Deepwater and media hype...

Roughly four years ago I stood at the 2010 Shad Planking handing out information and discussing with people the need for the United States to Drill for more oil here within the United States. There still remains solid reasons and benefits for us to pursue this option to secure our energy future and to improve the economy but the focus and discussions have changed...

The tent was busy and even with it being located away from the main aisle of the Planking event, there was good traffic and interest as well as a wind power booth not far away. Interesting how the focus has changed since then and there was little if any talk of "Fracking" for Natural Gas back then. In that short time Natural Gas use has increased considerably and many electric generation plants have changed from Coal to NatGas to make their electricity. A by-product of this change has been the reduction of CO2 gas which many claim is the reason for "Global Warming" and then "Global Climate Change". Our President has been quick to note the reduction of CO2 but fails to mention it is due to the increased use of Natural Gas via "Fracking" and the mainstream media is willing to avoid asking him the hard questions as they should....

Ironically during this event several of us were monitoring news reports of a offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that had a explosion and was still on fire. The "Deepwater Horizon" incident was to become a major environmental, political, and technological incident, regarding deep water drilling for oil and natural gas. Reports now put it at over 210 million gallons of oil released into the Gulf waters over several weeks and several attempts to "cap" the well.
 

Without a doubt the Deepwater Horizon incident was major and resulted in a detrimental impact to the environment but not anywhere near what the media predicted during and since. A U.S. Government report estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal) but that went into a substantial volume of water which diluted it greatly. The impressive thing is how “Mother Nature” took control of this “disaster” and repaired herself.


The Deepwater Horizon oil provided a new source of nutrients in the deepest waters," explained Hazen, who is with the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. "With more food present in the water, there was a population explosion among those bacteria already adapted to using oil as a food source. It was surprising how fast they consumed the oil. In some locations, it took only one day for them to reduce a gallon of oil to a half gallon. In others, the half-life for a given quantity of spilled oil was 6 days. This data suggests that a great potential for intrinsic bioremediation of oil plumes exists in the deep sea and other environs in the Gulf of Mexico."

 Oil-eating bacteria are natural inhabitants of the Gulf because of the constant supply of food. Scientists know that there are more than 600 different areas where oil oozes from rocks underlying the Gulf of Mexico. These oil seeps, much like underwater springs, release 560,000-1.4 million barrels of oil annually, according to the National Research Council.

"The bottom line from this research may be that the Gulf of Mexico is more resilient and better able to recover from oil spills than anyone thought," Hazen said. "It shows that we may not need the kinds of heroic measures proposed after the Deepwater Horizon spill, like adding nutrients to speed up the growth of bacteria that breakdown oil, or using genetically engineered bacteria. The Gulf has a broad base of natural bacteria, and they respond to the presence of oil by multiplying quite rapidly."
source:

Gulf of Mexico has greater-than-believed ability to self-cleanse oil spills

It is also evident that the Deepwater Horizon incident did considerable damage to the local economies along the Gulf coasts and States. Many vacations were canceled as well as industries experienced substantial damages. Owners of the Deepwater Horizon project (BP petroleum) is continuing to payout a total estimated at $42.2 billion in damages.

But one can only imagine the negative influence on this incident that the mainstream media caused with it's reporting practices. We all know that the media portrays the worst case scenario for in this day and age that is what sells the best in the media. Think back to all the dire reports and predictions during that period and compare them to what you hear now. I recall hearing a story of sport fishing guides returning to the docks after a productive day of fishing in the Gulf only to find the NEWS media not interested in how the day of fishing went only to flock to the boat that returned with oil samples brought back in mason jars.

When living in Key West back in September 1998 we had hurricane Georges come through town at a category three and did some damage to electric service and flooding, but the most damage came from the reporting by the mainstream media. I recall getting phone calls and friends looking to see if we were still alive after they saw the reports coming out of the Keys. Turns out everybody was watching the same NEWS video coming out of downtown Key West where there was a large tree toppled in the street and the NEWS casters used this for a backdrop for their video shoots. If people on the “Mainland” only knew that if the camera man was to pan in either direction they would have seen the crowds of locals standing on the curb in shorts, tee-shirts, flip-flops, and drinking beer while watching the Newscast.... Found this piece in the wikipedia account of the hurricane incident...

