Guess which country lowered its carbon emissions most

Would you guess the United States of America? Yes. The USA lowered its carbon emissions the most over the past six years; that's the years since Kyoto Protocol went into effect. Blame Bush. President Bush and the US were vilified for not ratifying Kyoto. Instead we got results. [Update: Graphic added.]
But the UN is not happy with mere results; they want more talk!
Michigan Capital Confidential

Over the past six years, the United States has reduced its carbon emissions more than any other nation in the world.
Efforts to curb so-called man-made climate change had little or nothing to do with it. Government mandated "green" energy didn't cause the reductions. Neither did environmentalist pressure. And the U.S. did not go along with the Kyoto Protocol to radically cut CO2 emissions. Instead, the drop came about through market forces and technological advances, according to a report from the International Energy Agency.
Breakthroughs in how natural gas is extracted from underground shale formations were the key factors that led to the reductions, the report said. Natural gas has a low carbon footprint and is widely available in the United States. As a result, entrepreneurs are flocking to extract it from new areas.
"It's good news and good news doesn't get reported as much,” John Griffin, executive director of Associated Petroleum Industries of Michigan, said of the lack of reporting about the CO2 reductions. "The mainstream media doesn't want to report these kinds of things."

But the UN is not happy with these results; they want more talk, more meetings, more declarations.
UN climate bureaucrat-in-charge Christiana Figueres hopes Hurricane Sandy will wake up the US and get us to her meetings. Successful results only count when the ring is kissed.
Washington Examiner

Christiana Figueres, who leads the United Nations negotiations to get governments to reduce carbon emissions in the world, regards Hurricane Sandy as “yet another wake-up call” for Americans to get on board with her climate change policy.

“Yes, I certainly do think that this is yet another wake-up call,” Figueres said of Hurricane Sandy to Yale Environment 360 in an interview published by The Guardian.”I did hear President Obama say quite categorically in his acceptance speech that he is not going to have a future that is threatened by increasing warming . . . I do think that this mirrors the growing awareness in the United States. So I do think that Sandy has contributed to this. Is it the tipping point? That remains to be seen.”

Figueres also spoke if international frustration with the United States for failing to sign onto UN global warming initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol.

“[I]f the United States does not strengthen its participation in the global climate regime under the newly re-elected president I think there will be increased frustration with the United States,” she said.

Job-killing policies such as cap-and-trade, which would limit and tax carbon emissions in the United States, died in 2010 due to the harm it would cause the economy. Figueres, though… [blah blah blah]

See also: Lowest energy-related CO2 emissions in 20 years. NY Times. The graphic on this page shows that "lowest in 20 years" means just that, comparing the first quarter in every year.
This isn't a "Sound" topic, but there is a shortage of reporting good news on the enviro scene.

Cross posted on Economic Freedom.

Mayor Bloomberg's hair net

Does Bloomberg wear his hairnet when he serves food in NYC disaster areas? BUZZ - Question is based on the false assumption that he does something besides jet off to Bermuda at every disaster.

But he will fine your organization if you don't.

Fox News

The New York City Department of Health has been dispatching workers to storm-ravaged areas across the five boroughs as part of an outreach to ensure that volunteers are informed on proper food-handling and other safety issues.

But the presence of health officials has caused some confusion as to where the city is drawing the line between advisement and enforcement.

Bobby Eustace, an 11-year veteran with the city's fire department tells FoxNews.com that on Sunday he and his fellow firefighters from Ladder 27 in the Bronx were issued a notice of violation for not maintaining restaurant standards in a tent set up in Breezy Point, Queens, to feed victims and first responders.

“It’s just a little ridiculous. The inspector came up and asked if we were wearing hairnets. I told him, ‘We have helmets. This is a disaster area,’” Eustace told FoxNews.com. “Then he asked is we had gloves and thermometers [for food]. I said, “Yeah, we have rectal and oral. Which one do you want?’ He wasn’t amused.”

Eustace says that the Health Department worker then checked off a list of violations at the relief tent, including not having an HVAC system and fire extinguisher.

“He told us that he might come back to see if we fixed the violations.

Of course Nanny Bloomberg's PR people say the volunteers don't understand what is going on. But he set the nanny standard; his employees are following him.

Via Instapundit

Obama believes in 6-day creation

Was it Senator Rubio? No. The One himself.

Slate

And here's then-Sen. Obama, D-Ill., speaking at the Compassion Forum at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. on April 13, 2008:

Q: Senator, if one of your daughters asked you—and maybe they already have—“Daddy, did god really create the world in 6 days?,” what would you say?

A: What I've said to them is that I believe that God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible may not be six days as we understand it … it may not be 24-hour days, and that's what I believe. I know there's always a debate between those who read the Bible literally and those who don't, and I think it's a legitimate debate within the Christian community of which I'm a part. My belief is that the story that the Bible tells about God creating this magnificent Earth on which we live—that is essentially true, that is fundamentally true. Now, whether it happened exactly as we might understand it reading the text of the Bible: That, I don't presume to know.

Bipartsian leadership in Washington Senate

Everyone wants bipartisan government - when it doesn't count. Now it is happening in the Washington Senate. Last March three Senate Democrats joined the Republicans to forge and pass a budget. See Olympia's Democrats Throw a Childish Hissy-Fit. And current developments are even more astounding.

Republicans and Democrats together might elect the majority leader! Senator Rodney Tom (D - Medina) has put together a coalition of himself, Sen. Tim Sheldon (D - Shelton) and the Republicans. Their third Democrat Jim Kastama of Puyallup didn't run for reelection and was replaced by Bruce Dammeier, a Republican. Now everyone is waiting for the final count of Senator Don Carlson vs. Tim Probst, where Benton is 100 votes ahead, but they are still counting.

Tom has the votes to win. Who is opposed to bipartisan leadership?

Senator Tom began his Legilative career as a Republican, but switched to Democrat. He has a record of thoughtful leadership on the budget, against the Chopp-Gregoire-Brown "spend, spend, spend. Oh, we were surprised by a deficit!" herd.

Seattle Times

Tacoma News-Tribune

Washington State Wire

John Carlson on KVI 570 radio

Want to pay for more renewable energy?

Seattleites: Want to pay for more renewable energy? Every month? It's voluntarily.

Seattle now gets 96.5% of its electricity from renewable sources. Don't you want it to be higher? I don't see the problem.

I live outside the city limits, but we get our electricity from Seattle Light. So a couple weeks ago I got a mailing showing the very, very happy owner of a wind farm and telling me about the problem.

"However, while hydro electricity is renewable and low cost, it is not infinite."

Oh… It's not infinite. So disappointed. Nothing is infinite! That's life! But we have a lot of it and we are buying wind power also. But now Seattle is allowing its electricity customers to voluntarily pay $3, $6 or $12 per month to keep that 96.5% from falling. No thanks.

The graphic: the right column shows the power sources in 2012: Hydro 92.4 plus wind 4.1 = 96.5%.

Disgusting Jerramy Stevens

Husky star and Seahawks star tight end Jerramy Stevens. Year after year he committed crimes but was let off.

Prosecutor Norm Maling protected him by chewing out the prosecutor who brought charges against him. AD Barbara Hedges protected him. Coach Rick Neuheisel - may his name live in infamy - protected him. Judges gave him below-minimum sentences or delayed sentence until after football season..

Seattle Times

[Correcting misspelled title!]

