Rahm Emanuel Learns That Teacher’s Unions Are A Real Pain In The Behind

By William Teach September 10, 2012 – 10:57 am

Don’t ever let anyone tell you teacher’s unions are there for the kids

(Daily Caller) City officials vowed to keep hundreds of thousands of students safe when striking teachers hit the picket lines Monday and school district and teachers union leaders resumed negotiations on a contract that appeared close to being resolved over the weekend before the union announced both sides were too far apart to prevent the district’s first strike in 25 years.

The walkout in the nation’s third-largest school district posed a tricky test for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his city, as parents and school officials begin the task of trying to ensure nearly 400,000 students are kept safe.

How far apart? Teachers are going to be given a 16% pay increase over 4 years, vastly higher than what we are seeing in the private sector during King Obama’s economic reign of terror. The teachers are upset over changes to the health plan and having to follow the state law requiring evaluation based on test scoring. Here’s where it gets real interesting

School officials said they will open more than 140 schools between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. so children can eat lunch and breakfast in a district where many students receive free meals. The district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students, and a number of churches, libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities. But it’s not clear how many families will send their children to the added programs.

Police Chief Garry McCarthy said he was deploying police officers to those sites to ensure kids’ safety but also to “deal with any protests that teachers may, in fact, have” while protecting their rights. He also was taking officers off desk duties and redeploying them to the streets to deal with potential protests — and thousands of students who could be on the streets.

So, Chicago needs to deploy police officers to protect the children who will go to the schools so that they can get a decent meal from the teachers? Says quite a bit about the teacher’s union, eh?

Read: Rahm Emanuel Learns That Teacher’s Unions Are A Real Pain In The Behind »

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About Romney Saying He’d Keep Parts Of Obamacare…

By William Teach September 10, 2012 – 8:46 am

…everyone relax.

(AP) Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who promised early in his campaign to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, says he would keep several important parts of the overhaul.

“Of course there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place,” he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” ”One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage.”

Romney also said he would allow young adults to keep their coverage under their parents’ health-insurance.

Those provisions have been two of the more popular parts of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

“I say we’re going to replace Obamacare. And I’m replacing it with my own plan,” Romney said. “And even in Massachusetts when I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people.”

This caused a freakout by some on the Republican side Sunday, and glee from some Liberals. But, should it cause those reactions? No.

Once Ocare was passed, it was always known that certain portions would have to be part of the Republican plan, because those ideas, such as pre-existing conditions and adults up to 26 being allowed to stay on their parents insurance are extremely popular with the American people when polled. Heck, the “up to 26 years old thing” is actually a part of SCHIP, and has been around for years now, and is actually not that bad of an idea. These younger adults are typically the ones that decide they won’t get health insurance because they are “freaking immortal man, nothing can hurt me!!!!!!”. Better that they have insurance and contribute healthy bodies to the insurance pools. Then there is pre-existing conditions. As National Review points out, Romney previously said this

I also want to make sure that people can’t get dropped if they have a preexisting condition. . . . So let’s say someone has been continuously insured and they develop a serious condition and let’s say they lose their job or they change jobs, they move and they go to a new place. I don’t want them to be denied insurance because they’ve got some preexisting condition. So we’re going to have to make sure that the law we replace Obamacare with assures that people who have a preexisting condition, who’ve been insured in the past are able to get insurance in the future so they don’t have to worry about that condition keeping them from getting the kind of health care they deserve.

Just like under O-care, there’s no mention of cost. And under O-care those with pre-existing conditions are being charged out the wazoo for insurance.

The notion that one cannot be actually dropped because they get sick is another notion in Obamacare that is popular. I bet you think this is a good idea. It’s not like getting dropped from your auto insurance because you’re a bad driver who keeps side-swiping other cars. You didn’t have that much choice in getting sick.

Romney also wants to empower consumer choice with

  • End tax discrimination against the individual purchase of insurance
  • Allow consumers to purchase insurance across state lines
  • Unshackle HSAs by allowing funds to be used for insurance premiums
  • Promote “co-insurance” products
  • Promote alternatives to “fee for service”
  • Encourage “Consumer Reports”-type ratings of alternative insurance plans

And plenty of other ideas, some of which may be popular with Conservatives, some of which are meant to be popular with independents and middle ground voters.

