Wednesday, August 12, 2015

5 Things We Learned From Claire McCaskill’s Memoir

McCaskill is a Democrat from Missouri. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
McCaskill’s new book, “Plenty Ladylike: A Memoir,” was released on Tuesday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill’s new memoir, “Plenty Ladylike: A Memoir,” dropped on Tuesday, revealing anecdotes from her career in politics in Missouri’s state capitol and the nation’s.
Aside from deeply personal anecdotes and some local intrigue, McCaskill shed light on the inner workings of two nationally watched U.S. Senate campaigns and her dealings with other women in politics.
1. McCaskill used more than just ads to prop up Todd AkinMcCaskill’s behind-the-scenes support for Rep. Todd Akin in advance of the 2012 Missouri Republican primary has been well documented. In her book, McCaskill writes that with the $1.7 million her campaign spent in the four weeks before the primary on a dog-whistle campaign to help Akin, she actually spent more than Akin’s campaign did during his entire primary campaign.
But, McCaskill’s support ran much deeper than that.
When Akin’s campaign swapped out a successful campaign commercial that featured former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and replaced it with one featuring Akin talking to the camera about “flames of freedom,” his numbers started to dive.
Rep. Todd Akin confirmed once and for all today that he will be the GOP Senate nominee in Missouri. (Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)
Akin ran against McCaskill in 2012. (File Photo by Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)
“What were they thinking?” McCaskill wrote. “He’d be in trouble if he didn’t get the Huckabee ad back up.”
To get that message to Akin, McCaskill writes that she used a back channel through Michael Kelley, a St. Louis Democratic and labor activist, to get the message to a top Akin campaign official. She was able to put the Akin campaign in touch with her own pollster, Boston-based Tom Kiley, who she allowed “to speak in broad generalities” about his numbers on the ad’s success.
“There hours later the Huckabee ad was back up,” McCaskill wrote.
When asked by someone else later about her help in the primary and then when she helped keep him stay in the race amid pressure to get out after his infamous “legitimate rape” comment, McCaskill writes that Akin said, “sometimes God uses the devil in his plans.”
2. McCaskill chatted with Obama about not even running for re-election: Before Akin, McCaskill was seen as one of the most vulnerable incumbents in 2012. In the summer of 2011, McCaskill writes that she went to lunch with President Barack Obama at a private dining room in White House where she told him, “I’m thinking about not running.”
WASHINGTON - MARCH 10:  U.S. President Barack Obama walks to a waiting Marine One with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) at the White House March 10, 2010 in Washington, DC. Obama was scheduled to travel to St. Louis later in the afternoon. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Obama promised not to repeat the mistake he made in 2010. (File Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Obama, whom McCaskill had endorsed in 2008, talked her out of it, she wrote — adding that the president pledged to avoid the Missouri misstep he made in 2010 while campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan in saying, “I need another vote,” which Republican Roy Bluntsuccessfully used to paint her as “Rubber-stamp Robin” for the president.
Despite Obama’s personal support for her, McCaskill writes that his campaign, through campaign manager Jim Messina, informed her at a meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus that the Obama campaign would not be spending money on a Missouri ground game in 2012, prompting her to walk out of the meeting, “my eyes welling up, as frustration overwhelmed me.”
“I stuck my neck way out, I took huge risks, I have been loyal… and you guys are not going to lift a finger in Missouri,” she writes that she asked Messina. According to her account, he responded, “Claire, can we win in Missouri?”
“Point made,” she wrote.
