Welcome to Montebello High School...in California!

Is it too much to ask why these students raised the flag of Mexico over the U.S. flag at their school?

Arizona Does What the Feds Will Not

Environmental Mush: An Ethical Abyss

By Alan Caruba

Parents are often appalled to discover that their children’s school books are full of misinformation or have an agenda that has little to do with the supposed subject. The rise and the maintenance of the Green movement have a great deal to do with the infiltration of school systems and textbooks with often deliberately misleading information. Many Green programs are aimed at the youth here and around the world.

A few days ago I received a news release from an organization calling itself 350.org announcing the launch of “Great Power Race, a clean energy competition between America, China and India. This web 2.0 race will reveal who can rise to the challenge of the climate crisis with the most, and the most creative, clean energy action.”

I wrote to the person identified as having sent the email and asked her to identify the “climate crisis” noting that the Earth has been in a cooling cycle for a decade or longer. I asked what any of the students do about this alleged crisis.

The response was that “The Great Power Race gives students in China, India, and America the opportunity to use social media to compete, communicate and collaborate on clean energy actions and projects. Campuses will each come up with their own clean energy project like, for example, light bulb exchanges, lowering thermostats, education events, installing solar panels on campus, and more.”

This is just environmental mush. It is an invitation to engage in meaningless activity and, of course, the “climate crisis” mentioned in the news release is not even mentioned.

That should come as no surprise to anyone who must read the daily flow of news releases from environmental organizations and subsets like 350.org. Much of it is devoted to stopping any form of traditional energy, coal, natural gas, or oil from ever being used for any reason. In effect, it is a campaign against electricity and against transportation.

It is not just absurd, but it is insane.

So I wrote back again. “Why should I ask more questions when you didn’t answer the one’s I asked? Your release refers to a ‘climate crisis’ and you did not tell me what that crisis is.” I then asked whether the respondent seriously thought that changing light bulbs would have any direct affect on the climate.

The response was “I’d like to think that a little action goes a long way. You’re right though…my small actions of installing solar panels on my home and getting fresh produce from a co-op garden to help avoid pesticides in my food will not have a direct impact on the climate, but it will directly impact my well being, health, and quality of life.”

“So, why are we positioning the race under the ‘climate crisis’ umbrella? It’s an urgent call to action.”

The Climate Race has, in fact, nothing to do with the climate. And, apparently, there really isn’t a climate crisis unless you believe that 350-parts-per-million of carbon dioxide (CO2) will reduce an urgent threat to life on Earth. It relies on a fraudulent “climate crisis” to further the use of the two worst forms of energy production, solar and wind.

Green propaganda is an ethical abyss.

Ultimately, my respondent admitted that “the biggest political and economic task we’ve ever faced (is) weaning ourselves from coal, gas, and oil.”

I doubt that my respondent can even conceive of a world that could function without coal, gas or oil. That’s not just naïve; it is stupid and dangerous to a future where energy is essential to improving the lives of billions, particularly in China and India.

Reducing CO2, the supposed reason for 350.org, is also the reason being offered to impose Cap-and-Trade legislation. It would drive up the cost of electricity to manufacturing facilities, to small businesses, to homeowners, and to everyone.

It would have zero effect on the climate.

This is the kind of fuzzy, feel-good, fact-less, anti-energy, anti-development, anti-capitalism philosophy that dominates environmentalism. Its appeal is to people too young to have any idea where the power for their computer comes from.

Its use of a non-existent “climate crisis” is precisely the same that has maintained the United Nations climate control hoax for decades. It’s the reason President Obama went to COP 15 in Copenhagen last December. It’s the reason that the EPA is threatening to regulate CO2 as a pollutant.

The truth, least of all scientific truth, means nothing to the Greens.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Welcome to our 350th "Follower"

Warning Signs now has 350 followers or fans...or as I prefer to call them, friends and family.

Show Your Papers!

From the Official Welcome Guide for New Immigrants provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services with one very important item highlighted. Under the heading of “Your Rights and Responsibilities” is this item:

Carry proof of your permanent resident status at all times.

In other words, being asked to “show your papers” is a known requirement and the official rule!

When I renewed my driver's license, I had to show my birth certificate, my passport, and I even brought along my discharge papers from the U.S. Army.

Imam says Allah Caused the Iceland Volcano

This is the seventh century mentality with which the Israelis and the West must deal.

Obama's Shadow Government

By Alan Caruba

How many of these names do you recognize?

Adolfo Carrion, Aneesh Chopra, Ear; Devamey, Kenneth Feinberg, Carol Browner, Ed Montgomery, Todd Stern, Cass Sunstein, Ron Bloom, and John Brennan. If none of them ring a bell, it is because they and others are all part of a shadow government of some thirty “czars”; advisors to President Obama who did not submit to the Senate confirmation process and are exempt from Congressional oversight.

Article 2, Section 2, U.S. Constitution, an excerpt: He (the President) shall have power, by and with the advice and Consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or the heads of departments.” (Emphasis added)

The Constitution creates two types of positions in the executive branch: principal officers and inferior officers. The first of these are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The latter are not subject to this process.

The Obama administration began with a series of nominations that were found to be tax cheats and forced to withdraw before Senate confirmation. One of them, Van Jones, put in charge of “green jobs” was forced to resign when it became known that he was a self-identified communist. Carol Browner, responsible for environmental and energy issues, was on the board of the Commission for a Sustainable Society, the action arm of the Socialist International.

In the case of “special envoys” George Mitchell, Richard Holbrooke, and Dennis Ross, they all engage in ambassadorial duties, representing the nation to foreign entities and are responsible only to the president. Key elements of the nation’s foreign policy, particularly as regards the Middle East, remain hidden from the public, except in terms of the president’s public pronouncements.

All of the president’s cabinet secretaries in charge of various departments and agencies of the government are vested with administrative powers and all must be confirmed by the Senate. By virtue of the Administrative Procedure Act, these offices must hold public hearings and maintain records when decisions are made, thus creating a paper trail. All of these offices must have separate lines in Congress’s annual appropriations bills.

The bulk of the president’s czars are exempt from such oversight. They advise and answer directly to the president and a number of them exercise control over the decisions made by cabinet secretaries and agency directors, most of whom have been reduced to a role of carrying out their decisions, their agenda.

The U.S. government is being run out of the White House by a cohort of czars/advisors who do not answer to the American people and operate in the dark. This is part of the warning issued in “The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency.” The authors, Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, are both attorneys with extensive knowledge of the Constitution. Blackwell has been an ambassador.

These czars are essentially unconstitutional and illegal.

All presidents have had advisors, but none prior to Obama have had so many and none have been delegated vast powers. They represent a violation of the separation of powers essential to a democratic republic and all violate the need and expectation of transparency and accountability.

Some have demonstrated in their past publications and present statements that they are wholly incompetent to hold such power. The regulations czar, Cass Sunstein, has said that animals should have the same legal rights as humans. The science advisor, John Holdren, has advocated putting chemicals in the drinking water or requiring devices that would neutralize fertility, including compulsory abortion.

John Brennan, the terrorism czar, responsible for homeland security, downplayed the near disaster of the Christmas “underpants bomber” and claimed that all possible intelligence that could be secured from him had been in less than an hour after his arrest!

