Democrat Culture of Corruption

His Majesty, Barry I, Proclaims Amnesty

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From the New York Times:

The Homeland Security Department said Thursday it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria such as attending school, having family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care.

The move, announced in letters to Congress, won immediate praise from Hispanic activists and Democrats who had chided President Obama for months for the pace of deportations and had argued he had authority to exempt broad swaths of illegal immigrants from deportation…

Much easier than mucking about with all that tedious law, Constitution and Congress stuff…can’t get amnesty legally?  Then just say it is so…presto, there it is.

It doesn’t matter if someone has a job or is going to school – if they are here illegally, then deportation is the only way to go unless there is a clearly enacted law which says otherwise.  As long-time readers know, I am in favor of comprehensive immigration reform which would include an amnesty provision…but that is not what our laws provide for right now, so the only thing our chief law enforcement officer can do is deport.

But that doesn’t lock down a certain segment of the latino population for 2012.  And what is more important – enforcing the law, or getting re-elected?  I tell you, there was no chance Obama would do otherwise…because like all liberals, he hasn’t the foggiest notion of what law is, nor what constitutes tyranny.

2012 can’t get here fast enough…

Obamunism! Food Stamp Usage Skyrockets in a Very Strange Way

Mark Noonan17 Comments

Hat tip to Zero Hedge, which notes a real oddity about it:

…After last month the data for April food stamp recipients indicated the we may, just may, be reaching an inflection point in the foodstamp participation following a mere 60 thousand jump in those receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), today’s just released data confirmed that the BLS and BEA may have had a hand or two when determining this latest data series. Because the just announced jump in foodstamp usage of over 1.1 million entirely out of the blue…

…But wait, there’s more. Digging into the numbers reveals something pecuiliar: virtually the entire surge in monthly SNAP participation is due to one state alone: Alabama, which saw those living on foodstamps jump from 868K to 1.762MM…

The fact that this many people are on food stamps is bad…but the indication of data manipulation is worse.  I ask the question:  Is the Obama Administration fudging the data to make the economic picture look better, and only correcting the data when it becomes so bad there’s no way around it?

It isn’t just here – almost invariably, each week the previous week’s first time claims for unemployment are revised upwards.  Almost invariably, when new unemployment rate data is released there is a reduction in labor-force participation.  Both of these actions tend to help Obama.  Experts I’ve read indicate that if labor force participation was in line with what we’ve seen over the past ten years, the unemployment rate would be above 11%.  Imagine for a moment what the political picture would look like here in August of 2011 if unemployment was officially at 11% and figured to go higher all through the rest of the year…there would be a stampede for the exits away from Obama.  He’d be a lame duck…Democrats would just be trying to protect themselves, and a genuine (as opposed to fringe) primary challenger to Obama would become possible.

The political facts of life are that even if unemployment is above 7% in November of 2012, it will be hard for Obama to secure re-election.  Every point higher magnifies Obama’s difficulty…and getting above 10% makes it just about impossible for Obama to win, even if we nominated a Paul/Huntsman ticket.  I’m really starting to smell a rat here…a manipulation of data in order to make it appear that things aren’t that bad, thus giving Obama his chance to win.  The data can be adjusted towards reality after the election…and whether Obama has won or lost won’t matter at that point.

Congress should investigate this.  This is what “oversight” is for:  to ensure that the Executive Branch is carrying out its duties in accordance with law. We need to know if we’re being lied to for Obama’s political benefit.

 

The Tea Parties, the Future of Liberty and Liberal Intentional Slander

tiredoflibbs90 Comments

After Barak Obama (the obAMATEUR to realists) became president in January 2009, he signed the infamous “stimulus package”, worth $787 billion, of liberal dream spending with virtually no Republican support (and rightfully so).  As it was rammed through with little reading or debate, we were told that it was “necessary”, “to keep unemployment under 8%”.  Practically overnight as one of its highest priorities, the federal government became the “Home Depot” by weatherizing government buildings and housing projects (excuse me “housing developments”).  Streets and highways with little or no need of repair would be broken up and repaved.  The DOT and other government agencies would spend millions on signs advertising the supposed benefits of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  I saw one of those signs first hand in Washington DC.  It stated that the park on Roosevelt Island would be receiving a generous “grant” to facilitate the involvement of local youth in the removal of “non-indigenous plants”.  To put it simply, local kids would be weeding the island.  This was going to save the economy and the country??