"Due to lack of law enforcement, those who stayed in Key West went through red lights, double-parked, and disobeyed traffic laws. Long-time Florida Keys citizens noted the solitude of the time and enjoyed the island for how it once was, rather than the large crowds of tourists"

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Benghazi... We should hear what really happened from the people there...

EMMETT TYRRELL over at the Washington Times has a good piece on what really happened during the Benghazi TERRORIST attack and how we should be able to hear from those who were actually there. The mainstream media has failed in calling for these interviews and once again giving the Obama administration a pass on yet another terrorist attack...

"The night of the Benghazi attack, a security team based in Tripoli consisting of seven men — at least two of them Delta Force operators — was ordered to Benghazi. After delays, they arrived between 4:30 and 5:15 in the morning. A former SEAL with knowledge of the situation told us that the security team inflicted a large number of casualties on the attackers. It was during this attack that mortar fire took the lives of two very brave men, former SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, who were on the annex roof defending it. One of the Delta Force operators, Master Sgt. David Halbruner, received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in the fight. Another, rumored to be a Marine, may have received the Navy Cross. Both honors are second only to the Medal of Honor."

"There is more. One of the survivors of the attack was apparently injured so seriously that he was still receiving medical assistance at the National Military Medical Center near Washington as late as December. It is possible he is still there. This wounded warrior, and the others who fought so bravely that night, have yet to testify before Congress. Before Rice pops off again, we should hear from them. Right, Sen. McCain?"
http://washingtonexaminer.com/congress-should-hear-from-benghazi-attack-witnesses/article/2544788 

~2014 Sinker Sale~ Point Pleasant Fire Company Fishing Flea market...

It took the team eleven and half months to get 2579 pounds of sinkers and five and a half hours to sell every one. This week end was the Point Pleasant fire departments company #1 fishing flea market and as in the past they give the dive team a table to sell all the stuff we found throughout the year. Sell we did!!

Two thousand five hundred seventy nine pounds of sinkers, hundreds of lures, many fishing poles, anchors, and old bottles all for sale, and everything was recovered from underwater.  We do clean the lures and the sinkers of old line and any debris that hangs on to it.

  We were ready for the doors to open and the mad rush of people looking for deals! Well it didn’t happen that way! People did come in but not like in years past. Sales were OK but kind of slow and it was not just us. Nobody was doing very well. There just  wasn’t a lot of people.

Our sales did pick up late in the morning and we started moving a lot more sinkers. Paul D. had his hand truck and was kept busy taking half buckets of sinkers out to the parking lot. Half of bucket here and a half bucket there and we well on your way to getting cleaned out, One sale took all our bigger sinkers. Another sale took over half our lures and that’s how the morning went.

By 1:00 we were pretty much done, most of the vendors were packing up, we had two half buckets of sinkers left and looked like they are going back to the building with us! But wait!!! As we were loading it on the truck one last customer came up and took everything we had left. Nothing but empty buckets and one fishing pole were going back with us.

   It was a really good day! We sold everything. It was the best we ever did and the most we ever made. “If you bring it someone will buy it”.

   You would think after working all day selling sinkers we would take a rest, but you would be wrong!!  We checked the water and it was really clear so it was off to get gear and hit the inlet.

   So Ali, Bob, Joe, OJ, Greg, Linda and I all suited up and jumped into the inlet with Paul and Milton as surface support. Being on call 24/7 we have to be ready at all times so this keeps us on our toes!! The water was COLD! I could feel it on my face the minute I hit the water, but the visibility was so good with over 10-15 feet. Everybody teamed up and started looking around.

The inlet is always changing, sand moves here and sand moves there and you never know what you’re going to find. The find of the day goes to Ali, she found a brand new watch and it had the right time on it!! Joe followed that up with a nice silver ring!! Linda and I came out with a full sinker tube and some quarters and a clip of 30-06 bullets and Linda got a nice bottle too. Joe out did us on the bottles also! He got a bottle I have never seen before.