All these czars function in direct contradiction of the long history of such advisors to presidents and in contradiction to the framework of the U.S. Constitution designed to ensure that the executive branch is answerable to Congress.

The function (or lack of it) of elected senators and representatives is ugly enough as seen in the failure of Congress to exercise caution in the passage of bills that affect the economy and the lives of all Americans. The U.S. debt has increased to levels not seen since World War Two. Obamacare was an ugly process of bribery and closed-door deals that resulted in a straight party line vote that was a repudiation of the will of the people.

No one knows what these unelected and unsupervised czars are doing, but you can be sure they all are loyal advocates and agents of the socialist transformation of America.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Climate Change Conference

For those who want to learn the truth about climate change, I recommend you mark your calendar for May 16-18 and make plans to attend the 4th International Conference on Climate Change, sponsored by The Heartland Institute.

This year should be fun because, in late 2009, the entire house of cards of "global warming" fell apart when leaked emails revealed that all the data supporting it was essentially fraudulent.

Where the Blame Really Belongs

Obama's Blame Game

By Alan Caruba

It hasn’t taken long for most Americans to figure out Obama’s blame game in which each new “crisis” requires a straw man to discredit and knock down.

Co-authors, Ken Blackwell, a senior fellow with the Family Research Council, and Ken klukowski, a widely published constitutional lawyer, have joined forces to write “The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency” ($22.95, Lyons Press).

“For Obama to remake our country into what he wants it to be, he must subvert the Supreme Law of the Land.”

Shortly after the passage of Obamacare close to twenty States’ attorney generals joined in a legal suit to challenge its unconstitutional demand that Americans buy government-issued health insurance.

Who can forget the euphoria that led to Obama’s election? “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” said Obama on October 30, 2008. He wasn’t just engaging in the usual overblown campaign rhetoric. He meant it!

Which raises the question, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? The United States of America has the oldest constitution in continual use. It has been amended only twenty-six times in 222 years since 1778. Ten of those amendments are embodied in the Bill of Rights.

In the fifteen months since he was sworn into office we have been witness to the way Obama, Pelosi, Reid and their Democrat cohorts in Congress conduct the business of government. It isn’t pretty.

To borrow from “The Blueprint”, here are the basic elements. We begin with the constant “crisis” factor.

I grant that the financial crisis that occurred in 2008, conveniently just before the election, was real. Suspiciously, it was trigged by sudden massive withdrawals from U.S. banks. To date, no investigation has been pursued, nor have those making the withdrawals been identified. The Federal Reserve stepped in to blunt the attack.

I hasten to point out that the crisis was entirely a creation of the government and its “social justice” programs that distorted to mortgage market. What was not needed, however, was a bogus $787 billion “stimulus” bill that, thus far, has been a failure of stupendous proportions. Passed rapidly with the promise that it would keep the unemployment rate at eight percent, we are now beyond ten percent and rising.

Pathetically wedded to truly bad ideas, the president and the Democrats had waited nearly two decades to “reform” Medicare in America. They took a stab at it during the Clinton years and failed. The Republicans had long offered common sense solutions to some of the obvious problems such as the need for tort reform and expanding the right of insurance companies to sell across state lines, but these were repeatedly defeated.

Instead, Obama insisted the problem was the nation’s physicians, people who devote years of their lives at considerable cost in order to heal the sick. As far as he was concerned they were in fact rapacious gangsters requiring children with a sore throat to get tonsillectomies. He told audiences that the reform was necessary to ensure that the poor were not turned away at the emergency room doors even though a federal law ensures that no one is ever turned away for lack of insurance.

The blame game was expanded to include both the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and this is the same tactic used to advance the horrid Cap-and-Trade Act. The oil, gas and coal companies are identified as the bad guys. This hides the fact that the bill is based on the bogus global warming theory that “greenhouse gases” are warming an Earth that is demonstrably cooling.

The latest “straw man” in the Obama crosshairs is Goldman Sachs, a respected bank that is being set up to advance legislation to further regulate the financial sector. An appearance before a congressional committee is the latest kabuki theatre. The government, however, has been running Ponzi schemes—-Social Security and Medicare—-for decades. Why would we take seriously the same people who are currently spending the nation into intolerable debt?

The final element of Obama’s chicanery is the identification of “victims” and this is always a ruse to infuse any argument with elements of class warfare. In his pitch to save Democrats from being turned out from office in November, Obama has identified with blacks, Hispanics, younger voters and women, presumably the party’s “base” these days, though one suspects even they are catching onto the game.

What the Founders wanted above all was a limited central government with clearly delineated powers. What Americans have gotten, under the spell of various “progressives” since the days of Theodore Roosevelt, is a monstrous government that intervenes and interferes with fundamental capitalism, the free market, is in full attack on private property, and increasingly encroaches on the most elemental of our personal freedoms.

“Barack Obama is waging war against the U.S. Constitution” as he pursues his bizarre agenda of “redistributing the wealth.” This is a fundamentally Marxist concept. It didn’t work for the former Soviet Union. Its economic elements have been abandoned by Red China. It is destroying oil-rich Venezuela. It has enslaved Cubans and North Koreans.

Obama’s blame game will not change. Americans must now unite to “change” our future by electing a Congress composed of men and women who value the Constitution more than the political power that has mistakenly been given to the Democrat Party and its socialist minions.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

The Healthcare Act Money Pit

President Obama says the new healthcare act will save money. Check out this list and tell me if you think it will. Remember, all of them will require a vast bureaucracy to manage.

