OK Political Junkies, Here Is Something to Keep You Up Late

Russ Steele

The PPIC has published the new California Political Geography

California has a well-earned reputation as a strongly Democratic state. But it has important, sometimes unexpected, geographic variation in ideology and opinions on specific issues. There are many places where conservative and Republican candidates might win elections in California—including places where they currently do not.

Details HERE.

I Hope Everyone in the Central Valley Remembers In November

Russ Steele

The House approved an ambitious California water bill that favors farmers, splits the state and pressures the Senate. Regardless of Senate Action to President has promised to veto the Bill.

Mark Meckler writes:

It’s hard to believe that in America the government would actually impose a drought upon some of the most productive farmers in the world. 

And I might add, create some of the highest regional unemployment in the Nation.

Cat’s Out of the Bag — Screw the Poor and Middle Income

Russ Steele

I saw this out and out admission that the Obama Administration is not going to do anything to lower the prices of fuel on Fox News to night.  Energy Secretary Chu testifying before the House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee yesterday and he was asked if the administration’s goal is to bring down the price of gas for the benefit of consumers. Congressman Nunnelee asked”

“. . .  is the overall goal to get our price” of gasoline down?”

“No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy,” Chu replied. “We think that if you consider all these energy policies, including energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way to becoming less dependent on oil and [diversifying] our supply and we’ll help the American economy and the American consumers.”

This is an elitist position.  What about all the poor and middle income people that have to pay the price?  So far, the alternatives to fossil fuels are not working out. They only work out when the price of fuel is as high as it is in Europe, which is Chu’s goal.  The burden will not fall on the rich, it will fall on the poor and the middle income struggling to stay afloat in a less than robust economy. I hope that everyone remembers that every time they pump gas or diesel at the service station.

#greenfail: Obama Stimulated Abound Solar Lays Off 70% of Work Force

Russ Steele

Hot Air has the story:

President Obama used a weekly address in July 2010 to tout his stimulus package’s support for the solar industry. One of the companies he mentioned specifically, Abound Solar, just announced that it will lay off 70 percent of its workforce.

Abound would “creat[e] more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs,” Obama claimed, and would be integral to the administration’s quest to “create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America.”

But a year and a half later, the company’s staff numbers only 120. It announced Tuesday that it would lay off 180 full time and 100 part time employees, halt solar panel production, and delay the construction of a manufacturing plant in Indiana.

Yes, I know that was not a California Company, but it was more proof that the government should not be in the business of winners and losers in the market place.  Going green is not working out in the UK, Spain, Germany and Indiana, why do our legislators and Governor think that it will work in California. Are they smarter at picking winners than the market place?  Not!

Why Should We Believe Anything Obama’s Agencies Say?

Russ Steele

The EPA has been lying to us over global warming according to Dr. Alan Carlin, now retired, a career environmental economist at EPA.  Attorney General Holder has been lying about Fast and Furious, Hansen at GISS has been adjusting the historic raw data to prove his AGW theory, and now we learn the government lying is a little closer to home.

The Record-Searchlight has the story of a fired federal advisor who is reporting that the Department of Interior manipulated data supporting removal of the Klamath River dams.

A federal agency’s former scientific integrity adviser has filed a whistle-blower complaint saying he was fired from his job after he began questioning top officials about “spinning” evidence to tout the removal of Klamath River dams.

“The bottom line is they need to be honest about the science and the decision making,” Paul R. Houser, an associate hydrology professor at George Mason University, told the Record Searchlight on Tuesday, in his first remarks to the media about his whistle-blower complaint.

He says there have been a number of scientific studies that showed dam removal comes with some risks or wouldn’t be nearly as beneficial to threatened coho salmon habitat as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s staff made it seem.

Salazar, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2009, has made clear the issue is a high personal priority for him.

You can read the rest of the story HERE. Stay Tuned, as U.S. Reps. Wally Herger, R-Chico, and Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay, are investigating. Other House committees have expressed interest.