Veterans Day

Today we remember the end of World War I - "The Great War" - and honor all veterans.

John Singer Sargent was an American born in Italy who never lived in the US. He was very talented and a hard worker. He got in the sweet spot of painter of portraits for high society - good money and status - and was a huge success. He was asked by Prime Minister David Lloyd George to do a grand painting showing British and American troops together in action. So went to the front in July, 1918, while fighting continued.

He was very touched when he saw soldiers wounded by mustard gas. This powerful painting resulted. It's not heroic at all, but shows the pain of war.

And… I will place a flag at Acacia Cemetery in Lake Forest Park in memory of Harvey C Roys, Jr., my father-in-law, who attended medical school during WW II, finishing in time to see action in the invasion of Okinawa.

[Oops. Didn't post on the day.] The photo: Wall Street Journal. I think this is full size.

Camp stove that charges phones!?

Yes. A camping stove that charges cell phones.
In NY after Sandy… Daily Beast

… And on the ground level, one of the most useful tools to emerge is a genius new spin on the most basic of emergency devices: the campfire.
The BioLite CampStove is about the size of a coffee urn. Developed as the hot new toy for hikers, the stove houses a small fire that burns from hunter-gatherer fuel sources—dry twigs, pinecones—and, in addition to warmth, generates electricity for users to charge mobile devices. You can cook on it, too. But with hundreds of thousands of people without power for days following the wrath of Sandy, and many in the New York region still in the dark, a serendipitous new function of the CampStove—disaster relief—has come to light.
“We realized some of these applications while we were developing it,” Erica Rosen, director of marketing at BioLite, tells The Daily Beast. “But it has really come front and center in the last week.”
The Wednesday after Sandy struck, a group of three BioLite engineers packed a car with four CampStoves and a folding table and drove to Lower Manhattan, where there was still no power, and set up a charging station outside Washington Square Park. They made a handwritten sign—“Come charge your phones for free and drink some tea while you’re waiting”—and quickly amassed a crowd of local residents toting dead phones who couldn’t believe their luck. Finally, a way to charge their cells and reopen crucial lines of communication with family and friends.
“One person was like, ‘Just let me know when this company goes public. I want to pour my life savings into it,’” Nissan Lerea, one of the BioLite product engineers who manned the charging station, says. “A lot of people wanted to buy the stoves from us right then and there, but we weren’t selling it. One person offered to buy it used on the spot.”

The manufacturer - Biolite CampStove. Note that its fuel is wood you find, not white gas or propane.

Interior Dept to reduce US oil lands available

True, but …

During the election Obama talked about how oil production increased while he was president [What did he do about it?] and won. Now that the votes have been counted Obama can show his real priorities. He is ruling out oil production in a huge area of the US West.

But this is oil shale, not the more common oil formations or the tight rock containing oil where fracking is used. There is little production in oil shale (though it was first used before 1850) because high temperatures are involved and it's not economical at $100 per barrel. So the immediate impact is not so big.

The Hill

The Interior Department on Friday [November 9] issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development. 

The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation. 

The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is too tight. 

Interior’s Bureau of Land Management cited environmental concerns for the proposed changes. Among other things, it excised lands with “wilderness characteristics” and areas that conflicted with sage grouse habitats. 

Under the plan, 677,000 acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming would be open for oil shale exploration. Another 130,000 acres in Utah would be set aside for tar sands production. 

The administration and Democrats said that while the plan would curtail what was originally sought for oil shale development, it still opens up a significant amount of land that was previously unavailable for the energy production method. 

The administration noted the plan pushed forward Friday also included two research, development and demonstration (RD&D) leases for oil shale development.
"The proposed plan supports the Administration’s all-of-the-above approach to explore the full potential our nation’s domestic energy resources and to develop innovative technology and techniques that will lead to safe and responsible production of resources, including oil shale and tar sands, which industry recognizes are years from being commercially viable, but require RD&D today," Interior spokesman Blake Androff said. 

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) praised the plan, saying the administration exercised the right amount of caution on oil shale development, which has not yet been brought to commercial scale and brings concerns about the amount of water used in the practice.
"I am glad the Interior Department is taking measured steps to encourage research and development of our oil shale resources. With water being one of our most precious commodities in the West, I have concerns about the potential impacts of commercial oil shale development. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing this technology explored further," Udall said in a Friday statement 

Oil shale development is not to be confused with drilling into shale formations for oil and natural gas. The practice, which involves separating hydrocarbons bound up in rocks, has not been widely executed since Exxon's failed Colorado venture in the 1980s.
Bobby McEnaney, senior lands analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for the proposed final plan. 

“By significantly reducing the acreage of wilderness potentially available for leasing, Secretary Salazar is laying out a creative, thoughtful and more responsible approach in managing some of our most precious resources,” McEnaney said in a Friday statement.
Congressional Republicans are not likely to be as pleased. 

GOP lawmakers, along with some Democrats, have pushed for more fossil fuel production in the West. Republicans have led the charge, saying Obama’s policies on fossil fuel drilling on federal lands are too restrictive. 

While Obama notes domestic oil-and-gas production has increased during his administration, Republicans contend that it is activity on private and state land that is driving the boost. They point to this year’s dip in oil-and-gas production on federal land — though levels are still higher than they were during the Bush administration. 

The Congressional Western Caucus released a report in August to deliver that message.
“This proposal will place further limitations on the exploration and development of our country’s natural resources and is yet another example of how this administration continues to stand in the way of North American energy independence," Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), the chairman of House Energy and Commerce's subcommittee on Energy and Power, said in a statement to The Hill. 

Oil and gas lobby the American Petroleum Institute, an ally of congressional Republicans, slammed the decision.
Jack Gerard, the group's chief, said Thursday he would take a "wait-and-see" approach to Obama's second term to gauge whether he would live up to campaign rhetoric in which he praised the domestic oil-and-gas industry. 

Reid Porter, the lobby's spokesman, said Friday's news was a disappointing sign from the administration. 

“This is another step in the wrong direction that limits development and investment in one of the nation’s most energy-rich areas and goes against a prior government decision that would allow for research and development over a much wider geographical area. Just days after the election this decision by the administration sends negative signals to industry and capital markets at a time when we need to encourage growth and innovation in the U.S.," Porter said in a statement to The Hill.

The graphic is from CNN Money. Click to enlarge.

FEMA disaster centers closed due to weather

Obama adminsitration at its best. You can't make this stuff up. Obama really closed the disaster center due to rain.

DNAinfo.com NY

TOTTENVILLE — They fly into disaster areas, but flee from raindrops.

FEMA disaster recovery centers in Hurricane Sandy-ravaged sections of the city that were supposed to provide assistance to hurricane victims went MIA Wednesday morning, posting signs saying that they were closed due to the approaching Nor'easter.

The temporary shuttering of the facilities, which help victims register for disaster relief, as well as city food distribution centers come even as many of those still reeling from the monster storm were not told that they had to leave the battered areas.

On Tuesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that residents in the low-lying portions of Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn were advised to leave ahead of the nor'easter, which could hit the city with 60 mph gusts and several inches of rain Wednesday afternoon, but that the evacuation was not mandatory like the one issued for all of Zone A ahead of Sandy.

“We do not believe that it’s necessary to evacuate people,” said the mayor Wednesday.

No. Don't evacuate residents. But do evacuate the "disaster responders." Including the food distribution centers.

