Author: Mark Noonan

EPA Playing Politics With Environmental Regulations

Mark Noonan3 Comments

From the PJ Tatler:

…Just take a look at the states the EPA decided to leave off the rule change.

“The challenge from the new rule, known as the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, is that stricter limits take effect next year, giving power-plant owners little time to comply.

Texas was not included in the EPA’s draft rule related to sulfur dioxide cuts because EPA modeling had shown little downwind impact from Texas power plants on other states.

On Thursday, however, the EPA said Texas would be required to meet lower SO2 limits to avoid allowing the state to increase emissions.

Five states — Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, along with the District of Columbia — were dropped from the final EPA rule.”

Three blue states and two swing states get left off, while Texas gets added even though the EPA’s own model shows little evidence that emissions from Texas impact other states at all. Nah, there’s no politics here.

No, no politics at all – but if you need to burden Texas so that it will stop performing so well economically, then it is precisely what you need to do.  Seems that Obama and Co are quite frightened of the prospect of a Perry candidacy.

Obamunism! Unemployment at 9.2%

Mark Noonan37 Comments

From CNBC:

U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in June, with employers hiring the fewest number of workers in nine months, dousing hopes the economy would regain momentum in the second half of the year.

Nonfarm payrolls rose only 18,000, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said on Friday, well below economists’ expectations for a 90,000 rise.

The unemployment rate climbed to a six-month high of 9.2 percent, even as jobseekers left the labor force in droves, from 9.1 percent in May…(emphasis added)

So, if the BLS hadn’t removed as many workers from the labor force this past month, it would have shot up even higher.  I do believe the data is being manipulated – not to the point of outright lie, but to the point of getting the rosiest data possible.  After all, the number of people who leave the labor force every money is really not known – experts estimate and there are probably several sets of estimates.  My bet is that among the various estimates the BLS is pulling out those that make it look best.  Imagine how it would look otherwise – I think that unemployment would be closer to 12% right now.

Aside from that, no matter how you slice it the economy isn’t recovering.  In fact, a strong case can be made that we’re already back in to recession it just hasn’t shown in the data.  But even if we are not and will not fall in to official recession, the economy simply is not doing well.  In order to get unemployment just down to 8% by November of 2012 will take a net gain of a couple hundred thousand jobs per month between now and then…anyone out there see that happening?

In other news, a top Obama adviser is asserting that people won’t care about unemployment in 2012…

UPDATE:  From Mish – “unmitigated disaster“.

UPDATE II:  More from Mish –

…Digging deeper into the Household Survey, we see some more interesting data. In the last year, the civilian population rose by 1,799,000. Yet the labor force dropped by 263,000. Those not in the labor force rose by 2,063,000.

Last month the labor force rose by 272,000. This month the labor force fell by 272,000. How’s that for symmetry?…

Symmetry?  More like bull.

Hezbollah in Mexico

Mark Noonan2 Comments

From PJ Tatler:

The Tucson PD didn’t put this information out in a press release. In fact, they didn’t put it out at all. The information is contained in an internal memo pilfered and released by anonymous hacker collective LulzSec. The memo dates to Sept. 2010, and notes that a man connected to  Hezbollah was caught trying to smuggle a massive cache of weapons from Mexico into New York City.

“In April of last year, the arrest of Jamal Yousef – in New York City – exposed a weapons cache of 100 M-16 assault rifles, 100 AR-15 rifles, 2,500 hand grenades, C4 explosives and antitank munitions. According to Yousef, the weapons, which were being stored in Mexico, had been stolen from Iraq with the help of his cousin who was a member of Hezbollah.”…

Remember, the Islamist enemy is always trying to harm us – the destruction of the United States is the ultimate goal of the Islamists because we stand in the way of their final victory and the establishment of a Caliphate.  They will not stop until we utterly crush Islamism.  That, unfortunately, is going to be a long time from now – we’re essentially abandoning the fight (in slow stages, to be sure) in the middle east and thus the decisive victory will become ever less possible.  In my view, final victory can only come with a US army in Damascus and Tehran (and, perhaps, in Mecca) – so, no time soon.

Meanwhile, though, we do have to deal with the imminent threat of terrorist attacks upon us – and our wide open border with Mexico is the logical place for terrorists to enter our country.  We don’t control the border – not any of it, really.  The Mexican drug cartels do, and they’ll let anyone cross with anything for the right price.  Obama is claiming our border is more secure than ever – while not, perhaps, an outright falsehood (Obama could, after all, just be believing what Napolitano is telling him), it isn’t an accurate reflection of what is going on at the border.  Our failure to ensure a genuinely secure border puts us at risk of terrorist attacks on a major scale.

As I’ve been saying all along – border security comes first.  I don’t want to hear any whines about how hard it is or how much it would cost.  Whatever the difficulties and whatever the costs the job simply must be done.  This is a literal matter of life and death – and this is the primary reason we have a government:  to protect us from attack.  Failure to make the border air tight is a gross dereliction of duty on the part of the government.  And, yes, I realize that it is not all Obama’s fault – but he’s President right now and thus he responsible during his term of office – he will either do everything he can to secure the border, or he won’t…if he’s doing everything he can and we still fail, then so be it.  But right now we’re not even doing half of what we can – so any failure can be laid squarely at Obama’s door.

I don’t care if it takes a 100 foot high, electrified barbed-wire fence stretching from one end to another and a solider placed every ten feet behind the fence…whatever it takes to ensure that no one crosses our border without our permission must be done.  This is not the time to worry about race-baiting politics or adherence to ideology – people will die if we don’t secure the border; it is time to just get the job done.

