If All You See…

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible canine using up all of Gaia’s resources and dooming the planet to boil, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Scared Monkeys, with a post about Hooters telling Bob Filner he’s banned.

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Grist Is PIST Or Something

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 12:43 pm

No, really

(Grist) Here at Grist we’re PIST, and we want you to be, too.

PIST is People in Support of Tomorrow. We’re people just like you, coping with the prospect of a frying planet.

Once we were irked. Peeved. Irritated. Now, we’re just PIST. And we want you to join us and share your PISTness.

We need 250 — at least — of you to show your support by helping us spread more PISTaciousness on Twitter.

Warmists have been “spreading awareness” since 1988, yet their belief sets are so weak that they refuse to practice what they preach.

..a mass effort to coordinate tweets that’s super easy to sign up for, and that will surely shake the rafters of the Twittersphere.

Yeah, about 20 tweets. Several by the same people.

Read: Grist Is PIST Or Something »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Bummer: AGW So Bad That A Grand Solar Minimum Would Barely Make A Dent

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 10:05 am

Why? Because you refuse to give up your fossil fueled travel, still have a fridge with an ice maker, and dare to use hair spray before work

(UK Guardian) Recent articles in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (translation available here) and in the Irish Times both ran headlines claiming that another grand solar minimum could potentially trigger an “ice age” or “mini ice age” this century. These articles actually refer to the Little Ice Age (LIA) – a period about 500 to 150 years ago when global surface temperatures were approximately 1°C colder than they are today. This is quite different from an ice age, which are more like 5°C colder than today. The LIA was not actually very cold on a global scale.

Oh, really?

Of course, the idea is to say that the LIA was simply a localized incident, mostly in Europe (it was worldwide), while also attempting to erase much of the deep cold of the LIA.

So, in order to trigger another LIA, a new grand solar minimum would have to cause about 1°C cooling, plus it would have to offset the continued human-caused global warming of 1 to 5°C by 2100, depending on how our greenhouse gas emissions change over the next century.

And boom, science just went out the window in favor of reading tea leaves and looking into crystal balls. The Warmists models have failed spectacularly, as they did not predict this current pause in warming, which has increased a statistically insignificant .14F since 1997. Most of that warming came during the El Nino years. Other data shows a 0.0F increase since 2000. But, since 1999 some data shows a decrease of 2.4F per century for the US lower 48. Climate models really are complete disasters.

Of course, the same Guardian article also trots out the notion that all the warmth is doing a Where’s Waldo? in the deep oceans, which Warmists are expanding on ever-more. The article ends thusly

The science is quite clear that the human influence on climate change has become bigger than the sun’s. At this point, speculation about another mini ice age is pure fantasy.

Yup, cult. Yet the members of the cult refuse to modify their own behavior to comply with their pronouncements, which should tell you all you need to know about their true motives, namely that they are political, creating bigger and bigger government with more control over people and private entities, and not about science.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Bummer: AGW So Bad That A Grand Solar Minimum Would Barely Make A Dent »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Climahypocrites, Collapsing Science, Global Warming, New Climate Deniers | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

97% Of Federal Workers Overwhelmingly Prefer To Keep Their Own Insurance

By William Teach August 14, 2013 – 9:33 am

That’s what a real 97% consensus looks like, but, it can’t be that bad, can it? One would think that those who work in the federal workforce are overwhelmingly Democrat. In fact “35.1% of those who participated identified themselves as a Republican. 30.8% identified themselves as independents and 30.7% identified themselves as a Democrat.” A 2008 survey found that Obama was preferred by 7%. For 2012, 58.2% said they did not want Obama re-elected.

(Daily Caller) Less than 3 percent of U.S. federal workers want to give up their current health plans and join Obamacare, according to a new poll.

92.3 percent of federal workers think that they should continue with their current health insurance program, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), while just 2.8 percent think they should be required to join Obamacare exchanges and 4.9 percent are not sure, according to an August survey conducted by FedSmith.com, a website for federal employees.

“There is apparently little debate among the federal workforce. Federal employees do not want to be part of the new system… Employees who are already retired have a much stronger negative reaction to being moved to a new system,” FedSmith.com noted.

Let’s consider that federal workers tend to have a pretty sweet deal with their government provided healthcare. Also, federal workers, other than Congress and their staffs, do not actually have to enroll in Obamacare. But, will the plans last? The plans are actually very cost friendly, with the government pitching in around $5,000 per consumer (2010 costs were $40 billion, with approx 8 million enrollees, which includes spouses and dependents). I usually hate to cite Wikipedia, but

Over time, however, the FEHB program has outperformed original Medicare not only in cost control, but also in benefit improvement, enrollee service, fraud prevention, and avoidance of “pork barrel” spending and earmarks.

Then there’s this

One of the most prominent features of the FEHB program is the choices it allows. There are three broad types of plans: fee-for-service and preferred provider organization (PPO), usually offered in combination; HMOs; and high-deductible health plans and other consumer-driven plans.

