[FOXNEWS] A top Republican senator called Monday for a delay in the confirmation of President B.O.'s pick for CIA director until more questions are answered on the deadly attack last year on a U.S. consulate in Libya.
Sen. Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... of South Carolina didn't single out Obama's nominee, John Brennan, for criticism, but he accused the administration of ignoring requests for more information about the Sept. 11 attack, which also targeted a CIA annex in Benghazi.
"I have not forgotten about the Benghazi debacle and still have many questions about what transpired before, during and after the attack on our consulate," Graham said. "In that regard, I do not believe we should confirm anyone as director of the CIA until our questions are answered."
Graham is specifically concerned about U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's talking points in the days after the attack, when she said that the attack seemed to be "spontaneous" violence growing out of protests over an anti-Islam film. She later admitted that some of that information was incorrect, though she said her comments were based on the information available at the time from the intelligence community.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I doubt they will get anything from Hillary. She always has the "I can't recall" response. Or maybe she can claim PTSD with all the times she claims she has been shot at. I guess Enhanced Interrogation Techniques are out of bounds these days with cabinet members.
The Texas state comptroller estimated Texas will generate $96.2 billion in revenue for the 2014-2015 fiscal cycle and reported Texas collected $8.8 billion more in revenue than expected during the last fiscal year.
When unemployment in Texas was at its highest in a decade and the state government faced a $27 billion shortfall in 2011, legislators wrote what was then described as a cut-to-the-bone budget.
#1
When the Texas Congress convenes (they only meet for 90 days each year) Governor Rick Perry has requested they look at cutting taxes for all Texans.
I would even suggest they declare a state holiday in honor of fire arms to really unnerve the Socialists but it may get a little noisy around the Saloons and Cantinas on a day like that.
#12
Sounds like it'ss time to move to Texas.
Alabama's OK, but Texas has the ability to secede at any time Built in as an agreement of Joining the Union.
Alabama doesn't.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/09/2013 16:13 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Texas originally, especially when it was a Republic before becoming a state, all land deeds had the words "Defend and Protect" that plot of land from hostilities. No longer in deeds there that I know of but all invaders knew back at that time that each and every land owner throughout the big state of Texas were under contract to protect that plot of land they owned.
That explain why they and their descendants are a people with an extra passion for arms and independence.
[THEHILL] More than 70 green groups urged President B.O. in a Monday letter to kill the Keystone XL pipeline to make good on promises to address climate change.
Obama has publicly pledged to tackle climate change a handful of times since Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast, though without detailing specific policy plans.
In their letter, the groups said Obama should speak out more often on climate change, impose emissions limits on existing coal-fired power plants and focus on creating clean-energy jobs.
They added the president also should shut down the proposed pipeline that would bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.
"Hurricane Sandy made it tragically clear that many communities are extremely vulnerable to climate change. We can and we must build back better -- with investment in sustainable infrastructure, not the kind of carbon-intensive development that helped drive this problem in the first place," the groups wrote in the letter.
Green groups have been expecting a final decision on Keystone from the State Department for several weeks. State has final say on the project's northern leg because it crosses into Canada.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11122 views]
Top|| File under:
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Georgia Power asked state regulators for permission to shut down 15 power plants yesterday, claiming new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) make the plants too expensive to run. I'm thinking seriously about adding another category and simply calling it "Government."
The 15 coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired power plants currently produce 2,061 megawatts (MW) for Georgia energy consumers. Georgia Power plans to close 11 of the plants on the exact day the EPA's new mercury regulations are set to take effect, April 16, 2015. Georgia Power will seek waivers from the EPA to keep four of the other plants open for a single year, and then shut those down too on April 16, 2016. It is unclear how the Georgia energy sector will make the 2 gigawatts up.
The EPA claims its new mercury regulation will produce $140 billion in annual benefits, but only $6 million of the benefits come from actual mercury reductions. According to Dr. Anne Smith, Senior Vice President of NERA Economic Consulting's Global Environment Group, effectively all of the EPA's estimated benefits come from "coincidental reductions" of fine particulate matter. But fine particulate matter is already regulated by a separate section of the Clean Air Act.
