NC Media Watch

Is this one reason California is still a blue state?

Russ Steele

While the rest of the nation embraced Republican views and Tea Party conservatism in the 2010 election, California stayed a blue state, and many of us wondered why?  Well, here is one clue.

According to the latest findings of an annual study of the United States' in USA Today most literate cities, which ranks the "culture and resources for reading" in the nation's 75 largest metro areas. ten of California's 12 largest cities landed in the bottom half, including Sacramento, the state capital, at 45, and lowest-ranked Stockton, which has been at or near the bottom since the list debuted in 2004. San Francisco was ranked 6; Oakland squeaked into the top half at 37.

Here’s how some Californian cities rank, out of 75, as published in Cal Political News:

    * San Francisco: #6
    * San Diego: #38
    * Sacramento: #45
    * San Jose: #50
    * Riverside: #59
    * Los Angeles: #61
    * Fresno: #64
    * Santa Ana: #67
    * Long Beach: #68
    * Anaheim: #72
    * Bakersfield: #73
    * Stockton: #75

Does this explain why Democrats win more elections in California than Republicans? Could it be true that illiterates only vote for Democrats?  Some of these same cities have some of the highest unemployment in the State. Why?

Exit question: Are you proud of these California literacy result?

Employment number you will not see on your TV tonight

Russ Steele

Tonight you will hear about the dropped from 9.8% to 9.4% in the unemployment numbers,  and how good this is for the Obama Administration. Well maybe it is good news, then again maybe not. 
 
William A. Jacobson, Associate Clinical Professor, Cornell Law School, digs under the hood and finds a much different story. He has posted the details on his blog Legal Insurrection:

Dig just a bit deeper, and you will see that 0.2% of that drop (or half the total drop) was from a decrease in the "participation rate" from 64.5 to 64.3 of the population.  So half of the good news reflects that people have dropped out of the work force and have given up looking for work.

To put this in context, I ran a chart from the BLS website historical statistics database, showing the participation rate over the past 20 years, which shows that we are at a 20-year low:

The other disheartening statistic is reflected in the chart combining the unemployment, marginal and discouraged workers (in short, everyone who is not working but currently or at one time wanted to work, or who is employed part time because full time work was unavailable).  Combine all those and the total is 16.6% up from 16.3% November not seasonally adjusted (seasonally adjusted it is 16.7% down from 17%).  This is the highest number since 1994 (first year data available):

While you are watching the TV news tonight and the reporters are gushing over the falling unemployment numbers, you can share these number with your live in companion, or companions. One of two things will happen, you will be reviled for throwing cold water on the good news, or you will be recognized as a second level thinker who digs for the truth.

What were they thinking - it is our money they are spending

Russ Steele

If you have ever wondered why Congress gets such lame ratings?  Rasmussen Reports that before the lame duck session voted to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans, Congress received good or excellent marks from only 11% of all voters.  The latest poor finding is the lowest Congress has received since October 2009.

This report in the Cal Political News may give us some clues.

You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on.  According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.  Not only that, but money from the federal government is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in Tennessee host video game parties.  These are just some of the examples in a new report on government waste from Senator Tom Coburn entitled "Wastebook 2010".  Even as tens of millions of American families find themselves suffering through the worst economic downturn in modern history, the U.S. government continues to spend money on some of the craziest and most frivolous things imaginable.  Every single year articles are written and news stories are done about the horrific government waste that is taking place and yet every single year it just keeps getting worse.  So just what in the world is going on here?

It almost seems as though Congress actually enjoys inventing new ways to waste U.S. taxpayer money.  It seems nearly inconceivable that anyone could keep a straight face while trying to justify spending money on many of the things in the list below.

At a time when the U.S. national debt is closing in on 14 trillion dollars, government waste just seems more out of control than ever.  The following are 20 of the craziest things that the U.S. government is spending money on....

#1 A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft.  The goal of this "video game research" is reportedly to study how "emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace."

#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.

#3 $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.

Global Warming Skeptics Ascend in Congress

Russ Steele

Jim Snyder and Kim Chipman write that cap-and-trade may be just the first casualty of the new science-doubters in the House and Senate. Read the full article here.  They write,  the bottom line is numerous global-warming skeptics taking office in the next Congress will try to undo President Obama's environmental initiatives.

While that is good news on the national scene, in California the Air Resources Board continues to plunge forward with the implementation of AB32, which includes a cap and trade scheme to squeeze carbon fees from consumers.  Alos, the low carbon fuel standard will go into effect in January 2011, driving up the cost of fuel by 30-80 % over time.

The other good news is that the Republican House leadership have indicated the plan on ending subsidies for wind and solar, making it nearly impossible for CARB to reach it's mandated 33% alternative energy goals.  The Venture Capital community was planning on those subsides to make wind and solar profitable. If the profit making subsides go way, so will the VCs and anymore huge solar and wind projects.