IRS admits churches can speak on politics

Liberal groups have been intimidating churches for decades, sending letters claiming any church that allows political speech will lose their tax-exempt status - ACLU, Barry Lynn's American United for Separation of Church and State and PFAW. But they are wrong. No church has ever lost its tax-exempt status for political speech. And now the IRS is blowing the whistle on the anti-church bunch.

CNS News

… The left has cried wolf far too many times. No one will come running. Especially not the IRS.

That’s because churches, unlike other nonprofit organizations, don’t need a letter of tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service. Churches are constitutionally tax-exempt simply by virtue of existence. It’s automatic. The only way the IRS could revoke a church’s tax-exempt status would be to disband the church, which, obviously, the government has no authority to do. It’s simple. Pastors, if you get a letter from the ACLU, PFAW or AU, I suggest a singular use for it: bird-cage liner.

Keeping all this in mind, something I’ve long expected has finally occurred. A little over a week ago, the IRS ran up the white flag. [The Blaze] That bureaucratic bully we all love to hate announced that, for the indefinite future, it is “holding any potential church audits in abeyance,” for violating its arbitrary “no politicking” rule.

Professionals leaving China for better prospects

Do you think China is about to run away with all the glory - economic and rising military power? People who live there don't agree. They look at all the problems - huge very-low-income population, bad air and other environmental problems, unstable rule by 20 men - and look for a way out.

NYT

BEIJING — At 30, Chen Kuo had what many Chinese dream of: her own apartment and a well-paying job at a multinational corporation. But in mid-October, Ms. Chen boarded a midnight flight for Australia to begin a new life with no sure prospects.

Like hundreds of thousands of Chinese who leave each year, she was driven by an overriding sense that she could do better outside China. Despite China’s tremendous economic successes in recent years, she was lured by Australia’s healthier environment, robust social services and the freedom to start a family in a country that guarantees religious freedoms.

“It’s very stressful in China — sometimes I was working 128 hours a week for my auditing company,” Ms. Chen said in her Beijing apartment a few hours before leaving. “And it will be easier raising my children as Christians abroad. It is more free in Australia.”

As China’s Communist Party prepares a momentous leadership change in early November, it is losing skilled professionals like Ms. Chen in record numbers. In 2010, the last year for which complete statistics are available, 508,000 Chinese left for the 34 developed countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That is a 45 percent increase over 2000.

Individual countries report the trend continuing. In 2011, the United States received 87,000 permanent residents from China, up from 70,000 the year before. Chinese immigrants are driving real estate booms in places as varied as Midtown Manhattan, where some enterprising agents are learning Mandarin, to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which offers a route to a European Union passport.

Few emigrants from China cite politics, but it underlies many of their concerns. They talk about a development-at-all-costs strategy that has ruined the environment, as well as a deteriorating social and moral fabric that makes China feel like a chillier place than when they were growing up. Over all, there is a sense that despite all the gains in recent decades, China’s political and social trajectory is still highly uncertain.

Rob McKenna because he will be a better governor, not because Metro employee stole his signs

Vote for Rob McKenna because he will be a better governor - Sea Times - National Federation of Small Business - WA Realtors - Veterans - not because a Metro Transit worker was photographed stealing and destroying his yard signs.

Seattle Times headline: "Metro warns workers on political activity"

Why can't the Sea Times have a headline saying "Metro Transit worker(s) seen stealing Rob McKenna signs"? Times:

… Paul Bachtel, president and business representative of the ATU [union] local, initially said it appeared the photos had been fabricated by McKenna supporters to discredit Inslee. He later told Thomas in an email that Metro had identified the person with the signs was a McKenna supporter who was was trying to protect the signs and who will “suffer the consequences” for violating Metro policy.

… Metro spokesman Jeff Switzer said he couldn’t confirm that Metro had identified the man with the signs because the investigation is continuing.

Bush tried to repair NE electric grid

President Bush''s Dept of Energy saw the problems with the NE US electric grid and proposed solutions in 2002. Why didn't Washington work with him to improve on this known problem?

American Thinker

Democrats rejected plans to upgrade the electrical grid system in the country because they believed Bush and Cheney were just rewarding "cronies" who helped get them elected (sort of like Obama giving billions to now bankrupt solar companies whose CEOs supported his election). Here (PDF) is the Bush Administration report advocating for upgrades. Too bad its implementation was blocked by Dems in Congress.

But the Dem action in this case is just par for the course. Soon after the election of George W. Bush, plans were being hatched to derail any energy plan that the dastardly "oil men" were to send to Capitol Hill, as this 2001 LA Times article reports.

UW engineering students - 3D printer for rural Mexico

Three UW undergraduate engineering students have devised a large-scale 3D printer that uses the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in milk jugs. They can devise and make all sorts of things - from discarded milk jugs.

Amazing people. They are not typical undergrads. Matthew Rogge, after years working in the Peace Corps in third-world countries, saw an opportunity, but needed more technical education, so he went to UW he is 36.

Seattle Times

They've developed an inexpensive 3-D printer that can turn shredded, melted plastic waste into just about anything.

3-D printers have been around for at least 25 years, although they have become more widely available, better-known and cheaper in recent years. They use computer-aided design to create three-dimensional objects by laying down super-thin layers of a material, such as plastic, much like a regular printer lays down ink.

But until now, nobody had figured out how to cheaply build a large-scale printer that used recycled plastic as its raw material, said UW mechanical-engineering professor Mark Ganter.

"They're amazing students just to start with," he said of the team. "They have a very clear vision of how to marry 3-D printing into what could help a developing country."

The unlikely trio — in addition to Rogge, the team is made up of a former Japanese major and a blacksmith — are all pursuing undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering. They'll use the $100,000 prize money to build low-cost 3-D printers that can make large objects, including composting toilets and rain-catchment systems, in the mountainous state of Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico, which has a large population of indigenous people.

"Not only are we addressing water and sanitation and economic needs, but we're reducing waste," Rogge said of their plans. "There's just so many good things about it."

New York expects you to pay to 100% of their damage

The federal government normally pays 75 to 90%. But Governor Andrew Cuomo says he can't afford 10%.

Yes. His state is a mess. State debt is $13,000 per person - highest in the nation. But I didn't make the mess, Cuomo, you did. Go ahead, Cuomo, just continue borrowing.

Yahoo/Reuters

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York state on Wednesday asked the U.S. federal government to pay all the costs of cleaning up and repairing damage from massive storm Sandy that tore through the Northeast this week and crippled New York City.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said he is asking fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama, to pay 100 percent of the estimated $6 billion bill, at a time that state and local government budgets remain constrained by a weak economic recovery.

That would be a significant change from last year when the federal government covered about 75 percent of the $1.2 billion cost paid by New York to clean up after storm Irene hit the region.

The two U.S. senators from neighboring New Jersey, the other state hit hardest by the storm, also asked that the federal government cover more than the usual share of the cost, given the size of the disaster and the financially strapped local coffers. ...

Edmonds wildlife

I like walking and although mountains were my first love I have preferred beaches for the past maybe ten years. I have never seen a beach on fresh water that you could walk, so this is strictly salt water. We live near Lake Washington. But in less than ten miles I can be walking at Richmond Beach in Shoreline, Carkeek Park in Seattle or Olympic Beach in Edmonds. I get to Richmond Beach and Edmonds once a week when I am in town.