Then there were several “projects” and “studies” also financed by the ARRA.  One project, numbered 1R01AA01658001, titled “Malt Liquor and Marijuana: Factors in their Concurrent or Separate Use”.  This grant of $400,000 to a professor at New York State at Buffalo has the following official abstract: “We appreciate the opportunity to refocus this application to achieve a single important aim related to our understanding of young adults’ use of malt liquor, other alcoholic beverages, and Marijuana, all of which confer high risks for experiencing negative consequences including addiction.”  Wow, $400,000 to study something we already knew???  Other such “grants” followed, to ACORN, to the study of porn, to the study of fish migrations and mating habits of certain animals, etc. etc.

The cost of the stimulus was later revised to $862 billion (an underestimate of 10%).  If a private business made such a blunder in outgoing funds it would most likely go out of business.  But I digress…..  As a result of this boondoggle of liberal spending, the TEA Party was born.  It was by accident really that this organization was founded.  Thanks to Rick Santelli on CNBC and his rant against the stimulus package and a particular proposal to for it to also subsidize what he called the “losers mortgages”.  He proposed a ceremonial dumping of  of derivative securities into Lake Michigan.  A few hours later a website popped up with a call for a “Chicago Tea Party” and Santelli’s video rant. The video became viral across the nation.  Average Americans were furious about the massive new spending and the revelations about previous spending on those “studies” and “grants”.  This alone was not the sustaining factor in keeping the TEA Party movement alive but the fact that: Under President Obama, federal spending has been growing at an unprecedented pace.  We are adding $4.8 billion to the national debt everyday.  The long-term viability of Medicare and Social Security isn’t merely uncertain – as so many analysts would have us believe.  In fact their failure is is a sure thing without structural changes.  By adding massive new entitlements with the health care bill we are simply going to go broke faster.

The TEA party gained so much momentum so fast, it was a threat to the liberal establishment.  Immediately pundits, the obAMATEUR friendly media, the Democrats went into full gear with their baseless and usual smear tactics and attacks.

Susan Roesgen of CNN (once an anchor in New Orleans) was going after TEA Party enthusiasts at a Chicago rally, suggesting they were stupid and irrational (no objective reporting there).

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: “The danger of political violence in this country comes overwheminly from one direction – the right, not the left.  The vitriolic, anti-government hate speech that is spewed on talk radio every day – and, quite regurlarly, at TEA Party rallies – is calibrated not to inform but to incite.”

MSNBC’s Ed Shutlz (I KNOW NOTHING!!!): “I believe that the TEA Partiers are misguided.  I think they are racist, for the most part.  I think that they are clinging to their guns and their religion.  And I think in many respects, they are what’s wrong with America.”

Actress Janeane Garofalo: “This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.  There are nothing but a bunch of tea-bagging readnecks.”

Comedian Bill Maher: “the teabaggers, they’re not a movement, they’re a cult.”

Democratic strategist Stece McMahon: “The reason people walk into schools and open fire is because of rhetoric like this and because of attitudes like this.  The reason people walk onto military bases and open fire is because of rhetoric like this and attitudes like this.  Really, what they’re doing is not that much different that what Osama bin Laden is doing in recruiting people and encouraging them to hate America.”

Chris Mathews claimed that the TEA Partiers are all “monochromatic” and “all white”.  A quick look and amateur and profession videos at rallies quickly proved this talking point wrong.

However, a Washington Post/ABC poll found that 14% of voters say the TEA Party is “most in synch” with their values; 20% say TEA Partiers are “most in tune with economic problems Americans are now facing”.

A most interesting poll came from TargetPoint Consulting which interviewed 500 attendees at the April 15, 2010 Tax Rally in DC Here are some of the results:

The TEA Partiers are united on the issues of debt, the growth of government, and health care reform

They are socially conservative on the one hand and libertarian on the other, split roughly down the middle.