The plant closures will cause at least 480 fewer power plant jobs and higher electricity rates for all Georgia energy consumers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Not just Georgia. This is happening in many states. I have seen it in my Ti-State area.
Costs will only go up and up "to infinity and beyond". "Government" that doesn't care anymore.
#3
While I'm usually the first to jump on this stuff, let us note that EPA is doing this because of a court ruling against them by the State of NJ.
Local news here in Atlanta stated that GA Power will only close 3 plants and replace them with cheaper natural gas plants. That seems to be an economic win-win to me, who lives here and will pay the cost. I honestly didn't even know we still had oil fired plants in GA and Natural Gas is something we can produce domestically (another win-win).
Posted by: BA ||
01/09/2013 10:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Burning Natural gas?
That'll cause CO2, and that's illegal.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/09/2013 10:18 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Big Jim, I think GA Power has the "big picture" in mind. They are moving forward with new nuke reactors at 2 of our nuclear plants. Hope that the NRC gives approval....
Posted by: BA ||
01/09/2013 10:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Also, to further clarify my original post, EPA is implementing mercury rules (Clean Air Act) because of the federal D.C. District's ruling against EPA in a lawsuit brought by NJ (not a NJ state court ruling, as my original post implies).....
And, for full disclosure, I work for the EPA (albeit in the wastewater arena, not air).
Posted by: BA ||
01/09/2013 10:27 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Nke reactors?
Seems OK, wnat about the long term storage of "Spent" fuel, No answer?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/09/2013 10:34 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Don't know and won't opine on long-term storage of spent fuel.....
However, nuke reactors "solve" the GHG emissions issues....
Posted by: BA ||
01/09/2013 10:47 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Also, the below link shows that it is proposing to close 15 units at 4 power plants. That's the confusion, I guess.
Posted by: BA ||
01/09/2013 11:05 Comments ||
Top||
#10
BA, how long between the closure of the currently operating units and the opening of the gas-fired ones? I have to assume there is no firm start-up date for the nuclear power plants...
#11
Georgia Power plans to close 11 of the plants on the exact day the EPA's new mercury regulations are set to take effect,
So we are getting mercury out of our power plants while we bring it into our homes in the form of curly light bulbs. Yeah, I'm sure that is better somehow.
#12
Not sure, TW, but here they have until next July/August to do so. I think (not sure about this) GA Power built several NG fired plants years ago to handle "peak demand" times (hot summer days). Maybe they can use those (although I doubt it'll replace 2 GWatts) and/or quickly build new NG units.
I believe GA Power (when it saw the NE brownouts a few years ago) went into high gear to build extra capacity. Even in last summer's extreme heat here (we had more days of 90+ than we've had for a while), we never experienced brown-outs, so obviously there's capacity. I'm just not sure how much.
Finally, the 3 plants they listed were outside of a lot smaller towns (which probably means more consistent use of the grid), so I'd like to think that GA Power has planned for this. The plants they listed on radio were outside of Brunswick (extreme SE Georgia), near Savannah and outside of Newnan (SW of Atlanta). Also, I'd guess that Brunswick has been hit hard as it's an industrial town and in O's economy, a lot of plants there have been shuttered (further decreasing electrical demand).
I honestly have no (environmental) dog in this fight. Just want to be transparent myself and show fallacies in some opinion pieces, is all.
Posted by: BA ||
01/09/2013 15:31 Comments ||
Top||
#13
So we are getting mercury out of our power plants while we bring it into our homes in the form of curly light bulbs.
Gotta store it somewhere.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/09/2013 17:47 Comments ||
Top||
#14
I honestly have no (environmental) dog in this fight. Just want to be transparent myself and show fallacies in some opinion pieces, is all.
Much appreciated, BA. More information is better. :-)
The future is two 25 hour jobs. Wait, that means the 40 hour work week sought over 100 years ago and eventually implemented is now OBE, all in the name of the 'poor', 'fairness', 'redistribution'. The more you fiddle with stuff, the more you break.
Maybe but it won't be because of Obamacare which counts full-time equivalents not actual full time employees. Their calculation would be something along the lines of 50 persons x 30 hours/week = 1500+ employee hours per week trips the Obamacare trigger for an employer. That's not the precise calculation but it's of the same sort I believe.
