Life

Welcome

Welcome to my blog,  which in the words of Douglas Adams, is about Life, the Universe, and Everything. Blog items include my take on current events, travel, politics, and science.  If you haven't been here before,  you might want to start with my latest take on why we are here.  Thanks for visiting.

The Washington Post makes it official

In 2010, the partisan gap between how Obama was viewed by Democrats versus Republicans stood at 68 percent; in 2009, it was 65 percent. Both were the highest marks ever for a president’s second and first years in office, respectively.

Article here.

The First Rule of Internet Privacy

"If you aren't paying for the product,  you are the product."

Compound, Killing, Liquid

For some reason,  I found this sign disturbing.  Perhaps it was because it was the only identifying sign on a semi-truck full of large plastic containers with quick dump valves parked out on Bradenton Beach.

Good News: Global Warming is over.

"Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997"

Article Here

 

So it turns out that Global Warming,  such as it was, ended fifteen years ago.  About the time the Global Warming scientists started gaining power and millions upon millions of dollars of government research grants.

This would explain why none of the climate models have had any predictive value.  It was easy to brush off a year or two as an aberration (it's weather, not climate).  But after fifteen years,  it was beginning to get pretty suspect.   This also goes far in explaining the censorship and suppression revealed in the two Climategates.

The American Dream

Obama's Clean Energy Initiative

Once again,  Obama was touting clean energy in his State-of-the-Union speech.   Here is a CBS News report looking into some of the more than 20 billion taxpayer dollars spent by Obama's Department of Energy on clean energy (80% of this money went to Obama donors and fundraisers.)  Note,  this is CBS news.



Solyndra and Crony Capitalism

 

This is what always happens when the government tries to pick the winners and losers.  This may be a particularly corrupt example,   but then again,  it may be typical.  Solyndra isn't the first of the government funded alternative energy projects to go bust with taxpayer money,  and unfortunately it won't be the last.  Obama's Department of Energy was rushing to make more bad loans before Congress could cut them off.

President Obama's State of the Union

 

Note that many of these earlier clips were from a time when the Democrats had a strong majority in the House and Senate. 

The great advantage of having no leadership skills and accomplishing nothing is that the State-of-the-Union speech writes itself.   Gives you much more time for golf and vacations.

President Obama's State of the Union Speech - Fact Check

This is the Associated Press (AP) fact check of President Obama's third State-of-the-Union speech.   As you read this,  remember that the AP in 2009 characterized Obama as the "Fact Checker-in-Chief":

FACT CHECK: Obama pushes plans that flopped before

Jan 24, 11:16 PM (ET)

By CALVIN WOODWARD

(AP) President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington,...

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - It was a wish list, not a to-do list.

 

 

President Barack Obama laid out an array of plans in his State of the Union speech as if his hands weren't so tied by political realities. There can be little more than wishful thinking behind his call to end oil industry subsidies - something he could not get through a Democratic Congress, much less today's divided Congress, much less in this election year.

And there was more recycling, in an even more forbidding climate than when the ideas were new: He pushed for an immigration overhaul that he couldn't get past Democrats, permanent college tuition tax credits that he asked for a year ago, and familiar discouragements for companies that move overseas.

A look at Obama's rhetoric Tuesday night and how it fits with the facts and political circumstances:

OBAMA: "We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising."

THE FACTS: This is at least Obama's third run at stripping subsidies from the oil industry. Back when fellow Democrats formed the House and Senate majorities, he sought $36.5 billion in tax increases on oil and gas companies over the next decade, but Congress largely ignored the request. He called again to end such tax breaks in last year's State of the Union speech. And he's now doing it again, despite facing a wall of opposition from Republicans who want to spur domestic oil and gas production and oppose tax increases generally.

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OBAMA: "Our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a government program."

THE FACTS: That's only half true. About half of the more than 30 million uninsured Americans expected to gain coverage through the health care law will be enrolled in a government program. Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, will be expanded starting in 2014 to cover childless adults living near the poverty line.

