NY Times: Hey, Let’s Put Military Pay On The Chopping Block

By William Teach December 1, 2013 – 7:43 am

I’m eagerly awaiting the NY Times’ Editorial Board piece on putting teacher and other unionized public sector worker pay on the block. Think we’ll ever see it?

Putting Military Pay On The Table

Big-ticket weapons like aircraft carriers and the F-35 fighter jet have to be part of any conversation about cutting Pentagon spending to satisfy the mandatory budget reductions known as the sequester. But compensation for military personnel has to be on the table, too — even though no other defense issue is more politically volatile or emotionally fraught.

But don’t you crazy right wingers even think about touching any entitlement programs. Or Obamacare. That’s what they always tell us (wait till the end)

After a decade of war, the very idea of cutting benefits to soldiers, sailors and Marines who put their lives on the line seems ungrateful. But America’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is over or winding down, and the Pentagon is obliged to find nearly $1 trillion in savings over 10 years. Tough choices will be required in all parts of the budget. Compensation includes pay, retirement benefits, health care and housing allowances. It consumes about half the military budget, and it is increasing.

Many groups have called for modernization of the compensation packages military members.The Times even mentions the right leaning American Enterprise Institute. Except, AEI mostly just calls for reform of the post-service benefits, like Tricare, high retirement pay, base commissary discounts. They also mention the bloat in the civilian workforce that serves the military. They do think pay for active duty should track with inflation.

One problem is that unrestrained compensation costs will edge out funds for training, readiness and weapons. A recent Congressional Budget Office study said that between 2001 and 2012, when private-sector wages were effectively flat, basic military pay rose by 28 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. The study also said that cash compensation for enlisted personnel, including food and housing allowances, is greater than the wages and salaries of 90 percent of their civilian counterparts. And health care costs are projected to rise from $51 billion in 2013 to $77 billion by 2022.

Strange, because public sector workers have much higher pay and compensation packages than their private sector compatriots. Public sector workers, especially unionized ones, have very generous retirement packages, blowing away private sector workers. Why aren’t we talking about reforming them?

Ye Olde NY Times wants serious changes and reductions to military compensation. Do they have a point. Yes. Surely, though, they want draconian cuts for one of the few federal government programs specifically authorized by the Constitution.

Soldiers must be adequately compensated. But when programs across the government are being slashed, including those affecting the most vulnerable Americans, no budget account can be immune from reductions and reforms. It is a difficult balance to get right.

You heard it from the Times, folks. Nothing can be immune. So they can’t whine when Republicans go after the public sector unions, entitlement programs, government giveaways, nor others. Including Obamacare.

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Healthcare.gov May Or May Not Work Sunday

By William Teach November 30, 2013 – 2:55 pm

It’s all about shifting the goalposts

(Washington Post) Administration officials are preparing to announce Sunday that they have met their Saturday deadline for improving HealthCare.gov, according to government officials, in part by expanding the site’s capacity so that it can handle 50,000 users at once. But they have yet to meet all their internal goals for repairing the federal health-care site, and it will not become clear how many consumers it can accommodate until more people try to use it.

Interestingly, there’s still no mention of whether the important part, namely transmitting info to the insurance companies and collecting payment, which is rather important, will work

“I continue to believe, and [I am] absolutely convinced, that at the end of the day, people are going to look back at the work we’ve done to make sure that in this country you don’t go bankrupt when you get sick, that families have that security,” Obama said. “That is going be a legacy I am extraordinarily proud of.”

Whether or not the website works is not the actual point, it’s simply a sideline of the utter failure of the legislation, highlighting that the government is incompetent.

At the end of the day, what matters are the blatant lies, the intentional fraud, the tens of millions losing/will lose their health insurance, the artificial increases in premiums and deductibles, forcing people to buy a product or be penalized, reduction in health network access, the coming rationing and “death panels”, people being moved from standard insurance to Medicaid, people who push it refusing to sign up for it themselves, the waivers, the intrusion into our health decisions.

