[Please note: links to news articles and accompanying headlines and text were valid and accurate at the time of posting but content often changes or is deleted by the original publishers for reasons they feel are warranted…ed]
Calif. turbines frozen in Minn. wind
Like a lot of California transplants, 11 newcomers to Minnesota are having a hard time adjusting to our winters. They are wind turbines, erected last fall by 11 metro and outstate cities. The green-energy machines were expected to be spinning before Christmas, but so far their blades have been largely motionless, apparently paralyzed by frigid weather. The turbines sit idly in Anoka, North St. Paul, Chaska, Shakopee, Buffalo and six other cities, all members of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA). The refurbished, 115-foot towers had operated on a California wind farm, where they didn’t have to worry about cold hydraulic fluid turning to gel and oil lubricants getting too sluggish. [While the rest of the civilized world is building highly efficient nuclear power plants to provide their citizens with plenty of inexpensive “clean” energy, because of a small cadre of enviro whackos, we’re dickin’ around with these God awful windmills that make a horrid, many people say unbearable, noise when they DO work…ed]
Utilities seek long-term green deals
For the first time, the state’s major power companies will make long-term commitments to buy green energy like wind and solar power. The four investor-owned utilities in Massachusetts – National Grid, NStar, Western Massachusetts Electric Co., and Unitil Corp. – are soliciting bids from producers of energy from renewable resources. (SNIP) Since electricity generated from renewable sources is often more expensive than power from fossil fuels, utility officials say more clean energy will mean bigger bills for Massachusetts consumers, who already pay some of the nation’s highest electricity prices. [This move was forced on the folks by legislation rammed through by liberal Democrats who have owned the Massachusetts government since forever. I hope the maroons who voted these idiots into office enjoy their even higher electricity bills while they play the “saving the planet” charade…ed]
Power Problems Stall Teen Sailor in Mexico
It’s not often you hear this in the middle of winter: “The bad news… I’m headed to Cabo san Lucas…” That was the entry Saturday in Abby Sunderland’s blog. The 16-year-old Thousand Oaks girl is attempting to sail around the world, but the voyage took a detour. Abby had to stop in Cabo San Lucas during the weekend because of a power problem aboard her yacht, “Wild Eyes.” On her blog Saturday, Sunderland wrote that she plans to stop on the tip of the Baja peninsula for a “new battery or two.” She wrote that the yacht’s solar panels and wind generators are not supplying enough power. [Just your regular everyday 16 year old girl sailing solo around the world but what really stands out from this story would be that the wind generator and the solar panels on board just weren’t getting the job done…ed]
Not long ago, we were pestered almost daily with another global warming scare. But the weather has changed. Now, it seems, each sunrise comes with fresh evidence that the scare is a fraud. The latest setback for global warm-mongers is a probe conducted by the British Guardian newspaper, which discovered a prominent climate scientist “sought to hide problems in key temperature data on which some of his work was based.” The Guardian, which has a history of pumping the global warming scare, looked over the leaked e-mail exchanges from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and “found evidence that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed and that documents relating to them could not be produced.” At the center is the familiar Phil Jones, the CRU director who’s been temporarily relieved of his duties. He and the University at Albany’s Wei-Chyung Wang, named as a collaborator by the Guardian, are accused of making “apparent attempts to cover up problems with temperature data from the Chinese weather stations.” [Thousands of scientists knew this climate change/global warming fraud was nothing more than left wing propaganda but they have been effectively threatened and silenced by governments and media around the world. Not any more!…ed]
Sea level blunder enrages Dutch minister
A United Nations report wrongly claimed that more than half of the Netherlands is currently below sea level. In fact, just 20 percent of the country consists of polders that are pumped dry, and which are at risk of flooding if global warming causes rising sea levels. Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer has ordered a thorough investigation into the quality of the climate reports which she uses to base her policies on. Climate-sceptic MPs were quick to react. Conservative MP Helma Neppérus and Richard de Mos from the right-wing Freedom Party want the minister to explain to parliament how these figures were used to decide on national climate policy. “This may invalidate all claims that the last decades were the hottest ever,” Mr De Mos said. (SNIP) The discovery comes just a week after a prediction about glaciers in the Himalayas proved wrong. Rather than disappearing by 2035, as IPCC reports claim, the original research underlying the report predicted the mountain ice would last until 2350. [How many more of these “errors” or more accurately deliberate lies from the U.N. and these so called climate scientists with an obvious agenda are people going to put up with before they say enough and toss this phony global warming nonsense into the round file?…ed]