In the 1970s and early 1980s we saw high interest in wind energy, with many small inefficient wind turbines on the hills surrounding San Francisco. Once the wind energy subsides expired, many of the turbines fell into disrepair. This could happen again, when the federal subsidies vanish, creating more blight on the landscape. Energy companies have build thousands of monuments to anthropogenic global warming all across the hill tops in California to remind us of CARB's duplicity. Who will be responsible for removing these bird shredders when it becomes clear that human caused global warming was a United Nations hoax. As one of the IPCC Report Co-Chairs recently admitted, AGW was not about the science, it was about wealth distribution.

Keep an eye on the next round of UN IPCC climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, on Nov. 29, set for 12 days of fruitless negociations. The science will be given the short shift, with an emphasis on economic issues. The director of policy planning for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,  Robert Orr told reporters in New York that while “expectations for Copenhagen were huge, we are at a different point today.” As no broad-based accord will be reached, the “order of the day is pragmatism” and negotiators should “make progress where we can on the issues we can,” he said.

Since the Copenhagen Confrence failed to renew the Kyoto Protocol, negociation emphasis has been on forest protection, climate aid and technology sharing. These are more money issues than about saving the planet from AGW.  Without full Congressional support for the UN climate change hoax, it will be difficult for President Obama’s team to make greenhouse reduction commitments,  and to sign American Taxpayers up for another round of wealth distribution.  Stay tuned, I will be following Cancun developments.

The President’s (Annotated) Weekly Address

Russ Steele

George Rebane has some thoughts on the The President’s Weekly Address at Rebane's Ruminations. George  has some insightful annotations that gives the Presidents address a little more context.  I think you might enjoy those insights and my comments to the post. 

We woke up and found Obama in our shower?

Russ Steele

At our house one to the joys of life is hot shower. Both Ellen and I enjoy our showers.  We are currently planning a master bath upgrade, removing the bathtub and upgrading the shower to one of those multi-headed shower we see installed on the DIY Channel.

Now I find Obama and his Department of Energy in our shower.  Here is the story in the American Thinker.

...Unless, that is, your personal little extravagance happens to be a soothing shower at the end of the day -- using a showerhead that consumes more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Then the modern American nanny state steps in and declares, "You're wasting water, you sinner! Cease and desist!"

In 1992, the Department of Energy managed to promulgate a regulation requiring that showerheads use no more than 2.5 gallons per minute as an effort to save...water. This is a substance that's in such short supply that 75% of the planet is covered with it.

ooo

For eighteen years, this regulation was interpreted one way -- the limitation was per nozzle, so people desiring a more vigorous shower could simply install a couple more showerheads, or a multi-nozzle shower system. A specialty arose in the marketplace: the creative design of elegant and invigorating shower systems.

These systems are for the rich who want to be self-indulgent, for the business traveler or vacationer seeking a more exhilarating shower at his hotel, sure, but they're also for the working man who comes home caked in factory grime; for the plumber, carpenter, or electrician who spent his day between hot walls or floors of buildings under construction; for the roofer or window installer whose day was spent on scaffolding, sweating under the hot sun.

ooo

In May 2010, the Department of Energy clarified their interpretation of the rule: it's 2.5 gallons, period. Not per nozzle, but per entire system. And they made it as clear as they could in the language of lawyers: by suing manufacturers who had dared defy the powers that be by obeying the interpretation that had held sway for eighteen years, instead of anticipating the interpretation that the Obama administration would suddenly decide upon.

In a heartbeat, every manufacturer, distributor, seller, and installer of high-flow showerheads across the country had to stop and check their product lines, shutting down assembly lines in factories, taking products off the shelves, putting a hold on construction and remodeling projects while plans were studied, while alternatives were sought, while substitutions were evaluated and selected.

As outrageous as this may be, at least it can serve for us as a microcosm of the dangers of the nanny state and of the utterly counterproductive nature of the Obama administration's idea of its role in the economy.

Read the rest of the story here.  Now were are going to deign and build own shower system, since we will be unable to buy a fancy multi-headed shower from the plumbing supply store.

Exit Question:  Can our economy ever recover under Obama's Nanny Government? 

Making unemployment highly visible

Russ Steele

LaToya Egwuekwe as a graduate student project created this interactive unemployment map, "The Decline: The Geography of a Recession,"  It was recently updated and is making it’s way across the web.



According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working part time and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one.

The original HTML version can be found here in a larger format.  

H/T to a regular reader for this interesting graphic.

NOAA : Satellite failure -- decade of global warming data doubtful

Russ Steele

US Government admits satellite temperature readings “degraded.” All data taken offline.  Global warming temperatures may be 10 to 15 degrees too high.

John Sullivan writing at Climate Change Fraud has the full story:

The fault was first detected after a tip off from an anonymous member of the public to climate skeptic blog, Climate Change Fraud (view original article) (August 9, 2010).

