Shale Boom Brings Prosperity, New Life : American Fossil Energy Huge

Little wonder the progressive socialist democrats want to beat back the fossil energy boom as it brings prosperity to the middle class. Millions will find good paying jobs and therefore find independent thought. A new and bright future outside of the democrat influence of decline.

This spells doom for democrats as for the progressive socialist democrats must retain their voting base, they must keep the population dependent and poor having no other options available other then the democrats socials programs that are designed to ensure poverty and obedience.

The Marcellus Shale Boom: Boosting Wages by 36 Percent
Source: Mark J. Perry, "One of the most remarkable energy success stories in US history: The amazing Marcellus shale gas boom," American Enterprise Institute, August 5, 2014.

August 7, 2014

The Marcellus Shale is a rock formation in the east, covering a large swath of Pennsylvania. It is also home to vast amounts of natural gas, production of which -- thanks to fracking and new drilling techniques -- has increased threefold between July 2011 and July 2014.

Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute explains the remarkable growth in energy production in the region. Since 2007, when the shale boom first started, production of natural gas in the Marcellus region has increased 14 times, rising from 1 billion cubic feet per day to 15 billion cubic feet per day in July 2014. According to the Energy Information Administration, production will continue to increase into August.

A report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics identifies the impact that natural gas production has had on Pennsylvania.

• While overall employment in Pennsylvania dropped by 1.3 percent from 2007 to 2012, employment in the oil and gas industry rose by 259 percent (an increase of 15,114 jobs).
• Similarly, average annual wages increased by 11.9 percent ($5,158) in Pennsylvania over the 2007 to 2012 period. But in the oil and gas industry, wages rose by 36.3 percent ($22,104).

Perry notes that the shale boom's effects extend beyond oil and gas. In addition to the new jobs brought by energy production, local landowners have received royalty payments, the housing and hotel industry have boomed, and local retail has benefited from increased spending on goods and services.

The NCPA has previously written about the Marcellus Shale, which many have labeled the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Fracking has enabled the United States to open up large natural gas reserves that would otherwise be unrecoverable, and the Marcellus Shale reserve is just one of several formations in the United States that offer remarkable energy possibilities.
 

XL Pipeline Delay Just Politics of Control : Progressive Democrats!

Delaying the XL pipeline is for more then 5 years in the face of other approvals from all other concerned agencies, even the EPA, is high lighting the true ideology of the progressive socialist liberal democrats.

There can be no mistake the delay of the XL is just politics for the democrats, the party that says they are the party of the people, but in reality they don't give a dam for the people. That approval of the pipeline would bring wealth to the middle class and prosperity for the country and national security is of no concern.  Forcing the population into smaller areas because of high energy costs, and restriction of the option of the people, is just another club to beat the people into submission.

Never believe the democrats are anything other then politicians that seek total power over the population, because if you really believe what they tell you is in your best interest, you are a fool and deserve what happens to you and your family.

History is there for all to see. Turning a blind eye only hastens the pain of clarity.

Keystone XL Delay Has Consequences
Source: Catrina Rorke, "The Keystone Delay is Costing us More than Jobs and Revenues," American Action Forum, August 6, 2014.

August 7, 2014

For five years, the Keystone XL pipeline project has been delayed, waiting on presidential approval. The economic gains that would result from the project -- new jobs, wages and access to North American oil -- are just one part of the Keystone puzzle.

As Catrina Rorke of the American Action Forum explains, construction of the pipeline would also bring environmental and human benefits. If built, the pipeline will transport 4 percent of the oil that is consumed in the United States each day. Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil, but -- in the absence of Keystone XL approval -- companies have been moving crude oil by rail instead, a more dangerous and less environmentally friendly alternative:

• Rail transport creates risks of oil spills, and using railroads instead of the Keystone XL pipeline could spill up to 23,318 barrels of oil.
• Pipelines have a much lower spill rate, and the State Department estimates that Keystone XL would release just 518 barrels per year, on average.
• Pipelines are more energy efficient than rail and use less fuel to operate.
• Rail transport also carries with it more risks of injuries. Rail transport risks an annual 189 injuries and 28 fatalities, compared to a Keystone XL risk of just 1 injury and no deaths.

The delay in approving the pipeline has not prevented the market from getting oil where it needs to go, Rorke explains. In addition to the economic benefits lost without the pipeline, the approval delay is generating environmental and human costs.
 

Affordable Care Act Forces Consolidation : ACA Kills Competition

The Affordable Care Act is working perfectly. Pitting the insurance industry against the health care industry and with the federal government stoking the fire, Single Payer can not be far behind.

And with the majority of the population not paying attention now with all of the other disasters that are occurring every week, November will be here and as usual, the people that have brought us to the brink of disaster will probably be reelected because it's so much easier not have to think about what's right and what's wrong in the world.

