Caracas on the Potomac

The best article on wind farms you will ever read – Telegraph Blogs

2012-02-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

The best article on wind farms you will ever read – Telegraph Blogs: "Have a look at this debate between pro-renewables campaigner Jonathan Pyke and Mark Duchamp of the European Platform Against Wind Farms in The Earth Times and you'll see what I mean:
Q: How accurate is the argument that wind turbines have to be 'backed-up' by alternative sources of power, eg nuclear or coal, due to the irregularity of wind?
Jonathan: It's not accurate and I think it stems from a misunderstanding about what wind energy is for. It's better to think of wind as the back-up for gas, allowing us to make much better use of our existing fossil fuel power plants than relying on gas alone. "

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'Germany's George Monbiot' turns climate sceptic – Telegraph Blogs

2012-02-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

'Germany's George Monbiot' turns climate sceptic – Telegraph Blogs: "One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?”"

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RealClearPolitics - The Galileo of Global Warming

2012-02-10T14:41:00.000-08:00

RealClearPolitics - The Galileo of Global Warming: "Those who have followed the global warming controversy over the years may recall that cloud-formation is one of the major gaps in the computerized climate "models" used by the consensus scientists to predict global warming. They have never had a theory to explain how and why clouds form or to account accurately for their effect on the climate. Svensmark has smashed through this glaring gap in their theory."

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Stephen Moore: A Fairness Quiz for the President - WSJ.com

2012-02-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

Stephen Moore: A Fairness Quiz for the President - WSJ.com:

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Wind Power Does Not Equal Job Power - ABC News

2012-01-29T16:24:00.000-08:00

Wind Power Does Not Equal Job Power - ABC News: ""Most of the jobs are going overseas," said Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which foreign firms had accepted the most stimulus money. "According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S."

Even with the infusion of so much stimulus money, a recent report by American Wind Energy Association showed a drop in U.S. wind manufacturing jobs last year."

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State of the Union Flop - Charles Krauthammer - National Review Online

2012-01-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

State of the Union Flop - Charles Krauthammer - National Review Online: "Back to the decade-old Democratic obsession with the Bush tax cuts, the crusade for a tax hike of all of 4.6 points for 2 percent of households — ten years of which wouldn’t cover the cost of Obama’s 2009 stimulus alone.

"

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Review & Outlook: The Greece Next Door - WSJ.com

2012-01-21T08:20:00.000-08:00

Review & Outlook: The Greece Next Door - WSJ.com: "Only a year ago, Governor Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats raised individual income taxes by 67% and the corporate tax rate by 46%. They did it to raise $7 billion in revenue, as the Governor put it, to "get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing" and improve the state's credit rating.

So much for that. In its downgrade statement, Moody's panned Illinois lawmakers for "a legislative session in which the state took no steps to implement lasting solutions to its severe pension underfunding or to its chronic bill payment delays.""

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Rejecting the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity - The Washington Post

2012-01-21T07:09:00.000-08:00

Rejecting the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity - The Washington Post: "President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances."

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Obama’s Keystone pipeline rejection is hard to accept - The Washington Post

2012-01-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

Obama’s Keystone pipeline rejection is hard to accept - The Washington Post: "We almost hope this was a political call because, on the substance, there should be no question. Without the pipeline, Canada would still export its bitumen — with long-term trends in the global market, it’s far too valuable to keep in the ground — but it would go to China. "

And, as a State Department report found, U.S. refineries would still import low-quality crude — just from the Middle East. Stopping the pipeline, then, wouldn’t do anything to reduce global warming, but it would almost certainly require more oil to be transported across oceans in tankers.

Environmentalists and Nebraska politicians say that the route TransCanada proposed might threaten the state’s ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region. But TransCanada has been willing to tweak the route, in consultation with Nebraska officials, even though a government analysis last year concluded that the original one would have “limited adverse environmental impacts.” Surely the Obama administration didn’t have to declare the whole project contrary to the national interest — that’s the standard State was supposed to apply — and force the company to start all over again.

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This is from the WASHINGTON POST editors.

President Obama's top 10 constitutional violations | The Daily Caller

2011-12-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

President Obama's top 10 constitutional violations | The Daily Caller: "“Federalism is more than an exercise in setting the boundary between different institutions of government for their own integrity,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for a unanimous Supreme Court earlier this year. “By denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life,” Kennedy continued, “federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power.” If the federal government acts outside the scope of its delegated and carefully enumerated powers, then it’s no better than an armed mob.

The Obama administration and its allies in Congress have perpetrated more than their share of such mob-like actions. While it’s hard to narrow them down, here’s my stab at the government’s top 10 constitutional violations since President Obama took office."

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Stem cells | Embryos | Geron Corp. | The Daily Caller

2011-12-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

Stem cells | Embryos | Geron Corp. | The Daily Caller: "From 2000 onwards, “Democrats and liberals were hyping the research absurdly,” Princeton professor Robert George, a member of President George. W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics, told The Daily Caller. “There was no real prospect of therapeutic uses of [Geron’s] embryonic stem cells.”

University of Pennsylvania bioethics professor Art Caplan agreed. “Companies like Geron tried to attract investors by over promising.”"

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A small taste: NH samples Obamacare | New Hampshire OPINION01

2011-12-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

A small taste: NH samples Obamacare | New Hampshire OPINION01: "Remember when President Obama said that if his health care “reform” law passed, you’d still get to keep your doctor? Medicare Advantage participants in the Granite State are finding out what a lie that was."

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Daniel B. Botkin: Absolute Certainty Is Not Scientific - WSJ.com

2011-12-02T15:11:00.000-08:00

Daniel B. Botkin: Absolute Certainty Is Not Scientific - WSJ.com: "Some scientists make "period, end of story" claims that human-induced global warming definitely, absolutely either is or isn't happening. For me, the extreme limit of this attitude was expressed by economist Paul Krugman, also a Nobel laureate, who wrote in his New York Times column in June, "Betraying the Planet" that "as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn't help thinking that I was watching a form of treason—treason against the planet." What had begun as a true scientific question with possibly major practical implications had become accepted as an infallible belief (or if you're on the other side, an infallible disbelief), and any further questions were met, Joe-McCarthy style, "with me or agin me.""

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Josh Mandel: Washington Targets Ohio Shale Gas - WSJ.com

2011-12-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

Josh Mandel: Washington Targets Ohio Shale Gas - WSJ.com: "You might be asking yourself: Why would Washington block drilling in Ohio at the same time that Ohio manufacturers are adding jobs to support the state's growing oil and gas exploration? Thousands of middle-class families and out-of-work Ohioans are asking that same question.

Perhaps the most accurate answer is found in a statement by the president of the Laborers' International Union of North America after the Obama administration's recent decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline. "The administration chose to support environmentalists over jobs," Terry O'Sullivan said. "Job-killers win, American workers lose.""

