Going Green is Going to Hell

Going Green is not going well for the Electric Car Company Tesla. Last week we reportedof its latest car fire and now we have this:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday it is opening a formal investigation into 13,100 Tesla Motors Model S electric vehicles for battery fires — one month after it declined to do so.

It comes as the Palo Alto, Calif., start-up said it would extend warranty coverage to fire claims and is making changes to make the vehicles less suspectible to striking roadway debris.

NHTSA Administrator David Strickland told a congressional committee that the agency had seen some issues it wanted to investigate…

The auto safety agency in October said it would not open a formal investigation after a fire in Kent, Wash., occurred when debris struck the underside of a Model S sparking a battery fire. After a fire in Mexico and a fire earlier this month near Smyrna, Tenn., the agency said Tuesday it had decided to open a preliminary investigation. Strickland said it made the initial decision believing the first fire was an isolated incident.

Meanwhile, the Tesla stock (TSLA) lost more than 25% of its value over the last four weeks!

Via: The Right Scoop

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U.S. Tackles Obesity: $1.2 Mil to Help Kids Create Video “Exergames”

The Obama administration’s obsession with childhood obesity appears to have reached a new level with a $1.2 million government grant to help middle school students create fitness video games known as“exergames.”

The National Science Foundation recently gave researchers at a public university in Indiana the money to tackle two national challenges; increasing children’s interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and decreasing childhood obesity. So the academics have combined the two by parlaying kids’ innate interest in video games and solving big problems to inspire them to gain STEM skills needed to create technology-based fitness games. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Students will be encouraged to create “exergames” that require players to get up and move, according to the announcement released by the university, a known world-class research institution. Getting young gamers more active can help reduce rampant childhood obesity in the United States, says the team of technology researchers. “We looked at existing systems like Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fit and wondered how we could use something similar to get kids excited about our academic fields,” says one of the professors in charge of the project.

The plan is to use gaming to spark kids’ STEM interest and improve physical fitness, which in turn will conquer a subject dear to the president’s heart; thus the government funding. Remember that Obama proudly signed into law his wife’s $4.5 billion measure to cure childhood obesity. The law, Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, aims to revolutionize the inner-city diet by providing fresh produce and grilled lean meats as alternatives to greasy, fried foods that tend to be more popular in low-income and minority neighborhoods.

As part of this effort the U.S. government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars, according to its own records, to study obesity and justify the creation of restrictive policies to control what Americans eat. And, of course, there’s the First Lady’s scandal-plagued “Let’s Move” initiative. Earlier this month Judicial Watch obtained government documents that show a marketing firm with close ties to the president got a plum no-bid contract of $100,000 to design the “Let’s Move” logo for Michelle Obama’s infamous childhood obesity campaign.

The new taxpayer-funded exergames are being promoted as yet another innovative way to fight the Obama-hyped epidemic of childhood obesity. The video games will be created over three years under a rather creative program called Teaching Engineering Concepts to Harness Future Innovators and Technologists (TECHFIT). The university professors will conduct summer workshops for middle school teachers who will return to their schools and pass along the knowledge. This will happen via 10-week programs that use technology to create fitness games. Participating teams will then gather to show off their fitness innovations. It will take years before we know if the program was successful and by then the $1.2 million that funded it will be long gone.

Via: Judicial Watch

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Special Prosecutor Intimidating Wisconsin Conservatives

According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, politically active conservatives in Wisconsin are being targeted by an overzealous special prosecutor. A number of conservative organizations – specifically those that support Republican Gov. Scott Walker – have received subpoenas and been the subject of law enforcement raids.

Reports indicate that Francis Schmitz has sent a number of demands to these groups, primarily seeking information regarding the efforts to recall Walker in recent years.

Furthermore, the investigation is reportedly being conducted under the so-called John Doe law, which creates obstacles for any of the targeted groups hoping to speak out in their own defense. Under the state legislation, the party that receives a subpoena is barred from discussing its details with anyone aside from an attorney.