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Forget Polls, Here’s Tangible Proof the Obama Honeymoon is Over
One sign that Washington, D.C., had been home to Obama Mania was the number of independent retailers selling all sorts of Obama merchandise. Every street corner, it seemed, had Obama wares (or Obama wear) for sale. Now, however, most of the winter caps for sale are not emblazoned with the Obama logo. T-shirts depicting our president as a dunking Michael Jordan, a victorious Muhammad Ali, or saber-baring Luke Skywalker (yes, these shirts all existed) are nowhere to be found. This time last year, the Obama Store was teeming with customers. Ideally situated in the basement of Washington’s Union Station, the store was filled with consumers eager to buy anything with Obama’s likeness while others took pictures of the life-size cut-outs of the president and first lady. Now, the Obama Store is boarded up. How quickly things change in a year. [Our free market speaks and it speaks loudly. Bambi is toast…ed]
Tough talk comes after Obama exits
Senate Democrats held back from asking President Barack Obama about healthcare reform during a carefully scripted question-and-answer session in front of television cameras. With the cameras rolling, a group of senators selected in advance by the Democratic leadership asked questions about such topics as partisan gridlock and GOP obstruction. But once the president left and reporters were escorted out of the room, senators pressed White House officials about healthcare reform, according to those at the meeting. Democrats expressed their frustration with the lack of a clear plan for passing healthcare reform, according to one person in the room. One Democratic senator even grew heated in his remarks, according to the source. (SNIP) Senators did not want to press Obama on healthcare reform in front of television cameras for fear of putting him in an awkward spot. [Oh I see, when the cameras are on it’s all nicey nicey with the natives and their chief but when the television crews leave all hell breaks out huh? Too bad we couldn’t see some of that transparency Obama keeps lying to us about…ed]
Obama suggests Republicans could have a role in health-care bill
President Obama urged congressional Democrats on Wednesday “to finish the job on health care,” but amid tentative signs of bipartisan outreach on Capitol Hill, he suggested that Republicans could be enlisted to play at least some role in negotiating a final bill. For two weeks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) have struggled for a way to salvage health-care legislation that had appeared on the verge of final passage until a special election in Massachusetts deprived Democrats of their filibuster-proof Senate majority. Reid and Pelosi have yet to agree on a plan, and many Democrats are irritated that the protracted haggling over health-care reform is overshadowing progress on other legislation, including an $81 billion job-creation bill that Senate leaders plan to announce Thursday. The dispute has created tension between Democrats in the House and in the Senate and has revealed increasing frustration within the party toward Obama, who pushed Congress to produce a series of monumental bills last year but has not signed any of them into law. [Gee, that’s mighty white of him but um Republicans have already had a role in this ObamaCare disaster. They killed it…ed]
Vulnerable Dems seek distance from Obama
As Congress begins picking through President Obama’s vast election year budget, many Democratic incumbents and candidates seem to be finding something they love — to campaign against. A Democratic Senate candidate in Missouri denounced the budget’s sky-high deficit. A Florida Democrat whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center hit the roof over NASA budget cuts. And an endangered Senate Democrat denounced proposed cuts in farm subsidies. A headline on the 2010 campaign website of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), blares her opposition to Obama’s farm budget: “Blanche stands up for Arkansas farm families,” it says. Heading into an election season in which Republicans are trying to tie Democrats to Obama’s unpopular policies, Obama’s budget gives his fellow Democrats an unlikely campaign tool — a catalogue of ways to establish their distance from controversial aspects of his administration. [My what a difference a year and a seriously left wing agenda can bring. Obama was a rock star way back then but now Democrats see him as a millstone around their necks as they desperately try to hang onto their seats come November…ed]
Obama picks campaigning over leading
