Big turbines “blowin’ in the wind”

Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens (pictured) says “harness the wind.” Others say “not so fast.”

More and more critics say windmills aren't that green, aren't a great source of energy and can be harmful to people's health.

The 200- to 300-foot-long blades on industrial windmills look almost whimsical from afar.

They appear to turn slowly. People sometimes stop to take pictures. "They look cool," said Eric Burch, director of policy and outreach for the Indiana Office of Energy Development.

Rows of wind turbines at Altamont Pass in northern California near Livermore.

Coachella Valley in southern California just north of the Salton Sea.

British offshore windfarm

The tips of those giant blades move at speeds approaching 160 mph, creating forces that send low-frequency vibrations through the ground. People three-quarters of a mile away sometimes say they can feel the vibrations in their chests.

If you can feel the vibrations in your chest from People three-quarters of a mile away, what must it be like for people living in the middle of a wind farm in the shadow of the turbines as in the photos below?




Cases of nausea, headaches, insomnia and other ills have become common enough in states with wind farms that they've been given a name: "wind turbine syndrome."

That newfangled illness is just one of a growing list of health effects, inconveniences, risks and cost considerations that have resulted in a backlash against wind farms.

Link

ObamaCare: 32 percent in favor - 57 percent oppose

Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% are opposed to a single-payer plan.

The 32% could be made up of government employees, union members and people who expect the government to fully support them with everything form free housing to food stamps.

Link

Senator can feel global warming while flying!

Democratic Senator from Michigan Debbie Stabenow (pictured) was recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee.

She must take her new appointment seriously because she says "Global warming creates volatility. I can feel it when I'm flying.”

She feels global warming when she is flying? Really? How out of touch with reality is that?

Facts from the article at the link below:

Michigan just experienced its coldest July on record; global temperatures haven't risen in more than a decade; Great Lakes water levels have resumed their 30-year cyclical rise (contrary to a decade of media scare stories that they were drying up due to global warming), and polls show that climate change doesn't even make a list of Michigan voters' top-ten concerns.

Link

GM hopes you’ll buy their new cars on eBay

General Motors will let customers buy cars and trucks online from some California dealers through eBay, the operator of the most-visited U.S. e-commerce Web site.

Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Pontiac brands will be available at gm.ebay.com.

The automaker chose California because that market has been “incredibly hard-hit by the recession,” LaNeve said. “We really think it needs a shot in the arm.”


Car shoppers can use eBay’s “buy it now” option to make an immediate purchase or negotiate a price. All sales close at the dealership when the buyer picks up the vehicle, he said.

Click here and here.

Obama said AARP supports ObamaCare - it doesn’t!

ABC’s Jake Tapper puts a rosy spin on a big Barack Obama lie by suggesting the president had a “senior” moment.

Obama today suggested that the health care reform legislation for which he’s pushing has been endorsed by the American Association of Retired Person.

“We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors,” the president said.

At another point he said: “Well, first of all, another myth that we've been hearing about is this notion that somehow we're going to be cutting your Medicare benefits. We are not. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?”

Only problem is, the AARP has not endorsed any plan!

How many other lies has Mr. Obama been telling us?

Link

Obama poll numbers continue to fall

Covering for Biden: “what he meant to say was...”

(click on picture to see video)
Are members of the media in the White House pressroom laughing at press secretary Robert Gibbs or Vice President Joe Biden?

Probably both.

How many times have members of the Obama administration tried to alibi for the Vice President by saying, “what Biden meant to say was...”

Depends on your definition of clunker...

Cow fighting in Battle of the Queens

Cows fight during the Battle of the Queens, a traditional cow fight held annually in Switzerland.

Members of the bovine family fight against themselves to establish a hierarchy within the herd.

During the combat the cows push against each other, forehead to forehead.