An official with one of the subpoenaed groups said that at least three individuals have had their personal computers seized during a raid.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the gag order, several targets believe that leftist politicians are using these subpoenas as a method of gaining more information.

Via: Western Journalism

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TAX HIKES REMAIN TOXIC

On Tuesday, November 5 the good citizens of Colorado voted 65% to 35% to defeat a ballot measure that would have replaced the present 4.63% flat rate income tax with a higher rate of 5% for those earning up to $75,0000 and a 5.9% rate for those earning more than $75,000.  This measure, if enacted, would have increased taxes by $1 billion a year with promises that it would be spent “on education.”

When issues are placed on the ballot by initiative petition or legislative referral we can learn a great deal from election results.  Candidates can win for a many different reasons.  Was the winner popular? Or was the loser unpopular?  Did voters agree with the candidate they cast a vote for on his entire agenda?  Or just one key issue?  Or was the vote based on personal issues of character or experience rather than any particular policy question?

But a vote on an income  tax increase to spend more money “on education” losing two to one in Colorado sends some stark, clear, undiluted messages. Initiatives do not flub debates or misspeak or drive under the influence or have bad hair days.  We can be fairly certain what message voters intended to send in Colorado when they said “no” to an income tax hike for more education spending.

And this loud and clear message of opposition to higher income taxes even with the promises that the revenue would flow to a “popular” cause of education spending undermines the Left’s narrative on taxes, Obama, and Colorado.

Via: Human Events

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Deal to avoid another government shutdown struggling in Senate

WASHINGTON -- The congressional committee that is trying to negotiate a deal to prevent the next government shutdown has run into a roadblock: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell, the GOP minority leader, made the trek across the Capitol on Tuesday to tell a private session of House Republicans that his preference is not to give in when it comes to easing up on the mandatory budget cuts that are set to take effect Jan. 15.

“I wish them well,” McConnell said about the bipartisan House-Senate committee trying to craft a deal. “I hope they’ll comply with the law.”

McConnell’s foray into the budget talks come as the Kentucky senator is heading toward a tough reelection battle in the Bluegrass State where he faces not only a Democrat candidate, but a tea party-styled Republican challenging him from the right.

PHOTOS: 2013's memorable political moments

Congress is facing another shutdown threat when money to fund the government runs out Jan. 15. At that time, the next round of so-called sequester cuts are set to slice across government departments, imposed by Congress as part of an earlier failed attempt to force a budget compromise.

Finding bipartisan agreement this time has been as tough as ever. Lawmakers from both parties increasingly view those sequester cuts as a bad idea, but the divisions inside the GOP have deepened.

Fiscal conservatives want to preserve the sequester cuts as their biggest trophy from the last several years of politically bruising fights with Democrats and the White House. But the party’s defense hawks, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), want to undo the Pentagon reductions, saying the cuts would decimate the Defense Department.

McConnell’s suggestion for keeping the top-line spending on par with the sequester cuts is not a recipe for compromise with Democrats. His proposal would essentially require shifting the reductions away from the Pentagon and onto other government programs, something Democrats have resisted as they push for new tax revenue by closing loopholes.

“That’s not where the American people are,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is leading the bipartisan budget committee with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) “They want us to solve the sequester issue. They don’t want the government to shut down again.”

The committee of House and Senate lawmakers has largely moved its work to the backrooms, with no public meetings scheduled. Top leaders face a Dec. 13 deadline to cut a deal

Via: Chicago Tribune

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CBS Report Mirrors Left-Wing Group’s Pipeline Press Release

Since TransCanada proposed building the Keystone XL Pipeline in 2009, liberal actors, environmentalists, and the media have attacked the plan. Four years later, the media continue to work against the company that proposed building it, TransCanada and this time they had help.

On Nov.12, CBS “Evening News” did a segment on repairs being made by TransCanada to the recently built section of the Keystone Pipeline. That story was essentially a copycat summary of a report released that day from the anti-pipeline group, Public Citizen. CBS not only relied on the group as its only experts in the matter, but also interviewed the same farmer and former TransCanada employee cited in the group’s report.