Ah, but consider that Obamacare does away with many of these plans, ones that do not include all the massive out of control coverages, ones that are basic, and most high deductible ones. The legislation establishing the FEHB is only a few dozen pages long. Federal employees have lots and lots of choices. Costs tend to be controlled, even as federal unions attempt to pull more and more during contract negotiations.

If Obama and the Dems were going to push a national health plan, why couldn’t they model it on one that works? But, no, the idea was to have the federal government control everything about one’s health insurance and care, moving towards single payer.

Read: 97% Of Federal Workers Overwhelmingly Prefer To Keep Their Own Insurance »

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What If Obama’s OFA Gave A “Climate Change” Rally And No One Came?

By William Teach August 13, 2013 – 6:44 pm

OFA tweeted this out yesterday

Today was supposed to be the BIG DAY for OFA’s “climate change” rally. How’d that go?

(Free Beacon) Not a single person showed up at the Georgetown waterfront Tuesday for a climate change agenda event put on by Organizing for Action, the shadowy nonprofit advocacy group born out of President Obama’s 2012 campaign, the NRCC wrote in its blog.

The event page for the “Climate Change Day of Action Rally” disappeared after rainy weather appeared to drive away whatever people planned to attend. The embarrassing showing follows the news that only one volunteer stayed for an OFA Obamacare event in Centreville, Va., last week to work the phones:

Take a look at OFA’s Twitter feed: not one photo of the day. But, they gave us this.

Sad, really. And, hey, the best way to garner support is to equate them to Holocaust deniers.

Read: What If Obama’s OFA Gave A “Climate Change” Rally And No One Came? »

Posted in Barry Obama, Democrats, Global Warming, New Climate Deniers | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Yet Another Obama-Backed “Green” Company Close To Bankruptcy

By William Teach August 13, 2013 – 6:05 pm

Obamanomics

(The Hill) ECOtality Inc., an Energy Department-backed maker of electric car charging systems, is facing a major cash crunch and could file for bankruptcy.

The company, which has been awarded nearly $100 million in grant funding under the 2009 stimulus law, disclosed Monday that it’s weighing a restructuring or sale as it seeks more outside capital.

ECOtality, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, listed several “adverse developments” that together “significantly impact its ability to meet its ongoing obligations and to fund anticipated operating losses.”

But, somehow, according to the DOE, ECOtality was a success!!!!

But an Energy Department spokesman said Monday that the funding for an electric vehicle project by ECOtality achieved its goal.

“The Energy Department’s grant to ECOtality was used for the installation and data collection of charging stations in cities across America where sales of plug-in electric cars are on the rise. Meant to establish the seeds of infrastructure needed to support a growing market for advanced vehicles, the company installed more than 12,500 charging stations in 18 U.S. cities — or approximately 97 percent of their goal,” spokesman Bill Gibbons said.

But it still wasn’t enough to make the company any money in order to continue operating. But, then, in Liberal World, Other People’s companies (not their own, of course) should operate at a loss. The company was pissing away money for products with little demand. Private companies are refusing to dump their own money into ECOtality, now that the taxpayer money is being cut off. They’re having lots of problems with being forced to pay certain employees and contractors under FLSA regulations (weird: liberals involved in poor pay practices????) Oh, and then, from the SEC filing

Further, the Company is facing some uncertainty regarding the resolution of a phenomenon occurring in some of the Company’s previously installed EVSEs which causes overheating, and in certain rare cases melting, of the connector plug that connects the EVSE to the electric vehicle when charging. The Company, along with certain automotive original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and equipment suppliers, has been actively evaluating the issue in an attempt to determine the cause and to address the problem.

So, some of these charging stations, which were supposedly a success!!!!!!! cause melting, and they have no idea why. ECOtality may be forced to sell of assets or perhaps even the whole company.

Read: Yet Another Obama-Backed “Green” Company Close To Bankruptcy »

Posted in Barry Obama, Economy, Energy | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 13, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible fur hat that is needed because greenhouse gases cause very cold and snowy temperatures, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Maggie’s Notebook, with a post on Muslim Truthers planning to march on D.C. on September 11.

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Add Caps On Out-Of-Pocket Insurance Costs To Long List Of Obamacare Delays

By William Teach August 13, 2013 – 8:57 am

Who would have thought that such a huge bill with 20,000 pages (and growing) of regulations would be so hard to implement? (via The Blaze)

(NY Times) In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.

The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014.

The grace period has been outlined on the Labor Department’s Web site since February, but was obscured in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language that went largely unnoticed. When asked in recent days about the language — which appeared as an answer to one of 137 “frequently asked questions about Affordable Care Act implementation” — department officials confirmed the policy.

Looks like they were trying to hide this.

Last month the White House announced a one-year delay in enforcement of another major provision of the law, which requires larger employers to offer health coverage to full-time employees. Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, said that the delay of the employer mandate showed “we are listening” to businesses, which had complained about the complexity of federal reporting requirements.