There’s always been a disconnect between what Barack Obama says and what he does, but for the last few weeks, the president’s rhetoric has been wholly detached from reality. Many pundits predicted that after the Massachusetts massacre Obama would swing toward the middle, adopt a conciliatory approach and adjust his policies and priorities to reflect the mood of the nation. Instead, the president jutted his chin a notch higher in the air and launched into campaign-style attack mode. His statements range from outrageous to audacious and risk throwing Washington into total gridlock. It’s a risky strategy that ought to worry Democrats who this fall will face an electorate weary of political bickering. It began with the State of the Union address last week. Obama could have tried to catch some Republican flies with honey, challenging them to meet him in the middle and letting them weigh the political consequences of saying no. He opted for vinegar instead. [Disconnect? Obama is a flat out liar who is in constant campaign mode because he isn’t the leader of this country by any stretch of the imagination. The guy’s qualifications for the job of POTUS could fit on the head of a pin and it shows every day of the week…ed]
President Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel says sorry again over use of ‘f—ing retarded’ phrase
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel offered a personal mea culpa on Wednesday to advocates for the disabled who were offended that he used the phrase “f—ing retarded.” President Obama’s enforcer, infamous for off-color comments, used the epithet last summer against advocacy groups that wanted to beat up conservative Democrats whose votes they needed for health reform. His remarks were publicized last week, and Sarah Palin set off a firestorm by slamming Emanuel on her Facebook page. [Because of her youngest son Sarah Palin does have a dog in this hunt but really, I think this whole situation has become so completely over the top as to have become ridiculous. That said, you KNOW if a Republican president’s chief of staff had uttered this phrase the left would have come unglued and wouldn’t have let up until the guy was history…ed]
Rahm’s apology accepted, at last
The Special Olympics is disputing the White House claim that its chairman, Tim Shriver, accepted Rahm Emanuel’s apology for calling liberals “retarded.” Seeking to damp down the controversy over Rahm Emanuel’s reported, months-old use of the word, a White House official yesterday told me and other reporters that Emanuel had called Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver to apologize. “The apology was accepted,” the official said yesterday. The vice president for communications at the Special Olympics, Kirsten Seckler, told me that this account of the conversation is “inaccurate.” “Tim didn’t accept his apology,” she said. “Tim can’t do that. He can’t accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities.” [This could be the most retard-ed article I have read all day. ‘retard’ verb: to slow up especially by preventing or hindering advance or accomplishment’…ed]
Obama’s auntie still freeloading
Here’s another Obama sweetheart deal you won’t see on C-SPAN. This morning, the fate of Boston’s most infamous illegal immigrant, Zeituni Polly Onyango (also known as “Aunt Zeituni”) will be determined in a closed-door hearing. Why in secret? Because Auntie’s saga reveals every embarrassing truth that amnesty advocates and open-borders liberals like Mayor Tom Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick try to hide. (SNIP) President Barack Obama’s Aunt Zeituni admits she illegally overstayed her visa. Instead of obeying the law, she went to a judge in 2003 with a bogus request for asylum. She was turned down. She ignored the deportation order and instead filed an appeal. She was told again: It’s illegal for you to stay. She’s still here. [Looks like disregard for the laws of this country and our Constitution run in the family…ed]
Muslim chaplain ‘smuggled’ box-cutter blades into jail
A city Department of Correction Muslim chaplain who served 14 years in prison for murder and robbery was arrested today for carrying three utility blades and a pair of scissors into a lower Manhattan jail, authorities said. The chaplain, Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, had the utility blades and scissors in his duffel bag when he arrived at the Manhattan Detention Complex in the morning, according to the city Department of Investigation. The dangerous items were found after an X-ray machine alerted correction officers to the presence of metal in the bag, the DOI said. [This “chaplain” is a convicted murderer who probably converted to the “religion of peace” while incarcerated. Why the convicted murderer is out on the streets so he could try and smuggle dangerous weapons into this jail is beyond me…ed]
North Carolina Schools May Cut Chunk Out of U.S. History Lessons
He may be the president who governed during the Civil War, freeing the slaves, but under a new curriculum proposal for North Carolina high schools, U.S. history would begin years after President Lincoln, with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. State education leaders say this may help students learn about more recent history in greater depth. “We are certainly not trying to go away from American history,” Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, told Fox News. “What we are trying to do is figure out a way to teach it where students are connected to it, where they see the big idea, where they are able to make connections and draw relationships between parts of our history and the present day.” [The “progressive” game plan in action. Kids these days know next to nothing about our Constitution or how our government was intended to operate according to our founding fathers and now it’s going to get even worse. Within a decade middle school history lessons will probably begin with Obama’s one term in office…ed]
