If All You See…

By William Teach June 10, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…are lovely wind turbines which should be erected far away from where you live, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Real Science, with a post on how 2014 is shaping up, temperature wise.

Read: If All You See… »

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Some Dems See “Climate Change” As A Winning Issue

By William Teach June 10, 2014 – 11:00 am

Well, it’s certainly not as dangerous as campaigning on support of Ocare

(NY Times) He is a Democrat in a marquee Senate race, pressed by a strong Republican in a state with a challenging political environment. So when a new proposal to limit power plant emissions was seen as posing a threat to allies of the Obama administration, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado acted quickly: He embraced the plan.

“Coloradans have seen firsthand the harmful effects of climate change, including severe drought, record wildfires and reduced snowpack,” Mr. Udall said in a statement shortly after the Environmental Protection Agency plan was made public last week. “The E.P.A.’s draft rule is a good start, and I will fight to ensure it complements the work we have already done in Colorado and provides states the flexibility they need to make it successful.”

He is a Democrat in a marquee Senate race, pressed by a strong Republican in a state with a challenging political environment. So when a new proposal to limit power plant emissions was seen as posing a threat to allies of the Obama administration, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado acted quickly: He embraced the plan.

“Coloradans have seen firsthand the harmful effects of climate change, including severe drought, record wildfires and reduced snowpack,” Mr. Udall said in a statement shortly after the Environmental Protection Agency plan was made public last week. “The E.P.A.’s draft rule is a good start, and I will fight to ensure it complements the work we have already done in Colorado and provides states the flexibility they need to make it successful.”

Some other Dems are also picking up the mantle. I’d tell them to be careful else they end up losing as badly as Labor did in Australia through multiple elections, but, then, I want Democrats to lose that badly.

In Iowa, Representative Bruce Braley, the Democratic Senate nominee, has adopted the same approach as Mr. Udall. “Reducing our carbon output is not only necessary for the health of the planet, it’s an opportunity to continue to improve the health of the Iowa economy — which is and will remain my No. 1 priority,” Mr. Braley said.

Say, I wonder if these Democrats, and the others pimping Hotcoldwetdry, will stop using fossil fuels during their own campaigns? Eh, silly question. Of course they won’t.

In other states with competitive Senate races, such as Michigan, Democrats say growing public support for action to curb climate change — coupled with pronouncements by Republican candidates that human activity is not contributing to it, or their denials that the world is growing warmer — could help Democrats this year. They say it will definitely make the party stronger heading into the 2016 presidential election.

Hmm, growing public support

Virtually every single poll has “climate change” at the bottom of the list of concerns, typically last or next to last. Really, what this is about is whipping their base up to get the vote out, changing the subject away from Ocare and the Dems shoddy, lackluster economic policies, and trying to find new ways to tax Americans.

Read: Some Dems See “Climate Change” As A Winning Issue »

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People Heading To The ER In Droves Under Obamacare

By William Teach June 10, 2014 – 9:00 am

Who woulda thunk it?

(Courier Journal) It wasn’t supposed to work this way, but since the Affordable Care Act took effect in January, Norton Hospital has seen its packed emergency room become even more crowded, with about 100 more patients a month.

That 12 percent spike in the number of patients — many of whom aren’t actually facing true emergencies — is spurring the hospital to convert a waiting room into more exam rooms.

That’s just the opposite of what many people expected under Obamacare, particularly because one of the goals of health reform was to reduce pressure on emergency rooms by expanding Medicaid and giving poor people better access to primary care.

Instead, many hospitals in Kentucky and across the nation are seeing a surge of those newly insured Medicaid patients walking into emergency rooms.

As Ed Morrissey points out, this isn’t the first report like this, but it does “show that the increase in emergency-room usage is not just a one-time spike.” He highlights a video report from Bloomberg from a few weeks ago. He also notes

The issue isn’t merely a burst of enthusiasm from newly-covered users, although that’s part of the problem. New coverage has created more demand, as was easily predicted, but did nothing to address supply.

And a doctor hits the nail on the head with the perfect description

“It’s a perfect storm here,” said Dr. Ryan Stanton of Lexington, president of the Kentucky chapter of the ER physician group.”We’ve given people an ATM card in a town with no ATMs.”