I wonder if the action in the Obamacare avoidance industry won't center around cutting existing businesses up into new & legally distinct pieces each of which falls below the threshold. I'd picture the dodge as being, in the context of a QSR franchisee, splitting each location out into a legally separate & distinct entity then running these more granular pieces through a legally separate holding company.
Then again, since the penalty exempts the first 30 employees, the 50th full-time equivalent costs $2k x (50 - 30) = $40k/year to the business. Might not be enough to encourage a wave of complex restructuring all of which could have tax implications of its own. Will definitely be interesting to watch.
#9
The trick is to get an exemption, which Yum! can afford.
And I believe the next move, as business start closing four of 7 days a week (not that there will be anything on the shelves - an item from production to shelf is mostly labor costs tacked on) would be to restrict a person to 30 hours a week. To do more would be to take someone else's job which would be ruled an enterprising infraction. Work for the State does not count against this limit, and you may even be payed if you pass your The State is I exams and screenings and promotions by committee filter.
#11
Fear notteth, Amerika, the Leftist-Globalist OWG NAU in 2015 will save us from these wily dastardly Nationalist, Constitutionalist, Fascist = Just-a-Limited-Communist shennanigans!
ONCE WE MOVE FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM OF THE NAU $$$ PECKING ORDER, THE NAU WILL BE SURE TO GIVE US THE MORE $$$ THAT THEY RELIED ON THE NOW-BANKRUPT AMERIKA TO GIVE THEM!
[FRANCE24] French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac is under investigation for tax fraud after a media report that he had an undeclared UBS account in Geneva which he then moved to Asia, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Cahuzac, who is in charge of battling tax evasion, has denied the report by the respected Mediapart investigative website that he had an undeclared Swiss account which he then transferred to Singapore.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11122 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
HE DENIES THE ACCOUNT'S HIS?.
cONSFICATE THE ACCOUNT, SINCE IT'S NOT HIS, HE WON'T COMPLAIN.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/09/2013 10:16 Comments ||
Top||
While fellow conservatives bash the president for telling Speaker of the House John Boehner that the country doesnt have a spending problem, I offer Barack Obama another thank-you.
Just when I thought that the GOPs own ineptitude was going to sink the party, the man-who-would-be-president proved once again that when it comes to being out of touch, you cant get any better than the First Community Organizer.
Led by Barack Obama and the Democrats, Congress passed a budget plan that doesnt even do what they said it would- keep taxes lower for anyone not a millionaire or billionaire.
So, now we can add fiscal cliff to the notable failures of Congress, the president and political elites since the turn of the century, including but in no way limited to other failures such as: Obamacare, which helps health care costs go up, not down; Pelosi-care, which funds green companies with taxpayer dollars so people with connections to anyone named Pelosi, Reid or Obama can benefit; Cap N Tax, which, if given a chance, would have seen Al Gore transferring US coal reserves to the OPEC states and Al Jazeera before a tax deadline- and Im not kidding on that; or any one of several jobs bills, where the only job created was the jobbing of taxpayers for the benefit of mobbed-up highway contractors.
While Obama told everyone his fiscal cliff solution meant that taxes were only going up for millionaires and billionaires, he forgot to mention that he was reckoning those figures in Japanese Yen- a million Yen equals only $11,433.80 reckoned in US Dollars.
So anywho taxes are going up on EVERYONE, even lowly community organizers.
The budget wont be cut ANYWHERE, not even in the Defense Department.
Actually, we should all stand-by for more dumb spending proposals, and the taxes that go along with them.
Because the Dems wasted no time in turning the political victory they waged on the GOP into Pyrrhic victory they wage on taxpayers.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] House Minority Leader Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the the Socialist paradise of San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of politicians. Formerly Speaker of the House, but it's not her fault they lost. Really. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace... , D-Calif., has adopted a new term for gun control, "gun violence prevention," in hopes that the euphemism will make it easier to marshal public opinion in favor of new gun laws as well as other policies designed to prevent shootings.
"If we come out of the Newtown experience and all we do is talk about it and not have a result," Pelosi told The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , "that would be a dereliction of duty on the part of us in public office. We must find a place where we can come to agreement on this."
