Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

CONFIRMED: "Electric Drive Vehicles Have Little Impact on U.S. Pollutant Emissions"

Well, if they were rational, this particular report would cause some introspection among Democrats and the radical left (but I repeat myself). Rest assured it won't, because they're not.

A new study from North Carolina State University indicates that even a sharp increase in the use of electric drive passenger vehicles (EDVs) by 2050 would not significantly reduce emissions of high-profile air pollutants carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides.

“EDVs” is a catch-all term that includes hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles.

“We wanted to see how important EDVs may be over the next 40 years in terms of their ability to reduce emissions,” says Dr. Joseph DeCarolis, an assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper on the new model. “We found that increasing the use of EDVs is not an effective way to produce large emissions reductions.”

The researchers ran 108 different scenarios in a powerful energy systems model to determine the impact of EDV use on emissions between now and 2050. They found that, even if EDVs made up 42 percent of passenger vehicles in the U.S., there would be little or no reduction in the emission of key air pollutants.

“There are a number of reasons for this,” DeCarolis says. “In part, it’s because some of the benefits of EDVs are wiped out by higher emissions from power plants. Another factor is that passenger vehicles make up a relatively small share of total emissions, limiting the potential impact of EDVs in the first place. For example, passenger vehicles make up only 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

“From a policy standpoint, this study tells us that it makes more sense to set emissions reductions goals, rather than promoting specific vehicle technologies with the idea that they’ll solve the problem on their own.”


When the complete history of the "green" movement is written, it will go down in history as the greatest wealth transfer scam in the history of the world.


Hat tip: Seth

KERRY KOMIX: Adventures in Negotiation

Back-story:


For John Kerry, illegal alien cop-killers take priority over innocent Americans held overseas.


Hat tip: Mark Levin

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

NOTHING TO CUT: Meet the Multi-Millionaire Who Collected His Dead Mom's Social Security Checks for 23 Years

Guest post by Laura Trueman

The 2014 omnibus bill contains an increase in funding for running the Social Security Administration (SSA). Maybe now they can stop paying Social Security benefits to dead people.

According to a December Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, SSA systems do not accurately note and confirm the deaths of beneficiaries, resulting in payments being made to dead people—sometimes for decades. The flawed system doesn’t just impact Social Security payments, either. Multiple other federal agencies that pay benefits—from federal pensions to payments to farmers and the disabled—rely on SSA’s flawed death data.

Collecting Dead Mother’s Social Security for 23 Years. Raymond O’Dell made news this week when he was sentenced for collecting his dead mother’s Social Security benefits for 23 years. O’Dell collected $188,000 in benefits, while building a successful Taco Bell franchise. His accountant put his net worth at $4 million (including $431,000 in cash). This week, he was sentenced to pay back the benefits, along with a $20,000 fine, and will serve six months in prison.

There, fixed it for you

The painting View of the World from 9th Avenue is the classic New Yorker cover from 1976:


Nearly 40 years later, we need an updated version:

Monday, January 20, 2014

The Relentless Hillary Clinton

Guest post by Alan Caruba


Who said:

• “We’re going to take things from you on behalf of the common good”

• “It’s time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few…and to replace it with shared responsibility, for shared prosperity”

• “(We) …can just let business as usual go on and that means something has to be taken away from some people.”

• “We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own…in order to create this common ground.”

• “I think it’s time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in the entire economy that they are being watched.”

• “I certainly think the free market has failed.”

Was it Joseph Stalin? Lenin? Hugo Chavez? Kim Jong II? All reveal a communist philosophy.

It was Hillary Clinton. Over the years, Hillary has made it clear that the redistribution of wealth—communism—is central to her beliefs and that her regard for capitalism and the free market economy of America is nil.

The election of Hillary Clinton would be an extension of the two terms of Barack Obama and, if possible, worse.

MY OPEN LETTER TO THE "LET IT BURN" CROWD

You know who you are.