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Fire Sale on Electric Cars! - Robert Bryce - National Review Online

2011-12-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

Fire Sale on Electric Cars! - Robert Bryce - National Review Online: "Sure, GM may be able to resolve the problems with the Volt. But the big hurdle, as Anderman pointed out last year, remains lackluster demand. Why would a car buyer choose a Volt, which gets 40 miles per gallon on the highway and costs $41,000, when he could get a Chevy Cruze, which is nearly identical in size, gets better mileage, and costs less than half as much?
"

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Weather’s Too Nice For Global Warming Alarmists - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

2011-11-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

Weather’s Too Nice For Global Warming Alarmists - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "Environment: Sunday will be the 2,232nd consecutive day that the U.S. has gone without being hit by a major hurricane. This is a big enough deal to be covered by the mainstream media. But of course it won't be.

"Since there won't be any intense hurricanes before next summer, the record will be shattered, with the days between intense hurricane landfalls likely to exceed 2,500 days," he writes in his blog.

Why is this significant? Because the global warming alarmists have been telling us that man's carbon dioxide emissions would bring bigger storms.

On Dec. 4, a new record will be set for the number of days between landfalls of category 3 or stronger storms. The previous streak, according to Roger Pielke Jr., began on Sept. 8, 1900, and ended on Oct. 19, 1906, when the Great Galveston Hurricane hit."

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Orgasmic spenders flirting with insolvency | debt, government, spending - Opinion - The Orange County Register

2011-11-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

Orgasmic spenders flirting with insolvency | debt, government, spending - Opinion - The Orange County Register: "But don't worry. Aside from spending the summer negotiating a deal that increases runaway federal spending, those stingy, cheeseparing Republicans also forced the Democrats to agree to create that big ol' supercommittee that would save $1.2 trillion -- over the course of 10 years.
Anywhere else on the planet that would be a significant chunk of change. But the government of the United States is planning to spend $44 trillion in the next decade. So $1.2 trillion is about 2.7 percent. Any businessman could cut 2.7 percent from his budget in his sleep. But not congressional supercommittees of supermen with superpowers thrashing it out across the table for three months. So there will be no 2.7 percent cut."

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Fred Siegel: 'The New Tammany Hall' - WSJ.com

2011-11-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

Fred Siegel: 'The New Tammany Hall' - WSJ.com: " "Obama's crony capitalism has been very good for New York's crony capitalism," he says. Over at Zuccotti Park, "there are a few people there who do get it, but very little of their animosity follows from this."

One can appreciate why the "we are the 99%" militants might resist Mr. Siegel's logic. He links the liberalism of the 1960s, not any excess of the free market, to today's crisis. The Great Society put the state on growth hormones. Less widely appreciated, the era gave birth to a powerful new political force, the public-sector union. For the first time in American history there was an interest dedicated wholly to lobbying for a larger government and the taxes and debt to pay for it."

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Review & Outlook: The Non-Green Jobs Boom - WSJ.com

2011-11-26T10:07:00.000-08:00

Review & Outlook: The Non-Green Jobs Boom - WSJ.com: "The Obama Administration has managed the nearly impossible feat of turning energy policy into a money loser, pouring taxpayer dollars into green-energy busts like Solyndra. The Washington Post reported in September that Mr. Obama's $38.6 billion green loan program had created a mere 3,500 jobs over two years. He had predicted it would "save or create" 65,000.

Mr. Obama nonetheless keeps talking about "green jobs" as if repetition will conjure them. He'd do more for the economy if he dropped the ideological illusions and embraced the job-creating, wealth-producing reality of domestic fossil fuels."

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Glenn Hubbard: It's Still Possible to Cut Spending—Here's How - WSJ.com

2011-11-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

Glenn Hubbard: It's Still Possible to Cut Spending—Here's How - WSJ.com: "President Obama's answer is higher taxes. But he can't be serious. Just accommodating his spending plans over the next decade requires across-the-board tax increases of 20%. Over the next 25 years, taxes would need to rise across the board by 60%.

Instead, what is needed is spending reform that offers goals, specifics and ways to blend fiscal responsibility with modernizing government. "

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Happy Sweet Sequester’d Days - By Mark Steyn - The Corner - National Review Online

2011-11-22T18:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Sweet Sequester’d Days - By Mark Steyn - The Corner - National Review Online: " the “automatic” sequestration cuts would over the course of ten years reduce US public debt by only $153 billion. Which boils down to about a month’s worth of the current federal deficit.

Yet even slashing a pimple’s worth of borrowing out of the great oozing mountain of pustules will prove too much for Washington."

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Don't Stop Doubting - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

2011-11-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

Don't Stop Doubting - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "Judith Curry, a Georgia Tech climate researcher with more than 30 years experience who was also part of the BEST project, has said "there is no scientific basis for saying that warming hasn't stopped." She looked at the same data Muller did and noted it shows global temperatures haven't increased since the late 1990s.

Now comes meteorologist Anthony Watts armed with data showing the continental U.S. has not warmed in the last 10 years, and in fact has grown cooler in the summer and colder in the winter. The numbers aren't a collection of weather forecasts from Watts, who runs the website "Watts Up With That," but data from the National Climatic Data Center.

"

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Income Inequality Rose Most Under President Clinton - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

2011-11-03T17:16:00.001-07:00

Income Inequality Rose Most Under President Clinton - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "But it turns out that the rich actually got poorer under President Bush, and the income gap has been climbing under Obama.

What's more, the biggest increase in income inequality over the past three decades took place when Democrat Bill Clinton was in the White House."

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Income Inequality Rose Most Under President Clinton - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

2011-11-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

We're All Reaganites Now - WSJ.com

2011-10-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

We're All Reaganites Now - WSJ.com: "Speaking to students at the University of Colorado's Denver campus, Mr. Obama claimed that "the reason I've been hitting the road so much is because the folks I'm talking to in cities and small towns and communities all across America, they're -- let's face it, they're making a little more sense than the folks back in Washington." It's unclear how many of the youngsters in the audience grasped the absurdity of this statement, coming from an incumbent president who has pursued the most aggressive agenda in half a century to shift power to the "folks back in Washington" and away from the folks in other cities and towns. Adding to the farcical nature of the event, Mr. Obama was there to announce yet another expansion of a federal program -- an increase in taxpayer subsidies of student loans."

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Max Boot: Obama's Tragic Iraq Withdrawal - WSJ.com

2011-10-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Max Boot: Obama's Tragic Iraq Withdrawal - WSJ.com: "So why was it possible for the Bush administration to reach a deal with the Iraqis but not for the Obama administration?

Quite simply it was a matter of will: President Bush really wanted to get a deal done, whereas Mr. Obama did not. Mr. Bush spoke weekly with Mr. Maliki by video teleconference. Mr. Obama had not spoken with Mr. Maliki for months before calling him in late October to announce the end of negotiations. Mr. Obama and his senior aides did not even bother to meet with Iraqi officials at the United Nations General Assembly in September."

