May 17, 2012

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EPA admits to wanting to “crucify” energy producers

April 25, 2012 By Carol Greenberg 1 Comment

Update 4/27/12. Per the Daily Caller Almendariz received $540,000 in taxpayer money to “fund his projects.”

Today a vid surfaced from an EPA administrator comparing its tactics to “Roman crucifixions.” Yes, you heard that right:

Pertinent part of the text which shows a top EPA official, Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz stating the following:

“But as I said, oil and gas is an enforcement priority, it’s one of seven, so we are going to spend a fair amount of time looking at oil and gas production. And I gave, I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said. It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them [emphasis mine].And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. And so you make examples out of people who are in this case not compliant with the law. Find people who are not compliant with the law, and you hit them as hard as you can and you make examples out of them, and there is a deterrent effect there. And, companies that are smart see that, they don’t want to play that game, and they decide at that point that it’s time to clean up. And, that won’t happen unless you have somebody out there making examples of people. So you go out, you look at an industry, you find people violating the law, you go aggressively after them. And we do have some pretty effective enforcement tools. Compliance can get very high, very, very quickly. That’s what these companies respond to is both their public image but also financial pressure. So you put some financial pressure on a company, you get other people in that industry to clean up very quickly. So, that’s our general philosophy.”

Via Heritage a statement from Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK):

His comments are indicative of the “EPA’s war on fossil fuels,” claimed Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) in a news release on Wednesday.

Yes, via a speech on the House floor Inhofe stated “this video gives us a rare glimpse into Obama’s true agenda” and he has launched investigations.

Crossposted at Unified Patriots

Filed Under EPA Tagged With Al Armendariz, energy, EPA, Heritage, Obama, Sen. Jim Inhofe

A unified database needed for The Right

April 23, 2012 By Carol Greenberg 4 Comments

This article was written by guest blogger John Fowler.

A Unified Database for the Right or Defeat by a Networked Democratic Party?

It’s been a good week for Republicans. First we find out that Obama’s secretary paid a higher percentage in tax than he did (However, Axelrod was quick to point out that Obama would not make an additional donation to the Treasury to correct this egregious unfairness.); next we find out that while Mitt Romney may have put his dog on top of his car, Obama had actually eaten a dog! (So much for DogsAgainstRomney.com); and finally we see Gallup polls with Romney actually leading Obama among registered voters. It’s almost enough to make a Conservative lean back and rest on his laurels, remembering the heady feeling of victory that swept Republicans into office in the 2010, midterm elections. Almost enough.

6 Months to Go; Where’s The Ground Game

With 6 months to go until the General Election, Republican precinct chairs and activists are sitting on the sidelines. The Tea Party movement, the energized Conservative base, is also effectively idle with no connection to the Party or to the Romney Campaign. The highly touted Republican Database, VoterVault, has fallen into disuse and disrepair and is viewed by Party Members and Activists as a clunky resource that most would rather not even use. Talk to a precinct chair in the Republican Party and ask them how they have been ignored, sidelined and under-equipped. There may be a plan to involve the Conservative Grassroots in this campaign, but if there is, it must be very closely held. In a close election, the party with the better “Ground Game” will win every time. If the Republican Primary is indicative of the General Campaign, we can look forward to a highly centralized, “Air War” with negative campaign ads dominating. This may not deter the loyal base, but moderate, independent and undecided voters will be turned off by such campaigning, and the base may even tire of the repeated requests for nothing other than contributions to fund more negative campaigning. In 2008, Obama and the Democrats had an overpowering Ground Game. If they are able to replicate most of that in 2012, they will be able to turn out a larger percentage of their voters than the Republicans. In a close election, Ground Game wins.

Key to the Ground Game: An Accessible Unified Database

The key to a Ground Game is a database of voters that has the voters’ position on the issues, their voting history, their current contact information, and that is accessible to the activists who are willing to use this information to contact their neighbors and get them out to vote. The Democrats have such a database—Catalist, which is accessed through VoteBuilder or Voter Activation Network (VAN). This is a networked, distributed, unified database that improves with usage and time. It is accessible to Democratic Precinct Chairs, Community Activists, and Unions such as SEIU and NEA. This was the tool that swept Obama to the Democratic Nomination and ultimately, the White House. When each of the tens of thousands of users of Voter Activation Network, contribute information to the Database through a phone call or a personal door knock, that information can be shared across the network. Even in a losing election, Democrats can gain potential political power by refining their knowledge of the electorate.

The Republican Dilemma

In the late 90’s the Republicans developed VoterVault, which was at the time the most powerful political database in existence. The party was able to use the information in VoterVault to conduct Voter-ID and Get Out The Vote efforts. In the absence of a better tool on the Democratic side, VoterVault was highly successful during the early George W. Bush Presidential years. The rise of Voter Activation Network (VAN) however, marked a “Revolution in Political Affairs”. The architecture of VAN enabled local activists to take control of the voter-contact features of the database and enhance the information they collected through personal contact while enriching the information available to all other campaigns that included the voters contacted. Put simply, a door-knock and survey conducted by any Democrat activist improved every Democrat’s knowledge of the electorate.

