Dodd' s Special Loan may be exposed.

Caving to months of pressure from congressional Republicans, the chairman of the House oversight committee agreed Friday to subpoena documents from Countrywide Financial Corporation about its VIP loan program that offered special mortgages to members of Congress and other influential figures.

Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., both received loans from the so-called "Friends of Angelo" program, a reference to the company's former CEO Angelo Mozilo, now charged with insider trading and securities fraud by the SEC.

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Al Gores Nine Lies

From: Not Evil - Just Wrong
Al Gore is the principal prophet of doom in the global warming debate, and the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth is his gospel to true believers. But Gore has misled them.

Two years ago, British High Court Justice Michael Burton characterized Gore's film as "alarmism and exaggeration in support of his political thesis." The court, responding to a case filed by a parent, said the film was "one-sided" and could not be shown in British schools unless it contained guidelines to balance Gore's attempt at "political indoctrination."

The judge based his decision on nine inaccuracies in the movie. The Gore-loving U.S. media largely ignored the story, but starting premiere night Oct. 18, Americans will hear it in Not Evil Just Wrong. To set the stage, here is a recap of Gore's claims and why they are flawed:

1. The claim: Melting in Greenland or West Antarctica will cause sea levels to rise up to 20 feet in the near future. The truth: The Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change concluded that sea levels might rise 20 feet over millennia -- and it waffled on that prediction. The IPCC envisions a rise of no more than 7 inches to 23 inches by 2100. Gore's claim is "a very disturbing misstatement of the science," John Day, who argued the British case, says in Not Evil Just Wrong. The judge said Gore's point "is not in line with the scientific consensus.


2. The claim: Polar bears are drowning because they have to swim farther to find ice. The truth: Justice Burton noted that the only study citing the drowning of polar bears (four of them) blamed the deaths on a storm, not ice that is melting due to manmade global warming. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, furthermore, found that the current bear population is 20,000-25,000, up from 5,000-10,000 in the 1950s and 1960s. Day says in Not Evil Just Wrong that the appeal to polar bears is "a very clever piece of manipulation."


3. The claim: Global warming spawned Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The truth: "It is common ground that there is insufficient evidence to show that," Burton wrote in his ruling. A May 2007 piece in New Scientist refuted the Katrina argument as a "climate myth" because it's impossible to tie any single weather event to global warming.


4. The claim: Increases in temperature are the result of increases in carbon dioxide. The truth: Burton questioned the two graphs Gore used in An Inconvenient Truth. Gore argued that there is "an exact fit" between temperature and CO2, Burton said, but his graphs didn't support that conclusion. Recent data also do not support it: The global temperature has been declining for about a decade, even as CO2 levels continue rising.


5. The claim: The snow on Mount Kilimanjaro is melting because of global warming. The truth: The melting has been under way for more than a century -- long before SUVs and jumbo jets -- and appears to be the result of other causes. Justice Burton noted that scientists agree the melting can't be blamed primarily on "human-induced climate change."


6. The claim: Lake Chad is disappearing because of global warming. The truth: Lake Chad is losing water, and humans are contributing to the losses. But the humans in the lake's immediate vicinity, rather than mankind as a whole using fossil fuels, are to blame. Burton cited factors like population, overgrazing and regional climate variability.


7. The claim: People are being forced to evacuate low-lying Pacific atolls, islands of coral that surround lagoons, because of encroaching ocean waters. The truth: By their very nature, atolls are susceptible to rising sea levels. But Burton said pointedly in his ruling, "There is no evidence of any such evacuation having yet happened."


8. The claim: Coral reefs are bleaching and putting fish in jeopardy. The truth: In his ruling, Burton emphasized the IPCC's finding that bleaching could kill coral reefs -- if they don't adapt. A report released this year shows that reefs already are thriving in waters as hot as some people say ocean waters will be 100 years from now. Burton also said it is difficult to separate coral stresses such as over-fishing from any changes in climate.


9. The claim: Global warming could stop the "ocean conveyor," triggering another ice age in Western Europe. The truth: Once again, Gore's allies at the IPCC disagree with that argument. Burton cited the panel in concluding that "it is very unlikely that the ocean conveyor ... will shut down in the future." The fact that the scientific understanding of how the conveyor belt works remains unsettled further exposes the flaw in Gore's claim.

Support your local geezer - it might pay dividends

I grew up with the notion that you had to "Respect your elders". I try to make sure that any interaction I have with folks older than me is courteous, and that I smile and listen to what they have to say. I don't think that "older equals wiser" but that it is your duty to show respect to people who've been here longer than you.

One day it will be my turn to geeze and I expect the same from future generations.

I've learned that many geezers have actually accumulated some knowledge along the way. Surprisingly, those who have survived planet earth for more than seventy years have not always done it by chance, but by their wits.

When we see shriveled, hunched bodies scuttling along - we seldom think about how that person got to be that way. We want them out of the way - they walk slow. We don't want to interact - they might not hear us well and we have to repeat or speak really loud. We fear we may someday be like them, not realizing we would have achieved something to be old enough to be hunched and shriveled.

What we really should do is take a few minutes to interact. Ask them just a question or two and actually listen. That treasure dude would have never known about that big-ass diamond that the chick lost on the Titanic if we didn't have to sit through 3 and a half hours of her, as a hundred year old senile bat, blathering on about her sexual infidelity as a young hottie.

I don't know where this is going but I wanted to tell you this lil quip that Wally from the gym spat out last night.

For quite a while Michele and I would see this guy at the gym. About 90 pounds, soaking wet with rocks in his pocket, he gets on the treadmill at the slowest setting. Then pauses every two seconds to catch up. Then he saunters over to different pieces of equipment, stopping at each one and reading little folded pieces of paper for about five minutes before he does 30 seconds of exercise.

The smart ass in me just can't help but make comments about this little nebbish, throwing him under the comic bus. Easy pickin's. I know I shouldn't, but I'm not a good person. I wonder why he comes to the gym at all. He could get as much exercise walking to the kitchen and opening a can of soup.

A month or two ago I look across the way to the girl corner (where they have the pink weights and those bouncy balls) and there's my wife, chatting with the little dinosaur, who's sitting on a bouncy ball.

I ended up going over and getting introduced to Wally. He used to work in the Pentagon and having lived for decades in D.C. was going on with Michele about how it used to be, the things that have changed, etc...

So now every time we see him, we spend a few minutes talking. It makes him feel better and we learn a thing or two. I get the feeling he is really really old, but he has never disclosed how old. I wonder what exactly he did in the Pentagon. He said he was a statistician. Was he maybe a spy? Did he decode Nazi secrets? Maybe he's a trained killer. Maybe he kept statistics.

I wonder if he's in bad shape for a 70 year old or exceptional condition for a guy over a hundred. Michele and I keep listening to references of years and trying to deduce his age.

He told us once about the first time he was rejected from getting "student price" tickets. It was at the World's Fair. He was 24. He smiled slyly and said - "But I won't tell you what city!"

So last night we were chit chatting about the size of Taft's bathtub; how popular he was for being so big while everybody else was starving and how it was considered good health back then and how today it's despised when Wally said, "That's my memories, but it's ancient history to you two."

Michele -hoping to trick him into saying his birth year- said, "That was before we were born. I was born in 68 and he was in 64", pointing at me.

"I remember when I was 64 and 68", said Wally, "But that's ancient history to me."