It's all so complicated. Just pull the leveler like always and go back to finding what's happening for the week end. The last poll out showed 40% of those questioned believe the democrats are doing a good job. Really, 40% of the voting population still unaware?

Why Health Care Has Consolidated
Source: Christopher Pope, "How the Affordable Care Act Fuels Health Care Market Consolidation," Heritage Foundation, August 1, 2014.

August 6, 2014

American health care is becoming more and more consolidated. Christopher Pope for the Heritage Foundation explains one reason why this has happened:

• Third party payment systems separate health care consumers from the real cost of their care. Hospitals can demand higher prices from insurers when they lack competitors in the area, so many hospitals have merged in order to dominate the local market.
• Between 1998 and 2012, the United States saw 1,113 hospital mergers and acquisitions concerning 2,277 hospitals. There are 5,000 hospitals today.
• By consolidating, hospitals have grown in power and reduced price competition in their respective regions. Without competitors to drive down prices, hospitals can negotiate higher fees from third party payers.

The efficiencies that would normally come from consolidation have not been passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices. According to research, hospital mergers in concentrated markets increase prices by 20 percent.

The Affordable Care Act consolidates health care markets even further, explains Pope, because it hinders the ability of insurance plans to compete with one another. Obamacare regulates prices and health insurance benefits, leaving little room for competition.
 

Child Labor Laws in US Effect Foreign Domestics : Children & Familes Destoryed

It's not hard to understand a democrat introducing a bill that reeks havoc on the rest of the world. What's important is that his heart is in the right place, he means well. He loves children and wants only the best for all of the world's children. That his bill forced thousands in early graves or worse is of no concern to the Iowa democrat, he means well and that's enough.

Don't you just get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about Mr Harkin's good will?

As with all decisions by most democrats, meaning well carries the day. That death and destruction follows the good will is sad, but democrats are doing the work of the people, right?

Always vote for more democrats.

Unintended Consequences of Child Labor Laws
Source: Benjamin Powell, "A Case against Child Labor Prohibitions," Cato Institute, July 29, 2014.

August 6, 2014

Stories of children laboring in third world countries for little pay are troubling, says Benjamin Powell, director of the Free Market Institute, but they often result in labor policies that inadvertently hurt those children and their families.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced a bill in 1993 that would have banned the import of goods from countries that employed children. In response, 50,000 Bangladeshi children were fired from their jobs with garment companies. But for many of these children and their families, work was necessary. They did not go back to school or remain out of the labor force; instead, many took jobs in unregistered workshops with even worse conditions, while others were forced onto the streets, some into prostitution.

According to the World Bank:

• Twenty-seven percent of children ages 10 to 14 in Bangladesh are in the labor force. Other countries also have high child labor rates: Burma (22 percent), Haiti (21.4 percent), Brazil (13.4 percent), the Dominican Republic (11.5 percent) and India (10.7 percent).
• Looking at data from nine countries, most child laborers ages seven to 14 are employed in agriculture, with the exception of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, where most children were employed in the service industry.

According to Powell, ending sweatshop labor is no guarantee that children will see safer working conditions, citing a 1997 survey indicating that a larger share of children suffered injuries while working in agriculture than in manufacturing. Trade sanctions, he explains, limit the work options available to these poor children, often forcing them into more dangerous work.

Economic growth, not labor laws, is the answer to this problem, says Powell. As countries become wealthy, their child labor rates fall.
 

NLRB, IRS, EPA, DOJ (FBI?) : Wholly Owned by Progressive Socialists?

Being the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) is wholly owned by the progressive socialist democrats, it doesn't take a great leap of understanding as to why they are attacking McDonalds. Even in the face of the court ruling that the executive appointments made by Mr Obama to the board were illegal, the NLRB moves forward. Socialist democrats have no need for legalities to make their ideology a battering-ram of repression and intimidation for those that resist.

If you have been paying attention at all, you saw Walgreens fold under pressure from thugs that call themselves American citizens, and that work for the progressive socialist Mr Obama and the other democrats in Washington, when Walgreens proposed moving their headquarters over seas but now changed their minds, their stock fell 15%. Is this America or some third world disaster?

What ever your political persuasion or ideology, this can not be hidden as just a change of mind on the part of the company, this is out right power intimidation from elected officials to do what we say or suffer the consequences. The full power of the federal government in the form of the IRS, the DOJ, the EPA and even maybe the FBI like they did attacking the TEA Party organization, True the Vote, will be loosed to attack Walgreens on all levels.

This can not be aloud to stand! This tactic was used in Germany in the early twentieth century and in Moscow during the same period to make sure everyone does what they are told. Mr Obama and the progressive socialist democrats have decided, we the people, are enemies of the state and must be treated as such.