NEW Boards and Commissions created under the new health care law

1. Grant program for consumer assistance offices (Section 1002, p. 37)
2. Grant program for states to monitor premium increases (Section 1003, p. 42)
3. Committee to review administrative simplification standards (Section 1104, p. 71)
4. Demonstration program for state wellness programs (Section 1201, p. 93)
5. Grant program to establish state Exchanges (Section 1311(a), p. 130)
6. State American Health Benefit Exchanges (Section 1311(b), p. 131)
7. Exchange grants to establish consumer navigator programs (Section 1311(i), p. 150)
8. Grant program for state cooperatives (Section 1322, p. 169)
9. Advisory board for state cooperatives (Section 1322(b)(3), p. 173)
10. Private purchasing council for state cooperatives (Section 1322(d), p. 177)
11. State basic health plan programs (Section 1331, p. 201)
12. State-based reinsurance program (Section 1341, p. 226)
13. Program of risk corridors for individual and small group markets (Section 1342, p. 233)
14. Program to determine eligibility for Exchange participation (Section 1411, p. 267)
15. Program for advance determination of tax credit eligibility (Section 1412, p. 288)
16. Grant program to implement health IT enrollment standards (Section 1561, p. 370)
17. Federal Coordinated Health Care Office for dual eligible beneficiaries (Section 2602, p. 512)
18. Medicaid quality measurement program (Section 2701, p. 518)
19. Medicaid health home program for people with chronic conditions, and grants for planning same (Section 2703, p. 524)
20. Medicaid demonstration project to evaluate bundled payments (Section 2704, p. 532)
21. Medicaid demonstration project for global payment system (Section 2705, p. 536)
22. Medicaid demonstration project for accountable care organizations (Section 2706, p. 538)
23. Medicaid demonstration project for emergency psychiatric care (Section 2707, p. 540)
24. Grant program for delivery of services to individuals with postpartum depression (Section 2952(b), p. 591)
25. State allotments for grants to promote personal responsibility education programs (Section 2953, p. 596)
26. Medicare value-based purchasing program (Section 3001(a), p. 613)
27. Medicare value-based purchasing demonstration program for critical access hospitals (Section 3001(b), p. 637)
28. Medicare value-based purchasing program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 3006(a), p. 666)
29. Medicare value-based purchasing program for home health agencies (Section 3006(b), p. 668)
30. Interagency Working Group on Health Care Quality (Section 3012, p. 688)
31. Grant program to develop health care quality measures (Section 3013, p. 693)
32. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 3021, p. 712)
33. Medicare shared savings program (Section 3022, p. 728)
34. Medicare pilot program on payment bundling (Section 3023, p. 739)
35. Independence at home medical practice demonstration program (Section 3024, p. 752)
36. Program for use of patient safety organizations to reduce hospital readmission rates (Section 3025(b), p. 775)
37. Community-based care transitions program (Section 3026, p. 776)
38. Demonstration project for payment of complex diagnostic laboratory tests (Section 3113, p. 800)
39. Medicare hospice concurrent care demonstration project (Section 3140, p. 850)
40. Independent Payment Advisory Board (Section 3403, p. 982)
41. Consumer Advisory Council for Independent Payment Advisory Board (Section 3403, p. 1027)
42. Grant program for technical assistance to providers implementing health quality practices (Section 3501, p. 1043)
43. Grant program to establish interdisciplinary health teams (Section 3502, p. 1048)
44. Grant program to implement medication therapy management (Section 3503, p. 1055)
45. Grant program to support emergency care pilot programs (Section 3504, p. 1061)
46. Grant program to promote universal access to trauma services (Section 3505(b), p. 1081)
47. Grant program to develop and promote shared decision-making aids (Section 3506, p. 1088)
48. Grant program to support implementation of shared decision-making (Section 3506, p. 1091)
49. Grant program to integrate quality improvement in clinical education (Section 3508, p. 1095)
50. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 3509(a), p. 1098)
51. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(b), p. 1102)
52. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(e), p. 1105)
53. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(f), p. 1106)
54. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(g), p. 1109)
55. National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (Section 4001, p. 1114)
56. Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health (Section 4001(f), p. 1117)
57. Prevention and Public Health Fund (Section 4002, p. 1121)
58. Community Preventive Services Task Force (Section 4003(b), p. 1126)
59. Grant program to support school-based health centers (Section 4101, p. 1135)
60. Grant program to promote research-based dental caries disease management (Section 4102, p. 1147)
61. Grant program for States to prevent chronic disease in Medicaid beneficiaries (Section 4108, p. 1174)
62. Community transformation grants (Section 4201, p. 1182)
63. Grant program to provide public health interventions (Section 4202, p. 1188)
64. Demonstration program of grants to improve child immunization rates (Section 4204(b), p. 1200)
65. Pilot program for risk-factor assessments provided through community health centers (Section 4206, p. 1215)
66. Grant program to increase epidemiology and laboratory capacity (Section 4304, p. 1233)
67. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 4305, p. 1238)
68. National Health Care Workforce Commission (Section 5101, p. 1256)
69. Grant program to plan health care workforce development activities (Section 5102(c), p. 1275)
70. Grant program to implement health care workforce development activities (Section 5102(d), p. 1279)
71. Pediatric specialty loan repayment program (Section 5203, p. 1295)
72. Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program (Section 5204, p. 1300)
73. Allied Health Loan Forgiveness Program (Section 5205, p. 1305)
74. Grant program to provide mid-career training for health professionals (Section 5206, p. 1307)
75. Grant program to fund nurse-managed health clinics (Section 5208, p. 1310)
76. Grant program to support primary care training programs (Section 5301, p. 1315)
77. Grant program to fund training for direct care workers (Section 5302, p. 1322)
78. Grant program to develop dental training programs (Section 5303, p. 1325)
79. Demonstration program to increase access to dental health care in underserved communities (Section 5304, p. 1331)
80. Grant program to promote geriatric education centers (Section 5305, p. 1334)
81. Grant program to promote health professionals entering geriatrics (Section 5305, p. 1339)
82. Grant program to promote training in mental and behavioral health (Section 5306, p. 1344)
83. Grant program to promote nurse retention programs (Section 5309, p. 1354)
84. Student loan forgiveness for nursing school faculty (Section 5311(b), p. 1360)
85. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors and outcomes (Section 5313, p. 1364)
86. Public Health Sciences Track for medical students (Section 5315, p. 1372)
87. Primary Care Extension Program to educate providers (Section 5405, p. 1404)
88. Grant program for demonstration projects to address health workforce shortage needs (Section 5507, p. 1442)
89. Grant program for demonstration projects to develop training programs for home health aides (Section 5507, p. 1447)
90. Grant program to establish new primary care residency programs (Section 5508(a), p. 1458)
91. Program of payments to teaching health centers that sponsor medical residency training (Section 5508(c), p. 1462)
92. Graduate nurse education demonstration program (Section 5509, p. 1472)
93. Grant program to establish demonstration projects for community-based mental health settings (Section 5604, p. 1486)
94. Commission on Key National Indicators (Section 5605, p. 1489)
95. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 6102, p. 1554)
96. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 6103(a)(3), p. 1561)
97. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 6103(b)(3), p. 1568)
98. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 6112, p. 1589)
99. Demonstration projects for nursing facilities involved in the culture change movement (Section 6114, p. 1597)
100. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1619)
101. Standing methodology committee for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1629)
102. Board of Governors for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1638)
103. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (Section 6301(e), p. 1656)
104. Elder Justice Coordinating Council (Section 6703, p. 1773)
105. Advisory Board on Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation (Section 6703, p. 1776)
106. Grant program to create elder abuse forensic centers (Section 6703, p. 1783)
107. Grant program to promote continuing education for long-term care staffers (Section 6703, p. 1787)
108. Grant program to improve management practices and training (Section 6703, p. 1788)
109. Grant program to subsidize costs of electronic health records (Section 6703, p. 1791)
110. Grant program to promote adult protective services (Section 6703, p. 1796)
111. Grant program to conduct elder abuse detection and prevention (Section 6703, p. 1798)
112. Grant program to support long-term care ombudsmen (Section 6703, p. 1800)
113. National Training Institute for long-term care surveyors (Section 6703, p. 1806)
114. Grant program to fund State surveys of long-term care residences (Section 6703, p. 1809)
115. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 8002, p. 1926)
116. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 8002, p. 1927)
117. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 8002, p. 1931)
118. Personal Care Attendants Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 8002(c), p. 1938)
119. Multi-state health plans offered by Office of Personnel Management (Section 10104(p), p. 2086)
120. Advisory board for multi-state health plans (Section 10104(p), p. 2094)
121. Pregnancy Assistance Fund (Section 10212, p. 2164)
122. Value-based purchasing program for ambulatory surgical centers (Section 10301, p. 2176)
123. Demonstration project for payment adjustments to home health services (Section 10315, p. 2200)
124. Pilot program for care of individuals in environmental emergency declaration areas (Section 10323, p. 2223)
125. Grant program to screen at-risk individuals for environmental health conditions (Section 10323(b), p. 2231)
126. Pilot programs to implement value-based purchasing (Section 10326, p. 2242)
127. Grant program to support community-based collaborative care networks (Section 10333, p. 2265)
128. Centers for Disease Control Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
129. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
130. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
131. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
132. Food and Drug Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
133. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
134. Grant program to promote small business wellness programs (Section 10408, p. 2285)
135. Cures Acceleration Network (Section 10409, p. 2289)
136. Cures Acceleration Network Review Board (Section 10409, p. 2291)
137. Grant program for Cures Acceleration Network (Section 10409, p. 2297)
138. Grant program to promote centers of excellence for depression (Section 10410, p. 2304)
139. Advisory committee for young women’s breast health awareness education campaign (Section 10413, p. 2322)
140. Grant program to provide assistance to provide information to young women with breast cancer (Section 10413, p. 2326)
141. Interagency Access to Health Care in Alaska Task Force (Section 10501, p. 2329)
142. Grant program to train nurse practitioners as primary care providers (Section 10501(e), p. 2332)
143. Grant program for community-based diabetes prevention (Section 10501(g), p. 2337)
144. Grant program for providers who treat a high percentage of medically underserved populations (Section 10501(k), p. 2343)
145. Grant program to recruit students to practice in underserved communities (Section 10501(l), p. 2344)
146. Community Health Center Fund (Section 10503, p. 2355)
147. Demonstration project to provide access to health care for the uninsured at reduced fees (Section 10504, p. 2357)
148. Demonstration program to explore alternatives to tort litigation (Section 10607, p. 2369)
149. Indian Health demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (S. 1790, Section 112, p. 24)*
150. Office of Indian Men’s Health (S. 1790, Section 136, p. 71)*
151. Indian Country modular component facilities demonstration program (S. 1790, Section 146, p. 108)*
152. Indian mobile health stations demonstration program (S. 1790, Section 147, p. 111)*
153. Office of Direct Service Tribes (S. 1790, Section 172, p. 151)*
154. Indian Health Service mental health technician training program (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 173)*
155. Indian Health Service program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 192)*
156. Indian Health Service program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 194)*
157. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 204)*
158. Indian youth life skills demonstration project (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 220)*
159. Indian Health Service Director of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment (S. 1790, Section 199B, p. 258)*

