Tuesday, February 25, 2014

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...



Sunday, February 23, 2014

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

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... 


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


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....
Mitt Romney

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?...






.


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Raise minimum wage? What about the 500k people you are going to put out of work!!...




 CBO says it will put minimum skilled people out of a job instead of providing them an opportunity to learn skills thus making themselves more valuable to the labor market. This is what the Liberal Democrats want... They want you to be dependent on them and bigger government... It will also effect all those higher skilled labor for your benefits, bonus package, and wage increases, will suffer for this "mandated" increase in the labor expenses... Stephen Moore knows his stuff !!!...

Rule #7: Never trust a Liberal.....


Rule # 7...

Never trust a Liberal...

I will explain later...





.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

My friend David Beyeler...



My friend David….

I spent many days at my County District Supervisor’s home office which was a small room attached to a one time operating dairy barn and learned so much about farming, local history, old bottle collecting (especially Milk bottles), local economy, local politics, and how to read those in politics… A office full of books, reports, artifacts, commemorative items, milk bottles, and old campaign signs. A computer that he would “peck” at and was so happy once he found that with windows he could work on county business while monitoring the status of a bid he made on a milk bottle on e-bay at the same time…

He pretty much knew everybody in his South River district and knew how they were related to each other. Many times he would ask me who I saw at GOP functions, at work, or even just about town.  How did they pronounce their names. Or “What was their “momma’s maiden name” like I would have asked that?...  Over the years I have done many hikes along the Appalachian Trail as well as lesser known trails in the county and he would ask off what road, where did I park, how was the trail, and then tell me local history of that area.   



He introduced me to the local “Historical Bottle Diggers of Virginia” club that I am now a member of and have made several valuable friends. This group of collectors has incredible knowledge and research skills in locating and identifying all different types of bottles and presenting this information. Of course having been a dairy farmer in the past he focused on milk bottles and their history. The last time I spoke with him was just after our bottle club meeting that he was not able to attend and the first thing he asked was who was there and how was everybody. He sounded tired but perked up when I spoke about one of our members finding a little known milk bottle for $4 in a local antiques store and after research it turns out to be the only know specimen of a dairy that only operated in Washington DC from 1920-21.      A wealth of information and observation…



He also knew much of the local economic history of the area as well as the State and not just only from being a county Supervisor. He knew the local business owners simply because he saw them grow up in the community and in the business world. Anybody who has spent time at the local farm co-op knows that this is an opportune place to learn who is doing what and where as well as who is planting what. This was always evident the many times I saw him walk the mile long route of the Stuarts Draft Volunteer Firemen’s parade where he was constantly stopped and approached by local business owners usually ending with a pat on the back…



He always made it a point to be in the Stuarts Draft parade for this was not only in his backyard but these were the people he represented and cared for. He provided the wagon and supplies when it was requested and even went along with some of the “Extensive” floats that I put together. In fact the joke often was there could always be more room made in his barn to store some of these “Projects”… I never did see him make it down to the BIG Buena Vista Labor day parade but he was always sure to ask how it went and if I had photos.  But during my “Drill here, Drill now” phase of my “political issue involvement” efforts, it seemed I often got the raised eyebrow response from him… 



He was very interested when a local GOP volunteer and friend of mine Chris Green ran for the Rockbridge County Supervisor seat.  I helped Chris with some of his campaign and worked several voting locations on election day. Chris is a very impressive “Numbers” guy and knows his data. He often pointed out how well Augusta County managed their money and has an impressive debt to revenue ratio. David was always quick to look to how projects would be paid for and how “Free money” from DC or Richmond was never “Free”….

One of the most valuable and treasured things I learned from my friend was how to read those in politics and question their motives. Something that should always happen no matter how much ‘Political coin” they may have built up in the past. Those who know local Augusta GOP committee history know what I mean and many are grateful for his help and knowledge during a very tough time and transition…

As mentioned by another local GOP member recently, David would often say "Never get into an argument with a crazy person. A neutral person would never be able to figure out which one was crazy and which one was sane."    So true…


I will miss my friend…..






.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Teach a man to fish....


 
 

Jakes Downtown Waynesboro...

The NewsLeader did a nice front page article and review of the new "Jakes" Bar & Grill that has recently opened in downtown Waynesboro...

http://www.newsleader.com/article/20131229/NEWS01/312300002/Fallen-soldier-s-mom-starts-new-chapter-Jake-s

I have been there several times before the grand opening and since opening and it has a great format and adds another reason to come "Downtown" which has been missing for years now.

The South River Fly Shop is just around the corner on Main Street and is another great addition to the downtown effort...

http://southriverflyshop.com/about/