Kudos to the US Park Police Helicopter Crew

If you were watching yesterday, the US Park Police helicopter was there, airlifting trapped personnel and victims to safety from the roof of the Naval Sea Systems Command building in the Navy Yard complex.

The Park Police helicopters have been wherever needed again and again, brave, persistent when required, and daring and effective.

Like in 1982, when the Park Police helicopter pulled Air Florida Flight 90 victims from the frigid waters of the Potomac following an unscheduled stop on the 14th Street Bridge.

US Park Police helicopter pulling victims from the icy Potomac River, January 13, 1982, pictured from the
express lane (Rochambeau Bridge) span of the 14th Street Bridge. The northbound span in the background,
with a portion of the guardrail sheered by the plummeting plane, was renamed for Arland D Williams Jr. who unselfishly passed the life ring hanging from the helicopter rope to a fellow passenger before submerging and perishing in the river.

For decades now, the copter has been there like for every inauguration, demonstration and major event along the National Mall, to monitor, corral lawbreakers and control the crowds as needed.

Picture of pre-inaugural Clinton-Gore event, from US Park Police helicopter, January, 1993.

It has protected the White House.

A U.S. Park Police helicopter was on scene almost instantly after the Pentagon was struck on September 11, 2001, radioing information on the extent of the damage and the progress of the fire to the Arlington County Fire Department. 

And then landing on September 11th to whisk victims away from the scene. 

Years later, the U.S. Park Police helicopter was ten miles up the Potomac to rescue stranded motorists when River Road became a river.

And it's there to speedily transport accident victims along the George Washington and Baltimore Washington Parkways.

The helicopter hovers over the Anacostia to rescue bald eagles stuck in the muck.

And I shot these photos of the Park Police helicopter up immediately in the aftermath of the August 23, 2011 DC earthquake.  

Park Police inspecting
Washington Monument.

Park Police helicopter inspecting the Smithsonian
Castle building.

The U.S. Park Police helicopter does winter duty in the sky patrolling the snowed in Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

The U.S. Park Police are up in the New York City metropolitan area too, assisting on Staten Island in the recovery from Hurricane Sandy.

And providing access to the storm swept grounds of the Statue of Liberty.

And yes, the Park Police was at the Navy Yard in Southeast DC yesterday, providing reconnaissance, pulling victims from the roof and helping trapped personnel to escape.

Park Police helicopter flying above the USS Barry, docked at Washington Navy Yard, September 17, 2013.

Look! It's the Man in the Ice Floe.

Here is the extent of the Arctic ice pack on August 26, 2012.

And here is the extent of the Arctic ice pack on August 15, 2013. See how it has grown! The additional polar coverage, demarcated by the area between the old and the orange line in the picture above, is greater than the size of Europe.

Now, why was the ice pack so small?  After extensive research the cause is determined. We dusted off the surface and found the source of hot air.

Al Gore! Case closed.

Score: Washington Nationals 1 Barack Obama 0

The petulant presidency continues. 

Washington Nationals cancel game tonight in response to DC tragic killings.

Barack Obama goes on minutes after in midday, before the blood is dry, with hyper partisan political speech -- business as usual with a typical array of political mannequins arranged behind.  

This man is an embarrassment and anyone who supports him diminishes him or herself.

Tiger and Sergio

Tiger Woods fell back at bit in the BMW Championship today, mostly because he picked up a two stroke penalty for unintentionally moving his ball a few tenths of an inch, caught on review only because his every move, each twitch is capured on camera. It's not the same for everyone else -- it goes with the territory but really is not very fair. 

Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods

Be that as it may, one result of the penalty is Tiger dropped into a tie with Sergio Garcia. They will be teeing off together tomorrow morning at 11:50 CDT. It's the first time they will be paired together since Garcia moped and whined about Woods' alleged discourtesy during the Players Championship. After the round the duo exchanged barbs. The next week Garcia stepped into it big time.

Asked when he would be inviting Woods round for dinner at the US Open next month, the Spaniard replied “he can come every night - we will serve fried chicken.”

