NC Media Watch

We are back in Nevada County

Russ Steele

We have returned from our trip to Idaho, BC Canada, Washington's Olympic Peninsula, and the Oregon Coast.  Visit Ellen's Trip Log for all the details, but I will have some observations in up coming posts.

Now that we are back I will resume a regular blogging schedule. I will have a column in The Union on Saturday.  It is about a unique deficiency in our local economic development efforts. Stay Tuned. 

Tea Party Report

Russ Steele

Not much Sacramento Tea Party news on the MSN, but George has a good report at Rebane's Rumination.

The Economic Recovery in a Nutshell

Russ Steele

Sometimes it is hard to understand all the economic rhetoric, the blather of talking heads, the mind numbing economic analysis of the pundits, and the lies of the Obama administration about the pace of our economic recovery.

However, I think a Forbes' article by Thomas F. Cooley and Peter Rupert, which has three interesting graphics which might clear things up for you. The current cycle continues down, down, and down, with no sign of any upward motion. 


Clearly, there is no evidence of recovery in this picture or that the stimulus has had any effect on consumption. As is well known and easily inferred, people have to rebuild their balances sheets and are saving more. The next picture shows the time path of investment in the same way.


The last picture shows data for employment. The two previous recessions were not as severe and did not last as long as out most current decline. Evidently, the current recession will hit bottom much later than most of its predecessor’s.



Questions?  Yea, I know Obama thinks it is all Bush's fault and only after the lines start up will it be Obama's recovery. There you have it in a nutshell. No recovery yet!

Your energy bills are about to go up AGAIN!

Russ Steele

Environment California is gathering at 10:30 AM on the South steps of the Capitol to promote SB 14 this morning. This bill would require that California energy providers get 33 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Read renewable as wind and solar, two highly inefficient methods that require backup generators tobe on line should the wind stop blowing and clouds block the sun. No mention of nuclear power. The bill allows the producer to pass on the costs of generation to the customer, that is you.  This bill was approved by the Senate earlier this year and is one of the 100 bills waiting for action in the Assembly suspense file.

As the cost of energy goes up, California business become less competitive with surrounding states that have not adopted California's environmental method of economic suicide.

Economics in the Twilight Zone

Russ Steele

This not about Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. We are in Forks, Washington, and they are having the "best summer tourist season ever" according to a Chamber Board Member.  With the publication of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series and the release of the movie Twilight, Forks has become Twilight Central.

Forks is now an economic magnet for car loads of middle age women from LA, and major cities across the west, all converging on Forks. These matrons are soon elbowing teen age girls clutching Twilight books to their chests out of the way at the Chamber of Commerce's Information Center, while the teen's Dads are cools their heels in the Timber Museum next door to Twilight Information Central. About 600 "Twilighters" a day was the Chamber estimate.   

Forks was just a sleepy little logging town on the edge of Olympic National Park in the upper left hand corner of Washington. That is until it became the setting for a love story about a teen age girl named Bella and a vampire named Edward. Now Forks motels have No Vacancy signs, restaurant parking lots are full, and the stores are bulging with Twilight Gear, including the ACE Hardware store. To meet the national demand the Forks Chamber has an online Twilight gear store. Bella's pick up is parked outside the Chamber office. "The most photographed vehicle in America," according to the volunteer docent at the Timber Museum next door.

Maybe the Nevada City Chambers can commission a local author to write a series for teen age girls, set in Nevada City, that speaks to the hidden fourteen old in every middle aged woman in America. Let's give the Forks a little competition! 

Ten for Tark - Money Talks

Russ Steele

In the last hour of his Monday radio show, Hugh Hewitt suggested that opponents of Obamacare could make their voices really be heard by a key player --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid-- if they sent $10 to Danny Tarkanian, Reid's only declared opponent in the 2010 election, and then e-mailed Senator Reid that they had done so because of his support for Obamacare and would continue to send more contributions to Tarkanian if Senator Reid continues to support the radical overhaul of American medicine.

Danny Tarkanian is the only declared opponent of Senator Reid in next November's election, and you can contribute online to Tarkanian's campaign here.

You can e-mail Senator Reid here.

Then send a note to [email protected] that you made a contribution.  This is the kind of political action that gets results. Money Talks!

Hugh reports his e-mail in-box is stuffed beyond overflowing with copied receipts of $10 (and sometimes $25 for couples) contributions to Danny Tarkanian and messages to Senator Reid.  Add yours to the list.

Shoot out at the Climate Change Corral

Russ Steele

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called the EPA’s bluff on climate science.  However, the EPA is not up for a science shoot out, instead they are hiding behind Ms. Jackson's skirts.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, trying to ward off sweeping federal emissions regulations has challenged the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change. You know the real science, with real scientist in the street, not dodgy computer models in the saloon basement.