Edmonds is very urban and Olympic Beach is only a few blocks long. But there is much more: from its north end and north of the ferry terminal Brackett's Landing Park is paved walking and a beach runs north - I have walked about a half mile north to the next creek. And the walk south, though paved, is along the marina then to Marina Beach park and an off-leash beach for dogs.

Wildlife: Edmonds has all the saltwater front and some first-class marshes. So there is a great variety.

Heermann's gulls are striking gulls. At a glance in flight they look like little bald eagles - white head and dark body. But, of course, they have the unmistakable gull shape and don't have the white tail of a bald eagle. According to Edmonds beach rangers Edmonds is the farthest south in Puget Sound they are found. They don't walk the beach; they stay along the end of the fishing pier and beyond.

Sitting in my car paying bills in one of the three parking spaces facing the water I heard shrill sea-gull calls and a mature bald eagle came flying at me, first ten then twenty feet off the ground with two sea gulls in chase.

After a 30-minute walk during a lucky interval between heavy rain, back at Olympic Beach, as I returned from the fishing pier I saw a harbor seal in very close - very shallow water. Then I looked out and the bald eagle was on a piling 200 feet away.

Photo from TGrey Birds. Click to enlarge.

Obama smart - fines for not using unavailable products

You can't make this up. Obama in action. Remember how smart we were told he is? Always the smartest man in the room.

Obama's EPA is fining oil companies for not using cellulosic biofuel. But cellulosic biofuel is not being produced. So what might a rational administration do? OK. We have to wait until January, 2013 for that.

If Obama's EPA was so smart they would produce their fantasy cellulosic biofuels themselves. Note at the end of the quote below that the NYT says EPA is being lenient - by not fining them even more!

NY Times

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide. In fact, while it may seem harsh that the Environmental Protection Agency is penalizing them for failing to do the impossible, the agency is being lenient by the standards of the law, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. ...

Best pics of Hurricane Sandy

Daily Mail (UK)

Great photos

Vote tampering in Florida

Someone in Seattle is interfering with the election in Florida!?

Registered Republicans in at least 14 Florida counties have received mailings questioning their citizenship and voter registration. The letter purports to be from the local election official - the election supervisor in most cases - but does not contain their official seal. And the envelope has no return address and is postmarked in Seattle. Also it is mailed with a 45-cent stamp, which a government office would not do on a mass mailing.

So? The letter doesn't "steal" the voter's vote. But it tells them they are not eligible - to convincer them not to vote. To suppress the votes of Republicans in the swing state of Florida.

Tampa Bay Online:

Much has been made of efforts to suppress the vote in recent months, but this effort is most disturbing. First, it is clearly well-funded and widespread as evidenced by the sheer number of counties and individuals involved, as well as the use of stamps. Second, the effort is targeting a crucial swing state that has been at the center of recent close elections and had elections called into question in the past. Third, the research necessary to conduct such an operation and the money needed to fund the research and stamps to send these letters from Seattle to Florida are enormous.

This is not a small effort — it is, in fact, a very calculated and detailed effort needing money, knowledge, technology and a motive to influence the outcome on a grand scale.

This is not classic vote fraud - casting a ballot - but is a clear effort to suppress the votes of one side only - the Republicans. And it is a massive effort - fourteen counties!

Who is doing it? Is the effort really based here or are they just dropping their mailings here?

Paul Ryan in Ohio on domestic policy

Michael Gerson of the Wash Post was impressed by Ryan's talk in Demo-heavy Cleveland this week. This was released the same day the newspaper endorsed Obama for four more years of the highest poverty rate in decades and unemployment of 8 per cent.

WA Post

… Romney — admittedly a bit late — sets out a centrist governing philosophy. Both candidates, revealingly, are mainly talking about Romney.

Paul Ryan’s recent speech at Cleveland State University was an important part of the Romney campaign’s “go large” strategy — a presentation on political philosophy amid the normal stump speeches. Following a Republican primary season heavy on tea-party rhetoric and a GOP convention light on substance, Ryan outlined a conservative vision of the common good.

Those who expect Ryan to sound like Ayn Rand — an embarrassing past flirtation — got something very different. Ryan quoted Abraham Lincoln on social mobility — “an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.” Ryan identified with his mentor Jack Kemp: “When he spoke of progress, he meant progress for everyone.” And without quoting him, Ryan embraced Pope John Paul II’s emphasis on the importance of healthy civic and religious institutions. It is a combination — Lincoln, Kemp and Catholic social thought — that must have set Rand a-spinning.

At the same time, Ryan managed to probe one of Obama’s sore spots — the fact that he presides over the highest poverty rates in a generation. This state of affairs is enough to embarrass any self-respecting Democrat, so Obama avoids the topic. Ryan reintroduced it. He also correctly diagnosed America’s main social challenge: stalled mobility. “There is something wrong in our country,” argued Ryan, “when 40 percent of children born to parents in the lowest fifth of earners never know anything better. The question before us today — and it demands a serious answer — is how we get the engines of upward mobility turned back on?”

Ryan’s answer was serious without being comprehensive. He was strongest on the need for education reform in mediocre schools that routinely betray poor and minority children. Ryan correctly criticized welfare policies that encourage dependence and undermine family commitments. But he had less to say about the decline of decent-paying, blue-collar jobs, which consigns many communities, in places such as Ohio, to economic and social decay.

Ryan’s main contribution in the Cleveland speech was to fill out a positive Republican governing philosophy. The speech recognized that equal opportunity is not a natural state. Rather, it is a social achievement — “something we’ve had to constantly fight for.” And Ryan defined a sophisticated division of labor between government and civic institutions in promoting opportunity: “There has to be a balance — allowing government to act for the common good, while leaving private groups free to do the work that only they can do. . . . Our families and our neighborhoods, the groups we join, our places of worship . . . this is where we live our lives. They shape our character, they give our lives direction, and they help make us a self-governing people.”

Ryan was particularly effective in critiquing the Obama administration’s threats to this delicate social ecosystem. Excessive government debt, he said, “crowds out civil society by drawing resources away from private giving.” The abuse of federal power — particularly the contraception mandate placed on religious charities and hospitals — undermines the humane partnership between government and civil society and weakens the safety net.

The speech had gaps. I would have preferred a more specific assurance that government retrenchment will not come at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. Cutting a middle-class entitlement is not the equal of cutting an AIDS program. The religious institutions Ryan rightly praised in his speech would doubtlessly remind Romney and Ryan of a continuing need for moral discernment in a time of austerity.

But Ryan has done something important. He has provided a Romney administration with a domestic policy approach — the promotion of social mobility — that is consistent with conservative principles while appealing to the good heart of a nation.

They lead China by fear and in fear of their own people

Thomas P M Barnett has been watching China. He likes the analysis of a Wall Street Journal article about China. The leaders lead by fear and in fear of their own people. He sees big changes inevitable.

TPM Barnett

WSJ:

China's latest evidence of sputtering growth underlnes a dilemma for its incoming leaders: They can shore up the economy by doubling down on an exhausted growth model, or take a risky political bet on reforms that could worsen the slowdown in the short term

Waterspouts over North Puget Sound Saturday

Waterspouts formed over North Puget Sound Saturday, October 20, 2012.

NWCN with photos.

Photos were taken from the Clinton ferry terminal, from Marysville and Whidbey Island.

Benjamin Martin said he was waiting in line at the Clinton ferry terminal when he spotted a water spout form and touch down near Saratoga passage.