The racist overtones caused a stir at the prestigious European Tour Player Awards and continued an ill-tempered transatlantic exchange with Woods following their latest fall-out at the Players Championship a fortnight ago.

"I apologise for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during the European Tour Players' Awards dinner," Garcia said. "I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner."

Garcia followed Fuzzy Zoeller through the casual racism trap door, falling the wrong side of what is acceptable in banter. After Woods record victory at the 1997 Masters Zoeller said: “You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it? Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."

Like Garcia, Zoeller apologised, claiming his remarks had been misconstrued. But the stain lingers 15 years later.

Expect the first frost of the season to hit cold and to settle in hard on the first tee at Conway Farms, just before noon Saturday.

Note: Alas, the pairing was uneventful.

There were no dust-ups between the two. They shook hands on the first tee and said "Play well" to each other. Throughout the round both players acknowledged the other's good shots. But there was no other banter before they shook hands on the 18th green.

Nothing but frosty banalities.

Al Qaeda's Economy

To grow the economy, defend the dollar, boost exports and stop unnecessary nonproductive expenditures. Or the opposite to contract. Ayman al-Zawahiri understands finance and the economy better than the U.S. President.

Thank You Chairman Jon Tester

The banking system and banks are creatures of the federal government, regulated, funded and chartered by Congress, the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OOC, in the Treasury Department), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), with the agencies subject to Congressional oversight.

Senator Jon Tester, D - Mont., is member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee who earlier this year issued a press release proudly announcing,  

Senator Jon Tester today was named Chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy.

The subcommittee is responsible for overseeing Congress’ role in monetary policy, economic growth, small business lending and flood insurance as well as oversight responsibility for the recently created Financial Stability Oversight Council charged with addressing systemic risk to the financial system.

Tester a member of the Senate Banking Committee since he took office in 2007, said he looks forward to using his chairmanship to strengthening the role of Montana’s community banks and small businesses.

“Montana’s community banks are the driving force behind strong small businesses and a job-friendly economy,” Tester said. “This leadership role guarantees Montana and rural America have a voice at the table as we work together to rebuild our economy by creating jobs, cutting spending and cutting our debt.”

Tester tells us he "brings a rural perspective to this committee to make sure that laws and policies work for small banks, credit unions, small businesses and consumers in rural America." Let's see how that's working out for us.

Well, we can congratulate Chairman Jon Tester for returning big banks and the central banking system to a state of prosperity, grandeur and influence greater than at any time since the Great Depression. The Fed's balance sheet has grown to $3.6 trillion.  Big banks have grown from $7.81 trillion in to $10.97 trillion in assets.  

Bigger banks and a more concentrated, more indebted and highly leveraged and centralized banking system -- way to go Jon and friends in reining in debt and reducing systemic risk.  These banks are not only too big to fail -- they are too big to hiccup. 

Senator Tester, thank you and your colleagues for doing your campaign donors' bidding well. With your track record, I think you can understand Mr. Senator why I am befuddled how it is that you want to tell me how to manage my money. More importantly, why don't you answer your email?

The Other Anniversary

September 11th is the anniversary of another significant event. No, I'm not talking about Benghazi. As summed up in a New York Times video, it was a day when "What an army of firefighters, hundreds of aircraft and $120 million couldn't do, a quarter-inch of snow did." 25 years ago today an early season snowfall tamped down wildfires that threatened to totally obliterate Yellowstone National Park.

Overall burn map, Yellowstone National Park
Summer 1988

After a modest June 30 start the 1988 wildfire season grew into a ring of fire that crept, marched and stormed into almost every corner of the park. Old Faithful Inn and the Old Faithful Snow Lodge were threatened as was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Fires raged over and through areas with thermal features normally teeming with tourists. Wildlife were constantly on the move to stay ahead of the raging infernos. The names included the Fan, North Fork, Clover-Mist, Hellroaring, Storm Creek, Mink, Snake and Huck fires.  Little contained wildfire spread other than running into the borders of one another.  