It may or may not be true that Ocare incentivizes users to head to the ER for every issue, but it surely provides no means to brake the issue. A little story: back when I was with AT&T, they switched all management in the wireless division (I’m not sure if this happened in the wired department at the time) to a Health Savings Account. One of things HSAs do is make people think about the cost of their own care. Per the Carolina’s top HR rep, those thoughts of personal cost causes an immediate decrease in the use of ERs for minor issues, which was a big driver in reducing overall costs. The regular plans saw the company paying $8-12K per year per employee. HSAs dropped that to $6-8k per year. Certainly, employees would pay more out of pocket yearly if they hit their deductibles. I would have spent about $450 more per year if I made it to my $1,100 deductible. Yet, I never did hit that level, and saved money every year but one (I came very close to breaking my elbow. Long and stupid story that did not include the words “hey, y’all, watch this). Users no longer immediately jumped to the ER, and instead went to the doctor, an emergency clinic, or simply the drug store.

If Ocare users think it’s all “free”, they will use it willy nilly without thought of cost. If only people had warned against this before Ocare was passed.

Read: People Heading To The ER In Droves Under Obamacare »

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White House: Some Soldiers Can Be Left Behind

By William Teach June 10, 2014 – 8:33 am

In relation to Bowe Bergdahl, Obama has said many times since the swap “We don’t leave men and women in uniform behind”, or something to that tune. He even doubled down by adding “We don’t condition that.” Of course, the issue isn’t Bergdahl, but a failure to notify Congress and, #1, trading 5 high ranking Taliban members for him. But, what of another man in uniform?

(The Hill) The White House rejected comparisons Monday between Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, freed earlier this month by the Taliban, and a U.S. Marine currently being held by the authorities in Mexico.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he thought it was necessary to “draw a distinction” between Bergdahl, who went missing years ago in Afghanistan, and Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who accidentally crossed into Mexico on March 31 while in possession of loaded firearms.

“Sergeant Bergdahl was being held by the Taliban, who is engaged in an armed conflict with the United States and coalition forces,” Earnest said. “And so what was conducted to free Sergeant Bergdahl was a prisoner exchange. And this is something that has been part of winding down armed conflicts for centuries.”

Republicans have criticized Obama for working to engineer the release of Bergdahl while Tahmooressi remains imprisoned.

“It’s ironic that we can deal with the Taliban and get an American soldier released, but we can’t get a Marine across the border released,” Rep. Ted Poe. (R-Texas) told 1080-KRLD in Dallas.

And, of course, we get

Earnest said Obama was “certainly concerned” about Tahmooressi’s fate, but referred questions about diplomatic efforts to free him — and the administration’s confidence in the Mexican judicial system — to the Defense and State departments.

The Typical Obama Administration Deflection, “check with That Department”. But, hey, Obama was “certainly concerned”. Of course, Team Obama apparently doesn’t think they can use Tahmooressi for political gain. The fact that this could earn Team Obama some nice brownie points has missed their minds.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Met Office Wants To Combat “Climate Change” With Poetry

By William Teach June 9, 2014 – 2:23 pm

Well, I guess that’s considerably more easy than actually making their own lives carbon neutral

(UK Independent) …scientists are being told to use art and poetry to win public support in the battle to curb climate change.

Dame Julia Slingo, the chief scientist at the Met Office, has called for a radical overhaul of the way climate scientists go about their business, arguing that they need to make their reports less turgid and more engaging.

“We have to look increasingly at what society requires of us… We increasingly recognise that to reach the general public we have to use all sorts of different channels of communication,” Dame Julia told a recent gathering of leading climate change scientists at the University of Exeter.

“And it’s not through tables and graphs. Sometimes it is through art, through music, through poetry, and storytelling and that is increasingly something we have to think about – how we communicate in a more humanist way.

“Scientists have to stay engaged in the communication message. We will have to work at this. We will have to get the message out that this is a profound, deeply serious problem. It is urgent that we, as a science community, work together to advance the science and also to communicate it as effectively as we can so that we get the action that is so badly needed,” she said.