A couple of the photos were taken by Jennifer Hogan, a trained storm spotter and meteorologist, who just moved to the area last week from Ohio.

Weather spotters from the National Weather Service said a waterspout was spotted just off Hat Island in Possession Sound.

Gay-marriage proponent harrasses woman opposed and attacks bystander

A man attacked a woman who had anti R-74 signs on her car in a Safeway parking lot in Burien Sunday, October 14. He first tore a sign off her car and tore it up. When another woman got out of her car to help he attacked her and used the strongest racial slur. King County Sheriff's Office says a 23-year -old man was arrested Wednesday morning.

Did the pro-gay-marriage campaign renounce this attack? Washington United for Marriage issued a statement on Monday, October, 15:

“Let me be clear. We condemn any act of this sort and we have been explicit with our supporters — we respect everyone, no matter where they stand on Referendum 74. In fact, we sent an email to our entire list in early September calling for respect and restraint, and another to our staff.

“Having said that, this sort of claim is, sadly, a well-worn, cynical political tactic by the National Organization of Marriage (NOM) that began in California in 2008 and has been regularly trotted out ever since. They have neatly turned the basic argument — that they and their supporters are subject to harassment — into a near constant lament in the final weeks of these campaigns.”

Get that? Being attacked is a political tactic. How does one arrange that? That's the only news or statement on the WUFM web site today.

This story was not well covered. I didn't see it in my daily news trolling.

Seattle Times on October 17. The Seattle PI reported the arrest October 17. Fox News 13 reported the story: KCPQ 13

It's not news at KIRO TV - recent stories about R-74. Not news at KOMO TV - recent stories about R-74

Not news at KING TV - recent stories about R-74. Not news at NWCN - recent stories about R-74

Hat tip to John Carlson at KVI AM 570.

Zero jobs during Obama rule

President Obama brags about creating 5 million jobs during his rule. But Rick Santelli of CNBC checked the data and found that Obama forgot to include the jobs lost during his rule.

Plus 5 million jobs subtracting 5 million jobs lost equals zero. Zero jobs gained under Obama.

The only reason the unemployment rate has dropped is that millions of people have stopped looking for work. When you stop looking you are no longer counted as unemployed. When Obama brags about ho he brought unemployment below 8 per cent after 43 months (3 and a half years) he is bragging about pushing people onto welfare.

Rick Santelli at The Blaze

Obama lead narrows to 5 in Washington

Public Policy Polling, which is left-leaning, now finds that Obama's lead over Mitt Romney in Washington State is only 5 per cent - 50-45 percent. The poll was taken before the second presidential debate.

The difference? Independents are now breaking 48-43 percent for Romney.

Other polls don't find the race so close.

Seattle P-I blog

The photo: from CBS. Cross posted at Economic Freedom.

Ohio coal miners - Quit lying about us, Obama

Ohio coal miners - Quit lying about us, Obama

Gateway Pundit

Ohio miners gathered Friday afternoon read aloud a letter the miners mailed to Obama. They told the president to quit lying about them in his ads. (Herald Star Online)

Ohio coal miners held a press conference on Friday to tell Barack Obama to quit his lies and mistruths about them.

The Ohio Intelligencer reported:

Coal miners at the American Energy Corp. Century Mine said they want President Barack Obama to stop what they term “the war on coal” – and to stop spreading “mistruths” about them.

Miners gathered Friday afternoon to express their opposition to Obama’s energy and environmental policies, which they believe threaten their jobs. Miner Mitch Miracle read aloud a letter the miners mailed to Obama that outlines some of their concerns.

The miners said Obama’s campaign team is running ads filled with “blatantly false” statements about the miners regarding their participation in Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s August campaign stop at the Century Mine. These ads assert that the miners were forced to attend the event by the mine’s owner, Robert Murray.

“There are numerous false statements and absolute lies concerning our participation in this event, mostly started by a local ‘shock jock’ radio host,” the miners’ letter to Obama states. “Why would you (Obama) lie about the 500 working miners who have signed this letter? We, the employees of the Century Mine would request you immediately stop these false ads.”

This summer, Murray Energy Corp., parent company of the Beallsville mine, cut or relocated 56 workers with the closure of the Red Bird West mine near Brilliant. Murray also cut 29 mining jobs from The Ohio Valley Coal Co.’s Powhatan No. 6 Mine. All of this was done, Robert Murray said, because of Obama’s “war on coal.”

Murray then hosted the Romney campaign stop in Beallsville in August, during which many miners appeared behind Romney as the former Massachusetts governor spoke about the need to protect coal mining jobs. In response to the assertion some have made about the miners being forced to appear with Romney, the miners made several points on Friday.

The Columbus Day Hurricane 1962

On October 12, 1962 a storm hit with the force of a category-3 hurricane. The term "hurricane" is only used for tropical storms, so this term for this one is non-tropical cyclone.

I went on a church trip from West Seattle to a restaurant in Federal Way = The Farm, as I recall. We didn't recognize ourselves in immediate danger; we saw a lot of trees battered by the wind. But we got to the restaurant. I think we ate, then the power went out. Not sure.

In one high-school football game, not our own West Seattle High, a punt was negative - went backwards!

Cliff Mass has the report from the scientific side with data and charts at his weather blog.

History Link has the full story. And today's Seattle P-I site.

Gregoire earned an F

Christine Gregoire earned an F for her high-tax and big-spending governance. She is among the four governors who ranked below Jerry Brown if California! In Cato Institutes annual Fiscal Report on Governors. Cutting state spending and controlling taxes lead to more economic development and growth, more jobs and higher incomes. [Add reference later. Posting from phone.]

Cato.

Companion op-Ed by Chris Edwards in WSJ.

40% of Washington jobs related to trade

International trade is very important to Washington - Boeing and aerospace, Microsoft, Starbucks, agriculture and other exports. And imports. And China is the largest trade partner.

Washington Council on International Trade released a study:

International Competitiveness Strategy for Washington State.

• International trade is a key driver of our state's economy.It spans across nearly every industry sector - from agriculture to aerospace to IT to tourism. Based on new research, nearly 40% of all jobs in Washington can be tied to trade-related activity, making our state one of the most trade-engaged economies in the country.

• Services are an increasingly important part of our trade economy. While it is widely known that Washington is a leader in merchandise and commodities exports like agriculture and aerospace, we are also a growing leader in the export of services such as IT and tourism.

• The state government has a key role to play. Much of our country's trade policy is set at the federal level, however, state government is crucial to Washington's international competitiveness.

• Imports mean jobs in Washington state. Although shifting global supply chains cause economic hardship for many people in the U.S., imports also help employ many Washington residents - because of our state's role as an Asian gateway and as the home to a wide diversity of retail and manufacturing headquarters that leverage global supply chains.

• Washington's international engagement goes beyond imports and exports. Foreign direct investment provides capital for our state's businesses and infrastructure, as well as direct employment for Washington residents. Immigrants and foreign-born residents strengthen our workforce, drive innovation and bring with them connections to our trading partners.

• There are steps we can collectively take to increase Washington's international competitiveness. The strategy provides six recommendations that will have the maximum impact on increasing the ability of Washington businesses and organizations to successfully engage internationally.

Via Breitbart

Obama is allowing illegal foreign donations says GAI

Is Obama violating federal law? Just to get money for his campaign? A new report from the nonpartisan Government Accoutability Institute outlines what Obama and his surrogates are doing. They are intentionally bypassing normal web security measures so foreign donations are allowed. Those donations are illegal.

