Month: April 2015
News/Politics 4-23-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. Why did the IRS cut it’s customer service budget? So it could pay bonuses?
From TheWeeklyStandard “If you tried to contact the IRS with a question about your taxes this year, chances are you didn’t get a response. The IRS estimated that it would only answer 17 million of the 49 million calls received this filing season. Taxpayers lucky enough to have the IRS answer their calls waited an average of 34.4 minutes for assistance–nearly double the wait time last year (18.7 minutes).
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has blamed the IRS’s “abysmal” customer service on congressional budget cuts–funding is down $1.2 billion from its 2010 peak–but a new congressional report points the finger back at the IRS. While congressional funding for the IRS remained flat from 2014 to 2015, the IRS diverted $134 million away from customer service to other activities.
In addition to the $11 billion appropriated by Congress, the IRS takes in more than $400 million in user fees and may allocate that money as it sees fit. In 2014, the IRS allocated $183 million in user fees to its customer service budget, but allocated just $49 million in 2015–a 76 percent cut.”
“The report notes that Koskinen reinstated bonuses weeks after his appointment, has allowed IRS employees to spend roughly 500,000 work hours on union activities, and failed to collect delinquent taxes owed by federal employees. The tax agency has also been strained by Obamacare. According to the report, the IRS has spent “over $1.2 billion on the President’s health care law to date, with a planned expenditure this year of an additional $500 million.”
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2. The Pentagon and White House aren’t being honest about ISIS. Again.
From TheDailyBeast “The Defense Department released a map last week showing territory where it is has pushed ISIS back, claiming that the terrorist group is “no longer able to operate freely in roughly 25 to 30 percent of populated areas of Iraqi territory where it once could.” This was touted as evidence of success by numerous news outlets.
Pushing ISIS back is clearly a good step. But the information from the Pentagon is, at best, misleading and incomplete, experts in the region and people on the ground tell The Daily Beast. They said the map misinforms the public about how effective the U.S.-led effort to beat back ISIS has actually been. The map released by the Pentagon excludes inconvenient facts in some parts, and obscures them in others.
The Pentagon’s map assessing the so-called Islamic State’s strength has only two categories: territory held by ISIS currently, and territory lost by ISIS since coalition airstrikes began in August 2014. The category that would illustrate American setbacks—where ISIS has actually gained territory since the coalition effort began—is not included.”
““Taken in isolation, the map definitely gives an impression that anti-ISIS efforts have succeeded in pushing the group back along a northern and north-eastern peripheries, but it fails in one huge respect—it fails to specifically identify territory gained by ISIS during the same period,” said Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center.”
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3. Yesterday was Earth Day. Since I’m not a hippie, I forgot. Oh well….. 🙄
So in honor of Earth Day and the doom and gloom predictions I’m sure were made, here are 18 spectacularly wrong predictions from the first Earth Day.
From TheAmericanEnterpriseInstitute “In the May 2000 issue of Reason Magazine, award-winning science correspondent Ronald Bailey wrote an excellent article titled “Earth Day, Then and Now” to provide some historical perspective on the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. In that article, Bailey noted that around the time of the first Earth Day, and in the years following, there was a “torrent of apocalyptic predictions” and many of those predictions were featured in his Reason article. Well, it’s now the 45th anniversary of Earth Day, and a good time to ask the question again that Bailey asked 15 years ago: How accurate were the predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970? The answer: “The prophets of doom were not simply wrong, but spectacularly wrong,” according to Bailey. Here are 18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around 1970 when the “green holy day” (aka Earth Day) started:
1. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
2. “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” wrote Washington University biologist Barry Commoner in the Earth Day issue of the scholarly journal Environment.
3. The day after the first Earth Day, the New York Times editorial page warned, “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
4. “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich confidently declared in the April 1970 Mademoiselle. “The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.””
🙄
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Our Daily Thread 4-22-15
Good Morning!
And a Happy Birthday!!! to Bob Buckles. 🙂
Today’s header photo is from Cheryl. And below are some more.
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On this day in 1792 President George Washington proclaimed American neutrality in the war in Europe.
In 1889, at noon, the Oklahoma land rush officially started as thousands of Americans raced for new, unclaimed land.
In 1952 an atomic test conducted in Nevada was the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.
In 1954 the U.S. Senate’s McCarthy hearings began on television.
And in 993 the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, DC.