3. Reid, Schumer relentlessly courted her to run in 2005: Just a couple months after McCaskill lost her 2004 election for governor against Republican Matt Blunt, McCaskill writes that she started getting call from Senate Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Charles E. Schumer. They wanted her to run against Republican Sen. Jim Talent in 2006.
WASHINGTON - MAY 17:  U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) leave after a press conference oil price fixing on Capitol Hill May 17, 2011 in Washington, DC.  Schumer and McCaskill held the news conference to announce a letter they sent to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to investigate potential price fixing by oil refineries.  (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
Schumer told McCaskill that she negotiated “like you’re from Brooklyn.” (File Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
“My first reaction to all the calls? Out of question. No way. Not happening,” she wrote.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee conducted a poll that summer that found McCaskill on top. She writes that her husband, Joseph Shepard, was convinced she should run. By then, Reid himself started calling Shepard to plead his case.
McCaskill and her husband went first to the DSCC’s annual retreat in Nantucket, Mass., (where she says Shumer paid her a compliment, “Claire, you negotiate like you’re from Brooklyn”) and then to Washington, where they met with then-Sen. Barack Obama.
The two were sold.
4. McCaskill has clashed with Ann Wagner before: Rep. Ann Wagner — the Missouri Republican elected in 2012 who is considering a campaign next cycle for McCaskill’s seat — has clashed repeatedly with her throughout the last two decades.
Wagner is a Missouri Republican. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Wagner is considering a run for McCaskill’s seat. (File Photo by Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
The two crossed paths very publicly in 2000, when Wagner was the chair of the Missouri Republican Party. At the time, she writes, a party spokesman penned a press release in which he said McCaskill let “Democrats parade her around like a cheap hooker” to help the party’s nominee for governor at the time. Wagner, she writes, said the spokesman’s “remark was wrong but that they had no plans to fire him.”
The tables were turned four years later, when it was McCaskill’s successful primary election challenge to the state’s sitting governor that was controversial, and Wagner used the party’s divide to help Matt Blunt get elected governor.
5. McCaskill reveals private meals with women senators: McCaskill praises her female colleagues as the Senate’s top compromisers, and notes that all of them meet regularly for “civility dinners.”
UNITED STATES - APRIL 01: Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., in red, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., left, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., share a laugh during a news conference in the Capitol to urge the Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act which will help close the wage gap between men and women. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Mikulski started the women senators’ meals in 1992 . (File Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
“There is no fancy menu and no long cocktail hour. They’re a chance for us to talk about the issues of the day,” she writes, adding that in that room is where compromises have been discussed on human trafficking legislation, foreign adoption reform and efforts to avoid a government shutdown.
The dinners, founded by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski in 1992, were attended by Hillary Clinton when she was in the Senate.
“She was the only one of us who had a Secret Service detail, the only ones who had been first lady of the country, who had traveled places with a much more rarefied atmosphere than even the U.S. Senate. But she never put on airs,” McCaskill wrote. “She was kind and personable, and she was one of us.”
While spouses and staff members are not invited to the dinners, McCaskill writes that the women of the Supreme Court are invited to attend once a year.

