January 28, 2012

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Rvotes, same database system used by OFA/DNC will be coming to Ohio for Republicans & Conservatives

Rvotes, same database system used by OFA/DNC will be coming to Ohio for Republicans & Conservatives

OFA/DNC database system now available to Republicans

OFA/DNC database system now available to Republicans

BP/Deepwater Horizon spill one year later: the downward spiral on drilling

BP/Deepwater Horizon spill one year later: the downward spiral on drilling

Is Obama in Brasil to buy… oil??

Is Obama in Brasil to buy… oil??

Green jobs: fruit of the poison tree

Green jobs: fruit of the poison tree

China: the enemy well past the gate

China: the enemy well past the gate

Issa and Boehner Announce Release of Broadcast-Quality Oversight Hearing Videos

Issa and Boehner Announce Release of Broadcast-Quality Oversight Hearing Videos

Every time I thing about how far left California is and how messed up things are:

Every time I thing about how far left California is and how messed up things are:

7 lies from Obama in 107 seconds

7 lies from Obama in 107 seconds

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Hypocrite Obama takes almost $400K in tax deductions

January 27, 2012 By Carol Greenberg 2 Comments

Remember this from Obama’s State of the Union address last week:

“If you make more than one million dollars a year, you should not pay less than thirty percent in taxes… In fact, if you’re earning a million dollars a year, you shouldn’t get special tax subsidies or deductions.”

Below for your viewing pleasure is a picture of Barack & Michelle Obama’s 2010 tax return. On page 2 one will see the Obamas in spite of Obama’s quote above, made $1,795,614 and took $373,289 worth of deductions:

Obama tax return deductions

The “everyone but me” rule applies here.

Obama paid approximately $454,000 in taxes which amounts to 25% of his income, not the 30% he lectures should be paid by “millionaires,” and he is one.

Anyone who wishes to peruse the entire 59-page return, it can be found here.

Knock yourselves out.

Filed Under Obama's 2010 tax return Tagged With 2012 #SOTU, deductions, Obama, Obama's 2010 tax return

While Obama only wants to take credit, Kasich surprises

January 26, 2012 By Carol Greenberg Leave a Comment

Many voters have become dissatisfied with their leaders going out of their way to seek credit for their success. In a way, that’s been one of the criticisms of those who find themselves in the Tea Party – a disappointment in politics as usual and the unabashed desire of politicians to obtain credit over delivering substance.

Well, if that’s the case, those folks can maybe be a little inspired by the Governor’s response to a reporter’s question about whether he should be upset about the President trying to take credit for Ohio’s emerging economic recovery:

In the four years prior to him coming into office, only Michigan and California lost more jobs than Ohio. Ohio was  nearly 400,000 down.

And now, since January of ’11, Ohio is 9th in the nation and tops in the Midwest in job growth.

We have to thank job creators first, but they are building and growing in Ohio in part because of a newfound confidence and stability at the state level. In dealing with the largest budget shortfall in state history, the Governor reformed and reduced government to make it more effective and efficient for taxpayers. And it shows. When S&P downgraded the United States, Italy, Greece and so on and so on, S&P decided to upgrade Ohio’s outlook from negative to stable. That means things are finally back on track – and that means more jobs

Filed Under Uncategorized Tagged With Gov. John Kasich, Jobs, Obama, Ohio

Mud puddles may be next on EPA’s hit list

January 26, 2012 By Carol Greenberg 1 Comment

Mud puddlesYou may want to run out to your backyard and make sure any mud puddles or water-filled ditches are being properly maintained, or you could be violating the EPA’s Clean Water Act.

The Washington Examiner reports on the latest job-killing regulatory overreach that may be forced on the logging and forestry industries – which incidentally employ 2.5 million American workers and are one of the few vibrant manufacturing industries we have left in this country.

