Breaking News! New IRS Chief to Even Out Audits

Striving to move beyond the political fallout of the IRS’s scandalous treatment of conservative and libertarian organizations that sought nonprofit status, President Barack Obama  appointed senior White House budget officer Daniel Werfel as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Thursday. 

In a companion move that appears calculated to reestablish the Internal Revenue Service’s bona fides as an even-handed, neutral arbiter of the law, it is expected that Werfel will launch audits of multiple organizations previously granted nonprofit status.  The new targets of the IRS review will include Netroots Nation, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, the Center for American Progress a 501 (c)(4) organization, and NARAL Pro-Choice America, also registered under Section 501 (c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.  White House officials insist that these organizations have come up for audit under the IRS’s standard management review cycle.  The IRS will investigate political lobbying activity.  It is not lawful for organizations to claim they serve an educational or social welfare purpose, when they are actually organized for the purpose of lobbying members of Congress and influencing officials in the Executive Branch.      

Netroots represents a broad coalition of left leaning and progressive organizations.  The Netroots website describes its influencing role as follows. 

Think of the Netroots as a big political family. We may not agree on everything but common threads connect us—for example, we stand for an America where every person deserves a good job with fair wages and equal opportunity. Our tent may be broad but we all can agree that America has gone off the rails and it’s time to get back on track with policy that is fair and just for everyone. 

The Washington, DC based Center for American Progress is chaired by John Podesta whose political resume and connections to the President include the following.

Prior to founding the Center in 2003, Podesta served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. He served in the president’s cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. While in the White House, he also served as both an assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff, as well as staff secretary.

Podesta served as co-chair of President Barack Obama’s transition, where he coordinated the priorities of the incoming administration’s agenda, oversaw the development of its policies, and spearheaded its appointments of major cabinet secretaries and political appointees. 

The Center describes its American political operation as follows.

How we work

Through dialogue with leaders, thinkers, and citizens, we explore the vital issues facing America and the world. We develop a point of view and take a stand. We then build on that and develop bold new ideas.

We shape the national debate. We share our point of view with everyone who can put our ideas into practice and effect positive change. That means online, on campus, in the media, on the shop floor, in faith communities, and in the boardroom. Our progressive partners—including the CAP Action Fund—take our ideas to Congress and statehouses. 

The third nonprofit, NARAL Pro-Choice America, pushes its abortion rights agenda by targeting both Congress and the Executive for action.

The President

President Obama can do a lot to affect pro-choice policies.

· President Obama picks the people who oversee services important to women's health. He also nominates women and men to serve as judges on federal courts.

· President Obama can use executive orders to change some policies. Just after entering office, he canceled the anti-choice global gag rule.

· President Obama proposes the federal budget. Choice is part of many programs.

· President Obama has the power to sign into law or veto choice-related laws Congress passes. 

Learn more about the powers of the president (PDF)

Congress

Congress—the House and Senate—creates laws and spends money on many health programs. The Senate also approves people the president picks to serve as judges or in key government positions. Right now, pro-choice lawmakers are outnumbered in both the House and Senate.

Find out how members of Congress voted on choice-related issues in 2012.

If the audits find the organizations have worked outside the scope of nonprofit charters, the entities will be required to file tax returns for the last three years, and will be assessed interest and penalties on their tax liability.  Per standard IRS practice, assets will be seized, as necessary, to pay monies due the U.S. Treasury.  Individuals who made tax deductible contributions to any of these organizations or affiliates may also be assessed for tax deficiencies.  If evidence is adduced of willful violation of the Internal Revenue Code during the audits, officials of the organizations may be referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

Please Do Not Feed the Animals

My old friend, colleague and one-time boss sent me this.

Today's lesson in irony.

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people. 

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." Their stated reason for the policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves. 

Thus ends today's lesson in irony.

Just think how dependent people would be if we weren't into the fourth year of Obama's economic recovery.  Thank you John!