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Quote of the Day
“I don’t really care how I am remembered as long as I bring happiness and joy to people.”
Eddie Albert
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Today is Glen Campbell’s birthday.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 4-22-15
It’s Wednesday, so don’t forget to pray for The Gambia.
Anyone else?
Psalm 119;1-17
¹Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.
2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.
7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
12 Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.
13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
News/Politics 4-22-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. A deal has been reached on the Senate human trafficking bill. And it clears the way for Obama’s new AG.
From HotAir “Surprised? Don’t be, as the confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch was never going to be stalled forever. Under pressure themselves, Democrats finally cut a deal on the human-trafficking billto get the Lynch nomination completed:
“I’m glad we can say there is a bipartisan proposal that will allow us to complete action on this legislation so we can provide help to the victims who desperately need it,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the Senate floor.
“As soon as we finish the trafficking bill, as I’ve indicated for some time now, we’ll move to the president’s nominee for attorney general in the next day or so,” he added.
Democrats will spin this as a victory, but they caved on the use of revenue from the law’s fine structure for abortions:
After weeks of abortion-related stalling on the trafficking bill, which in turn has delayed Lynch, the solution turned out to be a fairly simple one. The handshake agreement on trafficking gives Republicans what they sought: assurances that none of the funds provided to trafficking victims will be used for abortions, under the Hyde amendment.
But Democrats also got what they wanted: A path forward without expanding the Hyde language. The fees collected from convicted traffickers will be used for legal services and other concerns but under the new language cannot be used for medical services. Separate money appropriated by Congress, and thus subject to Hyde, will then be used for medical services.”
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2. My cats will now be seeking personhood too. They’ve been illegally detained by me for years.
From MSN/TheGuardian “For the first time in US history, a judge has granted two chimpanzees a petition – through human attorneys – to defend their rights against unlawful imprisonment, arguably bestowing the status of “legal persons” on the primates.
On Monday, Manhattan supreme court justice Barbara Jaffe granted a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of two non-human plaintiffs, Hercules and Leo – chimpanzees used for medical experiments at Stony Brook University on Long Island.
In her order, Jaffe ordered Samuel Stanley Jr, the president of Stony Brook, to argue before the court why the chimpanzees were being “unlawfully detained” at his university and should not be transferred to a primate sanctuary in Florida.
The attorneys who brought the petition forward, part of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), argue that under New York law, “only a ‘legal person’ may have an order to show cause and writ of habeas corpus issued in his or her behalf. The court has therefore implicitly determined that Hercules and Leo are ‘persons’.”
“This is one step in a long, long struggle,” said Steven Wise, the lawyer leading the effort. “She never says explicitly that our non-human plaintiffs were persons but by issuing the order … she’s either saying implicitly that they are or that they certainly can be. So that’s the first time that has happened.”
And hopefully on appeal, it’s the last time.
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3. Is Obama trying to sneak in “Unrestricted Immigration” in his new trade deal? Wouldn’t surprise me.
From Breitbart “Morris said, “This is huge. I hope everybody listening takes action call your senator about it. If he is a Republican he is voting wrong. “I dont think that people understand that in this deal which is a trade agreement among Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, there’s a provision for free flow of workers, just like in the European Union. What It means is unrestricted immigration. It means literally that congress would not have the authority to restrict immigration because a treaty supersedes a statute under our constitution.””
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4. State AG’s have filed suit over Obama’s EPA rules.
From HotAir “The EPA is moving full steam ahead with their plans to clamp down on coal production in the name of reducing carbon emissions, regardless of how it impacts American energy independence or the costs which will be passed on to consumers. (And “full steam ahead” is probably an apt bit of gallows humor in this case, since we may be back to running on wood burning steam engines soon if the EPA has their way.) But that might change now that the D.C. circuit court has heard arguments from 26 state Attorneys General who are seeking to preemptively stop the regulations from going into effect. Their argument, which comes at a rather unusual stage of the normal process for rules implementation, is a compelling one and seeks to prevent entirely predictable harm to consumers and the grid.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey penned an op-ed earlier this monthexplaining why he was moving forward with this request.
On April 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear arguments on two separate but related lawsuits filed by numerous states and energy companies in the wake of last June’s proposed rule. The lawsuits contend that the rule and EPA’s compliance threats are illegal.
