Monday, September 26, 2011

Green Energy Fail Photo o' the Day

Doesn't this perfectly capture the essence of the "green energy" scam?

Big Government is running a caption contest (hat tip: Sondrakistan), but feel free to suggest candidates in the comments section.

Don't all rush to be first now.


Oops! Illinois Budget Deficit to Hit $8 Billion Despite Huge Tax Hike

Yes, it's another success story for Democrat leadership!

Illinois budget deficit to hit $8 billion despite tax increase

Despite a major income tax increase, the state of Illinois is expected to end the budget year more than $8 billion in the red...

...In all, the state will be $8.3 billion short on June 30 if nothing is done, according to the report. The majority of that money, roughly $5.5 billion, will come in the form of unpaid bills from companies that provide everything from meals for the elderly to toilet paper for prisoners. Another $1.2 billion is composed of Medicaid payments the state will push off until the next budget year, while the remaining $1.6 billion is owed to companies for tax returns and health insurance bills for state workers.

...Msall is calling on lawmakers to rein in pension costs by limiting benefits for current employees. It's an effort led by House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego that has been met with skepticism from some leading Democrats, including [Democrat Governor] Quinn.

...Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Frank Mautino of downstate Spring Valley said lawmakers can ease some of the budget burden by borrowing to pay off the backlog of bills... More borrowing is an idea the Civic Federation has opposed, contending that the state's reliance on loans leads to higher debt payments that ultimately means less money to spend on daily operations.

This is also the Democrats' plan at the federal level in microcosm. Rather than living within their means, these reprehensible hacks instead want to fight the growing budget deficit by... borrowing more money.

But I can understand their reluctance to slash: there's nothing to cut!

Law gives huge pension perks to union leaders: "All it took to give nearly two dozen labor leaders from Chicago a windfall worth millions was a few tweaks to a handful of sentences in the state's lengthy pension code... The changes became law with no public debate among state legislators and, more importantly, no cost analysis...

Twenty years later, 23 retired union officials from Chicago stand to collect about $56 million from two ailing city pension funds thanks to the changes."

One-day rehiring nets former Chicago labor leader a $158,000 city pension: "Gannon is eligible for the lucrative pension deal only because City Hall rehired the former Streets and Sanitation Department worker for a single day in 1994, then granted him an indefinite leave of absence... State law allowed Gannon to retire from the city in 2004, the year he turned 50; since then, he has received about $1 million from his city pension. He stands to collect approximately $5 million during his lifetime...

...Until last year, that pension came on top of Gannon's union salary, which had grown to more than $240,000. He now draws the pension while working for a hedge fund, Grosvenor Capital Management, that does work with public pensions, including the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois. The firm also was one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's largest campaign contributors."

I'm just wondering at what point the electorate revolts. Or do they just surrender and let Illinois collapse without a fight?


Too good to check: Barack Obama's SSN fails E-Verify

This is just too damn funny (if not a bit scary).

For the record: I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. I'm not convinced, however, that Henry Waxman was born on this planet and am hereby officially demanding the release of his long-form birth certificate.

Yes, I preemptively reported myself to AttackWatch.com.


Third World Starvation, Brought to You by Ethanol and the Global Warming Scam Artists™

The "Arab Spring" -- violent revolts in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen -- can be traced back to rising food prices, food shortages and imminent starvation. Prior to the Yemeni uprising, for example, seven million citizens "were forced to reduce their number of daily meals from three to one."

And what caused these rising food prices?

You guessed it: the global warming scam, which forces otherwise edible crops to be burned as inefficient fuels like ethanol. A new research paper models food prices and arrives at statistical proof that the global warming scam is, in great part, helping starve children in the third world.

The Food Crises: A quantitative model of food prices including speculators and ethanol conversion

Recent increases in basic food prices are severely impacting vulnerable populations worldwide. Proposed causes such as shortages of grain due to adverse weather, increasing meat consumption in China and India, conversion of corn to ethanol in the US, and investor speculation on commodity markets lead to widely differing implications for policy. A lack of clarity about which factors are responsible reinforces policy inaction...

Here, for the first time, we construct a dynamic model that quantitatively agrees with food prices. The results show that the dominant causes of price increases are investor speculation [Ed: market forces, i.e., supply-and-demand] and ethanol conversion. Models that just treat supply and demand are not consistent with the actual price dynamics...

...Both causes of price increase, speculative investment and ethanol conversion, are promoted by recent regulatory changes—deregulation of the commodity markets, and policies promoting the conversion of corn to ethanol. Rapid action is needed to reduce the impacts of the price increases on global hunger.

