Government choice...

Property: Fair or foul, U.S. officials diverted floodwaters to farmlands to save cities as the mighty Mississippi spilled its banks. But there was a surprise: Farmers chose not to be victims....

Obama will try to make Big Oil "Profits" a four-letter word...

Let's focus on the goverment waste.....

Cancun Carbon Footprint....

Carbon Worrywarts Burn Carbon Posted December 10, 2010 12:00 AM EST
Daily NewsRecord Harrisonburg, VA

I found it both ironic and interesting to see that the DN-R published an Open Forum by one of the two residents who attended the climate conference in Cancun (“Reduce Your Carbon Footprint;” “Couple To Attend Climate Conference In Cancun,” Dec. 2;). The Stricklers will attend part of the two-week conference as nongovernmental observers for the Sierra Club.

In his Open Forum, Charles Strickler also expressed his concerns regarding the use and damaging effects of fossil fuels as well as the reasons for the dire status of our economy.

The carbon calculator I found online estimates the roundtrip flights for Mr. and Mrs. Strickler to Cancun from, say, Charlottesville produced 3,802 lbs. of global warming CO2 gas. And how much better would it have been to spend the money generated by this conference right here in the economy of the United States?


Here is an interesting comment and link in response to the above Letter to the Editor in today's Daily NewsRecord....

Well, the Stricklers did mention R & R, and drinking margaritas, so I hope they had a good time. That really is all that matters. There was an opening prayer to a Mayan goddess. Some say that the 15,000 attendees produced as much carbon as an African nation does in one year. But the price of a ton of carbon on the Chicago Climate Exchange is still zero.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8166871/Cancun-Climate-Conference-What-is-my-carbon-footprint.html

What about the conference itself? Organisers the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were unable to supply me with a carbon footprint when I asked. But the last conference in Copenhagen, that had just as many people travelling from all around the world, generated the same amount of carbon produced by an African country in one year, and we can hardly suppose it will much less with all the air-conditioning etc.

Just think about the carbon and energy savings if they held this conference by way of tele-conferencing? Everybody wants to sit home in their pajamas "working" on their computers instead of actually traveling into the workplace to save energy and reduce their carbon footprint. Imagine the savings of both if they quit transporting 15,000+ people to tropical islands for two week bash?

The local activist that were mentioned in the above Letter to the Editor traveled to Cancun as "nongovernmental observers" and supported by the Sierra Club... It is good to be active in causes and I am sure the DNR will have a lovely story about their activism\vaction in Cancun and there will sure to be numerous LTE & Open Forums written by the Stricklers. I wonder if they will mention the debate on the overall "footprint" made by this conference?...

The Sierra Club reported Income of $91,843,757 for the year of 2004 with a end of year net worth of $53,339,819...

Imagine how many of those funny looking CFL lightbulbs the Sierra Club could have purchased and the Stricklers could have handed out and the amount of energy saved\Carbon reduction instead of a trip to Cancun?.....

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"Climate Change" (Global Warming) BIG Business....

Climate Depot

More than 1000 dissenting scientists (updates previous 700 scientist report) from around the globe have now challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 2010 320-page Climate Depot Special Report—updated from 2007’s groundbreaking U.S. Senate Report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus”—features the skeptical voices of over 1000 international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC.

The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grew louder in 2010 as the Climategate scandal—which involved the upper echelon of UN IPCC scientists—detonated upon on the international climate movement. “I view Climategate as science fraud, pure and simple,” said noted Princeton Physicist Dr. Robert Austin shortly after the scandal broke. Climategate prompted UN IPCC scientists to turn on each other. UN IPCC scientist Eduardo Zorita publicly declared that his Climategate colleagues Michael Mann and Phil Jones “should be barred from the IPCC process...They are not credible anymore.” Zorita also noted how insular the IPCC science had become. “By writing these lines I will just probably achieve that a few of my future studies will, again, not see the light of publication,” Zorita wrote.

Other UN scientists were more blunt. South African UN scientist declared the UN IPCC a “worthless carcass” and noted IPCC chair Pachauri is in “disgrace”. He also explained that the “fraudulent science continues to be exposed.” Alexander, a former member of the UN Scientific and Technical Committee on Natural Disasters harshly critiqued the UN. “‘I was subjected to vilification tactics at the time. I persisted. Now, at long last, my persistence has been rewarded...There is no believable evidence to support [the IPCC] claims. I rest my case!” See: S. African UN Scientist Calls it! ‘Climate change - RIP: Cause of Death: No scientifically believable evidence...Deliberate manipulation to suit political objectives’ [Also see: New Report: UN Scientists Speak Out On Global Warming—As Skeptics!]