Katie Pavlich at Townhall

A new report obtained by Townhall from the non-partisan Government Accountability Institute [GAI] shows the Obama campaign has potentially violated federal election law by failing to prevent the use of fraudulent or foreign credit card transactions on the official Obama for America [OFA] donation webpage.

For the past eight months, GAI has been investigating the potential influence of foreign online campaign donations in House, Senate and presidential elections. The report was conducted using spidering software and found thousands of foreign sites linking to campaign donation pages. The investigation was conducted with the guidance of a former U.S. attorney. GAI is led by Peter Schweizer, who recently exposed congressional insider trading in his book Throw Them All Out.

“As FBI surveillance tapes have previously shown, foreign governments understand and are eager to exploit the weaknesses of American campaigns,” the report says. “This, combined with the Internet’s ability to disintermediate campaign contributions on a mass scale, as well as outmoded and lax Federal Election Commission rules, make U.S. elections vulnerable to foreign influence.”

OFA seems to be taking advantage of a “foreign donor loophole” by not using CVV on their campaign donation page. When you donate online to the Obama campaign using a credit card, the contribution webpage does not require donors to enter a secure CVV number (also known as CSC, CVV2 or CVN), the three-digit securing code on the back of credit cards. This code, although not 100 percent effective, is used to ensure a person making a purchase physically possesses the card. ...

Seattle Times repeats endorsement of Rob Mckenna for governor

The Seattle Times endorsed McKenna for governor three months ago; they repeated it on Saturday. He has proven experience in management as state attorney general. And he has a record of working across the aisle with the Democratics.

Seattle Times

… For eight years McKenna has been the state attorney general, the same job Gregoire had before becoming governor. Unlike a legislative post, it is a management job, and provides much better preparation for the top job in Olympia than being a congressman in Washington, D.C.

The difference shows. Since this page endorsed him three months ago, the Republican McKenna has shown a greater grasp of detail than his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, on a wide range of issues.

People are concerned about jobs, restoring education to full funding and budget sustainability. On every point, McKenna has a superior, substantive plan.

For example, McKenna has a clearer idea of how to raise the state’s support of public schools as ordered by the Washington Supreme Court. Inslee has launched a cynical and opportunistic attack on McKenna for his idea of raising the state property tax while lowering local school levies, but offers no solution of his own.

Read the whole thing.

Success for the alchemists

Scientists finally found a way to make pure gold. Weil… But it is a good science story.

A newly discovered bacteria produces pure gold from a toxic acid. Cupriavidus metallidurans eats toxic gold chloride and separates the chloride from the gold. Ta Ta!! 99.9% (24 carat) gold.

Gizmodo

Accoding to Kashefi, they are doing "microbial alchemy" by "something that has no value into a solid [in fact, it the toxic material they use does cost money. Less than gold, but still plenty], precious metal that's valuable."

The bacteria is incredibly resistant to this toxic element. In fact, it's 25 times stronger than previously thought. The researchers' compact factory—which they named The Great Work of the Metal Lover—holds the bacteria as they feed it the gold chloride. In about a week, the bacteria does its job, processing all that junk into the precious metal—a process they believe happens regularly in nature.

So yes, basically, Cupriavidus metallidurans can eat toxins and poop out gold nuggets.

It seems that medieval alchemists were looking for the Philosopher's Stone—the magic element that could turn lead to gold—in the wrong place. It's not a mineral. It's a bug.

Michigan State University

Cook the employment data for Obama

Jobs increased much less than employment growth therefore unemployment is down. Huh? But is this credible?

The number of unemployed people dropped by 456,000 when only 114,000 jobs were created--well below the monthly average, and below population growth.

Sec. of Labor Solis gave Obama the unemployment numbers he wants. But no one believes them. She is highly insulted that she would be questioned. Then she continues her defense with false data - that added jobs were private sector, when they were public.

Cash-strapped federal, state and local governments are hiring like gang busters. Do you believe that? Via Breitbart's Big Government

How convenient for Obama!! It's been reported elsewhere that two of the top "professionals" in Bureau of Labor Statistics are big Obama donors. Surprise! Washington Free Beacon

Big Bird is richer than Romney

Big Bird's annual income is four times Mitt Romney's. But Big Bird still demands to be on the government dole.

CPB receives $450 million per year; of that $280 goes to PBS and local stations. Big Bird's enterprise would be a profitable business on its own.

According to Senator Jim DeMint:

Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $956,513 -- nearly a million dollars -- in compensation in 2008. And, from 2003 to 2006, "Sesame Street" made more than $211 million from toy and consumer product sales.

$211 million over four years is an average of $53 million per year. Mitt Romney is a picker compared to uber-rich Big Bird.

Push it, Obama. Protect Big Bird's hand out! It's a winner.

Via Breitbart

Russia economic failure in progress

Russia is weak for its size and for the natural resources it has. And things are turning for the worse.

Russia depends on export of its oil and natural gas. But development of its new fields is stopping - no future. And Europe is pushing back on monopoly practices of GazProm.

There is almost no foreign investment. What appears to be foreign investment is mostly money taken out of Russia by kleptocrats coming back home. Why won't anyone invest in large, resource-rich Russia?

The demographic situation is terrible. Life expectancy keeps dropping….

Meanwhile "elected" President Putin is acting like dictator Putin. He continues his crack down. He is frightening investment away.

So what is President Obama doing? He is removing what little support the US has been giving for good government efforts. He accepted Russia's weak complaint about USAID and pulled out. And Obama closed our voice in Russia - Radio Liberty.

Kim Zygfeld at PJ Media has the full report.

Do you want to pay for Illinois's pension folly?

Illinois promised its employees generous pensions. But didn't face the music and set aside enough money to make it possible to pay what they promised. They bought votes with phantom money. But payback time has arrived. How do they turn phantom dollars into real ones?

Surprise! By picking your pockets. Do you want to take money out of your wallet to reward the politicians of Illinois for this folly? They expect you to. They have convinced themselves that the federal government - your tax dollars - will guarantee their pension obligations. Here "guarantee" means "pay for."

Fortunately there is push back, both in Illinois and in Congress. Illinois Policy Institute opposes a federal bail out.

(Now that this Illinois group has called out Quinn he has back tracked and said the controversial wording was a drafting error.)

Citizens Against Government Waste named Illinois Governor Pat Quinn its Porker of the Month for September, 2012.

Fox News

Poor impacted by closing homeless shelters

Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE) closed most of their facilities, which include two tent cities and sixteen shelters, which are mostly in churches in protest.

Who are being hurt? The people the organization was formed to help. They closed the shelters to reinforce their demand for more free bus tickets. Who sets policy around here? They intend to.

SHARE receives $400,000 from Seattle to provide shelters. Their spokesman Jarvis Capucion, who has been homeless for three or four years, moved here from San Diego after quitting his job in insurance billing and collections. Because the job wasn't fulfilling.

How does a protest that hurts the people they are concerned about help?

Seattle Times

The group said that beginning Monday, it will get $50,000 worth of bus tickets from Metro, about a fifth of what it says it needs for the rest of the year.

SHARE said that by closing the shelters during the warmer weather now, it could use its allocated bus tickets during the cold winter weather.

Asked whether shutting down shelters would generate bad publicity, a SHARE spokesman, Jarvis Capucion, said, "I don't think it can backfire publicitywise. We're doing it out of necessity, not for publicity."