It's time for the government to get out of the fuel business. It's time to stop subsidizing ethanol; to disband the regulatory state that prevents exploitation of our natural resources; and to let the free market dictate what we use to power our society.

Because the destruction wrought by the environmental, flat-earth, no-growth Marxist left must be stopped.

If for no other reason than to save the children who today starve to death thanks to the likes of Al Gore and the climate grifters.


Related: In the name of global warming, 20,000 Ugandan villagers burned out of their homes.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama to Blacks-Take Off Your Slippers; Stop Complaining

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Obama to Blacks-Take Off Your Slippers; Stop Complaining: ConBlkChk
Obama tries isolating, polarizing Blacks to shore his base: CY
Every Single One: Justice Dept. in Turmoil: PJM

A new Chicago-based minority voter outreach program: Malkin
Obama To CBC: Quit Crying And Complaining: RWN
Obama Mocks Perry, Republican Debates: Hill

Why does the good life end?: Hanson
GOP disappointed in Perry, divided over future: York
Man of the Hour – Herman Cain: NoisyRm

Economy

Global Bust-Up: Steyn
Telegraph notes IMF lending limit others ignored: NB
The UAW's Waning Days?: RWN

Gunrunner & Solyndra

Feds used ATF employee to walk guns -- without straw buyer: SSI
Obama Scandal Checklist: Operation Fast And Furious: Wizbang
Mellow Bob on Solyndra: Parkway Rest Stop

Climate & Energy

EPA’s Tighter Ozone Standards Will Strangle Economic Recovery: Foundry
Global Warming Hysteria: Skepticism Is Not “Anti-Science”: FrstThngs
The Amazing Decline in Deaths from Extreme Weather in an Era of Global Warming: WUWT

Media

No to Chris Christie: AmSpec
Tea Party Terrorists? Here's What Should Really Terrify You: RedCounty
Elizabeth Warren - There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own: AnBlkCon

Chicago Tribune op-ed on sweetheart union pension deal: "Yes, this is corrupt": Marathon
When it Comes to Wealthy Campaign Donors, What’s in a Name?: Malkin
RNC Chair Priebus Owns DNC’s Wasserman-Schultz On ‘Face The Nation’: Breitbart

World

France Bans Muslim Street Prayers; Muslims Protest, Chant 'Death To The Jews': JoshuaPundit
Kansas Pastor Banned From Islamic Center After Handing Out Bibles: Creeping
Mexican woman decapitated by notorious drug gang after posting on the internet about criminals: NYDN

Obama is Dangerous For Piece: Lewis
Cain rips CAIR, ISNA, Muslim Brotherhood--promises prosecution: WZ
Feel-Good Story of the Day: WZ

Sci-Tech

For Chicago traders, Twitter delivers real-time info — plus camaraderie: ChiBiz
USA Today's Twitter account falls victim to hackers: CNet
Trademark Watch: Windows Phone 7.5 Will “Put People First”: Crunch

Cornucopia

Cheech and Chong's Latest Adventure: Front Porch Anarchist
This Week in Automotivators, September 19-25: RWN
UN Choir Sings Somebody to Hate: Viral Footage

Image: Palestinian boy holds a sign against US President Barack Obama
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Allen West for Congress

QOTD: "Why is it more moral for a federal bureaucrat in a state-supplied SUV to shut down an offshore oil rig on grounds that it is too dangerous for the environment than for a private individual to risk his own capital to find some sort of new fuel to power his government’s SUV fleet? All affluent societies believe that they are just too rich not to be able to afford another regulation, just one more moralizing indulgence, yet again an added entitlement. But as we see now in postmodern America, idle 250,000 acres of farmland for a tiny fish, shut down an entire oilfield, put off a new natural gas find in worry over possible environmental alteration, add a cent to the sales tax, mandate yet another prescription drug entitlement not funded, or offer yet another in-state tuition discount to an illegal alien — and the costs finally equate to an implosion as we see in Greece or California. And as we know from past collapses, a new entitlement in a matter of minutes becomes an institutionalized right whose withdrawal causes far more anguish than its prior nonexistence. Justinian learned that when he sought to cut the civil service and almost lost his throne." --Victor Davis Hanson

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Former Clinton Appointee: Calling Tea Party 'Racist' Is Just a Cynical Political Ploy

Politico, home of failed Washington Post reporters, offers a feature called "The Arena", which it touts as a daily debate among "policy-makers and opinion shapers".

On July 20, 2010 the topic of the day was "...will branding tea party 'racist' work?". Among dozens of respondents, Mary Frances Berry -- a famous liberal activist and former Clinton appointee -- accidentally blurted out the truth:

Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats.