Stupid Move IRS

I remember in high school we were tested on the U.S. Constitution.  We had to pass.  No pass equaled no diploma.  So here comes a little old lady from Ohio who founded American Patriots against Government Excess (PAGE) in 2010.  Her group "consisted of volunteers who routinely passed out copies of the constitution at parades, and had informational meetings on anything from the health care law to disaster preparedness."  The IRS challenges her organization's status, political not educational they say.   Said organization passes out copies of the constitution, the very document I and millions of other had to study and comprehend in order to graduate high school.  Said organization responds to IRS audit request for reading materials by sending in copy of said Constitution.  Duh!

Criteria IRS Used to Select Groups for Audit -- Audit Process Impeded and/or Prevented Groups from Operating

Straight from the "independent" IG Report are the following which Obama and his Spokesman Jay Carney have disputed to this point.

Criteria for Potential Political Cases (June 2011)

• “Tea Party,” “Patriots” or “9/12 Project” is referenced in the case file
• Issues include government spending, government debt or taxes
• Education of the public by advocacy/lobbying to “make America a better place to live”
• Statement in the case file criticize how the country is being run

Source: EO function briefing dated June 2011

Audit processes result in delays typically of a year of more, disrupting the applicants and causing applications to wither on the vine.

The IRS process was about deferment, delay and denial during the election season -- a heinous abuse of power.  Here are the types of things the IG says happened or may have happened as a result of the unlawful review process,

As a result, the IRS delayed the issuance of letters to organizations approving their tax-exemptstatus. For I.R.C. § 501(c)(3) organizations, this means that potential donors and grantors could be reluctant to provide donations or grants In addition, some organizations withdrew their applications and others may not have begun conducting planned charitable or social welfare work. The delays may have also prevented some organizations from receiving certain benefits of the tax-exempt status. For example, if organizations are approved for tax-exempt status, they may receive exemption from certain State taxes and reduced postal rates. For organizations that may eventually be denied tax-exempt status but have been operating while their applications are pending, the organizations will be required to retroactively file income tax returns and may beliable to pay income taxes for, in some cases, more than two years

IRS Flashback -- Tax Cheat Tim Geithner

Is it any wonder that the IRS illegally targeted political groups and illegally leaked confidential information on groups disfavored by Barack Obama during tax cheat Timothy Geithner's watch as Secretary of the Treasury? When disrespect for the law starts at the top it runs rampant throughout government organizations.

As for the independent agency spinmeistering, let me say this.  I worked for an "independent agency" of the Federal Government for 33 years, and interacted literally thousands of times with other "independent" agencies.  I can attest that agency independence is a legal fiction, with an exclusive emphasis on fiction.  Agencies are led by political people who are nominated, appointed and confirmed by elected politicians.  Agency leaders know who they are beholden to and act accordingly.  I wish I had a buck for every time I heard someone say say "We need to check with the Hill", "The White House says", "The President wants", "What does the Secretary want?", "We need approval from OMB", "How will Congress react", "That won't fly with the House" or some such thing.  The influences and control are myriad and complete.  Don't be fooled by Barack Obama or Jay Carney's invocation of the fiction, not in the least.

Margin Accounts Are Back

Except this isn't the movie.

Obama's print money, borrow money policies are working their magic. Abundant low cost credit and subnormal returns on government bonds are driving increased borrowing and higher stock prices.  Balances in margin accounts maintained by brokerages have bounced back within a fare thee well of their pre-financial crisis levels.

Margin account debt is incurred to buy stocks, secured by the value of the security.  Margin account loans are famously subject to call when stock prices drop, forcing investors to sell shares in a panic, reinforcing downward price spirals and potentially freezing the financial system.   This run up in margin lending is,

[A] warning sign that the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies are creating a bubble mentality among stock investors. 

That is just shy of the record $381.4 billion in margin debt set in July 2007.  As of the end of March, the most recent data available, investors had $379.5 billion of margin debt at New York Stock Exchange member firms, according to the Big Board. 

In March, the level of margin debt stood 28% higher than one year earlier, a time frame that saw the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rise 11.4%. 

The fear is that as more investors rely on money borrowed against stocks, any significant fall in stock prices will be magnified if investors are forced to sell securities to raise cash and meet margin requirements. 

"Borrowing is cheap," said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Corp

Margin calls on a grand scale are what precipitated the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008 and came within weeks of destroying the entire U.S. financial system.  Easy money policy drove excessive borrowing leading up to 2008 and easy money policy is driving excessive debt now.