The other half will be enrolled in private health plans through new state-based insurance markets. But many of them will be receiving federal subsidies to make their premiums more affordable. And that's a government program, too.

Starting in 2014 most Americans will be required to carry health coverage, either through an employer, by buying their own plan, or through a government program.

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OBAMA, asking Congress to pay for construction projects: "Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home."

THE FACTS: The idea of taking war "savings" to pay for other programs is budgetary sleight of hand. For one thing, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been largely financed through borrowing, so stopping the wars doesn't create a pool of ready cash, just less debt. And the savings appear to be based at least in part on inflated war spending estimates for future years.

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OBAMA: "Through the power of our diplomacy a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran's nuclear program now stands as one."

THE FACTS: The world is still divided over how to deal with Iran's disputed nuclear program, and even over whether the nuclear program is a problem at all.

It is true that the U.S., Europe and other nations have agreed to apply the strictest economic sanctions yet on Iran later this year. But the global sanctions net has holes, because some of Iran's large oil trading partners won't go along. China, a major purchaser of Iran's crude, isn't part of the new sanctions and, together with Russia, stopped the United Nations from applying similarly tough penalties.

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OBAMA: "Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values."

THE FACTS: Economists do see manufacturing growth as a necessary component of any U.S. recovery. U.S. manufacturing output climbed 0.9 percent in December, the biggest gain since December 2010. Yet Obama's apparent vision of a nation once again propelled by manufacturing - a vision shared by many Republicans - may already have slipped into the past.

Over generations, the economy has become ever more driven by services; not since 1975 has the U.S. had a surplus in merchandise trade, which covers trade in goods, including manufactured and farm goods. About 90 percent of American workers are employed in the service sector, a profound shift in the nature of the workforce over many decades.

The overall trade deficit through the first 11 months of 2011 ran at an annual rate of nearly $600 billion, up almost 12 percent from the year before.

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OBAMA: "The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home."

THE FACTS: Obama is more sanguine about progress in Afghanistan than his own intelligence apparatus. The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan warns that the Taliban will grow stronger, using fledgling talks with the U.S. to gain credibility and stall until U.S. troops leave, while continuing to fight for more territory. The classified assessment, described to The Associated Press by officials who have seen it, says the Afghan government hasn't been able to establish credibility with its people, and predicts the Taliban and warlords will largely control the countryside.

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OBAMA: "On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories."

THE FACTS: He left out some key details. The bailout of General Motors and Chrysler began under Republican President George W. Bush. Obama picked up the ball, earmarked more money, and finished the job. But Ford never asked for a federal bailout and never got one.

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OBAMA: "We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation."

THE FACTS: With this statement, Obama was renewing a call he made last year to require 80 percent of the nation's electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2035, including nuclear, natural gas and so-called clean coal. He did not put that percentage in his speech but White House background papers show that it remains his goal.

But this Congress has yet to introduce a bill to make that goal a reality, and while legislation may be introduced this year, it is unlikely to become law with a Republican-controlled House that loathes mandates.

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OBAMA: "Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households."

THE FACTS: It's true that a minority of millionaires pay a lower tax rate than some lower-income people. On average, though, wealthy people pay taxes at a much higher rate than middle-income taxpayers.

Obama's claim comes from a Congressional Research Service report that compared federal taxes paid by people making less than $100,000 with those paid by people making more than $1 million. About 10 percent of families with incomes under $100,000 paid more than 26.5 percent in federal income, payroll and corporate taxes. And about a quarter of millionaire taxpayers paid a rate lower than that.

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OBAMA: "We can't bring back every job that's left our shores.... Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed."

FACT CHECK: Many of the jobs U.S. companies have created overseas won't return because they were never in the United States in the first place.

As Obama said in his speech, U.S. workers have become more productive and labor costs have fallen.

But there are powerful forces pushing the other way: Many of the overseas jobs in U.S. companies weren't transferred from the U.S. They were created in fast-growing markets in Latin America, Asia and elsewhere to serve customers in those markets. Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index now earn more than half of their revenue from overseas.