"Global Warming" did not work so now it's "Global Climate Change", or is it?...

Turns out it's getting hard to sell the "Global Warming" stick so it has been changed to "Global Climate Change" which is more broad based and will always be true as long as the weather does not go static and never change at all...

The temperature this morning in Cancun dropped to 51F, breaking the record low for the date of 64 set in 2000. It was also the coldest December morning in Cancun history (old record 52F). Gore must have been there at least in spirit. Recall last year, the IPCC Copenhagen meeting was hit with a blizzard and frigid temperatures. The IPCC moved the meeting to Cancun to avoid another embarrassment and feel the global warmth.

More than 1000 dissenting scientists (updates previous 700 scientist report) from around the globe have now challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 2010 320-page Climate Depot Special Report—updated from 2007’s groundbreaking U.S. Senate Report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus”—features the skeptical voices of over 1000 international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC.

Cuccinelli needs to focus probe into Mann's scientific work that we paid for....

Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Paul Peatross' recently determined that Attorney General Cuccinelli did not properly determine the scope of the inquiry into Professor Mann's work on Global Warming and the data to back up his "Hockey Stick" theory that proves Global Warming is "man-made" as many think it is...
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The Roanoke Times:
"Peatross said the attorney general can issue such subpoenas to UVa and investigate state-funded grants to professors. But in this case, Peatross ruled, Cuccinelli failed to define the "nature of the conduct" that would justify an allegation of fraud and a demand for documents."

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Professor Mann even came out and said that the "Hockey Stick" theory was "misplaced" and should not have become the icon it now is...

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But the issue should be that ANY research performed using "Taxpayer Grant Money" is the taxpayers property and we should be allowed to review this data and ask the hard questions. We paid for it, we own it....

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Many in the scientific community got upset and claimed that providing the data to AG Cuccinelli would suppress "Academic Freedom" as they see it and would have a chilling effect on future research...

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As I have written before grant research money is a BIG BUSINESS for these guys and the universities they bring money to. Are they covering each others ass when it comes to peer review of each others work?...

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And now it looks like many scientist are looking for changes to be made at the United Nations Climate Panel regarding its leadership and management structure... Will this be another "Chilling effect" on scientific research?....

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Remember the UN Oil for Food program and the debacle that was?...

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Al Franken and his "felon" friends?....

Turns out now that more than 300 felons were allowed to vote during the 2008 general election in Minnesota where Al Franken, after an intensive and extended recount where the above ballot was recorded for Franken, was elected the Senator for the state...

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Michael Walsh has the following post on this manipulation of the voting process. Remember 2000 when Gore played the system for all its worth trying to steal that election?....

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Mr. President, "Surprised, disappointed, and angry"?...

That is what was reported coming from the President and his administration...

The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama's claim last week that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" to learn of Megrahi's release.

The note added: "Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."

But then there were these statements coming out of the Obama Adminstration in August 2009

"It's the policy of this administration as enunciated ... by Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton, that this individual should serve out his term where he's serving it right now," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

What happened to just blaming everything on BP?...

The Obama Equation...

(a) (y) - k = x (oil allowed to leak into the Gulf)

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Now it has been a few years since high school algebra class with Mrs. Resnick, but if I remember correctly it is possible to calculate a unknown result if you are able to find and use other known factors of the equation...

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Let us take the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico as an example...

Let us also take a look at the "Obama factors" in this equation...

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The Deepwater Horizon incident is an unfortunate accident that has resulted in 13 members of the Deepwater Horizon rig being killed as well as large damages to the coastal environments and economies. This will be a event that will take decades to know the actual costs to communities, individuals, economies, wildlife, and direction the country takes towards energy independence...

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There has already been much written about how this event will highlight the evils of fossil fuels, their effects on the environment, global warming, and how the country must switch to "renewable" or "alternative" forms of energy to save the world...

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With that there has also been much written about the 40+ years since the last large oil spill like this type and the impressive track record during this time. Also how efficient and productive oil and Natural gas is compared to many of the "alternative" forms of energy and how Oil\Gas has powered and continues to power the worlds economies....

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There has also been much written about how BP is at fault and how BP must pay for the whole incident clean-up and damages to the environment and working communities. In fact the Secretary of the Interior has stated that they (obama administration) must keep "their boot on the throat" of BP to ensure they stop the leaking well and Pay for Everything...

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It is also apparent that the Obama administration took its time in initially responding to this incident. But let us also look at other algebraic factors we can incorporate into the "Obama equation" to determine the amount of oil allowed to leak into the gulf as the result of the administrations inept handling of this incident...