Lois Lerner: Lincoln Should’ve Let the South Go Instead of Civil War

PicMonkey Collage - Lerner  Lincoln
Most Americans tend to agree that Abraham Lincoln was one of this country’s better presidents, having saved the nation from imploding on itself with the Civil War. Former IRS chief Lois Lerner, however, does not apparently have the same thoughts about keeping the South in the union.

“Look my view is that Lincoln was our worst president not our best,” Lerner wrote in 2014. “He should (have) let the south go. We really do seem to have 2 totally different mindsets.”
The Senate Finance Committee released a report yesterday that examined 1.5 million pages of IRS emails. A significant focus has gone to the fact that Lerner had a pattern of deriding conservatives as “crazies” and “assholes,” as well as the allegations that her leadership mismanaged the applications of Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status
“The report clearly shows that conservative groups were singled out because of their political beliefs, and gross mismanagement at the IRS allowed this practice to continue for years,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch.
Lerner is still reeling from renewed backlash after yesterday’s reports suggested that she once targeted an organization that once paid a fee to Bristol Palin.

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.

Chicago Schools Demand $500 Million Bailout From State

Chicago skyline [Getty Images].
Chicago’s public schools have released a budget that relies on nearly $500 million in funding the state has not yet voted to provide. The official budget essentially demands that the state hand over money or risk throwing the school district into chaos. Even Chicago’s teacher union is critical of the move.
With a total budget of $5.7 billion, the $480 million Chicago Public Schools (CPS) expects the state to provide is more than 8 percent of their budget. The money is needed to fulfill pension obligations the city has to current and retired teachers. If the money isn’t forthcoming by the end of the year, the district says it will have to lay off thousands of current teachers to meet those pension obligations. (RELATED: Chicago Fires 1400 Teachers To Fund Extravagant Pensions)
The district is already preparing itself for the blow, as Monday’s budget also came with an announcement of over 400 layoffs. Chicago’s schools have repeatedly had to shed jobs the last few years as they descend further and further into a pension-induced budget crisis.
While CPS is looking to the state government to bail it out, it may not want to hold its breath. Illinois’ Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, says that Chicago’s pension crisis is the fault of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the “dictatorial” power they wield. Rauner said CTU needs to bear the burden of a fiscal crunch they created and that it isn’t the government’s job to swoop in to the rescue.
"The power of the Chicago Teachers Union is overwhelming,” Rauner said in a press conference Monday. “Chicago has given and given and given. It’s created the financial crisis that the Chicago schools face now.”
Rauner wants to alter Illinois state law to give cities most power to determine what is collectively bargained and what isn’t, with an eye towards rolling back the generous benefits Chicago teachers have that have helped create the crisis. Rauner says that providing a financial bailout to CPS would be contingent on making such long-term reforms, but the Democrat-controlled legislature has refused to budge on the issue.
CPS leaders, meanwhile, have proposed reducing their budget gap by making teachers finance their own pension contributions. Currently, the government puts an equivalent of 7 percent of teachers’ salary into pension plans; CPS head Forrest Claypool has proposed taking some or all of this 7 percent out of teachers’ current salaries instead.
Teachers, led by CTU president Karen Lewis, have blasted this proposal as a massive pay cut and on Monday warned they would likely strike if the city tried to implement it.
“If they insist on a 7 percent all at once like a pay cut — a 7 percent pay cut — I don’t have to call for a strike,” Lewis said in a press conference Monday. “I think our members will do that themselves.”
Lewis was also critical of CPS for its budgetary jujitsu, saying it was relying on funds that “aren’t really there.”

Black Lives Matter Racists Strike Again

insert picture
Ferguson, MO turned once again into a scene of violent race hatred when a man police authorities say opened fire on them on the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death was critically wounded when police returned fire. He released a “remarkable amount of gunfire” against the officers using a stolen handgun, explained St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar. That incident occurred shortly after “an exchange of gunfire between two groups” Belmar described as criminals, not protesters. “There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making sure that peace doesn’t prevail,” he said.

So-called “peaceful” protests in Ferguson on Sunday descended into shootings, as well as protesters pelting cops with rocks and bottles. Protestors marking the one-year anniversary of the confrontation between Michael Brown and officer Darren Wilson that resulted in Brown’s death roasted and ate a pig with a policeman’s hat on its head and the words #Darren Wilson scrawled on its body. Make no mistake, the roasted, consumed pig represented more than Darren Wilson, but was a representation of “white” police forces, whom #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) activist view as the enforcers of the white power structure that deliberately oppresses black people. As the protest worn on in Ferguson, people once again engaged in looting a beauty store, police were injured by debris tossed at them, and members of the mob chanted, “We’re ready for what? We’re ready for war.”

On Saturday at Westlake Park in Seattle, WA Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was ultimately driven from the stage when a group of BLM protestors stepped on the podium and took control of the microphone. Sanders was on hand to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Social Security and Medicare. He had begun to deliver his address thanking Seattle for being “one of the most progressive cities in the United States of America.” That was as far as he got before two women strolled onto the stage and grabbed the microphone. One of the two made their intentions clear. “If you do not listen to her, your event will be shut down now,” Sanders was told. After an exchange ensued with screaming protesters, event organizers relented and allowed the demonstrators to proceed.

