Interesting Items
Alex Gimarc
[email protected]
Monday, June 28, 2010
Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
1. DISCLOSE
2. Dearbornistan
3. Milk
4. Bombs
5. McChrystal
6. Financial Reform
7. Drilling
1. DISCLOSE. Pelosi pulled a bait and switch routine with the DISCLOSE Act
last week. A week ago, she pulled the legislation from the floor of the House
in response to union concerns. Well, she fixed those problems and the made the
unions very, very happy. And the legislation passed last week with a vote of
219 – 206. This legislation is yet another vehicle to ensure democrats are
reelected in November, as it shuts down all political speech other than that
funded by unions, the greens, lawyers, and the state-controlled media. It is
on to the senate for action. Expect our Boy Senator Mark Begich to vote for it.
2. Dearbornistan. PowerLine and Hot Air early last week ran articles about
mass arrest of Christian protestors outside a city Arab festival in Dearborn,
MI. The protestors were doing all the normal things that Christian protestors
do – handing out literature, singing hymns, and spreading the Gospel. This was
offensive to the (apparently) Muslim Police Chief of Dearborn, Ronald Haddad,
who had them all arrested and removed for disorderly conduct. The cops also
confiscated all video cameras among the protestors so that nobody will be able
to see what happened and why. The Thomas Moore Law Center was quoted as saying
local police were “concerned” last year that a Christian presence outside a
mostly Muslim event would cause some excitement. Appears the excitement was
entirely from the Muslim side of the discussion – as it normally is, for
Muslims seem to be singularly incapable of competing in the marketplace of
ideas without resorting
to threats, intimidation, thuggery, and violence. And we are supposed to
tolerate this in our midst?
3. Milk. From Watts Up With That, Sunday June 24, we have yet another story
of the EPA spinning off into Nana Land. This time, the EPA wants to regulate
milk as a hazardous substance much like crude oil, and the regulations require
farmers, vendors and everyone else who handles milk to use the identical hazmat
tools, procedures and disposal techniques for milk as they do for crude oil.
The excuse given by the EPA is that raw milk has a high fat content, making it
similar to crude oil. Really? I can put frozen milk on a stick and eat it as
ice cream. I defy the clowns at the EPA to do the same thing with a tar ball
from the Gulf of Mexico. Of course the greens are celebrating the new rule as
yet another way to keep dairy farmers from defiling the waterways with spilt
milk. The basic lesson is this: when you hire a bunch of true believers to
write rules and regulations; that is what they will do. And they will keep on
doing it long
after the environment is acceptably clean. There is a concept in industry
that you spend 80% of your money chasing the last 20% of performance. The
concept also applies to the regulatory world, as we are spending huge amounts
of money for no appreciable improvement in clean air or clean water. See
carbon dioxide regulation for an example.
4. Bombs. Chris Horner in Pajamas Media Sunday, June 24, wrote a story about
death threats to a Spanish researcher who wrote a damning report on the fabled
green jobs initiative in Spain 15 Months ago. The basic conclusion of the
study was for every so-called green job created by government interference in
the energy marketplace, Spain as a whole lost 2.2 normal jobs. Follow this
string long enough and you can put everyone out of work. Green jobs have been
cited by Obama and his cronies as a worthy goal for our energy future. The
fact of the matter is that they are a mirage, a chimera, a Cheshire cat,
disappearing from our grasp as we chase them across the desert. You can find
an English version of the report at:
http://www.juandemariana.org/pdf/090327-employment-public-aid-renewable.pdf
As a result of his work, the researcher has received multiple death threats.
Things are sufficiently dicey that he treated an unexpected package from a
Spanish solar energy company as a bomb. He was expecting a paper or set of
papers from the corporation in response to an information request. Instead, he
received a box of what turned out to be auto parts. Apologies were passed all
around, but it certainly does give one pause. What would an energy company
specializing in solar energy whose business is now at risk due to the diligent
work of the researcher doing sending automobile parts out in the mail? This is
supposed to be a mistake, an oopsie? Nothing about this story passes the smell
test. Do not forget the immediate resort to brute force, thuggery,
intimidation and other forms of strong arm tactics from the left when they
don’t get their way.