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a = flow rate at well head

y = actual days allowed to leak

k = amount of oil skimmed off surface by ships

b = amount of oil burned off by using fire booms

d = days it took to get the fire booms to the site since the fedgov

did not have them as required by their own law

q = number of days that the Obama admin refused foreign offers of help

j = the Jones act that Obama refused to suspend thus keeping foreign ships from helping

h = number of hours wasted by Fedgov incompetence and infighting

f = results of the Fedgov in actually doing anything that stopped the leak

bs = Obama's visits to the Gulf and actual action to stop the physical leak

r = days it took the Obama admin before they even acknowledged the incident

m = jobs and production lost due to the Obama admins moritorium on offshore drilling

c = concerts held to aid the coastal communites effected by the spill

w = the number of times that Obama blames this whole thing on George W. Bush

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UVA says NO to Cuccinelli... But this is why we should be able to see the data...

UVA University of Virginia has now come back saying that they will not release the data compiled by Prof. Mann, while using taxpayer funded grant money, to come up with his famous "Hockey Stick" theory for Global Warming...

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Seems that 810 of the other scientist, who I venture to guess live on a depend on taxpayer funded grants, have gotten together to urge UVA not to release the data to the Attorney General who is investigating if any fraud is involved...

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ICECAP has some great info on why UVA and Mann should release the data for all to see and review to justify the claims of Global Warming as related to the data...

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Mann is the former UVA professor, whose “hockey stick” temperature chart was used to promote claims that “sudden” and “unprecedented” manmade global warming “threatens” human civilization and Earth itself. The hockey stick was first broken by climatologists Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas, who demonstrated that a Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age were clearly reflected in historic data across the globe, but redacted by Mann. Analysts Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick later showed that Mann’s computer program generated hockey-stick patterns regardless of what numbers were fed into it - even random telephone numbers; that explained why the global warming and cooling of the last millennium magically disappeared in Mann’s “temperature reconstruction.”

Simple... Show us the data if there is nothing to hide... The taxpayers paid for it...

This behavior certainly gives Cuccinelli “probable cause” for launching an investigation. As the AG notes, “The same legal standards for fraud apply to the academic setting that apply elsewhere. The same rule of law, the same objective fact-finding process, will take place.” Some witch hunt...

Grants are BIG BUSINESS and at many levels...

Work by Mann and other alarmist scientists is not merely some theoretical exercise that can be permitted to “play itself out” over many years, if and when the “academic arena” gets around to it. These assertions of climate crisis are being used right now by Congress, states, courts and the Environmental Protection Agency to justify draconian restrictions on energy use and greenhouse emissions. They would shackle our freedoms and civil rights and hammer our jobs, economy, health, welfare and living standards...
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Obama now has his Attorney General Eric Holder in the Gulf claiming that they will sue and punish any company that they determine causing the Deepwater Horizon incident. Think maybe he will get the Department of Justice looking at Mann, UVA, and the "Gang"?...
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Bama was mad when Supreme Court said Corporations could donate... What about the Unions?...

President Obama called out the Supreme Court at his last State of the Union speech for ruling that Corporations could donate toward political campaigns. But yet did he forget how many MILLIONS the labor unions donate, mostly to Democrats, each election cycle?

IBD has info here...

A bill making its way through the Senate would bail out union pension funds to the tune of $165 billion. The bill's author, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, wants the public to pay for the gold-plated union retirement benefits that the funds have mismanaged into oblivion

This has to be galling to average working saps who watch as their 401(k)s and IRAs plummet, only to be asked to pony up billions of dollars in subsidies for unionized workers — many of whom get to retire into the lap of unlabored luxury while still in their 50s

Don't agree? According to OpenSecrets.org, 12 of the 20 biggest spenders on public elections since 1989 have been unions. In just the 2008 election alone, unions spent $400 million dollars. Virtually all of it went to Democrats...

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Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli requests data used for "Global Warming" claims...

Representative James Moran, Virginia-Democrat, recently criticized Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s request for the supporting data related to the research of climate scientist Michael Mann while at the University of Virginia.

Moran accuses the Attorney General of using his position to “Stifle academic freedom” with his request for the data Mann gathered while at UVA and now being used by the Environmental Protection Agency to potentially regulate greenhouse gasses. These regulations will cost both Virginia and the United States millions in lost industry and jobs…

Attorney General Cuccinelli is seeking the data from Mann’s research to see if it was flawed, manipulated, or misused before it was used by the EPA in developing their new regulations. This after it has been learned that vast amounts of data from other research institutes has been manipulated in a way to support the “Global Warming” theory and thus the EPA’s decision.

Now we have numerous academic groups and even the American Civil Liberties Union expressing their objection to the AG’s request.

