News of the Week for July 27th<\/sup>, 2014<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Odds of a GOP Wave Are Increasing<\/a> How Senator John Walsh Plagiarized a Final Paper<\/a> GOP Congressman Returns Award to U.S. Chamber of Commerce Because of Group’s Amnesty Support<\/a> The GOP\u2019s digital dilemma<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n IRS Puts Out Word It Needs Help Destroying 3200 Hard Drives<\/a> IRS experts: Lois Lerner’s hard drive only ‘scratched’ and data mostly recoverable<\/a> FEC Chairman sounds alarm: There\u2019s a \u2018move afoot to constrict press freedoms\u2019<\/a> Obama will take executive action on immigration after summer, adviser says<\/a> <\/p>\n Victory in Palmer v. DC<\/a> <\/p>\n New paper finds only ~3.75% of atmospheric CO2 is man-made from burning of fossil fuels <\/a> Simulating the integrated summertime ?14CO2 signature from anthropogenic emissions over Western Europe<\/a> Climate models that accidentally got El Ni\u00f1o right also show warming slowdown<\/a> NOAA Breaks Their Dishonesty Record Two Months In A Row<\/a> Deep Oceans Are Cooling Amidst A Sea Of Modeling Uncertainty<\/a> Study: Climate Models Overestimated Global Warming For The Last 55 Years<\/a> So What\u2019s The Real Reason South Polar Sea Ice Is Expanding? It\u2019s The Cooling, Stupid!<\/a> <\/p>\n Court Of Appeals Throws Out ObamaCare Subsidies On Federal Exchange<\/a> Annndddd…Now The 4th Circuit Court Of Appeals Upholds IRS ObamaCare Rule That DC Court Struck Down This Morning<\/a> Drafting error vs. poor draftsmanship<\/a> Seven potential effects of the D.C. Circuit Court’s Obamacare ruling<\/a> No, Halbig Did Not Gut Obamacare Because Of A \u201cDrafting Error\u201d <\/a> ObamaCare Architect Jonathan Gruber, 2012: Hey, You Know, It’s a Key Point of Obamacare that Only State Exchanges Get Federal Subsidies. This Is Intended to Induce\/Compel All States Into Compliance.<\/a> Jonathan Gruber: Hey Man I Have No Idea Why I Said Federal Subsidies Weren’t Available Except to State Exchanges. It Was a Mistake.<\/a> Again: In Another Briefing in 2012, Jonathan Gruber Committed the Same “Speak-O” and Said that States Which Refuse to Set Up Obamacare Exchanges Would Lose “Hundreds of Millions in Tax Credits” (Federal Subsidies)<\/a> Jon Gruber, Asked About His Second Statement That Only State Exchanges Are Eligible For Subsidies: “Same Answer” (That Is, The Second Time Was Also a “Speak-O”)<\/a> Who are you going to believe \u2014 Me, or your lying ears? Gruber: My 2012 remarks were \u201ca speak-o”<\/a> WELL, WELL, WELL: Senate Hearing: Tax Credits are available for State Exchanges Only. <\/a> Hilarious Fail of the Week: Gruber Claims It Was a \u201cSpeak-O!\u201d<\/a> Obamacare\u2019s Architect Agreed That Only State Exchanges Could Offer Subsidies <\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FAA Bans All US Flights to Israel<\/a> ‘Evidence’ Moscow firing from Russia on Ukraine troops: US<\/a> China: People’s Liberation Army from the 29th live-fire exercises will be closed a large area of ??the East China Sea waters<\/a> U.S. Embassy in Libya evacuated amid growing violence<\/a> Russia massing 15,000 troops on Ukraine border, says NATO <\/a> As Libya Implodes, \u201cSmart Diplomacy\u201d Becoming a Punch Line<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018Creating Oneness\u2019 through Progressive Comedy <\/a> Obama to non-profits: celebrate LGBT or else<\/a> Occupy protester threatened to kill two officers\u2019 families<\/a> Ted Kennedy & the Death of Mary Jo<\/a> Comedic Social Justice Media <\/a> California Highway Patrol Seizes Medical Records Of Woman An Officer Was Caught On Tape Beating<\/a> Black Hat presentation on unmasking TOR users suddenly cancelled<\/a> California drought: ‘Water cops’ being hired by Bay Area agencies to root out water waste<\/a> Great news from Hillary: The Russian reset worked<\/a> Thesaurus Synonyms for \u2018Obstructionist\u2019 Include \u2018Right-winger,\u2019 \u2018Rightist,\u2019 \u2018Tory\u2019 <\/a> Merriam-Webster Editor Apologizes For Bigotry Association to Conservatism (Sort Of)<\/a> Mom Jailed for Letting Her Kid Play Unsupervised Also Fired From Job<\/a> The Sun Could\u2019ve Destroyed Civilization Two Years Ago<\/a> RICK PERRY: Illegals Behind 3,000 HOMICIDES & 8,000 SEXUAL ASSAULTS in TX Since \u201908 (Video)<\/a> It Appears a New York Times Writer Wants Orthodox Christian and Islamic Views Stamped Out. \u201cRuthlessly.