An Unconstitutional Assault on Coal Will Be Accomplished Through Regulation

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Photo Credit: Irish Central

Photo Credit: Irish Central

In another arbitrary and illegal assault on America’s way of life, President Obama announced he will unilaterally toughen EPA regulations.

Excerpted from a report in the Guardian:

Obama would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of America’s greenhouse gas emissions – responsible for up to 40% of carbon pollution – and have long been a target of campaigners.

The Obama administration has already taken steps to raising standards on new power plants. But it has balked until now at imposing tougher standards on existing power plants – a measure which would deliver the biggest cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

There was intense speculation ahead of Tuesday’s speech about whether Obama would promise to curb emissions of existing facilities.

All of this based on a premise that there is global warming and it is caused by human activity. This is not based on scientific fact and is hotly disputed by thousands of scientists and meteorologists around the world, including 32,000 American scientists. See Oregon Petition.

Perhaps the Presidents announcement was timed to distract attention away from the many scandals surrounding the White House. But for whatever reason, it clearly illustrates America is evolving into a monarchy when the chief executive (King), can make a proclamation that will effectively place a hardship on millions of Americans with huge spikes in energy costs.

Bypassing the checks and balances of our republic by executive order, shows too much power is put in the hands of one person.

The goal of course is to model our policy after Europe where electric energy costs as a result of green energy have forced some to choose between food or paying their electric bill. See German finance minister declaring solar is the path to bankruptcy.

Lots of talk about wind/solar/unicorn dust to take up the slack if coal is removed and other forms of fossil fuel are punished….But in reality, alternative energy at this stage of its technology will only compete as an energy source when all other energy competition is forced to subsidize them. See “EU’s Green Policies In Retreat”.

Additionally the reliance on natural gas if coal is taken out of the picture, refuses to recognize the price of gas has seen wild swings in the past. It will assuredly do it again without competition from a reliable supply of clean coal to keep it in line.

John Fay, an American in Ireland shows what will happen when the left imposes their will on a country’s energy policy with his excellent piece: “Irish people, shivering in their own homes, have only themselves to blame”.

The public needs to know what is in store for them if President Obama and the far left, achieve their goal of choosing energy winners and losers. By first killing coal and then punishing other productive fossil fuels in order to usher in and subsidize “green energy,” our modern society as we know it, can grind to a halt.

It is game changing and damaging to our society to let a small cabal of fossil fuel enemies decide that America’s most prolific source of cheap energy is no longer welcome to be used…..and then regulate it out of existence.

It is game changing and damaging to our society and our country to let this decision rest in the hands of one person.

America’s energy future is far too important to be regulated by an executive order with an agenda. Time to put a halt to energy legislation by regulation and let the rest of our branches of government be involved in these decisions.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Only 9% of Employers Say Obamacare Will be Good for Their Businesses

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Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

A new Gallup poll of small-business owners indicates that Obamacare is having a dramatic and deleterious effect on Americans’ employment prospects. More than 40 percent of small-business owners say that Obamacare has caused them to freeze hiring, while nearly a fifth say that it has caused them to cut existing workers. According to the poll, 41 percent of small-business owners have frozen hiring, while 19 percent have “reduced the number of employees [they] have in [their] business as a specific result of the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare]” (italics added).

The Gallup poll was commissioned by Littler Mendelson, a firm specializing in employment law. Steven Friedman, an attorney for the firm, said of the results, “We were startled.” He added that these are “some pretty startling answers.”

Just 9 percent of the 603 employers surveyed by Gallup said Obamacare will be good for their business…

Read more from this story HERE.

Army Reprimands Soldier Under Fire for Religious Beliefs

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Photo Credit: Ryk Neethling

Photo Credit: Ryk Neethling

A member of the U.S. Army Band who said he was reprimanded for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his personal car, serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at a party and reading books written by conservative authors like Sean Hannity was found guilty of three Article 15 charges.

Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, a decorated soloist with the Army Band, was found guilty Thursday of failing to go to an appointed place of duty, disobedience of an order and making a false official statement, his attorney said.

The charges were handed down June 9, one day after Sommers told Fox News that he was facing discrimination and persecution because of his conservative political and religious beliefs.

Retired Navy Commander John Bennett Wells told Fox News the charges were stemmed from giving a superior officer the wrong date for a doctor’s appointment. He’s also accused of failing to carry out an order. In order to comply with that order, Sommers would have had to disclose private information about his autistic son’s medical records.

“The timing does seem strange,” Wells told Fox News. “It’s suspicious. It looks like a graduated attempt to build a case against him on some really ridiculous charges.

Read more from this story HERE.