Sunday, January 19, 2014

FOOD STAMP FUNNIES: The Hilarious Ripoff of American Taxpayers in Pictures #EBT

If you're not following Biff Spackle on Twitter (@BiffSpackle), you might consider doing so to keep pace with his comic strips.


A simple Google news search yields plenty of results on a daily basis.


Housing Crisis Architect Andrew Cuomo Now Claims Republicans Really Can Stay in New York

Had the media been doing its job during the campaign for the governorship of New York, Andrew Cuomo would be a punchline, not a high-ranking official. Cuomo's role in the housing meltdown -- serving as Secretary of HUD for Bill Clinton -- earned him the nickname "Architect of Ruin". He was the nation's foremost purveyor of subprime loans, using the force of law to compel financial institutions to disregard traditional underwriting norms and instead issue mortgages to those who could never repay them.

Cuomo is a radical Marxist progressive who believes in a single party, totalitarian government and admitted as much himself.

In [a] radio interview [public radio's "The Capitol Pressroom" on Friday], Cuomo detailed what he sees as a "schism" in the Republican Party among an "extreme" faction and a "moderate" faction.

"Are they these extreme conservatives, who are right to life, pro assault weapon, anti-gay, is that who they are?" Cuomo said Friday. "Because if that is who they are, and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York. Because that is not who New Yorkers are." ...Later in the [interview], Cuomo said it was "fine" to be opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage, but that it's "not the opinion of this state." ...

In other words, Cuomo took an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, but routinely spits on it instead.

He now claims he was misinterpreted.

GENIUS: House Leaders Prepare to Push Amnesty Though Only 3% of Americans Believe It's a Priority

Guest post by Van Esser

As Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans gear up for an internal debate over whether to address immigration in 2014, a new Gallup poll lends support to those who want to delay consideration. The poll found that only three percent of Americans think immigration is the top problem Congress must tackle this year. This is consistent with rankings in the recent past so why does Boehner consider immigration to be urgent or even a priority?

Of the new poll, Gallup’s Lydia Saad said, “Americans start the new year with a variety of national concerns on their minds. Although none is dominant, the government, at 21%, leads the list of what Americans consider the most important problem facing the country. The economy closely follows at 18%, and then unemployment/jobs and healthcare, each at 16%. No other issue is mentioned by as much as 10% of the public; however, the federal budget deficit or debt comes close, at 8%.” And below that at 3 percent, just above "lack of respect for each other," comes immigration.

There are a variety of reasons why Americans' top priority is the category “dissatisfaction with government/Congress/politicians; poor leadership; corruption; abuse of power.” Anyone who reads or listens to the news knows there have been a string of governmental failures and outrages, including President Obama’s setting aside enforcement of the immigration laws he does not like. Second and third come the economy and unemployment – two matters that Congress has debated for years but failed to address, at least in any effective manner. That in itself is an outrage. Unemployment remains high, especially for less-skilled/educated Americans and young Americans, and long-term unemployment is forcing people to abandon the workforce. The labor participation rate is the lowest it has been in the last 36 years yet politicians find time to address everything but putting Americans back to work.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Vast Stretches Of Impoverished Appalachia Look Like They Have Been Through A War

Guest post by Michael Snyder

If you want to get an idea of where the rest of America is heading, just take a trip through the western half of West Virginia and the eastern half of Kentucky some time. Once you leave the main highways, you will rapidly encounter poverty on a level that is absolutely staggering. Overall, about 15 percent of the entire nation is under the poverty line, but in some areas of eastern Kentucky, more than 40 percent of the population is living in poverty. Most of the people would work if they could. Over the past couple of decades, locals have witnessed businesses and industries leave the region at a steady pace. When another factory or business shuts down, many of the unemployed do not even realize that their jobs have been shipped overseas. Coal mining still produces jobs that pay a decent wage, but Barack Obama is doing his very best to kill off that entire industry. After decades of decline, vast stretches of impoverished Appalachia look like they have been through a war. Those living in the area know that things are not good, but they just try to do the best that they can with what they have.