The paper added that "Pelosi said Democrats are no longer talking about gun control but refer instead to what she calls gun violence prevention -- an effort by Democrats and their allies to find a less politically charged term, one that suggests a broader range of approaches beyond simply gun regulation."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Every time they say 'Gun Violence Prevention' we should state that categorically that it is a *LIE*. Strict Gun Control and the gun-free zone did nothing to prevent the 'Gun Violence' in Newtown --- except perhaps made it worse!
#4
The many pleasures of family, home life, and leisure must be a terribly painful bore to her. To continue the D.C. treadmill and deny yourself and your prodigy at her age and financial ability can only be the result of the intoxication of power. Nothing short of absolute pure insanity. I do feel sorry for the poor woman. No, on second thought, I do not.
#7
There really is a thing in human nature ( its built in ) that makes it very hard to DO a killing of another human being. Even when you are combat trained to do it most men are not only reluctant to kill, most simply can't.
The very truth is that it is six men out of a hundred in a company and two or three men in any platoon who do 85% of the killing. Half a dozen men in any hundred soldiers do 85% of the killing. The trick is to find those six men and send the others to the rear to work in logistics. Then take good care of the six and use them.
Even the men who do the killing don't know who they are until they just wake up one morning and realize that they and maybe one other man have been the only people in the platoon who have a dozen kills. And it dawns on them that it isn't a coincidence, and everybody else knows it too.
#8
Not only does everyone else know it, they consciously or unconsciously shun you; they set you apart. Not a spoken thing (that I know of) just something that seems to happen. There is a lot more to this, but enough for now.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
01/09/2013 7:32 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The constitution is Politician control, no wonder she wants to damage it.
#12
I was discussing online with someone yesterday the idiocy of "gun free" zones. I went to wikipedia to look for a list of shootings at schools and was amazed at how many more shootings occur than most people remember (Pearl, MS; AR; Columbine, CO; VA Tech; North IL Univ; and now Newtown, CT). However, there are so many more shootings at schools that result in no deaths or 1 death (suicides), etc. that your average person wouldn't even know of. Just goes to even further prove that we must treat the perp, not the implement he/she uses to commit the crime.....
Just look at the table at the bottom of linky
Posted by: BA ||
01/09/2013 10:06 Comments ||
Top||
[THEHILL] A new poll released Tuesday finds the national favorability of Congress has again slipped into single digits, with American's elected officials now polling lower than painful medical procedures and a certain Canadian rock band. Doesn't matter. How many of the bastards ever get voted out?
The survey, from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, showed Congress with a mere 9 percent favorability rating. By contrast, 85 percent of voters see politicians in a negative way.
Congress didn't fare much better when compared against a wide swath of generally disliked staples of modern life. Asked for their preference between Congress and lice, the microscopic insects prevail 67-19 percent. Ditto colonoscopies (58-31 percent), root canals (65-32 percent), and being stuck in traffic (56-34 percent).
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11122 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No surprise. We have a Congressional election coming up in less than two years. A good time to clean house.
#1
He is bound and determined to make us criminals, or expats. I find myself wondering just where is the breaking point that gets someone, like our forfathers, to throw in the towel and start somewhere else...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/09/2013 13:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
He can consider an 'Executive Order' but will he?
That is the question. He can't be that stupid to do it.
#6
You can impeach him in the House all you want but he has the Senate in his pocket so he isn't going anywhere. I'm afraid the best hope we have is a Supreme Court ruling against him. But that will take time and he'll be using that time.
#7
Bet he uses it as a distraction for the "debt ceiling" which comes up in about a month. he'll be poring over his Rules For Radicals to see how he will get maximum benefits from this.
"Never let a crises go to waste"
-selective enforcement of marijuana laws like the illegal immigration thing. (I'm not personnally against the canabis thing but there are laws of the land that need to be adhered to).
-allowing EPA to fly drones over civilian housing and collecting data.
