Showing posts with label WFB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WFB. Show all posts

Thursday, August 13, 2015

House Committee Calls EPA’s Gina McCarthy Testimony ‘False and Misleading’

Gina McCarthy
Republican members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology wrote to Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy and called her testimony at a hearing in July “false and misleading.”
On July 9, McCarthy testified to the House Committee on the transparency of the EPA’s regulatory agenda. Members of the committee asked McCarthy about the “secret science” that goes in to justifying EPA regulations because they want to ensure the data is available to the American people.
Rep. Frank Lucas (R., Okla.) asked McCarthy whether the agency had made data that was used to craft the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule public. While McCarthy said that the information was “available,” the Committee maintains that EPA did not provide any scientific or legal justification for the figures Lucas asked for.
“Your statement that the information and data requested in Mr. Lucas’ question was publicly available in the EPA docket was false and misleading,” the committee wrote. “Based on the Corps’ memorandum, it is apparent that the figures outlined in EPA’s final WOTUS rule were completely arbitrary and not based on any science.”
The letter cites three more examples during questioning at this particular hearing where the Committee deemed McCarthy’s statements either false or misleading.
It was at this same hearing that McCarthy said she did not know the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere, information fundamental to EPA’s regulations.
“Providing false or misleading testimony to Congress is a serious matter,” the committee wrote. “Witnesses who purposely give false or misleading testimony during a congressional hearing may be subject to criminal liability.”
“With that in mind, we write to request that you correct the record and to implore you to be truthful with the American public about matters related to EPA’s regulatory agenda going forward.”
Members who wrote and signed the letter to McCarthy include Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), Rep. Frank Lucas (R., Okla.), Rep. Randy Hultgren (R., Ill.), Rep. Bill Posey (R., Fla.), Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R., Okla.), Rep. Randy Weber (R., Texas), Rep. Bill Johnson (R., Ohio), Rep. John Moolenaar (R., Mich.), Rep. Steve Knight (R., Calif.), Rep. Bruce Westerman (R. Ark.), Rep. Gary Palmer (R., Ala.), Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R., Ga.), and Rep. Ralph Lee Abraham (R., La.).
“We will review and respond to the letter,” said Liz Purchia, deputy associate administrator at the EPA.

Obama, Clinton Foundation Donors Sold ‘Green’ Fuel to Military for $149 per Gallon

Strains of algae are shown in the strain room of Solazyme in South San Francisco, Calif.
San Francisco’s Solazyme also received millions in stimulus funds from DOE
The CEO and Board of Directors of Solazyme, a company the military paid $149 per gallon for “alternative” fuel, have donated more than $300,000 to Democratic candidates and committees, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.
Recipients of significant donations included the Obama Victory Fund and the Democratic National Committee. Additionally, Solazyme donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report found that the Department of Defense (DOD) paid Solazyme $149 per gallon for fuel made of algal oil, costing taxpayers a total of $223,500 in 2009. The group also received a $21 million stimulus grant from Department of Energy in 2009.
“Based in South San Francisco, Solazyme’s mission is to improve our lives and our planet by producing sustainable, high-performance oils and ingredients derived from microalgae,” the company states. Solazyme claims that their process serves as a better alternative to limited resources such as petroleum, vegetable oils, and animal fats.
Three members of Solazyme’s Board of Directors have donated hundreds of thousands to Dems, which include more than $50,000 in donations that benefited President Obama.
Solazyme’s co-founders, Jonathan Wolfson and Harrison Dillon, have together donated more than $7,000 to Democratic candidates and committees.
A member of Solazyme’s management team, Peter Licari, donated to both Republicans and Democrats before he was employed by Solazyme. Licari donated $16,000 to Republicans and more than $25,000 to Democrats while he was employed by Complete Healthcare Resources.
“Solazyme has been propelled over the years by an extraordinary group of people,” states Wolfson. “Our employees, customers, partners and investors have been and will continue to be our greatest resources.”
DOD has stated that one of its strategic energy goals is to expand its energy supply options by investing in alternative fuels such as the kind Solazyme produces. This type of renewable fuel comes at much higher cost than petroleum fuel.
From fiscal years 2007 to 2014, the DOD purchased 32 billion gallons of petroleum fuel for $107.2 billion, which comes to $3.35 per gallon. This means that Solazyme’s price per gallon was 44 times that of the average price of regular petroleum fuel.
Christine Travis, manager of corporate communications for Solazyme, said the $149 per gallon figure is “incorrect” and that the number is inflated due to research and development costs.
“The dollar amount you cited is incorrect because that total cost includes the R&D portion we performed at the request of the DOD that was part of the testing and certification program with the Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy,” said Travis.
Travis says that this month Solazyme announced they are supplying renewable fuel to UPS and that it has been a few years since they’ve worked with DOD on fuels.
However, she praised the Navy’s effort to increase their use of alternative fuels.
“We applaud the Navy for pursuing the bold goal of supplying its operations with 50 percent alternative fuels by 2020. Our dependence on oil from foreign nations—some of them hostile, some of them unstable—is one of the greatest threats to our security as a nation and to our allies overseas who rely on Persian Gulf oil and have no or insignificant indigenous petroleum resources of their own.”
In regards to co-founders and board of directors donating to Democrats, Travis said Solazyme has no policy on political contributions.
“Our company does not have a PAC, and our company does not have a policy on employee or board member political contributions,” Travis said. “Anyone in our company can support anyone they want.”