VoterVault continued to coast while maintaining its top-down, centrally controlled, activist unfriendly architecture. VAN took advantage of the concept of Social Capital and Social Networking and used technology to empower the Activists on the Left by giving them a state-of-the-art organizing tool and trusting them to use it to contribute to the now Progressive cause of the Left. Increasingly on the Right, if a campaign wants to collect data on the electorate, a unique database must be built for each campaign. This results in a disjointed, stove-piped, architecture where each individual door-knock and survey can only benefit the specific campaign that collects and enters the data.

A Unified, Distributed Database for the Right?

With the withering of VoterVault, and the diminished power of the Republican Party in the wake of McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform,(thanks John) the Republican Party is seeking to outsource the Republican Database. There are several competing, highly classified, database projects underway, but the view from the Grassroots is that they are not going to be available in time to empower the activists who need this information to organize their communities. Another explanation could be that the Databases like Themis or Data Trust are not intended to be made available to the Grassroots; that they are merely a new and improved version of the top-down, centrally-controlled model that Voter Vault represented. The result is the same for Precinct Chairs or Tea Party Activists—there is no unified database and voter-contact-management tool for you to use in the 2012 election.

rVotes: The Conservative Solution to VAN

If Conservatives are to harness the immense anti-Progressive, anti-Obama energy of the engaged Grassroots, Conservative Activists must be given the tools to get in the game. The same tool that Obama is using is available to the Right under the name rVotes. Unfortunately, the powers on the Right, including the Party, Incumbents, Candidates, and most importantly Consultants are not ready to embrace the distributed model that the Left is using and that is now available to the right in the form of a fully field-tested voter-contact-management system: rVotes. The software is online and available to be used in seven states (FLA, OH, VA, MI, AZ, IA, and RI) but it is only being adopted by small organizations and campaigns. This is not a new software development; this system is field tested by over a million users and is identical to that being used by the Democrats.

A distributed but unified database for Conservatives is essential to compete with Democrats in the 21st century. Already, 2011 has shown the power of a unified minority on the Left in wreaking havoc in Wisconsin and Ohio and NY CD-26. This theme will be repeated in the future as Democrats are able to turn out their supporters using VAN in order to gain electoral success.

If Republicans continue to deprive the Grassroots organizers of the technological tools like rVotes, Democrats will continue to win elections and build power by gaining a more complete knowledge of the electorate and empowering their activists to use that information to win elections.

Related articles: rVotes now a reality for Ohio

OFA/DNC database system now available for Republicans

U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke licenses rVotes

Filed Under election databases, rvotes Tagged With campaign database systems, Catalist, DNC, Jamie Radtke, Obama, OFA, precinct activism, Romney, rvotes, SEIU, tea party, VAN, Votebuilder, Voter Activation Network, VoterVault

Malkin & Holder go at it on Hannity over Michelle O’s “remarks”

April 19, 2012 By Carol Greenberg Leave a Comment

This has got to be the most-blowing remark Michelle Obama has ever made, even bettering her one 4 years ago when she stated:

For the first time in my life I am proud of my country.

Michelle has been on the campaign trail stumping for her husband, and she had this to say:

“I am going to be working so hard. We have an amazing story to tell. This President has brought us out of the dark and into the light,”

Listen to Michelle Malkin and Tamara Holder *discuss* this remark and other items on a Hannity segment:

Toward the end Hannity asks Holder what she thinks Obama’s biggest accomplishment has been and she says “bringing down unemployment.”

What has she been smoking?

Filed Under Uncategorized Tagged With Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Michelle Obama, Obama, Tamara Holder

Obama visits Ohio again today for the umpteenth time

April 18, 2012 By Carol Greenberg Leave a Comment

Highlights from Conference Call with Doug Holtz-Eakin and Dr. Richard Vedder Responding to President Obama’s Economic Speech in Ohio

Ohio University Economist Richard Vedder, Ph.D.:

“I think President Obama was correct today when he said, ‘We have two competing visions of our future.’ But the message he presented at Lorain Community College, completely ignores the reality of the past three years. We are having our slowest economic recovery from a downturn since the Great Depression and here in Ohio in a typical month in the presidency of George W. Bush, the unemployment rate was less than 6%. In the first 37 months of the Obama presidency, Ohio’s unemployment has varied between 7.6% and 10.6%. Even the modest recent Ohio recovery is as of much a consequence of the new pro-growth policy at the state level, implemented by the Kasich Administration, than by anything the federal government has done.