5. McChrystal. Obama fired his hand-picked Commanding General in Afghanistan
last week following “sensational” revelations in a Rolling Stone article on the
General and his staff. McChrystal’s staff was sandbagged by the Rolling Stone
reporter who published things that were told him off the record. It was those
revelations – mostly expressing frustration and dismay with leadership out of
Washington DC – that ended up getting McChrystal fired. Interestingly enough,
he was very much an Obama general, who said he voted for Obama and did not
allow Fox News on television in his headquarters. Obama selected McChrystal’s
commander, David Petraeus to lead the effort in Afghanistan. Expect Petraeus
to loosen the ridiculous Rules of Engagement McChrystal levied upon his
forces. Expect the July 2011 departure date from Afghanistan to disappear.
And expect Petraeus to start fighting the war via the tribal leaders as he did
to win the
war in Iraq. We will see if Obama and his regime are smart enough to stay out
of the way.
6. Financial Reform. House and Senate conferees announced Thursday a general
agreement on financial reform legislation. This is yet another 2000 – 3000
page fetid pile of steaming overripe manure that will basically allow
unelected, unaccountable regulators to take over and shut down any business
they want to grab as long as it is deemed to be “troubled.” This legislation
is essentially a lawless, fascist strike at property rights of businesses. It
overturns hundreds of years of bankruptcy laws at the stroke of a pen. It puts
the regulators in charge of writing the rules and regulations. As an aside, if
you had 2000 – 3000 pages of legislation, I would think you would write the new
rules and regulations in those pages. It does not repeal the Community
Reinvestment Act nor does it do anything whatsoever about Freddie Mac and
Fannie Mae, which were at the center of the financial collapse in 2008 and will
be in the center of the next
one. On the other hand, the banks and investment houses were able to carve
out very nice loopholes for themselves in the legislation and appear to be
happy with what they have in hand. The stock market went up the day the
agreement was announced and banking stocks did well that day also. It would
have gone the other direction had the outcome been harmful to the banks.
Folks, it appears the entire financial game is now rigged against the American
people, small businesses, and anyone who is not an insider. It is the very
definition of fascism – where the government via regulations and taxation
controls everything we do. It should be defeated.
7. Drilling. Federal District Judge Martin Feldman overturned Salazar’s and
Obama’s ban on all deep water offshore drilling Monday. The opinion
specifically applies to the Gulf of Mexico, so it does not reopen exploratory
drilling in Alaska or the Atlantic coast. But the opinion was based upon
Salazar’s recommendations from his panel of eight experts – the recommendation
to close off all exploratory drilling offshore over 500’ water depth that he
appended to his expert’s panel after they were finished. Essentially, Salazar
who is a lawyer, committed a fraud upon the Court, which is what got Bill
Clinton’s law license pulled in the late 1990s. Judge Feldman called out
Salazar for lying about the recommendation to shut down drilling in his
opinion. In response to the ruling, the Obama administration huffed and puffed
and promised to impose a new, better written drilling ban. What they did in
practice was to simply stop
approving all permits for anything associated with offshore drilling in any
water depth, including well rework. This is a dangerous path to travel, as
well rework is an essential part of the business, as steel corrodes and must be
reworked from time to time. The longer necessary well maintenance is delayed,
the greater chance there will be for yet another blowout. Finally, the greens
reacted as expected with death threats directed against Judge Feldman.
More later -
- AG
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better
than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not
your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your
chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia
State House, August 1, 1776.
Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations:
The Alaska Standard http://thealaskastandard.com/
MatSu Valley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com
District 28 http://www.dist28.com/
subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/
and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc
Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column:
http://www.thevanguard.org/
More later -
- AG
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better
than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not
your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your
chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia
State House, August 1, 1776.
Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations:
The Alaska Standard http://thealaskastandard.com/
MatSu Valley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com
District 28 http://www.dist28.com/
subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/
and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc
Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column:
http://www.thevanguard.org/
To read Alex Gimarc’s columns, go to http://home.gci.net/~agimarc/
To stay abreast Pro Life news, go to http://www.listcast.com/x?oid=20000g
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