#12
Congress is in this executive order deal too. They sit on their butts and do not take responsibility, while O gets away with legislating by decree. They are in as deep as O.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/09/2013 16:45 Comments ||
Top||
#13
I regard this as good news. Champ's executive order will be unconstitutional. It will be challenged and it will lose. The only reason he would consider this path is that he has decided he will lose the legislative battle. Having put so much political capital into this fight he will try to save face with the EO, then blame the courts when they rule against him. This also allows his allies in Congress to avoid going on the record voting for restrictions that are VERY unpopular.
For gun owners and those who believe in the rule of law, this is a good outcome.
#16
My 2-cents: This is another distraction from real issues that Obama, etal do not want to address (Budget and Bengazi, for instance.). A real beauty was brought up today, by the administration not dismissing the idea of a $1-Trillion coin to take care of our debt = more press and more distraction. Gimme a break.
Let's keep our eyes on the ball (real issues), while neither dismissing nor overemphasizing red herrings/peripheral issues.
#17
Well of course this is a distraction from the real issue, so long as it remains a distraction. That's always been the fear, that it goes from distraction to "I'm actually going to do it". And it looks like he's really going to do it. He won on Obamacare, won re-election through demonization and lying. The guy has to believe he has the upper-hand on anything he does.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/09/2013 19:51 Comments ||
Top||
#18
So he is going to break the law to make an illegal law, to turn law abiding citizens illegal.
#19
So what does that do to his oath to the Constitution, making an anti-Constitutional decree?
This is not conversation, a conversation is putting the issue into Congress so that the greatest minds and orators of our times, those who deem themselves worthy of managing our life and death, I would like to hear them speak. No notes, no tele-p, I want to hear it olde school.
#2
I've been making the point that gun control is to Democrats what abortion is to Republicans. Both are privacy issues about which people hold very strong opinions.
#3
Obama consficates Semi=Auto firears and there'll be war, why shoud WE americans be at a disdvantage worldwide, the other nations wo'nt give semi-autos up.
That alone will sink Obama.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/09/2013 16:06 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Iowa lawmaker calls for gun ban, confiscation of semi-automatic weapons
Right after you clear out your National Guard armories first. You know the Guard is for disaster relief and guarding debris after tornadoes, so why should they need suck icky things? A prison riot? Heck what sort of proportional response is that with the those poor unfortunates armed with mere handmade implements. /sarc off
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] In its latest annual report for fiscal year 2011 to 2012, Planned Parenthood ...has received federal funding since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act. It is sometimes described as the gynecololgical wing of the Democratic party. reveals that it performed 333,964 abortions in 2011 -- a record year for the organization.
According to annual reports, the organization performed 332,278 abortions in 2009, 329,445 in 2010, making the total number of abortions in three years to 995,687.
Planned Parenthood reported receiving a record $542 million in taxpayer funding, according to a Susan B. Anthony List analysis of the report, in the form of government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements. The amount is 45 percent of Planned Parenthood's annual revenue.
"While government subsidies to Planned Parenthood have reached an all time high, so too has the number of lives ended by this profit-driven abortion business," SBA List's President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. "Destroying nearly one million children in three years is not health care and does not reflect a concern for vulnerable women and girls."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus smiles. Perhaps we have well earned our current fate.
#3
Ask yourself what Peter and the other Apostles would have thought of the matter. If all values are relativistic then who cares what they thought?
But then if there ARE real immutable Values concerning Human Life we can share the values of the japanese when it comes to Abortion...or the Chinese. Or the North Koreans. Or even the French.
They have no problem with shoving a sharp steel canula through a fetus's brain.
#4
According to annual reports, the organization performed 332,278 abortions in 2009, 329,445 in 2010, making the total number of abortions in three years to 995,687.
And the liberals are getting their panties in a wad about guns? Just a distraction from all the other violence being perpetrated. C'mon, give me a break.
#6
There are about 800,000 to 1,000,000 abortions per year in the U.S.
Of these, about 150,000 to 200,000 are done in early stage pregnancy without surgery using prescription drugs.
So basically, Planned Parenthood performed about half of all surgical abortions in the US.
Of course the PP will say that abortions are only 3& of its services but that's because they do STD and pregnancy testing, etc. which are non controversial.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/09/2013 13:18 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Think of how many more children of conservatives than leftists will be coming of age in 20 years or so....
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/09/2013 13:41 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Lindsey Graham
Nancy 
