Pennsylvania: Obama

I think they're just playing with my head this time. This is just too easy.

Take a look at today's "Sunday Pops." It ends with this:
Rocco Landesman, president of the taxpayer teat-suckling National Endowment for the Arts, says "Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar." Given that the president handpicked Mr. Landesman, can a revival of the term "bootlicker" be far behind?
First let's start off saying that they're spinning the quote into something it isn't. Here's a far more reliable source (Fox "News") with the fuller quotation:

Putting the president in the pantheon with such pencil-pushing powerhouses as the man who was, literally, the Czar of all Czars, Landesman said that since Obama "actually writes his own books," he's the most powerful man to be a true writer in the 2,000 years since Caesar strode the narrow earth.

I'm being as charitable as possible when I say to the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Please! Put down the crack pipe!

Last week the P-G endorsed Lil Mayor Luke for the first time ever and now this week they've endorsed Judge Joan Orie Melvin, a Republican from Western PA, over Judge Jack A. Panella, a Democrat from Eastern PA.

In their endorsement, the P-G says:
Both have risen through the legal ranks, both have had distinguished careers and both are ranked highly recommended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In truth, either one would make an excellent Supreme Court justice.
So why do they give the nod to Orie Melvin? They chalk it up to wanting a judge from the West and say that they're "strike[ing] a small but important blow for gender balance by keeping the number of female justices at two.

And today's topic is:

CLIMATE CHANGE.

With so much to discuss, I just want to point yinz to this page at scienceblogs.com.

It's called "How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic" and it's very useful. An example:
Objection:

Global Warming is just a hoax perpetrated by environmental extremists and liberals who want an excuse for more big government.
Which is followed by a list of the "hoaxers":

• NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) - http://www.giss.nasa.gov/edu/gwdebate/
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/index.htm
• National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - http://books.nap.edu/collections/global_warming/index.html
• State of the Canadian Cryosphere (SOCC) - http://www.socc.ca/permafrost/permafrost_future_e.cfm
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -

Here's the AP:
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said.