But know this, in November we do have a chance to start the change back to a representative republic from the tyranny of progressive socialism. Anything less will spell disaster for the republic.

NLRB Ruling Makes McDonald's Liable for Franchisee Actions
Source: "The NLRB attack on McDonald's," Chicago Tribune, August 5, 2014.

August 6, 2014

The Chicago Tribune reports that a decision from the National Labor Relations Board would hold McDonald's liable for its franchisees' employment decisions.

Currently, McDonald's has 13,000 franchised stores across the country. These stores make their own decisions about how to run their franchises -- deciding how many workers to hire, what to pay them, what their duties will be, and the like. Until now, labor law violations (failing to pay overtime, for example) were the fault of the franchisee, not the franchisor. But if the new NLRB ruling stands, McDonald's would become responsible for its franchisees' decisions.

Changing these rules would invite a flood of lawsuits against McDonald's, and it threatens the entire franchise model, for McDonald's and beyond. According to the Tribune, more than 8 million Americans work for franchises, constituting 15 percent of all private sector jobs.

Significantly, the fast food industry has added new jobs at a rate of 4 percent so far this year, as well as in the last two years.
 

Federal Poverty Facts Misleading : Progressive's Ideology Rules

Poverty is a stable item in the agenda for the progressive democrats, in that the more misinformation that can be used to hide the real cost and effects of poverty from the taxpayers to make sure those in poverty will never have a chance for prosperity. Once those in poverty become independent, the progressives will lose votes.

Federal Poverty Measurement Is Misleading
Source: Robert Rector, "Self-Sufficiency Rate Stagnates, Welfare State Grows," 2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity, Heritage Foundation, 2014.

July 28, 2014

The poverty rate today sits at 15 percent, the same rate that existed in the 1960s when the government's War on Poverty began, explains Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation.
But why has poverty remained at the same level when federal and state welfare spending has dramatically increased and is now 16 times higher today than it was in the 1960s?

Rector explains that the Census Bureau's poverty measures are incomplete. Poverty is a measurement of income below a specific threshold, yet income includes only wages and salaries -- not welfare benefits. Thus, spending on the federal government's 80 welfare programs (which provide cash, food, housing and medical care) are not included in a person's income.

• The government spent $916 billion on means-tested welfare programs in 2012, aiding 100 million Americans and costing an average $9,000 per recipient.
• Yet, only 3 percent of that $916 billion was considered "income" for poverty measurement purposes.

Without considering these government benefits, poverty cannot be an accurate indication of a person's living conditions, says Rector.
 

Social Security Debt Critical : Trillions & We Are Broke

Like most everything else in the Mr Obama administration, they will stone wall this 'third rail' programs is supposed the very base of democrat voters. The dependent and disadvantaged, forcing them to stay dependent and disadvantaged. The ideology of progressive democrats.

Obviously, if this isn't fixed and soon the dependent and disadvantaged will wind up homeless and on welfare.

The Hidden Social Security Debt
Source: Laurence Kotlikoff, "America's Hidden Credit Card Bill," New York Times, July 31, 2014.

August 5, 2014

The United States takes in taxes to pay for programs such as Social Security, promising seniors benefits upon retirement. But as Senior Fellow Larry Kotlikoff explains, those promises are not officially recorded as debts, meaning that the federal government has a hefty set of financial obligations that are kept off the books.

The Social Security program has a $24.9 trillion unfunded obligation. In all, total government indebtedness was $210 trillion in 2013, a figure that Kotlikoff terms the "fiscal gap" -- a measurement of the difference between projected obligations and projected tax revenue and other government receipts. According to Kotlikoff:

• Eliminating the fiscal gap would require the federal government to increase its tax revenues by 59 percent immediately or cut its spending by 38 percent.
• If the government waits two decades before acting to deal with this issue, it would have to raise tax revenue by 70 percent or cut spending by 43 percent.

In 2013, four senators introduced the Inform Act, a bill that would have required three government agencies -- the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Management and Budget -- to use generational accounting when analyzing proposals.

Generational accounting measures debts across generations and indicates that the United States' fiscal situation is in even worse shape than it appears.
 

California Drought Worse : Ignorance Making It Worse

I just what the problem that has plagued California in other areas of the state as it has with the drought, not just the lack of water but the drought of intelligence, and the proposal to use Genetic modified plants to help solve the drought problem, ignorance of the real world, the very political ideology of the progressive socialist democrats. And this is why California is headed into a dark place, failure.

Genetic Engineering Can Help Fight the California Drought
Source: Henry I. Miller, "California's Drought," National Review, July 17, 2014

August 5, 2014

California continues to battle extreme drought, with water usage restrictions being levied throughout the state. According to Henry Miller of the Hoover Institution, it is agriculture that is especially affected by the problem. Of all of the water consumed in California, farming uses 80 percent of it.
There is one technology that could do much to lessen the impact of the drought on California's farmers: genetic engineering.