There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November [2010]. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.

The tactic of tarring innocent people as racists is despicable, but not unexpected coming from the sewer-dwelling thought leaders of the hard left Democrat Party. In fact, the current administration has done more to promote racial divisiveness than any White House since the Wilson administration.

The Tea Party is interested in one color: the yellowed parchment of the United States Constitution. You know, Democrats: that antiquated document that you take an oath to uphold, lying all the while.

And keep trying to demonize black Tea Party superstars like Herman Cain, Rep. Tim Scott and Rep. Allen West. Your egregious lies are creating new cadres of strong, African-American conservatives and growing the membership of the National Black Republican Association.

So keep it up, Democrats: 2012 is coming.


Hat tips: Daily Bail and I Hate the Media.

In the name of global warming, 20,000 Ugandan villagers burned out of their homes

It's not enough that the environmental agenda has wasted billions on phony "green jobs"; or made millionaires out of the U.N.'s ethically challenged climate change panel; or helped cause the deaths of tens of millions with its senseless ban of DDT. No, not enough.

Now, tens of thousands of Ugandans have been burned out of their homes to help a company issue "carbon credits", the fraudulent currency of the climate scam.

According to the company’s proposal to join a United Nations clean-air program, the settlers living in this area left in a “peaceful” and “voluntary” manner...

...People here remember it quite differently... villagers described gun-toting soldiers and an 8-year-old child burning to death when his home was set ablaze by security officers... “They said if we hesitated they would shoot us,” said William Bakeshisha, adding that he hid in his coffee plantation, watching his house burn down. “Smoke and fire.”

According to a report released by the aid group Oxfam on Wednesday, more than 20,000 people say they were evicted from their homes here in recent years to make way for a tree plantation run by a British forestry company, emblematic of a global scramble for arable land.

...Across Africa, some of the world’s poorest people have been thrown off land to make way for foreign investors... in this case, the government and the company said the settlers were illegal and evicted for a good cause: to protect the environment and help fight global warming.

The case twists around an emerging multibillion-dollar market trading carbon-credits under the Kyoto Protocol, which contains mechanisms for outsourcing environmental protection to developing nations.

The company involved, New Forests Company, grows forests in African countries with the purpose of selling credits from the carbon-dioxide its trees soak up to polluters abroad. Its investors include the World Bank, through its private investment arm, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, HSBC.

Carbon trading is -- provably -- a scam. The Chicago Climate Exchange went bust late last year. The European Union has seen billions lost to fraudulent carbon trading.

Remember, though, it's all worth it because "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow...."


Hat tip: Climate Depot.

Georgia Middle School Textbook Marketing Sharia-based Misogyny to Children

Take a read, courtesy of Atlas Shrugs, and we'll discuss.

To summarize:

• The West should stop criticizing Sharia-based mistreatment of women

• Women aren't allowed to drive cars... cool!

• Women must cover themselves completely with a black tent, leaving only a slit for the eyes... cool (plus: protection from the sand)!

• Parents choose a girl's husband... cool!

• She is "happy to obey"! Cool!

• She will be one of her husband's four wives... cool!

• Sharia protects women... cool!

Curiously, the text omits mentions of female genital mutilation, marriages of 8-year-old girls to older men, ritual self-mutilation, child slave labor, stoning of women and girls for ill-defined and/or bogus "crimes", legalized pedophilia, normalization of the practice of wife-beating, "honor" killings, gender-based segregation, mandatory clothing, and exclusion from formal educational opportunities.

I'm hesitant to post the attribution for the list, above, but it is necessary [Caution: extremely graphic and disturbing images!]

You can see the rest of the text and workbook here. Put simply, if a curriculum is going to purport to describe how women live in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim-controlled world, it should at least report the facts.


Hat tip: JihadWatch.

California's Version of the 'Buffet Rule' Working Out Beautifully. Oh, Wait: It's Actually an Unmitigated Disaster.

'Progressive' left hardest hit.

The state's over-reliance on taxing the rich has been a disaster during bad times


If President Obama really wants to see the "Buffett Rule" in action, he should look at California's tax system. The state has been plagued by it for years.

The revenue stream is unstable and the state budget has been a deficit disaster... In California, we've got what you could call a Buffett Rule-Plus. There's an extra tax bracket — at 10.3% — for income exceeding $1 million.

...California relies heavily on rich investors for its income tax revenue, which fuels half of the general fund... Some examples of this over-dependence, based on the 2009 tax year:

• The top 1% earned 18% of California's income but paid 37% of the income tax.