Obama's 6 Minute and 44 Second Defense

Barack Obama takes just under 7 minutes to say, when we fabricated the Benghazi talking points, we couldn't have been trying to cover anything up because we did such a lousy job of it. 

It's a continuous parade -- we are incompetent, we are ignorant, we are indifferent and we are unaware.  That's what you get when you can't blame Bush anymore.

The Cost of Green Jobs

Our old friends back in Arlington growled this last week on Obama's green jobs program costing $11.45 million for each permanent job.  By my calculation that's about 50 times the cost of an Ivy League education or one thousand times the cost of an AA degree at a community college.  Any idea which investments have a real payoff?

Van Jones cashes in on his experience
as Barack Obama's original Green Jobs Czar.

Politidumb of the Week

Politidumb or politicorrupt?  I guess it depends on your perspective.

To the President of the United States, abuses of power by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are fodder for humor.

But it is not at all funny to those who are persecuted by the harsh thumb of the IRS, armed with its special powers to summons, seize and prosecute.  It's Nixonian. 

The IRS's tea party targeting is clearly intentional.  Under the Obama administration audits of non-profit organizations soared, almost doubling from an average of 6,205 returns each year from 2001 to 2008, rising to  an average of 11,111 audited returns per year from 2009 to 2011, even as the number of tax exempt organizations filing returns decreased.  From the White House, speaking on behalf of the President, Jay Carney wants us to believe the increase and selection of new audit targets was driven by low-level rogue employees.  It's what I call the Benghazi defense, "We didn't know and no one was in charge."   But to quote Hillary Clinton, "What difference does it make?"  There is virtually no daylight between the disdain and destruction of criminal neglect and the depredations of intentional malfeasance. 


But let's get real about this.  Is there anyone out there dumb enough to think that bureaucratic minions responsible for the targeted nonprofit audit surge would act on their own, without engaging superiors in the process?    Bureaucrats are expert, if at nothing else, in covering their butts.  They don't do anything strong, creative or even different without checking and reporting up the line.

The IRS targeted for audit nonprofit groups that included terms like "tea party", "patriot", "Bill of Rights" and "Constitution" in their title or charter -- words that go to the core of our country's strength, uniqueness and founding principles.  These principles are what the Obama administration and its brain dead, navel gazing supporters love to hate.

By the way, do you know what precipitated the Inspector General investigation into the IRS audits?  It was a request by Darrel Issa, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the very same Darrel Issa who is leading the charge on the investigation into Benghazi. Darrel Issa is a good man, a reasonable man, a competent man and someone who pursues issues with passion and integrity.  There are few like him in Congress these days, Republican or Democrat, and it appears no one like him these days in the Obama administration.

There is emerging evidence that the Commissioner of the IRS lied and or misled about the abuse of power over the last two years. This is a politidumb that has days to go and legs to last.  

Where Have All the Tornadoes Gone?

Beware the Dust Devil

Anyone who has watched the Weather Channel this spring has heard reports that, despite the miracles of Doppler Radar and deployment of a massive technological armada, the WC's Tornado Hunt Team has been having a hell of a time spotting twisters.   Just yesterday, in the absence of anything real to report, they got all worked up about dust stirred up by gusts of wind. Imagine that! Well, the Weather Channelers can come by the Gallitan Valley most any day and get the same effect following a Ford F-150 pickup along our many unpaved roads.

Tornado activity has been one of the scare tools of the climate change alarmists.  Let's look at what the climate changers have been saying about the linkage of the 0.04 percent of the atmosphere that is carbon dioxide and tornadoes.

The White House has sponsored research,

A 2008 report from the U.S. Global Change and Research Program, a federal interagency research program overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, found that more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could lead to an increase in severe storm conditions that make tornadoes possible.

"We can’t say there is a correlation between a specific tornado and global change," said program director Thomas Armstrong. "But the reports do indicate that there is a positive correlation between climate change and the frequency of conditions favorable to the formation" of tornadoes, he said, while stressing that the research is still preliminary.

The loony left progressive press reports climatologists insist on a tornado, climate change link.