Well, yeah, I guess so, since their actual science is a mess and their models are failures. This is partially a recognition that their scare tactics are no longer working.

Dame Julia also called on the public to step up their action to publicise climate change, for example by recording the way it is affecting their immediate environment.

Personally, I’d tell the Warmists to practice what they preach. Silly me.

“Climate change is a massive opportunity for citizen science,” she said. “For everybody who experiences the natural world, we can use all the social media tools that we have to document what we see happening to the world around us.”

Unless you don’t buy into their little cult, and then the message to Skeptics is “shut up”.

Of course, we’ve seen lots of Warmist “art”, such as

All murdery. And

Insane. And

Creepy. Here’s mine

Not particularly doomy, eh?

Read: Met Office Wants To Combat “Climate Change” With Poetry »

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If All You See…

By William Teach June 9, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is floody drought world, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Yid With Lid, with a post on the top 7 climate change lies told by Warmists.

Read: If All You See… »

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Comment Spam Part 2

By William Teach June 9, 2014 – 10:36 am

I installed and activated a new spam blocking plugin. Interestingly, there is not one spam comment in the WordPress spam folder. However, is this stopping people from commenting? Send me an email or tweet me at @WilliamTeach.

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Obamacare Still Polling Negatively

By William Teach June 9, 2014 – 9:22 am

Now, is that a shocked face you’re making, or duck lips?

(Gallup) Though one-in-three voters say their personal health care coverage has changed because of the national health care law, half still say the law hasn’t impacted them positively or negatively.

Forty-four percent (44%) of Likely U.S. Voters have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of the health care law, while 52% regard it unfavorably, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. This includes 19% who view the law Very Favorably and 41% who have a Very Unfavorable opinion of it. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The article itself is noting that 50% cannot say if the law has impacted them positively or negatively. Which is interesting, considering how much taxpayer money is being spent and how deep into our health care and insurance the law reaches. Of course, wait till the next few rounds of insurance cancellations, particularly those involving corporations.

Also, 47% think the US is in recession. And 73% expect to pay more for groceries.

Read: Obamacare Still Polling Negatively »

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GAO Report Finds VA Leases Also Way Behind Schedule

By William Teach June 9, 2014 – 8:02 am

Big Government at work

(Roll Call) The Department of Veterans Affairs is already in plenty of hot water over its patient backlog, and a Government Accountability Office report released this week on a similar brand of mismanagement elsewhere in the department isn’t going to help turn down the temperature.

The GAO report on department management of leasing for outpatient clinics was overshadowed by the department’s other woes, but found some significant problems. Of the 41 projects the GAO examined, 39 were behind schedule — one of them by more than 13 years.

Because construction of VA-owned properties is expensive, the department has increasingly leased out medical facilities to provide treatment, to the tune of $5.5 billion as of the fall of 2013.

Most of the scheduling delays came at the front end, before the department ever entered into a lease agreement, and on average the delays are 3.3 years. The problems included late or changing requirements, trouble finding suitable facilities and ever-changing internal procedures.

Unsurprisingly, there were also lots of cost over-runs, as well. Big Government at its finest. BTW, part of the problem in getting the facilities built in a timely manner goes to “environmental” regulations. There comes a point where those regulations go well beyond reasonable and to absurd. Private citizens/companies deal with this all the time.

Meanwhile

(LA Times) As the acting secretary of Veterans Affairs tries to assure congressmen that he is moving to address the VA healthcare scandal, his department is preparing to release more results of a nationwide audit of scheduling practices that have been denounced as misleading and harmful to veterans.

The results are expected to be released Monday, as a House committee puts VA officials through another round of grilling over findings that VA employees falsified records to conceal long waits for medical appointments.

It looks like acting secretary Sloan Gibson is very serious about reforming the VA. Have you ever noticed that Government only takes internal problems seriously when things have blown up in their face? When it becomes a scandal?