Illustrating the volatility of the California income tax, however, the top 1% paid 48% of the total take in 2007 before the stock market collapsed. In the next two years, the state's income tax revenue fell 25%.

• The top 10% earned 45% of the income but paid 72% of the taxes.

During the recession, the middle class paid a slightly larger share of the declining income tax take. Those earning between $45,000 and $84,000 kicked in 11% of the total revenue in 2009, compared to 9% two years earlier. But one could argue they still were under-taxed. They earned 19% of the income.

"The real people who don't get taxed enough in California are the middle-income folks," says Steve Levy, director of the left-leaning Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy...

...Meanwhile, if Buffett really wanted to live by his own rule, he could leave Nebraska, move to California and pay our state taxes.

The math is actually pretty simple, unless you're a Democrat:

• If you punish success, you drive successful people away.

• If you reward sloth, you get more sloth.

• If you promote illegal behavior (such as illegal immigration), you get more illegal behavior.

But you can be sure that none of the tautological facts describing human behavior will ever influence a single progressive. Because for drones, ideology always trumps facts, logic, history and reason.


Image: HillBuzz.

Larwyn's Linx: Conservatives, Sisyphus, and the Renewed Constitutional Movement

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Conservatives, Sisyphus, and a Renewed Constitutional Movement: AT
On the Border and the Texas DREAM Act: Tatler
Cain wins GOP FL straw poll; Perry in second place: Times

Run, Chris Christie, Run!: Bruce
GA middle school pushes polygamy, burkas: RWN
Gov. Perry All But Invited Gov. Palin to Enter the Race: BigG

Obama harangues Congressional Black Caucus: WZ
The Push For Christie Is About Romney, Not Perry: Riehl
Obama Hits The Links With Bubba for His 82nd Round: WZ

Economy

Will Health Care Bankrupt The Country?: Mead
AFL-CIO Defends Violence As A ‘Legitimate’ Union Activity: LUR
Solyndra Lessons Which Won’t Be Learned Until 2013: Bizzy

Immense Euro Bailout "in the Works"; Plan Has Failed Already: Mish
The Global Double Dip and the French Bank Run: CW
Obamacare Report: Patients will wait (much) longer for care: Tenn

Gunwalker & Solyndra

A message from Sipsey Street Irregulars to the Gun Rights Policy Conference: SSI
No, Bush Really Didn’t OK Any Solyndra Loans: IBD
GOP steps up pressure on Obama with Fast and Furious investigation: Hill

Climate & Energy

Let the inhaler hoarding begin: WUWT
Obama Administration Set to Ban Asthma Inhalers Over Environmental Concerns: WklyStd
Is the EPA regulating ozone after all?: WaPo

Media

From Democratic Promoters to Republican Destroyers: MRC
Cop-Killer is Media's Latest Baby Seal: Coulter
Rep. Walsh: Media vested in 'President not being a failure': NB

Safer Streets 2012: Repeal All Gun Laws: BigG
Times tries to muddle the Solyndra scandal: RWN
Herman Cain Takes On Morgan Freeman For Calling Tea Party Racist: NB

World

Clinton Reinvents Israel: Elliot Abrams
U.K.: Up to 20,000 Muslim polygamous unions robbing welfare system blind: JihadWatch
Bill Clinton: Netanyahu killed the peace process: ForPol

Transnationalist Green Army Begins Land Grab: GardenSerf
Saudi Columnist: Hitler Was Right about the Jews: MEMRI
West tells Obama that Israeli PM is 'a real leader': Hill

Attack on Marines Linked to Seattle Terror Plot: IPT
Partners in Peace: Palestinian Children Trade “Martyr Cards” Instead Of Pokemon Cards: WZ
Map of States with In-State Tuition Laws: NUSA

Sci-Tech

“Government Motors” To Track Drivers With OnStar, Sell Data to Police: NewAm
Hewlett-Packard, Mark Hurd and the butterfly effect: ITbusiness
Facebook changes creeping out some customers: CNet

Cornucopia

The Redline: A Tale Of Collapse: Alt-Market
Race to the Top: I Thought We Were Supposed To Be Post-Racial?: MOTUS
Chicago, 1949, by Stanley Kubrick: How to be a Retronaut

Image: Colour photographs of London after Air Raid Attack, September 1940
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sign The US Oil Drilling Petition!

QOTD: "This scandal coverage has been driven from the bottom up, from the very beginning. No one thought we'd get "mainstream" news coverage, but we did. No one thought we'd get the GOP seriously involved in finding out the truth, but we did. No one thought we'd ever get hearings, but we did. You did that -- by demanding it.