One more of Obama’s Agencies caught with there hand in the cooky jar.  When will these people learn that the truth will always win the day.

Wow! Running Out Of Money Has Consequences.

Russ Steele

Remember our former Governor “Arnold the Warmer” telling California that we should be following the going green examples in the UK.  The UK was going to show the world how to go green, and California should follow their lead in the US.

Now for a little reality check, it seem the fine going green folks in the UK have run of money. The story is in UK Telegraph: 

George Osborne: UK has run out of money

The Government ‘has run out of money’ and cannot afford debt-fuelled tax cuts or extra spending, George Osborne has admitted.

In a stark warning ahead of next month’s Budget, the Chancellor said there was little the Coalition could do to stimulate the economy.

Mr Osborne made it clear that due to the parlous state of the public finances the best hope for economic growth was to encourage businesses to flourish and hire more workers.

“The British Government has run out of money because all the money was spent in the good years,” the Chancellor said. “The money and the investment and the jobs need to come from the private sector.

Running out of other peoples money has consequence. I understand that CA revenues keep coming up short month after month according to Controller John Chiang.  Treasurer Bill Lockyer has to borrow as much as $1 billion from Wall Street to ease the shortfall until tax season rolls around again.  The questions is when will California get it’s reality check?

“Dear Aunt Solyndra,”

[Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser  provides a little satire.]

Sorry not have written to you for a while. Life is just so hectic. I have been very busy with my new company, the Green Wonder Technology Inc.  We are making all kinds of novel green energy systems from solar panels, to windmills, to geothermal heating units, to algae scum and more. Well, we are not actually making any of such things yet, but the government grants for these promising enterprises should be coming thru very soon.

As you know, the government has seen the light. There is lots of green energy all around us, we just need to find a way to collect it.  I think you know what I mean. Of course, I am the President and CEO (as well as Chief Financial Officer) of the new company. So, once the grants are rolling in, we should be pretty flush here, at least for a while.

Fortunately, there is little control on how we spend the dough; we just need to regularly fill out a bunch of forms, a job which we have farmed out to China for cost-saving reasons. Other than that, there really is no obligation of any sort.

As soon as things are running full steam, I hope you’ll come visit. I should like to show you around the place. If you are game for it, I can even take you on a fly-over in my new plane. It is a breakthrough as it is made from papier mache and rubber cement, and runs on biofuel.

Love,

Your nephew
Wiley

Thanks to the Canada Free Press for this bit of humor

 

 

Tea Party Movement Third Anniversary

Russ Steele

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the first nationwide Tea Party protest.  Mark Meckler has some history making details at his Across the Fence blog.

If you recall our local left declared that the Tea Party was just a 15 minutes in history event, quickly relegated to footnote status.  However, the Tea Party  seems to be growing in numbers in our community. Every gathering requires a larger and larger meeting place,  this is not a loosing strength indicator.   Congratulation to all the local citizens supporting our local Tea Party Patriots!

2012 Weblog awards – Clean Sweep for Climate Skeptics

Russ Steele

“The Bloggie” winners have been announced and it was a clean sweep for the blogs that have been skeptical of global warming and climate change. All of these blogs have been quoted here on this blog, some quite often.

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

• Jo Nova In Australia for Best Australian or New Zealand Blog -  Jo Nova

• Tallbloke in England for Best European Blog – Tallbloke’s Talkshop

• Steve McIntyre for Best Canadian Blog – Climate Audit

• Anthony Watts for Best Technology Blog - Watts Up With That

Anthony also won the Life Time Achievement Award !  A Special Congratulation to my friend Anthony.

