Tax day…

Posted on March 14, 2011 by ChrisA

Atlas Shrugged, the movie, is scheduled to be released on, you guessed it, April 15th.

I expect to see more “disses” of Ayn Rand in the local media as Clay Evans did recently. I’m sure it’s part of the Progressive/Liberal talking points.

Posted in the weekend | Leave a comment

That sure didn’t take long

Posted on March 14, 2011 by ChrisA

Senator calls for moratorium on US nuclear plants

Talk about getting out in front of an issue.

Posted in politics | 1 Comment

Fleebagger recall in Wisconsin

Posted on March 14, 2011 by ChrisA

An update on how the effort to recall Wisconsin’s fleeing Democrats is progressing. I found this excerpt interesting…

Our recall supporters were a diverse group comprised of all races and age groups. I was surprised that a number of African-Americans lent their support to our recall petition drive. It seems that the best efforts of the mainstream media to play the race card in Wisconsin have failed to sway the well-informed. Meanwhile, back in Madison, the far more homogeneous mob of protesters welcome the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his old rhetoric with open arms.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Death threats on Republicans

Posted on March 14, 2011 by ChrisA

A non event. If it isn’t reported in the “legacy” media did it really happen?

Not taking this seriously were ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NBC, and NPR. LexisNexis and closed-caption dump searches of “Wisconsin and ‘death threat'” produced zero results for these so-called news outlets throughout the month of March.

Of course, those horrid Tea Partiers…

When you compare this to the hysterical coverage of last year’s Tea Party rallies and town hall protests, where conservatives were regularly depicted as either hostile or fomenting violence, one has to wonder how actual death threats against sitting politicians would not be considered newsworthy.


What an asset the legacy media is, at least if you’re a Democrat.

added at 6:26p. Here’s an e-mail death threat that was sent to the Wisconsin Republican Senators.

One originator (of the many) Republican death threats identified.

I did a google search on “Wisconsin Republican death threats” and no MSM/legacy media on the first 3 pages. I stopped looking after that. Slate showed up on the 2nd page. Legacy media, more irrelevant by the minute.

Posted in legacy media, public unions, stoopid Democrats, you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

Sense of entitlement…

Posted on March 13, 2011 by ChrisA

and arrogance to put it mildly. Those who serve the public sometimes get a very warped idea about who works for whom.

Drunken Rangel Aide Has Restaurant Meltdown: ‘You’re a Disgrace to our Race’

Posted in arrogance, idiocy, you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

Devastation

Posted on March 13, 2011 by ChrisA

The devastation of the Japanese tsunami is simply to much to grasp.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

FIRE!

Posted on March 11, 2011 by ChrisA

Yikes. The wind has died down so that’s good news. Been packing up criticalo items,

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Obama energy policy

Posted on March 11, 2011 by ChrisA

An energy policy a Boulderite could love.

Posted in energy, everything Obama | Leave a comment

Japan: Earthquake/Tsunami

Posted on March 11, 2011 by ChrisA

Pictures

3/11 @ 4PM: Changed title from “Earthquote” to “Earthquake”!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Is $10.5 billion in cuts “really the best the Democrats can do?”

Posted on March 11, 2011 by ChrisA

So… exactly what are “drastic cuts” to the Federal budget? Jonah Goldberg takes a look.

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace repeatedly pressed Sen. Dick Durbin: Is $10.5 billion in cuts “really the best the Democrats can do?” The No. 2 Senate Democrat responded, eventually: “We’ve pushed this to the limit.” Any cuts beyond that would simply crater our economy and gut “investments” to make us competitive with China. Apparently, Durbin thinks trimming the staff at the Oregon National Laboratory will result in us all becoming busboys at a Beijing restaurant.

Inquiring minds want to know, is that the best you can do?

But given their terror of forcing a government shutdown in this tea-soaked climate, Democrats were forced to counteroffer with a cut of $10.5 billion, or 0.28 percent of the federal budget. Imagine you have a budget of $10,000 (about 40 percent of it borrowed on a credit card), then “slash” 28 bucks. That’s what it’s like to be a frugal Democrat.

(emphasis added – Ed)

You can’t make this stuff up.

h/t to Betsy’s page.

Posted in budget, debt, stoopid Democrats, you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

Wisconsin: Legacy media

Posted on March 10, 2011 by ChrisA

Ann Alhouse skewers the New York Times and they deserve worse.

Cut off access? But they stormed in last night, overwhelming the police, and they were blocking legislators access to offices and the Assembly chamber this morning. I just heard by phone from Meade that 100 protesters had to be removed (presumably by police) from the antechamber to the Assembly chamber. The NYT paragraph makes it sound as though the police maintained control, but they absolutely did not. And “taut atmosphere”? Ridiculous downplaying of the chaotic scenes that have been unfolding for the last 18 hours.

The legacy media is becoming more irrelevant by the minute. The fate that papers like the NYT deserve.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Maine: One helluva an Obamacare Waiver

Posted on March 10, 2011 by ChrisA

The entire state of Maine gets an Obamacare waiver.

Aside from Maine’s insurance experiment being a failure, why do they need a waiver on overhead expenses?

If Maine’s own ObamaCare precursor had worked to achieve cost control, then why does the state ration entry into its public option?  Furthermore, if such a program really does control cost and overhead, then why can’t the state’s insurers meet the arbitrary 80% threshold set by Congress without having to shut down its business?