You did it before, you can do it again.

Let's finish these criminal bastards' cover-up, once and for all.

Demand a second front in the Gunwalker Scandal investigation." --Sipsey Street Irregulars

Saturday, September 24, 2011

One chart to rule them all: the provable idiocy of the "green energy" agenda

A House of Representatives report entitled "The Empty Promise of Green Jobs" eviscerates the entire Obama environmental agenda.

In the fall of 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama made a campaign promise to jumpstart the economy with an influx of green jobs... The President has kept his promise to spend billions of borrowed dollars on green energy, but his promises that such spending would create a new, self-sufficient industry capable of providing millions of jobs for Americans have proven empty.

...Two years later, the President’s promise of millions of jobs stands in stark contrast with reality. As a recent report from a Bay-Area news organization made clear, green jobs predictions are “proving a pipe dream.”

...Since its introduction in the 2009 stimulus bill, the Department of Energy (DOE) has issued $40 billion in new loan guarantees for private-sector loans for renewable energy projects that might not otherwise have been market-viable. Already, multi-million dollar projects, initially labeled as successes, have failed:

• The first renewable energy loan guarantee recipient, solar start-up Solyndra, received a loan guarantee for $535 million in the fall of 2009, even after repeated warnings from federal financial analysts. In the spring of 2010, it failed to complete its initial public offering after an independent audit questioned the ongoing viability of the firm. Then, in the fall of 2010, the firm closed one of its manufacturing facilities and laid off 180 workers. Finally, the firm declared bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 employees only 15 months after Obama visited a company factory.

• Beacon Power, received a $43 million loan guarantee in July of 2009. Since then, its stock price has dropped by 90 percent – a period during which the NASDAQ exchange on which it is listed has increased by 40 percent. The company has not been in compliance with NASDAQ listing requirements, leading to a delisting determination from the exchange.

• First Wind Holdings, received a $117 million loan guarantee in March of 2010. First Wind withdrew its initial public offering in October of 2010, due to a lack of investor demand. According to the Boston Globe, investors shied away from the company because “First Wind owes more than $500 million, loses money on a steady basis, and reports a negative cash flow.”

Even in the midst of these failures, DOE has been advertising additional loan guarantee recipients, announcing a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to another solar company just one day after the FBI raided Solyndra’s offices. Congressional investigators are initiating a review to examine how many future Solyndras have been already financed by this loan-guarantee program or approved through shoddy review, and how can we prevent future examples of this kind of wasteful federal spending.

Did government invent the wheel?

Did government invent the steam engine?

Did government invent the automobile?

Did government invent the airplane?

No, drones: the free market did. The free market, private property rights, supply and demand, all contributed to individuals making decisions that changed the nature of power generation and consumption over the centuries.

It wasn't a central planner cutting checks. It wasn't a bureaucrat dictating a five-year plan. It wasn't an accountant placing bets on unproven technologies.

It was the free market.

Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your co-workers: in 2012, we must eradicate the Obama Democrats' culture of corrupt, crony capitalism.

That is, if you want America to survive.


Hat tips: TrendingRight and Power Line.

Photos: Arab scimitars chemically painted onto the jet engines of dozens of Southwest Airlines planes [Updates]

Updates below

Creeping Sharia relays ominous airline security news from KMOX St. Louis:

Southwest Airlines is confirming an investigation is underway into suspicious markings on the underbellies of a number of its passenger planes... The markings are not in English, possibly Arabic and first appeared several months ago but the number of incidents have become more frequent. Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King calls it an “internal vandalism issue.”

King says it would appear that the incidents are originating from someone with safety and security access to airplanes.

The questions that are not being answered: which airports are being affected and if other airlines are being targeted. Though sources tell KMOX News that two or three Southwest planes with the markings have been seen at Lambert Airport.

King denies that there are any risks to the flying public even though Southwest is not revealing how the person or persons is gaining access to airplanes.

Tipster Xerxes emails:

I was sent this by someone who can’t be named. SWA has clamped down on anything coming from internal staff.

All this Arabic markings crap. They all know they are swords. My source says that some flights will only make $20.00 (why they like carry on dogs) and this could cause many to not fly and hurt business.

Thought you might like to see a real photo of what they look like. And, they only show when the engine is hot.

Emphases mine.

Arabic-style swords painted on airline engines?

This is the flag of Saudi Arabia, just for your reference.

And this is the classic Arab scimitar, just for your reference.

CBS is helping Southwest do its level best to minimize the issue, calling the markings "graffiti".