The Attorney General has responded with: "The use of manipulated data to apply for taxpayer-funded research grants in Virginia is potentially fraud. Given this, the only prudent thing to do was to look into it."

If Mann’s research and data is the product from tax funded research grants it should be available for public and peer group review, and if there is nothing to hide this should be a non-issue…

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.Daily News Record

Staunton NewsLeader

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Awhile back I did a post about how there is such hunger for grants at colleges and how Research Grants has become BIG business...

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In fact while attending a community College and studying Marine Biology as a past time, I was also working on a Sportfishing boat as a living and the Marine Biology Director suggested I take a grant to "Count Birds"...

See Post here....

When you think of corruption...

Once again one of our local businessmen here in Augusta County has taken it upon himself to ask the questions that many of us have been thinking about and in a way to publicly do it....

The owner of Blue Ridge lumber has once again posted large 4x8 signs asking where are the leaders like James Madison during a time where the Federal Government is running unrestricted and using whatever made-up rules and procedures to get their way...

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He has done this in the past and I have always enjoyed looking for the next thought provoking "Question" to be posted as well as the quick conversations we have when it comes time to plant some campaign signs in the area...


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New Climate site from NOAA... But can we trust the data?...

NOAA has introduced a new website portal to keep us all informed on the changing climate with neat little graphics and bar graphs to show us the changing climate. BUT can we trust the data and conclusions made by NOAA regarding the cause\effects of a changing climate???...

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Here is a image showing the concentrations of CO2 across the globe...

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"The red patch of color centered on the savanna region of the Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa shows a large quantity of the gas released from fires people light in order to clear land. The blue colors in the Northern Hemisphere indicate low carbon dioxide concentrations due to absorption by plants in forests and agricultural crops. The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide fluctuates regionally over time due to both natural life processes, such as photosynthesis, and people burning oil, coal, and biomass."

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Do you find it interesting that the blue colors, which indicate low carbon dioxide concentrations, in the United States are located over the Northeast which is more industrial related and probable less vegetation to absorb CO2 as described above?...

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With the discovery that much of the "Global Warming" supporting data over the years has been compromised and altered by the very scientist we are to trust, how much trust should we place in this new science portal provided by NOAA ?...

7.3 million private sector jobs lost but Fed workers doing "Just Fine"...

"Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector."

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USA TODAY newspaper has an interesting article on how well the federal worker segment of our workforce is making out during this recession we all(?) face...

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"Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted."
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"When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000."

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"The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector."
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I just hope these guys have health care insurance, or do we have to help them with that also?...

Homebuyer Fraud?...

The numbers are starting to come in from the recent "Government assistance" program where "eligible" first-time home buyers were able to get $8,000 credit that also could be turned into a check from the IRS...

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The problem being that there is always abuse to government programs like this and this program is no different. Kevin Hassett over at Bloomberg.com has some interesting information and data that shows how yet another government program is being abused and how this form of "Stimulus" will cost the honest taxpayer in the end...

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"At issue was a credit for first-time homebuyers enacted in 2008 and significantly expanded in this year’s plan to jumpstart the economy. It gives a refund from Uncle Sam of 10 percent of the purchase price of a home, up to $8,000. The credit is refundable, so individuals who owed no tax at all could receive a tidy $8,000 check from the Internal Revenue Service."

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One of the problems being that nobody was checking to see if the "first time buyers" were actually first time and if they were eligible for this program.

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"That’s right: Congress passed a law that made it possible to have the IRS mail you a check for $8,000 if you claimed you were a first-time homebuyer. That’s all you had to do -- assert that you deserved the credit. The IRS didn’t require you to provide proof that your claim was genuine before your check was put in the mail. Sound like a recipe for fraud?"

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How easy was it to make a claim for credit?

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"Did you forget to buy a house before claiming the credit? Not a problem. “We identified more than 19,300 electronically filed 2008 tax returns on which taxpayers claimed the First-Time Homebuyer Credit for a home which had not yet been purchased,” reported J. Russell George, the U.S. Treasury inspector general for tax administration, who testified about his department’s investigation."

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Maybe this was just a paperwork mistake? These people did not have the chance to close on the house yet but wanted to start the claim procedure right away? People would not take advantage of another government "hand-out" program and abuse the honest taxpayer would they?

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"Were you unable to purchase a home because you haven’t finished preschool and don’t know how to read the forms? Not a problem. George cited the “more than 580 taxpayers younger than 18 years of age who claimed almost $4 million in First-Time Homebuyer Credits. The youngest taxpayers receiving the credit were 4-years-old.”...

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Remember those $2,500 debit cards the government was handing out without keeping track of who was eligible or how many times they took in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina?...

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You really want these guys running your healthcare program and taxing you to make it "fair" for everybody?...