*Section 10221, page 2173 of H.R. 3590 deems that S. 1790 shall be deemed as passed with certain amendments.

Regulate! Regulate! Regulate!

Spendthrift Nation

By Alan Caruba

My late Father was a Certified Public Accountant. I am sure he must have wondered if I had been switched in the hospital with another baby who could actually add and subtract, do multiplication and fractions. I have always been a dismal failure with figures, but my older brother who also was a CPA, more than made up for this while I went on to make my living in the world as a writer.

Knowing my lack of skill with numbers, I long ago devised a weekly ledger in which I post expenses relative to my professional and personal life. Every Saturday I get out my calculator, add the new totals, and can tell you that thus far this year I have spent $74.93 on postage, paid AARP $535.60, and that my rent and my auto lease are by far my largest expenses.

So imagine how I and millions of my fellow Americans must feel about a president and a Congress that appear to be stark raving insane when it comes to spending the money they take in as taxes and then borrowing gobs more in order to keep spending?

Socialism gave us our present problems in the form of “entitlement” programs and neither Democrats nor Republicans have been able to resist adding new ones. A new government report from actuaries for Medicare and Medicare on the cost of Obamacare reveals that medical costs will skyrocket rising $389 billion in 10 years.

In my home State of New Jersey, we finally elected a Governor who understands that doing this is nuts. Chris Christie is demanding all manner of cuts in the budget to the distress of elected officials and education flunkies throughout the State who just want to keep on borrowing and spending. He has told the public service unions that the party is over and they are none too happy about it.

Meanwhile, back at the White House, the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) brags, “We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama--$60.7 million to be exact.” Well, thank you, Andy Stern.

And, while we’re thanking those that caused the 2008 financial crisis, thank you Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, neither of which Obama mentioned in his recent smack-down to Wall Street. And thank the Congress for creating these entities in the name of “social justice.” The financial crisis, brought about by government entities, required banks and mortgage lending firms to provide loans with no down payment to people who could not afford them. These programs are still in effect.

It takes brass cojones to blame Wall Street for trying to make a dollar by following the rules!

President Obama is a virtual wrecking ball to the American economy.

Barely eight percent of his cabinet members have ever held a “real” job in the private sector. Those vaunted economists advising him are all loons. Several of his first choices for cabinet positions turned out to be tax cheats! And one of them, Tim Geithner, is now the Secretary of the Treasury!

Even someone as arithmetically challenged as myself understands that something is terribly wrong when, in 2009, Americans paid $915 billion in income taxes and the federal government spent $3.5 trillion by borrowing the remainder.

According to the Tax Policy Center, in 2009 just under half of all U.S. households (71 million) will not pay any federal income tax. Now add in the eroding tax base as millions more become jobless. Many of the jobs going to other nations will never return.

As this is written, the U.S. debt comes to $7.5 trillion dollars. Just two years ago the federal deficit was about one-tenth of what it is today.

Please, please, please do not listen to or believe the lies about the economy and jobs coming out of the government these days. There are lots of other sources for business news. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, fifteen percent of workers were unemployed. At 10.7 percent, we are closing in on that.

The government spent like crazy in the 1930s, too. Only the onset of World War Two in 1941 brought an end to a ten-year-long economic nightmare. You have to go back to the end of World War Two for a comparable level of national debt!

Despite blowing billions in a “stimulus” bill, there were no “saved” jobs, only the usual civil service ones as the money was spread around to the States. There will be no “green” jobs to replace those lost as the nation’s primary sources of energy are attacked.

The sensible people in the Tea Party movement know they are in danger of being dragged over the cliff by the hardcore twenty percent of morons, otherwise known as the Democrat Party base, who think that the government will always provide housing, hospitalization, retirement funds, and a full gas tank in everyone’s car.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

King Obama is "Amused"

A Whiff of Revolution

By Alan Caruba

After a long series of taxes and arrogant acts that could not fail to anger the citizens of Boston, Massachusetts and nearby colonists affected by them, the American colonists finally picked up their guns and fired on the British coming to seize their store of munitions in Concord and Lexington.

The American Revolution did not occur in a week, a month or a year. It came after a Navigation Act, a Stamp Act, and others called the Intolerable Acts that actually closed Boston Harbor in retaliation for the famous Boston Tea Party.

By then the British had dispatched troops to Massachusetts to put some muscle behind their demands that the colonies help pay for the deep debt the King and Parliament had incurred from England’s many wars on the continent.

America was their nation in spirit long before it was organized as one. Americans were not going to be pushed around. They had tried everything they could to make their case, but finally there was nothing left but to unite and throw off the tyranny.

In 1770, the Boston massacre had inflamed public sentiment, but it would not be until 1774 that the citizens of Lexington and Concord would take up arms. In 1776, the second Continental Congress would convene in Philadelphia and sign a Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson wrote, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”

It has taken a brief year and a half for President Obama and his Democrat-controlled Congress to enflame the anger of a broad spectrum of Americans, Democrats, Republicans, and independents, who have been rallying in Washington, D.C., and in towns and cities across the nation against a healthcare “reform” they overwhelmingly opposed, but which became law.