Ohio High School Accused of Promoting Political Agenda in Classroom
An Ohio high school teacher’s giving students job applications for a Democratic organization that included suggested radical reading material has raising concerns of indoctrination in the classroom. The government teacher at Perry High School in Massillon, Ohio, handed out forms recruiting students to intern for Organizing for America, a grassroots organization with direct ties to the Democratic National Committee and the successor organization for Obama for America. Included on the forms was a suggested reading list that included Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and Organizing for America’s mission to build on the “movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda of change.” No Republican equivalent was offered to the students, according to Perry schools’ Superintendent John Richard. In an interview with FoxNews.com on Wednesday, Richard acknowledged that distribution of the forms violated school policy and said they were never submitted to school administrators for approval, but the teacher remains on the job. [Naturally he’s still on the job, the teachers’ union would/will fight tooth and nail for the guy, but I wonder if he would still be employed if he was handing out NRA or anti abortion material?…ed]
N.J. loses $70B in wealth during four years as residents depart
More than $70 billion in wealth left New Jersey between 2004 and 2008 as affluent residents moved elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday that marks a swift reversal of fortune for a state once considered the nation’s wealthiest. Conducted by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, the report found wealthy households in New Jersey were leaving for other states — mainly Florida, Pennsylvania and New York — at a faster rate than they were being replaced. “The wealth is not being replaced,” said John Havens, who directed the study. “It’s above and beyond the general trend that is affecting the rest of the northeast. [They’re all moving to Texas where business is booming and the state government isn’t picking their pockets clean. The down side is these people are also bringing their liberal politics with them seemingly unaware that it’s those very political views that has turned New Jersey into what it is today…ed]
City looks to insure sex-change procedures
The city of Portland wants to expand its medical coverage for employees who want to get a sex change, a move that will cost $108,000 a year. According to Mayor Sam Adam’s spokesman, Roy Kaufmann, the city would pay 95 percent of the cost for the procedure and leave the remaining five percent for employees to pay out of pocket. He said it would cover a lifetime benefit of $75,000 for each employee who gets gender reassignment surgery. Employees covered under the city’s core plan would pay about $20 a year more in premiums. [This is the kind of maddening insanity that is breaking the bank for many liberal city budgets causing taxes for residents and businesses to go through the roof. I guess Portland will now have to pick up the tab for all the other elective surgeries employees will want to have performed, after all we can’t discriminate now can we?…ed]
Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data
Anyone with an e-mail account likely knows that police can peek inside it if they have a paper search warrant. But cybercrime investigators are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing companies these documents. They’re pushing for the creation of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received electronically. CNET has reviewed a survey scheduled to be released at a federal task force meeting on Thursday, which says that law enforcement agencies are virtually unanimous in calling for such an interface to be created. Eighty-nine percent of police surveyed, it says, want to be able to “exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process” through an encrypted, police-only “nationwide computer network.” [Just a heads up. Remember, it’s “for the children”…ed]
Students at all-girl Cambridge college sent email asking them to be quieter when having sex
Students at an all-women Cambridge University college have agreed to be quieter when they have sex – after being asked to ‘be discreet in their activities’. All 400 undergraduates at Newnham College were sent a polite email on Tuesday after the student union received 30 complaints about noise in the student halls. It reminded them that the corridors ‘funnelled sound’ through ‘thin college walls’. Newnham College Junior Common Room President Lizzy Cole sent the message, which requested that they keep quiet late at night and during the early hours. But girls at the college were horrified to think that fellow students have complained about their noisy bedtime antics. One Newnham undergraduate, 20, said: ‘It’s just so embarrassing to think that people have been listening in. I was blushing when I got the email. ‘You try to keep it down, but it’s easy to forget the walls are so thin if you get a bit carried away. [Stupid news from England. I wonder when the CD is gonna be released?…ed]
Quote of the day.
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.
-George Soros owner of the Democrat Party
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