This case is vitally important to the nation. If the EPA’s proposed rule is permitted to go forward, it will cause great harm to the states and their citizens. The agency’s threats to finalize the plan this summer already have had a dampening effect on states, the energy industry, and its employees.”
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Our Daily Thread 4-21-15
Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Janice.
Here’s a close-up.
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On this day in 1836 General Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. The battle decided the independence of Texas.
In 1865 President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train left Washington.
In 1918 German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, “The Red Baron,” was shot down and killed during World War I.
And in 1972 Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon.
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Quote of the Day
“Power without a nation’s confidence is nothing.”
Catherine the Great
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Today is Clara Ward’s birthday. This should wake you up. 🙂
And I just can’t pass up the opportunity…. 🙂
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 4-21-15
Anyone have something they’d like to share?
Psalm 118:1-9
¹O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
4 Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
5 I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.
6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
News/Politics 4-21-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. Yes please!
From TheNYPost “Despite repeated claims to the contrary, Mayor Bill de Blasio is positioning himself to be the leftist “progressive” alternative to Wall Street-friendly Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president, a national party operative told The Post.
De Blasio’s hope, the operative said, is a “Draft de Blasio’’ movement will develop among progressive activists over the next several months that will lead to the mayor being able to defeat Clinton in the primary elections next year in much the same way leftist Sen. George McGovern successfully challenged the initially front-running establishment Democratic candidate, Sen. Edmund Muskie, more than 40 years ago.
Standing ready to back de Blasio against Clinton, said the operative, is the state’s small but influential Working Families Party, which has strong ties to de Blasio and is funded by some of the nation’s most powerful labor unions.”
Let me fix that. They mean small but communist Working Families Party.
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2. Dropping the ball yet again….
From HotAir “The collapse of Yemen into a failed state has trapped between 3,000 and 4,000 American citizens in the country, caught between al-Qaeda and Houthi Islamists and the military action against both from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Almost until the moment that the Hadi government was put to flight, the White House has insisted that its counterterrorism efforts in Yemen had been a model of success. The final collapse appears to have caught the Obama administration so off-guard that it didn’t have time to organize an evacuation for Americans still left, andMcClatchy’s John Zarocostas reports that no rescue plans will come in the immediate future, either (via Twitchy):
The Obama administration so far has declined to organize a rescue mission for the estimated 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. citizens in Yemen. U.S. officials have said they believe it is too dangerous for U.S. military assets to enter Yemeni waters and air space. They’ve also suggested that organizing Americans to meet at a single departure point would put them at risk of attack from al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula or other terrorist groups seeking American hostages.
That, however, has left Americans largely on their own to find a way out of the country. The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa has been closed for months, and the last American troops in the country were evacuated last month, a few days before the Saudi bombing campaign began.”
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3. Math is hard I guess. And California isn’t the only state that fudged the numbers. The White House enrollment numbers are not to be trusted either. They did the same thing.
From TheDailySignal “California’s health insurance exchange, established under the Affordable Care Act, has been held out as a national model for Obamacare. In some ways—not all of them good—it is. Whether it’s falling far short of 2015 enrollment goals or sending out 100,000 inaccurate tax forms, Covered California is struggling with its share of challenges.
Now, several senior-level officials integral to the launch of Covered California—who enthusiastically support the Affordable Care Act—are speaking about what they view as gross incompetence and mismanagement involving some of the $1 billion federal tax dollars poured into the state effort.”
“Covered California’s disastrous debut triggered a house of cards. When the website crashed, consumers were directed to fill out paper applications; they were 33 pages long and took at least an hour to complete. What’s more, they couldn’t be coordinated with the electronic version because of a major design flaw. The forms didn’t match.
But Covered California counted duplicate applications as if they were enrollments, giving the impression that more people had successfully signed up. (The Obama administration did the same with national HealthCare.gov applications.)
For example, Covered California’s Lee publicly touted 30,000 successful enrollments for the first month. Hill says the actual number was closer to 4,000.”
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Our Daily Thread 4-20-15
Good Morning!
On this day in 1775 American troops began the siege of British-held Boston.
In 1841, in Philadelphia, PA, Edgar Allen Poe’s first detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” was published in Graham’s Magazine.
In 1902 Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive element radium.
And in 1971 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.
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Quote of the Day
“All I can say is that I’m going to try to coach the way I’ve coached in the past. And if it ends up not being good enough, then so be it.”
Steve Spurrier
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Today is Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky’s birthday.
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Wandering Views 