\u201d<\/a> State agencies launch LGBT data-collection effort<\/a> The Government Is Cracking Down on School Bake Sales<\/a> Homeowners Association: Veteran Can\u2019t Build Furniture For Military Families In Need<\/a> Hobby Lobby Spooks LGBT<\/a> Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win<\/a> Eleanor Holmes Norton says ‘you don’t have a right to know’ what’s going on in government<\/a> Halbig\u2019s Critics Hoist By Their Own Petards<\/a> Colorado Atty. General to Investigate Planned Parenthood Videos Coaching Young Girls in BDSM <\/a> Biden Awkwardly Calls Out His Daughter For Being Poor, Whines He Should Have Raised A Republican <\/a> Ohio State core class teaches Christians are dumber than atheists <\/a> Boston \u2018Teeming With Protesters\u2019 in Giant Rally Against Housing Illegal Immigrants in the State<\/a> Profs Given Grant To Overcome White Male Hegemony in Science Fiction. Or Something.<\/a> Denver homeless shelters overflowing as city deals with surge of younger people attracted to legalized marijuana<\/a> <\/p>\n The Nation\u2019s $100 Billion Regulations Tab <\/a> 15 Reasons the Party on Wall Street is About to End in Tears \t<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Iraqi Christians are raped, murdered and driven from their homes \u2013 and the West is silent <\/a> Venezuela’s Transformation To Socialist Utopia Is Nearly Complete As Its Factories Grind To A Halt<\/a> Why did 28,000 rivers in China suddenly disappear?<\/a> Chinese city sealed off after bubonic plague death<\/a> 47 dead, 11 injured in Taiwan plane crash<\/a> China\u2019s terrifying debt ratios poised to breeze past US levels <\/a> Air Algerie flight \u2018probably crashed,\u2019 wreckage reportedly spotted<\/a> India Moves to Reassert Itself in Nepal<\/a> Ukip: Winning Here! <\/a> Boko Haram Fight Cameroon Soldiers In Cross-Border Battles <\/a> Boko Haram kidnaps wife of Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister <\/a> Denmark: Politician\u2019s Hitler tweet leads to police charge<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why Aren\u2019t There More Gay People? <\/a> In Defense Of Old Racist Art <\/a> What Should a \u2018Do Something\u2019 Congress Do? <\/a> Property and Peace <\/a> The Politicization of Science in the Media<\/a> The Morals of the Welfare State<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Election 2014<\/h1>\n
\nThis year’s political environment is shaping up to be nearly as bleak as 2010, and that’s ominous news for Senate Democrats.<\/p>\n
\nSenator John Walsh of Montana took most of a 2007 final paper required for his master\u2019s degree from the United States Army War College from other sources without proper attribution. Mr. Walsh copies an entire page nearly word-for-word from a Harvard paper, and each of his six conclusions is copied from a document from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace without attribution.<\/p>\n
\nRep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI) returned an award the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave him because of the business group\u2019s support for amnesty for America\u2019s illegal aliens.<\/p>\n
\nWin in the midterms and create a narrative that the party is finally on par with President Barack Obama and the Democratic data machine headed into the 2016 cycle. But leading GOP techies warn that any success connected to gains in the House and Senate could bring a dangerous sense of overconfidence, arguing that there\u2019s really still lots of ground left to cover in creating the technological skills and gadgetry needed for future elections and especially a winning White House campaign.<\/p>\n<\/a>Obama Scandals<\/h1>\n
\nDamn, this Obama IRS coverup is much larger than we ever expected.<\/p>\n
\nThe behavior of the IRS is looking more and more like a cover-up.<\/p>\n
\nFederal Election Commission Chairman Lee Goodman issued a stark warning on Wednesday when he suggested that political speech and press freedoms were under assault by federal regulators.<\/p>\n