The key interviews came from David Whitley, a Texas farmer whose property covers part of the Keystone pipeline, and Evan Vokes, the former TransCanada engineer whose public complaints got him fired in 2006. Whitley and Vokes, unsurprisingly, had negative opinions of the Keystone Pipeline and TransCanada’s maintenance of it. 

Whitley told the same story to CBS that he told to Public Citizen, of TransCanada digging up his property in May to patch up leaks in the pipe. The two are extremely similar:

Public Citizen Press Release

One day in mid-May, Whitley saw a section of excavated pipe marked with the words “Dent, cut out” on the ground next to a trench where pipe was being replaced.

CBS

Whitley took video of the section they dug up. It had been laid on top of a massive rock. Workers wrote, "Dented, Cut Out."

There was more:

Public Citizen

Whitley: “You’d think they’d build this pipeline right the first time, but now what’s happening makes me worry about how safe this pipeline will really be.”

CBS

Whitley: “Well when I saw that, I thought they should have done a better job when they first laid the pipe about getting rid of that rock.”

Via: Newsbusters
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Rick Santelli Rages Against Media Over ‘Manipulated’ Unemployment Data Allegations

On Tuesday morning, CNBC’s Rick Santelli raged against the American media in light of a New York Post report alleging that Census bureau employees have been caught “fabricating” some data that went into unemployment reports over the last several years, including possibly the controversial report revealed one month before the 2012 election.

The September 2012 jobs report showed a dip in unemployment from 8.1 to 7.8 percent, raising eyebrows among many business-oriented personalities, including former GE CEO Jack Welch and Santelli himself.

While these so-called “jobs truthers” alleged “ideological” motivation behind such data manipulations, the Post report indicates that if there was any widespread manipulation, it was due to Labor Department demands being so high that Census employees simply made up information to fulfill a quota.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday morning, Santelli felt vindicated by such reports indicating any level of manipulated data. During his “Santelli Exchange” monologue, the veteran Chicago-based reporter railed against his media colleagues for dismissing his suggestion that the pre-election numbers could have been incorrect.

“If we know now what we knew then,” the economy could be in a different place, he suggested. “If it turns out these claims are true… it wasn’t only about the economy, it was about healthcare, it wasn’t polling well. It was the reassurances about the unknown.”

Santelli seemingly suggested that if we had known back in September 2012 that the president’s “grandfather clause” on the Affordable Care Act would turn out to be a “lie,” the way the media treated that pre-election jobs report might have been different.

The CNBC reporter moved into a shout as he railed against how that potentially “fake” jobs report resulted in Federal Reserve undertaking monetary policies that drastically shifted the economy.

“All outcomes would have changed,” he concluded. Next time, he said, the media “must do better.”

Watch below, via CNBC:

Via: Mediaite.com

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[VIDEO] Obama Shifts: 'We've Always Understood' That Enrolling by Website Isn't for Everyone

(CNSNews.com) - "It turns out that purchasing insurance, for a lot of folks, is complicated," Obama told his supporters in a Monday night in an online conference call.

“What I want to do is make sure everybody on the phone call understands, we’ve always understood that we’re going to have enroll people by mail, we’re going to have to enroll people on the phone, we’re going to have to enroll people in person,” he said.

Obama said his administration has a "strong plan" in place, not only to "fix the website," but also to "make sure there are other ways that people can sign up."

Earlier on Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House may let people sign up for Obamacare directly through the insurance companies.

"I certainly wouldn't rule that out," Carney said. "It's something that we've talked about and are working on. We're interested in engaging or opening as many channels for enrollment as possible because the goal here is, again, not to have the best possible website -- and we're far from that.

Via: CNS News

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Senator Mike Lee Critiques the War on Poverty

If you haven’t read Utah Senator Mike Lee’s remarks [Bring Them In] at the Heritage Foundation’s Anti-Poverty Forum you really owe it to yourself to do so. It is probably the most succinct conservative critique of modern government anti-poverty programs in recent decades.