Let’s break this down:

For the past several decades, the EPA has followed a sensible policy when enforcing the Clean Water Act as it relates to forest roads:

For 35 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has understood silviculture — the act of harvesting trees, as opposed to processing them — to be an agricultural activity, not a manufacturing one. The distinction is vital because of particulars in the Clean Water Act. Runoff from “point-source” manufacturing facilities (including saw mills) is closely regulated. Permits are required, and an involved monitoring and remediation process is prescribed.

On the other hand, the “natural runoff” from forest roads — basically mud puddles that accumulate in ditches — has never required such permits or monitoring. It is cared for through what is known as “best management practices.”

However, a suit brought against paper company Georgia-Pacific by leftist environmental group Northwest Environment Defense Center led to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against this longtime EPA precedent:

But in the case Georgia-Pacific West Inc. v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals turned this long-standing rule on its head. The court said that the EPA has been misinterpreting its own rules for 35 years, and that, in fact, forest roads must be regulated in similar fashion to factories and power plants.

The Ninth Circuit decision, if upheld, would crush forestry in the Pacific Northwest. As Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon put it, “One court would shut down forestry on private, state and tribal lands by subjecting it to the same, endless cycle of litigation.”

There’s that pesky Ninth Circuit again.

The case heads to the Supreme Court this spring, where until recently the Obama administration and the EPA had remained consistent with the standing policy:

So far in the litigation process, the Obama EPA and Justice Department have sided with the industry, adhering to the traditional, 35-year-old interpretation of EPA rules.

But before we get too excited that Obama may actually stand up to radical environmentalists for once, his lawyers’ latest brief puts that up for debate:

But in its most recent brief, the federal government’s lawyers included a curious passage that has caused a small panic among the logging industry’s legal team.

It essentially asserts that EPA has never before officially stated its decades-old position in writing, that runoff collected in man-made roadside ditches counts as “natural runoff.”

If the Supreme Court upholds the Circuit Court decision, it will bring the forestry industry to a standstill as businesses worry they’ll be sued at every turn. At a time when our economy is struggling and we hear a lot of talk about the government “creating jobs” it would be a bit absurd if we didn’t move to protect the few thriving industries that we have.

The ask of Obama here really isn’t a large one – he simply needs to uphold his own agency’s longtime policy. As the Supreme Court (and the 2012 election) moves closer, we’ll see if he will once again take the side of the environmental left over American workers and the businesses that employ them.

Crossposted at Unified Patriots

Filed Under EPA Tagged With Clean Water Act, EPA, forestry, Georgia-Pacific, mud puddles, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Northwest Environment Defense Center, Obama, silviculture

What was missing from Obama’s #SOTU address

January 25, 2012 By Carol Greenberg Leave a Comment

President Obama’s campaign speech-esque SOTU provided a lot of fodder for at best skepticism and at worst outrage. Among his most absurd moments were (1) Refusing to accept blame for the catastrophic failure of Solyndra, (2) Touting the need for increased domestic energy production without mentioning his rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and (3) Further inciting class warfare by harping on the widely-debunked “Buffett Rule.”

Below are some of the most salient pushback on these points for your reading pleasure,

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: STATE OF THE UNION

House Energy & Commerce Committee:

President Obama Still Singing the Same Tune on Solyndra, Refuses to Accept Responsibility

“Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail.” -President Obama, State of the Union Address, 1/24/12

FLASHBACK, October 3, 2011: “No Regrets… There are going to be some failures, and Solyndra is an example… Hindsight is Always 20/20 … It Went Through the Regular Review Process, and People Felt Like this Was a Good Bet.”

If the Obama administration had listened to its own experts who predicted Solyndra’s woes, taxpayers would not be on the hook for over half a billion dollars

Heritage Foundation:

On Energy, the Two Words Obama Didn’t Say, Say the Most.

President Obama omitted two words from his State of the Union speech, but there’s two words that speak volumes about the president’s direction for America’s energy policy. Keystone and Solyndra…

Obama’s Energy Policies Hurt the Poor and Middle Class the Most

This SOTU, President Obama called for doubling down on the clean energy industry through energy tax credits and a Clean Energy Standard. The President’s focus on costly and unreliable “clean” energy at the expense of more affordable and reliable energy is cutting deep into Americans’ pocketbooks.