The largely white crowd was not particularly appreciative, showering the protesters with boos and chants about allowing Sanders to speak. A few urged the police to take control. That was too much for protester Marissa Johnson. “I was going to tell Bernie how racist this city is, filled with its progressives, but you did it for me,” she declared. And true to the racist underpinnings of BLM movement Johnson further insisted the audience was guilty of “white supremacist liberalism.”


DONALD TRUMP TAKES BIG DROP IN LATEST NATIONAL POLL, FIORINA SURGE IS FOR REAL

Rasmussen has come out with a new national poll that shows The Donald, while keeping the lead, dropping almost 10 points down to 17% among likely Republican voters. The Fiorina surge appears to be for real as she has jumped from nearly nothing to 9%, tied with Walker for 3rd who took a 5 point tumble.  Rubio gained 5 points to put him in 2nd place with Jeb.
Cruz didn’t gain or lose, but is now behind Fiorina:
rasmussen_poll
Here’s the info about the poll:
The national telephone survey of 651 Likely Republican Primary Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on August 9-10, 2015. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Tax issue dogs Democrat Melissa Gilbert in new bid for Congress - owes IRS $360,000

mgilbert-file
Howell — Actress Melissa Gilbert, the "Little House on the Prairie" star whose move to Howell two years ago brought a dash of Hollywood glamour to Livingston County, is more than a half pint short on her federal taxes.
The Internal Revenue Service recently accused her of failing to pay more than $360,000 in federal income taxes, a debt that is emerging one week after Gilbert announced she and her family are moving out of their rented home near downtown Howell.
Gilbert, 51, blamed the tax debt on a stalled acting career, the economy and divorce.
"Like so many people across the nation, the recession hit me hard," Gilbert said in a statement to The Detroit News. "That, plus a divorce and a dearth of acting opportunities the last few years, created a perfect storm of financial difficulty for me."
Gilbert, along with husband and fellow actor Timothy Busfield and two younger boys, are moving into a log house in an unspecified part of Livingston County, or as she wrote in a tweet last week "our own Little House in the Big Woods."
Her husband said the move from Howell is unrelated to the tax debt.
"(The debt) has more to do with the housing crash and divorce in the past," Busfield told The News. "It's a product of what happened with the economy. It's unfortunate and it's been happening a lot. It's not a big deal."
Gilbert said she has negotiated a payment plan with the IRS.
"I've set up an installment plan to fully pay off my debt and will continue to work as hard as I can to erase this debt and dig myself out of this hole," she said. "I am absolutely positive that I can do it."
Gilbert and East Lansing native Busfield — known for television roles in "thirtysomething" and "West Wing" and in the films "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Field of Dreams" — moved to Michigan about three months after they were married in April 2013.
Gilbert has a history of tax problems that followed her from California to Michigan. The state of California has filed $112,527 worth of tax liens against her since 2013.
A tax lien gives the government a legal claim to all of Gilbert's property, everything from vehicles to homes and income.
The IRS filed a $360,551 tax lien against Gilbert on Feb. 3. She owes federal income taxes from 2011, 2012 and 2013, according to the lien, which is filed with the Livingston County Register of Deeds.
According to the IRS, Gilbert owes $219,989 in income taxes from 2011. She owes $99,405 from 2012 — the year she appeared on "Dancing With the Stars" — and $41,157 in taxes from 2013, according to the tax lien.
Gilbert went through a period of change during the three years covered by the tax lien. She filed for divorce from Bruce Boxleitner in 2011 and competed on "Dancing With the Stars" the next year.
Since she and Busfield arrived in Michigan, they have rented a three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot Victorian home built in 1890 and located two blocks from downtown Howell.
"Oh, my God, they're great," landlord and property owner Brenda Korth said. "It's been fine. It's been fun."
Korth rented the home to Gilbert, thinking the Hollywood couple would stay for one year.
"It turned into two years and that was fine but I'm really ready to move home," the General Motors environmental engineer told The News.
"If they've been having financial problems, that's not known to me," she added. "The rent's always been paid on time. They've been great tenants."
Gilbert and her husband are kind, she said, and have been welcomed by people in Howell.
"I'm so glad they're in town; everybody has been excited about it," Korth said.
Gilbert did not explain what prompted the pending move out of Howell.
"We are moving but we are not leaving," Gilbert tweeted Friday in response to a well-wisher. "We will be around. We love Howell. We love Livingston Co."
While in Michigan, Gilbert has written a cookbook called "My Prairie Cookbook," inspired by the voracious but picky eating habits of her sons. She has done at least one book signing in Livingston County.
The couple also has continued to pursue acting and directing careers. The couple guest starred on a late April episode of the NBC series "The Night Shift" that Busfield also directed.
In January, Gilbert participated in a charity fundraiser in Howell for Yatooma's Foundation For the Kids, a charity that raises money for children who have lost a parent.
"We're thrilled she's here," Bloomfield Hills lawyer Norman Yatooma said. "She's every bit the class act in person that her fans have come to love from the comfort of their couches."
rsnell@detroitnews.com