Some mysterious graffiti has been appearing on the outside of some Southwest Airlines planes... The airline released this statement about the situation: "Southwest takes this behavior very seriously, and we will continue to involve local and federal law enforcement agencies as needed until the situation is resolved. We want to reassure customers and employees that safety is always our primary consideration, and the safety of our aircraft is in no way impacted by this act of vandalism."

Thank goodness we have the crack homeland security chief Janet Napolitano watching out for us. What could go wrong?

Update: "It's NOT Arabic but experts say mystery marks on Southwest Airlines planes ARE graffiti - so how did they get there?"

The airline had suggested the symbols, which only show up with heat and are believed to be vandalism, looked like Arabic writing... However the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. looked at the photos for MailOnline and a spokesman concluded they are ‘not Arabic script’.

...Most of the affected planes appear to be flying out of Los Angeles, California. Southwest Airlines said the markings are not seen as a threat, but began appearing on the bellies of its jets earlier this year...

...a Southwest employee, who said the markings are usually seen on the exhaust pipe of engines and look like swords... said he had not seen any 'Arabic' writing.

Oh, good. I feel much better now.

Update II: Xerxes writes:

Here are some common “markings” found under jets. Left by ground crew on the nose gear cover. Very different from what they are finding now. Ground crews do this on many airlines. (heck, you should see what some passengers leave in the bathroom!)




Notice, too, the flourishes on the scimitars. They are anything but crosses: the north-south alignment is wrong and the curved handles and blades are giveaways.

These scimitars are different.


Good news for asthmatics: Obama administration set to ban over-the-counter inhalers to save ozone layer

"“Everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma, they end up taking up a hospital bed, it costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early and they got some treatment, and a breathalyzer, or inhalator, not a breathalyzer. I haven’t had much sleep in the last 48 hours.”" --Barack Obama, 9 October 2008


Wonderful news from the environmental do-gooders in Washington: the Obama administration is poised to ban over-the-counter breathalyzers, I mean inhalators, I mean inhalers in order to save the ozone layer

Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly? Well, it seems that the Obama administration would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer:

Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives as part of the federal government's latest attempt to protect the Earth's atmosphere.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday patients who use the epinephrine inhalers to treat mild asthma will need to switch by Dec. 31 to other types that do not contain chlorofluorocarbons, an aerosol substance once found in a variety of spray products.

The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and other nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a region in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.

But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20, whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from $30 to $60.


As Anthony Watts observes, "Let the hoarding begin":

The eco-world has gone beserkers with this one, even CBS News is asking: Why? Me too especially since global ozone is predicted to recover [according to a 2004 EPA Report].

...What will really happen is that this will turn regular people and children into scofflaws, and they’ll buy over the counter inhalers in other countries like Mexico and have them shipped here. It will be another giant sucking sound.

So when some kid dies in 2012 because they couldn't get access to an inexpensive, over-the-counter inhaler, let's all give thanks to President Obama -- because that's one less ozone destroyer that we have to worry about.


Car Quiz [Papa B]

Papa B:

After following this car with multiple messages on its rear end, I was
fascinated with what type of person the driver would be?

A. A young Caucasian female ?
B. An African American male?
C. An African American female?
D. A rotund white "hippie-type" female who escaped from the sixties?

If you guessed "D", you guessed right!

One minor correction for Papa B: we don't call them hippies any more.

We call them drones. Which is the term they prefer, I hear.

Because they still believe that government can make everyone's lives "fair" and that our beloved First Family really cares about the "middle class".


Photo o' the Day: Complexity

Via Bob McCarty*:

* With a few tiny touch-ups by Commander Biff Spackle, most recently of Her Majesty's Royal Marines.


The nut doesn't fall far from the tree: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's parents involved in all kinds of skulduggery

DNC Chief and radical leftist Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has an interesting genealogical tree that (surprise!) hasn't been covered at all in legacy media. The Broward/Palm Beach News's exceptional investigative reporter Bob Norman offers the background on the cases involving Wasserman-Schultz's mother and step-dad:

...it's been five years since I busted Wasserman-Rubin and sparked the investigation that is dogging her today. The story was called Cash Cow, and it had to do with gaming of the new town of Southwest Ranches by Wasserman-Rubin; her husband, Rick Rubin; and a slew of other well-heeled manipulators...

...Rick Rubin was paid obscene amounts of money -- something like a million dollars -- by the town to write county and state "green space" grants that Wasserman-Rubin voted on. Based on one grant approval by Wasserman-Rubin and her colleagues, Rick Rubin received a $15,000 bonus.