Protestors at a town hall meeting on health care

The photo shows people at a town hall meeting on health care reform sponsored by U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) outside of Alhambra City Hall in Alhambra, California, August 11, 2009.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ObamaCare protestors were un-American mobs wearing swastikas conducting "Astroturf" stunts.

Sen. Barbara Boxer insists the protests are fake because the protestors are too "well-dressed.”

ObamaCare supporters in Washington are incensed that citizens object to a socialist plan hardly anyone has read all 1,000 pages.

It seems they want anyone objecting to ObamaCare silenced. Objectors who can’t be silenced must be demonized.

Ka BOOM

A Greenpeace activist works on putting a fake bomb in front of the Chancellery in Berlin, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Greenpeace protested against underground storage of carbon dioxide.

Democrats call protestors un-American partisan mobs

Ordinary Americans petitioning their representatives being are being called "un American" and “partisan mobs” by Democrat politicians in Washington including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Actually, it is un-American to squelch opposing views.

The Obama election machine was once called Obama for America. It is now called Organizing for America and has been asked to show up at town halls and congressional offices as a counter to the protestors against the president's health care reform push.

SEIU union members have also been asked to join Organizing for America to silence the ObamaCare protestors.

When they attack their opponents instead of their opponents' arguments, it proves their arguments are not selling.

Never in the history of our country have we had a sitting president tell members of his party to “hit back twice as hard” against citizens who protest against his agenda.

Rank and file Americans who are opposed to ObamaCare are called “extremists trying to hijack the debate.”

The administration seems to have been caught flat-footed. The right has never really protested before. It has always been the left who demonstrated.

Link here and here.


If we need ObamaCare so badly why is Congress opting out?
Why are Unions opting out?
Why are public school teachers opting out?
Why are government workers opting out?

There is a Reuters report at the link below titled: Auto inventories tight, "clunker" interest slips.

Red hot auto sales under the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" incentive began to cool as dealer inventories tightened and showroom traffic showed signs of leveling off from its frantic pace of a week ago.


One industry analysis released on Tuesday forecast a steady decline in "clunker" related business even though the Obama administration and Congress added $2 billion to the program in recent days with hopes of matching the success of its first weeks.

More of the story here.

A report at the link below says:

The Democratic Party is panicking, lashing out like a cornered animal, all because its effort to take over the health care industry is coming apart like so much wet toilet paper.

Nancy Pelosi (pictured), who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself.

When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured "Astroturf" stunts, she replied, "I think they're Astroturf. You be the judge. They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health.

Swastikas? Really?

This is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander and idiocy.

Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protestors are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of ObamaCare, but she's also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.

Sen. Barbara Boxer insists the protests are fake because the protestors are too "well-dressed.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says this is all "manufactured anger" because the protestors -- he calls them the "Brooks Brothers Brigade" -- are too tastefully appointed to be authentic protestors. Apparently only filthy hippies can petition government.

Brooks Brothers suites indeed. Every video clip shown in the news show average Americans, mostly in casual clothes conducting a serious protest against a 1,000 page bill few have read and they fees is being crammed down their throats.

Link

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Rockies shortstop: Tulo terrific

Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (pictured) had a grand slam home run denied after a first ever video review at Coors Field.

Not to be denied, Tulowitzki finished the game by “hitting for the cycle” and driving in 7 runs in the Monday night 11-5 win over the Chicago Cubs.

"I don't know if I'll ever have a game like this ever in my career," Tulowitzki said. "Not too many people can say they had a cycle in the big leagues."

It was the sixth cycle in the majors this season when a player hits a home run, a triple, a double and a single in the same game.

Link

Congress drops $550M passenger jet plan

Democrat leaders in the House have dropped plans to spend $550 million in the Air Force budget on passenger jets to be used by lawmakers and senior government officials.

Before leaving for the August congressional recess, the House approved a Defense Appropriation bill for fiscal year 2010 that included $550 million for three Gulfstream jets and five military versions of a Boeing 737.

The opposition to the passenger jet purchase plan was bipartisan.