The unexpectedly fierce and fast tornado outbreak so early in the season has folks asking again about a possible link to climate change. Climatologist Dr. Kevin Trenberth emailed me that, because of climate change, “there is every expectation that the [tornado] season will move up in time. The warm winter in the US is perhaps an indicator of the nature of the changes to be expected.”

The former head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research stands by his 2011 statement, “It is irresponsible not to mention climate change in stories that presume to say something about why all these storms and tornadoes are happening.”

Al Gore -- Early Adherent of the
Stop Tornado Movement

No less of an authority than big Al Gore speechified "there seem to be more tornadoes than in living memory" in his global warming presentation, before he went on to castigate the evil, profit-addicted oil sheikhs, you know, those fellows who gave Al a $100 million payday for his share of a cable television network -- capitalist cronyism in the extreme. 

And now the Obamanistas are weighing in with their normal bitter, arrogant, name-calling tactics, tagging anyone who disagrees with their spectacular climate change claims as "crazy." Is it no wonder that Barack Obama is despised by so many?   The man and his supporters are unmitigated jerks.   But that is a side issue, let's get to the facts.

Here comes USA Today reporting that tornado activity has hit a new 60 year low, noting that the U.S. in the past 12 months has seen the fewest number of tornadoes since at least 1954." Loss of human life is lower than at any time than in more than a century.

The seven people killed from May 2012 to April 2013 is the fewest in a 12-month period since five people died in September 1899-August 1900, according to Harold Brooks, research meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.

The year-to-date count of tornadoes is probably approaching the lower 10% of all years on record, said Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman.

Tornadoes have not only been very few, but incredibly weak.

So far in May — usually the USA's most active month — only three tornadoes have formed. All have been rated EF-0 on the Fujita scale of tornado intensity. EF-0 is the weakest rating for tornadoes, with wind speeds of about 65-85 mph.

Waiting, waiting, waiting, for climate scientists, climatologists and the junk extrapolation crowd to develop global dusting models that link climate change and that slithery, dirty, grimy stuff.  Come on guys, ignore 99.96 percent of the atmosphere.  Attribute everything to 0.04 percent -- you've done it before and you can do it again!

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

May 11, 2013

(click for full size)

Water Tower

Family Shooting Center at the Gallitan County Fairgrounds

Yellow Headed Blackbird (really, it's that simple)

Montana State University "M"

Sacajawea Peak.

Ducks on a pond.

Stay Out of the Creek!

There's not much to the creeks around here, you can walk across them. But that apparently doesn't make them safe.

There has been two deadly incidents this week.,

In Bozeman, a man was found drowned in Sourdough (Bozeman) Creek Tuesday evening. Same deal, same day in Billings,

A transient whose body was pulled from Alkali Creek on Tuesday drowned after a paralyzing fall, the Yellowstone County coroner's office concluded Wednesday.

Body Recovery Billings

Deputy Coroner Chad Fehr said the 39-year-old man fell down a steep embankment and suffered a severe neck injury, which made swimming impossible. Officials believe the victim was sleeping on a narrow ledge high above the creek and just northeast of MetraPark when the accident occurred.

The man's name is being withheld until relatives are notified. It's unclear where the man is from. He had lived in several states.

For now, the death is considered accidental.

A hiker spotted the man's body floating in Alkali Creek just before noon Tuesday and called 911.

Be careful out there people.  I am hoping for more creek stories like this.

A Big Shout Out to a First Responder

Who once again was not an armor clad, heavily armed SWAT team member, but who was an ordinary citizen on an ordinary day who did an extraordinary thing.  I am talking about Charles Ramsey who broke down the door to free Amanda Berry in Cleveland.  Ramsey summed it up in his own special way.

"You've got to put that being a coward and 'I don't want to get in nobody's business,'" he said. "You got to put that away for a minute."

He added, "I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway."

In one of the top tweets about Ramsey, comedian Patton Oswalt wrote, "Dear Charles Ramsey: I am not a little pretty white girl, but I totally want to run into your black arms. #hero."

Here is to you Charles Ramsey!

My Read on Benghazi

Is not changed in the least from when I posted as follows on January 3rd of this year,

This is how Washington works.   It distorts, deceives and shucks and jives.  It uses bureaucracies, institutions and underlings to deflect blame and absolve leaders of responsibility. Washington protects the guy at the top, always.  It’s understood. And it succeeds unless the guy at the top is so vain that he tapes conversations in his office. At the end of the day the players gather in a circle and congratulate each other for having reformed the system. 