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Obama Signed Off on Iran’s Right to Nuclear Program in Secret 2011 Talks

AP
President Barack Obama approved of Iran’s right to operate a nuclear program in 2011 during secret meetings with Iranian officials, according to new disclosures by Iran’s Supreme Leader.
The comments, made earlier this year by Ali Khamenei, dispute claims by the Obama administration that it only began talking to Iran after the election of President Hassan Rouhani.
Khamenei revealed in a recent speech that talks began in secret with anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying former President Mahmoud Ahmadenejad. At this time, Obama told the Iranians he endorses Iran’s right to have a nuclear program.
“The issue of negotiating with the Americans is related to the term of the previous [Ahmadinejad] government, and to the dispatching of a mediator to Tehran to request talks,” Khamenei said in a recent speech translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“At the time, a respected regional figure came to me as a mediator and explicitly said that U.S. President [Obama] had asked him to come to Tehran and present an American request for negotiations,” Khamenei disclosed. “The Americans told this mediator: ‘We want to solve the nuclear issue and lift sanctions within six months, while recognizing Iran as a nuclear power.’”
“I told that mediator that I did not trust the Americans and their words, but after he insisted, I agreed to reexamine this topic, and negotiations began,” Khamenei added.
Other Iranian officials also have admitted that Obama’s goal from the get-go was to endorse Iran’s nuclear program and then lift economic sanctions on the country’s economy.
Secretary of State John Kerry sent a letter to Iran stating that the United States “recognizes Iran’s rights regarding” nuclear enrichment, according to another senior Iranian official, Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam.
“We came to the [secret] negotiations [with the United States] after Kerry wrote a letter and sent it to us via [mediator Omani Sultan Qaboos], stating that America officially recognizes Iran’s rights regarding the [nuclear fuel] enrichment cycle,” Al-Islam said in a recent interview with Iran’s Tasnim news agency, according to MEMRI.
“Then there were two meetings in Oman between the [Iranian and U.S.] deputy foreign ministers, and after those, Sultan Qaboos was dispatched by Obama to Khamenei with Kerry’s letter,” the official added.
Khamenei went on to tell him at the time: “‘I don’t trust them.’ Sultan Qaboos said: ‘Trust them one more time.’ On this basis the negotiations began, and not on the basis of sanctions, as they [the Americans] claim in their propaganda.”
This information has been confirmed by other senior Iranian officials, according to MEMRI.
Ali Akbar Salahi, the Iranian vice president and head of its Atomic Energy Organization, claimed in separate interviews this year that “the Americans initiated the secret talks with Iran in 2011-2012, and stressed his role in jumpstarting the process from the Iranian side,” according to MEMRI.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