Even Missouri Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill (pictured) was against the Pelosi/Hoyer jet purchase plan.

McCaskill said, "The whole thing kind of makes me sick to my stomach. It is evidence that some of the cynicism about Washington is well placed -- that people get out of touch and they spend money like it's Monopoly money."

The funding for new planes is "a classic example of Congress being out of touch with the realities of deficit spending," said South Dakota Senator John Thune.

Link here and here.

Chopper wreckage from the Hudson River crash

The wreckage of a helicopter that collided with an airplane and crashed in the Hudson River is positioned on a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey after being lifted out of the river.

Photo from Time Magazine

Schumer: time to ram ObamaCare through

The Senate Democrats may be getting a bit desperate to get ObamaCare passed.

Chuck Schumer (pictured) a Democrat Senator from New York says time is running out for Senate negotiators on health care.

If a bipartisan deal cannot be reached in 37 days, Democrats will have to go it alone.

“If they can’t do it by Sept. 15th, I think the overwhelming view on the Democratic side is going to be, then, they’re never going to get it done” Schumer tells John Harwood of the New York Times.

“And there’s always a worry that, you know, delay, delay, delay, you lose any momentum whatsoever.”

Most Republicans and moderate Democrats are hoping Schumer is right when he fears ”they’re never going to get it done.”

If Democrats decide to circumvent the Senate’s usual 60-vote requirement by using budget reconciliation procedures, some aspects of the legislation may not qualify for action.

Reconciliation would also require stricter pay-as-you go rules which could mean even deeper cuts to Medicare payments.

If they try to shove this thru using the reconciliation process (requiring less than 60 votes), it will cost even deeper cuts to Medicare benefits.

The heavy reliance on Medicare savings was born out of a desire to minimize the amount of new taxes needed to pay for health care-reform.

Even without the additional cuts that would be required using the less than 60 vote reconciliation process, seniors will be shocked at the limited medical care that will be available to them. It will literally be take a pain pill and go home to die.

Link

The future of ObamaCare

Dreamin’ about a smartphone

Thinking about a smartphone to replace a tired old two and one half year old Moto Razr with a weak battery.

Dreaming about a Blackberry Curve or a Blackberry Bold or maybe even a Blackberry Storm ... or ... maybe none of the above ... depends on what deals Verizon has for a contract renewal.

Eye of the spider

A festival-goer wears a contact lens with a spider's net painting during the annual Wave-Gothic festival in Leipzig, Germany.

Borrowing on the rise?

“King George view” of voters health care concerns

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Kenyan offers livestock dowry for Chelsea Clinton

Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor offered Bill Clinton 40 goats and 20 cows for the hand of Chelsea Clinton (pictured) in marriage.

The Kenyan man first offered the dowry nine years ago to then-President Bill Clinton in asking for the hand of his only child.

He renewed it Thursday after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the proposal at a Nairobi town hall session.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria, the session's moderator, commented that given the economic crisis at hand, Chepkurgor's dowry was "not a bad offer."

However, Clinton said her daughter was her own person.

"She's very independent," she said. "So I will convey this very kind offer."

Link

Deficit increased $181 Billion in month of July!

Bailouts for financial firms and billions in tax revenue lost because of the recession drove the deficit to a record total of $1.3 trillion in July.

Tax receipts that have fallen due to the poor economy and increased spending to save car companies, banks and mortgage firms were major contributors to the federal deficit, according to CBO, which provides official budget numbers for Congress. The federal deficit grew by another $181 billion in the month of July.

Link

Jobless rate eased but is worse than they say

It is not surprising that the Obama administration is trying to put a positive spin on the jobless rate. The recent report of a slightly lower jobless rate is only part of the story.

The Washington Post reports:

The stabilization in the economy is not rippling through to ordinary American workers. Economists generally expect the unemployment rate to resume its rise in the coming months, ultimately reaching or surpassing 10 percent.