What happened with respect to Benghazi, almost certainly, is Obama said he wanted a light footprint in Libya because having an armed camp didn't fit with his spin on the success of the Libyan intervention, would undercut his claim he had El Qaeda on the run and would discredit his glorification of the Arab Spring. The minions complied. But that will never be directly established because everyone protects the guy at the top.

Since the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1978 the U.S. has had advance resources and sophisticated and detailed plans in place for immediate deployment, in country and from without, to protect U.S. embassies worldwide in the event of siege, invasion or attack. It's obvious these plans were not activated in Benghazi. That only could have happened by direction of the highest levels of U.S. government -- the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and intelligence agency chiefs, in consultation with the President.

Million Dollar Mania

Besides giving rise to million dollar bus stops, DC suburb Arlington County is home of the Pentagon, the FDIC, the INS, the TSA and DEA among other federal agencies. If you were wondering the purpose of the million dollar stops, I'm betting it has got something to do with Arlington's spiffy new million dollar high school softball field. High brow, low brow, one and all, they sure know how to live it up inside the Beltway, mostly with your money.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

The 298th time is the charm. Winless in his previous 297 starts on the PGA and Champions Tours, Mexican Esteban Toledo won the Insperity Championship yesterday in The Woodlands, just north of Houston, Texas. 

THE WOODLANDS - Esteban Toledo never managed a win on the PGA Tour. But if you know his story, you realize his simply getting there was a triumph for the ages.

But Toledo has never been content to be just a pro golfer. What he calls his "goals and dreams" are bigger than that. And Sunday, in a dramatic finish to the 10th Insperity Championship, they finally came to fruition. Can it possibly get any better for a man from Mexico than to win a title on Cinco de Mayo - especially when the man from Mexico had to come from seven strokes behind, then battle his way through a three-man, three-hole playoff?

There's also the promise Toledo made to his dying brother Mario just a couple of months ago. He told Mario he would win a tournament for him, which is why he said, "Winning on this day is the most incredible thing I've ever done."

He celebrated Cinco de Mayo by becoming the first Mexican winner in Champions Tour history. Toledo was the youngest of 11 children, raised in a home with dirt floors and no indoor plumbing. He earned a few pesos as a lad by fishing golf balls out of water hazards and selling them back to golfers (see Growing up in Morton Grove). He was self taught at a driving range and shifted his career focus to golf when his professional boxing career was cut short by a bout of appendicitis.  

Esteban Toledo gives praise in thanks of victory.

Arriba, Arriba, Arriba!   

Politidumb of the Week

I missed this one last week.  Representative Hank Johnson (D - Ga.) asked us to imagine to imagine a world without balloons.  Pushing crony capitalism for the helium crowd,

Johnson stood up for some of the most important victims of congressional gridlock: children’s birthday parties and comedians trying to make their voices high-pitched. Discussing a bill to continue the federal government’s sales from the National Helium Reserve, Johnson intoned, 'Imagine, Mr. Speaker, a world without balloons.' In his pun-riddled push for the Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act of 2013, he lamented, 'today, the House has chosen to just simply float above it all.'

'Too often lately, this body has sat deflated,' he said, but 'not for a lack of hot air.' 

During a 2010 committee hearing regarding the U.S. military’s presence in Guam, Johnson voiced his concerns about the island “become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”

Guam -- did someone mention Guam?

The Navy brass are incredibly cool dudes.

Here comes introducing a resolution Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and a dozen other Democrats, claiming the results of climate change include drought and reduced agricultural output  -- particularly pernicious consequences for women.

"[F]ood insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health," it says.

Climate change could also add "workload and stresses" on female farmers, which the resolution says produce 60 to 80 percent of the food in developing countries. 

The chances for regional conflict also increase with climate change, the resolution says, because changing weather patterns could lead to migration and refugee crises. It said these sorts of potential conflicts over land will have a disproportionate impact on "the most vulnerable populations including women." 

