Pools Of Joy

Shine A Light
Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor's political activity that has often been overlooked...The hours spent by union employees working on political matters were equivalent in 2010 to a shadow army much larger than President Barack Obama's current re-election staff, data analyzed by the Journal show. (WSJ, 7/10/2012)


Must read article that expands upon a point made by Ann Coulter in a recent column. Who knew that Democrats had a secret army working on their behalf? An army that expects its efforts to be rewarded with the spoils from the public till.


Restoration
Some Democratic-led states are increasing taxes, saying that it is more important to try to restore the services that were cut — and some of the 657,000 state and local government jobs lost — during the downturn. (NYT, 7/10/2012)


And, yes it is true, those jobs equate to union dues paid to Democrats.


As The Crow Flies
Mr. Holder's wallowing in a Jim Crow metaphor to score political points is a discredit to his department, to the rule of law, and to the nonracist country that 45 years after the Voting Rights Act made him its chief law enforcement officer.(WSJ, 7/10/2012)


Of course, the real reason that Holder is ginning up the voter ID issue is to increase African American voter turnout in the face of an "enthusiasm gap" faced by Obama this time around.


Extremities
Some of the weather extremes bedeviling people around the world have become far more likely because of human-induced global warming, researchers reported on Tuesday. Yet they ruled it out as a cause of last year’s devastating floods in Thailand, one of the most striking weather events of recent years.
...


The findings, especially the specific numbers attached to some extreme events, represent an increased effort by scientists to respond to a public clamor for information about what is happening to the earth’s climate. Studies seeking to discern any human influence on weather extremes have usually taken years, but in this case, researchers around the world managed to study six events from 2011 and publish the results in six months.


Some of the researchers acknowledged that given the haste of the work, the conclusions must be regarded as tentative. (NYT, 7/10/2012)


You have to read this bit of pseudo-science to believe it. Man-made global warming caused THIS event, but not THAT event. And because the public is just dying to know they rushed to get us an answer....which may not be accurate. 


Overwhelmed
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney drew jeers from black voters Wednesday as he criticized President Barack Obama and pledged to repeal the Democrats' health care overhaul.


Romney told the annual meeting of the NAACP that backing him over the Democratic incumbent, who won their overwhelming support in 2008, is in the best interest of their families. He acknowledged his Republican Party doesn't have a perfect record on race relations, but pledged during a sometimes rocky speech that, if elected, he would work with black leaders to put the country back to work. (NYPost.com, 7/11/2012)


Good for Romney! A weaker politician would have stood in front of the NAACP and pandered. Romney said what he believed and took the heat.