In previous articles about areas of the country that are economically depressed, I have typically focused on large cities such as Detroit or Camden, New Jersey. But the economic suffering that is taking place in rural communities in the heartland of America is just as tragic. We just don't hear about it as much.

Most of those that live in the heart of Appalachia are really good "salt of the earth" people that just want to work hard and do what is right for their families. But after decades of increasing poverty, the entire region has been transformed into an economic nightmare that never seems to end. The following is a description of what life is like in Appalachia today that comes from a recent article by Kevin D. Williamson...

Saturday, January 18, 2014

FORMER NSA CHIEF CONFIRMS SNOWDEN REVELATIONS: It's official, we're living in a totalitarian police state

I'd somehow missed this (yes, I'll say it -- terrifying) Snowden revelation:

Bill Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information. A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and managed thousands of NSA employees.

Binney has been interviewed by virtually all of the mainstream media, including CBS, ABC, CNN, New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, PBS and many others...

...today, Binney told [us that] the government is spying on virtually everything we do.

All of the information gained by the NSA through spying is then shared with federal, state and local agencies, and they are using that information to prosecute petty crimes such as drugs and taxes. The agencies are instructed to intentionally “launder” the information gained through spying, i.e. to pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way … and to hide that from defense attorneys and judges.

NSA FUNNIES: Closing Argument

Biff Spackle:


These guys are really entertaining!

Hillary on Jeopardy

Another Biff Spackle exclusive:


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.

Friday, January 17, 2014

We, the Peasants

Guest post by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

As predictable as the rising and setting of the sun, the Republican machine is bent on betraying its base. They will force Amnesty on us in a brutish move that aligns itself with Obama and the other Progressive Marxists. Obama has declared that he will conduct weaponized legislative warfare in the coming year and by the use of pen and phone, he will have his way with illegal immigration and raising the minimum wage. It is a dictatorial move that is breathtaking and basically circumvents and destroys the Constitution — all the while, Progressive Republicans will be assisting and aiding him behind the scenes and out in the open for the world to see, just as they did with Obamacare. This is not to help the downtrodden. This is for the votes and the labor, pure and simple.

 
Brown Shirts of the new Cuba unite:

“We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need,” President Obama told reporters before a meeting with his Cabinet Tuesday. “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.”

The pen, the president said, can be used “to sign executive orders and take executive actions,” while the phone will allow the president to bring together non-profits, businesses, and universities to promote a “unifying theme–making sure that this is a country where if you work hard, you can make it.”

And while Obama plays dictator, John Boehner plays traitor:

“John Boehner is planning to unveil a set of Republican principles for immigration reform before President Obama’s State of the Union address, aiming to show the GOP is not hostile to legislation that might win them Hispanic voters.

TED CRUZ: Senate Report on Terror Attacks in Benghazi Raises More Questions Than It Answers, Hillary

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released this statement on the Senate Benghazi report released earlier this week


Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following on yesterday’s Senate Select Committee’s Review of the Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Facilities in Benghazi, Libya:

“The majority views of the SSCI report confirm a number of things long suspected about the Benghazi attacks. Our government was warned, and there were steps that could have been taken to protect Americans,” Sen. Cruz said. “But our people were left at significant risk against a known terrorist threat, and when the attack came, there was no help to send. After the attack, the Obama administration tried to mask its failure with false claims of a protest over an Internet video. All the while, the terrorists who carried out this attack are still at large. Most chilling, however, is the conclusion that the attacks were preventable in the first place.”

On the first anniversary of the attacks, Sen. Cruz filed a resolution (S. Res. 225 with 24 Republican co-sponsors) calling for a joint select committee that would put all the resources of both Houses of Congress behind a thorough investigation that could answer the basic questions that remain. For instance:

· Why did any of this happen in the first place?