Obama can believe what he wants, but at the end of the day this legislation will be a failure.

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If All You See…

By William Teach November 30, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible world baked by a 1.4F increase in temperatures, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Victory Girl’s Blog, with a post on an Obamacare truth teller being audited.

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Warmists Wonder If Crazy Climate Protest Is America’s Own Pussy Riot Moment

By William Teach November 30, 2013 – 11:27 am

Um, no. Pussy Riot has a legitimate complaint in the what happened to them. These are simply folks interrupting and creating a scene in a private business place

(Index On Censorship) On a Saturday afternoon in June, a group of activists walked into a bank in Manhattan, New York, and staged a peaceful protest performance. The Church of Stop Shopping, led by Reverend Billy, were protesting at JP Chase Morgan and other banks’ investment in fossil fuel projects, which they say is unethical in the face of climate change.

Bill Talen, 63, the man behind Reverend Bill and the Church of Stop Shopping, has been staging this kind of action for a while. I interviewed him for New Humanist magazine in 2004, after a protest at a Starbuck’s in Camden, North London.

But now Bill and his colleague Nehemiah Luckett are facing charges of riot in the second degree and menacing in the third degree, for their JP Chase Morgan protest. The pair could end with one year in jail. For a peaceful protest. They are due to appear in court on 9 December.

A “peaceful protest”, huh?

Index on Censorship: Can you tell us what happened at JP Morgan Chase?
Reverend Billy: We interrupted the very wealthy of upper Manhattan in their “wealth management” sessions.   The sea of white people at walnut desks looked up to confront large flaming frogs leaping on their desks, handing out information about the impact of their fossil fuel investments.  An Elvis impersonator narrated the event while the “Golden Toads” – an animal forced into extinction 30 years ago by climate change – harmonised and hopped.  Under the toad costumes was the singing group called “The Stop Shopping Choir”.

In other words, they were harassing customers on private property, interrupting legitimate business.

Looks rather disruptive. On private property.

IoC: How do you intend to fight the charge?
RB: The “Necessity Defense” – which means that if someone is drawing a gun on us to kill us, we have the right to grab them and disarms them. I have the right to commit a minor crime to prevent a great crime that no other presiding authority can prevent.  No presiding authority is dealing with climate change.  Governments in the West and China – are committed to their deadly gradualism, controlled by fossil cartels.

I wonder how Rev. Bill and his “church” get around to all these protests. Fossil fuels, perhaps?

IoC: How do you think this charge squares with your first amendment rights?
RB: The First Amendment has been under systematic attack in New York City for 20 years, under the leadership of Rudolf Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg, their police and courts. The right to express in public space is besieged by permits and police, and overwhelmed by corporate expression - advertising in myriad forms, from the glowing gadget in the hand to the 80 foot tall Kate Moss looking at me like we just made love.  We must reclaim freedom of expression, and we believe that this resurrection of extinct Golden Toads is the right drama.  Earthalujah!

Yet, it wasn’t a public place, it was a privately owned business, and you have no right to protest in this manner on their property.

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It’s Never Too Early To Link “Climate Change” And Christmas

By William Teach November 30, 2013 – 7:47 am

And like some radio stations going to all Christmas music and retailers putting up Christmas displays before Thanksgiving, Warmists are preparing for Christmas early

Climate Change Threatens Christmas Trees, Maple

Growing the perfect Christmas tree takes close to ten years, but in March 2012 just four days of extreme heat pummeled much of Vermont and New Hampshire’s Christmas tree crop.

“It gave us an eye opener, you know, something we hadn’t anticipated,” says Sandy Wilmot, a Forest Health Specialist with Vermont’s Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation.

Bob White’s Christmas trees withstood the heat then, but as he surveys his Essex farm this year he’s discovered a new problem.

The culprit? Summer flash floods. (snip)

“We’ve already seen some dramatic changes in the last fifty years,” she says.