Liberal Propaganda is Not Selling Ads

Russ Steele

The value of an ad depends on how many eyeballs publisher and editors can get to read that ad. As fewer people are buying newspapers the ads in newspapers are less valuable.  A magazine editor once told me that the reason she buys my articles was to have some text to keep the ads from bumping into each other.  However, my articles have to be interesting enough to keep the readers coming back to read more ads. In newspapers the buyers are looking for news and insight.  When that news and insight becomes one-sided, open minded readers look for their news and insight elsewhere, often on the Internet.  The numbers below indicate that more and more readers are abandoning the big city progressive propaganda machines for alternatives. The following graphic is from Mark Perry’s Carpe Diem

The chart above displays total annual print newspaper advertising revenue based on actual annual data from 1950 to 2010, and estimated annual revenue for 2011 using quarterly data through the third quarter, from the Newspaper Association of America.  The advertising revenues have been adjusted for inflation, and appear in the chart as millions of constant 2011 dollars.  Estimated revenues of $20.7 billion in 2011 will be the lowest annual  amount spent on newspaper advertising since $19.5 billion in 1951, exactly 60 years ago. 

The decline in newspaper ad revenues to a 60-year low is amazing by itself, but the sharp decline in recent years is pretty stunning.  Last year’s ad revenues of about $21 billion were less than half of the $46 billion spent just four years ago in 2007, and less than one-third of the $64 billion spent in 2000.  

I think the sharp decline resulted from the ability of readers to fact check the newspapers they were read on the Internet and they found out they were being fed propaganda rather than the facts. If one is getting the Democrat’s talking points by e-mail why buy newspaper to see them regurgitated on the printed page?

It is very possible, that many of leading big city propaganda machines will soon be footnotes in the history of publishing.  Stay tuned!

Oh My! Americans love Hawaii, dislike California

Russ Steele

Raleigh, N.C. – Over the course of four months starting last October, PPP asked American voters nationally what their impressions of each state are. Hawaii came out on top, by far, with California bringing up the rear.

Americans generally have a favorable view of most states. Only five are in negative territory, led by California (27% favorable and 44% unfavorable), Illinois (19-29), New Jersey (25-32), Mississippi (22-28), and Utah (24-27). Only seven other states have net- positive ratings in the single digits, and another breaks even (Louisiana).

54% see Hawaii positively and only 10% negatively, followed in the top ten by Colorado (44-9), Tennessee (48-14), South Dakota (42-8), Virginia (45-13), Montana (39-7), Alaska (46-17), Oregon (43-14), and North Carolina and Pennsylvania (each 40-11). Ten others are in positive territory by at least 21 points.

Women have a higher opinion of New York by 27 points more than men, Massachusetts by 22 points, Delaware and California by 16, New Hampshire by 15, Vermont and Illinois by 13, and Connecticut by 11, while men see North Dakota more favorably by 17 points, South Carolina by 15, Wyoming 14, Montana 13, and Iowa and South Dakota 10.

Democrats’ favorite states include Hawaii, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Colorado, and New York, and their least favorites are led by Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi. Republicans love Alaska and Texas, and absolutely hate California, followed distantly by Illinois and Massachusetts. So the greatest partisan gap is for California, which Democrats like 91 points more than Republicans do, followed by Texas, which is favored more by Republicans by 82 points. 

You can download the rest of the survey HERE.

This maybe the reason the for the first US Census every California has not seen any significant increase in population, except for the illegals coming from South of the border. California is no longer the land of milk and honey.

There is More Than One Reason to Move to Wyoming

Russ Steele

I lived in Wyoming for a couple of summers between College semesters, and worked in the oil and gas fields. Made good money for being just a laborer. Ellen and I have visited Wyoming multiple times in our RV and plan to return when ever possible. There are some great people in Wyoming.  And, according to this report some thinkers as well:

State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States.

House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government.

One of the triggers to a potential meltdown could be an extreme food shortage caused by the onset of the next mini ice age.  Growing season will become shorter and the bread basket of the norther hemisphere in the Canada and the US will move farther and farther south, resulting in less productivity during the transition. It was the bread riots that brought down the French Kings during the last mini-ice age.

Ann Althouse has some more thoughts on being prepared here. She thinks that every state should have a plan to operate should the US government collapse.

Do you think the liberal/progressive in Sacramento would even give a passing thought to the idea that California should have a plan like Wyoming?

 

 

What Americans Want Isn’t Important to Obama Admin.