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Review & Outlook: California's New Green Tax - WSJ.com

2011-10-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Review & Outlook: California's New Green Tax - WSJ.com: "The tragedy is that this economic harm is being inflicted for nothing but environmental symbolism. A single state's policies can't possibly alter the planet's temperature given the huge carbon footprint elsewhere, as even the CARB has acknowledged.

Notwithstanding their bouts of carbon imperialism (see below), even some Europeans are having cap-and-trade second thoughts. "There is a trade-off between climate-change policies and competitiveness," concludes a recent EU commission report. "Europe cannot act alone in an effort to achieve global decarbonization."

But evidently high-minded California—with 2.1 million people already out of work and with the nation's second highest jobless rate at 11.9%—will. The job cost will be paid not in the tony salons of Hollywood but in the working class neighborhoods of Torrance and Fresno."

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Crovitz: Steve Jobs's Advice for Obama - WSJ.com

2011-10-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

Crovitz: Steve Jobs's Advice for Obama - WSJ.com: "The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can't get done," Jobs said. "It infuriates me.""

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Jim McNerney: What Business Wants from Washington - WSJ.com

2011-10-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

Jim McNerney: What Business Wants from Washington - WSJ.com: "No one wants to discard truly meaningful public-safety or environmental regulations. But what we face is a jobs crisis, and regulators charged with protecting the interests of the people are making worse the problem that's hurting them most. Regulatory relief in the energy sector alone could create up to two million new jobs, and we won't have to borrow a penny to pay for it.

Enlarge Image

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In the view of business, America retains tremendous strengths. But absent a clear change in course, no one should be surprised if some companies ultimately invest abroad, creating jobs beyond our borders that could have been based here. "

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Edward P. Lazear: The Euro Crisis—Doubting the 'Domino' Effect - WSJ.com

2011-10-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Edward P. Lazear: The Euro Crisis—Doubting the 'Domino' Effect - WSJ.com: "The cases of Estonia and Turkey attest to the effectiveness of structural change. After a significant economic contraction in 2001, Turkey embarked on a new path of rapid fiscal consolidation. By the end of 2002, growth was 6% and by 2004, 9%. Rather than slowing the economy further, government tightening was associated with strong and almost immediate growth. More recently, Estonia, which experienced almost a 20% contraction by the end of 2009, instituted fiscal reforms. Among them was a 10% reduction in government operating expenses and a flattening of the pension growth trajectory. In 2010, the year following the reforms, growth had already turned positive, to around 3%, and it is forecast to be above 6% for 2011.

These two examples, and that of our own financial crisis, suggest that fundamental problems need to be addressed early and forcefully"

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Edward P. Lazear: The Euro Crisis—Doubting the 'Domino' Effect - WSJ.com

2011-10-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

Edward P. Lazear: The Euro Crisis—Doubting the 'Domino' Effect - WSJ.com: "After Lehman, Europeans seem to be so taken with worries of contagion that they are failing to emphasize remedies that actually have a chance of making things better. In their case, and in ours, the solution is primarily a reduction in the bloated size of government expenditures that come about by making promises that cannot be kept."

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The European Bailout Explained | Xtranormal

2011-10-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

The European Bailout Explained | Xtranormal:

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God Bless You, Cardinal

2011-10-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

The Corner - National Review Online: "In the full text, provocatively entitled “Eppur’ si muove” (after the apocryphal saying attributed to Galileo), Pell exhaustively details the scientific evidence that the consensus can’t quite account for and underscores what he calls “the climate movement’s totalitarian approach to opposing views, their demonising of successful opponents, and their opposition to the publication of opposing views, even in scientific journals.” He also notes that the economic costs associated with various climate proposals are likely to weigh heavily on the world’s most vulnerable people. “Are there any long-term benefits from the schemes to combat global warming, apart from extra tax revenues for governments and income for those devising and implementing the schemes?”"

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Yeah, I Want THIS Government to Have My Medical Health Record

2011-10-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

Government Site Exposes Financial Info of Thousands of College Students « CBS Washington: "The personal financial details of as many as 5,000 college students were temporarily laid bare for other students to view on the Education Department’s direct loan website earlier this month, an education official testified Tuesday."

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Review & Outlook: The Post-Global Warming World - WSJ.com

2011-10-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

Review & Outlook: The Post-Global Warming World - WSJ.com: "And so it goes with every technology that claims to promise greenhouse-gas salvation. Wind power may emit zero carbon, but windmills need up to 90% of their capacity backed up to prevent blackouts—usually with coal and gas plants. Windmills also kill a lot of birds. As for solar power, a new study from the University of Tennessee and Occupational Knowledge International finds that manufacturing the necessary lead batteries threatens to release more than 2.4 million tons of lead pollution by 2022, or one-third of today's total global lead production.

The science on climate change and man's influence on it is far from settled. The question today is whether it makes sense to combat a potential climate threat by imposing economically destructive regulations and sinking billions into failure-prone technologies that have their own environmental costs. The earnest people going to Durban next month may think so. The rest of the world is wearier and wiser."

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The GOP Wins by Bruising - WSJ.com

2011-10-22T08:15:00.001-07:00

The GOP Wins by Bruising - WSJ.com: "They are not funneling their energy into the democratic process because there is no market for what they are selling: Capitalism should be overturned, I am angry that my college loan bills are so big, the government is bad, and the answer is more government. You can't win elections in America with that kind of message. So they will stay in the streets, where they can have an impact by stopping traffic, inconveniencing people going to and coming from work, and appearing to be an amorphous force that must be bowed to.

The difference between the occupiers and the tea party is the difference between acting out and taking part.

Where is Mr. Obama in all this? He has made sympathetic sounds about Occupy Wall Street, probably seeing it as ultimately part of his base. Beyond that, he's out campaigning. Sometimes he is snarky about Congress: He's giving them "another chance" at voting on his jobs bill. Sometimes he is self-justifying. He told ABC's Jake Tapper that "all the choices we've made have been the right ones." Sometimes he lectures America. But he doesn't buck it up, and he must know in his heart that it's coming for the keys."

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The GOP Wins by Bruising - WSJ.com

2011-10-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

Joe Biden’s Teachable Moments - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

2011-10-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

Joe Biden’s Teachable Moments - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "So instead Washington, D.C., is going to "give you some money" to hire these teachers back. So, unlike York, Pa., presumably Washington, D.C., has "money for them"?

No, not technically. Washington, D.C., is also broke - way broker than York City School District. In fact, the government of the United States is broker than any entity has ever been in the history of the planet. Officially, Washington has to return 15,000,000,000,000 dollars just to get back to having nothing at all. And that 15,000,000,000,000 dollars is a very lowball figure that conveniently ignores another $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities that the government, unlike private businesses, is able to keep off the books.

So how come the Brokest Jurisdiction in History is able to "give you some money" to hire back those teachers that had to be laid off?

No problem, says the vice president. We're going to "ask" people who have "a lot of money" to "pay just a little bit more" in taxes. Where are these people? Evidently, not in York, Pa. But they're out there somewhere."