More broadly, the resolution says climate change will hurt "marginalized" women, such as refugees, sexual minorities, adolescent girls, and women and girls with HIV. It also cites Hurricane Katrina as evidence of how climate change can affect women, noting that the storm displaced "over 83 percent of low-income, single mothers" in the region.In a statement to The Hill, Lee said women are critically underrepresented in the development of climate change policy. 

"My resolution will affirm the commitment to include and empower women in economic development planning and international climate change policies and practices," she said. "This will help communities adapt to climate impacts, and embark on a path towards clean and sustainable development."

War, starvation, economic collapse, prostitution and sexually transmitted disease?  That's quite a lineup.  I am speechless.  I don't know what to say other than this week's Politidumb award goes to U.S. Rep. Barabara Lee.  Congratulations Barbara!  As for Representative Johnson, your time will come.

Michelle Obama embraces Barbara Lee

Changing Colors

Obama politics -- vote for a chameleon, get a chameleon.

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

May 4, 2013

(click for full size)

The Madison Range over Painted Hills neighborhood.

A hint of Spring.

Clouds roiling over Mt. Ellis.

Mama cow with triplets!  Courtesy of the Big Timber Pioneer.

Still winter in Yellowstone.  Courtesy of the National Park Service.

The U.S. Constitution in Practice in Watertown

---

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

---

The Fourth Amendment enforced by weapons drawn and aimed, ejecting people from their home,

Anyone want to bet anything other than no lawful warrant was issued?

Furloughed to the Fairways

If it is good enough for the President, it's good enough for Club Fed.

Back in Arlington, Virginia we took frequent advantage of Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) offerings.  My "home" course was one of theirs -- Algonkian Golf.  I also played NVRPA links at Pohick Bay and Brambleton.  One of the last times I played at Brambleton (just beyond Dulles International Airport) as I lined up my tee shot on the 15th hole there appeared just over the treeline the Space Shuttle Discovery hauled by a Boeing 747 and close escorted by a NASA T-38 jet.  It was awesome.  We spent many a family swim day at NVRPA's Ocean Dunes Water Park at Upton Hill Regional Park and Great Waves Water Park at Cameron Run Regional Park. 
   

Now here comes NRVPA forward with a lessened links levy for victims of the sequester.  

Furloughed to Fairways

Thousands of area federal employees will be furloughed on certain days between April and September this year as a result of the Federal Sequester.  In response, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) is offering a special deal for those furloughed federal employees who enjoy the outdoors and a good round of golf. 

Starting on the first day of May, federal employees will be able to play any one of the three courses owned by NVRPA for just $25.  This deal, which is about 30% off the regular greens fee, will be honored Monday through Thursday after 10 A.M.  Federal employees must bring a civilian federal employee ID to the course to take advantage of the deal, which is targeted at furloughed employees. 

“We greatly appreciate the federal employees who are so important to our region, and we want to show our solidarity with those public servants who enjoy the sport of golf," remarked Brian Knapp, Chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.  "It is very unfortunate that these federal employees are being impacted in this fashion.  In a small way, we wish to thank them for their contributions to our local communities and our nation, and welcome them to visit our three beautiful golf courses.” 

The Park Authority has three golf courses conveniently located throughout Northern Virginia, including Algonkian Golf Course in Sterling, Brambleton Golf Course in Ashburn, and Pohick Bay Golf Course in Lorton. Contact information for each course appears at the end of this release. 

“NVRPA is giving a real morale boost to furloughed workers.  To me, it’s more than just the golf discount-through Furlough to Fairways, NVRPA is showing that the Northern Virginia community supports us,” said Ted McCleskey, civilian employee with the Department of Defense. 

The Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Authority, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Management and Budget and many other departments will be sending workers home on a regular basis (often weekly) as a result of the Sequester.  

"Co-workers may want to use this unique opportunity to play golf together during the week at prices that are not normally available," commented Paul Gilbert, Executive Director of NVRPA.

NRVPA is doing Debbie Wasserman Schulz proud by stepping forward to support the unfortunate victims of the sequester. The sequester won't fester in D.C..  Congratulations to NVRPA!

Global Cooling?

It snowed on May Day.  But hey, we are Montana and stuff like that happens here -- but not so in the central Plains and the Midwest.

