Interesting Items - Feb 7 Alex Gimarc [email protected] Interesting Items 2 / 7 Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy – In this issue: 1. ObamaCare 2. Waivers 3. Contempt 4. FCC 5. EPA 6. Blackouts 1. ObamaCare. A Federal judge in Pensacola found that the entirety of ObamaCare was unconstitutional last week. This was based on the individual mandate being so intertwined in the legislation that it was impossible to sever it from the rest of the bill. So if the individual mandate is unconstitutional, then by definition, so is the rest of the law. Judge Vinson also picked up on the duplicity of the Obama Administration which argued in front of the public that the fine for failure to purchase health care insurance was a fee and in front of the court that fee became a tax. He also blasted the notion that failure to participate in the marketplace for health care insurance was something that the feds can regulate. He found that the entire law was void, handing a sweeping judicial victory to the 27 states that now oppose ObamaCare in federal court. The administration’s reactions was to ignore the ruling, and proceed apace to implement as much of this as soon as possible, so as to make repeal as messy and unpleasant as possible. They have even chosen not to appeal the ruling, sitting on their hands when they ought to be in court. Red State ran an article by Thomas Crown over the weekend discussing the game of chicken played by the democrats on this. The writer believes that lack of a severability clause was intentional, aimed directly at an ultimate decision by the SCOTUS to uphold or overturn ObamaCare. He goes further and believes that the entire case is aimed at Justice Kennedy, who is the current swing vote in what may be a 5-4 opinion to uphold ObamaCare. I have always wondered about the lack of a severability clause, and this is the best explanation I have seen. It is not a bug. It is a feature. The problem with this game of chicken is that the newest SCOTUS Justice Elena Kagan may have to recuse herself from hearing the case, as she led the administration’s fight in federal court against the anti-ObamaCare lawsuit by the states before she was appointed to the SCOTUS. Her position is that the states did not have standing to bring this before the court. Orin Hatch (R, UT) has already called for her to recuse herself from hearing the case when it hits the court. And should she do so, the potential vote in favor of ObamaCare goes to 4-4, which allows the lower court ruling to stand. You can read the Red State analysis here: http://www.redstate.com/thomas/2011/02/06/some-thoughts-on-judge-vinsons-decision-on-the-mandate/ 2. Waivers. Last week, HHS announced that the number of waivers to companies and organizations from ObamaCare went from 222 to 733. The vast majority of those waivers are to unions, which both donate time and manpower to election of democrats, and will go bankrupt if they are forced to obey the law. John Hinderaker writing in PowerLine described this as a “uniquely vicious corruption”, as the new law only applies to political opponents of the democrats. In their world, there are no non-combatants. There are only friends and enemies. You cannot choose not to play, for if you do, you will end up paying. 3. Contempt. Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans found the Interior Department in contempt with their continued moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Feldman’s opinion documented foot dragging, lies, and malfeasance from Interior Secretary Salazar’s people. Expect one of the corporations to ask for an injunction forcing permitting for deep water drilling in the Gulf to begin again. There may even be jail time in Salazar’s future. We will see pretty quickly how soon the judiciary gets fed up with being ignored by this group of lawless reprobates and starts putting them in jail. 4. FCC. Breitbart’s Big Journalism reported Thursday that the FCC order allowing Comcast to purchase NBC also comes with some interesting strings. One such string is a requirement for NBC local affiliates to partner with non-profit journalism centers. Breitbart found that the non-profit journalism centers were part of an outfit calling itself the Independent News Network which ends up being a Soros-funded organization. Essentially, the FCC is telling Comcast and NBC that they need to work with Soros-funded non-profits for their news gathering. Nothing like the fox guarding the henhouse here: http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2011/02/03/fcc-orders-nbc-newsrooms-to-partner-with-soros-funded-non-profits/ 5. EPA. The EPA continued their war against the internal combustion engine last week with their approval of a 15% mix of ethanol in gasoline. Ethanol is a 30-year old clean air scam, intended to bring more renewable fuels to the driving public. Yet it takes more energy to create a gallon of ethanol than it does for a gallon of gasoline. And worst of all, it essentially burns our food to drive our cars. One of the reasons for riots in the Middle East over the last month is skyrocketing costs of corn and wheat. The US used to be major exporter of corn before we converted it into fuel. Ethanol is harder on gasoline engines, contributing to their early failure and replacement. It also cuts the MPG when used as an additive, as much as 20-25%. Up here, it is required during the winter months, and cuts a substantial range from a gallon’s worth of gasoline in the tank. The EPA’s action in extending the ethanol program is little more than a vehicle to take care of big money democrat contributors in the farm states, which take an enormous amount of free money from congress for the ethanol scam. It is a target ripe for defunding. We will see if the new House majority is up to the task. We will see if they are also up to the task of defunding the EPA which by regulatory edict will garbage up the environment worse than if they did nothing at all. 6. Blackouts. There was a winter storm across northern and western Texas last week that dumped snow and ice across a wide area. Usually when this happens, there is a stiff wind behind the front as it rolls through the state. This time around, there were also rolling blackouts, followed closely by all the requisite arm waving and finger pointing. As of this writing, it is unclear what happened. Texas suffers under renewable energy mandates, which a specific percentage of electrify needs to be generated by renewable generation. Their solution has been to install over 10,000 MW of windmills in west Texas, just under 9% of the state’s total installed generation capacity. Initial reports of rolling blackouts placed the blame directly on ice-covered windmills which were not turning due to lack to wind following the storm. I ran across a Lubbock talk show web site that excoriated the windmills for the power outages. A few days later, I saw a couple reports of coal fired generation in Texas failing, with 2-3 plants going down without anything being able to pick up the load. Add to this the fact that about a third of the homes in Texas are electrically heated and you get a huge spike in electricity demand when it gets really cold outside. Final piece of this puzzle is a statement from one of the wind vendors which proudly boasted that they did their part during the blackouts, spinning and producing at the height of the demand spike. I was ready to write a fun piece blasting the state of Texas for adopting a renewable portfolio that included wind, which is inconstant. But that does not appear to be the entire story here. Best guess as of this morning is that there was a cold blast that spiked electricity use statewide. At the same time, there was 2-3 failures in coal-fired generation plants that knocked them off line for a short period of time. And the wind blew like Hell for a few hours after the front came through, but dropped off and became still for a couple days, further exacerbating the power shortage. Finally, there was widespread icing, which idled a number of wind generation. I will write about more as I find it. The bottom line of this is that energy is something that needs to be both reliable and sufficiently robust so that normal winter (or summer) weather will not knock the power off line. You aren’t going to get that from windmills. You will get it from coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydroelectric. More later - - AG "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776. 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