I’m confused.  Seems like a government, not-profit entity, should be able to meet the threshold of spending 80% of their premiums directly on provider care.

From the orignal posting at The Hill….

Specifically, HHS points out that three insurers make up the bulk of Maine’s individual insurance market: Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maine (49 percent), MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company (37 percent) and HPHC Insurance Company (13 percent). MEGA had told Maine during preliminary discussions that it “would probably need to withdraw from this market if the minimum loss ratio requirement were increased.”

At least Anthem BCBS is operating in other States with no obvious issues regarding the 80% mandate.  I would suggest readers do a google serach on MEGA Life and Health.

Posted in ObamaCare, you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

The American public: Debt ignorance

Posted on March 10, 2011 by ChrisA

Good grief.

I didn’t realize the general public was a stoopid as the Boulder progressive elite.

More than 7 in 10 respondents say slashing foreign aid and pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan would result in substantial savings, and large majorities back such moves. Yet foreign aid accounts for about 1 percent of federal spending, and the Pentagon requested $159 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, less than 5 percent of Obama’s $3.83 trillion federal budget.


Fewer than half of respondents say cutting Medicare benefits or raising the age at which Americans receive Social Security retirement benefits would have a large impact on the deficit, and only 2 in 10 favor cutting Medicare benefits. Such entitlements account for about 40 percent of the budget and are the main drivers of the long-term deficit.

Before I damn the Boulder progressive elites too much, I’ll give Daily Camera columnist Clay Evans credit in an editorial last July where he points out…

Dink-and-dunk cuts to education, agriculture or whatever won`t do the trick. There are exactly four approaches to reducing our (yes, they belong to you and me, not some distant entity called “government” ) deficits: cutting Medicare, which is the biggest concern, Social Security, military spending, raising taxes, or some combination.

I’d rather have a colonoscopy than agree with Clay but from a big picture point of view it’s hard to argue with him. 

America is about to get what it deserves and it will not, will not, be a pretty picture.

Posted in debt, finance, stoopid politicians, you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

Obama increases NPR funding

Posted on March 10, 2011 by ChrisA

The idiocy boggles the mind.

Posted in you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

More change at NPR

Posted on March 9, 2011 by ChrisA

The Queen falls.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Laughter is the only appropriate response”

Posted on March 9, 2011 by ChrisA

Quibbling over Federal Spending crumbs.

Posted in debt, decline of the west, you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

Wisconsin boomerang?

Posted on March 9, 2011 by ChrisA

Drive to recall Wisconsin GOP senators gaining steam, Dems say

If these numbers are close to accurate, they are a surprising sign of the power of the grassroots energy uncorked by Scott Walker’s union-busting proposals. Under Wisconsin law, a recall requires a number of signatures totaling 25 percent of the number that voted in the last gubernatorial election.


So everyone is going to be recalled before this is all over. One thing’s for sure, it will be entertaining. I’d sure like voter ID for an election like this (well for any election).

Posted in public unions | Leave a comment

Ding dong, NPR is dead….

Posted on March 9, 2011 by ChrisA

The video…

The backup article.

The opinions expressed by (now former) NPR executive Ron Schiller of the Tea Party movement and Republicans sounds strangely like the opinions I hear around Boulder.

Juan Williams unloads.

Posted in NPR is stoopid | Leave a comment

CIA pension about to go bust

Posted on March 8, 2011 by ChrisA

We’re in the best of hands.

The Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System could go bankrupt by the end of 2012 without an appropriation of $513.7 million, according to a request in the 2012 federal budget.


“Independent actuarial projections show the CIARDS fund going bankrupt by the end of 2012 with an unfunded liability of $6.4 billion,” according to the funding request.


The requested funds reflect the amortized cost of recapitalizing the system over 20 years, according to the budget request.

Our government at work.  Gotta love it.  Were these “yahoos” in bed with Bernie Madhoff?

.

Posted in you can't make this stuff up | Leave a comment

Coming soon to Boulder

Posted on March 8, 2011 by ChrisA

Not enough electricity

It’s so so easy to imagine these words coming from Boulder City Council…

“Steve Holliday is the UK’s power czar, basically. He’s the CEO of National Grid. He is predicting that, because the UK is moving to more wind-generated electricity to meet government emissions targets, residents will end up with less access to electricity. And they’d better learn to like it!”

Here’s more from Mr. Holliday from the Financial Post…

Electricity consumers in the UK will need to get used to flicking the switch and finding the power unavailable, according to Steve Holliday, CEO of National Grid, the country’s grid operator. Because of a six-fold increase in wind generation, which won’t be available when the wind doesn’t blow, “The grid is going to be a very different system in 2020, 2030,” he told BBC’s Radio 4. “We keep thinking that we want it to be there and provide power when we need it. It’s going to be much smarter than that.



“We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available and available cheaply.”

Progress!  Looks like they have their own version of “Hope and Change” across the pond. 

Boulder is beginning the process of having less electricity.  Of course, no one can dress up a pig like the Boulder green movement…

The end goal, Koehn said, is to secure an energy supply that is not only cleaner than what residents have now — which relies largely on coal and natural gas — but that is also as local and reliable as possible.



“The purpose of this project, ultimately, is to ensure that customers in the city have access to reliable energy that’s increasingly clean and remains competitively priced,” Koehn said. “Whatever decision is made this year or next will basically determine how we are able to meet those goals with regards to emissions and with regards to long-term rate stability.”

The key phrase: “as possible”.

Posted in alt energy, Boulder is stoopid | Leave a comment