The mainstream media bore down on and blamed President Reagan, Secretary of Interior Donald Hodel, the National Park Service Director William Penn Mott Jr., and Yellowstone NPS Superintendent Robert Barbee for failing to reverse the threats of dry lightening, hot winds and drought and permitting fires to run out of control, as fires approached critical areas.

Fire viewed from Old Faithful Inn
Approaching the Old Faithful Snow Lodge
September 7, 1988

On September 7, high winds brought the North Fork Fire blaze to the Old Faithful complex, the first time fire had threatened the area in the 116-year history of the park. An aerial suppression assault attempted to slow the fire’s progress, but those efforts failed. Early in the morning, the National Park Service evacuated the complex. Between 500 and 600 people left by the 10 a.m. deadline, although visitors traveling by car still were allowed to visit the geyser as late as mid-afternoon, some arriving just minutes before the firestorm struck. The fire eventually encircled the Old Faithful area, and firefighters successfully battled to save the Old Faithful Inn as well as the electrical substation nearby. The fire burned so hot that it melted the rubber off the wheels of cars and a truck, shattered vehicle windshields, and scorched their paint. As many as nineteen buildings in the area burned to the ground, and the old dormitory building suffered damage.

The peak burning day was September 9th (see Fire Growth Maps for the 1988 GreaterYellowstone Area Fires, page 7)  only two days before nature took the forests back and initiated the processes of growth and renewal. 

By September 11, 1988, the first snows of autumn had dampened the fires as the nation's largest fire-fighting effort could not. The imminent danger to life and property was over, and firefighters were gradually sent home, although the last of the smoldering flames were not extinguished until November. Staff in Yellowstone National Park went to work surveying the impacts of the fires on wildlife, plants, historic structures, trails, and more and answering the demands for information, explanation, and a new fire management policy.

The year after, wildflowers thrived.

A total of 248 fires started in greater Yellowstone in 1988; 50 of those were in Yellowstone National Park. Despite widespread misconceptions that all fires were initially allowed to burn, only 31 of the total were; 28 of these began inside the park. In the end, 7 major fires were responsible for more than 95% of the burned acreage. Five of those fires were ignited outside the park, and 3 of them were human-caused fires that firefighters attempted to control from the beginning. More than 25,000 firefighters, as many as 9000 at one time, attacked Yellowstone fires in 1988, at a total cost of about $120 million. Thankfully, the fires killed no park visitors and no nearby residents. Outside the park, two firefighters were killed, one by a falling tree and one while piloting a plane transporting other personnel. 

Ecosystemwide, about 1.2 million acres was scorched; 793,000 (about 36%) of the park's 2,221,800 acres were burned. Sixty-seven structures were destroyed, including 18 cabins used by employees and guests and one backcountry patrol cabin in Yellowstone.

The aftermath was not dire, not at all. The 1988 fires created a mosaic of burns, partial burns, and unburned areas that provided new habitats for plants and animals and new realms for research. What scientists have learned?

• Fertile soil with good-water holding capacity and dense, diverse vegetation before the fire recovered quickly.
• Grasslands returned to pre-fire appearance within a few years.
• Many of the burned forests were mature lodgepole; this species is recolonizing most of the burned areas.
• The first seedlings of Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, Douglas-fir, and whitebark pine have emerged.

  

  Forest recovery on far bank of Madison River.

• Aspen reproduction has increased because fire stimulated the growth of suckers from the aspen's underground root system and left behind bare mineral soil that provides good conditions for aspen seedlings.
• Some of the grasses that elk eat were more nutritious after the fire.
• Bears graze more frequently at burned than unburned sites.
• The fires have had no observable impact on the number of grizzly bears in greater Yellowstone.
• Cavity-nesting birds, such as bluebirds, had more dead trees for their nests; birds dependent on mature forests, such as boreal owls, lost habitat.
• No fire-related effects have been observed in the fish populations or the angling experience in the six rivers that have been monitored regularly since 1988.
• Vegetation growth has slowed erosion in watersheds that had erosion and mudslides after the fires, such as the Gibbon River.