Omaha, Neb., Mason City, Iowa, and Rochester, Minn., are but only several cities that have been clobbered by their biggest May snowfall on record. In many cases in the major cities in the Plains, those records date back to the 1800s.

18 inches of snow fell in Blooming Prairie, Minn. Several locations in western Wisconsin have reported more than 14 inches of snow, including one report of up to 18 inches near Hayward, Wis. Up to 11 inches was reported in Britt, Iowa.  We had the first ever recorded May snow in Arkansas.  Twenty major baseball games have been snowed out.  

The last time we had a spring this cold Newsweek magazine published a feature article on global cooling.

There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon. 

April 28, 1975 Newsweek

The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During the same time, the average temperature around the equator has risen by a fraction of a degree – a fraction that in some areas can mean drought and desolation. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars’ worth of damage in 13 U.S. states. 

To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world’s weather. The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth’s climate seems to be cooling down.

Massive evidence?  Devastating weather outbreaks?  Drastic declines in food production?  This must have been very controversial.  But the article continued, "the present [temperature] decline has taken the planet about a sixth of the way toward the Ice Age average."  Some meteorologists viewed  "the cooling as a reversion to the 'little ice age' conditions that brought bitter winters to much of Europe and northern America between 1600 and 1900 – years when the Thames used to freeze so solidly that Londoners roasted oxen on the ice and when iceboats sailed the Hudson River almost as far south as New York City."  Scientists warned that cooling "causes an increase in extremes of local weather such as droughts, floods, extended dry spells, long freezes, delayed monsoons and even local temperature increases – all of which have a direct impact on food supplies."  In other words, cooling temperatures cause almost everything that is now attributed to warming temperatures.

For the record, world wheat production rose from 353 million tons in 1975 to 654 million tons in 2012, an 85 percent increase, compared to the 1975 vintage expert claims of a drop in output from wheat producing lands.   Good thing the politicians of that era flat ignored fear mongering academics and left wing loonies, who back then were recognized for what they are -- the fickle few.  Today's single-variable, adjusted data, straight line extrapolation climatologists and slide show mavens deserve no more credit.

Mainstream Media -- Handmaiden of Government Distortion and Deception

Here's the lead from The Bozeman Chronicle page 1 AP story published Tuesday of this week.

Despite what you may have heard, China isn't the country's biggest creditor. America is. The bulk of the national debt - soon to exceed a staggering $17 trillion - is held by the Federal Reserve, Social Security system, various pension plans for civil service workers and military personnel, U.S. banks, mutual funds, private pension plans, insurance companies and individual domestic investors.

Now think about what the AP scribe has said -- the three biggest holders of U.S. government debt are the Federal Reserve (the U.S. government), the Social Security system (the U.S. government), and various pensions plans for civil service workers and military personnel (the U.S. government). How can the U.S. government owe the U.S. government? Are there trust funds set up where surpluses are deposited and segregated from other government assets? No. The AP story is telling us to find comfort from phony balancing entries in spreadsheets, a system Bernie Madoff would be proud of -- nothing else. 

Think of it this way. You set up a fund for your children's education. You don't actually deposit money in that fund, but every month you increase the balance in that fund by the flick of a switch or an entry of a number. Your kid starts high school. She wants to know how her college education will be paid for. You say to your kid, "Don't worry, I am fully funding your college education." You say, "Young lady, look at these numbers, they are growing every month." What do you do when the kid says, "But Dad there is no real money there and you have spent your income on other things, what are you actually going to do when I start college? Tuition, room and board need to be paid with actual money -- not entries on spreadsheet."  You could be honest, and say, "I don't know. I just created an artifice. It's a fraud. I'm sorry. I'll start fixing this right away." Or you could tell your daughter "Don't worry, that fund is backed up by my promise. I really, really want to pay. I'll figure it out somehow, even if ultimately you are the one who pays and we have to borrow from strangers who charge exorbitant interest rates. Don't worry it will work out, even though I won't tell you how." Then you could go to work for the U.S. government or write for the AP and sign up with the Democratic party.

The reality is every penny of the almost $7 trillion the government owing the government debt will eventually have to be funded by going out to the financial markets and asking, more like begging, the likes of China et. al. to pony up the resources.  The burdens and repayment responsibility will be passed on to our children and grandchildren.