How is Government Spending Hidden Tax Revenue?

tax sign
​Especially in California, the word “taxpayer” is frequently preceded by the word “beleaguered.” Given our large tax burden and the tragic level of government waste, perhaps there should be a grammatical rule that these two words must always be combined.
While some California taxes are hidden, most are unfortunately and painfully obvious. But the same is not true for the level of wasteful spending by government. The unstated rule of politicians and bureaucrats is that average taxpayers must be kept in the dark about how their money is being spent.
Ask the average man or woman in the street what they think the 87 cent tax on a pack of cigarettes goes to and they will likely respond that it goes for anti-smoking programs – like those scary TV spots – and for health care.
Because of the detrimental impact of smoking on health, most Californians will agree that there seems a logical connection between what is being taxed and how the money is being spent. However, most of the tobacco tax does not go to these programs. Of the 87 cents, 50 cents goes to children’s programs administered by First Five California, a creation of Proposition 10. Now children’s programs may be a great idea, but many ask why these are not funded openly out of the state general fund instead of having the costs hidden inside the tobacco tax.
Ironically, we have seen First Five California objecting to additional taxes on tobacco products because the number of smokers might decrease and thus reduce revenue to their programs. So what we have, in effect, is an agency that is tacitly supporting what they concede is an unhealthful habit, simply because it wants the revenue.
Then there are parking tickets that in cities like Los Angeles can cost more than $60. While parking fines are imposed, in theory, to make spaces available to all motorists, the real motivation is to satisfy the appetite for revenue. Because Los Angeles has some of the highest paid workers in a state that the federal government says has the highest paid government employees in all 50 states, it desperately needs the revenue to support payroll and benefits. This may help explain some of the city’s confusing signage that makes it difficult for drivers to tell when they can park and where.
More confusion that benefits the public sector, and puts taxpayers at a disadvantage.
But state and local governments do not have a monopoly on confusing or hidden taxes, charges and other revenue enhancements.
Enter Congress and the highway bill. The version being considered by the Senate would place a new tax burden on home buyers by increasing the fees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge for their loans. “Not only will it increase the cost of homeownership and make it more difficult for a buyer to purchase a home, it will hinder future efforts at mortgage finance reform,” said California Association of Realtors President Chris Kutzkey.
As bad as that sounds, it is even worse. It is another charge whose purpose is intentionally hidden from the casual observer and where there is a total disconnect between what is being taxed, home loans, and on what the money will be spent, highways. (In California this would be defined as a “special tax” under Proposition 13 and require a two-thirds vote.)
According to the Washington D.C.-based Tax Foundation, America spends more on taxes than on food, clothing and housing combined. In California, the average taxpayer works for government until May 3rd, before they start working for themselves.
It is not too much to demand from politicians that they make clear what taxpayers are being charged and on what the funds are being spent. Maybe then we can remove the modifier “beleaguered” from the word “taxpayer.”
Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association — California’s largest grass-rootstaxpayerorganization dedicated to the protection of Proposition 13 and the advancement of taxpayers’ rights.