...to balance the budget of the United States on the backs of millionaires you would have to increase the taxes of those earning more than one million a year by six million a year.

Not only is there "no money in the city" of York, Pa., and no money in Washington, D.C., there's no money anywhere else in America — not for spending on the Obama/Biden scale. Come to that, there's no money anywhere on the planet: Last year, John Kitchen of the U.S. Treasury and Menzie Chinn of the University of Wisconsin published a study called "Financing U.S. Debt: Is There Enough Money In The World — And At What Cost?"

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Dems Get It Exactly Wrong On Jobs - Latest Headlines - Investors.com

2011-10-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

Dems Get It Exactly Wrong On Jobs - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "Overall, the private sector has lost 16 jobs for every job lost in government since 2007. Even if you correct for the relative difference in the size of the two job markets (see chart above), the private sector has still lost three times more jobs than the public sector.

Is this surprising? It shouldn't be. The federal government's $840 billion stimulus effort was almost entirely aimed at bolstering government, and bailing out industries and unions that support Democrats.

Reid's remarks reflect his party's dishonest complaints about "austerity" and "draconian cuts" in federal spending. As new data show, federal spending jumped 5% in 2011. Some austerity.

This why the typical household in the Washington metro area — where government is the No. 1 employer — earned $84,523 last year, or 69% higher than the national median of $50,046. Federal employees took home $126,000 — two and a half times the U.S. median.

"

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Cybercommand chief opposes U.N. net control - Washington Times

2011-10-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Cybercommand chief opposes U.N. net control - Washington Times: "The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command said Thursday that he does not favor giving the United Nations the power to regulate the Internet.

Some regulations are needed to protect critical networks that control electrical power, banking, transportation and other key elements of society, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who is also director of the National Security Agency, said after a speech to a security conference.

But asked whether the U.N. should have a regulation role, Gen. Alexander said: “No. I’m not for regulating, per se. I’m concerned about it, and this is a tough question. I would say, generally speaking, I’m not into that portion of regulating as you would espouse.”"

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Speaking sense. He'll probably be fired.

EPA Mythological MPG for Electric Vehicles

2011-10-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

Update: Fisker Karma Electric Car Gets Worse Mileage Than an SUV - Forbes: " In the case of the Fisker Karma, we get a true MPGe of 19. This makes it worse than even the city rating of a Ford Explorer SUV."

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4.6 Earthquake Hits South Texas « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

2011-10-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

4.6 Earthquake Hits South Texas « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth: "No injuries or major damage was reported, and the light quake wasn’t even noticed by some residents living close to the epicenter, near Karnes City. Yet small vibrations felt in San Antonio did cause occupants to briefly evacuate a downtown federal building as a precaution."

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I hope the feds took the rest of the day/week/month off to recover!

More Payoffs To Labor Peddled As A Jobs Bill

2011-10-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

Rove: Obama's Political Stimulus Plan - WSJ.com: "Mr. Obama also continues insisting on $35 billion to "put teachers back in the classroom" and "make certain we're not laying off police officers and firefighters." But his own National Center for Educational Statistics forecasts that the number of teachers will rise anyway—from 3.66 million this fall to 3.7 million in the fall of 2012, and to 3.75 million in the fall of 2013.

While some communities may face police and fire layoffs, there is no evidence of a massive wave of firings of first responders. Could this $35 billion be a payoff to state and local public-employee unions?"

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Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley - Bloomberg

2011-10-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley - Bloomberg: "Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show."

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This one speaks for itself

Gee, what a surprise!

2011-10-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

News from The Associated Press: "After months insisting that problems could be resolved, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, finally admitted Friday she doesn't see how that can be done.

"Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Sebelius said in a letter to congressional leaders."

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Now let's see what government spending they cut elsewhere to make up the fake revenues this plan was supposed to throw off in the early years of Obamacare. Right.

David Moore: The Panhandler and the President - WSJ.com

2011-10-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

David Moore: The Panhandler and the President - WSJ.com: "President Obama has become the "Great Divider" instead of the "Great Unifier" that we all hoped he would be.

I do not recall another president in my lifetime whose negative drumbeat about large segments of the population has been so relentless. I do not recall another president (even those similarly frustrated by congressional gridlock and the stifling of their agendas) repeatedly targeting a specific economic class, complaining as loudly and using his bully pulpit so consistently for bashing those who disagree with him."

'via Blog this'

Review & Outlook: Green Jobs Brown Out - WSJ.com

2011-10-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

Review & Outlook: Green Jobs Brown Out - WSJ.com: "A new report by the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General examined a $500 million grant under the stimulus program to the Employment and Training Administration to "train and prepare individuals for careers in 'green jobs.'" So far about $162.8 million has been spent. The program was supposed to train 125,000 workers, but only 53,000 have been "trained" so far, only 8,035 have found jobs, and only 1,033 were still in the job after six months.

Overall, "only 10% of participants entered employment." In the understatement of the year, the IG says the program failed to "assist those most impacted by the recession.""

'via Blog this'

Review & Outlook: Stimulus Lite - WSJ.com

2011-10-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

Review & Outlook: Stimulus Lite - WSJ.com: "Meanwhile, as amended last week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the bill is financed by a new 5.6% surtax on millionaires. So a bill that the White House has sold as a temporary $265 billion tax cut for employers is financed with a permanent almost half-trillion-dollar tax hike on businesses and investors. What a deal."

'via Blog this'
And a bill advertised in the name of job creation is now primarily about the new Democratic campaign theme of redistributing income. If history is any guide, that ploy will send employers and investors into a further hiatus, destroying far more jobs in the private economy than the government-financed jobs it hopes to create.

David R. Henderson: A Nobel for Non-Keynesians - WSJ.com

2011-10-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

David R. Henderson: A Nobel for Non-Keynesians - WSJ.com: "Although the Nobel committee did not cite his work on unemployment insurance, Mr. Sargent, with Swedish economist Lars Ljungqvist, found that high, long-lasting unemployment benefits in Europe have caused many European workers who lose their jobs to stay unemployed for years and, thereby, erode their "human capital." This makes them less employable in the long run. The fact that the U.S. government has extended unemployment benefits in many U.S. states to 99 weeks, said Mr. Sargent in a 2010 interview with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, "fills me with dread.""

'via Blog this'

SPIN METER: Obama disconnects rhetoric, reality | ajc.com

2011-10-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

SPIN METER: Obama disconnects rhetoric, reality | ajc.com: "When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal.

When the president says Republicans haven't explained what they oppose in the plan, he skips over the fact that Republicans who control the House actually have done that in detail.

And when he calls on Congress to "pass this bill now," he slides past the point that Democrats control the Senate and were never prepared to move immediately, given other priorities."

'via Blog this'

Barack Obama | Wall Street Money | The Daily Caller

2011-10-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

Sunlight Foundation | Barack Obama | Wall Street Money | The Daily Caller: "Despite his rhetorical attacks on Wall Street, a study by the Sunlight Foundation’s Influence Project shows that President Barack Obama has received more money from Wall Street than any other politician over the past 20 years, including former President George W. Bush."