IRS Chief Admits Improper Screening of Groups Went on Until Last Month

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In a conference call with reporters, Danny Werfel said that after becoming acting IRS chief last month, he discovered wide-ranging and improper terms on the lists and said screeners were still using them. He did not specify what terms were on the lists, but said he suspended the use of all such lists immediately.

“There was a wide-ranging set of categories and cases that spanned a broad spectrum” on the lists, Werfel said. He added that his aides found those lists contained “inappropriate criteria that was in use.”

Werfel’s comments suggest the IRS may have been targeting groups other than tea party and other conservative organizations for tough examinations to see if they qualify. The agency has been under fire since last month for targeting those groups.

His comments also indicate that the use of inappropriate terms on such lists lasted longer than has been revealed previously. A report last month by a Treasury Department inspector general said agency officials abolished targeting of conservative groups with those lists in May 2012…

The report describes several new procedures the agency is installing to prevent unfair treatment of taxpayers in the future. They include a fast-track process for groups seeking tax-exempt status that have yet to get a response from the IRS within 120 days of applying.

Read more from this story HERE.

Prominent Blacks Deserting the Liberal Plantation

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Photo Credit: Urban Cure

Photo Credit: Urban Cure

By Rosslyn Smith. In the last few months we have seen the rise to national prominence of the conservative Dr. Ben Carson of Maryland, the surprise emergence of Bishop E.W. Jackson as the Republican candidate for Lt. Governor in Virginia, and now Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory has switched parties with a video that has gone viral. During this period Republican Congressman Tim Scott also became the junior US Senator from South Carolina. Note, too, that about a year ago former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis switched parties.

The media loves to talk about tokenism when it addresses the issue of black Republicans but there is a tipping point at which this becomes a trend that can’t be dismissed, even if the likes of Chris Matthews insist there are currently no blacks in the US Senate.

Two factors may be happening here. Black men — other than educated elites such as Obama — have tended to have been treated pretty shabbily by the politically correct elite establishment, especially when they insist on speaking their own minds. Note also that since the 1960s most social spending has been concentrated on programs for women and children. Black women with college degrees now far outnumber black men with college degrees. Unemployment remains a huge problem for black men as does the continuing decline of stable, intact families. One does not have to read very deeply in publication aimed at black audiences to see that the culture wide war on men can be waged with particular nastiness in parts of the black community, due in large part to the disparity in education and career prospects between men and women. While they constantly bemoan the lack of well educated, employed and thus “marriageable” black men, the black women in these publications seldom, if ever, consider reforming a system that has bestowed them with both credentials and highly paid, secure jobs, often on the government payroll.

I noted with some interest that in last year’s election the one portion of the black demographic where Obama lost support in percentage terms from 2008 was among black men. This could be significant not just because black men haven’t done well under Obama. It’s been my experience that men in general are often more willing than women to buck the conventional wisdom.

In the 1940s and 50s, largely young black males in the civil rights movement would ask their elders what has 80 years of loyal support for the party of Lincoln actually gotten our people? The answer too often was a lot of patronizing lip service and not much else ever since a war weary North abandoned Southern Reconstruction and allowed the establishment of Jim Crow. (Yes, Republicans have traditionally supported civil rights but the significant changes only happened when a critical mass of liberal Democrats joined with them after WWII.) Read more from this story HERE.

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Traditional values will attract more blacks to GOP

By Star Parker. Anyone who doubts that the Republican Party can attract black voters need only look south to Louisiana.

During @Large — a conference in Baton Rouge in May aimed at attracting black conservatives — a black Democrat in the Louisiana Legislature, Elbert Guillory, announced that he was switching political parties and becoming a Republican.

Less than two weeks later, just up the road in Central City, La., a black Democrat city councilman made the same announcement. Ralph Washington, who’d also attended @Large conference, said he’s turned Republican.

The mystery is why this is not happening more often.

I’m asked all the time why — when it is so clear that blacks are damaged by the left-wing political agenda — black voters so uniformly and consistently support Democratic candidates who advance this agenda.

My answer is that Republicans need to start acting more like the businesspeople they claim to be. Read more from this story HERE.

Medicare by the Scary Numbers

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OB-XY676_goodmaEven before the latest Medicare trustees report came out at the end of May, the White House spin masters had already crafted a story to go with it. Medicare’s finances have improved, we’re being told. The trust fund will last longer. The unfunded liability is lower. One of the reasons is said to be ObamaCare.

The core of the new health reform doesn’t kick in until next year, but already it’s improving things for seniors? Here’s the real story:

In their report, the trustees acknowledge that current law envisages dramatic reductions in future Medicare outlays which may be “difficult to sustain.” The president’s new budget also paints a rosy picture of Medicare’s present and future finances.

Yet even with these unrealistic assumptions about Medicare costs, the future looks bleak. The unfunded liability in Medicare, the trustees tell us, is $34 trillion over the next 75 years.

