Methodists are backing off (maybe) on G W Bush Library @ SMU

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/10/15/124329/27

"The placement of the George W. Bush Library and the establishment of an Institute to promote the policies of this president at Southern Methodist University would be a tragedy," said Bishop William Boyd Grove of Charlestown, West Virginia. "The policies of the Bush administration are in direct conflict with the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church on issues of war and peace, civil liberties and human rights, care for the environment, and health care. SMU is a university of the church and is home to one of our outstanding theological seminaries. Its United Methodist identity and its moral authority would be seriously compromised were it to be identified with the policies of George W. Bush in this way."

Opponents are "question[ing] the educational value of the Bush complex" given that earlier in his administration Bush issued Executive Order 13233, "which," the press release notes, "provides former Presidents with virtually unlimited powers to deny or grant access to documents generated under their administrations." The Executive Order extends these powers to a president's heirs.

"Professors within the history department at Southern Methodist University, the future home of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, may not all agree on the benefits or legitimacy of the library, museum and institute. However, they unanimously agree about SB 866 and the need to rescind the presidential order," Laray Polkfor recently wrote in the Dallas Morning News.

Bishop C. Joseph Sprague of London, Ohio, observed that "last spring the Faculty Senate and the history faculty at SMU issued statements criticizing the Executive Order as incompatible with the goals of providing public and scholarly access to federal documents. It is a great concern when a large number of the faculty at a United Methodist university question the educational value of a project."

Bishop Susan M. Morrison of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, pointed out that while she "respect[s] the office of the presidency, presidential libraries are created, partly, to celebrate the legacies of particular presidents [and] ... Bush's leadership has been so problematic and contrary to much of our Social Principles, it does not seem appropriate to place this library in the midst of one of our celebrated educational institutions."

"It's not a matter of censorship, but there's a lot of resentment that this institute will be run without any oversight by the university," the Rev. Weaver, who is spearheading the drive, told the Dallas Morning News.

In an e-mail, the Rev. Weaver pointed out that "The fact that the press is reporting that Rove will lead the effort to design and plan the freedom institute has increased the concern about and sentiment against the project among many in the church. Three additional bishops signed the petition this week. I believe we have the stronger arguments on our side and can win the debate in the church. And, if Bush bombs Iran, I doubt he will ever get an inch of church land to put anything on."

Maybe my alma mater (BaylorU in wheyko) will yet have a chance to pull George W's fat out of the fire. Texas A&M may be kind of miffed right now, since they settled on preserving the presidential effluvia of the relatively liberal George H. W. Bush. Had they not been so eager, they could've had George W. -- HBF

Bush aide says warming man-made ... BBC

While his daddy Cheney was having him fire the generals who sassed him, did George W overlook this guy?

Professor John Marburger, who advises President Bush, said it was more than 90% certain that greenhouse gas emissions from mankind are to blame.

...

Professor Marburger said humanity would be in trouble if we did not stop increasing carbon emissions.

"The CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere and there's no end point, it just gets hotter and hotter, and so at some point it becomes unliveable," he said.

Professor Marburger said he wished he could stop US emissions right away, but that was obviously not possible.

US backing for the scientific consensus was confirmed by President Bush's top climate advisor, James Connaughton.

The chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality told BBC News that advancing technology was the best way to curb the warming trend.

"You only have two choices; you either have advanced technologies and get them into the marketplace, or you shut down your economies and put people out of work," he said.

"I don't know of any politician that favours shutting down economies."

....

"I think 2C is rather arbitrary, and it's not clear to me that the answer shouldn't be 3C or more or less. It's a hunch, a guess."

The truth, he said, was that we just do not know what the 'safe' limit is.

Invest 93 on Thursday 9/20/2007

This was on the east side of Florida, now it's in the Gulf. Hurricane in a few hours?? The models are systematically biased; the green one has it going north consistently, the others further west. Interestingly, no one has it turning "left". It must have something to do with how the model uses input rather than a bias inherent in the model; the green model (assuming Masters' plotting maintains a consistent mapping of colors to models, but I haven't verified that) had Ingrid (earlier) remaining further south that some of the models.

Weather modeling

This was in Jeff Master's wunderground blog yesterday [vote tabulations are mine]:

Gulf of Mexico storm possible this week
The four reliable computer models for forecasting genesis of tropical cyclones have been very busy the past few runs cooking up some nasty storms in the Western Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico for the coming week. Neither the timing nor the location of these hypothetical storms has been consistent. However, the models are insistent enough that something might happen, that I believe there is about a 40% chance we'll see a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico by week's end. A few possibilities, from this morning's model runs:

NOGAPS: A tropical storm forms in the Western Caribbean Tuesday, and moves north, hitting South Florida Friday. [one vote]

UKMET, ECMWF, and GFS: A tropical storm forms in the central Gulf of Mexico Thursday and moves west, hitting Texas on Saturday. [three votes]

The seed for formation of a tropical storm in the Western Caribbean would be one of the tropical waves from Africa that are parading across the Atlantic. A Gulf of Mexico storm could get spawned from a tropical wave, or from an old frontal zone stretching from the Carolinas southwards along the U.S. East Coast then across northern Florida.

Now, a day later, here is what we've got just east of Florida:




















I think this qualifies as the Western Caribbean.

Ingrid models a little later

Ingrid and Models 9/14/07

Barry Goldwater

He said

Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice. And . . . moderation in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue.

and

I don't like being called the New Right; I'm an old, old son-of-a-bitch. I'm a conservative.

and

Sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the Eastern Seaboard and let it float out to sea.

He also said

I don't have any respect for the Religious Right. There is no place in this country for practicing religion in politics. That goes for Falwell, Robertson and all the rest of these political preachers. They are a detriment to the country.

and

Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.

and

A lot of so-called conservatives don't know what the word means. They think I've turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right.