'via Blog this'

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistic

2011-10-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

CIS and the Texas Immigrant-Job Myth - Chuck DeVore - National Review Online: "The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) has released a detailed rejoinder to a well-publicized study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) that made a remarkable claim: “Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal).”

Put simply, CIS used faulty methodology to make its main point. "

'via Blog this'

Reid’s Power Play - By Andrew Stiles - The Corner - National Review Online

2011-10-07T05:28:00.000-07:00

Reid’s Power Play - By Andrew Stiles - The Corner - National Review Online: "Indeed, Reid had opted for the so-called “nuclear option,” to toss history and precedent aside and change the rules of the Senate, all to avoid having to vote on a jobs plan the president has repeatedly called on Congress to pass. Instead, Reid intends to hold a vote next week on an amended version of the bill that includes a 5.6 percent “millionaire surtax” to cover the bill’s $450 billion price tag. "

'via Blog this'

My Way News - FACT CHECK: Obama claims miss some evidence

2011-10-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

My Way News - FACT CHECK: Obama claims miss some evidence: "Are President Barack Obama's ideas for job creation really bipartisan as he claims? Not when the means for paying for them are put in the equation.
The president dodged various facts and and left some evidence in the dust in his latest challenge to Republicans to get behind his jobs program or offer a real alternative."

'via Blog this'

Policy Uncertainty Chokes a Recovery: Baker, Bloom and Davis - Bloomberg

2011-10-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Policy Uncertainty Chokes a Recovery: Baker, Bloom and Davis - Bloomberg: "So how much near-term improvement could we gain from a stable, certainty-enhancing policy regime? We estimate that restoring 2006 levels of policy uncertainty would yield an additional 2.5 million jobs over 18 months. Not a full solution to the jobs shortfall, but a big step in the right direction.
(Scott R. Baker and Nicholas Bloom are economists at Stanford University. Steven J. Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, is a contributor to Business Class. The opinions expressed are their own.)"

'via Blog this'

‘Darn Tooting!’ Obama Brags About HHS Reg Catholic Bishops Call Attack on Liberty | CNSnews.com

2011-10-06T05:14:00.000-07:00

‘Darn Tooting!’ Obama Brags About HHS Reg Catholic Bishops Call Attack on Liberty | CNSnews.com:

'via Blog this'

Cain's 'Chilean Model' - Investors.com

2011-10-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

Cain's 'Chilean Model' - Investors.com: "Chile's system, enacted in 1981, took government out of the pension business altogether and replaced it with a system of personal retirement accounts.

It's one of most successful fiscal reforms in history.

It outperforms Social Security on returns, yielding about 9.23% compounded annual returns over 30 years under private management.

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That means Chilean retirees take home pension checks four times what they would have gotten if they had remained in their old Social Security system."

'via Blog this'

Finally, The Cognoscenti Ask: What Could We Be Thinking? - IBD - Investors.com

2011-10-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Finally, The Cognoscenti Ask: What Could We Be Thinking? - IBD - Investors.com: ""Obamaism" was the Emperor's new centrism: To a fool such as your average talk-radio host, His Majesty appears to be a man of minimal accomplishments other than self-promotion marinated in a radical faculty-lounge view of the world and the role of government. But, to a wise man such as your average presidential historian or New York Times columnist, he is the smartest guy ever to become president."

'via Blog this'

Environmentalists Clobber Texas - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily

2011-09-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

Environmentalists Clobber Texas - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily: "On February 1, 1993, federal district judge Lucius Bunton, in Midland, Texas, handed down his ruling in favor of the Sierra Club; in case of drought, no matter the shortage of water hitting San Antonio, there will have to be enough water flowing from the aquifer to the two springs to preserve these four species. Judge Bunton admitted that, in a drought, San Antonio, to obey the ruling, might have to have its water pumped from the aquifer cut by as much as 60 percent. This would clobber both the citizens of San Antonio, and the farmers and ranchers of the area; man would have to suffer, because human beings are always last in line in the environmentalist universe, certainly far below wild rice and the fountain darter."

'via Blog this'

Obama’s Jobs Bill: Read It and Weep | Hoover Institution

2011-09-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Obama’s Jobs Bill: Read It and Weep | Hoover Institution: "What is so striking about Obama’s shopworn rhetoric is its juvenile intellectual quality. His explanation for how the AJA will create jobs is a non-starter because he does not explain how we get from here to there. As in so many other cases, the president thinks that waving a wand over a problem will make his most ardent wishes come true, even when similar earlier efforts have proved to be dismal failures. This dreadful hodgepodge of a bill will likely be dead-on-arrival in Congress, but it remains a patriotic duty to explicate some of its worst provisions.

The most evident feature of the AJA is that it is a combination of ill-conceived, disparate measures. The wandering quality of the bill makes it impossible to cover all of its silliness, but it is possible to focus on some of the core job provisions, all of which kill the very jobs that the AJA is supposed to create."

'via Blog this'

Getting Taxes All Wrong - Investors.com

2011-09-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Getting Taxes All Wrong - Investors.com: "The idea that a "modern industrial economy" needs high tax rates to be successful is a Keynesian fairy tale — sadly, one that President Obama and his dwindling number of true believers seem to actually believe.

History's verdict on taxes is quite clear: Cut to grow. If only our nation's top elected official knew more economic history and a lot less progressive ideology, we might be growing right now."

'via Blog this'

Germany slams 'stupid' US plans to boost EU rescue fund - Telegraph

2011-09-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

Germany slams 'stupid' US plans to boost EU rescue fund - Telegraph: "Mr Schauble told Washington to mind its own businesss after President Barack Obama rebuked EU leaders for failing to recapitalise banks and allowing the debt crisis to escalate to the point where it is "scaring the world".
"It's always much easier to give advice to others than to decide for yourself. I am well prepared to give advice to the US government," he said."

'via Blog this'

More Inconvenient Truth Leaks Out of NASA

2011-07-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

"NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed."

The science is settled, right AlGore?

The Genius of Obama

2011-07-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

"Barack Obama’s political genius is his ability to say things that sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail — regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says is to those who have. Shameless effrontery can be a huge political asset, especially if uninformed voters outnumber those who are informed."

- Thomas Sowell

It's All Because of Bush Spending...Right

2011-07-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

"Under Obama, the government over the last two and a half years has borrowed on average about $4 billion each day. That staggering sum is far in excess of the $1.6 billion per day borrowed during the eight-year tenure of George W. Bush, who until Obama had borrowed more than any other peacetime president."

Just Tax the RIch Another $140 TRILLION; Problem Solved

2011-05-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

SteynOnline - ENTITLEMENT SENSE: "Recently, in the London Telegraph, Liam Halligan bemoaned the way commentators focus on America’s $14 trillion of debt — i.e., the “debt ceiling” debt — without factoring in the entitlement liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. That makes America’s real debt some $75 trillion, or five times GDP. Our own Kevin D. Williamson puts the FDR/LBJ entitlement liabilities a little north of $100 trillion." Once you add in state and municipal debt, you need to add a zero to that reassuringly familiar $14 trillion hole. The real hole goes ten times deeper: $140 trillion — or about twice as much as America’s total “worth.”

