New version of "Green eggs & Ham" from CPAC and right on it !!!...

Gov. Terry-Mac continues the road trip instead of working in Richmond...

Our Governor Terry McAuliffe continues his road trip across Virginia pushing for a massive expansion of Medicaid instead of working with the Legislature in Richmond on a sensible and sustainable solution. Last week he was in Augusta County at Augusta Health and the local media dutifully covered the event, but just like the mainstream media covering Obama's roadtrips & grandstanding events, failed to ask hard questions or provide further details and facts to the issue they are reporting on...

The NewsLeader reported this on Terry-Macs last visit but instead of asking how this expansion will be paid for it decided to make the Republican as the bad guys without providing valid concerns brought up by the GOP House:

The Democratic governor flew to Wise County on Tuesday to meet with doctors, hospital officials and low-income residents who don’t have health insurance.
McAuliffe asked them to press their state lawmakers into supporting a plan proposed by the Virginia Senate to accept federal Medicaid dollars and expand eligibility for the publicity financed health insurance program.
The county is in the heart of coal country and is in one poorest regions of the state.
Leaders of the GOP-controlled House of Delegates are staunchly opposed to Medicaid expansion, saying it would likely hurt the state’s long-term economy.

Fortunately Republican House Delegate Christopher Stolle has provided important and valuable information in his piece printed here in the Pilot

Last week, the House of Delegates and the state Senate approved separate budgets for the 2015-2016 biennium. The difference between the two was an incredibly low $40 million, or less than one-half of 1 percent of the General Fund budget items to be negotiated by the House and Senate. Yet there is talk of a Washington-style shutdown of state government.
A shutdown would mean schools, cities and counties, roads, public safety and other core responsibilities of state government would have their funding delayed or reduced.
The reason for a shutdown would be the state Senate's 23-17 vote to include in its budget a provision called "Marketplace Virginia," a private insurance exchange that would allow the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

At Gov. Terry McAuliffe's urging, the Senate has unilaterally abandoned the MIRC agreement and put funding for state programs at risk.
We all want high quality, affordable and accessible health care for all Virginians. We disagree on how that should be accomplished.
Medicaid covers about 1 million Virginians and has grown 1,600 percent over the past 30 years. It makes up more than 22 percent of our budget and continues to grow at an unsustainable rate, threatening to crowd out other key services.
The price of expansion has varied by as much as $3 billion over the past two years. No one really knows how much it will cost the state to expand. We do know, however, that without dramatic reforms, adding 400,000 individuals is fiscally irresponsible. Please visit mirc.virginia.gov for presentations on Medicaid reform efforts.

Delegate Stolle brings up a very important fact and a question that the local media(s) should be bringing up at every "Grandstanding" stop made by our Governor....

McAuliffe has stated that Virginia is too dependent on federal dollars and that the impact of federal cuts and sequestration undermines Virginia's economic vitality. Yet he maintains we need to take more federal dollars for Medicaid. Expansion without reform would only increase the state's over-reliance on borrowed money from Washington

The entire piece by Delegate Stolle is very good and should be read by every Virginian citizen so to hear the facts & issues not being reported by much of the VA media. It can be found here.

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If VA government shuts down it will be on Terry-Mac...

The local media is reporting that the Republicans in the House are requesting Governor McAuliffe a special session to hammer out a valid and workable Medicaid solution and allow a budget to pass and keep Virginia operating. It is reported that both sides are close to a budget approval but need more time to modify and agree on a plan for Medicaid expansion. One of the main issues being that Federal money from Washington would get the expansion up and running but that money will run out in the future and leave Virginian's picking up the extensive tab in the future. The House GOP has called for an audit of the present Medicaid system to identify and fix existing problems before this massive expansion as well as determine how to pay in the future any expansion.

If Terry-Mac plays the familiar game of allowing the government to shut down and then blame it on the Republicans as President Obama has done in the past, it will be obvious that Terry-Mac is at fault, not a leader, agenda driven, and does not care about the citizens of Virginia....