The US Chamber has called out the EPA to put their science for critical examination, or fold and slink away.  There’s no backing away from the challenge and the Chamber of Commerce is not known for shooting from the hip without a good idea that it’s aim is good. The cowardly response from EPA was:

Calling a hearing a “waste of time” and saying that a threatened lawsuit by the chamber would be “frivolous.”

EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said the agency based its proposed finding that global warming is a danger to public health “on the soundest peer-reviewed science available, which overwhelmingly indicates that climate change presents a threat to human health and welfare.” 

OK, EPA if your science is the top gun let's have a shoot out. Yours verses the real world.

If the the EPA science is top gun stuff, then why not take the opportunity to win a major case in a court — and the court of public opinion? The EPA failure to steep in to the street is nothing less than admission that much of the push for rash global warming legislation is built on hot air than cool, not the dispassionate science needed for policy making.

If the Chamber sticks to its guns, this could be the scientific gun fight of the century. I wonder if our local Chamber willing to the U.S. Chamber in this shoot out.  My guess is they cannot be counted for any support. No show cowards at the climate change corral.

Update: You can not sustain a lie for ever and the putting global warming on trial should bring this one to an end, except for those with a religious preference to believe.  The Climate Depot has a review of the evidence against the anthropogenic global warming case. Perhaps Anna can come up with the counter arguments for the anthropogenic side of the case. 

Hope and Change is headed South?

Russ Steele

According to the latest Rassmussen Reports Poll it appears that Hope and Change is headed South. I think maybe that the sheepple who pay taxes are beginning to understand Obamacare.  All of us taxpayer are going to be paying for every ones health care, it is not free.

This is our third trip to Canada in the five years, and everywhere we go the folks are telling us about the free medical care they get. But when you bring up the time it takes to get the care, they just shrug their shoulder, and tell you once again with emphasis it is FREE. Really? 

Yes, really. But it may take a year and a half (75 weeks) before you can be scheduled for benign tumor surgery. This last winter I was diagnosed with a benign tumor and schedule for surgery in the same week. Thanks, to a second opinion and more testing I did not have surgery. The point is, in Canada's free health care comes with a time line. My Medicare and Tricare almost did not leave time for a second opinion and additional testing. We almost went from the diagnoses to the surgery within a week, not the 75 weeks it takes in Canada. If Obamacare is like the Canada's free health care we better get use to waiting in-line for our care.

Power on the road

Russ Steele

We normally stay in RV parks with a 30 amp circuit, that will support the microwave oven and the AC if needed.  We carry a generator for dry camping in US National Forest and Canadian Provincial Parks, but it also comes in handy when the the power goes out in the RV park, as happened the other night just about dinner time in Osoyoos. Osoyoos is Mexican Riviera of Canada according to the lady at the visitor center.  It is reported to be the warmest place in Canada. No argument from us, it was about 88 degrees and no breeze at dinner time.

Our little generator will not handle the AC unit, nor was it intended to, so we have this nifty little fan to create our own breeze.   

 

Speaking of fans, this one is just down the street from where we are parked. This is the ultimate green RV, with it's own wind turbine for charging the batteries. That is if there is some wind.  We have see a little drizzle, but not much wind in Vancouver.

Is California's economy a Federal borrowing victim?

Russ Steele

As California's job less rate continues to climb to 11.9 percent in July one has to wonder when will the 8th largest global economy start to recover. Mark Steyn writing in the Orange County Register points out that "in Brazil, India, China, Japan and much of Continental Europe the recession has ended."  Is California being held down by the excessive stimulus spending by Washington or have we regulated our selves our of the global economy. Mark Steyn:

In the second quarter this year, both the French and German economies grew by 0.3 percent, while the U.S. economy shrank by 1 percent. How can that be? Unlike America, France and Germany had no government stimulus worth speaking of, the Germans declining to go the Obama route on the quaint grounds that they couldn't afford it. They did not invest in the critical signage-in-front-of-holes-in-the-road sector. And yet their recession has gone away. Of the world's biggest economies, only the U.S., Britain and Italy are still contracting. All three are big stimulators, though Gordon Brown and Silvio Berlusconi can't compete with Obama's $800 billion porkapalooza. The president has borrowed more money to spend to less effect than anybody on the planet.

So, how much of that stimulus is reaching California?  George Rebane has been tracking Nevada County Stimulus results.  If Nevada County is representative of other California counties, California may not be getting much of the stimulus money.  We are seeing the economic results of Federal borrowing, but none of the spending benefits?  Or, are there other reasons for our slow recovery? Over regulation?