\nThe move could trigger impeachment proceedings against President Obama, said his senior adviser, Dan Pfeiffer. A spokesman for the House speaker called the impeachment comments ‘political games.’<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nDC handgun carry ban struck down<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nA paper published today in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics finds that only about 3.75% [15 ppm] of the CO2 in the lower atmosphere is man-made from the burning of fossil fuels, and thus, the vast remainder of the 400 ppm atmospheric CO2 is from land-use changes and natural sources such as ocean outgassing and plant respiration.<\/p>\n
\nRadiocarbon dioxide (14CO2, reported in ?14CO2) can be used to determine the fossil fuel CO2 addition to the atmosphere, since fossil fuel CO2 no longer contains any 14C. After the release of CO2 at the source, atmospheric transport causes dilution of strong local signals into the background and detectable gradients of ?14CO2 only remain in areas with high fossil fuel emissions. <\/p>\n
\nWe’ve been stuck in cool, La Ni\u00f1a state for most of the past decade.<\/p>\n
\nNOAA has entered the realm of blatant, unabashed fraud in their current discussions about climate.<\/p>\n
\nTwo of the world\u2019s premiere ocean scientists from Harvard and MIT have addressed the data limitations that currently prevent the oceanographic community from resolving the differences among various estimates of changing ocean heat content (in print but available here).<\/p>\n
\nClimate models relied upon by scientists and governments may be greatly overstating the warming that has occurred since the late 1950s, argues a paper analyzing the discrepancies between modeled and observed temperatures.<\/p>\n
\nDuring the last three years, since 2011, the ice around Antarctica has been growing, in most seasons, more than during any similar periods of the satellite era where we have that data. <\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nSo basically anyone who gets their ObamaCare on the federal exchange, which is a lot if not most, can’t get subsidies. This would be a death blow to ObamaCare.<\/p>\n
\nUnlike the DC circuit the 4th circuit is all about “context”, the plain meaning of words be damned.<\/p>\n
\nObamacare by its express and unambiguous terms limits Obamacare subsidies to people using health care exchanges \u201cestablished by the State.\u201d Thus, subsidies to people in the federal exchange are not permitted, as these exchanges obviously are not established by the State.<\/p>\n
\nEarlier Tuesday, the U.S. District Court of Appeals ruled that health insurance subsidies in 36 states were illegal because the text of Obamacare limited subsidies to those states that set up their own exchanges. Prior posts provided some background on the case and the legal reasoning behind the decision. Here’s a rundown of seven potential legal, political, legislative and policy effects of the ruling.<\/p>\n
\nReading is fundamental, unless you’re a liberal blogger.<\/p>\n
\nWell lookie here.<\/p>\n
\nYou Know, a Verbal Typo.<\/p>\n
\nHey man sorry about that weird thing that happened in your mouth.<\/p>\n
\nOdd that an off-the-cuff speak-o should appear in a speaker’s prepared remarks.<\/p>\n
\nThis answer is not a \u201cspeak-o\u201d any more than the statutory language on subsidies and exchanges was a \u201ctypo.\u201d Gruber explained the coercive policy correctly and in detail, along with the stakes involved in seeing the coercion succeed. It\u2019s not a case of just using the wrong terminology, like \u201cmarket\u201d instead of \u201cexchange.\u201d Gruber clearly understood the statute at this time \u2014 in January 2012 \u2014 to provide the arm-twisting needed to get states to launch their own exchanges by stiffing consumers in states without them, which would then create more pressure on those states to get them the federal subsidies that they were funding but not receiving.<\/p>\n
\nSenator Baucus explains how The Affordable Care Act sets conditions where Tax Credits are available for State Exchanges Only.<\/p>\n