Out of destruction comes renewal. Amen.

September 11, 2001; We Remember (Repost)

Pentagon 9/11 Memorial Logo


Designed & Donated

By Anonymous
The Navy Annex
September, 2001


It’s been fifteen years. Our daughter Blake was a baby, only ten months old. Teresa was pregnant with Blythe. Bella was not born for four more years. My kids ask questions, trying to understand – wondering about the underlying causes and what it was like to live through that day. When we still lived in Arlington we visited the Pentagon Memorial. It is a solemn and surprisingly solitary place despite being hemmed in by major thoroughfares and lying adjacent to a structure, which gauged by size of its footprint, is the world's largest office building. 

This is my story, one among millions -- a personal recollection of that day's experience, or more specifically that morning, in Washington, DC and Arlington, Virginia (where the Pentagon is located). I worked in an office building at L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, DC, across the Potomac River about a mile and a half northeast of the Pentagon. We lived in Arlington Virginia, between Arlington Boulevard and Columbia Pike, about a mile and one-half west of the Pentagon. Our world as we knew it was shattered that day, but the tragedy was inflicted on others -- innocents to a person.

Westboro Came and Went

So the Westboro Baptist Church was in town yesterday demonstrating on Main Street in front of the high school.  These pinheads are best known for chanting and drumming to disrupt the private family funerals of veterans who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

It so happens I'm driving by and see a squad motorcyclists, dressed in their baddest black, American flags flying, pull up on their big Harleys, and park, idling full blast -- Vrrrooommm, Vrrrooommm, Vrooommmm, drowning the pinheads out. Cool.  They are called Patriot Guard Riders.

Calling Al Gore: What About Cats 1 Through 5?

Hey dude, what happened to June, July, August and now much of September?  No hurricanes.

Yet Prince Al Gore promotes raising the scale for hurricane intensity -- global warming demands the boost he claims.

If you look at superstorm Sandy on October 29th, the ocean water east of New Jersey was nine degrees Fahrenheit above average. That’s what put so much more energy into that storm. That’s what put so much more water vapor into that storm. Would there be a storm anyway? Maybe so. Would there be hurricanes and floods and droughts without man-made global warming? Of course. But they’re stronger now. The extreme events are more extreme. The hurricane scale used to be 1-5 and now they’re adding a 6. The fingerprint of man-made global warming is all over these storms and extreme weather events.

Cold Labrador current from north and warm
Gulf Stream current from south traverse
Atlantic seaboard.

Now I've spent some time on the beaches and in the ocean off the Jersey shore. I can attest from personal experience wading, swimming,and boating there that dramatic changes in sea temperature occur just off shore from week to week and sometimes day to day, throughout the summer and into the fall, depending on shifting currents. Jersey is generally along a section of coastline in a transition zone where warm Gulf Stream waters flow from the south and cold waters work their way down from New England (the Labrador current). Currents are constantly shifting. And there is stratification -- what is on top versus what is on the bottom. As a factual matter, associating these sudden, unpredictable and marginal (relative to the size of a hurricane born thousands of miles away) current shifts with human caused climate change and tropical storm strength is an absurdity almost beyond comprehension. 

An actual scientific read on the shifting currents goes like this,

The well-sampled ocean off the coast of New Jersey provides a data-rich environment in which to study ocean current variability over the inner shelf. Using a year-long HF radar data set, complemented with in situ and meteorological observations, the annual- and seasonal-scale variabilities are examined. The hydrographic variability of the inner shelf off New Jersey is largely bimodal between summer stratification and winter mixing.An annual oceanographic and atmospheric data set was separated into these two regimes. The influence of stratification is evident through a relatively steady current response strongly correlated with the wind during the stratified season and a more variable responses correlated with the wind during the mixed season. When the water column is mixed, the influence of the local topography on the surface current variability is dependent on the slope, with a tendency for the variability to be more aligned with steeper topography.