In those fifty years, winter temperatures spiked some four point five degrees. Summer temperatures, two degrees. Additional warming will change the make up of our forests.

Bummer, trees can’t withstand tiny temperature changes. I wonder how any trees survived during all the previous warm and cool periods? It’s not like they’ve evolved over millions of years. But, hey, you know, Bad Weather only started happening in 1988 or something. Funny how North Carolina is seeing a top rate Christmas tree crop this year. Oh, wait, sorry, Christmas trees are doomed in the future. My Bad!

Of course, Warmists are pushing their dogma for gifts

Vivienne Westwood is no stranger to championing environmental causes. In fact, it could be said that Dame Viv’s passionate political campaigns often steal the limelight away from her fashion collections.

So, it makes perfect sense that Vivienne should want to try and revolutionise our Christmas habits, especially when it comes to things like wasting paper and buying too many throwaway products, which, let’s face it, we’re probably all guilty of.

In an endeavour to make us all a little bit greener, and to think of our envirnonent, Vivienne has collaborated with cosmetics company Lush to create a scarf, or knot wrap, that also doubles as gift wrap. (WT- misspellings are the stories, not mine. Not that I’m perfect)

The scarfs include the notion of “climate revolution”

The knot-wraps are available in camel or light pink and are printed with two Climate Revolution images designed by Ms Westwood. The black-eyed unsmiling face – the Face of War – is the designer’s symbol for the fight against climate change and environmental degradation.

Warmists are really depressing people, wouldn’t you say?

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Obamacare Is About Morality Or Something

By William Teach November 30, 2013 – 6:53 am

I’d go with the “something”. Here’s the Washington Post’s Colbert King trotting out the “morality” argument

Obamacare — a question of morality

There was a lot of bloviating about the Affordable Care Act on the talk shows last weekend. The Obamacare critics’ chief focus was the open-enrollment fiasco, the un-kept presidential promise and the millions of cancellation notices. Overlaying the palaver was the unrestrained glee of health-reform opponents.

Because incompetence, lying, and seeing millions lose their insurance plans is no big deal or something. There’s bigger things at play!

The same weekend, in a section of our nation’s capital where pompous politicians and self-important opinion-makers seldom venture, the Affordable Care Act was the subject of thanks and praise at the First Baptist Church at Randolph Street and New Hampshire Avenue NW.

Funny how liberals have no problem mixing religion and State when it serves their purposes.

The talk-show criticism and the pulpit defense crystallized the Obamacare debate. Drawn into sharp relief is the struggle taking place in this country between doing what is right and good and an unashamed indulgence in the immorality of indifference.

The issue couldn’t be put more simply.

Forty-nine million Americans do not have health insurance. For many of them, the ability to deal with their illnesses and injuries depends on their ability to pay. Lacking the money, some of them just go without the care they need. Better to put food on the table for the kids than to check out that awful pain in the gut. Can’t afford to do both.

So it’s 49 million now? Interestingly, the CBO predicts that 30 million will still be without health insurance in 2020. The Obama administration’s mid-line prediction is that 90 million will lose their insurance plans, and have to switch. And what are they switching to? Plans with higher premiums and deductibles with smaller medical networks. Seems moral to me.

Gaining access to no-cost preventive services to stay healthy, which Obamacare provides, is not a sign of indifference. Neither is giving senior citizens discounts on their prescription drugs, or allowing young adults to get health insurance on their parents’ plan, or ending insurance company abuses. Those steps represent the caring actions of government.

How about not including the best medical facilities in the network? How about jacking up the cost for young healthies to pay for other? Creating situations for government abuses, like the “death panels”, ie, a group of un-elected bureaucrats at the Independent Payment Advisory Board which will make decisions about your medical care? Most Democrats voted against Medicare Part D in 2003. What happens when Mom and Dad can’t keep their insurance, and are now paying through the nose for their 25 year old “kid”? What about the bulk of Obamacare applicants being moved into Medicaid? How about the morality of mandating that citizens of the USA purchase costly, substandard insurance or be penalized simply for breathing?