They are older, more educated, and more conservative that average voters and they are “distinctly not Democrat”.

This brings us to the present day.  The President’s approval ratings are low and getting lower and Congressional Democrats are the lowest and getting worse.  Members of his party are running away from him (as seen in the November elections with declines of his speaking at their rallies).  Now with the debate on the debt limit, Americans are seeing that the Republicans have presented plans while the Democrats and the President have presented NONE.  The only thing liberal Democrats and their drones can do is continue to attack the GOP and the TEA party candidates who won in November who are doing what their constituents want – lower spending and reduce the size of the budget with has grown over 25% in just two years.  There is no way you can convince anyone that there a no room for cuts.  The liberal drones continue with their attacks of racism.  Andrew Brietbart has offered anyone who can prove racism at a TEA party rally with a cash reward.  With all the amateur and professional videos out there NOT A SINGLE ONE has captured anything close to the looney left’s claims (of course, the left now claims criticizing the Presidents failed policies is racism).

The Democrats are out of new ideas.  They continue to tout the same old ones that have failed time and again – more spending and more taxes.  When the President says we must live within our means he is not talking of cutting spending to match revenues, but raising taxes in hopes of raising revenues to match spending.  His mishandling of this debt limit and lack of leadership is showing among his Twitter followers (losing 30,000) and elsewhere, his support continues to dwindle.

When President Obama spoke before the United Nations General Assembly in September 2009, he declared that a world order that elevates one country or group of countries over others is bound to fail.  So he’s changing the order.  If his domestic policy priority is the redistribution of wealth, his foreign policy seems to be the redistribution of power.  The TEA Party has members of every race and creed is continuing to gain momentum and returning the conversation to limited government in scope and power.

For a Change of Pace and Ironic Justice: Kerry Spokesman Stripped of Silver Star

tiredoflibbs9 Comments

John F. Kerry almost became president running on the basis of his alleged heroism in Vietnam. Thanks to the efforts of a group of truth-tellers, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, the serious holes in the fantasy narrative propounded by the Kerry campaign came to the attention of enough Americans that John Kerry was not the first faux-Irish President of the United States.

One of Kerry’s enablers in propounding his imaginary heroism was a man named Wade Sanders, who himself held a Silver Star, and who introduced Kerry to the Democratic Convention. Scott Swett, who was central to the unraveling of the Kerry storyline, tells us that the Kerry enabler has been exposed for what he is. His Winter Soldier site has the details:

John Kerry was introduced at the 2004 Democratic National Convention by Wade Sanders, a retired Navy Captain and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy who served as a Swift Boat officer in Vietnam. Like Kerry, Sanders was the recipient of a Silver Star for gallantry in action. During the 2004 campaign, Sanders functioned as Kerry lead attack dog against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, repeatedly denouncing the veterans on the air as liars and comparing them to Nazi propagandists.

Wade Sanders is now in Federal prison, serving a 37-month sentence for possessing child pornography. Now the Navy Times reports that Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has revoked Sanders’ Silver Star. The highly unusual decision appears unrelated to Sanders’ felony conviction. A Navy spokesman cited “subsequently determined facts and evidence surrounding both the incident for which the award was made and the processing of the award itself.” John Kerry has to be hoping this doesn’t become a trend.

As one might imagine, the media has ignored this story. Even the Navy Times declined to post its own article online.

HAT TIP: The American Thinker and Thomas Lifson

UPDATE: Here is the Sanders sentencing memorandum. Horrific.

—–

I have a prediction….. let’s wait to see if it comes true.


Wu Resigns

Mark Noonan28 Comments

From CBS:

Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., announced his resignation today following allegations he engaged in “aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior” with a young woman.

“The time has come to hand on the privilege of high office,” Wu said in a statement. “I cannot care for my family the way I wish while serving in Congress and fighting these very serious allegations.”

Wu said that his resignation would be effective upon the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis…

The man should never have been re-elected last year – had his staff cared more about the people  of Washington, and even cared about Wu, they would have revealed before the election that Wu was not fit to be a Congressman.  This whole incident might not have happened had someone done the right thing.