After over an hour the divers started coming out and checking out our finds. It’s really nice having surface support to help the divers getting out of the water and helping the divers out of their gear. Paul saw Joe’s bottle and got on his I-phone and found out it’s a soda-milk bottle from the 40’s. With the last diver coming out an hour and twenty five minutes after going in, it was time for coffee and to head back to clean up and start the next year’s great sinker race again!

Team website:  http://ptrescuedive.blogspot.com/

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200,000+ Gun-nuts, 7 days, $70 million to economy, and no shootings, mass killings, riots, ?......

Last month I made the pilgrimage like many up to Harrisburg PA for the Great American Outdoor Show and was impressed by the size of this show with 650,000 sq\ft of floor space….

It took me three hours of driving up 81 to find traffic actually backed up onto route 81 and still 2 miles from the Farm Show complex. After sitting in traffic for 1-1/2 hours I came up to several FULL parking lots and instructions to go to the Harrisburg mall to be bussed over to the show. Another hour delay…

Once inside we found lines everywhere in the numerous show buildings, food lines, bathrooms, and most every booth of the 1,000+ vendors that were there. Interesting thing was with all of these people from all over the United States, even some of them obnoxious Northerners, it was a day of bumping into each other and waiting on everything...

During the 4 hours that I was at that show I must have bumped into 20-30 strangers where everybody said “excuse me” or even stood aside allowing other people to go buy. Stood in a food line for 15 minutes waiting to get a $7 crab cake that confirmed I was still hungry and looking for more and finding another long line. There were crowds at every function and at most every booth and display and it was easy to get separated from friends and fellow “Gun-nuts”. In fact if you wanted to go to another exhibition hall you basically had to merge into the river flow of people and catch the current to the location you were looking for...

Now take into consideration that the majority of the 200,000+ attendees to a show like this that focuses on guns, hunting, Safari hunting packages, shooting sports, fishing, archery, etc. are considered “Gun-Nuts” to many of our Liberal friends and the mainstream media. In fact Ted Nugent was there meeting and talking with hundreds of people there…

Now with Pennsylvania being a State that allows concealed carry of guns by permit holders, along with honoring surrounding States permits such as my State Virginia permit, there were plenty of armed people during that week. With that not one reported mass shooting, single shooting, riot, fight, carnage, rape, disturbance, or even flipping over of cars in the parking lot like after many NBA Championship games...

Surely, and please don't call me Shirley, with such a concentration of these gun-nuts and pro 2^nd amendment radicals there must have been something to repeat over & over on the Liberal mainstream media outlets? I Could not find a single report of any incident.   Did I miss something?.....

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Old Farmer's Almanac vs. NOAA

I have an ongoing debate with a co-worker regarding what started out as man -made “Global Warming” until they had to change it to “Global Climate Change” once actual (lack of rising) temps did not match the predictions.  He has been very stern in telling me that the science is “Settled” regarding the debate and that I need to read the scientific publications to get the facts instead of the “Rhetoric from the Right” and that the media has mislead us all…

Unfortunately for my friend he has not been able to explain how just back in the 1970’s they were predicting a coming “Ice age” then just 40 years later the scare was the opposite with all of our Ice bergs melting.  But he claims that with the use of 10,000 year old Ice-cores they can tell me what the temperature change has been and with his scientific publications where we are headed.

I can’t wait to show him these tidbits that appeared in the Investors business piece today. The "Old Farmer's Almanac vs. NOAA

Last fall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) predicted above-normal temperatures from November through January across much of the continental U.S. The Farmers' Almanac, first published in 1818, predicted a bitterly cold, snowy winter.

The Maine-based Farmers' Almanac's still-secret methodology includes variables such as planetary positions, sunspots, lunar cycles and tidal action. It claims an 80% accuracy rate, surely better than those who obsess over fossil fuels and CO2.

The winter has stayed cold in 2014, and snowfall and snow cover are way above average. USA Today reported on Feb. 14 that there was snow on the ground in part of every state except Florida. That includes Hawaii.