Frack Now, Pay Later: A New Era in U.S. Oil?

Frack Now, Pay Later: A New Era in U.S. Oil? | RealClearEnergy
With oil prices now dipping close to six-year lows, the energy sector is getting thumped across the board.
The double-dip will likely cause fresh cuts to spending, drilling, and staff. Last week, Baker Hughes reported a surprise uptick in the number of rigs drilling in North America, which jumped by 10 to 884 for the week ending on August 7.
Oil prices fell even further on the news, with both WTI and Brent dropping by 2 percent to close out the week. Even though the additional rigs are a rounding error when compared to the 1,000 rigs that disappeared over the past year, the markets took the data as evidence that the supply overhang may not balance out in the near term, as new drilling could be taking place before oil production has appreciably declined.
Over the course of the last year, the companies that arguably suffered the worst were those whose business relies on drilling activity. Oilfield service companies offer rigs, drilling completions, equipment, and other services that actually allow drilling to happen. When drilling slows down, their business dries up. They bear the brunt of a market downturn.
The unprecedented crash in the rig count North America, notwithstanding minor gains in recent weeks, inflicted damage most acutely on these oilfield service companies. With exploration facing a prolonged period of lower activity, a few service companies have come up with a novel, if desperate, approach to keep business alive.
Schlumberger and Halliburton, the two largest service firms, have offered operators the option to “frack now and pay later.” According to Reuters, the new offer amounts to the service firms acting as lenders to oil companies.
Halliburton saw its profit for the second quarter fall by more than a half billion dollars from a year before, and backed by $500 million in cash from asset manager BlackRock, Halliburton is looking “at additional ways of doing business with our customers,” Halliburton’s CEO Dave Lesar said recently.
The “frack now pay later” model that Reuters described consists of companies like Halliburton or Schlumberger covering the cost of drilling a well in exchange for a portion of the well’s production. That is not always a preferred option for operators, who may not want to give up a share in the project and would simply opt for a conventional service contract. However, for companies that are running low on cash and may start to see their credit lines shrink, paying later for drilling today sounds like a pretty good option.
“It's just a reflection of do they want to capture more of the value themselves or would they like to outsource all the risk and potentially much more of the upside to us?” Schlumberger Chief Executive Paal Kibsgaard said when reporting second quarter results in July.
Interestingly, much of the focus is on “refracking,” in which wells that have already been fracked once are simply fracked again. Refracking old wells is less expensive than fracking new ones, and while the volume of recoverable oil varies, some of the best refracking examples produce an impressive return.
The reason that the “frack now, pay later” model may be concentrated on refracking operations is because the technique is not well known throughout the industry and is still relatively new. That has wary operators unwilling to shell out the capital for something they are unsure of, especially now that they are safeguarding a shrinking pile of cash.
But Schlumberger is confident in the approach. While reporting first quarter earnings on a conference call with investors, Schlumberger’s CEO Paal Kibsgaard extolled the market potential for refracking. “I think you're talking billions, in terms of revenue opportunities, over an extended period of time,” he said. “And I think the key here is that we're so confident in our ability to identify the right candidates and execute the refracturing work that we're prepared to take significant risks, in terms of how we go about doing this work. In many cases, if we can select the candidates, prepare to foot the entire bill for the refracturing work and then get paid back in production.”
With “lower for longer” suddenly becoming the new prevailing mantra in the oil markets, the oilfield service giants may have to increasingly cover the costs of fracking and refracking as operators scale back.

[VIDEO] Baltimore Reaches 200 Murders So Far This Year…

Black Lives Matter and their white social justice warrior allies unavailable for comment.