Hopefully Wu will now get the mental and spiritual counseling he needs – and, of course, deal with the sexual allegations.  Meanwhile, we need to find out some way to hammer Congressional staffers who essentially conspire to cover-up their boss’ problems.  The staffers ultimately work for us, not for the Representative and they have no right, in my view, to remain silent when serious problems become noticeable about an office holder.

Insane, Re-elected Democrat Sex Scandal

Mark Noonan9 Comments

You might recall back on February 20th of this year that I took note of a story about Representative David Wu (D-WA).  What happened as regards Congressman Wu is that as the 2010 campaign went on, it became increasingly clear to his staffers that he was laboring under severe mental defect…he was going insane, to put it in blunt terms.  Given that all this involved Democrats, they did what comes natural – in order to ensure that someone with a “D” after his name won (even if insane), they covered it up.  Not a peep out of a single staffer…and as Wu went completely ’round the bend, they just took him off the campaign trail and counted on the heavy Democrat registration advantage to carry him to victory – which is what happened.

At the time, I noted this as just another disgusting example of the Democrats putting power over principal.  A man suffering under mental distress is not fit to be in Congress.  As it turns out, Wu may not have been fit to be in society, at all – as the Oregonian reports:

A distraught young woman called U.S. Rep. David Wu’s Portland office this spring, accusing him of an unwanted sexual encounter, according to multiple sources.

When confronted, the Oregon Democrat acknowledged a sexual encounter to his senior aides but insisted it was consensual, the sources said.

The woman is the daughter of a longtime friend and campaign donor. She apparently did not contact police at the time…

Not much detail is known, but it is reported that the incident took place around Thanksgiving (meaning shortly after Wu was re-elected with 55% of the vote) and that the girl graduated in 2010…meaning she was 18 or 19 years old at the time (Wu is 56).

What I’d like to do, now, is have Wu’s staffers called up to a hearing in the House to ask them why they figured it was best to protect Wu’s public image.  I mean, the man is insane and now he might have done a horrible thing to a young woman.  Was keeping a seat for Nancy Pelosi worth that? Was keeping their BS staffer jobs more important than the risks Wu posed to himself and to others?  Here is our nauseating politics for you – and here is the Democrat party laid bare. Because as Wu went crazy, it wasn’t just his staffers who noticed…other House staffers saw it, as did other elected Democrats.  No one said anything – no one put a stop to it.  Power is more important than everything.

HAT TIP:  The Other McCain

 

To a Liberal, Taxation Is About “Fairness”

tiredoflibbs59 Comments

If you try engaging in a conversation about taxes with a liberal, you can expect for your conversation to last less than one minute.  This is because the only argument that liberals have about raising taxes is “fairness”.

I just can’t shake this idea that the purpose of taxation is to raise the revenue that is needed to fund the essential and constitutionally appropriate functions of government.  The looting left goes much further with this.  They view the power to tax – the power to seize property from an individual citizen at the point of a gun – as the power to reorder a free society to their ideas and desires.  This is why these social engineers will always start bleating about “fairness” When “progressives” (liberals afraid to call themselves “liberals”) start talking about “fairness”, what small chance you had for a rational discussion is gone, finished and out the window.

Two points:

#1: What is considered “fair” and who gets to define it? 

What would you consider fair?  Most liberals cannot tell you how much the evil rich earn compared to what they pay in taxes.  The answer, by the way, is that the top 1% of taxpayers earn about 20% of the income, yet they pay close to 40% in taxes.  Doesn’t matter.  To your friendly neighborhood “progressive”, that just isn’t enough.  And the fact that almost 51% of wage earners pay no federal income taxes at all?  Is this considered fair?  Should these people be getting a completely free ride?  A liberal will probably stutter and stammer and try to avoid answering the question.  So you give them a break.  “Progressives” also can’t give you specific number on how much the evil rich need to pay in order for our tax system to be fair.  They are just certain that it is more than they’re paying now.  And never forget — it is not for you to determine just how much money you can earn and keep.  That’s up to the government.  Remember that is was our Dear Ruler who said, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”

During obAMATEUR’s press conference earlier in the week, we heard one of the most absurd and dangerous quotes I’ve ever heard from a president.  Here’s the quote:

I do not want, and I will not accept, a deal in which I am asked to do nothing, in fact I’m able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need, while a parent out there who is struggling to send their kid to college suddenly finds that they’ve got a couple thousand dollars less in grants or student loans.