Although the two delays are unrelated, together they underscore the difficulties the Obama administration is facing as it rolls out the health care law.

Yet, it’s not just those two

First, there was the delay of Obamacare’s Medicare cuts until after the election. Then there was the delay of the law’s employer mandate. Then there was the announcement, buried in the Federal Register, that the administration would delay enforcement of a number of key eligibility requirements for the law’s health insurance subsidies, relying on the “honor system” instead. Now comes word that another costly provision of the health law—its caps on out-of-pocket insurance costs—will be delayed for one more year.

Unsurprisingly, the provisions are all scheduled to kick in after the 2014 elections. Whether Republicans will take advantage of this remains to be seen.

Read: Add Caps On Out-Of-Pocket Insurance Costs To Long List Of Obamacare Delays »

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NC Gov. McCrory Signs Voter ID Bill

By William Teach August 13, 2013 – 8:27 am

Followed quickly by lawsuits, because liberal groups are so racist that they think minorities, particularly Blacks, are incapable of getting an official state or other approved ID

(Raleigh N&O) Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday signed into law a bill requiring voters to produce a photo ID when they go to the polls, and it was immediately met with legal challenges in federal court questioning its constitutionality.

The new law brings sweeping changes to the state’s election process by reducing the early-voting period by a week, abolishing same-day voter registration and ending straight-party voting.

“North Carolinians overwhelmingly support a common-sense law that requires voters to present photo identification in order to cast a ballot,” McCrory said in a statement. “I am proud to sign this legislation into law. Common practices like boarding an airplane and purchasing Sudafed require photo ID, and we should expect nothing less for the protection of our right to vote.”

How dare North Carolina pass a voter ID law. No other state does this, so, apparently NC should be sued

North Carolina becomes one of 34 states with some form of voter ID law. The voter ID provision goes into effect for the 2016 election.

Oh. Well, at least it’s a good thing that the home states of Mr. Obama and Joe Biden do not have voter ID laws.

“With one stroke of the pen, McCrory has effectively reversed 30 years of progress and reinstated practices similar to the discriminatory ‘Southern Strategy’ adopted by the Republican Party in the ’60s and ’70s,” said Butterfield, a former N.C. Supreme Court justice. “Without question, today is a shameful day for Republicans in North Carolina.”

That’s GK Butterfield, Democrat-NC, who fails to note that it was Democrats who ran the state at the time, and were the ones pushing racist policies. He also wants Eric Holder’s politicized DOJ to interfere.

I know you’re wondering just where the constitutional comes in to play. The N&O article missed it, so let’s go to

(WRAL) Lawyers for a 92-year-old African-American woman, along with multiple civil rights groups, filed one of two lawsuits Monday that challenge the state’s sweeping elections changes just hours after Gov. Pat McCrory signed them into law.

That suit, filed by the state chapter of the NAACP and the Advancement Project, alleges that Rosanell Eaton’s constitutional right to vote is threatened by the new law, which requires voters to show photo identification when they go to the polls, starting in 2016.

Hair said Eaton was one of the first African Americans to vote in North Carolina and has continued casting ballots for 70 years, but the new law’s photo ID requirement would disqualify her from future elections because the name on her birth certificate doesn’t match the name on her driver’s license.

So, she has a driver’s license? Then, per the text of the law, she’s able to vote.

The other lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, tackles provisions of the law that cut a full week from the early voting period, eliminate same-day voter registration and prohibit “out-of-precinct” voting.

The legislative body makes the laws. There are no Constitutional requirements for any early voting, same day registration, or out of precinct voting, but there is this

(Article I, Section 4) The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

The NC law is within those made by Congress.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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John Kerry Links God With Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach August 12, 2013 – 2:52 pm

Maybe he should speak to his boss about reigning in the “carbon pollution” from sending his dog on a different plane

(CNS News) Reiterating a theme he presented two weeks ago at an Iftar dinner celebrating the end of Ramadan, Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday described “global climate change” as “a challenge to our responsibilities as the guardians–safe guarders of God’s creation.”

Kerry was speaking at an event announcing the creation of the State Department’s Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives.

“I’m convinced that all of you will agree,” said Kerry, “that one of the toughest challenges that we face in terms of global diplomacy and relationships around the world between peoples nowadays, from sectarian strife to the challenges of many intractable, frozen conflicts, to the challenges of simply understanding people–one people to another–or even monumental challenges like the sectarian strife that we see tearing countries and regions apart, as well as the enormous challenges of things like global climate change, which really is a challenge to our responsibilities as the guardians–safe guarders of God’s creation.”

Because the Middle East only turned into a desert when CO2 broke 350ppm. And there was no war, famine, mean people…it was a truly kumbaya world.

Interesting how he makes links between  “church and state” and climate change a-OK.

BTW, know what’s really sad? Kerry would still make a better president than Obama.

Read: John Kerry Links God With Hotcoldwetdry »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming, Kerry | 5 Comments | Trackback URL
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