When President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty” in his 1964 State of the Union address it represented, arguably, the high water mark for the acceptance on liberal ideology in America. The essence of the speech was a singleminded devotion to the “the perfectability of man”: the notion that perfection can be achieved on Earth through the efforts of man, or in the case, the federal government. Never mind that some famous guy, his name escapes me at the moment, warned us all that the poor will always be with us.

As is so often the case, federal intervention becomes a self-licking ice cream cone where the resources earmarked for the eradication of poverty do little more than sustain the bureaucracy dedicated to eradicating poverty. And for good reason, if poverty ends so do the jobs associated with its eradication.

The outcomes have been dramatic and had they not been visited upon those at the margins of society would have resulted in long prison sentences for all involved. Instead of declaring a war on poverty, by Johnson’s actions he actually began the institutionalization of poverty and hopelessness as a lifestyle.

Via: Red State

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[VIDEO] Ted Cruz remembers Gettysburg…

Ted Cruz isn’t opting out of the Gettysburg anniversary like some presidents we know. Instead, he created this tribute:

Via: The Right Scoop

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Stephens: From 'Four Score' to 'Yes We Can!' - Sudden modesty from the selfhyperadulated president.

Seven score and 10 years ago, Abraham Lincoln delivered his sacred speech on the meaning of free government. Edward Everett, a former secretary of state and the principal speaker for the consecration of the Gettysburg cemetery, instantly recognized the power of the president's 272 words.

"I should be glad, if I could flatter myself," Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day, "that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

Barack Obama is not scheduled to be present at Gettysburg on Tuesday to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the address. Maybe he figured that the world would little note, nor long remember, what he said there. Maybe he thought the comparisons with the original were bound to be invidious, and rightly so.

If that's the case, it would be the beginning of wisdom for this presidency. Better late than never.

Mr. Obama's political career has always and naturally inspired thoughts about the 16th president: the lawyer from Illinois, blazing a sudden trail from obscurity to eminence; the first black president, redeeming the deep promise of the new birth of freedom. The associations create a reservoir of pride in the 44th president even among his political opponents.

Enlarge Image

In Lincoln's larger shadow. AFP/Getty Images

But, then, has there ever been a president who so completely over-salted his own brand as Barack Obama? "I never compare myself to Lincoln," the president told NBC's David Gregory last year. Except that he announced his presidential candidacy from the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Ill. And that he traveled by train to Washington from Philadelphia for his first inauguration along the same route Lincoln took in the spring of 1861. And that he twice swore his oaths of office on the Lincoln Bible. "Lincoln—they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me," he said in Iowa in 2011.

No, this has not been a president who has ever shied away from grandiose historical comparisons. If George W. Bush reveled in being misunderestimated, Mr. Obama aims to be selfhyperadulated. "I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president—with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR, and Lincoln," the president told "60 Minutes" in 2011. Note the word possible.

Citing overreach, Republicans ponder new checks on executive powers

Congressional Republicans are considering various options to curb President Obama’s use of executive powers, which they say are excessive.

GOP officials have long claimed that the president has violated the law and the Constitution through administrative actions on issues ranging from immigration to nominations to the U.S. military involvement in Libya.

But the president’s recent move to change ObamaCare through an administrative fix has sparked a new round of discussions within the conservative base and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) last week said he was “highly skeptical” Obama could find a fix for the cancellation of health insurance plans that was both “legal and effective.”

“I just don’t see, within the law, their ability to do that,” said the Speaker.

An hour later, Obama was outlining such a change to reporters at the White House.

House Republicans passed a bill that would allow people to keep their health plan. Despite a veto threat, 39 Democrats backed the legislation written by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

“I know there’s a lot of discussion about the validity of the president just unilaterally changing the law. ... There are a lot of us that are very concerned about it,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in an interview with The Hill.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, said, “We’re exploring options to try to somehow try to rein in this president’s total disregard for the Constitution.”

Via: Huffington Post

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