Arthur Max of the Associated Press wrote on November 20th about the dangers of permafrost melting and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. He writes, “Some scientists believe the thawing of permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change. They say 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, is a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere.” That may be a concern of some scientists but Max is wrong when he says “Most climate scientists, with a few dissenters, say human activities - … Continue Reading

“Some States Weigh Unthinkable Option: Ending Medicaid” reported Janet Adamy and Neil King for the November 22nd Wall Street Journal. And they do mention that “Medicaid has become one of the biggest items on state budgets,” but Adamy and King fail to mention just how much bigger a hole Medicaid is going to put in state budgets once the Obamacare mandates begin.

Starting in 2014 states must expand Medicaid to all non-elderly individuals with family incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. At first, Obamacare picks up the first three years of benefit costs for … Continue Reading

A November 22nd USA Today article by Mimi Hall and David Jackson titled START ratification becomes major test for Obama reports:

Opposition in the Senate has intensified since Republicans narrowed the Democrats’ majority in the Nov. 2 elections. Now, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, a GOP leader key to rounding up or quashing votes, says consideration of the treaty should wait until next year because the Senate has too much other work on its plate between now and Christmas break.

Kyl says the nation needs to focus on “complex and unresolved issues” related to maintaining and modernizing its aging arsenal before

… Continue Reading

On the November 17th episode of All Things Considered host Robert Siegel allowed undersecretary of state for arms control and international security Ellen Taushcher to make the case for President Barack Obama’s New START treaty including this exchange:

SIEGEL: Is it a valid political objection to say some things shouldn’t be done when we can see the new Senate? They’re waiting outside the doors. They’re going to come in another couple of months, something this big should be left to them.

Ms. TAUSCHER: No. Because it’s this Senate that has had the 18 hearings, and it’s this Senate that had the

… Continue Reading

Steve Hargreaves, in his November 11th CNN Money article “No money, no nukes,” reports that nuclear will not move forward without subsidies. He quotes energy analyst Kevin Book, who says, “You need subsidy dollars for nukes. And no one’s really pushing that right now.” The article does mention the nuclear loan guarantee program but fails to mention that President Obama announced $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees today to commence projection construction on two nuclear reactors in Burke County, Georgia.

But the problem is not just money or finding new ways to subsidize the nuclear industry. … Continue Reading

Tom Petruno reports in the November 14th Los Angeles Times that markets are throwing a wrench into the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) plans. He writes, “The markets also have been throwing the Fed another curve: While the goal of QE is to keep longer-term interest rates depressed, market yields on Treasury, corporate and municipal bonds jumped at the end of last week even as the Fed’s Treasury-purchase program ramped up. The 10-year T-note yield rose to 2.75% on Friday, up from 2.65% Thursday and the highest since mid-September.”

Although the goal of the quantitative easing program is to … Continue Reading

Reporting on President Barack Obama’s trip to Asia, The Washington Post’s Scott Wilson and Howard Schneider reported on November 12th:

Administration officials say the nearly complete South Korea deal, which Obama inherited from the George W. Bush administration, would increase exports of U.S. goods by $10 billion annually and support 70,000 jobs in the United States.

While it is true that the free trade agreement would be great for the U.S. economy, any assertion that the agreement is not “complete” (in this case “nearly complete”) is just plain false. President George Bush signed a full agreement with South Korea three years … Continue Reading

Julie Wernau reports for Chicago Breaking Business that wind energy production will be an economic boon for the state of Indiana. She writes, “For every megawatt of wind power developed in Illinois, 17 manufacturing jobs are created, according to a new study by the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago. The study, which identified more than 100 Illinois companies that are in the wind industry supply chain, did not identify how many the jobs created are in Illinois, but found that Illinois is fast becoming a hub for the nation’s wind power.”

With the economy struggling, on the … Continue Reading

In her November 7 article for the Washington Times entitled “Chilly wind blows against global climate pact”, reporter Kara Rowland describes “China, India and other rapidly growing economies” as “leading polluters” because of their carbon dioxide emissions. Such language plays right into the hands of the “global warming” industry by terming CO2, perhaps best thought of as plant food, as pollution.

A less biased portrayal of the role of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would note that the vast majority of the so-called “greenhouse effect” comes from water vapor, essentially all of which is naturally occurring. Of … Continue Reading

Reporting on the fight over the taxes between President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress, CBS News‘ David S Morgan reports parenthetically:

[In an August 2010 article titled "Five Myths About the Bush Tax Cuts," the Washington Post reported that "Less than 2 percent of tax returns reporting small-business income are filed by taxpayers in the top two income brackets."]

It is true that only a small percentage of small businesses pay the highest two tax rates. However, what the November 7th CBS News story fails to report is that those same businesses earn 72 percent of all small business … Continue Reading

NPR’s Julie Rovner found two Republicans who caution House Republicans that their efforts to investigate Obamacare could “backfire.” Rovner reported on November 4th:

But all those hearings could also have the opposite effect — giving the administration a chance to make its case in favor of the law, a case that often got drowned out during the election campaign.

“The next round of this, while there will continue to be the broad sloganeering on both sides, will presumably get a little bit more into the detail,” says Martin Corry, a health care lobbyist and former official at the

… Continue Reading

Hispanics saved the Dems, Politico’s Ben Smith reported on November 3rd. Smith writes:

Reid got an amazing 90% of the state’s 12% Hispanic voters, according to exit polls; Sharron Angle got just 8%.

This is just plain false. There was a poll that showed Hispanics choosing Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) over Angle 90% to 8%. But it was not an exit poll. It was an election eve poll conducted by Latino Decisions and sponsored by the National Council of La Raza, Service Employees International Union and America’s Voice.

There was an actual exit poll conducted by a source much less … Continue Reading

Writing in Reuters on November 2nd, Elizabeth McGowan covers a new study entitled “Americans’ Knowledge of Climate Change” conducted by Yale researchers and funded by the National Science Foundation. The title of the piece “Only 47% of Republicans Think Global Warming Is Happening” gives the impression that Republicans are alone in their global warming views. But the reality is that most independents polled in the survey fall closer in line with Republican views than they do with the Democrat opinions. The report indicates that “81 percent of Democrats think global warming is happening, compared to … Continue Reading