Let me translate -- Jersey shore current and ocean temperature variations within season and the timing of seasonal shifts depends on the wind. That's right Al, which way the wind blows. You are a politician, you know how to do it -- lick and put up your finger. See how it blows. Now that's not too complicated, is it?

The Goracle sermonizes.

Al's bellicose claim "they'll be adding a 6" is simply not true, there is no such decision. So Al came out with a clarification, correction or revision, whatever you want to call it, he now says"…some are proposing we add category 6 to the hurricane scale that used to be 1-5."

But Al, really, let's not worry about 6. I know you ignored the snowstorms last spring, but haven't you noticed, we aren't even using categories 1 - 5!!!!

Reliable hurricane records go back to the 1960s when weather satellites were first deployed. Over those 50 years the latest formation date for the first Atlantic basin hurricane was September 11, 2002. NBC owned, The Weather Channel, has invested enormous energy and expense building its programming plan this hurricane season around climate change myths. They are hoping, indeed praying, that Tropical Storm Humberto, harmlessly whorling in the mid Atlantic, will grow into a minimal Cat 1 hurricane sometime in the hours before 8:00 am on 9/11, so a new latest record will be averted. To this point no hurricanes, no numbered categories at all. Al, why should we be scared of that?

We would remind Prince Al, there is something less than 1s though 5s, they are called tropical depressions and tropical storms.  We've been having some of those -- what we are experiencing is not more intense than normal but something that is dramatically less, totally contrary to Gore's speculative, counter factual and unsupported category 6 theorem. So how about changing the scale by adding some negatives -- let's say categories minus 1, minus 2 and minus 3. Heck, I would be happy with a big category zero, which just about encompasses the value of Al Gore's specious claims.

Note: 9/12/2013. While still barely off the coast of Africa, Humberto was declared a hurricane with only 3 hours to spare,

Humberto’s maximum sustained winds increased to 85 miles (137 kilometers) per hour from 80 mph earlier. It was declared a hurricane at 5 a.m., missing the record for the tardiest big storm since satellites began watching the Atlantic in 1967. The mark for the latest that such a powerful storm has formed is held by 2002’s Gustav, born at 8 a.m. on Sept. 11, said Dennis Feltgen, a National Hurricane Center spokesman.

After a short run as a Cat 1, Humberto is expected to dissipate into a Tropical Storm by early tomorrow morning, and lose Tropical Storm strength altogether over the weekend, having impacted a few fish and a couple of buoys.

Please Visit the BMW Championship: It's for the Caddies

BMW proceeds fund caddie scholarships.

If you are in the Chicago area and enjoy golf or are just looking for a pleasant walk on a nice day in a beautiful place, I would encourage you to attend the BMW Championship this week. Previously known as the Western Open, with a history extending back to 1899 when it started at the course (Glen View Club) where I caddied, the BMW is the penultimate tournament in the Fedex Cup series that finishes the PGA Tour season. Tiger will be there. Phil too. Adam, Bubba, Ernie and Rory will compete. And Henrik. Golfers of local interest include Steve Stricker (Madison, Wisconsin native and resident) and Luke Donald (Northwestern grad and year round Chicago area resident). Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan are past champions -- Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson too. Tiger Woods is a five time winner and Rory McIlroy is defending his title. In other words, most of the golfing legends of the last century have taken home silver from this Western Golf Association event.

Jock Hutchison (left) and
Chick Evans, circa 1920.

Two players I caddied for in my youth, Chick Evans (1910) and Jock Hutchison (1920 and 1923), are past champions as well.

Arnold Palmer, left
congratulated by Sam Snead
for winning the Western Open,
June 25, 1961.

Event proceeds go to fund the Evans Scholar Foundation, which awards more than 200 full tuition scholarships each year. More than 10,000 caddies have attended college on Evans scholarships. The program has a 90 percent graduation rate.