The July decline in the jobless rate came about not because more people had jobs, but because 422,000 people removed themselves from the labor force, essentially giving up the search for work. The number of long-term unemployed people -- those who have been out of a job but looking for more than 26 weeks -- rose by another 584,000.

The unemployment rate does not include people who have given up searching for work in the unemployed totals.

Link here and here.

Is your dog as smart as a 2-year-old child?

A Houston Chronicle report claims that a dog is about as smart as a 2-year old child.

Dog psychologist Stanley Coren says that, based upon various behavioral measures, dogs have the mental ability of a human child age 2 to 2.5 years.

The writer of the Chronicle report is not convinced. He says:

My 2-year, 2-month-old kid can have a conversation on the phone with her grandparents. Not sure my dog can.

Anyway, the average dog can apparently learn about 165 words and signals, while the smartest dogs can probably learn up to about 250 words. They can also count to four or five.

One commenter to the article said:

...as long as my dog remembers to fetch and I don't get my feet wet...then he can be as dumb as dirt!

The report says the five smartest breeds are:

1. Border Collie (pictured in typical sheep herding pose)
2. Poodle
3. German Shepherd
4. Golden Retriever
5. Doberman Pinscher

The five least intelligent breeds are:

106. Borzoi
107. Chow Chow
108. Bull dog
109. Basenji
110. Afghan Hound

Link

Ice chokes Northwest Passage in midsummer

The global warming alarmists are warning of 'extreme' melting even as the Northwest Passage is choking with ice in midsummer.

Unfortunately for the warmists, reality never seems to cooperate.

Despite predictions from a top U.S. polar institute that the Arctic Ocean's overall ice cover is headed for another "extreme" meltdown by mid-September, the Environment Canada agency monitoring our northern waters says an unusual combination of factors is making navigation more difficult in the Northwest Passage this year after two straight summers of virtually clear sailing.

In both the wider, deep-water northern corridor and the narrower, shallower southern branches of the passage, the Canadian Ice Service says pockets of more extensive winter freezing and concentrations of thicker, older ice at several key "choke points" are complicating ship travel.

Will Al Gore comment on this icy Northwest Passage story? Of course not.

This is just one more prediction of doom by warmists that failed to materialize.

Link

Top clunker buys include trucks and SUV’s

From a CNN Money report:

What are people trading their clunkers in for? It depends on who you ask.

The government's results showed small cars as the top choice for shoppers looking for Cash for Clunker deals. But an independent analysis by Edmunds.com disputed those results, and showed that two full-size trucks and a small crossover SUV were actually among the top-ten buys.

The differences between the method used by Edmunds and the arcane measurement used by the government is explained at the link below.

Ford Escape ranked #1

Ford F-150 ranked #5

Chevrolet Silverado ranked #7

The most purchased vehicles under Cash for Clunkers when 2WD and 4WD versions are included:

1. Ford Escape
2. Ford Focus
3. Jeep Patriot
4. Dodge Caliber
5. Ford F-150
6. Honda Civic
7. Chevrolet Silverado
8. Chevrolet Cobalt
9. Toyota Corolla
10. Ford Fusion

Link

Physicians jammed Houston town hall meeting

About 90 physicians jammed a town hall meeting in The Woodlands, near Houston, expressing fears about the cost and effectiveness of a health care reform bill that could come up for a vote in Congress as early as September.

In the photo above Congressman Kevin Brady holds a copy of the mega-page Obama health care plan. Below is the ObamaCare organizational chart shown in the photo above. The chart shows how complicated and ambiguous Mr. Obama’s socialized medicine plan really is.

(click on chart to enlarge)
It promises to be as inefficient as Amtrack and the Post Office rolled into one! However, there is one big difference -- we don’t go to Amtrack or the Post Office for our healthcare needs!

“The bottom line is that doctors don't want socialized medicine — another flawed health care system like Medicare. They don't believe it will lower the costs or improve quality,” Brady said. “Medicare is already going bankrupt and not quality care. It also shifts medical costs onto other paying customers. It needs to be fixed first.”