Looking indefinitely into the future, the unfunded liability is $43 trillion—almost three times the size of today’s economy. Based on more plausible assumptions, such as those reflected in the “alternative” scenario for Medicare produced by the Congressional Budget Office in June 2012, the long-term shortfall is more than $100 trillion.

Read more from this story HERE.

New Surveillance Disclosure: Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Went to Work for NSA in 2010

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Photo Credit: C-Span

Photo Credit: C-Span

When Max Kelly, the chief security officer for Facebook, left the social media company in 2010, he did not go to Google, Twitter or a similar Silicon Valley concern. Instead the man who was responsible for protecting the personal information of Facebook’s more than one billion users from outside attacks went to work for another giant institution that manages and analyzes large pools of data: the National Security Agency.

Mr. Kelly’s move to the spy agency, which has not previously been reported, underscores the increasingly deep connections between Silicon Valley and the agency and the degree to which they are now in the same business. Both hunt for ways to collect, analyze and exploit large pools of data about millions of Americans.

The only difference is that the N.S.A. does it for intelligence, and Silicon Valley does it to make money.

The disclosure of the spy agency’s program called Prism, which is said to collect the e-mails and other Web activity of foreigners using major Internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook, has prompted the companies to deny that the agency has direct access to their computers, even as they acknowledge complying with secret N.S.A. court orders for specific data.

Yet technology experts and former intelligence officials say the convergence between Silicon Valley and the N.S.A. and the rise of data mining — both as an industry and as a crucial intelligence tool — have created a more complex reality.

Read more from this story HERE.

Judges: America’s Mullahs

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

With a potentially ground-breaking decision on gay marriage expected next week, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Friday morning that he and other judges should stop setting moral standards concerning homosexuality and other issues.

Why?

We aren’t qualified, Scalia said.

In a speech titled “Mullahs of the West: Judges as Moral Arbiters,” the outspoken and conservative jurist told the N.C. Bar Association that constitutional law is threatened by a growing belief in the “judge moralist.” In that role, judges are bestowed with special expertise to determine right and wrong in such matters as abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, the death penalty and same-sex marriage.

Scalia said that approach presents two problems: Judges are not moral experts, and many of the moral issues now coming before the courts have no “scientifically demonstrable right answer.”

As such, he said, it’s a community’s job to decide what it finds morally acceptable, not the courts’.

Read more from this story HERE.

NBC’s Gregory Asks Guardian Reporter Who Broke Snowden Story, “Why Shouldn’t You be Charged?”

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

NBC “Meet the Press” host David Gregory got a rise out of Glenn Greenwald on Sunday by asking the Guardian reporter why he shouldn’t be charged with a crime for having “aided and abetted” former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden.

Greenwald replied on the show Sunday that it was “pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies.”

Greenwald first reported Snowden’s disclosure of U.S. government surveillance programs. On Sunday, Ecuador’s foreign minister and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said that Snowden was headed to Ecuador to seek asylum.

During his interview with NBC’s Gregory, Greenwald declined to discuss where Snowden was headed. That refusal seemed to prompt Gregory to ask: “To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?”

Greenwald said Gregory was embracing the Obama administration’s attempt to “criminalize investigative journalism”…

Read more from this story HERE.

Over a Trillion Dollars of Student Loans on the Brink; Fall-Out Could Be Enormous

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Cable news channels regularly stoke their viewers’ fears about China holding $1.1 trillion of U.S. debt. But they’re focused on the wrong $1.1 trillion of loans.

The borrowers of this other $1.1-trillion debt are far more likely to default on their obligations: students, particularly those who went to for-profit colleges. The global consequences could be — and likely will be — staggering…

These loans leave many students entrenched in a permanent underclass. When they default — and they are defaulting in record numbers — the ripple effects spread from shore to shore, and beyond. They have no money to see movies, buy health insurance or, sometimes, even put dinner on the table. And when this many Americans are facing debt they can’t afford, businesses suffer from lower demand, tax revenues decline, and lenders face enormous losses.

This should sound eerily familiar. The situation is not unlike America’s recent housing crisis. In both cases, loans were doled out without regard to credit risks, and borrowers took on substantial debt they could not afford. Years of irresponsible, predatory lending finally caught up with mortgage issuers when homeowners lost their jobs and could not afford to repay their mortgages with interest rates that averaged 6.5%.

Now imagine the economic calamity if those mortgage interest rates had doubled to 13%. That’s the dire situation faced by unemployed and underemployed former students, who have neither steady jobs nor savings to cover tens of thousands of dollars in loans that seem to grow exponentially. We all know what happened to the housing market. Student loans are not far behind.

Read more from this story HERE.