A citizen named Ray McKinney got pissed off when he read it and sent it to the Florida Ethics Commission. Incredibly, the commission, one of the most useless governmental agencies ever created, actually hit Wasserman-Rubin with administrative charges and fined her $15,000... It was a small victory for anticorruption forces in Broward County -- a largely toothless dog bit Wasserman-Rubin and gave her a little bruise...

...The [scandal] effectively ended Wasserman-Rubin's career. Not long after we reported the existence of the criminal investigation, she announced in early April that she was abandoning her reelection campaign...

The Broward State Attorney's Office charged her with seven felonies.

Wasserman-Schultz's father is an equally fine, upstanding citizen. A couple of months ago, CBS Miami reported that Richard Rubin "was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday for tax evasion".

The husband of former Broward Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday for tax evasion... Sixty five year Richard Rubin, who pleaded guilty, was also ordered to serve three years probation and pay $104,671.08 in restitution.

...According court documents, Rubin willfully failed to report real estate commissions [and] and the sale of a condominium in Hollywood on his federal tax return...

Last July, Rubin’s wife resigned her post on the commission shortly before she was charged with seven counts of unlawful compensation.

According to investigators, Wasserman-Rubin voted at least 15 times to support of fund grants prepared by her husband on behalf of the Town of Southwest Ranches. In addition to his normal compensation, Rubin reportedly received three $15,000 bonuses for his work on successful grants that were supported by his wife.

Under Florida law, elected officials are not allowed to vote on matters that could benefit them or their spouse.

On September 1st, Rubin began his federal prison term.

Perhaps these articles help explain some of the lawless, unconstitutional and unethical behavior of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. She seems to hold the citizens of America in contempt and is willing to lie over and over again to retain her white-knuckled grip on power.

What can you do? Please support Karen Herrington for Congress and put the rhetorical boot to Debbie's prodigious posterior.


Hat tip: RF.

Delightful: Ex-Romney Official Now Directing EPA Air Quality Oversight

Well, this should get you pumped up about Mitt's campaign. GovExec reports:

President Obama can thank Republican Mitt Romney for more than the Massachusetts health care law that helped shape Obama's national health care plan.

One of Romney's former top state environmental officials during his tenure as Massachusetts governor now oversees air quality at Obama's Environmental Protection Agency, playing a key role in the march of environmental regulations to fight climate change and slash pollution from coal-fired power plants that is regularly blasted by Republicans seeking Obama's job. Sometimes, even Romney himself.

...Gina McCarthy, EPA's top air pollution official... the EPA assistant administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation, has taken on much of the heavy lifting of writing, structuring, and implementing the rules.

"[EPA Administrator] Lisa [Jackson]'s the coach and Gina's the quarterback" in the work of rolling out new clean air regulations, said Daniel Weiss, an energy and climate policy expert at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to the Obama administration. "She's running the plays, improvising on the line."

...In his book, No Apology, Romney wrote: "I believe that climate change is occurring -- the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to man and how much is attributable to factors out of our control."

...Earlier this week, the Memphis Daily News reported that at a Tennessee fundraiser closed to the press, an attendee said that Romney "lambasted federal agencies -- specifically calling out the EPA -- as hamstringing businesses with regulations that he says are getting in the way of job creation."

With his shape-shifting policy positions and alignment with Leftist policies, Mitt Romney increasingly strikes me as Obama-Lite.


Larwyn's Linx: 'Perry’s Winning Glow Dims After Poor Debate Reviews'

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

'Perry’s Winning Glow Dims After Poor Debate Reviews': Patterico
Only 58% of Blacks 'strongly favorable' on Obama: GrnRm
Obama drops $5 dinner raffle to $3 – again: LI

Obama's Insidious Approach to America: Diogenes
Romney’s Electability Card Is a Joker to Perry’s Four Aces: Shiver
National Right-to-Carry Bill Under Attack: NRAILA

Another Day, Another Power Grab: Dossier
Fat Romney May Enter Race: Ace
Couple Fined for Discussing Bible in Their California Home: RWN

Economy

Bill Clinton, Home Wrecker: IBD
Republicans Want to See Warren Buffett’s Tax Return: Malkin
'Buffett Rule' a bust in California: LAT

Behind the Scenes: Jesse Jackson's Lurid Grievance Empire: RWN
About those evil oil company tax breaks: JPA
How Gold Performs During A Financial Crash: SeekingAlpha

Gunrunner & Solyndra

$535 million U.S. Loan to Solyndra was predicted to be a failure: Between the Numbers
Government Loans to Nowhere: Malkin
How Many Solyndras Are There?: Instapundit