It so happens, the financial press came out later in the week with the following lead,

Foreigners now hold more than $13 trillion in American securities, a record set as the U.S. seeks to assert itself as the safest port in troubled global waters.

China and Japan combined owned more than $3.4 trillion, including $2.4 trillion in debt, a number that has grown since the data set was compiled.The total value of U.S. stocks and bonds under foreign ownership rose 6.5 percent in 2012, with stocks actually rising more on a percentage basis, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Treasury.

Foreign holdings have more than doubled since 2005 and are getting close to the $15 trillion total size of the U.S. economy.

The CNBC story points out that 52 percent of marketable treasury securities are owned by foreign interests, painting a real and complete picture totally different from the AP's biased and distorted big government political, don't worry view, that debt is only 7 percent China issue. 

Outstanding U.S. Bond Debt, Source:

http://www.freddiemac.com/investors/pdffiles/investor-presentation.pdf

Also, the AP story only treats treasury debt as U.S. government debt when that is barely half of total marketable U.S. debt (i.e., the non-accounting gimmick stuff). Total U.S. debt includes agency debt as well the Freddie, Fannie, FHA and Ginnie Mae portions of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS or what was known as CDO's during the financial crisis), totalling $10.3 trillion, compared to $10.9 trillion in marketable treasury securities referenced in the AP story.  AP is off by half. How would you like to wake up some day and find your $250k mortgage was really a $500k?  The AP would say, no problem because you can set up a fund to pay yourself.  Don't worry, party on, borrow more.  The AP has told me it is all Okay. 

Your children and grandchildren will pay for the fraud and the excesses, more than you will ever know.

North Dakota -- AKA Son of Saudi Arabia

A billion barrels here, a billion barrels there.  Before you know it you got 7.4 billion barrels and it makes a difference.  Oil is booming in western North Dakota and northeast Montana.   Proven reserves are skyrocketing.  The AP reports,

BISMARCK, N.D. — Government data released Tuesday show that 7.4 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from two massive shale formations spanning parts of the Dakotas and Montana, nearly double the amount previously estimated for the region.

The new number from the U.S. Geological Survey is based on data largely from oil company and state drilling records. But unlike the agency's 2008 estimate, it includes more than 3 billion barrels of oil believed held in the Three Forks formation, which is directly below the oil-rich Bakken formation.

Large-scale drilling in Three Forks didn't occur until after that earlier assessment, and the formation is now estimated to hold as much recoverable crude as the Bakken, according to the USGS. The agency calls the formations the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed — and some industry insiders think its potential is even stronger.

"It's a great number but it's conservative," said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which represents more than 400 companies working in western North Dakota's booming oil patch.

USGS in 2008 had estimated there were 3 billion-4.3 billion barrels of oil in the U.S. part of the formation. That estimate was 25 times greater than the previous estimate in 1991. Putting the two estimate updates together, dedicated exploration and development have driven the USGS estimate up by a factor of 50 in 22 years. This is great news for U.S. energy security and the U.S. economy -- if the oil is made readily accessible.

Showing great foresight, prior to the huge boost in reserve estimates, Keystone XL pipeline planners designed in a 100,000 (up from 65,000 in earlier designs) barrel a day on ramp in the Bakken for U.S. crude. The Keystone XL pipeline route traverses the border of the Bakken (see map to the right). 

The Minneapolis Fed reports the positively affected cities include Sydney, Montana's center of Bakken oil activity and related home and service industry construction. In North Dakota, Williston is the industry hub and home to 200 oil service firms, Watford City is burgeoning to accomodate the growing oilfield population, Dickinson is a farming, manufacturing and university community diversifying its economic base to serve the oil fields, Minot is a gateway to the oil patch for oil companies, construction companies and service firms, and communities are far east as Bismarck have become oil field serving bedroom communities. Here in Bozeman, 200 to 300 miles west of the Bakken, we have neighbors who work the fields, living in company supplied barracks on a 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off schedule.

Economic Impacts of the Oil Patch

Say no to the we-want-to-kill-affordable-energy progressive crowd.  Keystone XL is swell!

Welcome May!