Wasn't that easy?

For my next trick, I will transform the Islamic world into a haven for liberal democracy by having NASA build up their math and science self esteem, and by apologizing for all of the atrocities that the United States has perpetrated upon them.

Youthful Idiots

2011-05-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

John Cogan: The Millionaire Retirees Next Door - WSJ.com: "According to my calculations based on government data, such married couples will begin receiving monthly Social Security checks that will, on average, total about $550,000 after inflation. They will receive health-care services paid for by Medicare that, on average, will total another $450,000 after inflation. The benefactors will be a generation of younger workers who are trying to support themselves and their families while paying taxes to finance the rest of government spending."

One of the benefits of our debased educational system is that is has raised multiple generations of suckers to pay for the boomers' retirement. And these patsies vote overwhelmingly for the crooks that are hustling them. I guess if this arrangement were sustainable, you could chock it up to beneficence, but given the totally predictable collapse of this ponzi scheme, you have to conclude they are just "youthful idiots."

Obama the Transformational Hope and Change Candidate Does MediScare Better Than Teddy K!

2011-04-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

Betsy McCaughey: Medicare As We've Known It Isn't an Option - WSJ.com: "The Democratic Party is urging Americans to choose Medicare as we've always known it rather than a new plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) that would enroll seniors in private health insurance beginning in 2022. This choice is a hoax: Medicare as we've always known it is already gone. It was eviscerated by President Obama's health law.

The truth is that the Obama health law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over the next 10 years and spends the money on other programs, including a vast expansion of Medicaid. In 2019, Medicare spending under the Obama health law is projected to be $14,731 per senior, instead of $16,162 if the law had not passed, according to Medicare actuaries (Health Affairs, October 2010)

Maybe he can scare people into re-electing him. That's probably his only HOPE.

Couldn't Resist Another Steyn Zinger

2011-04-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

Losing the Future - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "Question: How much do you have to invest in the future before you’ve spent it and no longer have one?"

WTF - I mean WInning The Future, of course

2011-04-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Losing the Future - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "How do you “invest in the future”? By borrowing $188 million every hour. That’s what the government of the United States is doing. It’s spending one-fifth of a billion dollars it doesn’t have every hour of every day of every week — all for your future!"

Mark Steyn is always a hoot. Read it and weep, with tears of laughter.

I Finally FIgured Out What He Means By "Adult Conversation:" B@## S&$%

2011-04-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Obama Deficit Plan | White House releases misleading figures for families ahead of Obama's deficit tour | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "197 billion was paid out as interest to debt-holders using funds from Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes and income taxes. That’s roughly $656 per person, or $1,971 for a family of three. That total is 103 times the number shown by the White House website.

The site also shows a family with two children and an income of $80,000 paying $285 on federal interest payments, and a single parent with one child and an income of $35,000 paying $39 on interest payments. In reality, the first family’s share of national interest payments is nine times larger than shown, and the single parent’s share is 33 times larger than the site acknowledges."

Boy, sure glad the President isn't practicing politics as usual in Washington. In fact, he's unusually dishonest!

Good News - We Are Revising Our Forecast for the End the World From Yesterday to Ten Years From Now!

2011-04-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

50 million climate refugees | United Nations | The UN disappears 50 million climate refugees, then botches the cover-up | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production.

The UNEP even provided a handy map. The map shows us the places most at risk including the very sensitive low lying islands of the Pacific and Caribbean."

Hilarious article. Not only points out how wrong the UN climate people were, but how inept they were at trying to cover up their error. This is the UN group whose work the EPA cited in justifying its legal basis for regulating carbon.

Taxing the "Rich" 100% Won't Pay For the Obama Mega State

2011-04-18T06:39:00.000-07:00

Review & Outlook: Where the Tax Money Is - WSJ.com: "The rich, in short, aren't nearly rich enough to finance Mr. Obama's entitlement state ambitions—even before his health-care plan kicks in.

So who else is there to tax? Well, in 2008, there was about $5.65 trillion in total taxable income from all individual taxpayers, and most of that came from middle income earners. The nearby chart shows the distribution, and the big hump in the center is where Democrats are inevitably headed for the same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks."

Hang on to your purses and wallets - the big government crowd are coming to your house next. Trying to balance the budget of an out-of-control federal government on tax increases is ludicrous on its face. Read the article. It takes you thru the thought experiment of confiscating 100% of the income of the "rich," defined in ever broader terms. Obama is not a serious man. He's just a huckster politician working 24/7 to get reelected while the country drives "into the ditch," to use a colorful metaphor. How's that hope and change working out for ya?

If You Don't Believe Me, How About the Washington Post?

2011-02-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

President Obama's budget kicks the hard choices further down the road: "THE PRESIDENT PUNTED. Having been given the chance, the cover and the push by the fiscal commission he created to take bold steps to raise revenue and curb entitlement spending, President Obama, in his fiscal 2012 budget proposal, chose instead to duck. To duck, and to mask some of the ducking with the sort of budgetary gimmicks he once derided."

A Fraud

2011-02-15T06:04:00.000-08:00

Review & Outlook: The Cee Lo Green Budget - WSJ.com: "How unserious is this budget? Although the White House trumpets $2.18 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, those savings are so far off in the magical 'out years' that you can barely see them from here. More than 95% of the savings would happen after Mr. Obama's first term in the White House is over, and almost two-thirds of the promised deficit reduction would arrive after 2016. Pretending to cut deficits by pushing all real cuts into the future is Budget Flimflam 101."

And of course even those savings are based on ridiculous assumptions about economic growth.

This President has decided to abdicate his responsibilities as LEADER of the United States, hang back while the benighted Republicans try to bring the budget under control, and demagogue the hell out of them in his reelection campaign. How's that hope and change working out for you?

Thank Goodness We Have An Obama "Science-Based" Federal Government Now

2011-01-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Chris Tucker: EPA is a no-show in Texas fracking case | Chris Tucker | Op Eds | Washington Examiner: "Your task: Pin the presence of methane on Range Resources by trying to prove its wells in the Barnett represent the source of the natural gas in the water wells.

On Dec. 7, 2010, that’s precisely the argument that EPA put forth in issuing an unprecedented “emergency order” -- demanding, among other things, that Range plug up its wells and go home.

Just one problem: The isotopic analysis EPA used as the basis for its order doesn’t include a word about nitrogen; EPA never ran those tests.

Fortunately, experts from Weatherford Labs in Texas did. And at a hearing of the Texas Railroad Commission in Austin this week, those experts testified that the methane found in those private water wells in question came from the Strawn, not the Barnett.

What that means in practical geological terms is that Range isn’t (and in fact couldn’t be) responsible for the occurrence of methane in those wells – it has no wells in the Strawn."