“The slow recovery reflects the fact that investors, entrepreneurs, consumers are all scared and uncertain. ObamaCare both angers and scares them because the potentially rapidly rising health care costs and reduces individual choice. The Stimulus package did nothing to help recovery but has added to extremely worrisome long-term fiscal problem of excessive debt…

“[The Buffett Rule] would raise little or no money but would contribute to the decline in a long-term economic growth because of its profound dissentive effects on savings and investment and thereby threatening our prosperity and above all the welfare of our children and grandchildren. So I think that the president’s remarks offer no hint that he wants solutions that would restore us to our growth oriented entrepreneurial culture…”

Former Director of the Congressional Budget Office Doug Holtz-Eakin:

“This economic recovery has been so slow and substandard. We are no longer in a position where the problem is an economic downturn, it’s that the rate of economic growth is utterly unacceptable. The president has suffered from a serious lack of focus in addressing this problem.”

“A choice between redistribution and growth, he chose redistribution, has consistently offered higher taxes as a remedy for the problems that face us. In the face of bad economic performance, he’s resorted to gimmicks such as the Buffett Tax, which will not produce jobs, which offers relief for only one-tenth of one cent every dollar of deficit that we have this year…

“We had hoped I think today to hear from him on something substantive on job training but he seems to go light on that and he’s been all over the place on that as well, promising one large consolidated program and not making progress in getting rid of the 27 programs and indeed offering only two consolidations and instead asking just for a lot more money, $20 billion in his most recent budget…

“Finally, the House Republicans’ budget does in fact, instead of exploding the debt, controls it and ultimately eliminates it, it does contain tax reforms, it does contain entitlement reforms. It is fair to debate your preferences in those things, it is not fair to complain that other people are addressing the real problems that face this economy that would allow us to grow more rapidly on a sustained basis, that would produce the jobs and the incomes that are important in Ohio and elsewhere. You can’t complain when people do that when you haven’t offered the same thing. I thought it really was much of the same from the president today and I had my hopes that it might be a little bit more.”

Click Here To Listen To The Full Audio: http://www.gop.com/audio/4.18.2012_Ohio.mp3

Filed Under Uncategorized Tagged With CBO, Doug Holtz-Eakin, economy, Obama, Ohio, Richard Vedder

Hot Air Alert: Anti-energy groups endorse Obama

April 18, 2012 By Carol Greenberg Leave a Comment

Received via email from Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA).

Dems Hot Air Alert

Anti-Energy Groups Line-up to Support President Obama—Know His Rhetoric on ‘All-of-the-Above’ Energy is Just Talk

From Chairman Hastings, below:

As President Obama campaigns around the country claiming support for an all-of-the-above energy plan, his Administration is simultaneously working in Washington D.C. to block and restrict access to American oil, natural gas and coal energy production. While President Obama may be working to fool the American public into believing he supports expanded oil and natural gas production, his most loyal anti-energy environmental supporters know his rhetoric is all just an election year ruse.

It’s no wonder then that four of the most ardent anti-energy and political environmental groups—the Sierra Club; the League of Conservation Voters; Environment America; and Clean Water Action—today announced their support for President Obama’s reelection. Here’s a sampling of how those groups view American-made energy:

Clean Water Action

“Clean Water Action has consistently opposed offshore oil drilling over its entire 35-year history…” – Clean Water Action.

“Certainly we must secure our energy future, but oil shale should not be part of this process. This is not the fuel of the future. It’s time we recognize oil shale for what it is, a rock.” – Clean Water Action

Sierra Club

“It’s time to stop thinking of natural gas as a ‘kinder, gentler’ energy source…Ultimately, the only safe, smart, and responsible way to address our nation’s energy needs is to look beyond coal, oil, and gas, and focus on clean, efficient energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal.” – Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club

“We are calling on President Obama to issue a presidential moratorium on offshore drilling.” – Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club

Environment America

“As BOEMRE discusses what should go into the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the next Five Year Drilling Plan, we thank President Obama for his decision to keep most of our coasts free from drilling until at least 2017.” – Mike Gravitz, Oceans Advocate of Environment America.

“But for economic and environmental reasons, we believe that offshore drilling should not be expanded beyond the Central and Western Gulf to areas like the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific coast, or Alaskan waters.” – Environment America

League of Conservation Voters

“We commend President Obama for continuing the moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling permits pending the recommendations of the independent presidential commission, which includes delaying leases sales off the coast of Alaska. The ongoing tragedy in the Gulf Coast clearly demonstrates that our dependence on oil – be it from hostile nations or friendly coasts – hurts our economy, threatens our security and harms our environment.” – Gene Karpinski, President, LCV

“Moreover, lifting the moratorium on off-shore drilling will do very little to reduce our dependence on oil or cut gas prices. It is by far the slowest, dirtiest, most expensive way to meet our energy needs…” – Gene Karpinski, President, LCV

The question must be asked: If President Obama truly supports an all-of-the-above energy strategy, why would these groups support him?

The Answer: They wouldn’t.

Filed Under Environmental groups endorse Obama Tagged With anti-energy, Clean Water Action, energy, Environment America, environmentalists, House Natural Resources Committee, League of Conservation Voters, Obama, Rep. Doc Hastings, Sierra Club