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Uh Oh: 501st Person Accessed Healthcare.fail

By William Teach November 29, 2013 – 4:06 pm

Conversely, this is what happens to many bathrooms post-Thanksgiving meals.

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Bummer: Lavender Now Threatened By Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach November 29, 2013 – 1:48 pm

We’re doomed, because the climate should always stay exactly the same, just like it did till 1988 when CO2 passed 350ppm

(Climate Progress) It’s known as “blue gold” and it has been cultivated in Provence, France since the Middle Ages. But now, a tiny bacteria-infected cicada is laying waste to a crop which is as iconically tied to Provence as lobsters are to Maine, or maple syrup is to Vermont — lavender. Researchers studying the lavender worry that the problem will only get worse as climate change leads to hotter and drier summers in Provence, ideal conditions for the spread of the pest.

Unlike it’s larger cousin the cicada, which is loud but harmless, the cicadelle, or leafhopper in English, attacks lavender plants in two ways. Cicadelle larva feast on lavender roots all winter long and then the adults attack the leaves in the spring and early summer. Even more destructive, however, is a micro-bacteria called stolbur phytoplasma, carried by the hungry insects that blocks the plants’ sap canals, causing the plant’s inevitable decline

Even if a means of controlling the pest is developed in time, the march of climate change will likely force lavender cultivation to move northwards, perhaps out of Provence altogether.

Wait, you want to control pest? Why are you messing with Mother Nature? Really, though, what’s this about?

(Guardian) Now locals, whose livelihoods depend on the plants, are appealing for funds to save the lavender that has been produced in the region since the Middle Ages.

Money. The climate is always changing, so people are using the “climate change” scare to get some cool cash. Back to Climate Progress

Provence is far from the only flower-growing region in the world to face new climate challenges. Kenya is the biggest exporter of cut roses to the European Union, responsible for 38 percent of the market share. In 2012, Kenya exported a total of 123, 511 tons of flowers, worth $500 million. But a long-standing drought in Kenya is forcing flower growers to turn to precious and scarce lake resources to keep their valuable crops alive.

In the U.S. Northwest, the problem is too much water. The Snoqualmie Valley near Seattle, where lilies, gladiolas and dahlias thrive, is increasingly stressed by wet weather and floods — 23 since 2006 alone. In 2009, the Snoqualmie River crested at 62 feet, eight feet above flood stage, breaking the previous record set in 2006 when the river crested at 61 feet. Most flower growing operations in the valley are small, family farms that are least able to weather the financial losses.

So, wet and dry are Bad. Yup. Cult.

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Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 29, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…are evil dogs creating Bad Weather that could be mitigated by building a solar farm in that awesome field, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Power, with a post on the reality of Black Friday deals.

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Poll: Americans Sour Further On State Of Country

By William Teach November 29, 2013 – 10:57 am

Hey, this is what you Democrats voted for

(CNN) Americans views on the state of the nation are turning increasingly sour, according to a new national poll.

And a CNN/ORC International survey released Friday also indicates that less than a quarter of the public says that economic conditions are improving, while nearly four in ten say the nation’s economy is getting worse.

Forty-one percent of those questioned in the poll say things are going well in the country today, down nine percentage points from April, and the lowest that number has been in CNN polling since February 2012. Fifty-nine percent say things are going badly, up nine points from April.

Who could have predicted the economy would be a mess with Obama in charge?

Looking specifically at the economy, 39% feel the economy is still in a downturn, up six points from April. Only 24% believe that an economic recovery is under way. Thirty-six percent are in the middle — they don’t think we’re in a recovery but they believe conditions have stabilized.

CNN does the best to spin this all away as partisan and regional divides, but this is just more bad news for President Carter, er, Obama. The breakdown is 31% Democrat, 23% Republican, 46% Independent.

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