Since then, twenty States have joined together to nullify it, challenging it in the courts while some passed laws to protect their citizens against it. This is very much in the spirit of the Tenth Amendment that posits powers in the States and in the People that are not specific to the federal government. America is a republic composed of separate and distinct republics.

The initial seizure of General Motors raised questions of its constitutionality that have never been answered. Rather than standard bankruptcy proceedings, stockholders and creditors were shoved aside to grant control to the very unions that had brought the iconic auto company to its knees.

This has since been followed by open threats to Wall Street that include proposals that would allow the government to seize firms, toss out their board of directors and officers, and, in effect, nationalize them. This is not unlike the dictatorship of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

It is the antithesis of a nation of laws, a republic; a democracy where power is situated in the people and the constitution limits the powers of the executive and the legislative branches that are, in turn, subject to the judicial process.

If, between now and the midterm elections, the President and Congress pass the Cap-and-Trade Act and an amnesty for illegal aliens, I suspect that some Americans may not be content to sit by while States and the courts work their way within the Constitution. They will sense—and rightfully so—a despotism never before associated with the presidency.

There is a whiff of revolution in the air and that is why the White House and Far Left are leveling the bogus charge that the Tea Partiers are all violent neo-Nazi types. It is not beyond this White House to deliberately provoke violence. There have already been isolated incidents of Tea Partiers being attacked by union goons.

Since the White House operates on the basis of one questionable “crisis” to another to impose unwanted laws, nothing can be ruled out by these community organizers.

One thing is clear. We have a very unpopular president.

We have had others in the past. Lyndon B. Johnson chose not to run again after his first and only full term. Jimmy Carter was a one-term president. Richard Nixon was forced to resign. Even George W. Bush, after two terms, had worn out his welcome.

It has not been uncommon to characterize unpopular presidents as despots, but Obama is different.

He exudes arrogance.

He offends our nation’s allies and is seen as weak by our enemies.

He’s declared war on our vital energy sector and now on Wall Street.

He imposed a healthcare reform that will drive up costs and cause millions to lose the insurance coverage their employers provide.

Add to this the growing legion of unemployed.

There’s a lot of anger in America today.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Cap-and-Trade Treason

By Alan Caruba

If you thought that the way the Obama administration and its cohort of Democrats in Congress rammed through the takeover of the nation’s healthcare system was appalling, prepare to watch the same process applied to Cap-and-Trade. Your government no longer represents you, the voter, the citizen.

Cap-and-Trade (H.R. 2454) allegedly is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is no scientific justification for this because there is no “global warming” that requires it, nor is manmade, anthropogenic, generation of carbon dioxide (CO2) a threat to the planet. Just the opposite, everything dies without it; all vegetation and all animal life. Life on Earth would thrive if there was even more CO2.

To what end would Congress impose such emission limits when they do not exist throughout China, India, third world “developing” nations, and are being abandoned by European Union nations where the Kyoto Protocol limits have harmed their economies?

Global warming has been exposed as a massive hoax and fraud. Why would the United States Senate proceed to enact a bill based on it? In essence, it will make some corporations, utilities, and people very rich and impoverish the rest of us.

Having passed the House, the Senate will be handed a huge bill that, like healthcare, few will have read before they vote. It will impose the largest tax the nation has ever seen.

The act will bless the various “exchanges” created for the sale and trade of “carbon credits” that have no value whatever. It creates a bubble comparable to the sub-prime mortgage debacle that triggered the 2008 financial crisis and resulting recession.

The amount of CO2 will not be reduced because the Earth produces 97% of all the CO2 in the atmosphere. Even then, that amount is the smallest part of the atmosphere that consists of more than 95 percent water vapor!

Cap-and-Trade is an act of betrayal because it will destroy the U.S. economy, destroy jobs, and further impoverish Americans in a variety of ways.

The Cap-and-Trade Act that has already passed the House will be put in play by Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman. It was created in the House by Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. Edward Markey. They know the bill will set in motion the destruction of the nation whose life’s blood is affordable and abundant energy use.

Just as the Obama administration moved swiftly to acquire ownership of General Motors and Chrysler, to take over insurance giant AIG, control one sixth of the nation’s economy through the healthcare act, and is now seeking to expand the regulation of Wall Street, Cap-and-Trade will ensure the destruction of the nation as manufacturing flees to other parts of the world.

Beginning one year after enactment, homeowners will not be able to sell their homes without complying with onerous and unnecessary energy and water “efficiency” standards. These standards, moreover, will increase annually. Within five years, 90 percent of the residential market will be controlled by the government.

On April 19, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new guidelines for “Energy Star” homes requiring them to increase “efficiency” by 20 percent more than those built to the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code. Home ownership, already the largest expense for Americans, will be further increased by required upgrades.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, in a few years the average cost of energy use to every family of four will be $6,800 per year. No one will be exempt from energy taxes and you can expect the cost of a gallon of gasoline to rise beyond $4 to European levels.

In Europe, industrial carbon quotas have enriched the continent’s biggest energy users such as steel and cement makers. Their surplus carbon permits, often provided for free, are estimated to be worth more than $4 billion at current market rates by 2012. There is no scientific justification for them.

It will be the U.S. government that will determine who receives the initial free “carbon credits”, thus giving corporations that have supported Cap-and-Trade a huge advantage over those who do not. Not only will the government rake in billions from the taxes to be imposed, but utilities will raise their prices and pass it along to consumers.

There is no need whatever to reduce use of so-called “fossil fuels.” There is no need for the “efficiency” and “conservation” measures that will be imposed. If the government would permit access to the nation’s vast reserves of coal, oil and natural gas, none of this would be needed, but it will not.

The nation is under attack from within by a consortium of fanatical environmentalists and rent-seeking corporations and utilities seeking to profit from these government mandates and limits.

It is the perfect storm. It is treason.

Editor’s Note: Politico.com: (4/24/10) The planned Monday unveiling of a bipartisan climate bill was postponed after one of its three authors, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said that he couldn’t support the legislation if Democrats moved it to the backburner to focus first on immigration reform. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced the postponement Saturday evening, saying that “external issues have arisen that force us to postpone only temporarily.”

© Alan Caruba, 2010

The Crowd Gathers....

A Thousand More Days of Damage

By Alan Caruba

On Saturday, April 24, President Barack Hussein Obama, will have one thousand days left in which to ruin America.

As we know from his first fifteen months in office, he is capable of doing a lot of damage. This is rather extraordinary insofar as he only had 142 days as a U.S. Senator before he was inaugurated.

He has had the support of a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate, but he has set the agenda. The result is trillions of dollars of debt, despite the fact that the banks and investment houses have all paid back the TARP funds they received.

We know the “stimulus” billions had little or no effect on the economy because the rate of unemployment has risen continually since he took office and is like to exceed Depression era rates by the time he leaves.

We know he reneged on a missile defense system for Poland and Czechoslovakia that would have been a deterrent to Iranian missiles (that could reach the U.S.) and Russian ambitions to gain control again of Eastern Europe.

We know he has taken control of General Motors and his “reforms” of the nation’s healthcare system puts one-sixth of the nation’s economy under government control. In an unfolding chapter of our history, twenty States have signed onto a court challenge to nullify Obamacare.

We know he is now seeking control over Wall Street. Legislation for its “reform” and it will give the government extraordinary and unwarranted powers. It will likely be rammed through the Senate in a week or so.