As Bloomberg notes, the CPC underestimated the "mammoth December cold wave, which brought snow to Dallas and chilled partiers in Times Square on New Year's Eve." The Almanac didn't, though Caleb Weatherbee, its prognosticator, apologized for being a few days off on two of the season's biggest storms.

The CPC seems to have completely missed the "polar vortex" that swept down and caused every state except Florida to experience snowfall and brought about 4,406 record low temperatures across the U.S. in January, along with 1,073 record snowfalls.

As John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, has noted, global temperatures collected in five official databases confirm that there's been no statistically significant global warming for the past 17 years — contradicting the predictions made by 73 computer models cited in the United Nations' latest (wrong) global warming report...

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/022114-690857-farmers-almanac-more-accurate-than-climate-models.htm#ixzz2uIRebHtK

Vance Wilkins looking to bring back the "Team" to the 6th....

I had the opportunity to talk with Vance Wilkins yesterday at the "George Washington" breakfast that was sponsored by the Republican committee of Waynesboro. Good man and we need somebody to bring the workers together to work together and get Virginia back on track. Yes the Democrats may have an edge on the use of technology but it is the "message" that has to be sold to the people. A person looking for the truth will find it by using this "new" technology and it's the "message" that needs to be provided by the Republican party. Many have been fooled by the "Obama-message" that they were fed by way of their Smart-phone & the Comedy channel. Now that they have seen how it is hurting them they will be looking for a real message and the GOP must provide that message...  

Bob Stuart over at the NewsVirginian has a good piece on the challenge in the 6th....

Former House Speaker Wilkins looks to resurrect his political career

Posted: Sunday, February 23, 2014 7:00 am

Former House Speaker Wilkins looks to resurrect his political career BY BOB STUART bstuart@newsvirginian.com

NO to Keystone XL pipeline !!! But wait, look who profits....

So many of my Liberal friends at work are quick to defend the efforts to prevent the Keystone pipeline made by their favorite Democrats in the House and Senate, but yet they stutter when they learn who will benefit if this project is defeated...

Politics: While they exaggerate the pipeline's environmental dangers, Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL have invested in direct competitors to the company that would build the pipeline

As Lachlan Markay notes in the Washington Free Beacon, both freshman Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California, both vocal opponents of Keystone XL, have significant investments in companies with competing ways of bringing the crude from the oil sands of Alberta to market.

Here Senator Kaine appeases his base with the below statement but in fact he has already hedged his bet, and vote, with investments that will benefit him if the Keystone pipeline project is denied....

"Building this pipeline would dramatically ramp up capacity for tar sands oil that moves us in the opposite direction of an innovative, make-it-cleaner approach," Kaine said in a statement following the issuance of a State Department report that said not building Keystone XL would have no environmental benefit since Canada was not about to leave its crude in the ground, but would extract it anyway and send it westward through competing pipelines to energy-hungry markets such as China.

Public records from Kaine's most recent financial disclosure examined by the Free Beacon show that he has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, which owns the Trans Mountain Pipeline in Canada and takes oil sands from Alberta to Canada's west coast, where there are refineries and export terminals.

Surprise for it is not just our Virginia Senator standing to benefit from the Democrats defeating this pipeline... Yet another Obama supporter looking to make BIG money off of the Democrats efforts....

Kinder Morgan is the same company and pipeline that billionaire hedge fund manager and Obama bundler Tom Steyer was invested in as he also railed against the environmental harm of Keystone. Steyer denied any financial interest in opposing Keystone, but opted after the disclosure to dump his holdings, moving on to the green pastures of global warming and climate change that made Al Gore wealthy.

But wait my bleeding heart Liberal enviro-maniac friends. It's not just your Senator that you thought so much of... Your "Sugar-daddy" also !!....

Their financial interests in not building Keystone pale in comparison to Warren Buffett, President Obama's favorite 1-percenter, who made a good investment when he bought the BNSF railroad in 2010 for $26.5 billion.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/022014-690679-democrats-profit-from-keystone-pipeline-opposition.htm#ixzz2u6KVSWvh


While we are at it let's look at your Liberal claims that the GOP is full of "Evil Rich-guys" who do not care for the common man...

