A Review of the News for July 31, 2013
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The New FOIA
(propublica) The Obama Administration is seeking to codify in a rule, the long term practice of government lying in response to FOIA requests for disclosure. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted to enhance the people’s right to know what their government is up to. It has generally been disliked by the Executive branch for precisely this reason. Administrations hate to disclose information that shows their ineptitude, dishonesty, and even criminality. Principally, they have chosen two routes to undermine the law. The first is to slow ball the process. FOIA requests can languish for years both to disincentivize their use and ultimately to render any releases obsolete. The more criminal approach is simply to deny that the documents exist.
The new Obama exception, which again simply codifies the actual more extreme current practice, is to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist.” It is comical in a thoroughly cynical way that this was supposed to be the most transparent of Administrations. The upshot of this rule is that it makes it easier for the government to hide the truth from its own citizens and makes it an even longer and harder to uncover its lies.
The article linked is instructive.
Is the Recession Receding?
(New York Times) Two former Census bureau officials released a report based on publicly available Census data which showed that from when the recession was officially called as ended in June 2009 to June 2011 real median household income fell 6.7%, from $53,518 to $49,909. This is twice as much as income fell during the recession (3.2%, from $55,309 to $53,518) which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009.
Particularly hard hit during the Obama-period (June 2009-June 2011) were households where the head of household lost a job, 18.4% decline, and households with an African American (not Hispanic) head, 9.4% decline versus 4.7% for whites and 4.9% for Hispanics.
What this shows is that for most Americans the recession never ended and that the Obama Administration’s economic record is even worse than previously thought.
This report (released in 2011) did not show the disastrous effects of the ObamaCare turn down as employers began to make employees part-time and reduced work hours to under 30 in order to avoid the provisions of ObamaCare. Things are getting worse under the Utopian Socialist. The president’s latest economic speech hit an unsurprising tone of class warfare and empty old rhetoric. We have heard it all before, and neither the rhetoric nor the weakness of our economy has changed.
Under President Obama’s failed economic leadership, America has suffered through weak economic growth and fifty-four months of unemployment over 7.5%, the longest stretch since records began being kept in 1948.
BUT — The President and his family have enjoyed some world class vacations during his time in office. At least he’s having a good time.
Global Warming
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| Large Coronal Hole Near the Sun’s North Pole |
Progressives don’t call it global warming anymore because nobody is sure that the globe is warming due to human-generated activity or if it’s due to something else. The climate has changed every single year through geologic history, so referring to every weather event as, “climate change” is very safe ground for Al Gore and the Green Lobby. This year (2013), the Sun is ramping up for what is known as a “solar maximum”. Since the energy radiated by the sun varies, the energy striking the Earth varies as well. (Don’t wait to hear that from Gore or the Enviro Nazis. You’ll have a very long wait.)
July 19, 2013 — The European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, captured this image of a gigantic coronal hole hovering over the sun’s north pole on July 18, 2013, at 9:06 a.m. EDT. Coronal holes are dark, low density regions of the sun’s outermost atmosphere, the corona. They contain little solar material, have lower temperatures, and therefore, appear much darker than their surroundings.
Coronal holes are a typical feature on the sun, though they appear at different places and with more frequency at different times of the sun’s activity cycle. The activity cycle is currently ramping up toward what is known as solar maximum, currently predicted for late 2013. During this portion of the cycle, the number of coronal holes decreases. During solar max, the magnetic fields on the sun reverse and new coronal holes appear near the poles with the opposite magnetic alignment. The coronal holes then increase in size and number, extending further from the poles as the sun moves toward solar minimum again. At such times, coronal holes have appeared that are even larger than this one.
There is also the issue of dust. As the Solar System travels through space, it encounters regions of space that are ‘dustier’ than others. Space dust tends to refract light and keep it from reaching Earth. While nobody knows why ice ages occur, this is one possibility. Yes, modern human lifestyle does lead to greenhouse gas emissions, but nobody really knows the extent to which it causes significant climate change.
Texas Style
In case nobody has noticed, I’ve been showcasing the Texas lifestyle in microcosm here on the Review of the News. You may have asked yourself why — or maybe you didn’t. Keep in mind that while Texas and Texans have a deserved reputation for being a bit eccentric, it’s one of the few states in the nation that is prospering while all of the liberal urban hells are in serious decline.
If you’re reading this blog, you will understand why.
In the August reviews of the news, I’ll pick a new victim to appear here in this section. I’m thinking that a review of Progressive Paradise Cities (models for the nation) would be an appropriate contrast.
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| Their heart is in the right place. |
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| There was a time in America when a bar near an airport that catered to pilots could be called the “cockpit” without being a magnet for all of the gay blades in town. Not anymore. Not even in Texas. |
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| Is anything wrong with combining a beauty parlor, chainsaw repair and a bar under one roof? No. And certainly not in Texas. |
Used to be a little shopping center near here with a sign that read "guns, donuts, daycare" for the shops located there 🙂
We're under threat here in Texas. Mainly from the influx of Liberals who came here after ruining their previous home.
Don't allow Texas to be Californicated the way that Colorado has been.
Every day, in every way, things are getting wetter and wetter.
Is it raining in Alabama today?
I pray that Texans can hold out against Obama's attack on America.
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