On Friday afternoon, 150 to 200 of the homeless and their supporters marched from Westlake Park, then on the sidewalk along Third Avenue, south to the King County Courthouse.

79 per cent think everyone should pay some income tax

Americans disagree with the Democratic media, who are tearing Mitt Romney over his secretly recorded comments about the 47 per cent of Americans who pay no income tax. And most agree with Romney's concern about dependency on the government.

Breitbart.com

According to a new FOX News poll released on Thursday, 79% of Americans, including 85% of Republicans, 83% of independents, and 71% of Democrats, surveyed believe everyone should pay something in income taxes, even if it’s as low as 1%.

In addition, 63% feel Romney’s comments about dependence on government, which were secretly captured on video, are mostly (36 percent) or somewhat true (27 percent).

The poll found that 76 percent of Americans think the “average American” is somewhat dependent on government.

Seventy-three percent of those surveyed in the poll were familiar with Romney’s comments about the 47% of Americans who do not pay federal income tax.

Anderson Robbins Research, a Democratic firm, and Shaw & Company Research, a Republican firm, conducted the poll for FOX News and surveyed 1,092 likely voters from September 24 to 26. The poll’s margin of error is +/- three percentage points.

We O, We Owe is new Obama slogan

"We Owe, We O, so off to work we go."

The new official Obama slogan. How do I know it's official? It is available at President O's official store:

Obama's Store

US drops way below Canada in Economic Freedom

The US used to lead the world in providing the conditions for growth of the economy and jobs. Jobs! But we are hurting ourselves by allowing regulations to grow and refusing to cut spending when we are out of money. On the other hand… Canada...

National Post Canada

Canada has taken its place among the Top 5 countries with the most economic freedom, according to a new Fraser Institute report — now leaps and bounds ahead of the United States thanks to the gradual shrinking of the Canadian government since the mid-1990s as America’s just got bigger.

The annual Economic Freedom of the World report, released Tuesday, has Canada tied in fifth place with Australia — up one spot from last year. Hong Kong remains at the top, Singapore’s next, then New Zealand.

Meanwhile, the United States, once a “standard bearer” of economic liberty among industrial nations, spiralled 10 spots from the 2011 rankings to 18th place — its lowest position ever, and a huge drop from its second place spot in 2000.

Obama official admits Benghazi attack was terrorist

Obama official admits Benghazi attack was terrorist. Matt Olsen had better get out his resume. Oh… he might be safe. He doesn't know if the attack was spontaneous. Yes, the terrorists were driving around town with their rocket-propelled grenades when they came upon a demonstration.

Foreign Policy

The Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was in fact "a terrorist attack" and the U.S. government has indications that members of al Qaeda were directly involved, a top Obama administration official said Wednesday morning.

"I would say yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy," Matt Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, in response to questioning from Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) about the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

As for who was responsible, Olsen said it appears there were attackers from a number of different militant groups that operate in and around Benghazi, and said there are already signs of al Qaeda involvement.

"We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda's affiliates; in particular, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," he said.

The U.S. government just isn't sure yet whether the terrorist attack was pre-planned or whether it was an example of terrorists taking advantage of protests against an anti-Islam film, Olsen said.

"It appears that individuals who were certainly well-armed seized on the opportunity presented as the events unfolded that evening and into the morning hours of September 12th. We do know that a number of militants in the area, as I mentioned, are well-armed and maintain those arms. What we don't have at this point is specific intelligence that there was a significant advanced planning or coordination for this attack," he said

Vote fraud knocks out MD congressional candidate

Yes, there is vote fraud.

Wendy Rosen is the Democrat candidate for Congress in Maryland's 1st district. Now she is trying to get off the ballot and to prepare for "possible litigation."

Rosen registered in both Maryland and Florida and voted in both in the 2006 general election and the 2008 primary.

This is vote fraud. We are told that even though people register fraudulently (non citizens, non residents, dogs, the dead) but they never vote. Here is one case.

Generic Freedom Foundation They show that more voting fraud is documented by Heritage Foundation.

Examples abound, from an election in New York in 1844 in which 135 percent of the eligible voters turned out to Lyndon Johnson's infamous Ballot Box 13 in his 1948 Senate election. More recently, in 2003 a mayoral election in East Chicago, Indi­ana, and in 2005 a state senate race in Tennessee were both overturned due to voter fraud. As the Supreme Court noted in its decision in 2008 upholding Indiana's photo identification requirement, flagrant examples of voter fraud "have been documented throughout this Nation's history by respected historians and journalists." Those examples "demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election."

Republicans lead in party registration

Republicans lead in party registration now by 4.3 per cent. And this indicates who has the advantage on election day.

When Demos lead in party registration they win. When the gap is small Republicans win. This is Rasmussen's Summary of Party Affiliation.

DATECHGUY shows this with the data for recent elections. He shows the presidential elections of 2004 & 2008 and the 2010 Republican blow out.

Baghad Betty Rice just can't see planned attack in Libya

Obama's ambassador to the UN Susan Rice just can't see it.

President Mohammed el-Megarif of Libya says the attack in Benghazi was planned in advance. That it was not a spontaneous reaction to the attack on the US embassy in Cairo, Egypt. They attacked with rocket-propelled grenades.

Daily Caller:

“The idea that this criminal and cowardly act was a spontaneous protest that just spun out of control is completely unfounded and preposterous,” Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif told the liberal National Public Radio network.

Instead, the killing was a military-style attack, he said.

That attack hit the poorly guarded group of diplomats, who had to be rescued by Libyan reinforcements.

Do spontaneous protesters just happen to have rocket-propelled grenades lying around? That's what Baghdad Betty sees.

ABC News

“Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo,” Rice told me this morning on “This Week.”

“In Cairo, as you know, a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated,” Rice said, referring to protests in Egypt Tuesday over a film that depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud. Protesters in Cairo breached the walls of the U.S. Embassy, tearing apart an American flag.

“We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy to – or to the consulate, rather, to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo,”

Who are you going to believe? Libya's President who is there? Or Obama's designated spinner? That's why we now call her Baghdad Betty. *
* Baghdad Bob was Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Saddam Hussein's information minister who claimed US forces had not entered the city Baghad while during the same live broadcast you could see US tanks in the background across the river. He just "couldn't see them." Wikipedia

Hat tip to John Carlson on KVI 570 for the appellation.

Obama violated his oath of office

Obama violated his oath of office.

Obama sent brown-shirted (literally) thugs to raid his home at midnight. Why? So he could be Obama's scapegoat. Without Nakoula to blame the world must look at how recklessly Sec. of State Hillary Clinton left our diplomatic missions unprotected in dangerous parts of the world.

What was Nakoula's crime that sent Obama agents on their midnight raid? Using his free-speech right to make a "movie" (appears to be 14 minutes never shown except in YouTube) that offended Muslims.

The attack in Benghazi was planned. Those attackers don't care about a movie no one has seen. They hate America because we have freedom. So Clinton is guilty of gross negligence.

Obama violated his oath of office by raiding the home of an American whose "speech" Obama didn't like. Well… We don't know if Obama liked it or not. Obama needed his scapegoat and violated this American's rights for Obama's political gain.

