NC Media Watch

Nevada County DTV Update

Russ Steele

You can go to this web site <a href="http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/">DTV</a> and type in your address and the FCC will provide you an assessment of the signal strength at your house.

Here is an analysis for our house. Sure glad we have Dish Network.

State Parks vs AB32 Cap & Trade

Russ Steele

For the last five years we have gone an family camping trip to Lake Tahoe. It was request from our four grown daughters that we go family camping trip every summer, "just like we used to do when they were growing up."

When our girls were in College and budgets were tight we often took camping vacations. Big Basin State Park was one of our favorites at the time. Often taking the boy friends, that would become husbands with us on the camping trip. Today the son-in-laws claim those rain camping trips were used to vet them as future husbands. You can learn a lot about a person's temperament and ingenuity when camping in the rain for five days. 

 Another favorite was Sugar Pine Point at Lake Tahoe which we discovered by accident. We had been camping at Red Fish Lake in Idaho, but had to leave early due to a scheduling problem. We still had couple of days of vacation left so we decided find a camp ground at Lake Tahoe. We did not have any reservations, but thought we would give it try any way. Pulling up to the entry station at Sugar Pine Point, the Ranger at the window said the camp ground was full. Just a we started to pull away, the Ranger behind her called out, "we just had a two day cancelation."  We stayed two nights, and everyone had a wonderful time, hiking and cooking gourmet meals over the campfire.

Taxes, Tea Parties and Leadership

Russ Steele

We missed the HBO Series on John Adams, so Ellen put the series in our Netflix que and it came this week. Last night we watched the first two parts of a six part series. For those who have not seen the series, the first two parts take the audience from excessive British taxation, the Boston Tea Party and the political thuggery that lead to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Powerful stuff.

The British Crown was broke after engaging in several wars, and needed the taxes they were levying on the Colonies to sustain their princely lifestyles. It was a gut wrenching experience for many in the Colonies, who considered themselves British citizens, but the taxes and threats were taking their toll. The Colonies finally declared their independence, stating their freedom to choose a course independent of the British Crown.

Farmers, sailors, fishermen and shopkeepers rose up, demanding their freedom. They had been pushed to the wall and were not going to accept any more British taxes or domination. The citizens were taking action and seeking the leadership that was soon provided by Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington.

Today, citizens are again organizing tea parties across the nation.  They are on the cusp of political rebellion, but are still looking for modern statesmen to lead them out from under the yoke of excessive taxes. To replace the failed leadership and the political thuggery that is driving us toward state socialism. I fear that Adams, Franklin and Jefferson would be rolling in their graves if they knew the political path we are on.  Let us hope we can reverse our direction before we need a Washington to lead a citizen's army of patriots to restore the Constitution of this great nation.

The question is, where are our modern day leadership statesmen?

Please come to  the Nevada County Tea Party on the 6th of June, 11 am - 1 pm, at Gate 4 of the Fair Grounds. Somewhere in the crowd we may find the leadership we need. It might be you.

Let me see if I got this straight, hydrogen is the future?

Russ Steele

California is broke, yet the Governor continues to pursue the development of a hydrogen highway, investing $6.8 million in four new stations, doubling the number of hydrogen stations from four to eight in California. There were 300 hydrogen fuel cars in California in April 2009.  I am not sure how much the first four station cost, but the next four cost $1.7 million each. Lets assume that the first four costs about $2.5 million each, it could be higher.  For 300 existing hydrogen vehicles California will invest $16.8 million in hydrogen refueling stations, or about $56,000 per vehicle. California wants to invest another $40 million for 42 stations, or a little under $1 million per station. Lets hope that there will be more than 300 vehicles on the road by 2014.   

Where the is the hook?  The hydrogen will cost $8-13 per gasoline gallon equivalent. Even if the hydrogen powered roughly 2x as efficient as a gas car (pump to wheel) that's $4-6.5 per gallon equivalent.  I am sure you are looking forward to your first hydrogen powered car.

Before, you buy one of those hydrogen powered vehicle, consider this from Bloomberg:

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest refiner, said the transition away from oil-derived fuels is probably 100 years away.

Petroleum-based fuels including gasoline and diesel, as well as hydrocarbons such as coal and natural gas, will remain the dominant sources of energy for factories, offices, homes and cars for decades because there are no viable alternatives, Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson told reporters today after Exxon Mobil’s annual shareholders meeting in Dallas.

If I were you I would not rush out and buy any hydrogen powered vehicles, unless you $1 millon to open a station and enough local people have hydrogen cars to make your station profitable.   On the other hand you might want buy your next vehicle before the new CAFE standards kick in 2016, especially if you need a tow vehicle for a trailer. The next generation of cars and trucks are going to increadibly small. Obama cars.

Nevada County Tea Party Update

Russ Steele

This Press Release Arrived in the e-mail:

TAX DAY TEA PARTY CONTINUES IN NEVADA COUNTY ON JUNE 6TH!