We know that his administration is doing nothing to secure the nation’s southern border and is likely to ram through “amnesty” legislation that is opposed by as wide a margin of Americans as was healthcare reform.

We know that he wants Cap-and-Trade legislation which would declare carbon dioxide (CO2) a “pollutant” even though it is vital to life on planet Earth, but more importantly, its regulation would give the Environmental Protection Agency control over all energy use, generate billions in the biggest tax on energy ever enacted, and further kill the economy as manufacturing flees for other nations.

We know he wants to close down “Gitmo” and likely place known terrorists in federal prisons where, of course, they will be able to claim Constitutional rights. Many of those released from Gitmo are known to have returned to the battlefield.

He will have accomplished much of this in just over 450 days in office so another thousand, unless he is deterred by a Republican-controlled Congress, will magnify this horrendous level of damage.

Who would have ever believed that a majority of American voters would elect a President who hates America?

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Caruba's Crystal Ball

By Alan Caruba

I rarely make predictions. Events can change the entire direction of a nation in the blink of an eye. It happened in my lifetime with Pearl Harbor, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the resignation of Richard M. Nixon, and with 9/11.

As this is being written, air traffic to, from, and throughout Europe is barely recovering because of an Icelandic volcano and no one really knows how long that will continue.

So, barring any catastrophic natural events or wars, I will look into my crystal ball and narrow my predictions to the period between now and the midterm election on November 2, 2010.

Having forced a healthcare program on America that 85% of the voters did not want, the Obama White House now knows it can do the same with other major pieces of legislation intended to “transform” America into a socialist wreck comparable to European nations, one of which, Greece, is bankrupt while two others, Spain and Italy, are close to it.

The Obama administration is getting ready to put a chokehold on the nation’s financial sector by claiming it needs more regulation. It is a lie. Few sectors of the nation are more heavily regulated by the government. What is needed is more effective enforcement of existing regulations. Had that been the case there would have been no Bernie Madoff and the 2008 crisis brought about by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could have been avoided.

The next piece of legislation to be imposed on Americans before November will be Cap-and-Trade, a law based on a “global warming” crisis that is not happening. It will impose “caps” on how much energy industries, businesses, and finally individuals can use and it will institute a “trade” mechanism in bogus carbon credits that will make a few companies, utilities, and individuals very rich while bleeding Americans by taxing energy use at every level.

The era of abundant and affordable energy will end and, with it, the economy of the nation. Companies that manufacture goods will move offshore to friendlier places such as China and India. Both were exempted in the United Nations’ Kyoto Protocol intended to force greenhouse emission caps on industrialized nations like America and Europe.

The coal industry, responsible for providing the source of half of all the electricity generated in America, will be under attack in every way at the government’s disposal. Mountain top mining will be the next target. Beyond that, all coal-fired plants will encounter a regulatory hell. There will be no offshore exploration for new sources of oil and natural gas.

When the brown-outs and black-outs begin, the nation will be five to ten years from providing new sources of electrical power whether it’s coal, natural gas, or nuclear. By then billions in government (your money) subsidies will have been wasted on “green” or “clean” or “alternative” energy in the form of wind and solar. They currently represent about one percent of all the electricity generated in America.

By the midterm elections, the unemployment rate will have likely increased. A growing, permanent class of the unemployed will be maintained with endless extensions of government support.

The southern border from Texas to California is becoming a war zone. There’s a reason the State of Arizona just passed a law allowing its citizens to carry concealed weapons and another law to empower its law enforcement authorities to rid the State of illegal aliens. Do not be surprised by the rise of southwestern state militias to deal with the constant invasion. Watch for an effort to pass an amnesty law as well.

What Americans have not caught onto as yet is that the Obama administration’s policies and actions are now fully controlled by people who did not have to go before the U.S. Senate for approval. They are Obama’s “czars” and they wield as much influence or more than constitutionally appointed cabinet secretaries.

So the real question between now and November is “How much damage can the Obama White House inflict?” and the answer is a lot.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Iceland wishes everyone "Happy Earth Day"

Estimates of how much "pollution" the Iceland volcano puts out every day range from 150,000 to 300,000 tons. Will the Earth survive? Of course it will.

Stormbringer: What Could Have Been

"The sad fact of the matter is we had our opportunity to smash the Iranian Fundamentalist Islamic Revolution in it's infancy and we hesitated - or should I say Jimmy Carter hesitated. The ball was in his court and he balked. IF the day after our embassy was taken down on November 4, 1979, the 82nd Division had jumped on to Tehran Airport and moved on the city . . . well, we wouldn't be having half the problems we're having with these people now.

But instead we've got what we've got going on now, and this thing is going to go on for the next hundred years."

- Sean Linnane
Stormbringer

Prelutsky Quote of the Day

"Finally, when John Edwards used to go on and on about the two Americas, he pretended to be speaking about the rich and the poor when, as I suspected all along, he was actually referring to those who would or wouldn’t have sex with him. On the other hand, he was correct in suggesting there existed a real division in our nation. As I see it, there are those who see a pile of horse poop and assume there must be a pony, and there are the rest of us who see the same steaming mess and assume that Barack Obama has just delivered another speech."

-- Burt Prelutsky
Prelutsky.com

PS. He has a great book, "Liberals: America's Termites" available at his site.

Obama's Going to Give You a Pony!

Where Do These People Come From?

By Alan Caruba

Whether it’s on television or in the newspapers or the endless stream of news releases I receive, the message over and over again is that people believe such stupid stuff about the planet and their environment that I keep asking, where do they come from?

People who think they can save the planet by bringing a cloth bag to the supermarket instead of using a plastic one, even though plastic is part of just about everything they will use that day, from their car to their kitchen’s countertop,

People who insist that turning corn into fuel instead of building more refineries to process more oil makes no sense at all because wasting corn in this way forces up the cost of food,

People who think that Green jobs are anything other than temporary, low paying menial work, entirely dependent on government subsidies and handouts,

People who think that it’s wrong to eat meat even though they have a mouth full of teeth whose purpose down through the millennia of mankind is to chew meat,

People whose ancestors survived by hunting long before agriculture was developed, yet think it is cruel to hunt or to cull a population of animals that endanger people or property,

People who think solar or wind energy can even begin to compete with coal, natural gas, or nuclear energy when both require traditional plants to back up “alternative” energy sources. Why? Because the sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day and the wind doesn’t blow all the time,

People who think that polar bears are going extinct when, in fact, the polar bear population has been growing for twenty years or more,

People who believe “global warming” is real even though the “theory” was based entirely on seriously flawed, often deliberately false computer models,

People too dumb to realize that the Earth has been cooling for a decade,

People who think all of Nature is “pristine” when much of the Earth is desert or otherwise uninhabitable and inhospitable,

People who do not know that there are countless active volcanoes under the oceans of the world, spewing all manner of “pollutants” or leaking barrels’ worth crude oil,

People who think all chemicals are a danger, but whose bodies are literally mobile chemical processing factories,

People who spend their lives taking chemicals in the form of medicines with specific dose levels and not only do not feel threatened, but are happy to be cured,

People who think chemicals are bad without every realizing they live in a world where chemicals are integral to the manufacture of every device they use whether it’s a computer, a cell phone or something as simple as a spoon,

People who think coal is bad without realizing the U.S. sits atop enough coal to keep the lights on for centuries if we can just mine it,

People who think oil is bad without realizing that oil is a component of everything from asphalt to Vaseline, and that we have millions of barrels of untapped oil the government will not permit Americans to access,

People who pass through twelve years of elementary and secondary schools without learning how to spell or do fractions or ever once reading the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution,

People who go onto college and spend their freshman year in “remedial” classes without realizing they were cheated of a good education by a union more interested in their teacher’s pensions than their ability to function in a complex world,

People who think all religions are equally valid when one of them believes that, if you are an “unbeliever”, you can be killed or robbed with impunity,

People who are anti-war protesters without once thinking that it was a Revolutionary war that made America possible,

People who worship the Earth like Stone Age pagans, but lack the imagination and the faith to conceive of a higher power, a moral one, that sees in us, the image of Himself.