That has fueled more job creation abroad. U.S. multinationals cut more than 800,000 jobs in the United States from 2000 to 2009, according the Commerce Department. They added 2.9 million overseas in the same period.

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OBAMA: "Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned doesn't know what they're talking about ... That's not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they've been in years."

THE FACTS: Obama left out Arab and Muslim nations, where popular opinion of the U.S. appears to have gone downhill or remained unchanged after the spring 2011 reformist uprisings in the Middle East. A Pew Research Center survey in May found that in predominantly Muslim countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan, views of the U.S. were worse than a year earlier. In Pakistan, a major recipient of U.S. foreign aid that went unmentioned in Obama's speech, just 11 percent of respondents said they held a positive view of the United States.

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Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Anne Gearan, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Martin Crutsinger, Jim Drinkard, Dina Cappiello, Erica Werner, Andrew Taylor, Christopher S. Rugaber and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report

 Please note that while giving full credit to the AP and its writers,  I have included a copy of this article instead of my usual practice of only including a link because I do not doubt that the AP is under a great deal of White House pressure to withdrawal this article,  and in the past,  many such articles have disappeared under such pressure.

I am greatly encouraged that mainstream media giants like the AP and the Washington Post are beginning to see our President for what he is,  a demogogue with no leadership skills and no plan.

 

Obama Unites the Supreme Court

Many have criticized Obama for his failure to unite the nation.  His class warfare rhetoric has been accused of further dividing the nation,  giving us the most ineffectual, divisive political environment in a time of great crisis.

To those critics,  I would point out that President Obama has succeeded in uniting the Supreme Court.  In just the past few months,  we have seen a series of unanimous 9-0  decisions from the Court. 

 
Most recently,  the Supremes unanimously ruled that police need a warrant to use GPS tracking devices.  They all agreed this was a clear interpretation of the Bill of Rights.  The Obama administration maintained that the police shouldn’t need warrants,  which is consistent with their policies of suppressing civil rights.  Obama has maintained he has the right to kill American citizens without due process. And he has recently signed into law a bill that allows the government to make American citizens disappear without due process,  basically rescinding hundred of years of precedent dating back to the Magna Carta. 

The Obama administration has extensively used the Patriot Act for warrantless tapping of telephones,  the vast majority of the cases being drug related and having nothing to do with terrorism.   But in the GPS case,  the Supreme Court stood up for the Bill of Rights,  which gives us hope that they might have something to say about the administration’s other abuses.

A couple weeks before that,  the Supreme Court ruled against the administration in a freedom of religion case.   Again,  the ruling was a unanimous 9-0 against the administration.   In this case,  Obama’s Justice Department maintained they had the right to determine who could and could not be the minister of any church in America,  and that only the government could define what a minister was.   The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion reminded Obama that the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights was established to protect churches from government,  not protect the people from the churches.

Finally,  we have the Supreme Court overturning a lower court, and ruling against the Obama administration, in a unanimous 9-0 decision.  In this particularly egregious case,  a lower court judge threw out the redistricting plan of the democratically elected Texas state legislature and redrew the district lines to favor Democrats.  Again, the Supreme Court decided the Tenth Amendment still has some validity.  There is unfortunately no one objective way to draw district lines ( so you can always choose an objective method that favors your side.)  But in this case,  the Supremes unanimously ruled that an elected body clearly has precedence over a single activist, and clearly biased, judge.

So we have three cases in two weeks in which the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously against Obama and his lawyers.   Does this show that Obama is clearly to the left of even Ruth Bader Ginsburg?  I think not.   Rather,  it shows a President who is ruthlessly trying to grab power and trample the Bill of Rights.  The media has been covering up these stories,  but the Supreme Court very clearly sees what is going on.  All members of the Supreme Court,  whatever their labels,  can join in fighting these abuses.   And this gives us hope.