Genetic engineering (also known as genetic modification, or GM) can tweak plant properties -- including making crops more drought-resistant by engineering them to conserve more water.
But genetic engineering has continuously faced strong opposition, despite the opportunities that it offers. Miller provides a few facts about GM:

• Over the past 20 years, over 3.7 billion acres of GM plants have been cultivated by over 17 million farmers worldwide, without causing a single environmental or health problem.
• Globally, the economic benefits of GM farming have amounted to $116.6 billion from 1996 to 2012.
• Herbicide-resistant GM plants allow farmers to plant crops without plowing the soil, reducing soil erosion and chemical runoff.
• No-till crops also reduce the use of farm equipment, thereby lowering carbon emissions. Shifting to GM crops reduced carbon emissions by 19.4 billion kilograms from 1996 to 2012, equivalent to removing 8.6 million cars from the road for one year.
• GM crops allow for high levels of production that would otherwise require tens of millions of additional acres of land to achieve.

The ability of GM plants to become more drought-tolerant, writes Miller, could be the greatest achievement of genetic plant modification. Such GM varieties are able to grow using less, and lower quality, water.
Unfortunately, instead of receiving widespread support, these technologies have been misrepresented and discredited by the media, writes Miller.
 

Dept. of Agriculture Sets nutrition Rules : States Can Go Pound Sand

Remember how the regulators closed down the lemonade stand in a front yard because the kids didn't have a permit that made national news? Now schools have to fall on their collective knees to the whims of a federal agency that is in league with progressive socialists.

 I wonder how many people are still willing to allow (bureaucrat) progressive democrats to regulate us out of existence as our founders had envisioned? Do you realize that more then 40% of the voting public still believe Mr Obama and the progressive are doing a good job?

If you aren't scared yet, you aren't from around here.

Schools Face Bake Sale Restrictions
Source: Stephanie Armour, "Put Down the Cupcake: New Ban Hits School Bake Sales," Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2014.

August 5, 2014

New food restrictions on schools threaten to do away with bake sales, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is a 2010 law that revamped nutrition policies. More than 30 million children are affected by the new rules, which limit the sodium and fat content in food sold on school grounds during the school day.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was given the power to set the standards (including on food sold from vending machines), and the law gave states the power to decide how many bake sales would be allowed in schools.

• Schools that do not comply with the states' bake sale restrictions are subject to fines.
• If a proposed bake sale is not exempted by the state from nutrition requirements, all goods sold are required to meet federal nutrition requirements.
• Thirty-two states have decided not to allow fundraisers that do not meet the nutrition standards.

Some schools are changing the way that they raise revenue in response to the new rules, replacing bake sales with wrapping paper sales, for example. One school in Huntington, Indiana, has replaced its carnival cake walk with a book walk. And because homemade goods lack nutritional labeling, some schools are only allowing the sale of prepackaged food.
The new restrictions took effect in July. The regulations are a response to childhood obesity, which has quadrupled over the last three decades among adolescents.
 

Terror Effects Us All : Fighting Back

I don't know who wrote this or where it actually came from, supposedly from a British newspaper, but no matter, it is telling and to the point where anyone with any coming sense can relate to the hatred of the Muslims that are attacking our way of life.

It isn't enough that the radical Muslims have enslaved their own kind, they will not rest until they have enslaved all the rest of us

'Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores in July 2002, and in New York Sept. 11, 2001 and have continually threatened to do so again since?
Were people from all over the world, not brutally murdered that day in Washington, and in downtown Manhattan, and in a field in Pennsylvania?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

And I'm supposed to care that a few Taliban were claiming to be tortured by a justice system of the nation they come from and are fighting against in a brutal insurgency.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere belief of which is a crime punishable by beheading in Afghanistan. 

I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called 'insurgents' in Afghanistan come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques and behind women and children.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of Nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I'll care when the British media stops pretending that their freedom of speech on stories is more important than the lives of the soldiers on the ground or their families waiting at home to hear about them when something happens.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a British soldier roughing up an Insurgent terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take this to the bank: I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner - who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and 'fed special food' that is paid for by my taxes - is complaining that his holy book is being 'mishandled', you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled 'Koran' and other times 'Quran'. Well, believe me!! You've guessed it .........I don't care!!!


If you don't agree, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great country! And may I add:

'Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. Our soldiers don't have that problem.'

Only six defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The British Soldier

3. The Canadian Soldier

4. The US Soldier
 
5. The New Zealand Soldier, and
 
6. The Australian Soldier
One died for your soul, the other 5 for your freedom...