Caught in the center of the controversy is the beleaguered taxpayer funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s Program Coordinator, Chuck Pistis has now confirmed that the fast spreading story on the respected climate skeptic blog is true.

However, NOAA spokesman, Program Coordinator, Chuck Pistis declined to state how long the fault might have gone undetected. Nor would the shaken spokesman engage in speculation as to the damage done to the credibility of a decade’s worth of temperature readings taken from the problematic ‘NOAA-16’ satellite.

‘NOAA-16’ was launched in September 2000, and is currently operational, in a sun-synchronous orbit, 849 km above the Earth, orbiting every 102 minutes providing automated data feed of surface temperatures which are fed into climate computer models.

NOAA has reported a succession of record warm temperatures in recent years based on such satellite readings but these may now all be undermined.

World-renowned Canadian climatologist, Dr. Timothy Ball, after casting his expert eye over the shocking findings concluded, “At best the entire incident indicates gross incompetence, at worst it indicates a deliberate attempt to create a temperature record that suits the political message of the day.”

You can read the rest of this troubling report here.  Billions of tax dollars are being spent to reduce CO2 greenhouse gases to lower global temperatures. Temperatures that may have been the result of a busted satellite sensor.  It is time for us to take charge.

VOTE YES on PROP 23

Ever wonder why?

Russ Steele

Every time I go to the grocery store, I spend more and bring home less, and often wonder why.  Here is one explanation. In 1913, five dollars could get you the following according to Labor Department figures:

15 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of chuck roast, 3 pounds of round steak, 3 pounds of rice, 2 pounds each of cheese and bacon, and a pound each of butter and coffee ... two loaves of bread, 4 quarts of milk and a dozen eggs.

In 2010, five dollars barely gets you two pounds of cut chicken meat

Why the big difference?  Because the government keeps printing more money, driving down the value of the dollars in your wallet.  Vasko Kohlmayer writing at the American Thinker predicts the Death of the Dollar.

Nothing can save our financial system in the long run.  It is doomed to collapse. This is inevitable, because our government controls and manages its very foundation -- the dollar.

The whole article is worth your time to read and ponder. I found this paragraph very troubling:

As it is now, most people do not think that they will have to pay for the spending incurred by their representatives in Congress. They think that deficits are something that does not concern them directly. They somehow assume that if the government needs more money, it can simply issue more bonds. But this way of living is unsustainable, and sooner or later, the inflow from abroad will stop. Then we will all pay for our government's extravagance by the disintegration of the currency.

Think about this next time you are at the grocery store and your are paying more for less. Take this learning moment to remember someday we will have to pay government debts. Our debt!

Exit Question: What are your doing to prepare for the collapse of the dollar?

An economic observation from the RV

Russ Steele

Over the years we have camped through out California, Nevada, Idaho and Oregon every summer. Some of our favorite State Park camp grounds sell out in only hours after the reservation go online six months in advance. This is especially true for Sierra camp site reservations in July and August, when the valley is very hot.

However, this year walking around the camp ground at Sugar Pine Point State Park near Lake Tahoe and McArthury-Burney Falls  State Park we found many open camp sites during the week. More visitor in the weekends, but still open sites on the weekend. This would not have been possible in past years, when all the camp sites booked up in hours after reservations opened.
 
Most of the visitors at Sugar Pine Point and McArthury-Burney Falls appeared to be middle income families with children, if the high-end family vehicles and RVs with bike racks on the back are accurate indicators.   

 At Diamond Lakes in Oregon, we found the RV park was turning away travelers. Across the road from the RV Park is a National Forest camp ground with much better lake views and access to the water, however no power, water or sewer services, that are essentially empty. Many of the low cost and mid-range cost camp sites are going un-used.

On the other hand the higher-end RV parks in Oregon, with full service connections, are full to overflowing with older folks and older international travelers in rented RVs.  Several traveling with what appear to be grandchildren. One can conclude that retired folks are spending their nest egg and folks who are still working are harboring theirs by staying close to home.

We stayed one night at the Hereford Ranch RV park at Hat Creek. Many of the campers were from the upper Sacramento Valley, who had come to the Sierra to  escape the valley heat for two weeks.  Not going too far from home.

Hope and Change has modified the lifestyle of many family campers, but has not had a significant impact on retired folks with their big RVs.  Yes, we all wince at the fuel pump, but that only results in one less dinner out opting for more meat on the grill at the RV, and and fewer bottles of $15.00 California wine. Australian wines are a real bargain at $5.00 a bottle and are quite good with a steak or grilled trout.  

Also, as we traveled though multiple rural small towns in California and Oregon, and we saw many closed business and restaurants, perhaps as many as 1/4 of the business on a street.  Not an encouraging sight.

Exit Question: When will the economy turn around, restoring confidence in our political leaders?  Oh!