There is a rigorous application process. Each year, more than 800 deserving caddies attend college on full tuition and housing grants from the Evans Scholars Foundation. To qualify, caddies must be nominated by their club and meet four requirements:

• Strong caddie record: Applicants must have caddied, successfully and regularly, for a minimum of two years and are also expected to caddie and/or work at their sponsoring club during the summer when they apply for the scholarship.

• Excellent academics: Applicants must have completed their junior year of high school with above a B average in college preparatory courses and are required to take the ACT.

• Demonstrated financial need: Applicants must clearly establish their need for financial assistance.

• Outstanding character: Applicants must be outstanding in character, integrity and leadership.Applicants are evaluated and compete on the above criteria for the limited number of Chick Evans Caddie Scholarships awarded annually. The Scholarship Committee will interview finalists and the final selection rests with the Committee.

I was fortunate enough to win an Evans Scholarship -- it's my favorite charity. 

To apply for the scholarship us caddies needed letters of recommendation from our schools, the Chairman of the Caddie Committee, the Club President and the Club Pro where we caddied. The program is funded solely by private donations. There is much to be said to tying scholarship awards with work.

Scholarships are offered at the following universities, most of which maintains an Evans Scholarship house for recipients.

	State/Area	University
	Colorado	University of Colorado (Boulder)
	Illinois	University of Illinois (Champaign); Northern Illinois University (DeKalb); Northwestern University (Evanston); Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI); Miami University (Oxford, OH); University of Colorado (Boulder)
	Kansas City Area	University of Missouri (Columbia)
	Michigan	University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); Michigan State University (East Lansing)
	Minnesota	University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
	Missouri	University of Missouri (Columbia)
	Ohio	Ohio State University (Columbus); Miami University (Oxford)
	Oregon	University of Oregon (Eugene);  Oregon State University (Corvallis)
	Wisconsin	University of Wisconsin (Madison)
	Other States/Areas	Northwestern University (Evanston, IL); Miami University (Oxford, OH); University of Colorado (Boulder); University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

This year's tournament will be played at Conway Farms in Lake Forest, Illinois. Information on tickets, directions and parking are available on the tournament website. Cheers!

Rory McIlroy, 2012 BMW Championship

NSA News Lost in the Clutter

The Washington Post continues to report disturbing revelations on the scope and intrusiveness of NSA domestic spying.

The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.

In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

What had not been previously acknowledged is that the court in 2008 imposed an explicit ban — at the government’s request — on those kinds of searches, that officials in 2011 got the court to lift the bar and that the search authority has been used.

For you low information voters out there, as for the limitations from intrusion and privacy protections put in place by the government in 2008, then removed in 2011, it works out this way. Bush corralled the NSA and Obama let it loose.

Bill & Barack at Andrews

In related news, Fort Meade, host to NSA, risked offending the commander in chief by closing down its golf courses to accommodate a $3.2 billion building project to house burgeoning spy bureaus. However, Fort Belvoir and Andrews Air Force Base golf courses remain open to serve him whenever needed.

Andrews says it well.  

Welcome to The Courses at Andrews 

Reflecting a military presence; the classic sense of style and gracious hospitality, The Courses at Andrews Air Force Base carries an air of true timeless elegance.  High-end amenities, exceptional facilities and an unforgettable golf experience are the standard at this military resort. 

The envy of many golf courses located the Maryland and Northern Virginia area, The Courses at Andrews boasts three 18 hole championship courses that are created from an extraordinary design and provides an enjoyable challenge for golfers at all skill levels. 

Our distinguishing attribute extends beyond just the three golf courses.  It's reflected in everything we have to offer at The Courses at Andrews, including our golf tournament, operations food and beverage signature outlets, the only military resort resale golf shop, our complimentary practice facilities, and our state-of-the-art fitness center.  Moreover, we are committed to making The Courses at Andrews AFB a place of warmth, hospitality, and operational efficiency.  To us, that means prompt, courteous service, and genuine responsiveness to your needs. 

We hope you enjoy your experience at The Courses at Andrews and will use the facilities often.  