Asked to do nothing?  Oh .. I see.  So we’re all supposed to be sitting around just waiting for our orders from the Imperial Federal Government.  “What do you want me to do today, Dear Ruler?”  The fact is that the best thing any citizen can do is to strive to be a self-reliant and independent citizen who is NOT running to the federal government for help every day of their life.

But let’s discuss this “I’m able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need.”    “ABLE TO KEEP?”  Are you kidding me?  That amazing statement belies a belief that everything obAMATEUR – or any other citizen earns for that matter – actually belongs to the government, and it is the political class and government bureaucrats who will decide just how much of those earnings each individual will be “ABLE TO KEEP”.  It is these looters’ belief that your wealth is to be determined by government, not by your own initiative, hard work and good decision-making.  Consider the “DON’T NEED” part of obAMATEUR’s statement.  WHO gets to decide how much of what you earn you “NEED”?  Can anyone make that choice except you?  Well, not in a free society.  But this is the obAMATEUR Society, where government knows how much you have earned, then decides what you “NEED” and then determines what you will be “ABLE TO KEEP”.

Karl Marx would be so proud of Barack Obama.  While obAMATEUR is not a true Marxist, he has Marxist beliefs and leanings.  (The drones will latch on to this one!!! …and ignore everything else.)

#2: Increasing taxes does not mean increasing revenue. 

And the converse is true as well; decreasing taxes does not necessarily mean a decrease in revenue.  The history books show countless examples of tax revenues increasing when tax rates decline (Kennedy did it).   Let’s just take the Bush tax cuts as an example.  These liberals love to scream aboutthe Bush tax cuts costing us billions of dollars!  The fact is that revenues actually increased after the Bush tax cuts went into effect in 2003.  The Heritage Foundation has the facts: “Tax revenues in 2006 were 18.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which is actually above the 20-year, 40-year, and 60-year historical averages.  The inflation-adjusted 20 percent tax revenue increase between 2004 and 2006 represents the largest two-year revenue surge since 1965-1967.”  On a more macro scale, “Since 1952, the highest marginal income tax rate has dropped from 92 percent to 35 percent, and tax revenues have grown in inflation-adjusted terms while remaining constant as a percent of GDP.”  In other words, revenues are not about increasing tax rates … they are about economic growth: producing more and/or creating new tax payers.  Here are some more historical examples for your liberal drones to consider (if they have the courage).  Or even take capital gains taxes.  Historically, as capital gains tax rates dropped, revenues from the tax increased?  Conversely, in the 1980s when the rate was increased to 28%, revenues went down.

So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?  Oh wait!! Somebody did ask this question.  It was Charlie Gibson, who asked that question to Barack Obama in 2008.  Barack Obama’s response: “Well, Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of FAIRNESS.”

You can’t argue with logic like that.

ObAMATEUR’s Stimulus Worked??? (Bumped)

tiredoflibbs38 Comments

The Chosen One, The Rockstar, the sort of a god, the one who sends chills up Matthew’s leg, the obAMATEUR has come up with the latest dumbed down talking point for his drones.  Are you ready?  The reason of the state of the economy and the latest down turn, he claims that this is  “evidence” that his stimulus plan worked … because as the “stimulus” is phased out, local governments are shedding jobs.  When in reality, the jobless rate steadily rose after the spendulus plan was passed – so much for the “jobs saved” talking point.

Amazing!

  • We have the worst unemployment picture since the Great Depression because Obama’s stimulus worked!
  • Over two million fewer people are working in private sector jobs in our economy because Obama’s stimulus worked!
  • We are still seeing record levels of foreclosures because the stimulus worked!