GOVERNMENT IS BEST WHICH GOVERNS LEAST

Download NC Tea Party PR

We have reached a baby minimum

Russ Steele

Watts Up With That has the details.

A typical solar minimum lasts 485 days, based on an average of the last 10 solar minima. As of today we are at 638 spotless days in the current minimum. Also as of today, May 27th, 2009, there were no sunspots on 120 of this year’s (2009) 147 days to date (82%).

According to an article at Physorg.com, details at Dalton Minimum Returns

Low solar activity has a profound effect on Earth’s atmosphere, allowing it to cool and contract.

Consider the quiet Sun's impact on our neighbor to the North, the North American Bread Basket. The cool weather is having an impact on crop planting.

May has been frigid slowing the planting and emergence of the summer crops in Canada. Late freezes and even snows are still occurring regularly and can be expected the rest of the month.

More details at ICECAP.

According to my friend George Rebane, we will know the next Grand Minimum has arrived when we have a June killing frost in the mid west, America's Bread Basket. Stay Tuned!

Consider buying a diesel

Russ Steele

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will soon increase the ethanol blend from 5.7 percent to 10 percent in the vehicle fuel you buy.  On June 14th, CARB announced changes to its reformulated gasoline regulations and announced a predictive model that allows for greater uses of ethanol. This new predictive model is based on a complicated mathematical equation which is used by refiners to forecast emissions from California's passenger vehicles. It also allows refiners to adjust their formula to accommodate higher blends of ethanol. This reformulation is the direct result of California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) decreed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by executive order in January 2009.

Did they or did they not? (updated)

Russ Steele

There is an interesting story going around the Internet that the Obama Administration chose the Chrysler Dealerships to be closed, most belonging to Republicans. Chrysler claimed that its formula for determining whether a dealership should close or not included "sales volume, customer service scores, local market share and average household income in the immediate area." But, there may have been other criteria involved - politics!  More details here.

I went to the Open Secrets Donor Data Base and checked to see if our local Chrysler Dealership, owned by Gary Alcombrack, or Liberty Motors of Grass Valley, were Republican or Democratic donors.  The data base search came up negative, no donations to either party. That is only one case, the question is still open. Were dealerships that donated to the Republican Party targeted?  I have my doubts that Obama's reach is that long. However, the blogosphere is digging into the data and crunching the numbers. Stay Tuned.  

Update: There appears to be more to this story.  Here is an article from the Beltway Confidential

Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans. What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty.

The basic issue raised here is this: How do we account for the fact millions of dollars were contributed to GOP candidates by Chrysler who are being closed by the government, but only one has been found so far that is being closed that contributed to the Obama campaign in 2008?

Carbon feeds the whole world, Stupid!

Russ Steele

Robert D. Brinsmead is a Horticulturist who has written an essay defending carbon and it's role in our lives on earth. We are a carbon based species. We consume carbon and we emit carbon.  Without sufficient carbon in our diets we will all die. Yet our government wants to ban carbon (CO2) as a pollutant dangerous to our health.

Brinsmead has written an extraordinary defense of carbon in his essay:  The Vindication of Carbon Means the Vindication of Human Freedom. This is a little long for guest post, but it deserve a thought full read. Download here.

Here are the introduction paragraphs:

The evidence is piling up every day that the world is now getting cooler instead of warmer, the oceans are now cooling instead of warming, the ice is returning to the Arctic rather than receding, the sea ice in the Antarctic is at record levels, and that rising sea levels have moderated. The sun has recently gone into a less active phase of fewer sun-spots, and the ocean decadal currents have changed from a warming to a cooling phase.

Something to consider when seeking more Nevada County jobs.

Russ Steele

Alan Aronoff at the The American Thinker: California is a Failed State.

The Golden State has lost its luster. California ranks 48th out of 50 in business tax climate according to the Tax Foundation. Only the beacons of limited government found in New York and New Jersey scored lower than California. The states bordering California scored much better in terms of business climate.

    •    - Oregon - ranked 9th
    •    - Nevada - ranked 3rd
    •    - Arizona - ranked 21st
From a personal tax level, the tax burden for individuals as measured as personal income tax income per capita, California ranks 6th according to the Tax Foundation. Again, we can look at the neighboring states. The lower the ranking, the higher the income tax burden.

    •    - Oregon - ranked 9th
    •    - Nevada - no personal income tax.
    •    - Arizona - ranked 39th
Capital and jobs are mobile and will seek the best returns. California receives 50% of its personal income tax revenue from 1% of the tax filers.  Businesses are not expanding in California -- or they are leaving the state. The good news for Nevada is that there is growth in jobs due to the friendly business climate. The bad news for Nevada is that Californians are migrating to Nevada to seek a better future. There goes the neighborhood.

Wow, Nevada County borders in Nevada. Not too far to go for better returns. Our 1%ers could leave town any day now.  What are we doing to keep them around.