Timothy Smith was shaving the gray stubble from his face Monday afternoon when he heard the gunshots. He dropped the razor and sprinted downstairs and out the door.
The 48-year-old said he’d been inside his Northeast Baltimore home only a moment to get ready for work, temporarily leaving three of his grandchildren riding their bikes in the street outside. His worst fears were assuaged — the pre-teens were OK — but in an alley nearby lay a man, shot to death in Baltimore’s 200th homicide this year.
The city didn’t hit 200 homicides last year until Dec. 7, when police said 19-year-old Tymaine Sellman was gunned down in the 500 block of Edgewood St.
A wave of killings the likes of which hasn’t been seen in four decades followed the unrest over the death of Freddie Gray, with more than 40 people killed in both May and July. So far in August, about one person has been killed per day in Baltimore. Police have partially blamed the influx of prescription drugs stolen from looted pharmacies for the violence.

Taxpayer money being used to teach 'transgendered' men to talk like girls

The University of Connecticut, which received state and federal funding, has a program to teach men who want to be pretend to be women how to talk like girls (and vice-versa, of course -- no discrimination there!).

You would think this would be something easily accomplished without classes, but I guess like thespians, they want to learn from professionals!
Sylvia Wojcik was making reservations for a beach getaway in Maine when the receptionist on the other end of the line called her "ma'am." Nothing could have delighted her more.
Wojcik, 66, is transitioning from male to female. For her, that proof that she sounded like a woman was an important moment. 
Wojcik has undergone several years of voice therapy, the past 18 months at the University of Connecticut's Speech and Hearing Clinic, one of a growing number of clinics with programs to teach transgender people how to sound more like the sex they identify with. 
They learn not only how to change the pitch of their voice, but also its resonance (males speak more from chest, women from the head) and delivery (men tend to be more staccato, women more fluid). 
It involves a lot of voice exercises - humming to find an ideal pitch, naming five words that start with the letter "T."
Five words that start with T? That sounds like the Damon Wayans "Men on Films" gay parody skit from "In Living Color!"
Roberts, a freelance copywriter, has been attending sessions since February. She expects to participate for at least another semester. 
As a man, Roberts was a radio personality, voiceover artist and actor. She is now returning to the stage as an actress and doesn't want her voice to impede her winning roles.
A voice actor who will never be seen, who can still easily use a man's voice in his work, still wants his voice changed so he sounds like a girl? No irony there!



It's ridiculous that taxpayer supported foundations are being used to perpetuate people's delusions that they can change gender. This article from the Associated Press is especially Onion-like reporting, given that men can easily raise their voices and women can lower them.  The kind of training they are looking for is at the level of spies trying to make their foreign accents sound believable, which makes the entire endeavor even more preposterous.
On the other hand:
The clinic also has served some people who are not transgender, such as men who wish to sound less effeminate -- a topic explored in the new documentary "Do I Sound Gay?"
This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.
Thomas Lifson adds:

I am baffled. Here, the feminists have been telling us for decades that gender stereotypes are invidious relics of the past. But now, the cutting edge of the movement, the transgendered crowd, is striving to emulate those same gender stereotypes.




U.S. House and Senate Each Said They Had Only 45 Employees--Then Signed Up 12,359 for Insurance on Obamacare 'Small-Business' Exchange