Link

Eye popping parade returns to Tokyo

Members of the Japanese performance group "Medaman-Medaman" wearing large eyeballs walk around the Roppongi Hills shopping mall in Tokyo.

Shoppers in the area enjoyed various street performances as Japan's annual week-long "Golden Week" holiday began last spring.

Clunkers program nearly hit a speed bump

Tom Harkin (pictured), a Democratic Senator from Iowa nearly delayed additional funding for the Cash for Clunkers program for at least one month.

A report at the link below says the effort to inject another two billion dollars into the Cash for Clunkers program nearly hit a road block in the Senate that could have killed or delayed the bill.

The Harkin amendment would have limited clunker rebates to individuals with annual incomes of $50,000 or less.


Republicans threw their support behind the amendment giving it a good chance of passing -- unless the majority of Democrats, who mostly favored the amendment, voted against it.

Why would the Democrats vote against the amendment they all favored?

If the Harkin amendment passed in the Senate, the House would have needed to take up the bill again.

The problem with that is the House has already adjourned for its August recess.
.
Did Sen. Harkin not think his amendment through in his haste to put his name on something or is he simply not the brightest bulb in the chandelier?

Anyway, by voting against an amendment they wanted, the Democrats averted a Cash for Clunkers roadblock allowing them to vote an additional two billion dollars to keep the program going until the August recess is over.

Link

Senate sends Sotomayor to Supreme Court

The Senate sends the self-described “wise Latina woman” to the Supreme Court.

Democrats praised the 55-year-old Sotomayor as a mainstream moderate.

Most Republicans voted against her, saying she'd bring personal bias and a liberal agenda to the bench.

Link

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Former congressman could get 150 years in prison

(click on cartoon to enlarge)
Former Democrat congressman William Jefferson from New Orleans, Louisiana faces a maximum possible sentence of 150 years in prison.

Amelia Earhart mystery solved?

It has been 72 years since famed aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world.

Earhart is pictured above. She is also shown below with her Lockheed Electra airplane.

Some claim Earhart and Noonan survived the crash of their Lockheed Electra but were captured and killed by Japanese soldiers. Still others have said they were eaten by cannibals.


But the mystery remains unsolved: Nobody knows exactly what happened to Earhart or her plane.

Now researchers at the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery or Tighar, say they are on the verge of recovering DNA evidence that would demonstrate Earhart had been stranded on Nikumaroro Island (formerly known as Gardner Island) before finally perishing there.

During May and June of next year, Tighar will launch a new $500,000 expedition, continuing the archaeological work it has been doing on the island since 2001.

More of the story here.

Culture of corruption: former congressman convicted

Former Congressman William Jefferson (pictured) was convicted Wednesday on 11 of 16 criminal counts filed against him — including charges that he accepted bribes and engaged in money laundering while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Jefferson was a Democrat who represented constituents in New Orleans Louisiana. He was convicted Wednesday on 11 of the 16 corruption charges against him in a case that included the discovery of $90,000 cash in his freezer.

A federal court jury convicted Jefferson on four bribery counts, three counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud and one count of racketeering. He was acquitted on five other counts including wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Jefferson had pleaded not guilty. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 150 years in prison, with sentencing tentatively set for October 30.

Link

Democrat attacks on what WH perceives as attacks on ObamaCare

When Washington Democrats begin to see opposition to any of their programs, it is usually perceived as “mob attacks” that must be stopped.

The White House launched a coordinated effort Tuesday to combat what it calls a “viral whisper campaign” to torpedo health care reform.

Its playbook: the same one Barack Obama’s campaign used in 2008 to shoot down rumors and questions about his citizenship, faith and patriotism.

It worked then by neutralizing charges regarding Mr. Obama’s citizenship as well as the fact that Obama is a Muslim and refused to say the pledge of allegiance.