\nAs all the world now knows, Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber is on video explaining that under the ACA, tax subsidies will only be available to individuals who enroll in state-created exchanges, and will not be available to those who participate in the federal exchange. In other words, the limitation of subsidies to state exchanges was a deliberate policy, intended to give states a major incentive to create exchanges, and not a \u201ctypo\u201d as liberals are now claiming. Which, in turn, means that the Halbig majority was right.<\/p>\n
\nTonight, Reason\u2019s Peter Suderman published an interesting revelation about the history of the decision reached this week by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, that Obamacare subsidies couldn\u2019t be distributed unless it happened through a state exchange.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nAnticipating an imminent ban by the FAA of all U.S. flights to Israel, Delta, United, and US Airways each canceled all outbound flights to Tel Aviv\u2019s Ben Gurion International Airport until further notice.<\/p>\n
\nThe United States has evidence that Russian troops are firing artillery from inside Russia on Ukrainian military positions, a US official alleged Thursday.<\/p>\n
\nZhejiang Maritime Safety Administration on July 25 issued NOTAMs “Zhejiang HNA [2014] 7 – East China Sea in the actual use of weapons training.”<\/p>\n
\nThe U.S. Embassy in strife-torn Libya was evacuated early Saturday, under cover of American warplanes and spy aircraft, according to the State Department and the Pentagon.<\/p>\n
\nRussia has now amassed around 15,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said on Friday, offering a higher figure than one previously cited by the Pentagon.<\/p>\n
\nThe United States is pulling embassy staff out of Tripoli, and has issued a travel advisory that nicely outlines what a nightmare Libya has become. If Obama were a Republican, the press coverage of this stinking corpse of a policy flub would be quite different.<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nNetroots Nation is an annual conference for online progressive activists. Over the past few days, the group held their ninth annual event in Detroit \u2014 America\u2019s finest example of unchecked liberal policy.<\/p>\n
\nPresident to sign executive order forcing religious organizations to hire LGBT or reject federal money<\/p>\n
\nThe Occupy Wall Streeter who once sobbed in court because she had to appear in the same dress twice also threatened to kill two cops\u2019 families, court papers show.<\/p>\n
\nThe Chappaquiddick Rant<\/p>\n
\nAn important question being addressed at Nutroots Nation: Why is it that a bunch of oversensitive weenies who run for the smelling salts at the slightest hint of offense are thought of as humorless?<\/p>\n
\nToday’s demonstration of post-brutality scrambling is brought to you by the California Highway Patrol. First off, we’ll take a look at the “alleged” brutality, which looks incredibly similar to non-alleged brutality. <\/p>\n
\nA presentation on a low-budget method to unmask users of a popular online privacy tool, TOR, will no longer go ahead at the Black Hat security conference early next month<\/p>\n
\nIt’s about to get more difficult to go unnoticed if your sprinklers are watering the street more than your lawn.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s obvious what she\u2019s trying to do here but this is a weird, weird moment to do it.<\/p>\n
\nApparently only conservatives and others on the right can be obstructionists, according to Roget\u2019s Thesaurus.<\/p>\n
\nIn July, we learned that a Google search of the word \u201cbigotry\u201d turned up a definition that equated the word to \u201cright-wing.\u201d The sample sentence from the Oxford Dictionary set off a small firestorm of anger by conservatives, who don\u2019t consider themselves bigoted and don\u2019t think it should be part of any dictionary definition of the word.<\/p>\n
\nHere is an update on the case of Debra Harrell, the South Carolina mom jailed for letting her 9-year-old play in a popular park unsupervised (you read it here first), while she worked at McDonald’s.<\/p>\n
\nIf an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide headline news.