Remember, The Courses at Andrews Air Force Base.... "where we have accomplished something very special."

Contact Congress

Seeing as now we have confirmation that the President of the United States understands America's national security interests about as well as he understands the U.S. economy, I think it vital that everyone contact their elected representatives in Congress to make their views known on the threatened Syria attack. Many are persuadable. If you are in Montana, our Congressman, Steve Daines, has asked for input on this important issue. He says,

I am deeply concerned about the potential use of military force in #Syria, but I want to hear from you. Email me: https://daines.house.gov/email-me

I have shared views with my congressional representatives, well at the least the two of the three that have a brain cell or two to rub together. This is an excellent opportunity to put representative democracy into action.  

Giddy Up Cowboy

Someone ought to tell him that -- at least until snows blanket the high country -- it's straw hats, dude, straw.  No felt.

Declining Labor Force Participation Rates -- It's Not the Boomers

Don't blame the old people you ageists out there.  The decline in labor participation rates isn't due to the graying population leaving the workforce.  Quite the opposite.

The data are clear.  It is increasing proportions of the young and the middle aged who are no longer seeking work.  As for the staying in school response, that's a rational response for one, two or perhaps even three years while the economy is recovering.  But in the Obama's print, borrow and spend economy, staying in school is becoming a permanent strategy to avoid confronting an anemic recovery.

Even for an aging baby boomer like myself, who did retire and drop out of the workforce, lousy economic conditions played a role.  I had planned to retire in 2013 but left in 2011, when I realized during a downsizing at my place of employment, if I stayed I would be occupying a position that some younger person desperately needed.  In an era of economic strength my calculus would have been different, and my decision may have been as well.

I Didn't Set a Red Line

He makes such a big deal about color that I never imagined he was color blind.

Barack Pays For Golf Access in Montana

Access to The Golf Channel that is.

So you thought Obama's stimulus was done?  Nah, it keeps on cranking away.

West of Bozeman, crews are busily laying cable for Opticom between Belgrade and Big Sky (playground and ski resort for the rich and famous), along Ted Turner's ranch and other intermediate points.  In July 2011 the project received Illinois Senator Mark Kirk's "Silver Fleece" award.

The Silver Fleece Award for the month of July goes to a $64 million Stimulus award to provide broadband service to Gallatin County, Montana. According to an analysis conducted by Navigant Consulting, 93% of the households in the project's proposed service area were already served by five or more broadband providers. The fact that tens of millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to subsidize broadband service in an area with already strong private sector representation is reprehensible. Perhaps even more staggering, though, is the taxpayer cost of these services per unserved household. 

Ted Turner on his Flying D Ranch, Bozeman, Montana

According to the program's own definition of "unserved household", this project cost taxpayers more than $340,000 per unserved household. However, many of these so-called unserved households have access to 3G wirless broadband. Not only are 3G speeds approaching or even meeting Administration broadband standards, but 3G will soon be replaced with 4G broadband, which will far exceed current standards. Subtracting the number of homes that had existing access to 3G wireless leaves only 7 households in the Gallatin County service area unserved by broadband. It cost the U.S. taxpayer an astounding $7,112,422 per household to provide broadband service to the truly unserved population.  

Yellowstone Club, Big Sky, Montana
exclusive ownership, cable access by Obama

I wish I could say this project is the exception, but I cannot. This funding was provided through the Stimulus' $3.5 billion Rural Utility Service Broadband Initiative Program. On average, this program cost the taxpayer over $1,000 per household. In the projects analyzed by the Navigant study, 85% of the households served already had access to broadband. 

Unfortunately, rural broadband subsidization has been long mismanaged by the Rural Utility Service. A 2009 Inspector General (IG) report found that just 2% of Federal broadband buildout funds provided between 2005 and 2008 went toward unserved communities. The same IG report found that funds were also going to areas that weren't rural at all. In fact 148 of the communities provided with subsidized broadband between 2005 and 2008 were within 30 miles of cities with at least 200,000 inhabitants. We continued to see this occur in the Stimulus funding, where in my home state, Cook County, home of Chicago with a population of 2.79 million, and suburban Will County received funds.