 

Senator Lee Explains Constitution to Tax Cheat Tim Geithner

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Senator Lee was, of course, once a clerk for Justice Alito, so he’s probably on firm ground here.   Lee points out two very important points – only Congress can authorize debt and and the 14th Amendment requires the Secretary of the Treasury to ensure that valid US debts are paid.  What this means is that Geithner can’t exceed the debt limit while he must pay the debts as they come due even if this means that other obligations of the United States are laid aside.  As Geithner  cannot lay aside Social Security and Medicare (they are entitlements with their own funding sources, the only thing he can do if he can’t borrow to pay old debts is to take money out of discretionary spending.  This means he’ll have to pull the money out of the Departments of Commerce, Labor, Defense, Education, Energy, etc, etc, etc.

And that, my friends, is the real reason Obama wants this increase in the debt ceiling – he is afraid to show the American people that we don’t need to go further in debt and doubly afraid to show that if massive cuts are made to federal spending no one will notice.  The whole thing about Big Government is the ability to convince people that utter disaster would result without it…that if we don’t keep the money rolling right on and up and up in Big Government, people will die; kids won’t get educated, granny will eat dog food…only Big Government can rescue us from this fate worse than death!   The truth of the matter, of course, is that at least half of government spending is completely wasted.  Money we don’t need to spend but which is spent to keep people on the gravy train.  That is what Geithner will have to cut if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.

I am a bit disappointed in my Congressional GOP that they do seem willing to increase the debt ceiling at some point.  I am happy that they seem to be holding very firm on no tax hikes and the need for significant cuts and spending reform…but the fact of the matter is that the debt ceiling does not need to be raised.  I believe we could educate the majority up to this if we really tried – and if we did it we’d be taking the last bit of leverage liberals have…fear that a failure to raise the debt ceiling would be catastrophic.  But, I guess we can only get so much at one time – in 2012 we’ll hopefully elect even more like Lee, and then we’ll be able to press things to an absolute conclusion.

Senator Snowe Backs Balanced Budget

Mark Noonan1 Comment

Showing exceptional GOP unity on the issue – from Politico:

No deal to raise the debt ceiling is complete without an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced federal budget to prevent Congress “from hijacking the promise of American prosperity,” two Senate Republicans are arguing as a bipartisan group of congressional leaders heads to the White House on Thursday.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) say that while deep budget cuts and caps on future spending are key to warding off “fiscal calamity,” an amendment to the Constitution forcing the federal government to spend only what it has is essential…

If there is such a thing as a “liberal Republican” these days, it is Senator Snowe.  At best, she’s only a couple steps to the right of Joe Lieberman.  But, in the end, balancing the budget is no longer an ideological issue for anyone with sense – in 2011, you are either in favor of a balanced budget or you are an idiot or you are a corrupt tool of the Ruling Class.  Pick which one you are, because those really are the three choices. Continue reading →

Obamunism! Killing the Aircraft Industry

Mark Noonan24 Comments

From the Daily Caller:

Much has been made of President Barack Obama’s repeated demonizing of corporate jets and the people who fly on them in his June 29th press conference.

While pundits and politicians haggle over whether alterations in the depreciation schedule of corporate jets will actually have an impact on the deficit, those in the general aviation trenches are furious.

Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPO) President Craig Fuller told The Daily Caller that Obama’s comments have cast a pall over the industry, causing many who were considering buying a plane to back away from making a purchase…

Here’s the thing – those corporate jets are built by blue collar workers, a large number of whom are union members.  But, you see, Obama didn’t care about that. He doesn’t care that the airplane was invented in the United States.  He doesn’t care that while the United States is still the predominant aerial nation, there is increasingly stiff competition out there.  He doesn’t care that small and mid-sized aircraft businesses are dependent upon steady orders which could be harmed if prospective buyers are scared off by heated, Presidential rhetoric.  He didn’t care about any of that – all he cared about was a talking point.  A sound bite.  A phrase which was undoubtedly poll-tested relentlessly before he ever uttered it – something he thought would give him leverage to get the debt ceiling raised in 2011 and himself re-elected in 2012.  That was all – screw everyone:  Obama needs more spending to payoff backers and need to get re-elected next year.  Aircraft company worker with a wife and two kids to support?  Well, **** you.

This is the kind of man Obama is.  This is the way our liberals are.  This is the Ruling Class at work – doing what it needs to do in order to retain personal power and wealth.  You want this to continue?   Then just go and vote for Obama next year – or, if you’re a GOPer, go and get all purist and say you won’t vote for Candidate X because he or she isn’t true-blue enough.  As for me, I want him out – I want them out.

Insufferable Chinese Make Disgusting Demand

Mark Noonan8 Comments

From Reuters:

China’s Foreign Ministry warned U.S. officials on Thursday not to meet with visiting exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, saying it hoped Washington “appropriately dealt” with Tibet-related issues…

We should be warning the Chinese that if they don’t mind their manners we’ll start up a trade embargo…and we’ll see how “strong” the Chinese economy is when they can’t dump their low-quality, slave-labor produced garbage in our stores.

I, for one, have had quite enough of the corrupt, beastly government in Beijing and it is high time we started acting like we know the difference between right and wrong.  My sympathies are with the long-suffering Chinese people and I can’t think of any better way to help them than to do everything we can to undermine the Chinese government…and the best way to do that is cease allowing that government to make money off the United States of America.  They’ll have a nice economic crash and maybe that will wake the Chinese people up to the need for a revolution – but even if it doesn’t then at least we won’t have anything to do with China’s government any longer.