First the scare…
Then the “science”…
“The Environmental Protection Agency sampled nearly 2,000 locations in 2008 and 2009 — from rivers as large as the Mississippi River to streams small enough for wading. The study found more than 55 percent of them in poor condition, 23 percent in fair shape and 21 percent in good biological health.”
News briefs are a collection of interesting news stories. This edition is all about the efforts of Obama’s EPA to make their own laws via extra-constitutional regulations and shenanigans;
Brief 1: The headline says it all; “Reckless and lawless EPA: Running on empty.†The EPA mandates that refineries purchase a certain percentage of cellulosic biofuels to support sustainable energy. The not-so-funny thing is that cellulosic biofuels do NOT exist yet not only did EPA levy fines, but upped the ante by increasing the percentage for 2013. You could argue that this is how big government works, but you’d have to ignore the fact that the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA “exceeded its authority†in the original case.
…and tell me it’s raining!
Unemployment:  If you listen to the White House and the mainstream media puppets you’ll think unemployment is trending down and at 8 percent as of February 2012. Too bad the numbers are cooked (FYI all administrations cook) and are quite misleading…okay not “misleading” but flat out lies. Gallup offers real unemployment numbers;
REAL UNEMPLOYMENT IS 19.0 PERCENT
If you want to compare the numbers the White House uses then Gallup determined that rate to be 9.0 percent;
The framers wrote the Constitution to provide for a separation of powers, or three separate branches of government. Each has its own responsibilities and at the same time they work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored or disallowed. This is done through checks and balances. A branch may use its powers to check the powers of the other two in order to maintain a balance of power among the three branches of government. The three branches of the U.S. Government are: Legislative, Executive, Judicial
Having a car that is nearly eight years old with almost 150,000 miles makes the annual inspection a likely costly adventure. My appointment was Monday so I dropped the car off Sunday night and anxiously awaited the news. I got the call in the early afternoon and Ed, our mechanic, started going through the list; A/C check, battery, tire rotation…little stuff really. Ed hesitated and I said “okay now for the bad news.†The bad news was repairs to the tune of $1,400 (a big part was brakes all around) and that my car would not be ready until the next evening. The real bad news is that Ed did some checking and told me that my vehicle is showing its age and miles. Some of the hidden stuff will probably need to be replaced next year and maybe I may not want to spend that kind of money. Essentially telling me that I’d be paying a lot more money for an old vehicle…or getting diminishing returns on my investment.
It seems like just yesterday that I wrote about how Obama’s Administration and Czars are prodding us back to living like the early days of our nation. Actually that is not true they are prodding us to become like some small European nation even though our country is more vast and our populations are more spread out. Our slow decline into European living took another step today as American Electric Power (“AEP”) announced that in order to comply with EPA emissions standards they will be shutting down five power stations and spending up to $8 billion to upgrade some remaining plants.
I was struck, yet again, by a move by Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency. They are looking to ban the sale of most rat poisons to consumers claiming that the move will,
“to reduce the thousands of accidental exposures of children that occur every year from rat and mouse control products and also to protect household pets.”
You may be please to find out that with over 9 percent unemployment (and that’s a low accounting of the real unemployment numbers), a slowing economy, inflation soaring, and greater unrest about the Obama Administration they have decided to shift their focus to the private sector to create jobs after having added over 140,000 federal jobs. Obama’s chief economist, Austan Goolsbee, appeared on CNN and made the announcement
“Corporations have become profitable again. What we need to do now is get the private sector stood up.”
It seems like the price of gasoline jumps ten to twenty cents between each time I need to fill my tank. I don’t have a particularly long commute and I am able to start work early to avoid most traffic, but between work and play I fill up twice a week. The price of crude oil is again spiking hurtling us ever closer to four dollar a gallon gasoline. Perhaps the bigger story is how quiet Congress and the lame-stream media are on the high prices; I should point out that not only gas prices are skyrocketing – media also fairly silent. It’s almost as if they are trying to protect someone or like the high prices.
One of my favorite authors, Thomas Sowell, penned an article critical of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Ordinarily I would concur with his perspective, but cannot bring myself to “park at his ranch†on this issue (I apologize in advance if I lapse into more farm/country colloquialisms). A local syndicated radio host, Jim Quinn, has taken up the mantle and has been talking about the issue. As is often the case when the lame-stream media take up an issue they only scratch the surface thereby missing the bigger picture. In this case these are two conservatives who I respect. This is an excerpt from Sowell’s Townhall article;