Remember the constant drumbeat from your Liberal mainstream media during the last Presidential election where the attacks on Mitt Romney were trumpeted at every mainstream Liberal outlet including the Comedy Channel ?!!!...

It turns out another Virginia Senator has a higher net worth then Romney. Senator Mark Warner (D) has a higher net worth at $260 million over Romney's $250 million. Remember that next time Warner tells you he is fighting for you, the "common man" that made him a Senator... 

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Mark Warner Net Worth

Mark Warner net worth: Mark Warner is an American politician and businessman, who has a net worth of $260 million dollars. Mark Warner is a former Governor from Virginia and the current junior senator from Virginia and serves on the board of the National Democratic Institute for Foreign Affairs. He invested in a number of technology companies when they were first starting out, including Nextel.

Remember this next time you pay your $150+ Smartphone bill for won't hear about this on the Jon Stewart Comedy Channel show.... 

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/dl/mark-warner/

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Mitt Romney Net Worth

Mitt Romney net worth: Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician who has a net worth of $250 million. Mitt Romney is the former Governor of Massachusetts, a former Mormon missionary and and the Republican Presidential nominee in the 2012 campaign. Mitt Romney's net worth makes him one of the richest politicians in the United States and by far the richest 2012 Presidential candidate....

Senator Emmet Hanger. There goes my enjoyable breakfast....

Today's breakfast found me reading back to back stories in newspapers that made me forget the enjoyment of reading the morning news over a good bacon & eggs...

  

The Republican controlled House in Virginia voted to reject the Medicaid expansion favored by our New Democrat Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. Yeah, that Terry McAuliffe. Turns out over in the Virginia Senate the numbers are much tighter and in fact several Republican Senators, including my Senator Emmett Hanger, are looking to push through this "Product of ObamaCare" as soon as they can. No big surprise for the Democrat Senators for they strive and would love to be an extension and version of the Democrat Senate in Washington DC, But Senator Hanger from the Shenandoah Valley has forgotten how to listen to the people he represents while in Richmond. 

We are talking Billions of dollars first coming out of the ObamaCare debacle but what happens in Virginia once this money goes away as it always does? But that was not the kicker, many of us have learned to expect something like this coming out of Hanger, and then I saw this story in the the Washington Times regarding the massive fraud in the Medicaid program exposed by recent arrests in our national capitol.... Ironically the same swamp where the "ObamaCare" package is coming from....  

 Federal prosecutors said Medicaid fraud has reached “epidemic levels” in the nation’s capital, as they announced charges Thursday against 25 people accused of making claims based on fake symptoms and personal home care that was never performed.

 Authorities are still tabulating the alleged damage, but said one Maryland woman netted $75 million she was not entitled to and that other schemers took in millions more. The charges, outlined in five federal indictments and local fraud charges, raise new questions about how vulnerable taxpayer-funded health entitlements are to false claims and billing.

About half the states are debating whether to expand Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law, and conservative critics in those states say the federal-state entitlement program’s cost, inefficiency and susceptibility to fraud are reasons to be wary.

She had been barred from participating in federal health care programs after her nursing license was revoked in Virginia in 2000, but prosecutors accused her of raking in $75 million from the D.C. and Maryland Medicaid programs, anyway, using another name to get back into the game.

 Other problems exposed Thursday included corrupt care providers who recruited patients to fake symptoms — walking with a cane and overstating their aches and pains, for example — so they could obtain a prescription for additional care, authorities said. Prosecutors said those patients received cash payments in exchange for saying they had received home care services. The more fraudulent hours prescribed, the greater the kickback.
 Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/20/top-prosecutor-announces-largest-health-care-fraud/#ixzz2u5yeJrGa Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Senator Hanger. How about we hold off implementing a massive increase to the Medicaid program which is corrupt, abused, not sustainable in it's present form, and overhaul it as many House Delegates have called for? Let's think about the honest hardworking Virginia citizen that has paying his "fair share", as well as that of those abusing the system, before you sign on to this extension?...

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