientists are still debating whether carbon pollution is warming the planet.”
http://www.reid.senate.gov/newsroom/pr_080712_stop-climate-deniers.cfm
Yet a more interesting fact from AEIdeas:
“Energy fact of the week: The U.S. has the best CO2 reduction record in the world
The latest bulletin on greenhouse gas emissions from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) notes that while total global emissions rose by one full gigaton in 2011, emissions by the United States fell by 92 megatons. But the real surprise of the bulletin is this sentence: “U.S. emissions have now fallen by 430 Mt (7.7%) since 2006, the largest reduction of all countries or regions.” Re-read that last clause slowly: “the largest reduction of all countries or regions.”
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/06/energy-fact-of-the-week-the-u-s-has-the-best-co2-reduction-record-in-the-world/
So contrary to Reid’s protestations the USA is actually leading the world in reduction in generation of plant food.

Rick said, “Wait a minute….maybe I’m mixing up Dirty Harry’s issues….”
Better than getting mixed up with Harry’s dirty tissues! 😉

SasjaL: “How did this clown become a senator?”
Last time around…
a) Harry Reid literally bought votes for his re-election:
“Two days ago, the Democratic Secretary of State announced that voters can be provided “free food” at “voter turnout events.” Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers’ unions are offering gift cards in return for a vote for Reid.”
– AND –
b) Voting machines were rigged to favor Reid:
“Residents of Clark County Nevada have reported that upon attempting to vote for Angle they found that Reid’s name had already been checked. This is not surprising as widespread voting fraud has been reported since the inception of the fraudulent electronic voting machines.”
@Sen. Reid – You are Guilty based on undisclosed 3rd-parties’ statements; it is up to you to prove otherwise. ROFL

And, everything happened about a month ahead of schedule here, too. All the flowers bloomed about a month early, fruiting seasons were about a month ahead of schedule, etc. But, I am noticing that here in August, when we have a brief break in the heat, each one is getting successively cooler in terms of overnight low. This last one saw us drop barely below 60 into the upper 50s. That cooling is a bit ahead of schedule, too, even though it’s still extremely hot under the high pressure dome. I’m wondering if once that dome is finally gone, we’ll find a very cold, possibly long, winter looking back at us.
In short, I think Reid’s reports of MMGW are premature at best, stupid at worst.

As I read this my husband is playing this UTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTHiIwxcexI
(I am afraid the song would go over ‘Ole Harry’s head)

Peeved says:
August 8, 2012 at 9:33 am
Do you think urban heat island effects have anything to do with later bloom dates in the middle of cities? D.C. is filled with a lot of asphalt and concrete, which contributes to the hot air there.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Check out papers by Japanese researcher Aono who has done extensive work on cherry blossom blooming dates. He concludes quite convincingly that they are indicative of the average temperatures (if memory serves) for about 75 days prior to the blooming date. While highly accurate in that regard, 75 days hardly represents temps for the year. That said, Aono also did extensive comparisons of blooming dates in major centres such as Tokyo and compared them to remote sites which had not been affected by urbanization and was able to not only demonstrate UHI, but to quantify it and verify it against the temperature record.
On another note, having grown up in a harsh winter climate, there’s a few things about early versus late springs that don’t get much discussion time. For example, a winter with very little snow will in general feature a LATE spring. A winter with a lot of snow, in particular if it arrives early in the winter, will in general feature an EARLY spring. While this may seem counter intuitive, it isn’t that complex. Snow is an effective insulator. Lots of snow means that the earth itself stays warmer than it would have otherwise been, and when spring weather arrives, the snow melts very quickly and results in an early spring. Very littel snow means that the frost penetrates deep into the earth, and when spring arrives, it takes a very long time to warm the earth up, and it seems like winter just drags on and on and on. I’ve no idea how these factors play into the local climate that Reid was commenting on, but I would not rush to judgment that an early spring is indicative of a warmer YEAR.

Peeved says:
August 8, 2012 at 9:33 am
Do you think urban heat island effects have anything to do with later bloom dates in the middle of cities? D.C. is filled with a lot of asphalt and concrete, which contributes to the hot air there.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/09/city-uhi-makes-spring-bloom-earlier/
This is what I was speaking of earlier.

Alan the Brit says:
August 8, 2012 at 9:15 am
…. You see, we have them over here in the PDRofEU satellite state of what used to be known as Great Britain, would you like some of ours, please, you can have them for nothing, they’re worth absolutely nothing to us so they are completely free, promise….
===========================
Alan, Why do we not arrange a swap? We will load up all our Politicians and through in our bureaucrats too for good measure and meet you above the Atlantic Trench to sort out the trade…. Well that one’s no good…

Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7 says:
August 8, 2012 at 8:00 am
Good post. In addition, one might consider that drawings and paintings of cherry blossoms, iconic to the Japanese, usually show them in snow.

“As Americans, we have the power to choose the kind of world in which we live.”
The press release says to me that the gov’t can provide any weather they want to. Why not just go to the weather control room and turn off the drought and turn up the water in the Mississippi? Why play games?

