Rick Mckee Draws another Ridiculous Cartoon

On January 13th a political cartoon drawn by Rick Mckee comparing Harry Reid to a member of the KKK appeared on the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Comparing Harry Reid to a member of the KKK is just ridiculous. I addressed this stupid controversy in my last blog entry, but in the last few days I've learned more information that makes the comparison between Harry Reid's comments and Trent Lott's even more absurd. According to the hot political gossip book, Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, it was Harry Reid who encouraged President Obama to take on the Clintons. If it wasn't for Senator Reid, there would be no Barrack Obama presidency. And obviously, if Senator Reid was in any way comparable to the KKK, he wouldn't encourage an African-American to run for the presidency. Rick McKee is a moron.

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Also on this date, the Augusta Chronicle ran a really ignorant editorial written by Walter Williams, who I always jokingly refer to as Rush Limbaugh doing a minstral show. In the column, "Global Warming is a religion," Mr. Williams wrote two obvious lies and made three points that reveal a stunning ignorance of basic science.

Mr. Williams claimed that some scientists "fraudulently manipulated data and engaged in criminal activity revealed in what has been called 'Climate gate.'" Not only is this a lie, but it is a libelous lie. No scientist has been criminally charged in this case. www.factcheck.org posted an article explaining that they didn't fraudulently manipulate data either.

The other lie in this column was Mr. Williams' bizarre claim that CO2 is not correlated with temperature. Temperatures are without a doubt tied to CO2 levels. See www.skepticalscience.com/CO2-temperature-correlation.htm for a good layman's explanation.

Then he listed several points that supposedly debunk the alarmism over rising CO2 levels. These points only reveal how ignorant he is of science. He wrote that humans contribute 3.4 percent of annual CO2 levels while nature contributes 96.6 %. Nobody is disputing that. What scientists say is that this unnatural addition of CO2 may tip the scales and upset the natural balance in detrimental ways.

Mr. Williams wrote that the Cambrian explosion 550 million years ago occurred when CO2 levels were 18 times higher than today. Yeah, and humans could not have survived in that atmosphere. All life forms during this time period were aquatic.

And he wrote that when dinosaurs roamed the earth, CO2 levels were 9 times higher than today. Yeah, and earth was a miserable hot place to live where temperatures seldom fell below 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and there were no seasons. Oceans covered 85% of earth's surface during this time period because there were no polar ice caps.

Mr. Williams was so ignorant about science, he didn't even realize his facts were actually contrary to the point he was trying to make. I emailed him and informed him of his ignorance. His response was one word--"Amen." I'm sure that was a pre-planned response to expected criticism of his column, implying that anyone disagreeing with him was worshipping at an altar of global warming. Nevertheless, his column proved him an ignoramous.

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On January 14th Lee Benedict regaled us with yet another one of his incoherent, right wing rants in his letter, "Actions show where Obama's heart lies." In this letter it seems evident that Mr. Benedict doesn't know what a Zionist is. He also told a whopper of a lie when he said President Obama goes mum when terrorists attack the U.S. I'm not even going to look up a source to debunk this falsehood. Anybody who follows the news knows this is not true. Why would Michael Ryan run something this blatantly false? He won't run my letters accurately documenting his plagiarism because supposedly "they can't verify the accuracy of the content," but he will run ridiculous lies such as this.

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Re: "Huge test of Democratic rule," from the January 16th addition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Conservatives are making a lot of hay about the senatorial election in Massachusetts. Mr. Ryan claims the republican candidate is within striking distance. Actually, that's only according to one poll. All other polls have the democratic candidate safely ahead. The Boston Globe has her 18 points ahead. In any case voter turnout is much lower in off year, special elections. So I believe conservatives are making too much over the so-claimed closeness of this race. We'll see on Tuesday. I predict Coakley wins handily, even considering the low turnout which always hurts democrats.

Mr. Ryan took issue with one statement she made. Ms. Coakley said there were no terrorists left in Afghanistan. Mr. Ryan considered this a large gaffe. Actually, Ms. Coakley is correct. Al Qaida has been routed in Afghanistan, and there are few terrorists left there. The U.S. is fighting the taliban, and they're not the same entity as the terrorists our troops were originally sent there to fight. So what she said was not at all outrageous as Mr. Ryan falsely claims.

Michael Ryan Jumps on the Bandwagon of Conservative Stupidity

Re: "Hypocrisy over Harry," from the January 12th edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

It seems as if Mr. Ryan has to regurgitate every conservative criticism of the democrats and the media no matter how stupid it is.

The latest charge is that democrats are hypocrites because they demanded Trent Lott be censured following his musing that we would be better off if we had elected a segregationist president, but are not censuring Harry Reid's goofy but honest statements about race.

The comparison is ridiculous. Trent Lott expressed support for segregation. Harry Reid merely said some things about race that are true but a little insulting. At worst, they were undiplomatic. But at least he was expressing enthusiasm for electing a black president. Trent Lott was saying we should have kept Jim Crow institutions.

That's a gigantic difference. Anyone who can't see the difference is either just obtuse or wants to make stuff up as an excuse to generate artificial controversy.