We watched for three weeks as the drilling crew worked to lay cable under the driving range at our favorite golf course in Four Corners. The high water table and several feet of river rock just below the range's grassy surface repeatedly confounded the six person crew. Now that drilling is done and cable is accessible, here's hoping the course manager is willing to buy an Opticom telecast package that includes the Golf Channel. For some reason, he has been unwilling to buy a Golf Channel included package with his Dish TV subscription.  

$37.7 million of the $64.1 million grant has been spent but I doubt the driving range bill has been submitted. According to the Obama administration this 40 smile stretch of coaxial cable funded 136 jobs last quarter, or about 5 times as many jobs as what Obama acknowledges for 2,000 plus miles of oil pipeline.

As is so often the norm, the big beneficiaries of Obama's largess are corporate interests, and rich folks, not poor rural farmers, isolated women and children on the other side of the digital divide as the title and justification for the program suggests.

The head of the firm that won a $64 million federal stimulus grant to install a new fiber-optic network in Gallatin County is part of a Pittsburgh family that owns property at the exclusive, gated Yellowstone Club at Big Sky and is involved in a similar development nearby.

Exclusive private golf, Obama cable access,
The Club at Spanish Peaks, Big Sky, Montana

James Dolan Jr., the manager of Montana Opticom, also owns property at Big Sky, including a lot at the private Spanish Peaks housing and golf course community - which, so far, is home to the only customers served by Opticom, a small broadband firm based in Gallatin Gateway.

Opticom, which won the $64 million award Aug. 4, serves about 300 customers at the Spanish Peaks development.

Dolan's father is a former investment fund manager and founder of Ascent Data, the Pittsburgh-based parent of Montana Opticom, as well as a principal in the Spanish Peaks development. Dolan Sr. owns a home at the Yellowstone Club that is appraised at $11.5 million, according to state records.

You get the government you vote for. I hope you are happy with it.

Obama and Income Inequality

Another Obama economic "achievement" that I deferred writing about Labor Day weekend was increasing income inequality. We held back, but The Huffington Post did not. 

Despite President Obama’s view that growing income inequality is hurting the nation, it’s actually gotten worse during his tenure, at least according to one measure.

The difference between America’s median and average wages grew at a rate of 0.28 percent under President Bush, while it’s grown at a rate of 1.14 percent -- or about four times that -- under Obama, according to The New York Times. The median wage is the midpoint of all workers’ wages, so it only ticks up when everyone is earning more. While a small group of people earning higher pay can push the average wage up.

So, as the difference between the two rises, it means that those at the bottom of the income scale are making fewer gains compared to those at the top.

This data point is one of many that illustrates that in Obama’s America the rich are gaining while the rest of us are struggling to get by. The wealthy took home a greater share of the nation’s income during the years following the recession, under Obama, than between 2002 and 2007, under Bush, according to a 2012 analysis from Emmanuel Saez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

That's right -- worse than Bush.

We blogged in April,

... that Obama’s print (money), borrow (money) and spend (money) policy triad favors people with money -- the uppercrust. Obama is a money lever guy, not an economic leader. The money changer in chief doesn't understand or promote a value driven economy. Real exchanges of actual goods and genuine services drive value and build a strong, broad based and resilient economy and sustainable economic growth. The demand and production led economy that we should be building has attributes that reach into every household.  

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that what money leveraging does is help people with money! Let me repeat, Obama’s policies help people with money! It’s a rich guy’s game playing paradise. You don’t have to believe me. Look at the data.

There is no free pass for the President. What is happening is a natural consequence of his policies and personnel appointments.

Despite this record, Obama's answer is simply to increase the dose of the very same treatments — more government spending, more taxes, more intrusions into the marketplace in the name of "shared prosperity" — that hobbled the recovery and produced the very misery he now claims he can fix.

In other words, Obama is selling snake oil.

Enough said.