Just another example, like the gulf spill commission, of how the Obama administration ignores science to serve the interests of the enviro-fascists that bankroll the Democrat party (oh, was that uncivil?). Meanwhile, the cost of energy in this country marches ever upward, and a resurgence in jobs is nowhere to be seen. The Barnett shale formation in north Texas, and others like it across the country, represent a marvelous new source of clean domestic energy, and good jobs to go with it. The EPA has become the Anti-Domestic-Energy Department.

Good news for panda-lovers (bad news for the rest of us) | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

2011-01-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

Good news for panda-lovers (bad news for the rest of us) | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "Wow, what a coup. J.P. Freire calls this wonderful feat of diplomacy “Obamagotation,” and adds, “So China gets to continue copyright infringement and manipulating their currency. We get two pandas.” Hey, at least it’s not three."

From one of the wittier sites on the web - the Daily Trawler. Check it out.

Worried About Income Inequality - Protect the Border!

2010-12-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

Obama and Income Inequality: No New Brazils! - Newsweek

I'd argue Obama's main effort on immigration would, in fact, have made the
inequality problem at the bottom worse. A "comprehensive" bill would almost
certainly have attracted new illegals, but the efforts to stop them at the
border might well have failed, as they failed after a similar 1986 bill. The
result of that failure has been a looser labor market at the bottom. Lower
unskilled wages. Even the emergence of favela-like shantytowns in California. You want
Brazil? Obama's 2009-2010 immigration plan would bring us Brazil. Obama was
putting coalition politics--pleasing Latino voters, and especially Latino
politicians--over economics, at least egalitarian economics.

Exposes the hollowness of the President's concerns about income inequality. Very thoughtful and well written. Mr. Kaus, by the way, is a Democrat.

Time For a Doctrine of Pre-Emption in DOMESTIC Affairs - Ricochet.com

2010-12-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

Time For a Doctrine of Pre-Emption in DOMESTIC Affairs - Ricochet.com: "One of the arguments for Bush's Afghanistan and Iraq policies was that we needed to take our our adversaries where they lived so we wouldn't be forced to live at home in a constant defensive crouch.

Well, that's how we conservatives have been forced to live in the world of domestic politics. Even after delivering the President an historic 'shellacking,' we have spent the month of December with our hearts in our throats, fighting off trillion dollar omnibus spending bills, and to achieve tax rate status quo, having to swallow a tax bill larded with Keynesian 'stimulus' that, like the last trillion dollar pork-a-thon will leave us no better off and another trillion deeper in debt."

Follow the link to Ricochet.com for the rest...

A Mind-Blowing Fact You Need to Memorize and Share

2010-12-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

EDITORIAL: Obama's mourning in America - Washington Times: "China currently owns $1 trillion in U.S. debt in the form of Treasury bonds and notes. While this certainly is a large sum, it's not even a third of the staggering $3,211,613,265,584.56 in red ink added to the nation's ledgers under Mr. Obama's watch."

From a great editorial that enumerates the ways in which the President's rhetoric and demeanor are fostering "malaise." The recent poll in which Americans mistakenly opined that the China had surpassed the US in economic might is just one example. If they think China owns us now, just wait and see where we'll be if the Democrats' runaway federal spending isn't reined in by the Republicans.

Scary!

2010-12-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Biden Takes On More Influential Role for Obama - NYTimes.com

You know things are desperate when Biden becomes the Oracle of the Potomac. Talk about the one-eyed man in the land of the blind!

Global Warming's Done - Stick a Fork In It

2010-12-05T19:04:00.000-08:00

Global warming has halted: That's what happened to 'warmest year on record' | Mail Online: "Actually, with the exception of 1998 - a 'blip' year when temperatures spiked because of a strong 'El Nino' effect (the cyclical warming of the southern Pacific that affects weather around the world) - the data on the Met Office's and CRU's own websites show that global temperatures have been flat, not for ten, but for the past 15 years."

Another leftist fraud exposed and put to rest. RIP Kyoto Treaty. RIP Cap and Trade. RIP AlGore.

Simple Question for the GM Cheerleaders in the MSM

2010-11-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

GM selling at a loss should tell you something | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "If the federal government wanted to recoup its investment in GM, then the GM stock price should be much higher than the $33 initial price. In order to break even, as the Deal Journal reports, the stock price would have to rise to around $50 per share. So why is the Treasury Department selling off the company at a loss?"

Yes, how is this $33 IPO in the taxpayer's best interest if GM is such a successful turnaround story? Don't tell me the answer is that the government wants to allow GM to return expeditiously to private control. Post-IPO, GM is still the statists' automotive hobby horse.

Good Crises Make For Good Shake-downs

2010-11-20T09:20:00.000-08:00

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.: Meet the New-Old GM - WSJ.com: "What would the pre-crash GM have been worth if relieved of $80 billion in IOUs? Assume a 5% yield on GM debt and nine-to-one price-earnings ratio on the stock. The answer (for sake of argument) is $61 billion. This shouldn't be surprising. GM's progress on labor costs, quality and new models were all in the pipeline before its Chapter 11 filing. The main achievement of bankruptcy was a redistribution of rights from GM's creditors to a worrisome and conflicted new set of equity owners, namely the U.S. and Canadian governments and the United Auto Workers."

This shouldn't be surprising. GM's progress on labor costs, quality and new models were all in the pipeline before its Chapter 11 filing. The main achievement of bankruptcy was a redistribution of rights from GM's creditors to a worrisome and conflicted new set of equity owners, namely the U.S. and Canadian governments and the United Auto Workers

Great article. Explains how, at the end of the day, the GM bailout, via government-orchestrated bankruptcy, had only one distinguishing feature from a traditional bankruptcy - it allowed the Dems to steal billions of dollars in equity from private parties and hand it to the UAW. Crony capitalism. Kleptocracy. Did I mention that the orchestrator, Rattner, has pled no contest and agreed to pay a multi-million dollar fine related to an influence peddling charge from the SEC?

This Scandal Will Be Investigated

2010-11-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

Findings from the Inspector General (IG) inquiry into the administration's handling of the Gulf oil drilling ban:

Review & Outlook: Science and the Drilling Ban - WSJ.com: "The IG findings include no evidence the decision to shut down an entire industry—at a huge cost to jobs and long-term drilling safety—was done with input from engineers, scientists, economists or anyone with day-to-day oversight of U.S. drilling. S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, former head of the Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, said she learned about the ban from a deputy, and only after the fact. Preparation for the Interior drilling report was tasked to Steve Black, a lawyer who is officially the Counselor to Mr. Salazar. Yet Mr. Black told the IG the ban was 'a policy decision made by Secretary Salazar and President Obama.' Though Mr. Salazar issued the report, the IG says final edits to the summary were done by Ms. Browner's office."

Callous, reckless, ideological, indefensible. Injurious to our energy security. But who cares? The area impacted didn't vote for Obama. Browner is going to finally have to answer some questions when the new Congress is in session.