The only thing that the obAMATEUR’s stimulus plan is evidence of is that government spending does not induce a climate of economic prosperity, particularly in the private market.  The economy does not thrive when the government is making the economic choices, plus the federal government is taking $0.25 for every dollar the private sector generates.

But it was never obAMATEUR’s goal to boost the private sector but rather to keep unions, government workers and Democrat looters prosperous while non-unionites and the private sector individuals sweat it out.  So look around, America … this, what we are experiencing right now, is proof that the spendulus plan worked!  But which is it, two weeks ago he was saying that “the shovel ready jobs were not as shovel ready as he thought”.

Hmmmmmmm, it seems that the obAMATEUR is not sure himself or he needs new excuses for the coming election year.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  More Obama success -from Bloomberg:

The dollar weakened against all its most-traded counterparts as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said policy makers will provide economic stimulus if needed and investor demand for higher-yielding assets increased.

The greenback fell the most in six months versus the euro as Bernanke said central bank is prepared to take additional action, including buying more government bonds, if the economy appears to be in danger of stalling…

If Obamunism worked then the economy wouldn’t be in danger of tanking and the Bernanke wouldn’t be firing up the printing presses.  Hope you all enjoyed the drop in gasoline prices this past month…because that is going to reverse itself right quick if Bernanke carries out his threat.

The Obama Lapdog Media Defends Atlanta Cheating Scandal (Bumped)

tiredoflibbs57 Comments

The Atlanta government schools are not worrying about the ObamaMedia pressing too hard on this test score cheating scandal.  They are more worried about Casey Anthony.  Instead, they are using the usual dumbed down talking points for the ignorant drones: blame Bush.  It’s Bush’s fault!  Wow, WHAT A REVELATION!!!!  Blame Bush for the cheating in Atlanta’s government schools.

Not surprising … they are pushing this tired old regurgitated talking point that if it wasn’t for No Child Left Behind, this cheating scandal would not have escalated (or even happened).

ABC correspondent Steve Osunami  said during a report:

Everyone here is pointing the finger at No Child Left Behind, the federal policy that made test scores king , closing schools with low scores, and rewarding schools with high ones. This former superintendent is accused of encouraging the cheating. She received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses tied to improved test scores. I’m personally friends with a good number of teachers in this community who tell me that they’re under tremendous pressure. They say that the same parents who are angry about all the cheating would be even more furious if the schools started reporting lower test scores … 

Pay close attention to: “Parents would be even more angry is the schools had reported lower test scores?”    Test scores, which by the way shows three things:

1) the incompetence of government schools (federal government policies and regulations rather than the states’ and local governments that are more accountable to the local people).

2) the detrimental effects of special interest unions which at heart are not “about the children” but about advancing their own power.

3) the inability to get rid of unionized teachers and administrators that are simply not doing (or can’t do) their job.

These parents should be concerned about whether or not their children are learning.  Period.  To falsify these test scores meant cheating many struggling students out of education they otherwise needed.  Of course, the looters will come up with the same excuses – MORE MONEY…..  and the ignorant drones will take up the chant.

It is time for the media to do their jobs and return to their ethical standards rather than support their ideological comrades.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  Nothing to see here, people – let’s just move on:

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin called the state investigative report into widespread cheating on standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools “pretty scary.”

However, she said, former Atlanta School Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall deserves credit for her successes…

She’s a liberal, you see?, so her heart must have been in the right place…

Update: Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (a Republican) on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what’s likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.  The cheating has been going on for 10 YEARS!

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/07/07/educators-implicated-in-atlanta-cheating-scandal

http://news.yahoo.com/americas-biggest-teacher-principal-cheating-scandal-unfolds-atlanta-213734183.html

The Criterion-Referenced Competency Test was instituted in the SPRING OF 2000!  Gee, long before the passage of NCLB and the election of George Bush!!!

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ci_testing.aspx?PageReq=CI_TESTING_CRCT

Note: There is no mention of NCLB nor did (or could) the 82 confessors blame Bush for their cheating.  The mindless drones would have you believe otherwise.

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.