Now, it appears that the Obama administration wants Americans to report any of their relatives, friends and neighbors who are opposed to ObamaCare.

Additionally, the administration is making it sound like any opposition to ObamaCare from citizens attending town hall meetings held by administration officials is caused by thugs as reported by Politico at the link below:

Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse both saying a series of confrontational town hall meetings were manufactured by Republicans, conservative groups and lobbyists who are paid to drum up opposition.

Woodhouse described them as “angry mobs of rabid right-wing extremists” that populated McCain-Palin rallies last year.

Tuesday was just the start of the offensive, White House aides said.

For the record -- the people attending the McCain-Palin rallies last year were cheering crowds of ordinary people who liked what the conservative candidates were saying.

They were just the opposite of “angry mobs of rabid right-wing extremists!”

This is not your father’s Democratic Party!

Link

(click on cartoon to enlarge)
They are out of control! Report them! Arrest them!

UFO Festival Alien Pet Costume Contest

A pup named Meatball lets out a big yawn while awaiting the start of the 2009 UFO Festival Alien Pet Costume Contest last month at the Roswell Convention Center in Roswell, New Mexico.

Meatball took 2nd place in the contest. Ya gotta love the name of that dog!

Poll: 71% say Obama’s policies have increased deficit

Americans can see through Obama’s plan to spend his way out of a recession.
Only 5% of respondents to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey say Obama’s policies have cut the deficit, and 10% say they have had no impact. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.

Eighty percent (80%) of investors say Obama’s policies have driven up the deficit, a view shared by just 57% of non-investors.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. voters say President Obama’s policies have increased the size of the federal deficit, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

A plurality of voters (37%) say cutting the federal deficit in half in the next four years is number one among the four priorities the president listed in a speech to Congress in February, but 66% view it as the goal he is least likely to achieve.

Link

A Kansas wind farm viewed from I-70

(click on picture for another view)
The state of Kansas has several wind farms. The most visible wind farm is near Ellsworth.

The wind turbines can be seen for more than 20 miles along the north side of Interstate 70.

He followed me home can I keep him?

This unusual photo picture appears to show a little girl about to be attacked by a 370 pound Royal White Bengal Tiger.

Actually, the girl is safe. The girl and tiger are separated by a thick pane of glass at Cougar Mountain Zoo, near Seattle, Washington.

The change Obama promised

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

North Korea pardons US journalists

North Korean President Kim Jong Ill has issued pardons for the two US journalists who have been detained in the country.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee (pictured) were arrested on March 17 near the North Korea border.


Both Ling and Lee worked for Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV and were in the country working on a story about human trafficking along the Tumen River border area between China and North Korea.

The North Korean government convicted the pair on June 8 of illegally entering into and committing "grave crimes" against the country.

The pardon and imminent release follows former President Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea on Monday.

The White House has said the Clinton visit was a private trip.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs flatly denied that Clinton carried a message from Obama, telling reporters, "That's not true."

How can it be a private trip
when he is a former president and his wife is the Secretary of State?

One wonders what Obama promised the North Korean leader in exchange for the release of the journalists.

There is no way Kim Jong Ill would have released the girls out of the goodness of his heart.

Link here and here.

Administration withholding data on clunkers

A report at the link below says the Obama administration is refusing to release government records on its "cash-for-clunkers" rebate program. Yet the White House is pressing the Senate for a quick vote for another $2 billion to boost car sales.

Senators should demand this data which could substantiate or undercut White House claims of the program's success.

Besides replacing low-mileage vehicles with more fuel-efficient vehicles, the clunker program was intended to help the sale of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors vehicles. It hasn’t.

Ford Focus so far is at the top of the list of new cars purchased under the program. But the limited information released so far shows most buyers are not picking Ford, Chrysler or General Motors vehicles, and six of the top 10 vehicles purchased are Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.

More here.