 (CNSNews.com) – Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives certified that they had only 45 employees each in order to sign up for the District of Columbia’s Small Business Exchange. But 12,359 - or 86 percent of the exchange's enrollees - are members of Congress, congressional staff members, and their spouses and dependents, according to an appeal filed with the D.C. Court of Appeals by Judicial Watch.
The public interest law firm announced Monday that it is appealing the February dismissal of its lawsuit challenging congressional participation in the Obamacare exchange even though the D.C. Exchange Act limits enrollment to small companies with 50 or fewer employees.
“Congress obviously has far more than 50 employees,” Judicial Watch attorney Michael Bekesha pointed out in his opening brief. “It has thousands of employees.”
Congress enrolled in the small business exchange when its previous coverage under the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan was terminated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and congressional employees stood to lose thousands of dollars in “employer contributions” if they enrolled in the District’s individual exchange.
According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives both certified that they “employ 50 or fewer full time equivalent employees.”
In October 2013, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a final rule that provides an “employer contribution” covering about three-quarters of the premiums of congressional employees enrolled in the small business exchange starting Jan. 1, 2014.
The OPM rule “allowed at least 12,359 congressional employees and their spouses and dependents to obtain health insurance through the Small Business Exchange…These 12,359 participants represent an astonishing 86% of the Small Business Exchange’s total enrollment,” the appeal states.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit last October on behalf of Kirby Vining, a D.C. resident since 1986, who objected to the expenditure of municipal funds to insure congressional employees in an exchange that was established specifically for small employers in the District.
“Congress authored the law [ACA], and is going to rather questionable lengths to avoid compliance with the law it drafted,” Vining said.
D.C. resident Kirby Vining. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
Although the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority conceded that D.C. law limits participation in the exchange to small employers, it argued in court that “the local statute must yield to the extent the federal statute or regulation applies.”
In its motion to dismiss the case, the authority also stated that the exchange “has been funded exclusively by federal grants awarded to the District to establish its Exchange, and more recently, an assessment imposed on health carriers doing business in the District.”
In dismissing the lawsuit, D.C. Superior Court Judge Herbert Dixon ruled that Vining had no standing to challenge the OPM rule because he “has not demonstrated a reasonable inference that municipal taxpayer funds have been appropriated to defendant exchange authority to establish a cognizable injury to maintain standing to bring his underlying complaint.”
However, in a budget report submitted to Congress, the Exchange Authority’s actual budget for Fiscal Year 2013 ($10.9 million) and FY 2014 ($66.1 million) was identified as " ‘municipal monies’ as originating from the District’s General Fund. No monies are identified as Federal Funds, Private Revenue, or Intra-District Funds,” according to the appeal.
“In Fiscal Year 2015, the Exchange Authority’s budget was reclassified from the General Fund to a newly created fund, separate and distinct from ‘Federal Funds’,” it continued.
Dixon also ruled that the OPM rule preempts the D.C. Exchange Act, noting that “allowing members of Congress and their staff to participate in the District’s small business health options program is authorized by federal regulations.”
But Judicial Watch argues in its appeal that the D.C. law cannot be preempted because it is “completely consistent and entirely compatible” with the federal law and in fact its “sole purpose is to implement various provisions of ACA.”
“In reality, the court ruled that a determination by a federal bureaucrat – in this instance, the director of OPM – trumps the 50-employee limit of the Exchange Act, at least with respect to Congress,” the group’s appeal brief stated. “No lawful regulation – much less a regulation that purports to delegate such authority to an agency head – can do that, and the Court cites no legal authority whatsoever for their astonishing conclusion that it can.”
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said that allowing Congress to enroll in an exchange meant for small businesses is both “unlawful and unethical.”
“It is an abuse of District taxpayers to use D.C. funds to subsidize illegal health insurance for Congress,” Fitton said in a statement.  “It is unlawful and unethical for District officials to use local dollars to participate in Congress’s Obamacare fraud. 
“The highest court in the District of Columbia must affirm the right of District taxpayers to protect their monies from being misappropriated by corrupt District officials.”

[VIDEO] Why Chris Christie Wants to Defund Sanctuary Cities

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says the next president of the United States should make sure federal dollars don’t flow to sanctuary cities.
“Withdraw federal funding from cities that don’t or are unwilling to enforce the federal immigration law,” Christie told The Daily Signal at the RedState Gathering this weekend in Atlanta.
The issue of sanctuary cities came up at last week’s GOP debate. Specifically, whether candidates would support mandatory five-year prison sentences for illegals that are deported and then come back to the United States.
There’s also been plenty of discussion about the need to defund sanctuary cities. Christie believes stopping the flow of money is important but he also raises the larger issue of actual law enforcement, something some sanctuary city officials clearly don’t get.
“They need to understand our laws that our federal government makes are not optional. They’re not based upon your personal preference. They are about the laws made by the people we elect to make them.”
Christie made clear that he’d love to get rid of certain laws he doesn’t like but can’t. As for President Obama, he thinks he’s playing games.
“I don’t get to pick and choose. This president picks and chooses and we should not permit that to happen.”

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