Lower-income households who spent a much larger portion of their income on energy, and senior citizens who have the highest per-capita residential energy consumption, are hurt the most by policies that increase the price of energy. Meanwhile, only the better off are able to place taxpayer subsidized solar panels on their roofs.

The President’s latest decision, to reject the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline offers little relief for those who feel the pain of high gas prices at the pump. At record gasoline prices which are only expected to rise even further, it’s difficult to grasp why the President decided against increasing our energy supplies from our Canadian ally, unless it was a ploy to blame Republicans….

Once Again Mr. President, Warren Buffett Doesn’t Pay a Lower Tax Rate than His Secretary.

As expected, especially her sitting in the audience, President Obama trotted out again the well-worn trope that Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate that his secretary. The President did so to defend his new version of the“Buffett Rule” proposal that no millionaire pay less than 30 percent of their income in taxes.

The President can claim success on this one even before he ends his speech tonight because the Buffett Rule is already soundly in place. According to the CBO, the top 1% of income earners pay 30 percent of their income in all federal taxes.

The whole idea of the Buffett Rule is based on a fallacy. One that Warren Buffett himself should know better than to propagate. It originated because Warren Buffett claims he pays a much lower tax rate than his secretary. But he earns his income through capital gains from stock he owns in businesses. He pays a 15 percent rate on those gains when he realizes them. But before he enjoys those gains, the businesses that generate them pay the highest-in-the-world 35 percent corporate income tax rate. In reality, Buffett pays 50 percent on the income he earns- far above the rate his secretary pays…

Institute for Energy Research:

“If the state of the union is actually stronger, it comes despite the policies of President Obama and not because of them. Tonight, the president claimed credit for ‘opening millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration,’ and he called for his administration to open ‘more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources.’ He also claimed credit for the fact that oil imports are down, even though the drop owes more to the ongoing hardships experienced by millions of Americans who cannot find jobs or afford to drive in the Obama economy.

“Job creators and American consumers should welcome the president’s latest energy promises with suspicion. Indeed, we must not forget that in the past month this administration has imposed one of the most onerous regulations on the American economy through EPA standards it admits will not have a measurable effect on health from the targeted emissions. Similarly, the president single-handedly rejected the Keystone XL pipeline permit and killed the chance for thousands of American blue-collar workers to find good-paying jobs. Tonight the president offered a golden tongue on affordable energy, but for the past three years he’s clenched a green fist.

Consumer Energy Alliance:

“[W]hile the President seemed to acknowledge the need for increased domestic oil production to reduce record-high gasoline and diesel prices, we have seen his Administration shut down the Gulf of Mexico with a moratorium, continue to block permits to allow exploration and production in Alaska and deny a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.

“CEA is hopeful that the President’s words tonight will result in federal agency deeds. America needs less regulatory oversight and more domestic energy production. Without a doubt, it will mark a tremendous change of direction for his Administration if he does.”

I’ve said it before, every single one of Republicans running, or not running for office should be hammering home Solyndra and Keystone.

Related articles: Solyndra caught on tape destroying its own parts.

Obama dumps Keystone on advice of Clinton.

Crossposted at Unified Patriots

Filed Under State of the Union 2012 Tagged With Consumer Energy Alliance, Heritage, House Energy and Commerce Committee, Institute for Energy Research, Keystone, Obama, Solyndra, SOTU

Heritage presents their new video: “1,000 days without a budget”

January 24, 2012 By Carol Greenberg Leave a Comment

It’s amazing what you can do in 1,000 days. From Heritage comes their latest video showcasing  just a few of the amazing human feats that were completed in less time. It’s makes an excellent point and is one worth sharing.

As President Obama stalls on the budget again and we bypass the Senate’s 1,000th day without a budget, it’s time somebody gave them a reality check. Check out this awesome video created by, Brandon Stewart — and share with, well, everyone. We’ve got a point to make!

Filed Under Uncategorized, budget