For the Liberty of France

In late 1944, Charles Kaiser’s uncle, a U.S. Army lieutenant, stayed for a while at the Paris residence of two sisters, Christiane and Jacqueline Boulloche. So began a relationship that would eventually lead Kaiser to write his new book, The Cost of Courage. An American journalist, Mr. Kaiser has designed this book about the French resistance for an American audience. This account of the resistance provides unique insight into the history of one French family and a courageous struggle against Nazism.
The story begins with a Gestapo raid that targets the book’s protagonist, André Boulloche. André is found by the Germans after a resistance officer under his command breaks under interrogation. Failing in an attempt at suicide as the Nazis raid his apartment, André suffers a gunshot wound to the stomach and is captured.
Though his personal resistance was heroic, there was nothing glamorous about André’s plight. Kaiser explains:
If he hadn’t been wounded, André thinks, this part would have been easy: he would have swallowed the fatal pill right away. But now he is writhing on the floor, with blood spurting out of his stomach – and the cyanide never leaves his pocket.
Fortunately, André’s sister and fellow resistance officer, Christiane, had just left the apartment on ”the best timed shopping trip of her life.” She returns to see the Gestapo at work, and evades capture.
The Boulloches were an haut-bourgeoise, well-connected Catholic family, and unlikely revolutionaries. Yet, as Kaiser explains, they all shared “an innate sense of duty.”  Describing Christiane, Kaiser says, ”more than anything else, it is instinctive patriotism that pushes her into battle.” Still, the Boulloche notion of patriotism is inherently bound to honor and justice. Before she entered the resistance, Christiane organized a collection for a Jewish schoolteacher who was fired after the Nazis seized power.
The Cost of Courage’s most interesting sequences describe the tradecraft of the Resistance. We see how André learned his methods—”letters written with lemon juice, which only becomes legible when the pages are heated over a candle.” Kaiser describes how André records Nazi ”arms depot locations” and ”memorizes a book that interprets every [Wehrmacht] insignia”. We learn of Christiane’s crucial role as a network facilitator in repairing radios, and smuggling weapons to fighters. Kaiser also explains how Christiane used tradecraft to avoid detection, such as stepping off trains just as the doors closed and broadcasting radio transmissions from different locations. Survival, we’re reminded, is about meticulous attention to detail. It was also about spiritual strength. We learn that after André’s capture, he boosted the morale of a fellow prisoner by teaching him “the Schumann piano concerto, certain Beethoven sonatas, and the Brandenburg Concertos.”

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

‘Entitlement foods’: Feds Spending $292,080 on String Cheese

Flickr user Christopher Hsia
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) put in a $292,080.60 order for string cheese on Thursday, as part of its “entitlement food” offered through the National School Lunch Program.
The nearly $300,000 worth of lite mozzarella string cheese will be used for federal school lunch programs that supply local districts in Texas and Arkansas for three months.
Miceli Dairy, the “makers of fine Italian cheese,” was awarded the contract. A total of 113,400 pounds of the product will go to Van Buren, Ark., and Texas school districts in Austin, McCallen, San Antonio, Grand Prairie, Lubbock, and Dallas.
The order will be delivered beginning April 1 and go through June 30.
The USDA’s Farm Service Agency has strict requirements for the quality of mozzarella cheese that is used in domestic food programs, which the contractor must follow.
For instance, the string cheese has to be made in America and “not previously owned by the government.”
“Mozzarella cheese which deviates from the specifications and the schedule of discounts contained herein will be rejected, or at the discretion of the contracting officer, accepted at discounts to be determined by the government,” the requirements said.
Under “Additional String Cheese Requirements,” the USDA requires “Protein strands shall be properly aligned lengthwise to ensure that fibrous strings can be pulled from the string.”

Thursday, November 21, 2013

[VIDEO] Ohio Company Cuts Insurance For 1,000 Employees Due To Obamacare



BY: 
Ohio company PSC Metals confirmed Wednesday that they will discontinue their company insurance plan for some 1,000 employees to save money under Obamacare’s regulation, WEWS-OH reports. The employees will likely now have to seek health insurance within the Obamacare exchanges.
In the report, Prof. Tom Sutton of Baldwin-Wallace University said that the company would save more money by paying the penalty rather than offering coverage. Sutton noted that because the Obama administration delayed the employer mandate in July, “if [PSC Metals] cuts insurance now, they’re going to have a full year of no penalty and no insurance costs before 2015.”
Via: WFB
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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Leno: President Obama Saw Gravity Today Not The Film His Poll Numbers