\nTwo years ago, Earth experienced a close shave just as perilous, but most newspapers didn\u2019t mention it. The \u201cimpactor\u201d was an extreme solar storm, the most powerful in as much as 150+ years\u2026<\/p>\n
\nTexas Governor Rick Perry went on Hannity tonight to discuss the illegal immigrant crisis at the US southern border. Perry shared these shocking numbers on the current crisis.<\/p>\n
\nWho will rid Josh Barro of these turbulent priests? Barro is a writer at the New York Times. He has taken to twitter to proclaim that \u201canti-LGBT attitudes are terrible\u201d and \u201cwe need to stamp them out, ruthlessly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nNew York State is launching a campaign to collect coordinated data on residents\u2019 sexual orientation as part of a comprehensive effort to improve health and human services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender New Yorkers, the state\u2019s health department announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\nStates are trying to circumvent federal nutrition standards that would limit sugary foods at school fundraisers.<\/p>\n
\nA war veteran who builds furniture in his garage and gives it to military families in need could be forced to shut down the saws<\/p>\n
\nWho knew?<\/p>\n
\nData-driven decisionmaking played a huge role in creating a second term for the 44th President and will be one of the more closely studied elements of the 2012 cycle<\/p>\n
\nEleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting congressional delegate for the District of Columbia, angrily sputtered during a congressional hearing Friday that the White House should not be held up to scrutiny, saying that there was no right to know what it was doing behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
\nNext Time, Read The Law Before Making It Law<\/p>\n
\nThe attorney general of Colorado says he will have his staff review the Live Action investigative video of a Denver Planned Parenthood employee coaching a young woman, believed to be only 15-years old, in the practice of high-risk sexual activities, including bondage\/discipline and sado-masochistic sex (BDSM).<\/p>\n
\nIt was President Obama who said that because he doesn\u2019t have to run for reelection, he can finally tell the truth, but it seems that although Vice President Biden is considering a run, he\u2019s actually the one taking this \u201ctruth telling\u201d message to heart.<\/p>\n
\nPsychology 1100 is a general education requirement class.<\/p>\n
\nIllegal immigration protesters descended upon historic Boston on Saturday decrying Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick\u2019s decision to offer shelter in the state to unaccompanied minors.<\/p>\n
\nAt the University of California, Riverside, a grant was needed to explore \u201cethnic futurisms\u201d \u2014 because, it seems, \u201cthere has long been an unacknowledged tradition of SF written by people of color.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAn informal survey found that about a quarter of the increase was related to marijuana<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy & Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nPresident Obama\u2019s pen-and-phone regulations are costing ordinary Americans hundreds of dollars every year, largely through extra costs to businesses.<\/p>\n
\nTo paraphrase Clubber Lang, the following are 15 reasons that the central banking party fueling our economy will end in “pain”.<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nFor the first time in 1,600 years, Mass is not being said in Mosul: an ancient culture has been wiped out in a matter of weeks. It’s a war crime that, strangely, no one seems to want to talk about.<\/p>\n
\nVenezuela’s transformation to a socialist utopia has been well-documented on these pages.<\/p>\n
\nStartling government survey sheds new light on Chinese water crisis<\/p>\n
\n30,000 residents of Yumen are not being allowed to leave and 151 people have been placed in quarantine after man’s death<\/p>\n
\nA Transasia Airways plane crashed when making an emergency landing in Taiwan on Wednesday, killing 40 people, China’s Xinhua news agency said.<\/p>\n
\nThe China-US sorpasso is looming. I do not mean the much-exaggerated moment when China\u2019s GDP will overtake America’s GDP \u2013 which may not happen in the lifetime of anybody reading this blog post \u2013 as China slows to more pedestrian growth rates (an objective of premier Li Keqiang.)<\/p>\n
\nConflicting reports emerged about wreckage spotted in two different sites<\/p>\n
\nIndia\u2019s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is visiting Nea href=”http:\/\/ace.mu.nu\/archives\/350631.php” target=”_blank”a name=”International”pal on Friday to lay the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s visit, the first to Nepal by an Indian PM in 17 years. The trip is meant to help India regain the influence it has lost in the landlocked country over the past decade.<\/p>\n
\nUkip is learning how to street fight, and that should worry the two main parties<\/p>\n
\nNigeria\u2019s Islamist militant group Boko Haram has carried out two cross-border attacks into Cameroon since Friday, killing at least four soldiers and prompting the Cameroonian army to send reinforcements to the area, army sources said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\nThe wife of Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister, Amadou Ali, was kidnapped this morning July 27th after men of the Boko Haram sect stormed her home in the northern town of Kolofata, Cameroon’s information minister and government spokesman revealed.<\/p>\n
\nDanish People’s Party member Mogens Camre compared Muslims to Hitler, leading an Esbjerg resident to report him to the police.<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n
\nI have a sensitive, inconvenient, and undoubtedly politically incorrect question: Why aren\u2019t there more gay people?<\/p>\n
\nCensorship, once a very dirty word in liberal circles, has undergone a makeover of sorts and, in its new guise of social responsibility, it is making an unfortunate comeback.<\/p>\n
\nNot what the President has in mind.<\/p>\n
\nThe irreplaceable basis for a prosperous and decent society is property.<\/p>\n
\nThe Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect strikes again<\/p>\n
\nMitt Romney took a lot of grief, much of it deserved, for his infelicitous remark (albeit behind closed doors, supposedly) about the \u201c47 percent\u201d during the 2012 campaign. But he\u2019s not entirely wrong to raise the issue of whether dependency doesn\u2019t eventually corrupt the recipients.<\/p>\n