Glenn Reynolds say he should resign. Instapundit

No Marines for ambassadors in dangerous areas. Full security for Valerie Jarrett - update

Obama has his priorities. His uberaid Valerie Jarrett has 5 or 6 secret service agents guarding her in the dangerous clime of Martha's Vineyard. While some of our overseas consulates don't have Marines guarding them. Some, many? More than just Chris Stevens who dies in Libya.

Below the source also has polling data that says the American people care. And are not impressed.

Breitbart

[Democrat pollster Pat] Caddell today in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News: “Jarrett seems to have a 24 hour, around the clock detail, with five or six agents full time,” Caddell explains. “The media has been completely uninterested. We don’t provide security for our ambassador in Libya, but she needs a full Secret Service security detail. And nobody thinks there’s anything wrong with this. And nobody in the press will ask. What kind of slavish stoogery are they perpetrating here?

“This country has reached the point of absurdity. There are people dead because we don’t have security details for them. But she’s privileged to have a full Secret Service detail on vacation?”

Caddell points out that Americans are already unhappy with President Obama on foreign policy aside from the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Caddell, along with Republican pollster John McLaughlin, runs Secure America, a nonpartisan advocacy group. “We’ve just finished two polls coming out in the field today,” says Caddell, “but we already know that people feel strongly about Iran; they feel strongly about the administration’s policy with regard to Islamic extremists. They don’t like the Obama administration’s handling of these issues. And this election won’t only be about the economy. The American people aren’t stupid. They can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Caddell does reserve heavy criticism for the Republican establishment…. [of course]

Update: Sec of State Hillary Clinton signed the order for no Marines in Libya

Colonel David Hunt discloses at Breitbart

Hunt told Breitbart News that the new State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya, approved and signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton since the 2011 fall of Khadafi's regime, severely compromised the safety and security of murdered Ambassador Stevens and all American diplomatic staff in Libya.

He also stated that the decision not to staff Benghazi with Marines was made by Secretary of State Clinton when she attached her signature to the State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya document. Breitbart News has subsequently learned that under those rules of engagement, Secretary Clinton prohibited Marines from providing security at any American diplomatic installation in Libya.

SEAL leaking info is ciminal; if President leaks then it's OK

Def Secretary Leon Panetta says the crime of leaking classified material is a crime - except when Obama does it.

PJ Tatler

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made a striking admission today. In an interview with CBS’ Norah O’Donnell, Panetta threatened legal action against the Navy SEAL who wrote, under a pen name, about the raid that killed terrorist Osama bin Laden. Panetta said that any sanctions against the SEAL, who wrote No Easy Day under the name Mark Wood, would be intended to send a message that others entrusted with national security secrets that they should not divulge what they know.

O’Donnell then asked Panetta a direct question: What’s the difference between what the SEAL did and the leaks that have come from the administration to journalists and filmmakers? Panetta spun: “There’s a fundamental difference. The people that presented some of the details of the operations were authorized to do that by the president of the United States, who has that authority to do that, and inform the American people as to what happened,” Panetta said. “In this case, that was not the case. And that’s the difference.”

Among the information that Panetta now says the president authorized to be release, were the identities of the leaders of the SEAL team that killed bin Laden….

Cape PAC will steal your donation

A (criminal?) outfit called Cape PAC is putting up fake donation sites for Republican candidates for office. Why no Democrats? If you donate to Congressman Allen West on the fake Cape PAC site West will get nothing, All your donation will go to PR firms that reimburse each other until the money is gone,

Look for "hosted by Cape PAC" at the bottom or top of the web page.

The Atlantic

Noam Neusner, a former White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush, thought he had given $250 to Ohio GOP Senate candidate Josh Mandel.

He hadn't.

Instead, Neusner was one of nearly 3,000 donors who stumbled onto a network of look-alike campaign websites that have netted more than $570,000 this year in what some are calling a sophisticated political phishing scheme.

The websites have the trappings of official campaign pages: smiling candidate photos and videos, issue pages, and a large red "donate" button at the top. Except that proceeds from the shadow sites go not to the candidates pictured, but to an obscure conservative group run by an Arizona activist.

Such doppelgänger sites exist for nearly three-dozen prominent GOP figures, including presidential nominee Mitt Romney, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and donation magnets such as Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Allen West of Florida

Southern Poverty Law Center shows its bias

Since Southern Poverty Law Center  is fighting "the right wing" any thing it doesn't like is defined as right wing - including clearly left=wing groups. If Occupy Wall Streeters in Ohio are caught planning to blow up a bridge near Cleveland using C-4 explosives last April, suddenly the very left OWSers become "right." Huh?

SPLC started with a very worthy concern - fighting anti-black racial violence, but it got drunk on government funding. So when its defining problem was greatly improved they had to find other targets. And they did.

American Thinker

The Southern Poverty Law Center has built-up a lucrative fundraising business enabling it to pay lavish salaries to those who drum up money on the basis of fighting racism and "hate groups." The awkward fact that anti-black racial violence has diminished has not stopped it from developing other lures to keep this donations coming. The new favorite is to label supporters of traditional marriage as "hate groups."

Now, the SPLC has gone one step further in its logic. If it is violent and bad, it must be right wing.

The progressive movement in America has slipped the bounds of reality and is living in an entirely reality-free make believe world.

Obama hasn't done his job

Obama hasn't done his job. Says who? Says Obama himself.

When asked this month what grade he deserves on improving the economy: ABC News

“You know, I would say incomplete,” Obama said in an interview with Boulder, Colo., TV station KKTV

It's finals time, Mr. President. Why would the voters reelect you? You, yourself, say you haven't done your job - the job you promised to do. You promised that your $931 billion stimulus would keep unemployment under 8 per sent. But it zoomed to 10 per cent and stayed above 8 per cent for years.

Graphic from Washington Post based on White House Council of Economic Advisors. Found at Business Insider. Click to enlarge. 

This seat is taken

Thursday night at the Republican National Convention Clint Eastwood spoke to the empty chair = to the job President Obama is supposed to be doing, but he is too busy campaigning… and raising million-dollar access passes aka donations… and partying in the White House… and playing golf. He played more golf in one year than Bush did in eight. Telegraph UK

You didn't know talking about President 0 playing golf is racist - racist? - then you haven't been taking in every second of MSNBC. Free Beacon

Photo found at Patterico. Click to enlarge.

US press accepts government control

Journalists are giving up their independence to get more access to Obama's top officials. Rush now calls it the government-controlled press. See why.

The Germans see it clearly.

Der Spiegel

In the US, journalists are sacrificing editorial independence in exchange for access to top politicians. The practice has a long history in Germany, where interviews often must be authorized before publication.

In democratic societies, the media has long struggled with the political class to define what information is fit to print. While journalists seek access to high-level officials for a scoop, officialdom often does its best to control the flow of information to journalists in order to mold public opinion in its interests.

But in the United States, the balance of power between the journalist and the politician has increasingly shifted in favor of the latter. According to a July 15 report by Jeremy W. Peters of the New York Times, political journalists in Washington are increasingly trading their editorial independence for high-level access to members of the Obama administration.

Quotes gleaned from administration officials by a reporter are not just reviewed by the publication's editor, they are often sent to the very same officials for approval - and even redaction - before going to print.

According to Stephen Ward, there is a growing and unhealthy "pressure on journalists and … on news organizations to get the story, to be first, to be the first tweet."

"The officials who know this are quite aware that in this era of 24 hours news, access is king," Ward, the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told DW. "This is just a game of access - it's as old as journalism."