Read: GAO Report Finds VA Leases Also Way Behind Schedule »

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Man With Largest Carbon Footprint In World Would Like To “Go Off On Deniers”

By William Teach June 9, 2014 – 7:41 am

Thomas Friedman has a little op-ed piece up regarding Obama’s “climate change” power plant rules, which includes an interview with Obama. Remember, this is the same guy who will take a fossil fueled helicopter over to Andrews Air Force Base, jump on Air Force 1 to fly all the way across the country (with a backup AF1 following), jump in his limo which is accompanied by over a dozen more fossil fueled vehicles, briefly attend an “official” event, then take those same fossil fueled vehicles to multiple fundraisers, and then reverse it, all within a day. And do it all the time.

(NY Times) WHEN it comes to dealing with the world’s climate and energy challenges I have a simple rule: change America, change the world.

If America raises its clean energy standards, not only will others follow — others who have hid behind our inaction — we’ll also stimulate our industry to invent more of the clean air, clean power and energy efficiency systems, and move them down the cost curve faster, so U.S. companies will be leaders in this next great global industry and American consumers will be the first to benefit. That is why the new Environmental Protection Agency rules President Obama proposed last week to curb carbon emissions from power plants are so pivotal. You can’t make power systems greener without making them smarter — smarter materials, software or design. One new ruling will not change the world — and we have to be careful that this one doesn’t replace our addiction to coal with an addiction to natural gas alone.

A couple problems with Freidman’s opening. First, the rules simply look to shut down as much coal energy production as possible, and could affect other power plants. Nothing within the plan ensures that our power grid is protected, and all this will do will skyrocket energy costs.

Several weeks ago, as he was drawing up these new emission rules, I interviewed President Obama in the White House library about climate and energy. Following are highlights. (The interview is also featured in the final episode of Showtime’s climate series, “Years of Living Dangerously” airing on Monday.)

A show which nobody watched.

For starters, Obama is aware that we can’t just keep burning oil, coal and gas until they run out…..

“Science is science,” he said. “And there is no doubt that if we burned all the fossil fuel that’s in the ground right now that the planet’s going to get too hot and the consequences could be dire.”

This from a man who is constantly using lots of (taxpayer funded) fossil fuels to travel all over the country and world. Remember, he put his dog on a separate plan for a vacation. OK, yes, the plane was going there anyway, because, apparently, Obama needed multiple (taxpayer funded) airplanes to go on vacation. As for the science, despite an increase in CO2, there has been no statistically significant warming in close to 18 years, per actual data.

The rest of the interview is just as idiotic (and hypocritical). He wants to put a price on “carbon”. We already have that: Obamacare. Carbon is the second largest element in our bodies. As for CO2, most “carbon markets” have pretty much collapsed. Then we get to the typical Obama insults

Do you ever want to just go off on the climate deniers in Congress?

“Yeah, absolutely,” the president said with a laugh. “Look, it’s frustrating when the science is in front of us. … We can argue about how. But let’s not argue about what’s going on. The science is compelling. … The baseline fact of climate change is not something we can afford to deny. And if you profess leadership in this country at this moment in our history, then you’ve got to recognize this is going to be one of the most significant long-term challenges, if not the most significant long-term challenge, that this country faces and that the planet faces. The good news is that the public may get out ahead of some of their politicians” — as people start to see the cost of cleaning up for hurricanes like Sandy or the drought in California — and when “those start multiplying, then people start thinking, ‘You know what? We’re going to reward politicians who talk to us honestly and seriously about this problem.’

So, if it’s so compelling, why is Obama not drastically reducing his own footprint? Or even reducing it at all? Isn’t that “leadership”? For a guy who is supposedly the smartest ever, he doesn’t know that Sandy was not a hurricane at landfall and that California has had much worse droughts. The “baseline fact” is that 95% of the models have failed.

And while it might be Freidman who brings up the “denier” bit, Obama is more than happy to comply and smear people who fail to agree with his cult. As Gateway Pundit notes “It would seem President Obama is losing patience with those who exercise their free speech rights to express concerns about his (bogus) Climate Change agenda.” Not a thing unusual about that. Obama is not a big supporter of free speech for people with different views. Including those who see that anthropogenic “climate change” is fake science, and really all about politics.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Man With Largest Carbon Footprint In World Would Like To “Go Off On Deniers” »

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