Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc
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Interesting Items
Alex Gimarc
[email protected]
Monday July 11, 2011
Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
1. Gunrunner
2. EPA
3. Coal
4. Execution
5. Atlanta
6. Greece
7. Chu
8. Budget Wars
1. Gunrunner. What happens when the designated fall guy for the Obama
administration no longer wants to be the fall guy? On July 4, BATFE Director
Melson gave testimony to congressional investigators on the Gunrunner
operation. He was ordered by Holder’s (In)Justice Department to testify with
BATFE and (In)Justice lawyers in the room later in the week. He chose
otherwise. It appears that Gunrunner was an anti-gun operation intended to be
used by the Obama administration to drum up public outrage at Americans getting
killed with guns sold in the US that made their way to the drug cartels in
Mexico. BATFE officials were in on it. And it appears from Melson’s testimony
that Holder’s (In)Justice Department was in it up to their ears. There are
going to be some people going to jail because of this, perhaps even removed
from their political appointive offices. This is ugly and will end up being
even worse than we think it is.
2. EPA. One of the tools used by the greens to force environmental regulation
has been the environmental lawsuit. But this is ultimately a self-licking ice
cream cone, as a number of the environmental groups bringing clean air and
clean water lawsuits also get grants from the EPA. For example, new
regulations on emissions from coal-fired electrical generation plants in the
western US will cost a minimum of $1.5 billion. The EPA claims that the new
regulations are necessary to settle a lawsuit brought by a number of
environmental organizations. Interestingly enough, one of those organizations,
the Environmental Defense Fund received just under $3 million in grants from
the EPA over the last decade. Top it off with the fact that public interest
lawsuits have their lawyer fees and court costs reimbursed by the taxpayer and
you have Big Green, now firmly in charge of both the EPA and the environmental
groups writing whatever they want and
passing it whenever they want regardless of impact on property rights, the
environment, or costs to businesses and taxpayers. This corrupt do-loop needs
to be broken and the sweetheart lawsuits stopped before they turn this entire
nation into a park. Investor’s Business Daily article from July 6 can be found
here: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/
Article/577430/201107061817/EPA-Funds-Greens-That-Sue-It.aspx
3. Coal. In the latest crock of brown floaters coming out of government
funded climate research, we find a claim that burning coal is the reason that
the climate has not warmed up for the last decade. It was published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and was done by Robert K.
Kaufman of Boston University. The study claims that the sulfur dioxide from
ChiCom coal fired electrical generation plants gets into the upper atmosphere
and much like it does with massive volcanic eruptions (Tambora, 1815, Krakatau,
1883, Pinatubo, 1991) leads to global cooling for a couple years until it drops
out of the upper atmosphere. As the ChiComs are generating continuously, the
supply is always replenished. Note the house of cards constructed here. The
very first thing assumed is that manmade global warming due to carbon dioxide
is real and has a measurable effect. This is a demonstrable fraud based upon
cooked data and a fully gamed
peer (or pal) review system. The second assumption is that there has been no
net warming over the last decade. This is both measurable and repeatable. The
problem is how to square the notion that there is global warming and mankind is
causing it with the fact that there is no measurable warming over the long
term. Can’t have one without the other. So if you believe in unicorns and the
tooth fairy and manmade global warming, you accept very easily the notion that
mankind is the reason there has been no measurable warming, completely ignoring
what has not been going on with the sun. And this is what you get.
4. Execution. Texas executed a 38 year old convicted murderer Thursday.
Humberto Leal brutally raped and killed a 16 year old girl. He was 21 at the
time of the murder. Normally, the reaction to this would be good riddance to
bad rubbish. But this one is interesting because the perp upon appeal claimed
to be a Mexican national who was denied consular access. It turns out he was
an illegal who came over the border at age two and has lived in the US ever
since. The Mexican government, the Obama administration and the UN all
intervened, demanding the execution be delayed until they did an investigation
into the perp’s claim that he was denied proper access to the Mexican embassy.
The Obama administration went to the SCOTUS with a request for a stay of
execution so that congress could pass legislation giving the feds jurisdiction
when a perp claimed to be denied access to his embassy. The SCOTUS disagreed
with the Obama administration
by a 5-4 vote and the execution proceeded. Mexico plays a little game with
its citizens, allowing dual citizenship for all. Perhaps it is time for the US
to tighten up our citizenship and not allow dual citizenship for anyone. If
you want to be an American, be an American.