· Why was there no appreciation for the repeated intelligence warnings about the security situation in Libya?

· Why were the repeated requests for more protection refused?

· Why were no military assets made ready near this acknowledged terrorist hot spot on the anniversary of September 11, 2001?

· Why did the Obama administration falsely insist the attacks were the result of a spontaneous protest over an Internet video?

· Why has no one in our government been held accountable for these failures?

· Why has no terrorist been punished for this outrage?

“This most recent committee report is a valuable bi-partisan effort that demonstrates how reasonable people on both sides of the political aisle are inching closer to consensus on what happened before, during, and after the attacks on our facilities in Benghazi,” Cruz continued. “But it also starkly demonstrates that we are still far from getting clarity on why any of this happened. Unfortunately, this report thus raises more questions than answers. Until we can answer the basic questions that remain, we cannot in any way be confident that history, like the al Qaida terrorists who have attacked us so often, is not preparing to repeat itself. As the minority additional views conclude, the American people and, most importantly, the families of the victims deserve the truth.”


Related: DAMNING: The Complete Benghazi Timeline Spreadsheet

Thursday, January 16, 2014

MARK LEVIN TO REPUBLICANS: Want to rebel against Presidential lawlessness? Boycott the State of the Union

Great idea:

Here’s what should happen at the State of the Union speech. Since these men and women will not use the Constitution to defend this nation, since they will not use the Constitution to confront a lawless president, and worse yet, since they are funding his activities, these omnibus bills filled with all kinds of crap, what the Republicans should do is boycott the State of the Union. They should boycott the State of the Union so half of the House floor is empty.

Then they should get together and present their own case on the State of the Union and explain in an articulate and concise way what the State of the Union is, and how the president threatens this republic.

They need to do something bold that will get the attention of some of our fellow citizens, at which the media which will attack it but cannot ignore it.

If they’re not going to take a stand constitutionally and legally, they should at least take a stand on the steps of the Capitol or somewhere. Together. Shoulder to Shoulder. And say we have a lawless president doing lawless things and make their case to the American people.

It would be historic. It would be profound. That finally the opposition party demonstrates that it opposes not just the Democrat Party, but the destruction of this republic by this president and his willing dupes in Congress.

It will be interesting to see which Republicans consider this idea.

I know who won't consider it: the spineless, useless, feckless, bought-and-paid-for hacks in the GOP leadership. Yes, I'm looking at you, John Boehner. And you, Mitch McConnell.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

SUPER: Obamacare Official Admits They Have No Earthly Idea Who Has Actually Paid Their Premiums

Unexpectedly, of course. Not to worry: it's only January freaking 16th.

Q: ...whether individuals have paid [their insurance premiums through the Obamacare websites]... does the administration collect this information... do you collect this information?

A: Uh, right now, we're not. But we will be.

Q: When?

A: As soon as that functionality is built. I think I answered some... of those questions earlier. Not all of that functionality is built yet.

Q: Will that mean we have to go back to all of those who have enrolled and find out who has paid, so we're not collecting as it occurs?

A: We ultimately will reconcile to make sure... the tax credits, for example, are not paid to, with respect to, anyone who's not paid their premium. That's a requirement. You pay your premium to get the tax credit.

Q: What department would have this data?

A: It's gonna. It's gonna come to. To my department. My. My. Area.

Q: And who would be the individual in charge of receiving this?

A: That's also Sharon Arnold.

Q: So we don't know how many people have actually paid for coverage?

A: That's right.

This exchange, between Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) and Medicare official Gary Cohen is, frankly, shocking.

Not only do they have no idea how many people have actually signed up for Obamacare, they don't know who's actually paid their premiums and -- as a bonus -- they're actively encouraging tax fraud as no reconciliation process exists.

These people are the worst of the worst. Dregs. Lowlifes. Miscreants. They need to be ejected from office in November -- with extreme prejudice.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Massive Target credit-card hack: More details emerge

Security expert Bruce Krebs has been scrutinizing the massive hack of the retailer Target, which compromised tens of millions of consumer credit cards.