Climate & Energy

Ugandans Expelled from Their Land so Multinational Corporations Can Grow... Carbon Credits: Marfdrat
Ptolemy MMXI And The Epicycles Of Consensus: Soylent
Judge questions honesty of Interior Department scientists: Exam

Media

Walter Russell Mead Bitchslaps Andi Sullivan: AmInt
CBS's Hill Lobbies Bachmann For DREAM Act-Type Amnesty: NB
Bring It On, Fat-boy: Michael Moore Threatens Violence Against ‘Rich’: Breitbart

John Mearsheimer Endorses a Hitler Apologist and Holocaust Revisionist: Atlantic
Soldier Stephen Hill Honors America: Gay Progressive Hate-Mongers, Not So Much: AmPower
Morgan Freeman: Obama's Election Has Made Racism Worse: Ace

Return of the Real Obama: Instapundit
The Next Gen of Lefty Journos?: RWN
Popular Mechanics Report on Reno Air Show Crash: Ace

World

Can Israel Survive?: JoshuaPundit
Pali Official: Bringing Jerusalem Back Under Muslim Control Is Main Objective of Islamic Awakening: GWP
I don't know that you'll be seeing much of what Abbas said after his UN speech: BrutHon

Sci-Tech

TurboCharge your health, lose weight in minutes a day: Denver Post
TWITTER ADS: What They Are And How They Work: Insider
LulzSec Hacker Exposed by the Service He Thought Would Hide Him: Atlantic

8 Laser Weapon Systems to Zap Planes, Boats—And People: PopMech
Yes, Google really should worry about Facebook: CNet
A Galaxy S Sequel With Big-Screen Ambitions: WSJ

Cornucopia

Five Ways to Screw Up Your Life with the Internet: PJM
Your Obama U.N. class photo of the day: Malkin
Seattle As Rarely Seen: AmDigest

Image: Abandoned Technology - DeviceMag
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "I've advised my kids to sneak into Mexico, then smuggle themselves back into Texas so they can save $20,000 a year on college tuition." --Me, just now.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Drill, Cuba, Drill: Chinese-built Oil Rig Positioned 50 Miles Off Key West

Illegal, Obama-inspired oil-drilling moratorium hardest hit:

Deep-water drilling will resume in the Florida Strait when a giant, semi-submersible oil rig en route from Singapore arrives later this fall. The bad news is it will not be American.

While U.S. oil and energy prices "necessarily skyrocket," as President Obama once said they would under energy policies that have imposed a de facto ban on offshore drilling, a massive Chinese-built semi-submersible oil rig is on its way from Singapore to a drilling position off northwest Cuba... as little as 50 miles from Key West....

...Normally, what are called "economic zones" extend 200 miles off a country's coastline. In some cases, there are conflicts based on resources and geography. In 1977, President Carter signed a treaty with communist Cuba that essentially split the difference and created for Cuba an "exclusive economic zone" extending from the western tip of Cuba northward virtually to Key West. Cuba then divided its side of the Florida Strait into 59 parcels and put them up for lease.

The U.S. Geological Survey recently estimated the North Cuban Basin contains as much as 9 billion barrels of oil and 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Other estimates range from 5 billion to 20 billion barrels of crude. Pools of oil and natural gas tend not to obey lines drawn on a map. It's certain that at least some of Cuba's wells will be tapping oil pools that straddle the boundary separating our zone from Cuba's, meaning Havana will be getting oil that should be ours.

But fret not, peons: our thrifty President is carefully investing taxpayer dollars in savvy energy investments like Solyndra.


Elizabeth Warren, Totalitarian Moron, Translated

Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren is somehow able to run for the U.S. Senate while "educating" students. A recent video captured her bizarre, un-American comments that smack more of a totalitarian regime than anything rooted in Constitutional law.

I hear all this, you know, "Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever."--No!

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.

You built a factory out there--good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.

You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea--God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.

But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

As Daniel Indiviglio observes, "When you're too liberal for Senate Republicans to confirm you as a top regulator, what do you do? You run for Senate in Massachusetts, of course."

Thankfully, Vanderleun relays this brilliant riposte:

Elizabeth Warren is a moronic hack who will use any excuse to justify the theft of your money.

And I can prove it.

Warren, I know you're reading this. Why don't you start by "paying forward", say, 25% or 50% of your net income -- whatever you think the corporate tax rate should be -- by writing a check to the federal government?

C'mon: you've gotten all those same benefits in your life: police, the civil society, a Constitutional Republic that you take for granted and dismiss. Send me a copy of the cancelled check.

Otherwise, take a straw, stick it in a glass and drink yourself a big tall helping of shut-up juice.