Where do these people come from?

© Alan Caruba, 2010

George Carlin on the Idiocy of Environmentalists

Another Reason to Stay Away from Active Volcanos

The Naked Communism of Earth Day

By Alan Caruba

It is no accident that April 22, Earth Day, is also the birth date of Vladimir Lenin, an acolyte of Karl Marx, the lunatic who invented communism as an alternative to capitalism.

Earth Day is naked communism.

To begin, it substitutes a worship of the Earth, Gaia, for the worship of God, creator of the universe and the instructor of moral behavior for mankind.

The Earth does not demand a moral code of personal behavior. Indeed, the lesson it teaches is “the survival of the fittest “and an indifference to suffering. The “natural events” mankind fears most all involve the potential for significant loss of life and for injury.

The Earth is a beautiful place, but it is utterly merciless. Man has learned to adapt to it and, by adapt, I mean to use its resources to build shelter and protection from it, to plant and harvest crops from it, and to domesticate some of its species while hunting and fishing for others for food.

Earth Day postulates that man is the cause of harm to Earth by virtue of his cities, his highways, his use of its sources of energy, and even the garbage that results from the normal course of maintaining life. For centuries mankind routinely burned and buried garbage. Now we are told we must separate and recycle it. We are told that everything plastic is bad even though it is one of the great inventions of modern times.

Communism reached its zenith in the last century. Its imposition in the former Soviet Union, in China, and elsewhere is a litany of murder and oppression. In the 20th century, a minimum 110 million people died as a result. It enslaves mankind wherever it can.

Environmentalism has been built on the foundation laid by communism because both exist to control everyone’s life. They are opposite sides of the same coin, both are opposed to the ownership of private property and both regard man as state property to be drained of his earnings through taxation.

Environmentalism’s preferred method is coercion and the mechanism for this is government.

While America was established to ensure “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, environmentalism exists to exert more and more control over our lives by limiting our choices, our liberty. Environmentalism redefines happiness as doing without the advances of science and commerce that protects and prolongs our lives.

There is nothing voluntary about environmentalism.

There is nothing voluntary about having to recycle. There is nothing voluntary about having to fill your tank with a mixture of gasoline and ethanol. There is nothing voluntary about the imposition of mileage standards for cars. There is nothing voluntary about losing access to beneficial chemicals that control countless insect and rodent pests that spread disease and destroy property.

While the vast majority of Americans clamor for the government to permit access to our nation’s vast natural resources of coal, oil, and natural gas it stands in the way, claiming always that drilling and mining pose a threat to the environment. At the same time it acquires more and more of the nation’s landmass to deter access and economic growth.

In the name of the environment, the U.S. government is set to impose a Cap-and-Trade law on Americans that has no basis whatever in science and is, in fact, based on the greatest hoax of the modern era, “global warming.”

Cap-and-Trade will tax energy use and directly control how much energy individual Americans can use to heat or cool their homes through “smart grid” technology controlled by the utilities, not the consumer.

Environmentalism is the reason the U.S. has not had a single new refinery or nuclear plant built since the 1970s. Think about that every time you drive your car or turn on the lights.

The spread of endless environmental propaganda has been taken up by the nation’s mainstream media and has infiltrated the nation’s schools through its textbooks and other means of instruction. Earth Day will be the occasion for an orgy of media coverage.

Just as communism failed the former Soviet Union and just as Red China abandoned communism as the model for its economy, environmentalism continues its relentless quest to deter economic growth and security in America. It is the infrastructure of a New World Order.

Do not celebrate Earth Day. Denounce it.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

How to Spot "Green Talk"

By Alan Caruba

Aside from the idiotic claims that environmentalists like Al Gore regularly make to justify their various scams and schemes, anyone who has devoted any time to reading the huge volume of lies they put forth begins to notice the constant use of what I call “Green talk.”

I am hardly alone in this and a friend of mine, Rich Kozlovich, has actually made a list of favorite phrases he identifies as the weasel-words and phrases Greens favor. With his permission, I will share some of it.

In no particular order, if you read or hear any of the following, it is a warning sign that there is little proof to support whatever is being claimed:

Might cause
Could cause
Studies suggest
Linked to
Voiced concerns about
Expressed some concern
Experts fear
The long term effects are unknown
Negligible concern is still expressed about X
Minimal concerns
Still leaves doubts
Some scientists were critical
Researchers hypothesize
Suspected hormonal imbalance
Many scientists say
Still, some environmental substances remain suspicious
May make women more likely to
Probably to blame
Ecologists are worried that
Has the potential to significantly promote
Factors suggest
There is a serious connection to
Mounting evidence that these chemicals "may trigger hormonal changes"
Contrary to the overwhelming impression conveyed by scientists and politicians
Scientists say or science says

Phrases that are commonly used to arouse fear include the following:

Could be causing neurological and behavior effects in unborn babies and young children

Data is yet inadequate to make a judgment, however the weight of the evidence says we have a problem

Government scientists cautioned that their finding is highly preliminary because of the small number of women and children involved and lack of evidence from other studies.

We've used a new research technology to generate hypotheses and possible associations

While further study is needed to understand the impact, it is unlikely (or likely) that

While voicing caution on the link to (X), concerns were widespread that, if left unregulated, (X) could hurt the environment.

The simple truth is that the way we allow chemicals to be used in society today means we are performing a vast experiment, not in the lab, but in the real world, not just on wildlife but on people

Hogwash!

You can read Kozlovich’s entire commentary here.

In 1990 I founded The National Anxiety Center as a clearinghouse for information about “scare campaigns” designed to influence public opinion and policy. Its website is an archive of some of my writings over the years.

The sheer volume of bogus claims has required me to blog daily to debunk the many manifestations of Green talk to advance nutty and dangerous campaigns such as a “global warming” that involves destroying our economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Much of what passes for environmentalism is entirely fear-based and, as such, exists to hide a political agenda to use government at all levels from the federal to the local to enact laws and regulations that require people to take actions that, as often as not, lack any scientific, economic, or civic justification.

To make matters worse, they often come with unnecessary and wasteful costs. It is a deception to distract you from the actual purpose; to control over your life and your choices.

It is snake oil. Don’t buy it.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Modern Fairy Tales

Destroying America One Environmental Law at a Time

By Alan Caruba

While America maintains the greatest military power in the history of mankind, fearful of another terrorist attack on its soil, it is being destroyed from within by the relentless imposition of laws that defy science and common sense.