Russ Steele

Victor Davis Hanson writes at National Review Online.

As gas nears $5-a-gallon out west, the president, who has cancelled a key pipeline and frozen federal leases from Alaska to the East Coast, teaches us about American algae potential, in the way he used to emphasize the importance of tire pressure and “tune-ups.” He castigates the opposition for making political hay out of bad news, in the way he routinely did as a senator in compiling the most partisan voting record in the Senate. Energy Secretary Chu cannot and will not say a word about soaring gas prices, since he is on record not so long ago hoping that they might double — that is, get to $8- to 10-a-gallon as they are in Europe. The Energy Department can do almost everything Americans don’t want, but not the single thing they do want.

American’s want energy independence and reasonably priced fuel that will not drain their disposable income budget, the budget that brings joy to life.

Fakegate Blog

There is new blog on the street that is tracking yet again another Global Warming Scandal. The Heartland Institute is  seeking fellow blogger help in catching the perps.

If you have tips or posts that may help bring us closer to outing the criminals, please contact Communications Director Jim Lakely.

This Web site will be continually updated with information about the Fakegate scandal. Who stole the documents? Who forged the memo? Who knew about the theft and the forgery and failed to disclose this information to federal authorities?

We believe the culprits will be brought to justice soon, and when they do, DesmogBlog, ThinkProgress, and the Huffington Post may have some explaining to do as well.

You can help us catch the crooks by reading the articles that appear in other sections of this Web site and by following the investigation underway by hundreds of professional and amateur forensic scientists who are on the trail of the Fakegate Gang. Link to this feature on your Facebook page or at your own blogs and Web sites, tweet about #fakegate, and visit the sites linked.

Plus, you can make your comments heard at the Web sites of DesmogBlog, ThinkProgress, the Huffington Post, and other Web sites that have joined the Fakegate Gang, condemning their conduct.

Check out Fakegate HERE.

US Once a Great Entrepreneurial Nation, Not Any More

Russ Steele

I watched John Stossel’s Foxnews special everything is illegal. One of  his examples was an attempt to open a lemonade stand in New York, after the police shut down a Midway GA, 14 year and her 10 year old sisters lemonade stand and closed up children selling Girl Scout Cookies in Hazelwood , IL.

Stossel found that children trying their first experiments with entrepreneurship were being shut down all over America. He writes at Real Clear Politics:

It made me want to try to jump through the legal hoops required to open a simple lemonade stand in New York City. Here’s some of what one has to do:

– Register as sole proprietor with the County Clerk’s Office (must be done in person)

– Apply to the IRS for an Employer Identification Number.

– Complete 15-hr Food Protection Course!

– After the course, register for an exam that takes 1 hour. You must score 70 percent to pass. (Sample question: “What toxins are associated with the puffer fish?”) If you pass, allow three to five weeks for delivery of Food Protection Certificate.

– Register for sales tax Certificate of Authority

– Apply for a Temporary Food Service Establishment Permit. Must bring copies of the previous documents and completed forms to the Consumer Affairs Licensing Center.

Then, at least 21 days before opening your establishment, you must
arrange for an inspection with the Health Department’s Bureau of Food Safety and Community Sanitation. It takes about three weeks to get your appointment. If you pass, you can set up a business once you:

– Buy a portable fire extinguisher from a company certified by the New York Fire Department and set up a contract for waste disposal.

– We couldn’t finish the process. Had we been able to schedule our health inspection and open my stand legally, it would have taken us 65 days.

I sold lemonade anyway. I looked dumb hawking it with my giant fire extinguisher on the table.

ooo

Politicians say, “We support entrepreneurs,” but the bureaucrats make it hard. The Feds alone add 80,000 pages of new rules every year. Local governments add more. There are so many incomprehensible rules that even the bureaucrats can’t tell you what’s legal. In the name of public safety, politicians strangle opportunity. 

When is it is easier to apply for government welfare than it is to open a business, we are in trouble as a nation.

H/T to regular reader for pointing to a print version of this story.