BY: 
Jay Leno tore apart President Obama during his opening monologue Wednesday evening. The President finally saw gravity today not the film his poll numbers Leno joked. Then Leno compare the rollout of the Obamacare website to a dog that was unable to walk up stairs in a video metaphor.
Via: WFB
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Monday, October 28, 2013

[VIDEO] Even MSNBC Agrees: Obamacare Rollout ‘Disastrous’


BY: 
Thomas Roberts and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Alter, both prominent liberal figures, discussed the failed Obamacare launch Monday morning. Roberts remarked that the rollout has been “disastrous.” Alter agreed with Roberts and foreshadowed doom for Sebelius when she testifies before Congress this week.
“All she needs to do is just get out of there alive, basically,” he said. “It’s not going to go well, no matter what happens.”

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

WATCH: Leno Monologue ABUSES ObamaCare

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
During his opening monologue Tuesday night NBC host Jay Leno discussed the lengthy and frustrating process that Americans face in signing up for Obamacare.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Obamacare Raising Premiums, Hurting Middle, Lower Class

APAndrew Herndon knew it was coming.
Herndon, a Charlotte, N.C. resident who has a health and life insurance license but works in sales, fully expected that his health insurance premiums would rise after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The only question was by how much.
He recently learned in a letter that monthly premiums for his individual market plan, which also covers his wife and two kids, will increase to $810 next year, a $547 or 280 percent increase from his current plan, after the ACA’s health insurance exchanges begin offering coverage.
“I can’t pay $800 a month for insurance,” he said in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon.
“Basically the government is making me choose between paying for my mortgage and buying food and paying for insurance,” he said. “[My wife and I] are both in our 50’s. We have two children. We’re not going to have more children. We don’t need maternity. We don’t see the doctor that much. We don’t use medication.”
“There’s no way we can pay that and live.”
Herndon is not the only American facing higher premiums because of the ACA, commonly known as Obamacare. Premiums for plans in the exchanges will climb in 45 states compared to plans offered in the individual market before Obamacare’s implementation, according to a study released Wednesday by the Heritage Foundation. States like Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, and Vermont will see triple-digit percentage increases.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Tennessee TV Station Can’t Find Anyone Who Has Successfully Signed Up for Obamacare


WATE reports Tennessee’s Project Access, the group designated to help people enroll, still has not been able to get anyone through the entire sign-up process.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Layoffs Hit Taxpayer-backed ECOtality

ECOtality charging station / AP40 employees laid off as green energy company eyes bankruptcy

A taxpayer-backed green energy company teetering on the edge of bankruptcy laid off dozens of employees on Friday, including all remaining employees in its industrial division.
ECOtality received about $115 million in taxpayer funds through the 2009 stimulus bill and an additional grant from the Department of Energy to build electric vehicle charging stations.
ECOtality laid off 40 employees on Friday. The San Francisco-based company still has 51 people on staff, but its industrial division is empty, and it has stopped filling orders for chargers.
“It’s been a bloodbath,” one employee, who still has her job, said in documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
“We heard that last Friday’s pay was the last paycheck,” the employee said.
ECOtality announced in August that it might file for bankruptcy. The Energy Department, which selected ECOtality as its primary contractor for the EV Project, suspended payments to the company in light of its financial troubles.
ECOtality faces a class action lawsuit from investors who say company executives misled them regarding its financial health.
“Neither the company’s direct sales force nor the independent dealers have generated sales volumes of its commercial EVSE products sufficient, in combination with other sources of revenue, to support the company’s operations in the second half of 2013,” ECOtality said in an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It disclosed in the same filing that some of its chargers have experienced significant manufacturing defects, in some cases even causing charge ports to melt.
“The government kept throwing good money after bad even though the inevitability of this was clear for over a year,” one company executive told the Free Beacon in an email

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Obamacare Exchanges Will Have ‘Rocky Start,’ Consultant Says

APThe health insurance exchanges mandated by Obamacare will likely get off to a rocky start at the beginning of October, a health care consultant told Congress Tuesday morning at a hearing on the law’s implementation.
Additionally, none of the contractors hired by the federal government to develop the exchanges’ new infrastructure told Congress that they have finished their work, even though the exchanges will open in three weeks.
The consultants, contractors, and business representatives testified before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for the latest in a series of oversight hearings on the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare.
“Very few states will have a comprehensive working exchange on Oct. 1,” said Brett Graham, a partner with the healthcare consulting group Leavitt Partners. “It is also expected that exchanges will experience a problematic enrollment period as states and the federal government work to overcome both known and unknown challenges.”
Representatives from several contractors that are building key parts of the law’s infrastructure, including the data hub that will transmit information from federal agencies to the exchanges, told the committee that they will be ready for the exchanges to open on Oct. 1. However, they did not testify that they have completed their work now.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Tricare Prime Fees Increase Up to 17 Percent Today