Target has yet to honor a single request for comment from this publication, and the company has said nothing publicly about how this breach occurred. But according to sources, the attackers broke in to Target after compromising a company Web server. Somehow, the attackers were able to upload the malicious POS [point-of-sale] software to store point-of-sale machines, and then set up a control server within Target’s internal network that served as a central repository for data hoovered by all of the infected point-of-sale devices.

“The bad guys were logging in remotely to that [control server], and apparently had persistent access to it,” a source close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity. “They basically had to keep going in and manually collecting the dumps..."

...[Russian security firm] Group-IB [may have linked the attack] to a set of young Russian and Ukranian men who appear to be actively engaged in a variety of cybercrime activities, including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and protests associated with the hackivist collective known as Anonymous.

Rumors have been floating around the security community that the POS hardware had been compromised at the supplier before it had even reached Target.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

SURPRISE! Senate Democrats Want TV Networks to Promote Marxist Global Warming Propaganda

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Junk Science: Senate Democrats want TV networks to promote climate-change hysteria and follow the lead of Britain's state broadcasting company, which sent its top executives to a green propaganda training seminar.

The mainstream media, long a house organ for Democrats, are about to come under pressure by Senate Democrats led by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who are gathering signatures from colleagues on a letter to the networks telling them they're ignoring global warming, according to a report in the National Journal.

They are seeking to impose sort of a climate change "fairness doctrine" designed to ignore inconvenient truths about climate researchers getting stuck in Antarctic ice that was supposed to have melted in favor of the gospel according to Al Gore.

"It is beyond my comprehension that you have ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, that their Sunday shows have discussed climate change in 2012, collectively, for all of eight minutes," Sanders said, citing analysis by the leftist George Soros-linked Media Matters for America, which promotes media bias while claiming to fight it.

"Sunday news shows are obviously important because they talk to millions of people, but they go beyond that by helping to define what the establishment considers to be important and what is often discussed during the rest of the week," he said.

Certainly the Obama administration believes that, having sent U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice out to lie about the Benghazi terrorist attack on five Sunday talk shows.

"The common parlance of the dictator"

Mark Levin on January 14th, 2014:

MARK LEVIN: Here’s Obama today before a cabinet meeting. Some of you have heard this, some have not. Everybody needs to hear it. Go:

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: One of the things that I’ll be emphasizing in this meeting is the fact that we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to ensure Americans are provided with the help that they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

LEVIN: He's just announced that he is going to assume lawmaking powers, he’s just announced that he is going to assume lawmaking powers. He does not recognize the majority in the House of Representatives. I don't know how much more clearly he can say. You know what this is folks? This is a gradual quiet coup, that’s what is taking place. Its gradual, it's quiet in the sense that it's nonviolent, but it's a coup. Cut two, Mr. Producer, go.

OBAMA: One of the things I’m going to be talking to my cabinet about is how do we use all the tools available to us, not just legislation in order to advance a mission that I think unifies all Americans.

LEVIN: Stop. This is the common parlance of the dictator. Assuming that he represents all Americans, that he's a unifying figure, that we just need to concentrate more power in his hands. He will decide what laws are good what laws are bad. He will use executive orders to pass laws that Congress won't pass, and he will ignore laws he doesn't like. And he’ll rewrite laws that he wants to rewrite like Obamacare and so forth. This is the mindset and the language that dictators have. He assumes to speak for everybody. He is above politics, he is God’s gift. He was put on Earth to do just this.

And yet when you go back to the Constitution, oh, written by slaveowners -- men with wooden teeth. They say the officer they say the opposite, they say this is tyranny. I say you are witnessing a gradual yet quiet coup, you just heard what he said.


Related: Compare and Contrast: Karl Marx' 10 Point Program of Communism vs. the Democrat Agenda