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NPR focus...

For the last two days I have had the car radio tuned to NPR news just to see where their focus is at this time. Yesterday they started off reporting that North Korea had fired two SCUD missiles and it was in violation on the United Nations resolution. See how well those UN resolutions work. NPR News spent about 12 seconds on that report then went on to about 10-12 minutes talking about how there is a election in Texas and the Republican incumbent has 6+ “Tea Party” challengers...

This morning NPR News started off with “mentioning” that Syria is behind schedule in their destruction of their chemical weapons as per another resolution. NPR News then went on to spend again much more time on the “Tea Party” challenge in Texas...

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If no budget next week be sure to ask where Terry-Mac was...

As mentioned in a prior post, VA Governor Terry McAuliffe was at the medical center over in Fishersville meeting with the staff and taking the opportunity to "Grandstand" in front of the reliable local press. Terry-Mac was trumpeting his desires for Virginia to jump onto the ObamaCare Medicaid bandwagon so to get that "Free-money" that we all deserve...

Turns out here in a release from the Republican House Leadership:

 “The Virginia General Assembly has only seven days to complete its budget work on time. House negotiators offered to work through the weekend, including today, in order to iron out the final differences between the House and Senate budget proposals, which are separated by less than one-tenth of one percent. But, Senate budget conferees declined that request and Governor Terry McAuliffe would rather grandstand than govern." 

But it seems our local-media-watchdog friends failed to do some research and report to us that the Augusta Health center where Terry-Mac was grandstanding actually had a 23% profit margin in 2013...  Most of those "Evil-Rich" corporations that all our Liberal friends howl about only make 6-10% at best and they are called "GREEDY" at every opportunity !!! 

 “Today the Governor is visiting the most profitable hospital in the Commonwealth. Augusta Health reported $64,470,310 in net revenue in 2012 and a 23 percent net operating margin in 2013. Augusta Health’s operating margin is higher than any other hospital in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The President and CEO of Augusta Health, Mary Mannix, was paid over $600,000 in 2011. Now, Governor McAuliffe is asking Virginia taxpayers to take a gamble on Medicaid expansion in order to offset cuts coming as a result of the Affordable Care Act – legislation that American Hospital Association wholeheartedly endorsed."... 

Remember this next week if in fact we don't have a budget and think about what your Governor (D) was up to....   No worries, I will remind you.....



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Terry-Mac and the Obama tactic....

Last night I caught the 11pm local Newscast crooning all over Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe who was at the Augusta Medical in Fishersville pushing his efforts to ram through a Virginia version of "ObamaCare" Medicaid plan...

Like Obama, Terry-Mac is traveling the State instead of staying in Richmond and working with all of the other "Electeds" that the citizens of Virginia sent them there to do the "People's work"...

Local newspapers did their duty covering the Gov as he made his rounds at the medical center and held a meeting with administrators and of like minded people. Terry-Mac did his grandstanding and I am sure it was a good show for those looking to get the "Free Money" from the Federal government in Wash DC, but is it really ever "Free"...

But I should not be to hard on our local media for they did also cover the three local Delegates from the Valley that held a public meeting just down the road in response to the Governor. These Delegates brought up the very good point of how will the expanded Medicaid program be paid for by Virginians once that "Free money" starts to go away? The House has brought forth plans to audit and fix the broken Medicaid system that wastes millions each year to fraud and theft as shown here but the Governor instead wants to push through Obama's plan as soon as possible. 

McAuliffe said he is open to compromise and wants to sit down with legislators and figure out a solution. Admitting the possibility that the proposal could get more expensive, he said, “Why would we not want our sickest Virginian’s to get in [to the Medicaid program] and be paid for 100 percent by the federal government?
Quote provided by the NewsVirginian

Here Terry-Mac mirrors his friend Obama by stating the obvious and indisputable fact that nobody wants to provide help to our sickest Virginian’s while appealing to those who love the idea of "Free" stuff from Washington. But at the same time he ignores the question of how "Virginian's" will pay for this program in the future.....

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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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