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has introduced legislation to “reform” the 34-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act. Americans are hearing a lot about “reform” these days, having just had a healthcare “reform” imposed against the wishes of the vast majority. This bill has the support of the White House, environmentalists, and a suicidal chemical industry.

The chemical industry, like all others in the nation these days, is so fearful of the power of the federal government that it will agree to its own destruction. Thus, Cal Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council, babbles about being “constructively engaged” in furthering the reform. Reportedly, DuPont, another chemistry giant, called the bill “a good starting point.”

The poison is in the dose.

It is one of the most ancient truths of science. It is the amount of a given chemical that determines its toxicity. We all take chemicals daily without any thought to this. Too much aspirin can be harmful. Too much of any of the vitamins, minerals, and herbal treatments can be harmful. Too much food can be harmful!

Everything has a level at which it becomes toxic. The proposed legislation would mandate that manufacturers submit health and safety data to the Environmental Protection Agency for 84,000 chemicals in use. The EPA has never met a chemical it has not wanted to ban, particularly if it has a use that is beneficial to human life.

This law has no purpose beyond expanding the authority and power of the EPA, an agency which is currently threatening to regulate carbon dioxide, one of the two gases along with oxygen on which all life on Earth depends!

If you think American companies do not conduct extensive testing of everything they manufacture, you do not know about the huge liability they face if they do not. By way of just one example, pesticide producers spend between $100 and $300 million to test a single new compound before it can be approved and made available either to pest management professionals or consumers.

The federal government has massive bureaucracies devoted to safety in all aspects of our lives. In addition to the EPA, there’s the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, the National Highway Safety Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission…to name just a few!

Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, addressing the proposed law, said, “It is impossible to prove that something is safe. You cannot scientifically prove a negative. Even water can be dangerous. They say this bill would make it easier for the EPA to ban chemicals that are known hazards. Hazards to whom? Laboratory rats?”

If you feed a laboratory rat enough of anything, it will become ill and even die. The environmentalists, however, subscribe to the “precautionary principle”, an idiotic believe that IF anything is believe to pose a threat to health, it must be banned from use. This is the guiding principle of the EPA.

Americans now have the longest life expectancy in the history of the nation. They live a lot longer than laboratory rats. They even recover from life-threatening disease through the use of drugs—medication—and other procedures.

If the EPA gets the power to ban 84,000 chemicals currently in use for a million different legitimate purposes and products, life expectancy will drop like a stone in water.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Pamela Geller on Barack Obama

"He has, inside of a year, destroyed our alliances, abandoned our allies, nationalized banks, insurance companies, and the automotive business, and rammed communist healthcare down our collective throats. He has bankrupted this country and stolen the wealth of our nation and our children. He has embraced Islamic anti-semitism, sanctioned the Islamic bomb of the Iranian mullahcracy, handed Russia Eastern Europe on a plate, thrown away our nuclear advantage, and despised us for our superiority. And then contemptuously told us to thank him and kiss his marxist ass."

-- Pamela Geller
Atlas Shrugs

The EPA Monster

By Alan Caruba

Among the legacies of Richard M. Nixon, famed for the Watergate scandal that forced his resignation, it should be noted that he created the Environmental Protection Agency. There was no vote in Congress. He did it with an executive order. Today the EPA has an annual budget of $9 billion and some 18,000 employees.

Not satisfied with the authorized powers given it to ensure clean air and water, the EPA has never ceased to seek expanded powers, culminating soon with a battle over whether it can regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) as a “pollutant.” Labeled a “greenhouse gas”, in the eyes of the EPA it is an “endangerment” to the health of humanity in general and Americans in particular.

CO2 is as vital to all life on planet Earth in the same way as oxygen. It is what plants consume in order to grow, much as oxygen is essential for life among living creatures that, in turn, are dependent on vegetation, crops, for their sustenance. It’s a neat little cycle that has existed since life emerged on Earth.

If the EPA gains the power to regulate CO2, it will have the power to regulate the activities of every individual and the entire economy of the nation. Traditional sources of energy, with the exception of nuclear and hydroelectric power, involve the emission of CO2. A modern society cannot function without CO2 emissions, but they have nothing to do with global warming because there is NO global warming.

CO2 represents a mere 386 parts per million of the Earth’s atmosphere. Humans are responsible for 3% of its generation; Mother Nature produces the other 97%. And the EPA wants to regulate ALL of it!

Actual science is of no importance to the EPA. If the EPA really cared about human life, it would not have a long history of banning beneficial chemicals such as DDT and other pesticides that protect humans against a laundry list of transmittable diseases like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, et cetera.

The EPA is actually seeking to limit the amount of deicing fluid used to protect commercial and other aircraft on the grounds that it might get into nearby streams and rivers. Never mind the lives of the passengers and crews on planes that would be brought down as the result of such ice. This defies common sense.

In truth, the EPA threatens the economy and our lives in so many ways it is difficult to know where to point first. To my mind, the way it infiltrates the nation’s education system to fill the minds of children with visions of a planet threatened with “warming” or that every species is “endangered” or that all the waters and air are “polluted” is criminal.

The EPA is currently accepting grant applications “to help manage the National Environmental Education Training Program over the next ten years.” Costing $10 million, it “will provide teachers and other education professionals with resources and support to enable them to teach about environmental issues more effectively.” The EPA was not created to go into our nation’s schools in this manner. This is propaganda. This is indoctrination.

Let us grant that, when it stuck to its original purpose, it did make the air cleaner and some of the nation’s waters. Now, however, the EPA is a massive machine designed to destroy the nation’s economy and impede growth and development in every way possible.

The primary tool for this are lies concerning any element of the environment it wants to control and, as a result, retard the economy. As but one example, there are the new “smog” standards the EPA recently announced. It has reduced them to a level of 60 to 70 parts per billion in the air. It released a list of counties it says are in violation of the new limits.

The cost of achieving the lower standard is estimated from $19 billion to $90 billion. If you took one tennis ball from an olympic-sized pool filled with them, you would achieve the same result. It’s not merely absurd; it is yet another attack on every single business and industry operating in those counties.

The same idiocy applies to setting mileage rules or requiring that ethanol be added to gasoline. To achieve the mileage rules, the weight of automobiles must be reduced. People inside those thinner, lighter cars will die from an accident at a rate in excess of larger vehicles. As for ethanol, it requires more energy to produce than it saves. It drives up the cost of all the food we consume. It also reduces the mileage from every gallon of gasoline while emitting more CO2!

The EPA is currently at war with the coal industry, responsible for providing the source of 50% of all the electricity generated in the United States of America. A recent “endangerment” finding against all surface coal mining in the Appalachian States of Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia is based on the protection of the Mayfly population, an insect that typically lives for one day!

The list of EPA abuses of common sense and known science could fill a shelf of books in much the same way its ever-expanding regulations do, but the worst of it is yet to come if the Cap-and-Trade Act is passed.

Despite the fact that CO2 has nothing to do with the non-existent “global warming” and therefore does not need to be regulated for any reason, the enactment of the bill will literally prevent a homeowner from selling their home without permission from an EPA administrator. The cost of buying or selling a home will soar.

The Environmental Protection Agency needs to be reduced in size and authority to its original intent. Better still, eliminate it entirely. It is a monster.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

This Week's Quote

“Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran."

-- Burt Prelutsky
http://burtprelutsky.com