Obama's Singular Focus - Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

2010-11-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

Offshore drilling still on hold - Nov. 12, 2010: "NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Obama lifted his moratorium on deepwater oil drilling nearly a month ago, but the government still hasn't issued any new permits in the Gulf of Mexico.

And most analysts say permits will be slow in coming through 2011."

Thank goodness the "special interests" aren't getting in the way of employment and energy security in the Gulf!

This Is An Ingenious Plan

2010-11-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Jenkins, Jr.: The GOP Can Outsmart ObamaCare - WSJ.com

I think this plan really has promise for "infecting" Obamacare with free market innovations. Read it. Send it to your representatives with your endorsement.

In battle for Senate control, could GOP win by losing? - Washington Times

2010-11-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

In battle for Senate control, could GOP win by losing? - Washington Times

This is exactly what I have been saying. "winning" the Senate by a one vote margin buys you virtually nothing, except expectations that are impossible to meet.

Obama the Thinker? - WSJ.com

2010-10-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Obama the Thinker? - WSJ.com: "Occam's razor suggests that Obama is a mere conformist--someone who absorbed every left-wing platitude he encountered in college and never seems to have seriously questioned any of them. Kloppenberg characterizes Obama as a skeptic, not a true believer. We're not sure he has an active enough mind to be either one."

Debt Has Increased $5 Trillion Since Speaker Pelosi Vowed, ‘No New Deficit Spending’ | CNSnews.com

2010-10-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

Debt Has Increased $5 Trillion Since Speaker Pelosi Vowed, ‘No New Deficit Spending’ | CNSnews.com

'Nuff said.

One Year After Obama Wins Nobel, World Looks for Signs of Peace - ABC News

2010-10-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

One Year After Obama Wins Nobel, World Looks for Signs of Peace - ABC News: "One year after the Nobel prize jury made its controversial decision to award President Obama the prize for world peace, a larger jury is still waiting for the president to live up to those lofty expectations.

Even some of Obama's allies -- like former Nobel laureates Al Gore and Jimmy Carter -- declined to assess his performance in fulfilling what the peace prize citation said was his 'vision' of world harmony.

The one year anniversary of Obama's prize comes as fighting is escalating in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq continues to smolder and Obama struggles to keep fledgling Middle East peace talks from collapsing. Drones are firing missiles in unprecedened numbers and confrontations with Iran and North Korea are hotter than ever.

In addition, wars rage in Somalia, Africa, Asia and South America, fueled by religion, tribal hatreds, poverty and piracy."

'nuff said

The Pot Calls the Kettle Black

2010-10-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

Obama backs off charge that foreign money is funding Chamber ads | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "President Obama on Sunday stepped back from categorical charges he made earlier this week that foreign money was funding conservative TV campaign ads, telling a rally in Philadelphia only that such a scenario was possible.

The softening of Obama’s language reflects the impact of a Saturday report on the issue by the New York Times, which concluded that charges originally made by a blog run by a Democratic-aligned think tank were baseless."

While Obama's charges were baseless, it is a fact that the Obama campaign made no effort to identify or exclude illegal foreign contributions during the 2008 campaign. More Alinksy-style "accuse your opponents of your own transgressions" propaganda.

Enviro-Hysteria? Unheard of...

2010-09-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

One third of 'extinct' animals turn up again | Mail Online: "Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been driven to extinction, scientists have said.

A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in the past few centuries have turned up alive and well."

UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT!!! Bloomberg: Obama ‘not particularly interested in business’ |

2010-09-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg: Obama ‘not particularly interested in business’ | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday gave a mixed but decidedly negative review of President Obama’s economic policies, saying that the reason for joblessness is uncertainty in the private sector caused by government and that the president is uninterested in business."

You can say that again, and again, and again.

OK, I Didn't Expect to Be Saying This...

2010-09-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

I wish the President would heed Leonid Breznev's advice when it comes to the economy:

"'The fundamental problem we face is that we can only distribute and consume what is actually produced.' Leonid Breznev, Communist Party Congress, 1972."

Inspiring the Country, One Voter at a Time

2010-09-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Check out the guy behind him, too.

Remember Those Quaint Old Nixon Days When Presidents Just Sponsored "Dirty Tricks?"

2010-09-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Obama Linked To Houston Voter Fraud Scandal (Wizbang): "Oh, my. The voter fraud situation in Houston -- which may have started with the burning of voting machines, but now has developed into a full-fledged ACORN-esque mess of fraudulent voter registrations -- and it looks like it goes all the way up to President Obama himself.

The fraudulent voter registrations were the product of a group called Houston Votes, an ACORN Lite. Houston Votes volunteers were recruited through President Obama's web site, www.barackobama.com. (He doesn't actively run it, but turned it over to his campaign staff after the election, now operating as 'Organizing For America.') And one of the chief recruiters was a local Democratic activist (a very active one) named Maria Isabel.

To call Isabel 'active' would be like describing Jeffrey Dahmer as 'a man of interesting appetites.' She once brought a friend and fellow organizer for www.barackobama.com to a health care town hall hosted by crazy whackjob Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. The friend stood up and said that she, as a doctor, backed ObamaCare. But the friend was about as much of a doctor as I am"

I am missing Nixon's high integrity in the Oval Office

Lying About Lying

2010-09-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Obama: GOP hasn't been honest with Americans - Yahoo! News: "Arguing doggedly against returning Republicans to power, President Barack Obama told Iowa voters Wednesday that the GOP has been dishonest about what needs to be done to revive the economy and restore middle-class dreams.
'We can't pretend that there are shortcuts,' the president said, addressing about 70 voters in a grassy backyard.
'When you look at the choice we face in this election coming up,' Obama said, 'the other side, what it's really offering is the same policies that from 2001 to 2009 put off hard problems and didn't really speak honestly to the American people about how we're gonna get this country on track over the long term.'"

Right out of Alinsky - accuse your opponent of doing what you yourself in fact are doing. This guys is so not serious.

Warm Words From the Great Uniter

2010-09-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

Review & Outlook: Blaming the Voters - WSJ.com: "This week President Obama chimed in with another uplifting message about the American electorate. Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that the tea party movement is financed and directed by 'powerful, special-interest lobbies.' But this doesn't mean that tea party groups are composed entirely of corporate puppets. Mr. Obama graciously implied that a small subset of the movement is simply motivated by bigotry.

The President said 'there are probably some aspects of the Tea Party that are a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the President.' The tea party is now supported by a third of the country in some polls."

So which are you, a corporate puppet or a knuckle-dragging bigot? Or both?

Let the Mudslinging Begin!

2010-09-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Democrats Unleash Ads Focusing on Rivals’ Pasts - NYTimes.com: "Democratic candidates across the country are opening a fierce offensive of negative advertisements against Republicans, using lawsuits, tax filings, reports from the Better Business Bureau and even divorce proceedings to try to discredit their opponents and save their Congressional majority."

When you can't defend your policies, your record or your ideas, all you have left are ad hominem attacks.