Read: About Romney Saying He’d Keep Parts Of Obamacare… »

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Obama Pushes Stale, Tired “Grand Bargain” Plan That Has Already Failed

By William Teach September 10, 2012 – 7:57 am

The man is truly out of ideas, but, then, he was out of ideas years ago, therefore he keeps recycling the same garbage that has failed to work. Consider

(CBS News) President Obama is “more than happy to work with the Republicans” on creating a bipartisan budget that could pass a split Congress, he told CBS News anchor Scott Pelley in part of an exclusive interview that aired Sunday on “Face the Nation.” The only problem is, the plan he’s proposing has already been rejected by the GOP-controlled House.

And it was partially rejected because Obama kept asking for more and more and more in terms of tax increases. Harry Reid and John Boehner were close to an agreement and were able to work together despite the vastly different political viewpoints because they are both adults who understand how things get done, versus Obama who is a tin pot dictator with no experience negotiating and who usually ran from tough decisions.

“Keep in mind that the trillion dollars that we cut, you know, was a painful exercise,” the president said when asked what he’d be willing to compromise in order to finally reach a “grand bargain” on the 2013 federal budget, which remains in limbo, save for a recently-passed continuing resolution. “There are some programs that are worthy, but we just can’t afford right now.”

Mr. Obama’s plan for reducing the deficit would cut $2.50 in spending allowances for every $1 of increased tax revenue – the same deal House Republicans turned down during last year’s near-government shutdown episode. When Pelley reminded him of that, the president reasoned, “That’s part of what this election’s about,” adding that GOP nominee Mitt Romney told “Face the Nation” in June he stood by an earlier pledge not to raise taxes, even if it meant $10 in spending cuts for every $1 increased revenue.

We’ve already seen this movie: all the tax increases come now, and the spending cuts are scheduled for down the road and never appear. Ronald Reagan was hosed by the Democrats when he tried this.

“And if we go back to the tax rates for folks making more than $250,000 a year, back to the rates that we had under Bill Clinton,” he continued, “we can close the deficit, stabilize the economy, keep taxes on middle class families low, [and] provide the certainty that I think all of us would be looking for.”

First of all, raising the taxes on those people won’t even come close to closing the deficit: it’ll pay for about 8 days of government spending at current rates a year. Second, moving money from the private sector directly to the government is no way to stabilize the economy: the way to do that is to provide positive incentives for people with wealth to start spending and investing, which puts more money in the economy. This would also stabilize state and local governments, who would see money come in via sales tax, property tax, and income tax.

Certainty is not demonizing the employers, who know full well that they’ll continue to be demonized and attacked, and could see even more taxes and assaults. But, of course, Obama sees government as the stabilizer of the economy, instead of being one of the big problems in getting the economy going. Actually, on second thought, Obama has stabilized the economy. It’s currently stable at 8%+ unemployment, low GDP, tons of long term unemployed, tons of folks abandoning the labor force, etc and so on.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Obama Pushes Stale, Tired “Grand Bargain” Plan That Has Already Failed »

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Warmist Kerry Emanual Says Irene Was A Tropical Storm

By William Teach September 9, 2012 – 2:59 pm

As Steven Goddard writes “A Year Late And A Dollar Short“. Remember, Steven was pushing the notion that “Hurricane” Irene was anything but. So did I, and I provided data to show this. I also have a post that never did get around posting that had even more data, which I will tag on below the fold. Anyhow, some folks are discussing how to rate storms over at the NY Times, and we get

Einstein said that everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. With hurricanes, a single number is almost certainly too simple. Last year, Irene was just a tropical storm when it made landfall, but caused immense damage and injury mostly owing to flash floods caused by intense rain.

There’s no doubt a tropical storm can cause immense damage. Many times, tropical systems cause more damage, and death, from the water than the winds. Just because it’s not a hurricane doesn’t mean people should not worry, be careful, and take precautions. But it’s nice to know that Emanuel agrees that Irene was not a hurricane.

The data from said old non-posted post below the fold

Read More »

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If All You See…

By William Teach September 9, 2012 – 1:00 pm

…are wonderful planet healing trees, you might just be a Warmist

It’s purple week! The blog of the day is Blue Crab Boulevard with a post about…squirrel!