U.S. armed services retirees and their families will now pay higher annual fees for the Tricare Prime health benefits system beginning Oct. 1, 2012. The fee increases range from 3.6 percent and 17 percent (for most), reports the Navy Times:
Military retirees who enrolled in the system on or after Oct. 1, 2011, and all new beneficiaries will pay $269.28 a year for an individual, up from $260, and $538.56 for a family, up from $520.
Those who were in Prime before Oct. 1, 2011, will see their annual fees increase from to $269.28 from $230 for individuals and to $538.56 from $460 for families. [...]
The Obama administration had pressed for heftier increases in its proposed fiscal 2013 defense budget along with new enrollment fees for Tricare Standard, Extra and Tricare For Life, the health benefit for Medicare-eligible retirees and their families.
The proposal was struck down by the House and Senate Armed Services committees on a bipartisan basis.
The Obama administration originally pushed for significantly higher premiumsfor Tricare enrollees in their fiscal year 2013 budget, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon earlier this year. In July, the administration threatened to veto a defense appropriations bill, in part, because it did not include higher Tricare fees.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Great Green Car Fleet Pentagon buying Chevy Volts to ‘green up’ military


The Pentagon is buying Chevrolet Volts to help “green up” the military—while propping up sales of the bailed-out automaker’s most politicized car.
The Department of Defense began purchasing the struggling luxury electric car, which retails at $40,000, this summer as part of its goal to purchase 1,500 such green vehicles. The Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif. purchased its first two Volts in July, and 18 more vehicles will come shortly to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Air Force One is based, according to military magazine Stars and Stripes.
The Obama administration championed the production of the Volt. Along with the president’s pledge this year to “buy one and drive it myself … five years from now when I’m not president anymore,” the government offers a $7,500 tax break to encourage sales.
Such perks, however, have failed to drive consumers to GM car lots. The vehicle has been forced to suspend production twice this year after the Volt failed to gain a foothold in the marketplace.
GM is now offering the vehicle for as low as $169 per month, a financing deal that is generally reserved for $15,000 cars—a price so low that GM is reportedly losing nearly $50,000 per vehicle. The struggling automaker will again suspend production later this month after only 2,500 Volts drove off the lots last month.
GM has spent $1.2 billion developing the electric car and is still working out kinks, such as the Volt’s tendency to electrocute firefighters and first responders to accidents. The Department of Defense has been involved in that process, helping to test the Volt’s battery safety and capabilities.
Via: WFB

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Top 5 GOP Convention Appeals to Disaffected Democrats


In 2008, Artur Davis spoke at the Democratic National Convention. Four years of Obama and he  endorsed the Republican nominee and was given a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. Here are five more Democrats who changed their minds.

1. Davis in 2012: “Do you even recognize the America they’re talking about?”

Former Alabama Democratic congressman and current Virginia resident Artur Davis spoke Tuesday at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay.
Davis, a Harvard Law School graduate known for his strong record on veterans’ affairs, endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election but subsequently became the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus to vote against Obamacare.
“This time, in the name of 23 million of our children and parents and brothers and sisters who are officially unemployed, underemployed, or who have stopped looking for work, let’s put the poetry aside, let’s suspend the hype, let’s come down to earth and start creating jobs again,” Davis said.
Davis’ speech Tuesday was widely hailed by conservatives but derided by liberals prior to their even hearing it: Fourteen members of the Congressional Black Caucus attacked Davis before the convention by signing an open letter accusing him of lying about his political transformation.
“We have come to the disturbing conclusion that your recent public statements have no basis in real policy or political disagreements, but rather they stem from transparent opportunism and a personal determination to overcome failing to win the Alabama Democratic primary for Governor in 2010,” according to the letter.
Liberal media outlets also attempted to pre-emptively minimize the impact of Davis’ speech.

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