5. Atlanta. An investigation into test scores in Atlanta schools discovered a
massive coordinated cheating scandal involving union officials, teachers,
principals and administrators. So far, there 178 implicated and 44 of the 56
school districts of the Atlanta public schools system. The scam went back on
testing, erased and changed answers so as to show higher scores that would
qualify for more federal funding under the No Child Left Behind legislation.
We have the basis for a RICO investigation and suit against the unions, the
school districts and the administrators. They committed fraud against their
students by failing to provide a proper education. They compounded that fraud
by cheating on the testing, covering it up, and taking awards and public money
for excellent performance. There should be jail as this is rolled up. You can
find the Hot Air article from last Friday here:
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/07/why-178-public-educators-in-atlanta-should-be-in-prison/comment-page-1/
6. Greece. The Greek government intervened in the latest Palestinian
provocation against Israel by not allowing the boats of the Gaza flotilla to
leave Greek ports. They didn’t have the “proper paperwork.” This intervention
is not unexpected as Israeli PM Netanyahu has made overtures to Greece over the
course of the last year, turning them into one of their closest friends in the
region. This is particularly interesting as the Turks have swung hard toward
Islamist sympathizers and supporters under PM Erdogan. Israel has found what
appears to be a tremendous natural gas field just offshore. This resource will
go a long way toward making them not only energy independent but also an
exporter of natural gas to the Mediterranean nations now dependent on
unfriendly Muslim nations in North Africa. And it appears one of their first
customers may be Greece via a pipeline under the Med. While the US dithers,
Israel takes positive steps to
secure their future. Keeping the Palestinian flotilla in port is one result.
7. Chu. In yet another of what seems to be an endless stream of “Let them eat
cake” moments from the Obamoids, Energy Secretary Chu weighed in against the
repeal of the 2007 ban on incandescent light bulbs. Powerline Friday quoted
Chu as saying: “We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste
their own money.” There is so much wrong with that arrogant, condescending
view of the world that I don’t know where to begin. Powerline stepped right up
and suggested that Chu be tarred and feathered. I cannot disagree. This week,
we will see an attempt by Fred Upton (R, MI) to repeal the ban on incandescent
light bulbs in the House. Upton really doesn’t want to repeal the ban that he
helped author, so he has brought it up under a rule that will require a two
thirds vote in the House to pass. And House democrats are stepping up to
oppose the repeal. Whatever happens in the House, Upton owns this until it is
passed.
When it goes over to the senate to die, he is on deck to pass the repeal again
and again and again until it passes the senate, gets vetoed by Obama and his
veto overridden. As for Chu, I think it is time for him to return to
academia. It continues to mystify me that the leftists who have for years
demanded we conservatives stay out of their bedrooms feel perfectly comfortable
in our bathrooms (low flow toilets), light sockets (light bulb ban), school
lunch lines, or a thousand other places they have no business being.
8. Budget Wars. The Obama reelection campaign cranked up last week with
negotiation between House leadership, senate leadership and the Obama
administration about raising the debt limit on federal spending. Obama wants a
Grand Deal that will immediately raise taxes with the promise for trillions of
spending cuts over the course of the next decade or 12 years. If this sounds
familiar, it should, as we have done this before. Reagan was promised in the
1987 TEFRA three dollars of spending cuts for every dollar in new taxes. He
didn’t get it. Bush 41 was promised a similar deal in return for breaking his
no new taxes pledge that eventually doomed his presidency. He didn’t get any
cuts either. Obama and Reid are back with the same deal and the same bogus
promise. And if they get the tax increases, the long term vaporware deal, they
will destroy the conservative majority in the House and all but guarantee
Obama’s reelection. So far,
the House leadership is holding firm. The threatened shutdown date is August
2. And expect Obama to do everything possible to make it as painful as humanly
possible just like Mark Dayton is doing in MN. What should the House do when
the shutdown comes? They start passing a series of small budget bills. The
first is to pay the interest on the debt. The second is to fund DoD. The third
is to keep Social Security checks going out. The fourth would be to fund
Medicare / Medicaid. Force Reid to kill the legislation in the senate and
Obama to veto the bills. After the first round, then it gets real fun, as they
will be in the position to prioritize all federal spending and only fund what
can be funded with $2.6 trillion in tax revenues. This leaves Agriculture
out. It defunds the EPA. It defunds Energy. It defunds the BATF. It will be
very noisy, but the time to do this is now. Buy popcorn.
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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