Read: If All You See… »

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Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach September 9, 2012 – 9:17 am

Patriotic Pinup Peter Dribben

Happy Sunday! Another fantastic day in America. This pinup is by Peter Dribben, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The fine 15

  1. Powerline wonders why this election is close
  2. The First Street Journal digs deeper into the unemployment numbers
  3. The Daley Gator discuss Paul Ryan and pot
  4. The Other McCain discussed the problems with sexual “rights”
  5. This ain’t Hell… is a bit confused about what is going on with Hassan Nidal
  6. Wild thing points out that if Obama has lost Andrea Mitchell…
  7. Wake Up American features Jimmy Obama/Barack Carter
  8. protein wisdom discusses Obama’s 2nd term and GM
  9. Political Realities wonders how we survived before Obama
  10. neo-neocon wonders if Republicans are fooling themselves…no
  11. Joshuapundit features real world socialism made easy
  12. Doug Ross says two can play at this game
  13. Bob Owens wonders about patriotism having a skin color
  14. Bookworm Room points out that every leftist regulation has a price
  15. And last, but not least, The Blogmocracy just can’t get enough of crazy Jen Granholm

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page. While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. (BTW, since someone asked, the reason I leave links for the previous week up (or you might see a *) is because they are place holders for later in the day or for next weeks. Easier than rewriting all the time. Also, the listing order has to do with how they are added over time, not how good a post is. I just copy and paste from the previous week, then edit. If you see one of the *’s, go ahead and check out the blog anyhow, see if there is an update. I cannot update with my Android during the day.

The posts do take a long time, so, if you want to send me your links for Rule 5 babeage or links, use ye olde email in the header bar (remove the NOSPAM part). Preferably, create the html link so I can copy and paste how you want it to read.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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Good News: Wind Turbines Supposedly Making People Sick

By William Teach September 9, 2012 – 8:18 am

Proponents of wind turbines say that this is all incidental and coincidental. Enough so that there is actually a medical condition name for it

(UK Daily Mail) It was Uplawmoor’s tranquility and wild beauty that drew civil servant Aileen Jackson to settle there 28 years ago.

She’d had enough of life in the big city. Now she wanted somewhere quiet and rural to start a family, keep her horses, and enjoy the magnificent views down the valley and out to sea to the western Scottish isles of Arran and Ailsa Craig.

Then, two years ago, she says, it all turned sour.

A neighbour with whom she and her family had been friends decided to take advantage of the massive public subsidies for ‘renewable’ energy.

He put up a 64ft-high wind turbine which, though on his own land, stood just 300 yards from the Jackson family’s home.

The sleepless nights caused by its humming were only the start of their problems. Far worse was the impact on their health.

Aileen, a diabetic since the age of 19, found her blood glucose levels rocketing – forcing her to take more insulin and causing her to develop a cataract, she says.

Her younger son, Brian, an outgoing, happy, academically enthusiastic young man, suddenly became a depressive, stopped seeing his friends and dropped out of his studies at college.

The husband saw his blood pressure skyrocket, which requires medication. He had previously had low blood pressure. But, the industry says this is all anecdotal. Can’t be real. But….

You would have to ignore the reports of doctors such as Australia’s Sarah Laurie, Canada’s Nina Pierpont and Britain’s Amanda Harry who have collated hundreds of such cases of Wind Turbine Syndrome.

And you’d have to reject the expertise of the acoustic engineers, sleep specialists, epidemiologists and physiologists who all testify that the noise generated by wind farms represents a major threat to public health.

There’s even a peer reviewed study from 2011 that shows that people suffer real health issues, similar to what would occur in workplaces from low frequency noise. And the wind turbines are noisy (not too mention the squawking of the birds that are killed.) And, rather than approach this issue calming, what do the Warmists do? They throw death threats at Dr. Laurie. They vandalize the property of those who are against the turbines.

Much of what the turbines create is called “infrasound”. Remember, environmentalists have protested against the US Navy many times, claiming their use of infrasound was causing mass beachings of whales and dolphins, and the ears of the cetaceans would often be bleeding, there would be issues in the bodies and brains. These were credible scientific reports from the environmentalists.

Not mentioned in the story, which is very long, too long to encapsulate in a single post (so read the whole thing), is the problem with the health issues caused be having the constant sun shadow flicker effect, which can cause headaches and migraines. Of course, there is too much money at stake in putting up these turbines, so, no one wants to deal with the health issues, plus, hey, what are the lives of people worth when we’re attempting to keep the planet from getting a fever, all for a negligible amount of power from turbines which blot the landscape, only work in certain conditions, and will soon be rusting hulks on concrete platforms?