The Democratic Party should be embarrassed to have Reid as a Senator let alone their majority leader. This is the man who managed to vote against his own bills multiple times before someone corrected him. What’s really upsetting is that they don’t seem to be.

His math isn’t very good, either. 1921 was 91 years ago, not 100!

Gail … aware of it, certainly (wouldn’t be here otherwise). But ignoring it would be like ignoring that oncoming express train behind you …
> Totally agree with your last comment, though, as in:
Q: How can you tell when a politician is lying?
A: His/her lips are moving.

Reid lost me during the budget debate that wasn’t, demanding that funding for ‘Cowboy Poetry Festivals’ not be ended, as our debt approached 16 Trillion…

It’s no worse than this nonsense from Free Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444320704577569231537988226.html
Krupp repeats the standard, debunked talking points about Muller being a converted skeptic, about climate events becoming more severe and more common, etc.
BTW: The Wall Street Journal regularly publishes opinion pieces like this one, which conflict with their internal editorial stance. I commend them for it.

There are many varieties of flowering cherries- early, mid, and late blossoming varieties.
The variety growing along the Potomac now may not be the same variety as the 1921-1945 records.
Anyway of cross-referencing earliest flowering time of a specific variety over this time period?

Gail Combs says

“Why do we not arrange a swap? We will load up all our Politicians and through in our bureaucrats too for good measure and meet you above the Atlantic Trench to sort out the trade…

Trade? C’mon, we’re (several miles?) above the Atlantic Trench, we’ve got the whole darn shower FROM BOTH SIDES with us … this has to be the perfect gift from Heaven … Pass the cattle prod … .. … 😀

Citing:
“Rare snowfall stuns much of South Africa”
What rubbish. There are ski clubs in South Africa. You think they only operated for 22 days in the past century?? Look up “Rhodes ski South Africa”. There are even permanent SNOW/SNEEU warning signs on high passes.
It regularly snows in the Eastern Cape in Winter. I have built snowmen in MacLear with a bakkie full of kids from lower altitude where it is rare.
It snows down to 100m above Mthatha for heavens sake. It snowed 11 inches in Western Swaziland and people talked about “the last time it snowed like this”.
The unusual part of the snow cover this week is the low(er) altitude. The reason is not that it is never cold enough to snow – it is often below zero C. The thing is it usually does not rain in winter. Southern Africa is at the wet end of its 18.7 year drought cycle (lunar) and it is precipitating in August when “normally” it would have stopped in April. The precipitation is well within natural variation. It will snow next year too. There will be a long drought centered around the year 2021 and people will all cry ‘global warming’!
Bliksem!

Sen Reid has lately become know as the ‘Dirty Liar’ in the senate. I would say ‘Dirty rotten, low life, scum sucking, bottom dwelling Liar, but I don’t want to offend catfish. I would say more, but I also don’t want to get snipped. Remember when being a member of the senate was a proud thing to be and having truth on your side was a good thing?

Ouch, not only this numpty facepalm on his humongous cherry blossom FAIL, but he also deployed the unforgivable term ‘denier’ (and I don’t think he was referring the rating of his tights).
I just hope he felt the stinging burn of the blowback when he got rumbled for it…
}:o(

Check Hansens site he has nooo climate science background,he is an astronomer and a loon.

A link, a paper written and the trees that are planted in Washington are hybrids which are known to bloom earlier when there is a noted UHI in this paper. (Note they are hybrids. So I don’t know how they can use newer data against the old data, as they are hybrids of the original species, and not the original trees any longer.) http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1893.pdf

GeoLurking says:
August 8, 2012 at 7:46 am
“…basically he’s the poster child for “bad senator” – unable refusing to get a budget done in 3 years…”
Better wording.

Beat me to it. “Continuing resolutions” (repeating the ’09 budget ad infinitum) seem to suit him to a D.

Gail Combs says:
August 8, 2012 at 9:41 am
…
That means you are aware of it and ignore it. Unfortunately for some reason (Thanks MSM) Americans seem to think if it comes out of the mouth of a Democrat or a Journalist it has to be the truth and if it comes out of the mouth of a Republican they have to be lying.
…

Not if the question is clear and important. See Walker/Wisconsin. Despite an all-in push by unions and MSM, resounding defeat for his recall (first failed governor recall evah). Combined union and Dem spending was twice per vote obtained of the Rep. outlay. And it failed spectacularly.
Don’t ‘cynicize’ yourself into despair. You are far from alone.

Smokey says:
August 8, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Crispin
jada-yada…
Be careful what you wish for, because if you trade your freedom for security, you will end up with neither.

I think he wants to trade our freedom for his security.

TonyG says:
August 8, 2012 at 4:37 pm
I agree TonyG. Subject to observer and confirmation bias I suspect that the stridency has ramped up, the claims are more than usually ludicrous, and the avoidance of debate and fact is the norm. All that matters is ‘image projection’. With the easily co-opted, manipulated and delinquent MSM, I believe that the unchecked warmists cannot be saved from themselves. Consequently, the day must not be so far off when they will run out of feet to shoot themselves in. One hopes they don’t turn their guns on us.