Alvin Dark: an act of God to win

Former manager Alvin Dark was asked to compare teams he managed over the years.

Dark replied:

With the A's we depended on pitching and speed to win.

With the Giants we depended on pitching and power to win.

With the Indians we depended on an act of God to win.

Elephant wash

A firefighter hoses down an Asian elephant from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus in Philadelphia last May.

Windsock on house in Enterprise Kansas

Not all city dwellers have windsocks on their rooftops.

No global warming in New York City

The New York Times reports that in New York City it’s the summer that isn’t.The Times report says:

It’s a gross, grungy, disgusting summer-in-the-city tradition: the muggy 90-degree day or, worse still, the 99-degree day.

But this summer has been conspicuously different in New York City. Not one 99-degree day in Central Park. Not a single day that the temperature even approached 90.

For just the second time in 140 years of record keeping, the temperature failed to reach 90 in either June or July.

Link

Al Gore couldn’t be reached for comment - he was probably too busy cleaning his office (shown below).

(click on picture to enlarge)

Cash for clunkers so good it needs to shut down?

A report on ABC News, at the first link below, wonders if the cash for clunkers program will hit the scrap heap this week along with the clunker cars.


A Time Magazine report, at the second link below, says:

The government's cash-for-clunkers program appears to be working like a charm, so — time to shut it down. Good old Washington!

It appears that inadequate planning may doom the program about as soon as it began.

Will ObamaCare suffer from the same flawed planning?

Link here and here.

2 Obama officials won’t guarantee no tax hike for middle-class

An Associated Press report at the link below says that two Obama administration officials have said they can't guarantee middle-class Americans won't see tax hike.

Translation: there will be a tax hike for middle-class Americans to go along with the promised tax hike for higher wage earners.

As the White House sought to balance campaign rhetoric with governing, officials appeared willing to extend unemployment benefits.

With former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan saying he is "pretty sure we've already seen the bottom" of the recession, Obama aides sought to defend the economic stimulus and calm a jittery public.

If the Obama administration must rely on Alan Greenspan’s opinion that the we have seen the bottom of the recession, we are surely in deeper trouble than we thought.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers both sidestepped questions on Obama's intentions about taxes.

Geithner said the White House was not ready to rule out a tax hike to lower the federal deficit; Summers said Obama's proposed health care overhaul needs funding from somewhere.

More at the link below.

We wonder if the old Democrat label tax and spend liberal should be changed to tax and squander liberal?

Link

The Lincoln penny is 100 years old today

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln penny, the longest-running U.S. coin still in circulation.

The U.S. Mint had been producing one-cent coins since its founding in 1792, but the 1909 penny (which replaced the Indian-head coin) was the first coin on which a President's likeness appeared.


President Teddy Roosevelt commissioned the coin to celebrate the 100th birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

Most people were in favor of the new Lincoln coin. However, former Confederate soldiers were not happy about the prospect of carrying the image of Lincoln in their pockets. After all, Lincoln was the President of an “enemy country” during the Civil War.

According to a Time Magazine online report - pennies can often be more trouble than they're worth.

While a 1909 penny could send a postcard or buy a few eggs, in 2009 it can't even purchase itself: the U.S. Mint spends 1.4 cents on every penny it produces. "When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, that unit is too small to be useful," argued Harvard economics professor Gregory Mankiw in a 2006 Wall Street Journal article.

Arizona representative Jim Kolbe introduced the 2002 Legal Tender Modernization Act to Congress, which would have eliminated the penny. The bill failed miserably.

In response to the copper coin's declining value, some stores have stopped accepting it as a form of payment.

In 2007, a New York City man was so incensed when a Chinese restaurant refused to let him pay for his dinner with 10 pennies (along with other cash) that he persuaded a state senator to draft a bill requiring pennies to be accepted everywhere and at all times. (The bill was not passed.)

Though pennies may be more trouble than they are worth, don’t look for them to disappear anytime soon.