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Good News: Wind Turbines Supposedly Making People Sick »

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2nd Man Captured In Killing Of Brian Terry

By William Teach September 8, 2012 – 3:57 pm

Guess what name is never mentioned in the article?

(CBS News) Mexican federal police announced Friday that they have arrested a suspect in the killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, the slaying at the center of the scandal over the botched U.S. gun-smuggling probe known as Operation Fast and Furious.

Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza is one of the five men charged with killing Terry in December 2010 during a shootout in Arizona near the Mexico border. One is on trial in Arizona and the other three remain fugitives. Sanchez was arrested Thursday in Sonora state.

Two guns found at the scene were bought by a member of a gun-smuggling ring that was being monitored in the Fast and Furious investigation. Critics have knocked U.S. federal authorities for allowing informants to walk away from Phoenix-area gun shops with weapons, rather than immediately arresting suspects.

In Operation Fast and Furious and at least three earlier probes during the administration of President George W. Bush, agents in Arizona employed a risky tactic called gun-walking — allowing low-level “straw” buyers in gun-trafficking networks to leave with loads of weapons purchased at gun shops. The goal was to track the guns to major weapons traffickers and drug cartels in order to bring cases against kingpins who had long eluded prosecution under the prevailing strategy of arresting low-level purchasers of guns who were suspected of buying them for others.

During Operation Fast and Furious, many of the weapons weren’t tracked and wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including the Terry shooting.

So, the AP (it’s an AP story that is making the rounds at all the news outlets) mentions the programs under Bush, which did attempt to track the guns (no to mention actually informing the government of Mexico about the program) and was actually much smaller, but fails to mention that Fast and Furious was an Obama era program that included well over 2,000 guns and wasn’t shut down when the guns were “lost”, and still wasn’t shut down when a federal agent, Brian Terry, was killed with at least one of the F&F guns.

The word “Obama” isn’t anywhere in the story. Good grief! As Andy at Ace points out

Also, conflating these various operations is complete bullshit. If you’re going to call OF&F “botched”, you need to be able to explain how it was supposed to work.

Andy explains. Jammie Wearing Fool says Eric Holder was unavailable for comment.

Read: 2nd Man Captured In Killing Of Brian Terry »

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Oops: Smugglers Selling A/C Coolant Tied To Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach September 8, 2012 – 1:12 pm

The NY Times has been on a big kick the past few months about how evil air conditioning is. I’m still waiting for them to simply turn their own A/C off and party like it’s 1499 with the windows open. And here’s another!

The chief executive of the century-old company from America’s heartland shifted nervously on the witness stand here as he tried to explain how a trusted senior vice president had been caught on a wiretap buying half a million dollars in smuggled merchandise, much of it from China.

But the contraband purchased by Marcone, a St. Louis-based company that claims to be the nation’s largest authorized source for appliance parts, was not counterfeit handbags or fake medicines. It was a colorless gas that provides the chill for air-conditioners from Miami to Mumbai, from Bogotá to Beijing.

Under an international treaty, the gas, HCFC-22, has been phased out of new equipment in the industrialized world because it damages the earth’s ozone layer and contributes to global warming. There are strict limits on how much can be imported or sold in the United States by American manufacturers.

But the gas is still produced in enormous volumes and sold cheaply in China, India and Mexico, among other places in the developing world, making it a profitable if unlikely commodity for international smugglers.

How sad is it that in order for people in 3rd world shitholes developing nations have to rely on smugglers to get air conditioning? 1st world government and the UN have created a situation in which coolants that are supposedly giving the planet a fever are spiking in price, hence, smuggling. Oh, and

On June 26, Mr. Garcia was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison.

For “smuggling” a product that can help those around the world who can’t afford more modern A/C to have the same benefits as those who can afford it, all because of a fake issue in which the disciples of Gore and Hansen refuse to change their own behavior. They just force others to practice it.

Read: Oops: Smugglers Selling A/C Coolant Tied To Hotcoldwetdry »

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If All You See…

By William Teach September 8, 2012 – 1:00 pm

…is snow caused by an abundance of greenhouse gases, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Sundries Shack, with a post on the recovery that isn’t.

Read: If All You See… »

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